The Heart of the Darkness

by M. J. Padgett

  “With Cole?” I asked.

  “Mmm, no, not exactly. That’s what Snow had us believe. We’ll discuss your visits with him soon,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me. “When she first returned, things did not go as she had planned. Aunt Hayden was infected with evil, and she did unspeakable things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Wil—”

  I lurched forward and grasped my father’s hands. “Dad, please. I need to know. I can’t stand this any longer. I have these dreams and in them... Please, Dad, tell me everything... please,” I begged.

  Dad dropped his head but relented as I released his hands. “It wasn’t Hayden’s fault, but she... during her possession by the evil, she killed nearly everyone in the forest, Wil, including your mother and me.” My jaw fell open slightly, but my father continued. “Annabell did the best she could after that. She grew up with you and Hans and the others, tried to live a normal life, but Snow found you.”

  I sat back in the chair, hardly able to comprehend everything he said. “She... she killed me. It wasn’t a dream? It was real?” I asked.

  My father nodded. “In a sense, yes. When you died, Annabell used her immense power to return to the past. In this timeline, you survived because she changed everything. So, you see, she gave her life so that everyone else could live.”

  “Even Cole,” I whispered. “Why didn’t he tell me this? If his sister killed me, then why wouldn’t he take delight in telling me this?”

  “He’s mortal now and much prefers his head upon his shoulders,” Dad said.

  “He can’t be mortal, Dad. He never ages.” I brushed my father’s comment off, but he wouldn’t have it. He scooted forward again and locked his gaze with mine. “Besides, I get the feeling he isn’t the same as Snow. He’s better somehow despite his darkness.”

  “Cole is an anomaly we cannot figure out. That’s why he is imprisoned and has been for as long as Annabell has.”

  “It’s a cozy prison,” I said, thinking of Coles quarters in a separate tower. He was locked in and under constant guard—except when they had their meals—but it was equally as comfortable as any of the guest quarters.

  My father sighed his frustration. “Cole is not good, Wil. He does not want to be bad, but he has done things he cannot take back.”

  “So did Mother, yet we do not treat her as if she has the plague.”

  “Your mother didn’t try to destroy the world, and that was in another lifetime, not this one.”

  “Then why did you let me talk to him? If you knew I met with him sometimes, why didn’t you stop me?” I asked.

  “Oh, I wanted to, but your mother... I swear, that woman is so much wiser than anyone I have ever met. For whatever reason, she feels in her gut it is right to let you speak to him.”

  “A redeemed psychopathic murderer?”

  Dad chuckled though there was nothing funny about our conversation, save that my mother always did things without much explanation or clarification. “She does what she does, but to quote her, she said, ‘There’s something, Wil. I don’t know what yet, but there is something we are missing that those two might figure out.’”

  “So... she let me talk with a prisoner so she could get information?”

  Dad threw his hands in the air. “I don’t think it’s as simple as that, but I don’t pretend to understand women even after all these centuries. You’ll have to discuss it with her, but that said, I think it’s best you cease those conversations and read these instead.” He handed me a worn stack of books.

  “Cole has been kind to me. He’s... not a friend, but... I’m not sure how to describe him.” I stared at the books my father handed me.

  My father rubbed his face with his hands. “I cannot begin to define the relationship you have with him or with Annabell. It is beyond explanation, but I believe if anyone can figure him out and help Annabell, it is you. Perhaps whatever the relationship with you is, it grows that good part of him. You share a loss, even if you do not know it fully.”

  “Annabell?” I asked, glancing up at him.

  “Indeed, and though there is no explanation, I believe the trauma of losing her has perhaps given you both something to define you in some way. Cole’s journals are the history of our land, Wil, and when you are finished reading, you will know everything. You’ll understand why Annabell did what she did, and maybe, if we’re lucky, you can figure out a way to save her we haven’t thought of yet.”

  With that, my father rose gripped my shoulder, then left me alone with Annabell and a stack of ancient texts. I held the first in my hand, debating. They were personal journals, and it felt wrong to read them, yet they contained all the answers. I decided I would only browse them, skipping over the parts that had nothing to do with what happened to Annabell.

  Cole’s books read like an epic, a saga that sprawled across a millennium of pain and sadness—both of which I felt as raw and as open as he did, because I felt them, too. His sister’s jealousy, his love for Annabell, the duty he felt toward preserving her kingdom though she was dead, and his inability to control the darkness that took more of him each day were stories that ticked time away until it was well past midnight.

  When the clock in the tower told me the hour, I closed the last journal with new determination. Hans could join the Organization and become a hunter, and I would likely join him once I graduated, but I wanted my life back before all of that happened. I wanted the life I lost, and I wanted it to merge with the one I had—one where my parents were still alive and Annabell existed alive, awake, and as in love with me as we were the day I died.

  It took some doing to avoid everyone and sneak across the castle to Cole’s prison, but I had taken the path so many times it was second-nature. The guards had been given the day off for a holiday, which said to me that no one truly believed Cole to be a flight risk or truly dark.

  As usual, I knocked three times.

  “Ah, the Grimm boy. To what do I owe the pleasure,” Cole asked, peering through the bars at the top of his door. Those were not like the doors in the guest rooms, nor was the opening where his food trays were deposited, but otherwise, they were identical.

  “I read your journals,” I said. “Captivating, I must say.”

  His blue eyes flashed with anger, then he swallowed and said, “Well, I suppose you have questions.”

  “Nope. I’m here to release you so you can help me wake Annabell,” I said, dangling a key in front of my face.

  “You trust me? After reading my private books, learning all about me, how much I loved Annabell, and what my sister did to you, you believe I won’t kill you the moment you open the door?” Cole asked.

  “No, I don’t trust you, but I owe it to Annabell to try, don’t I? She sacrificed her life for mine, so it’s really the least I can do,” I said with a scowl.

  “She gave her life for you, yes, but she died for me, too. Who is to say she will prefer you to me?” he taunted. I hadn’t thought of that, but if Annabell, for whatever awful reason, chose him over me, then it was a choice she had the right to make. Even so, I was confident in my position.

  “She might. That is up to her, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “I suppose, but what if I decide to take matters into my own hands?”

  “You won’t kill me. You’re not good, but you are not like your sister,” I said and turned the key in the lock. The metal screeched with such finality it gave me chills. There was no going back now. “Besides, you won’t kill me because she loves me, and hurting her would kill you.”

  “She loves me, too,” Cole said with a smirk.

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it. We’re two sides of a weird centuries-long love triangle. Now, could we put the pleasantries aside and figure out how to save her?”

  “We haven’t been able to in sixteen years. What makes you think you can do what the rest of us cannot?” Cole asked.

  “Have you ever looked so hard for the solution to a problem that you overlooked an answer that was right u
nder your nose?” I asked. “You know like you think it should be really difficult to figure it out, but the answer is actually quite simple?”

  “Sure. Everyone has.”

  “I think this is that, and maybe if you walk me through what you’ve tried, I might see something differently. Come on,” I said, pulling the door open.

  Cole emerged from the room, standing much taller than I had realized he was. He always slouched to speak with me through the bars, but I never took the time to calculate his height—or how muscular he was. How he managed to look more fit than a member of the royal guard while locked in a room was beyond me, but where he was rough around the edges, I was... not. I knew Annabell used to love me, and there was a chance she still would. And even if she didn’t, she deserved to live.

  He followed me into the bowels of the castle, sticking to the shadows when I warned him to and keeping quiet as a church mouse when I put my finger over my lips—not that he was talkative in the first place. Once we dodged the guards and climbed the stairs to Annabell’s room, I was certain my plan would work.

  “What is this master plan of—” Cole cut himself short when he saw Annabell’s casket. His jaw slack, he sucked in a few breaths before saying, “She’s still as beautiful as she ever was.”

  My heart twisted, but it was unfair for me to assume he could not love her as much as I did. It was also unfair to keep him waiting for my reply.

  “You’re not mortal. You can’t be, because if you were, then you would have aged, right?”

  “I suppose,” he said, still staring at Annabell.

  “What if what you are is good enough to dissolve the rest of the darkness in her? What if you can siphon it back and eliminate it for good? Then she might wake up, right?”

  “She’s in a chunk of ice, Wil. What happens if she wakes inside the ice? We cannot risk thawing her because if it doesn’t work, she will die.”

  I bit my lip. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “So much for simple answers. Perhaps come back to me in another sixteen years,” Cole said, turned on his heel, then took three steps before stopping and turning back to me. “What is that?” he asked, pointing to something on my uniform.

  I looked down to see the pin I was awarded by my uncle, the king, when I graduated from my military training six prior. “It’s my—”

  “It’s your nothing. It was my father’s and his father’s before him!”

  “Oh,” I said, ready to rip it from my uniform before Cole shredded me to bits just to get a better look at it. “Uh... s-sorry. I can give it to you if—”

  “No, you don’t understand. The stone... it’s the one we’ve searched for these past sixteen years! It’s stronger than any of the seven stones. It alone has the power to contain multitudes of darkness. It’s why it was such a prized possession in my family. We channeled the evil into the stone when it was too much for us to bear.”

  “Of course, that’s what it is. Why wouldn’t it be the stone to absorb all evil just pinned to my chest?” I asked, believing life was cruel to play such a trick on us. Suddenly, I felt a bit lightheaded. Had I been wearing an evil-catching pin for months? “Is it... full?” I asked, scrambling to remove it.

  “No. I would think not. Give it to me, hurry,” he said, extending his hand. Once the pin was in his possession, he flung open the casket and pressed the pin against the ice. Almost immediately, the rectangle melted, and Annabell’s skin pinked. The sapphire stone glowed, reaching a heat level that I imagined seared into Cole’s palm, but he didn’t seem to care. The harder he pressed the pin against the ice, the faster it melted until all that remained was Annabell—warm, pink, and breathing.

  When the pin touched her skin, the glow brightened and illuminated her with a bluish tint. Swirls of dark fog escaped her mouth and darted toward the stone, then dissolved in light right before my eyes.

  Cole stepped back where I stepped forward until we were standing side by side. I held my breath while Cole sucked in air as if he were suffocating. We were polar opposites, yet she loved us both. Who she would choose was anyone’s guess, but I knew one thing for sure—everything was about to change forever.

  Annabell’s eyes opened, and she inhaled.

  “Ellie?” Cole gasped.

  She turned her head slightly, then her eyes connected with his. “Cole? Where... Where am I? she asked, then shifted her head so she could see me. When she saw me, she sat straight. “Wil!”

  “Yes... I’m... I’m here,” I said, unsure what to do next. “You’re... you’re not just a dream anymore.”

  Annabell’s gaze darted between us, her life in two parts, both standing in front of her. “Did... it work?”

  “Yes,” was all Cole said, but it was enough to bring relief to Annabell’s face.

  “I’m... tired,” she said, her body weak from years in recumbency fighting an untold volume of darkness. “I’d like to see my mother, please.”

  “I’ll go get her,” I said, feeling as if I were intruding on something, but I couldn’t say what.

  “No, wait,” Cole said. “Wait. It can’t be this easy, can it?”

  I shrugged and left the answer to Annabell. She stood on wobbly legs and let him hold her up, then she brushed tears from his cheeks. “Sometimes it is,” she said. “Sometimes, the easy answer is the right answer.”

  “But it’s been so long. How are you alive after these years fighting the Darkness?” he asked, his lips pressed against the top of her head as he spoke. He held her, further cementing the feeling I had that I was interrupting a happy reunion. She let him wrap his arms around her, seemingly undeterred by him in any way. My heart plummeted, but I had made a promise. If she chose Cole, then I would be happy for her and never utter a word to the contrary.

  Besides, it was hardly the time to be concerned with such things as romance. Everything in the forest was about to change, and Annabell would need time to adjust to life again. I could hardly believe she stood there, breathing and looking... at me.

  “Cole... I...” Annabell paused, but her eyes never left mine.

  “I know. You need time, but I had to touch you, my love. Go on, see that he is alive and well,” Cole said. I was impressed with his maturity and ability to let Annabell do what she wanted without influence.

  Annabell released him and reached for me. Her fingers trembled as she stretched farther toward me. I took her hand and stepped toward her, ending in an embrace. She tucked her head against my neck, then tipped her face toward me and whispered, “I still love you, Wil Grimm.”

  My heart swelled, and though I knew it was impossible to ask her to give up on Cole, to turn her back on him without so much as a how do you do, I knew, in the end, we would be together. Somehow, we would be happy because I was a Grimm, and a Grimm never gave up on the woman he loved.

  AND THEY ALL LIVED happily ever after.

  The End.

  What happens now?

  While the darkness in The Black Forest has been eliminated, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is safe. Join in the next adventure with a new set of characters!

  The next generation of anti-evil warriors takes the reins in

  Tales from the Immortal Black Forest Series with an anticipated first book release date to be announced.

  For updates on the new series as well as all of my other work, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, on my blog, or at my website, or join my newsletter! Scroll to the next page for links!

  Thanks for reading!

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  Watch for more at M. J. Padgett’s site.

  About the Author

  M. J. Padgett is first and foremost a mom. Her free-spirited kindergartener has quite the vivid imagination, and her antics sometimes find their way into her mommy’s work. She is a lover of all things chocolate, a Grimm and Dickens addict, a self-proclaimed smarty-pants, and an introvert to the core.

  Writing is her true passion (after raising her daughter, of course), and she writes as often as possible. One of her favorite things about writing is creating a world where people can escape reality for a little while, maybe even walk away feeling hopeful about the real world around them. When it comes to reading, she loves a book that can make her forget where she is no matter the genre. If she can get lost and feel like the characters are her real friends, she’s a happy reader.