Crowns and Curses

by V. B. Marlowe

  Owen and Donald, the father-son duo, were in charge of maintaining the estate. Their job was to keep the grounds looking immaculate as well as repairs on the inside of the house. They lived in a separate house on the property. Molly had been growing a little fond of Owen.

  Ms. Bea pulled a heavy book from her desk drawer and laid it before her. The book had a tattered, brown cover and words written in gold that Molly couldn't understand. "Until then I will continue to look for something in my spellbook, but I have yet to come across anything that gets rid of monstrous plants."

  Molly felt helpless. What could she do to help solve this problem? “So, what do we do for now?”

  Ms. Halifax returned to the window. “We carry on. Business as usual. Breakfast will be served. You and the girls will resume classes in the Great Study. We need to get to work on finding the next pen right away.”

  Yes, Molly had already been thinking about that, but the vines were an unwelcome distraction. They hadn't even been there for a full twenty for hours but being trapped inside made Molly feel claustrophobic. She hated that she couldn't take her daily jog around the estate or even go out for a breath of fresh air. How long would it be before she felt the warm sunshine on her skin again? She hoped they would be able to find a fix soon.

  Molly thought about the pens. There were seven of them that needed to be retrieved and so far, they had found one. Centuries ago when the witches originally created the curses, they enchanted several authors to write the girls' stories and to add a few twists. Those authors were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Anderson, Suzanne de Villeneuve, Robert Southey, Lewis Carroll, and James Matthew Barrie. Each of the pens had been hidden in a secret world known as an alter-realm that the girls have to retrieve. So far they had found the pen belonging to the Grimm brothers. That was the pen that bought Dru her freedom.

  Molly rose and smoothed out her pajamas. “Okay. I guess I’ll see you down at breakfast.”

  “Yes, dear,” Ms. Beatrix replied absently while Ms. Halifax continued to stare out into the darkness. Something made Molly’s stomach ache like she’d eaten something way past its expiration date. She’d thought she felt imprisoned by the academy before, but now she felt as though she had been locked under the jail with her hands and feet tied. She couldn’t help but to ask herself what she had done to earn such a fate.

  3

  MOLLY

  MOLLY SHOWERED AND CHANGED into a pair of black slacks and a peach blouse. On the way to breakfast, she stopped at the giant double doors that led to the back yard. When she pushed them open, there were about three feet between her and the vines. Each vine was thicker than the width of her body. The invasive plants stretched higher than she could see. She heard Owen and his father, Donald speaking to each other on the other side.

  “Owen,” she called. There was no answer from Owen, only a chopping sound. “Owen!” she called louder.

  “Molly?”

  Relief washed over her at the sound of his voice. “Yeah. What’s going on?”

  Owen groaned. "I don't know. These things are a lot thicker and harder to cut through than they look. We've been using an ax and a chainsaw, and so far, we've only managed to make a few nicks here and there."

  That was the last thing Molly wanted to hear. If the men were unable to cut through, they were going to have to depend on Ms. Bea’s magic. Who knew how long it would be before Molly would see daylight or Owen again?

  She and Owen had shared one official dinner date, and she was looking forward to seeing him again. Molly closed her eyes trying to picture his chestnut hair swooping over one of his olive-green eyes. She couldn't help but imagine how amazing he must have looked swinging that ax.

  Donald, Owen’s father, called to her and the picture she had of Owen vanished. “Don’t worry, Ms. Dillinger. We’ll find a way to remedy this very soon.” Molly wished she could believe that. If it was impossible for them to cut through the vines, what more could they possibly do?

  Molly pressed her palm against one of the vines, wishing she could do magic herself. It would make life so much easier, but it was a foolish thought. "Okay. I'll leave you two to work," she said before heading inside.

  At Everly, everyone took their meals together in the dining room. A long, rectangular table which sat twenty people was always set with tall, ivory candles, fine china, and perfectly polished silverware. Molly took her assigned seat next to Ms. Bea who sat at the head of the table. Ms. Halifax sat directly across from Molly. The girls were quiet as the food was served.

  While Tress and Isleen wore long gowns that looked like they were from a different era, the others wore a simple array of shirts, shorts, and sundresses—except for Marina who always wore a bikini and a cover-up.

  Everly’s cuisine was like nothing Molly had ever tasted. The cooks made whatever you wanted. Even when you didn’t ask, they seemed to know exactly what you had a taste for. Although Molly wasn’t very hungry, she was pleased to remove her dome to find chocolate chip pancakes and bacon.

  Ms. Bea stood and clanged her spoon against a water glass to get the girls' attention although no one had been talking. "Ladies, I want to set your minds at ease. We are working very hard to clear the vines, and it's only a matter of time before they come down. In the meanwhile, we will carry on as usual. You will convene in the Great Study for your classes with Ms. Dillinger, and you will begin looking for the second pen immediately. Let’s take advantage of this inconvenience by focusing on what we must do next.”

  Isleen snorted. “Inconvenience? You call being trapped in this stupid house by monster plants and inconvenience?”

  Molly had to agree with her which rarely happened. She did realize however that Ms. Bea had only said that to keep everyone calm.

  Isleen folded her arms over her chest. “Who caused this? Do you even know?”

  "No, I don't" Ms. Bea admitted. "But when I find out they will pay dearly. Also, I wanted to tell you that I've heard from Drusilla. She has settled in just fine, and she loves the outside world. Right now, she's going through brochures trying to decide which school she'd like to attend."

  A brief murmur of everyone talking at once filled the dining room.

  Marina stuck her spoon into her bowl of cereal. “Tell her to write us a letter.”

  “Why can’t she visit?” Tress asked. “We miss her already.”

  Gretchen reached for the pitcher of orange juice. “Is the lady she’s staying with nice?”

  Bea clapped her hands, ignoring their questions. “Everyone, eat up. We have a lot of work to do.” Obediently the girls went back to their meals, completing them in silence. Everyone was lost in her own thoughts.

  Even with the lights on, the Great Study was unusually dim without the sunlight pouring in from the windows. As always, the girls made themselves comfortable, curling up on couches or lounging on bean bag chairs.

  Molly took her seat in an armchair at the front of the room. “Before we begin, I want you all to know that Ms. Bea’s right. We’ll find a way to get things back to normal.”

  Jolie draped her long legs over the arm of her chair, kicking her red ballet flats in the air. "This blows so hard. How am I supposed to take care of my garden if I can't get outside? My daffodils are in a fragile state, and they need me." Her hazel eyes squinted in anger as she pulled her copper curls up into a ponytail.

  Isleen peered over a magazine she’d been flipping through. “As if this place didn’t suck enough already, now we have to deal with this? I wonder what Dru’s doing right now? I’m sure not sitting in a house covered in vines waiting to be part of a human buffet for witches.”

  Lily grinned, wrapping strands of her jet-black hair around her finger. “I bet Dru woke up and took a walk to the neighborhood coffee shop. Then she’ll probably spend the day in the library looking up information on whatever she’s currently researching. I wish we could talk to her.”

  Molly felt a stab of guilt because Ms. Bea hadn't been complete
ly honest with the girls. She had placed a spell on Drusilla to make her forget Everly Academy and everyone in it. She had to do it for everyone's safety. Molly didn't like the idea, but Ms. Bea had explained to her that she couldn't risk anyone finding out about Everly through Dru. Witches were masters of disguise, and there was no telling where they'd be lurking. What Ms. Bea had told the girls at breakfast had been a lie. They had no idea that their friend of over two hundred years no longer knew who they were and had no recollection of even being at the academy. There was no point in telling them the truth.

  “Just so everyone knows,” Oriana announced, “I obviously can’t see the stars with these vines covering the house.” Her golden curls bounced around her doll-like face as she shook her head.

  Molly’s heart sank a little more. That was another huge setback. Oriana was the resident astrologist. She used her skills and knowledge of the stars, moon, and planets to determine when there would be another Blood Moon. Their opportunity to break the curses would disappear with the next Blood Moon, so Oriana being able to predict it was crucial.

  As the room quickly filled with excited chatter, Molly knew she had to maintain some sort of calm. If the girls freaked out, they wouldn’t be able to focus on the task at hand. “Girls, the situation with the vines is being worked on. Right now, let’s focus on something we can control—finding the next pen.”

  All eyes went to Allison since she had been the one who knew the location of the first pen. She looked warily at the group staring at her and shrugged.

  Lily, who was always very protective of Allison, cleared her throat. “It’ll come to her. Give her some time.”

  Isleen tapped an imaginary watch on her wrist. “Time isn’t exactly on our side here, Lil. Tell your girl to spit it out already.”

  Lily glared at her. “Shut up. Nothing you say or do is going to make her remember any faster. It’s not her fault she’s the way she is.”

  That was true. Allison had issues before she’d even come to Everly Academy and they were made even worse by their former doctor who had been drugging her and keeping her out of her mind. It would take some time for the effects of the drugs she’d been taking for years to wear off, but Allison was steadily improving.

  Gretchen moved to the floor, laying on her stomach beside Oriana. “I think we should talk about something very important. Assuming we’re able to find the next elixir, who’s going to get it?”

  A knot formed in the pit of Molly's stomach. She had been dreading this discussion. With the first elixir, it was easy. No one wanted it out of fear. Molly understood. The girls had been locked away for over two hundred years, and the world had completely changed since they were last a part of it. Leaving the family, you'd known for centuries was no easy feat. They had no idea what would happen or how things would be on the outside, but now that Dru had made it out, that fear had subsided.

  All eyes went to Molly. What could she say that wouldn't cause a boatload of drama that they didn't need? "Honestly, that's something I will have to speak to Ms. Bea about. We'll come up with some way to determine who gets the next elixir."

  Isleen flung her magazine to the floor. “That’s not fair. We all know Ms. Bea will find a way to give it to one of her favorites—Lil or Scarlett. She sure as hell won’t give it to me.”

  Molly couldn't disagree with that. Ms. Bea had a strong disliking for Isleen. But on the other hand, she might give her an elixir just to be rid of her.

  Molly smiled as big as she could. “First thing’s first—we need to find the next elixir before we talk about who gets it. Let’s hit the books.”

  After a round of complaining, the girls went to the shelves and pulled out the books of fairy tales they had been poring over for ages. No one was even sure what they were looking for, but Molly knew they needed to be busy with something, especially now that they were cooped up inside.

  Some girls worked alone, while others formed quiet groups in corners. Isleen was perched on a sofa scowling at a book while Tress and Marina lay on a bean bag whispering to each other. Scarlett and Orianna were huddled together in one corner of the room while Gretchen, Jolie, and Lily occupied another. Allison stared absently through a window.

  Time passed quickly and Molly called the class to an end for lunch. As everyone returned the books to their respective shelves and filed out of the room, Scarlett hung back. "Hey, Ms. Dillinger. Can I speak to you for a second?"

  “Sure. Is everything okay?”

  Scarlett's usually playful green eyes were filled with trepidation. She always looked happy and carefree, so Molly wasn't sure what to make of her grim expression. Scarlett looked down at her hands and cracked her knuckles.

  “Scarlett?”

  “No, Ms. Dillinger. Everything is not okay. Not at all.”

  4

  MOLLY

  Once upon a time there lived a sweet little girl who was beloved by everyone who saw her, but her grandmother was so excessively fond of her that she never knew when to give the child enough.

  Little Red Cap, Charles Perrault

  MOLLY AND SCARLETT TOOK a seat on the sofa. Scarlett avoided eye contact, picking at her fingernails.

  Molly furrowed her brow. “Scarlett, what’s the matter?”

  “I have to tell you something that no one else knows. Not even Ori. I don’t want the others to find out.”

  Molly felt uneasy. Very few conversations that started off that way ended well. "Okay. Your secrets are safe with me." She knew that it was always a dangerous thing to say when she had no idea what the secret was.

  "You know I'm a Wolvenblood, but there's something about my kind that I have never told anyone else."

  Molly’s shoulders straightened as she wondered, What now?

  According to Ms. Bea, Wolvenblood were human by day and wolves by night.

  Scarlett wrapped strands of her fiery-red hair around her finger. “There’s two types of Wolvenblood. You are either a good wolf or a bad wolf. You don’t get to choose which, you just are what you are. Good wolves stay within their boundaries. They only hunt and kill out of necessity. They would never harm people. Bad wolves, on the other hand, do whatever they want. They ignore their boundaries, and they kill everything in their paths just for sport. They especially like to hunt Humans. My grandmother and I had always been good wolves."

  Molly relaxed upon hearing that. “That’s great then.”

  Scarlett shut her eyes for a few moments before opening them again. “I never told my grandmother this, because she always thought the world of me and I didn’t want her to be disappointed, but sometimes—sometimes I’m a bad wolf.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Scarlett stood and paced back and forth before the sofa, cracking her knuckles again. “Something’s wrong with me. I think I’m defective or something. As I said, you’re either one or the other. You can’t be a good wolf and a bad wolf, but I used to be a good wolf only, but as I grew older, sometimes I was a bad wolf too. I can't control it. It's like a monster takes over my body and I want to destroy anything in my path, no matter what it is. I want to kill even when I'm not hungry. Sometimes I imagine myself coming into the house and feasting on everyone in their sleep. Sometimes when Marina goes out for a late-night swim, I wonder what mermaid must taste like." Scarlett paused, throwing Molly a sharp look. "You definitely can never tell her I said that."

  Molly shuddered. She had the overwhelming desire to not be in the same room as Scarlett, but she stayed put. “What are you saying?”

  She started pacing again. “There’s a question that all Wolvenblood must answer truthfully. We can’t lie even if we want to. The answer comes out like a reflex just like blinking or breathing. Are you a good wolf or a bad wolf?”

  Molly muttered the question to herself.

  “I’m only bringing this up because we’re stuck inside, but if you ever come across me in wolf form, you have to ask me that question. If I lift my left leg, I’m bad. If I lift my right leg, I’m good. It’s
easy to remember—it’s good to be right. If I tell you I’m a bad wolf, you have to do whatever’s necessary to take me down.”

  “Scarlett—”

  She plopped back down on the sofa beside Molly. “Kill me if you have to. If not, I’m capable of killing everyone in this house.”

  Scarlett’s bottom lip trembled as her vivid green eyes blinked back tears. Molly squeezed her hand. “Okay. Thank you for telling me that. You could have easily kept it to yourself.”

  Scarlett ducked her head. “I don’t want to hurt anyone—well Scarlett doesn’t want to hurt anyone. But the bad wolf in me, she might, and I won’t be able to control her if that surfaces. I’ll never forgive myself if I hurt anyone. You have to make sure that wherever they put me at night is extremely secure.”

  Molly pushed a lock of Scarlett’s ginger hair behind her ear. “Okay. I won’t tell the other girls, but I have to let Ms. Bea know. It’s definitely something she should be informed of.”

  Scarlett thought for a moment and then shrugged. "Okay. I guess." She stared at Molly. "Are you afraid of me?"

  Molly didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. She was terrified. “Of course not. We’ll make sure your section of the basement is extra secure so that you don’t get out and then everything will be just fine.”

  Or at least Molly hoped it would be that easy.

  After Scarlett left, Molly searched every part of the house for Ms. Bea. She finally located her in the conservatory room. Ms. Bea sat in a high-backed chair with her book of spells on her lap. At that moment, however, she stared through the glass at the large vines that held them hostage. Ms. Halifax sat on the other side of the room scribbling something on a notepad. Molly knocked on the frame of the door to make her presence known.