A Curious Twist of Lime

by Heather R. Blair

  “Alice will never agree to help you.”

  “She already has.” As I start, the mercenary stretches lazily. “We had a real heart to heart at the old homestead. Once she marries me and I take the crown, she’ll do whatever I want to keep you safe and whole. And of course, you won’t dare strike against me, because otherwise, I’ll kill her. Now there’s a catch-22 I can enjoy.”

  My bear is trying to take control, rabid with rage, and I’d be happy to let him, but the sand holds both of us prisoner.

  “Sweet Alice is in court this very moment.” He smiles. “A road test of her powers. She’s going to kill Kolya as proof of her loyalty, eliminating the last unified resistance to my crown.”

  “You son of a bitch.”

  “You have no idea how right you are.” He gets to his feet and kicks the gauntlet in after me. “My mother was all that and more. But I did inherit her taste for power.”

  I glare up at him, my bear caged in my skin and me caged by this fucking pit of despair. “Markus and the Elders were barely going to accept me. They’ll never allow you to reign.”

  Konstantin shakes his head. “They’ll see my army at their doorstep and what a powerful weapon I have in Alice. When I demand the throne, they’ll hand it over like good little bears.” His eyes turn dark. “And if not, I’ll kill them all. Hell, I might do it anyway. Never much liked the Elders anyway. Self-righteous assholes.”

  “I was a fool to think of you as a friend.”

  “Indeed.” He turns to enter the forest, then hesitates at the tree line. “Though, for however briefly, I considered you one as well. I probably wouldn’t let the pit have you even if it weren’t for Alice.” He heads back toward the passage. “I think some of that despicable honor of yours has rubbed off, bruin. I’ll come back once things have settled down and work out a more permanent way to hold you.”

  “Konstantin!”

  He doesn’t answer. The forest rustles as his army follows him from the shadows. My men are nowhere to be seen, locked away in that derelict castle, no doubt. Just like Alice was.

  My roar dies away. The trees sway and the sense of déjà vu is overwhelming. I’m sinking in Niflheim once more. Maybe Agatha is right, maybe the gods are trying to kill me.

  “I see we’ve come full circle, Your Majesty.”

  I have to twist my head around to see the speaker. The fucking cat again. “Come to gloat for your Master, I suppose?”

  “No cat has a true master,” he purrs scornfully.

  “You seem to do his bidding readily enough.”

  “Are you sure about that? After all,” he draws his forked tongue slowly over a paw, making me wait for it. “I tried to warn you.”

  In hindsight, I suppose he has a point. But I’m too pissed off to be conciliatory at the moment. “Some fucking action right now would mean a lot more than any goddamn warning. Help me—or at least help me help Alice.”

  He lifts his head, smiling faintly. “Why should I help either of you when you’re perfectly capable of saving yourselves?”

  Snarling, I drop my head, tired of fighting the crick in my neck. That’s I notice the glove lying next to me in the pit.

  There’s an odd little depression under it. Frowning, I lean in closer. The glove isn’t stuck in the sand, but rather hovering above it. On a cushion of air. “What the—”

  I glance up, but the cat is already gone, only a gleam in the air like a wink where his face used to be.

  24

  “Look, it’s the king’s whore.”

  “What is she doing here? I thought he got rid of her.”

  The sneers follow me as I walk through the rows of royals waiting to pay their respects to Samuel’s body. The sun is rising and I don’t have much time. It took me all night and most of today to get back. Whether the magic Konstantin insists I can control helped or not, I don’t know. But every train was on time and I got every connection I needed. Papa’s watch is in my pocket and I have one hand wrapped around it even as I mount the castle steps.

  Some magic must be afoot because I’m amazed I’ve made it this far with no one laying a hand on me.

  Then a shadow moves in front of the door, blocking my way. Swallowing hard, I look up.

  “Not even his whore now.” Indifferent, cold, Kolya is in front of me, keeping me from entering Hearthstone. A huge blond menace, he folds his arms, smiling when I press my lips together to keep them from trembling.

  I’m supposed to kill him? Even in human form, the male dwarfs me. Not to mention he scares me down to the now-icy marrow of my bones. Konstantin must be mad.

  “And trespassing on our land, too. You’re not wanted here, human.” Then he grins, flashing those sharp white teeth. “Better run.”

  Knees knocking together, I almost do exactly as he bids. Except . . .

  Georg.

  I lift my chin. “I’ve never run from you.”

  His lips thin. “Excuse me?”

  “I said—” My voice gains strength and volume. “I never ran from you.”

  Then I turn my back on him, facing the throng gathered to honor their fallen king.

  “Listen to me. Georg is in danger—you all are in danger.” Hard, cold eyes meet mine on all sides, brown and grey and hazel and not one looks friendly. My stomach gurgles, oily and sick. Before I can do something really helpful, like faint, I see Jada in the shadows next to the steps. She’s glaring at the servants next to her, the ones sneering at me and elbowing each other.

  “Stop being such fools,” she hisses. “The king’s woman says he’s in trouble. Shut your silly mouths.”

  I take a deep breath, prepared to try again over the growing rumble of the crowd, the one that says a bunch of bears are about to come at me with their version of pitchforks and torches.

  Instead, Agatha pushes past Kolya, both hands out. “Alice, where the hell have you been?” Ignoring the hundred or so bruins watching, she yanks me close and shakes me hard. “Why the hell haven’t you answered your phone? I got the call that Samuel had passed and couldn’t find you anywhere. I left a note at the hotel but I had to go. I thought Georg would kill me, but he’s not even here. He went to N—”

  I grab her hands pulling her closer to whisper in her ear. “I know. Konstantin was the man who stole me away. He’s setting Georg up in Niflheim. He may have Georg trapped somewhere already.”

  Kolya’s nostrils flare, and I know he overheard my words. Damn bruin senses anyway. There is an odd light in his eyes. Would he let Georg die? It would solve all his problems in one fell swoop.

  I lean up and poke a finger in his chest. “Konstantin sent me here to kill you, you know.”

  “You?” Kolya laughs, the rumble of it hurting my ears. “You’re nothing. A fly I could swat and crush with one blow.”

  “You tried that, remember? It didn’t fucking work.”

  He scowls. “Only because Georg saved you. But your bear isn’t here now.”

  With a growl, Kolya crosses the threshold. I watch him come, panic and frustration swirling inside of me, until I feel like the pressure is going to rip me apart.

  “If Nazary’s bastard thinks you’re any kind of a weapon, he’s more insane than his whore of a mother.”

  Agatha moves in front of me, but somehow I shove her aside. I barely note her stunned curse, or Markus catching her in his arms. I’ve eyes only for the monster coming for me once again.

  Ticktock. My hand is no longer on the smooth crystal case, but Papa’s watch seems to leap in my pocket.

  “Control, Alice. It’s all about control.” Papa’s low words in my head. But it’s not control I need now, Papa.

  It’s power.

  Tears prick my eyes, because I can feel the energy humming all around, just out of reach. I don’t know how to hold it. Only how to hold it apart.

  Then I hear another voice. My own.

  How do you shift without being torn apart?

  Warm laughter caressing my skin.

  Maybe it’s
a bit like when you feel the grass between your toes and the sunshine on your face and you feel like somehow you’re a part of it all, bigger than the skin you’re in, but somehow still yourself as well. That’s natural magic, bruin magic.”

  I didn’t understand Georg’s words then, but I do know. Drums beat in my ears as I focus on Kolya, on the energy I feel inside him. Just like Jett said.

  Just Kolya.

  A web of energy flickers into view, green and gold, surrounding the giant bruin. When I spin around, it’s sparkling everywhere. From bruin to bruin, like a vast net. It pulses, just like the watch against my heart.

  Boom boom.

  Ticktock.

  Ticktock.

  Boom tick.

  Tock Boom.

  “Feel the rhythm in your head, Alice. In your heart. Don’t be frightened. It’s easy if you try.”

  I clutch Papa’s watch in one hand and reach out with the other.

  “If you won’t help me,” I whisper, grabbing for the nearest threads, the ones surrounding Kolya, “then I’ll help myself.”

  The power surges into me as the count laughs. He’s still laughing when I close my eyes, but I don’t open them. The magic is humming all around me, in me—but I don’t know what to do with it. How does it work? Frustration and panic have the strands slipping though my fingers, the power floating away.

  In the end, it’s not Jett’s words, or Georg’s, that flick the switch inside me. It’s Konstantin’s.

  “You’ll figure it out. Because if you don’t, Georg will die.”

  The drums in my head go silent. And I open my eyes.

  Kolya towers over me—but not for long. He stumbles back, black-ice eyes going wide.

  Because once again, I’m growing.

  Every jaw in the crowd around us drops. I see them all as I rise toward the sky. Faster than ever before. I don’t even have to pull the magic now, it just flows inside me, faster and faster. And I take it all.

  I roar. The sound rumbles not just from my throat, but from my chest. Like thunder it echoes down through the open castle doors in front of me and down the mountainside behind.

  I take a step away from the castle, until my feet are on the bare grass and soil of Hearthstone. But they’re not human feet anymore. They’re paws, enormous and clawed and powerful. I dig them into the earth and roar again.

  I’m bear and I’m enormous. My fur is the same blue-black as my hair, but coarser. Wild and dark and primal.

  All around me is a chorus of panicked voices. They’re trying to attack, but of course they can’t. I’ve cut off their power. And the horde is approaching. The monsters that surrounded me from the time I was a child. His minions.

  Konstantin is coming.

  “I can’t shift—”

  “My bear is gone. What is happening?”

  “Can you shift? What has she—”

  Kolya’s growl silences them all. “You can’t shift because she has stolen your power. And just in time for her master.”

  He throws an arm out and every head turns toward the bridge to Niflheim. It’s not dawn, not even close, but the shadows flowing out of the portal don’t lie.

  They surge forward en masse, until I rise up on my hind legs and roar again. I can’t fight them all—I can already feel the power slipping though my fingers.

  Darkness rapidly fills the sky, turning blue to black. In seconds, a huge shadowy cloud obscures the sun and turns the sparkling waterfalls dark and grey. Mist seeps along the ground.

  I grit my teeth and hold the reins of the magic as best I can. “He. Is not. My Master. But I was his prisoner. And now he wants you to be his prisoners, too.” It’s true. That’s what life will be like for these people under Konstantin. He hates them. He wants to punish them for every injustice he’s suffered. “He could win,” I warn them. “A shadow with an army of shadows at his command. Do you see now?”

  In the growing darkness, even Kolya’s face turns pale. “And you think you can stop him from crossing? A pretend bruin—all by yourself?”

  I snarl at him, and even though the count holds his ground, I have the satisfaction of seeing him swallow once. “I don’t know, but I do think he’s scared of me. Let me fight for you.”

  An uneasy rumble.

  “It costs you nothing,” I urge. “If I fall, your power comes back to you and you will have gained some time.”

  Markus exchanges a look with Kolya over Agatha’s head.

  “Fall back, close the gates, and leave him to me. Just don’t fight my hold on the magic until it’s over.”

  More silence. Behind us, the darkness grows, the day turning to night. I can hear the howls now, the clicks and screams and squeaks that kept me in my bed so many long nights.

  Then Agatha pushes away from Markus. “I agree.”

  “And I.” Jada’s high voice cuts through the murmurs around us as she runs up the steps. The ground is beginning to rumble with the approach of the horde.

  Kolya steps next to her, his jaw tight as he looks over her head to the bridge. “If it means saving Hearthstone, then I agree as well.” He drops his hands and addresses the crowd. “Listen to the king’s lady. Come inside. All of you, come inside now!”

  Kolya’s roar joins my own as I rush out to the road, desperate to give them time to get inside the castle and lock it down.

  There is muttering on all sides, but as the crowd scatters left and right, I feel the draining pull on the magic I’m holding begin to slow, then halt altogether. They’ve decided to trust me.

  I’m halfway to the bridge when Konstantin emerges from the mist. He shakes his head in disappointment as he looks up at me.

  “A she-bear. Really, Alice? They hate you.”

  I swipe at him, but he dissolves into smoke, that awful laughter echoing in my ears.

  “That’s why you want this, isn’t it? Because they hated you, too!” I spin, still awkward in this new, powerful body.

  I stumble back when he reappears. He’s bigger than before, too.

  I growl, and turn to keep pace with him, keeping one eye on the horde swarming behind him. “You can’t shift into one of them, but I can. Does that make you mad?” I hate taunting him, because like or not, I know Konstantin’s pain. I know how it feels to be taunted and ridiculed by bruins.

  “You’re wrong. I never wanted to be one of them,” he sneers, disappearing yet again.

  Turning in place, trying to follow his voice, my head starts to ache. I’ve never held this much magic before and it crawls inside me like a living thing, wanting out. The bear is not enough.

  Konstantin’s words dance around me, even though the man is still nowhere in sight. “I wanted to rule them, to see them all bend the knee to their betters.”

  “You’re not better than them.”

  “Oh yes, I am.”

  There he is. Right in front of me, sword raised with a smile. “It will make me sad to kill you, Alice. Really it will.”

  “That little table knife won’t do much to me,” I scoff. “Not now.”

  He looks from me to his sword and sighs. “I suppose you’re right. Oh well.”

  When he tosses the blade aside, for a breathless moment I think I’ve won. Until he opens his arms and laughs. “You should have said yes a long time ago. Now it’s too late.”

  I clap my hands to my ears, forgetting I don’t have hands anymore. But the thunder in the sky is too much, like the earth itself is cracking apart. Lightening flashes and a tree nearby splits in two blackened pieces, the smell of ozone and ash filling my too-sensitive nose.

  The darkness boils around Konstantin until it seems to swallow him up. But it’s really him swallowing the darkness up.

  His shadow is huge, an enormous winged thing. My bear grows. And grows. Stretching high, claws in the air, I swipe at him.

  I can’t reach him, and the magic is fading fast. I’ve used too much and I’ve never done this before. I’ve no idea how I’ve kept it up this long.

  His lau
ghter swirls around me as I start to stumble about, growing smaller with each turn. The Master’s laughter. It’s haunted every nightmare I’ve ever had. He’ll kill me for this. But worse, he’ll kill Georg. My heart squeezes hard and I stumble to my knees, human again.

  He’ll hurt Jada and Agatha and . . .

  No.

  He won’t.

  Because in a bright burst it comes to me as I lift my head and watch Konstantin swoop in for the kill. The brightness is the glittering web that surrounds him. His magic.

  “Magic is magic, Alice. Natural, witch, elemental. We like to use insignificant differences to separate ourselves, but in the end, it’s all just energy.”

  I grab at Konstantin’s energy with greedy, desperate fingers. Too focused on ending me, he doesn’t know what I’m doing until with a shriek, he tumbles out of the sky. Shadow made substance, taking the form of a man skittering along the mountainside to land in a heap at the bottom of the road. He gets to his feet with slow care, covered in grime and breathing hard. Blood trickles into his eyes and the look in them coats my lungs in ice. His sword may be gone but his army is still and watchful at his back. I swallow hard, prepared to grab their magic as well if I have to. I wonder briefly what such an effort might do to me at this point, but I don’t get a chance to worry. Konstantin does what I never expected. He turns and runs, pausing only to swipe his sword from the ground and keep going.

  Straight back to Niflheim.

  I stumble to my feet as his confused minions gawk at us and each other. Then they turn as one and follow their fleeing master. Every single one.

  In minutes, the ghoulish army has vanished. Sun and blue sky return, and faintly, I catch the murmur of cheers muffled by stone behind me.

  But what should be a surge of triumph is only a lump in my throat as I remember just where Konstantin ran to. Niflheim.

  Georg.