by Emma Hamm
“That’s what I am,” Amicia replied. Her cheeks turned bright red.
Was she afraid to admit it? He looked to Alexandre, whose mouth twisted in sadness for a moment before he wiped it clean.
Raphael reached for Amicia’s hands and took them in his own. He wanted her to focus on his words and nothing else in this moment. “Amicia, the strength of a kingdom lies in those who are not nobility. You should never be ashamed of coming from small beginnings. Be proud of what you have accomplished and judge yourself on what you’ve done. Not what people expect you to do.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. Tears welled in her eyes before she nodded and seemed to get ahold of her sudden emotions. “You sound like a Celestial already.”
He felt like one, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still a monster. His clawed hands were dangerous wrapped around hers. The wings at his back were even more prominent when compared to the true beauty of Alexandre’s white feathers.
Amicia let out a gasp. “You said you were sending Danielle back to the palace where her father was?”
“I did.” And what the king would do still unsettled him. “It was a calculated risk. I know I can get her back from him, but I don’t know if I could get her out of the alchemist clutches.”
“And you sent the alchemists out of the Hollows?”
“I did,” he repeated.
Her brow furrowed in thought. As she pondered unease grew in his own stomach, although he didn’t know why.
“What is it, Amicia?” he asked.
“It’s just... In my experience, the alchemists are intelligent. They underestimate the Dread, but that doesn’t mean they don’t plot or pull our puppet strings. They are masters of deception.”
He’d experienced the same. “I don’t believe they’re as strong as they say. In my experience, the alchemists have little magic.”
Amicia bit her lip. “That’s not the experience we’ve had.”
She turned and led him to a slight gap in the hedge rows. Together, they all moved toward a bench at the edge of a small, decorative pond. She sat down and gestured for him to do the same.
But Raphael couldn’t relax. Worry beat against his back as though Danielle were already in trouble and he had forgotten how to save her. “What happened here with the alchemists?”
Amicia swallowed. “They nearly tore the chateau apart. Their magic is deep and powerful, but it takes a piece of them to perform it. That’s why they’re all covered in scars.”
“That’s why they’re all bleeding,” he murmured.
“My theory is exactly that. I believe they harm themselves for such magic. They could create believable illusions here. They even convinced both Alexandre and myself the deceptions were real.” She reached for Alexandre’s hand. He closed it within his gilded one and sat beside her on the bench.
They were a picturesque vision. Seated on a white marble bench, staring out at a pond filled with lily pads and white flowers. A woman and her angel in repose.
He wondered if Danielle and he would ever look as they did. Grinding his teeth, he forced himself past the thought. “I didn’t notice any illusions.”
“You wouldn’t notice them at all,” Amicia corrected. “That’s the point of an illusion.”
He supposed she was correct. But that only added more fuel to the flames of his worry. “You believe they were performing magic?”
“I believe they lost an important figure in their ranks when we killed the leader of the alchemists. But whoever replaces the man could be even worse.”
Alexandre released Amicia’s hand and then wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her tight to his side.
Raphael wondered how many times they’d had this conversation. How many times his brother had to ease the guilt coursing through Amicia’s body.
His brother watched a dragonfly land atop a lily pad and spoke to his wife. “There were many paths we could have taken, but killing the leader was the only one which would have saved our people.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But it still feels wrong to take a life.”
Raphael didn’t know how to ease the pain of his new sister. But he knew time was of the essence, and lingering on such thoughts only hurt them all.
He cleared his throat. “The new leader is young. He’s barely more than a child, and easily angered. Smart, I’ll give him that. He uses words like a noble and knows how to wield them in such a way to confuse. But I don’t think his magic is very strong. I don’t think any of their magic is very strong.”
Alexandre hummed, “I wonder what makes him think that.”
For a moment, Raphael was confused. Then he realized his brother was asking for clarification in the only indirect way they could speak.
“I killed one of them,” he admitted. “He attacked Danielle in her sleep. I was lucky to be there at all, but when I found him...” He stopped talking.
They didn’t need to hear the grisly details. Amicia had already seen one of them dead, and her story continued to distract her from the moment at hand.
“Good,” Alexandre replied. “Amicia, if I could see them all dead then I would.”
“Please don’t say that,” she whispered. “We don’t know their story.”
“We know they’re evil.” Alexandre’s face warped into a dark snarl so like the Dread.
Raphael wanted to argue as Amicia had. Everyone deserved a second chance and yet, he wasn’t sure he’d give the alchemists one if they begged on their knees for one. “Regardless, they are dangerous now and they will continue to be dangerous. We shouldn’t underestimate them.”
“Agreed,” Alexandre replied. “Now, Amicia. What are you concerned about? I know that look on your face.”
She was wringing her hands while watching the bees and dragonflies flutter around them. For a moment, she looked like some kind of fairytale princess worried about her people and what might happen to them.
Who was this woman? He had only been here for a few days, but he already wanted to protect her. It was no wonder Alexandre had fallen in love.
Now he understood why the alchemists claimed she was a witch. She cast a spell over all the Dread she met. Without even realizing she was doing it.
She licked her lips and said, “I don’t know why the alchemists wanted to kill Danielle. That concerns me far more than anything else. They didn’t try to kill me. They tried to send me away and thought they had won. So why kill her?”
Raphael shrugged. “Perhaps they learned their lesson. If they don’t kill the person who might break our curse, then they will lose all control?”
“Maybe.” She sighed. “It doesn’t seem right though.”
Alexandre released his hold on her and stood. He paced behind them, his feet crunching in the ocean tumbled gravel. “Talk through it, wife.”
“They didn’t know she was even in the caves with Raphael. He mentioned only once that he had taken the princess, with the clear intent to harm the king. His lie should have been enough to convince them to leave her alone.”
“So why didn’t they?”
She tapped her hand against her knee over and over. “I don’t know.”
“Does he?” Alexandre asked, directing the question at Raphael.
He watched the two of them with rapt attention. They moved like they were two halves of the same whole. Two creatures who had been split a long time ago, but only now just found each other.
They both stared at him, waiting for an answer. He cleared his throat and replied, “They didn’t want her meddling. If what you’ve said is true, then they want at least one of our kingdoms to control.”
“Why?” Alexandre asked.
Amicia answered before Raphael could speculate. “If they have one kingdom under their thumb, then it will be much easier to control the rest of the kingdoms.”
“How so, wife?”
“Because then they have humans,” she whispered. “Here, they tried to turn all the humans into mindless Dread who fo
llowed you. But in Hollow Hill, they don’t have mindless Dread. They have intellectual monsters, which makes controlling them much harder.”
The reality of his situation seemed so clear to Raphael. “They don’t want to control the Dread in Hollow Hill.”
Amicia met his horrified gaze and nodded. “I think they want to control the humans.”
His stomach dropped out of his body and his heart stopped. “The alchemists are already in the palace.”
“I think so,” she replied.
“And I sent Danielle to them.”
Alexandre took a single step forward, his hand outstretched as though he wanted to touch Raphael. He paused just short of grasping Raphael’s shoulder before glancing at his wife. “I think it’s time to say goodbye.”
“You’re right,” she replied, standing from the bench and rushing over to the two of them. “I don’t know what you’ll return to, Raphael, but I think you must have your wits about you.”
He’d sent the woman he loved into certain danger. Spreading his wings wide, he prepared himself for a long flight.
At the last moment, he reached out and clapped a hand against Alexandre’s shoulder. A zing of electricity sparked between them.
Gold spread from Alexandre into Raphael’s hand. The claws disappeared and though it was painful, so much that they both stopped breathing and bared their teeth in pain, Raphael’s hand was no longer one of the Dread.
He stepped away, his fingers limp and aching. But it was enough. He nodded and cradled the hand to his chest. “Thank you, brother and sister for all you have done.”
Alexandre met his gaze and ground out through the pain, “Until we meet again.”
With that, Raphael opened his wings and burst into flight.
Chapter 34
Danielle grew increasingly frustrated during captivity. All she knew was they never provided enough food. They gave her and Milo a single loaf of bread and a small wedge of cheese once a day. Barely enough to keep one person alive, let alone two.
Her heart hurt every time she looked at Milo. He continued to shiver and his wounds grew worse. Her talkative brother receded into himself. He stopped telling stories. He almost stopped speaking, though she could coax him sometimes.
“Milo?” she whispered through cracked lips. “When was the last time they gave you water?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
They’d only given them a bucket of water once since she’d been here, but that wasn’t enough to keep them alive. A small pail of water would only make them even more thirsty as they craved for a true mouthful.
She wasn’t weak just yet. Danielle had weeks of being well fed in her past, while Milo had been rotting in this makeshift prison.
“Do you think they’re fighting yet?” she asked from her side of the room. “The alchemists said they wanted to start a war with the Dread.”
“If they want to start a war, then they will.”
She stood and moved to the nearest window. Danielle reached forward and wrapped her fingers around the bars. Her biceps flexed as she put pressure on them. Logically, she knew she couldn’t break them no matter how hard she tried. It still made her feel better to try.
In the distance, the sun rose on the horizon. Bright pink streaks and dark splashes of red turned the clouds into smudges of bleeding shadows.
“It’s morning,” she whispered. “The sun is coming up.”
“Good,” Milo replied, his voice nothing more a rasp. “Maybe we’ll be able to get warm again.”
She was interested in the sun for more than that. Far off in the distance, she saw black shapes rising into the sky.
Loud clanks slapped against the door. Guards checking to make sure they were both alive. Danielle turned and watched as someone stood in front of the door. She could see them through the bars, their fanatic gaze as they stared her down.
The guards called her a monster lover. But this was no mere guard staring through the window with bright, watery eyes.
This was Diana.
“Princess,” her sister called, her voice a musical song. “Are you looking out your window?”
“I’m allowed to do that.”
“Look again. Today is the day.”
Her blood ran cold. “Today is the day for what?”
Diana grinned and she could see the hatred in her, burning through her eyes and rotting her teeth. “All your favorite monsters will die today. And you have the best view in the kingdom.”
The cruelty in her sister’s voice was almost her undoing. What did Diana think she was doing? She had been a kind little girl. She’d kept mice in her drawers so no one would kill them!
This wasn’t the sister she knew.
Danielle ground her teeth. “If everyone is planning for war, why are you up here watching us?”
“I’ll return to the ranks when needed,” Diana replied. She shrugged. “Father is worried something might happen and you’ll escape. I told him not to worry about that. If you try to escape, I’ll kill you myself.”
The last words were warped with another voice. That of an alchemist Danielle knew so well.
She sighed. “Diana, you couldn’t kill me.”
“Oh, I could sister. Just like my men will kill all your precious Dread.”
Her stomach surged, panic threatening to spew out of her mouth and onto the floor. They couldn’t be fighting today. The Dread wouldn’t have had enough time to prepare. They would be slaughtered.
She spun around and pressed her face against the window bars, dismissing her sister and watching for any sign of the Dread. The shadows in the distance, the ones she’d thought were birds taking flight from the forest... those weren’t birds.
The Dread advanced upon the palace, slow and meandering. They took their time in the air though she couldn’t imagine why. All they were doing was letting the soldiers on the parapets count them and take aim with far more accuracy than a surprise attack.
“What’s happening?” Milo asked. He shifted from his corner for the first time in days. “What’s going on?”
She squeezed the bars and tried to keep her lungs from sawing in a breath. “They’re coming.”
“Your friends?”
“The Dread,” she whispered.
He stood beside her and looked out the other window. Milo held onto the bars too, but he needed them to stay upright. His hands shook as he balanced himself. “Are they coming to get us out?”
“I think they’re attacking for more than that.” She remembered how they had been treated. She knew the hatred in their hearts was just as strong as the humans.
They had battled before, and now they would do so again.
A call went out far below the window of the silver tower. Men shouting, “They’re coming!”
The metallic clang of armor echoed as soldiers raced to their position on the walls of the palace. Danielle could just see them all the way down the tower. They held crossbows in their hands and notched metal tipped arrows.
The blue banners of Hollow Hill turned red as blood in a wave of magic crashing down upon them.
“I can’t watch this,” she said, staring at the line of Dread approaching.
Milo turned from his post and propped himself up with a shoulder against the wall. “Danielle, look at me.”
She turned her gaze away from the approaching battle and met her brother’s gaze. So like her own. Sadness filled his icy blue eyes as he asked, “Do you love these monsters?”
“I do.” She said the words with so much conviction it startled even her. “Just as much as I love our people and our family. They are men and women with talents and kindness in their hearts. I can’t explain them to you in any other way, Milo. They are just like you and me.”
He bit his lip, nodded, and then replied, “Then you have to watch.”
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“You owe it to them. You love them, and they are here for you, Danielle. Letting them die alone, without even your
gaze, would be the cruelest of ends.”
And so, Danielle turned toward the window and prepared to watch her friends die.
The soldiers on the parapets turned their bows to the sky. A few of the Dread continued forward while the remaining Dread, only a hundred she guessed, stayed out of reach.
A wall of arrows met the Dread. Danielle cried out as a few faltered in the air. The arrows must have sliced through the thin membranes of their wings. One of the Dread listed to the side.
Another volley of arrows flew through the air. Danielle watched them arch up and then down into the Dread who dared to test the human’s strength.
The Dread who struggled the most in the air crumpled. It fell from the sky, wings wrapped around its body as it fell. The long appendages looked like banners fluttering in the air as it fell to its death.
“No!” she screamed, pressing her face against the bars even harder, as though she could squeeze through them and help.
Tears fell down her face. The death hit her in the heart, harder than an arrow, and far worse than if someone had reached between her ribs and squeezed.
And so the first Dread fell.
The humans cried out in pleasure, soldiers shouting they’d hit one. As if they were all at a hunt. As if the people attacking them were nothing more than ducks they were shooting from a pond.
They didn’t think the Dread were a threat. They thought the Dread were animals who didn’t know what they were doing, nor animals to fear.
Danielle bared her teeth and snarled. She knew the Dread were far more calculating than this, there had to be something more than a wall of Dread waiting to be shot.
Another wave of Dread approached, joining the handful just within reach of the arrows.
“Stop!” she screamed. “What are you doing? You’re just waiting to be killed!”
Her cry echoed through the air. No one could hear her, however.
Over and over, she watched her friends fall from the sky. The soldiers of Hollow Hill continued to cheer.
“I thought you said they were intelligent,” Milo murmured.
“They are,” she replied. “I don’t know why they’re doing this.”
Ten Dread had fallen by her count, although she didn’t know whether they could survive the fall. Perhaps there were a few on the ground, bleeding out and hoping someone would come get them. That someone would come save them.