“Try not to blow up the place,” Klara joked trying to lighten the mood. “Is this truly what you want?” He asked, and for a moment, her heart faltered afraid Abadan would kill him before he had a chance to raise an army. Klara pushed the thought aside knowing she had made her choice. “I’m sure. Even if my Father disagrees, the Council of Demons will protect your right to rule. They now have an Heir who doesn’t cause ripples. If your army fails in killing Abadan, my soul will keep the High Queen and Mila from the throne.”
The snarls of the returning Hounds and scouts became deafeningly close.
“I’ll hold them off,” Frendall said, and she pressed her lips firmly against his as he slipped back into soul form. “You can’t kill them in this state.” Klara looked to the red and yellow eyes in the distance, feeling the anger inside her swell.
“Maybe not, but I sure as Hell can distract them. They won’t know what to do when I stand before them.”
With a fraction of her soul, they wouldn’t doubt him. Her mind swam to Wolfgang and Lottie waiting for her. If she didn’t turn up, one of them was bound to be caught.
Remember who you are, Arthur’s words echoed through her, and she knew she had to protect Lottie and Wolfgang. “Thank you,” she said, bringing her lips to his for the final time. Frendall’s hand went to her cheek. His touch allowed her within his mind, to see them running together through the Maze as children. She always wanted to be seen this way by him. Free and happy.
“Go help the others!” Frendall pushed her in the opposite direction. “Goodbye,” Klara said. She watched Frendall disappear into the marshes and Klara cursed herself for leaving Lottie and Wolfgang. Hated that she had given into the darkness and almost given Abadan exactly what she wanted. That’s not who Klara was. Or at least not whom she wanted to be.
~16~
“Please stop!” Lottie’s desperate cries travelled to Klara as she sprinted through the trees. She stopped as she saw the uniforms of the Fae Guard glowing up ahead.
“Get up,” Lottie pleaded, and she couldn’t see Wolfgang. Klara moved closer, careful not to set off any more traps as to not give away her position. She crouched as the small group of Fae Guard surrounded Lottie. Two Fae sat on top of a humvee, watching over the patrol of four below. Wolfgang lay unconscious in the dirt as Lottie’s small frame hunched over his body, trying to protect him from the towering Fae. Klara wanted to rip their smug grins from their faces. How brave they are to gang up on a child.
The Fae waited, watching the siblings and the surrounding Forest, which made Klara nervous.
The Fae should have arrested them by now.
A part of her was thankful they hadn’t as the delay had given her a chance to catch up.
“Get him up,” a Fae with a dark beard barked as Wolfgang stirred on the ground. Uncontrollable tears streamed down Lottie’s face as two other Fae with glistening dark skin took Wolfgang under the arms and tried to force him to stand.
Klara had thought they would have been better off without her. She couldn’t have been more wrong as one of the Fae planted a boot in Wolfgang’s ribcage, and a groan escaped him. Wolfgang clutched his ribs, but Klara saw the glint in his eye. He was faking the pain. Suddenly Wolfgang pushed Lottie behind him and charged his shoulder into the Fae’s stomach.
Klara scolded him for his half-assed attempt. The Fae planted an elbow at the back of his neck, and Wolfgang went down like a sack of potatoes. Klara couldn’t understand why he was so exhausted.
There was no other patrol that Klara could see. Slowly, she moved from tree to tree until she was only a few feet from the nearest Fae. They should have been able to sense her, but they were too busy torturing Wolfgang and enjoying Lottie’s tears to notice. Wolfgang bared his fangs while Lottie crouched beside his legs.
Klara needed Wolfgang to resist the change. If he shifted and attacked the patrol, they would be caught and executed once they passed through to Kalos. Klara couldn’t understand the Faes’ cruelty. It was a crime to pass through the border, but the land they stood on was neutral. To use brutal force in these parts was a death sentence in itself. Nobody threatened the treaty and got away with it. Though at this moment, the treaty didn’t stop the Fae from tormenting those they deemed evil and beneath them. These are meant to be the good ones.
Klara clenched her fist as a heavy boot was planted into Wolfgang’s chest as he tried to rise. They were trying to provoke the change, anything to give them cause to end the Lycaons’ lives. Many, be it here, or the Forest looked the other way when it came to a few dead Dark Creatures.
“Let us go, and we will go back to Malum,” Wolfgang said calming down, but she could sense the hate in his amber eyes. The Fae in their crisp sapphire blue uniforms and polished boots had no intention of letting them go. Their perfect beauty of pointy ears and smooth skin shone in the full moon. The moon was a gift and a curse, it gave Klara clear sight, but it also made it easier for the Fae to see her.
“We can pretend this never happened,” Wolfgang said, regaining his strength as Klara saw the colour return to his cheeks.
“Giving us orders? Filthy Creature,” a Fae with vibrant red hair reefed Lottie away from her brother by her unicorn backpack.
“It’s too late for that son,” the tallest Fae said, drawing his spear and Klara held her axe at the ready. Wolfgang growled as the silver shone before him while Lottie squirmed from the redhead’s grasp. Klara watched the other Fae look on with hungry eyes.
“Let’s not get carried away,” Klara said appearing from behind a tree. The Fae from the humvee turned the small spotlight onto the new threat. The Fae watching on, took a cautious step back as they saw the axe at her side. The tallest Fae was distracted by Wolfgang as he couldn’t resist the change anymore.
“This doesn’t concern you Demon,” one of the Fae snarled as Klara’s eyes flashed white. “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” Klara replied as a blonde Fae rushed towards her and Klara dodged the strike of a spear. Klara snatched the spear from the Fae and cracked it over her knee before she tossed it to the Forest floor.
The blonde Fae rose her fists, and Klara almost laughed at the Fae’s terrible stance. “I can see the training has become most lax on this side of the River,” Klara said, her fist connecting with the Fae’s angled jaw, rendering her unconscious with a single blow.
Lottie cried out as the red-headed Fae gripped her by the hair. The Fae looked to Wolfgang as he prowled towards them. Klara took the distraction as her opportunity. She let her axe fly before the Fae could kill Lottie. The axe planted in the Fae’s narrow shoulder, not a fatal blow but painful as Hell. Evident by the shrill scream that escaped the crumbling Fae.
Lottie tried to calm Wolfgang as Klara took them down one by one until five Fae lay injured and mudded. She moved around them with ease. How proud Lilith would have been to see me take down five Fae.
“I’d fire whoever trained you,” she said as one of the Fae tried to grip her leg in a pathetic attempt at stopping her. It was apparent they relied on their tranquillizing guns and spears to keep their enemies at a distance. Without their weapons, they looked like frightened children.
They weren’t used to skilled fighters only untrained fleeing Creatures. The tallest Fae, their Captain stared at Klara wildly as she saved him for last.
“Talented and yet utterly inferior,” The Fae roared, and Klara rose her eyebrows.
“I wouldn’t be so careless with your insults,” Klara said, rushing at him.
She placed a hand on his cheek, forcing his life to flash before his eyes over and over again. The Captain clawed at his eyes. Klara was so distracted by his begging for it to stop to notice that one of the injured Fae had risen.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Klara asked as she saw the shake of the young Fae’s tranquillizer. “Why did you wait to arrest them? Or were you going to dig a shallow grave?”
“We were waiting,” the Fae said, unable to lie. “For what?”
; “You Heiress,” the Fae smiled, dropping the tranquillizer. “The Fae Queen wanted to see you for herself. Our eyes are hers.”
“If she has seen this, then she will see that I have let you all live despite breaking neutral laws. I mean no harm to her people by being in these lands. I’m no threat to Kalos,” Klara said. “In case your lying, you will go yourself and repeat this message.”
The Fae looked ashamed at the thought of leaving the injured, “I won’t leave my patrol with you.”
“I have no desire to kill them.”
“How can I trust you?” The Fae said with a shaky voice. “If I had wanted you all dead, I would have done it already.”
The colour drained from the Fae before he slowly backed away from her and ran.
“What about them?” Wolfgang asked returning to Human form, looking at the injured and unconscious Fae. “Another patrol will come along and find them soon enough.”
“Why not kill them?” Wolfgang said, his chest rising and falling, as he tried to suppress his nature. “They would have killed us,” Wolfgang continued, holding Lottie in his arms as she cried softly into his shoulder. Klara followed his gaze to the squirming Guards writhing on the Forest floor. The once pristine uniforms were now ruined.
“Sorry about this,” Klara said crouching beside the Fae with the axe in their shoulder. The Fae looked terrified as she gripped the handle. “Trust me. You’ll heal faster without it.” Klara removed the axe, and a gargled shout came out of the Fae before they passed out.
“How lovely, why don’t we portal in a Healer while we are at it?” Wolfgang barked, and Klara rose to wipe the blood off her axe.
“You want me to slaughter a patrol in front of your sister,” Klara whispered to him, and his face fell. Lottie’s eyes filled with confusion as they whispered.
“You’re not leaving, are you?” Lottie asked, and Klara shook her head.
“Why didn’t you get up?” Lottie said, pressing her cheek to Wolfgang’s. “I’m sorry Lots, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Wolfgang said, and Lottie wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I want mummy,” she said, and Wolfgang looked to Klara over Lottie’s shoulder. “I know you do.”
Klara heard a rustle as a Fae reached for a spear. Klara kicked it away, “too late for that,” Klara winked, landing a foot into the Fae’s ribs, and the Fae groaned rolling onto their back.
“We don’t have far to go. We should leave before someone comes looking for them,” she said, looking to the edge of the Forest.
“Thank you for coming back,” Wolfgang said as they rushed to the clearing. They stood at the edge of the trees before stepping out. There wasn’t a Fae insight. All three stared at an impressive stone wall that cut across a great field before disappearing back into the trees on either side. Klara could see that the intimidating wall was only a glamour and not a solid structure, but that made it all the more impenetrable. In the distance, a portal door in the high wall appeared across the field of grass and wildflowers as it sensed their presence.
“Are we just going to stand here all day?” Wolfgang said as the sun rose. “Just because the door appeared doesn’t mean we will be granted access, only those deemed worthy can pass to and from with ease.”
“Well we aren’t going to find out by staying here,” Wolfgang said when Klara felt Her.
“HEIRESS!”
The shout stripped the air of its breeze. Everything stilled around them. The blades of grass didn’t dare move. They were so close the door riddled with inscriptions stood only a few feet away.
Klara faced the High Queen as she remained at the tree line. She had to protect the others from falling into her hands.
“I know what you’re thinking, but we are so close,” Wolfgang said as Klara watched Abadan.
“The Fae should be here in their legions with Abadan so close. Even this far south, the Fae Queen would have had her army waiting,” Klara said to Wolfgang, who seemed just as puzzled.
Klara sighed as she stared at the empty field. Why get involved in a fight that wasn’t hers? The Fae Queen was going to leave them to slaughter each other.
If Klara were to go any further towards Kalos in front of Abadan, it would be an act of war and confirm Abadan’s narrative.
“Go without me,” Klara said. She kept her voice calm as not to frighten Lottie. His gaze fixed on her as she looked to Lottie.
“Come with us, I despise her as much as you do. Don’t give into her,” Wolfgang said.
“I can’t run anymore. I’m sorry.”
“After everything, you are giving up at the end?”
A peace came over her as Klara accepted her fate, “I’m harder to kill then you think.”
Frendall had part of her soul, and with it, he would return her Father to Hell. Klara didn’t need to fight, but she had led Abadan to doors of Kalos, and cost how many lives in their hunt for her. Lilith hadn’t protected her wife as she should have, and Klara wouldn’t make the same mistake. “I need you both away from her,” Klara said, walking through the ankle-grazing grass.
Klara worried the Fae Queen had sealed the door because of Abadan’s presence, but as she stared at the wall, the stones shifted, and the portal to Kalos opened.
~17~
“Leave!” Frendall’s desperate distant cry turned her blood to ice. They must have gotten his body while he projected himself to me. Wolfgang followed Klara’s gaze to the figure in the distance and frowned. Abadan stood with two Demons at her side, while her Crimson Guard shoved forward a shackled and beaten Frendall. Klara noticed he was bleeding from his hairline, their shared bond should have told her how injured he was, but something was blocking her senses.
“Don’t fall for their tricks, the High Queen is trying to lure you in,” Wolfgang said.
“We have to go,” Klara lied devoid of any emotion, and Wolfgang let out a sigh of relief as she stood before the portal. She placed a hand on Lottie’s and Lottie beamed. “We can go see mummy again?” Lottie smiled, and Klara moved behind them. Before Wolfgang could look back to the army of Demons, Klara shoved them through the portal.
“I’m sorry,” Klara said as a pulse of raw energy soared through the gap. She needed them safe and out of the way. She stepped away and let the stones fill the gap between them. Why had the Demons not taken Frendall’s side?
With her soul running through his veins, the Demons shouldn’t have been able to overpower him and yet here he was, forced to his knees in the grass, weak and beaten.
With the portal closed, she couldn’t do any more for Wolfgang and Lottie, but much to her relief, they wouldn’t end up in a Malum dungeon or at the bottom of the River Styx.
Abadan’s forces gathered behind her and Klara searched the Higher Demons at Abadan’s side, recognizing some from the banquet. Lokey was nowhere to be seen, Klara hoped he hadn’t been imprisoned for aiding her.
Abadan clapped her hands as Klara stilled in the middle of the field and the armour-plated Demons stood at attention, their weapons drawn while Klara stood alone. She was close enough to see her enemies but a safe enough distance from Mila and her arrows.
“How much trouble you have caused us, my child,” Abadan said her voice drifting effortlessly toward Klara. “Drop your axe, and we can put all this nasty business behind us.”
“How do you see this ending?” Klara asked, and Mila’s sharpened smile greeted her with a response. “Sister, I’m afraid you will be executed for your treason. There is nothing I can do to stop it.”
“You thought I would hand myself over without a fight? Put all of Lilith’s training to no use.”
The mention of her fellow Queen’s name caused Abadan’s mask to slip as the veins in her neck bulged. “How dare you mention her name? You corrupted her very essence.”
“Lilith respected her King and her duty to me,” Klara snarled, “Respected her place, something you have always failed to do. You have no right to command Lucifer’s army. My army.”
Kl
ara let all Demons hear her words, “If you stand with a false queen, then it will be a fate worse than the Maze.”
Abadan had Frendall, and maybe she had even managed to cage her Father. Klara clutched her axe, if taking Abadan’s place meant saving them, she would.
“Impudent child,” Abadan said, raising her hand and Mila gripped Frendall’s throat. Klara lurched forward on instinct and laughter rippled through the air. “It seems there is someone you care about more than your freedom.”
“He is your blood. You would sacrifice your blood to rule?”
“Do you want to find out?” Abadan ran a crystal talon down her son’s cheek.
“Drop the axe or I will spill his blood on the field.”
“If blood is spilt on this ground, the Fae Queen has every right to break the treaty,” Klara warned, and Abadan scoffed.
“That ancient Creature doesn’t care about this land. Aemella cut off Malum and this land like a dead limb for her precious Fae.”
The crashing of swords against shields echoed through the army as Abadan’s army split apart. A portal opened at Klara’s side, and half a dozen Giants emerged, with Gratide leading the group. “A pleasure to see you again so soon,” Klara said. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” the Giant winked as they formed a line behind her.
Demons with eyes of yellow and uniforms of black and emerald broke away from their compatriots. Klara couldn’t believe her eyes as the leader of the Crimson Guard removed himself from Abadan’s side.
The High Queen’s head snapped back and forth as her army moved without orders. Confusion rippled through the ranks as her soldier’s didn’t know whether to stop those leaving or to remain in formation.
Out of fear, Abadan’s remaining army stood still as statutes. Klara readied herself for an assault from those advancing, but instead of raising their weapons, they marched across the field chanting so quietly Klara couldn’t make out what they were saying. The Giants grumbled as the Demons joined them at Klara’s back. Demons and Giants were hardly natural allies.
Crowned A Traitor: A Hellish Fairytale Page 22