Chapter Four
Daphne
I’m so cold. Like sunk at the bottom of the lake with no clothes on and only a blanket of frog spawn to keep me cold.
Eww, frogspawn. That is something that should be banished to Blazes.
I love the frogs, though. They’re cute. Even the little wiggly worm things are cute.
Just not the jelly sacks they spawn from.
Oh, that’s why it’s called frogspawn. You realize something new each and every diurnal.
Nash’s words wrap around me as my dark knight with an enormous heart and careful hands whispers his troubles and desires.
Again.
But this time, something skims my soul. I’d say skin, but I don’t have any here. I’m skinless, but also boneless, so at least I’m not a skeleton. That would be gross. And that brings us full circle to the frogspawn.
“I wish you would come back to us permanently and never leave us again, never be at the whims of the Idols you defy.”
His wish hits my heart like lightning. This is it. I’m being dragged back for another lifetime of “how many ways can the realm kill Daphne Stone?” Joke’s on you, Idol scum. I didn’t die because of anything you did. I sacrificed myself for something much bigger than anything the Idols could cook up.
Love.
There is no nobler thing in this world. I’ve always had unconditional love for Gwyneth, my sister. But the knights chose me. They saw my clumsy chaos and embraced it with everything they had. Foolish, wonderful men. I was lucky to have their devotion for even a heartbeat.
“Brace yourself, Stone sister.”
I recognize that voice. The disembodied, judgy tones of the All Knowing that exists in the Living Library.
“Are you dead too?” I wonder.
“One who has never breathed cannot pass. I exist beyond your understanding.”
“Just say it’s complicated,” I grumble.
“This is going to hurt,” he warns.
How does one brace oneself without limbs? Do I glare? Maybe raise an eyebrow like Nash? But I don’t have brows, because I don’t have a face. Maybe the horses ate my face? It was definitely the horses. Everyone underestimates them.
“Please stop,” the All Knowing groans. “For the love of Idols, stop.”
My mind feels like it’s being squeezed down a tunnel, or a horse’s throat. Same difference.
Pain makes me cry out as I land with a thud and roll on a hard floor. That’s new.
Paper, musty books, and dust. Delightful.
I lift my head and squint at the light, attempting to focus. “Where am I?” My voice is hoarse and croaky because I haven’t spoken in so long.
“Take a tempo, Daphne,” the All Knowing advises. “It will come back to you.”
I groan, roll onto my back, and shake out my limbs to remove the stiffness. I wait a tempo as per his instructions and push up on my elbows. My vision clears as I blink, bringing the Living Library into focus. Except it’s not the room I left, this is...
“What happened?” I whisper at the utter destruction. Shredded paper blankets the floor, shelves lie on their sides, and books are scattered everywhere. Nothing flutters or sparkles like it used to.
“They happened,” the All Knowing answers. “Their rage and all-encompassing grief. They tore this sanctuary apart looking for the secret to reversing the cruel hands of death.”
I stretch my legs out on the floor, followed by my arms. I’m here, whole… no, wait. Not whole. Something is missing. “They succeeded?”
“No, because the answers were never contained in the history, but the future.”
I roll to my knees and grit my teeth as I stand. My legs wobble, threatening to give way and drop me back on my naked ass.
My hands skim my butt. “Why am I naked?”
“That’s your issue?” he answers.
“My immediate one, yes.”
“I’m not a wardrobe. I’m a highly intelligent mythical being.”
I tilt my head from side to side, stretching my muscles. “One that misses the point.”
“You are missing the point, Daphne Stone.”
“Which is?”
“You are back from the dead, and—”
I walk among the destruction the knights have caused. “Minus clothing.”
“Indeed. But more importantly, why are you still here?”
I grab a book from the floor that is doing its best to lift and fly. Power hums from my skin, and it shudders in my hands before taking flight and seeking its rightful place. A little TLC is all this place needs to become the grand resource it once was.
The All Knowing hums in satisfaction as another book lifts and follows its friend.
Maybe this time around, I’m not going to be the clumsy maiden Daphne. Maybe, just maybe, I’m going to be Daphne Stone, architect of the realm and ruler of Idols. I smile, trip over something, and fall to my knees with a grunt.
Nope, still me. Good to know death doesn’t come with an upgrade.
“Where are they?” I ask as I attempt to right myself and walk again.
“Not here.”
I huff. “For the All Knowing, you aren’t particularly all giving of that knowledge.”
“Some things you have to discover yourself. I could tell you, but it won’t change the fact that you have to find them.”
“It would narrow down my seeking time.” And the likelihood of continued survival. It would be disappointing to die again before I even hug my sister, kiss my knights, or joke with Eron. Wait… “Is Eron alive?”
“Yes.”
My shoulders relax. “And my genie?”
“Traumatized but existing.”
“Capons?”
“Avoided the attention of the castle chef.”
“Sir-Sweeps-A-Lot?”
“Sulking, sad, and saggy.”
But alive. “Gwyneth?”
“Unbelievably annoying.”
My lips twitch. “My knights?”
“Broken. That is something only you can fix, Daphne Stone. You need to fill in each other’s holes.”
I snort and slap my hand over my mouth to contain the words on my tongue.
“I tire. Return once you are whole.”
The room contracts. “I hate this part,” I grumble. My body feels like it is being squeezed before I’m thrown out into the Hallows Castle library.
The key librarian stumbles with the stack of books in his arms as he diverts his steps around my crumpled naked body.
I give him a thumbs up. “Good reflexes.”
He blinks. “You’re dead.”
I press my hand against my chest. Warm, steady, but out of rhythm. “My heart says otherwise. You know, death is just a state of mind. Think more positively, and then it’s not as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be.”
His mouth opens and closes as if he’s struggling to find his words. I wish I had that problem. I’m the opposite. I have too many of them to deliver, and they get tangled on the way out of my head.
He tilts his head as if he’s trying to make sense of my existence. Me too, buddy, me too. If you figure it out, let me know.
“Where did you come from?” He glances at the ceiling, and, like an idiot, I follow.
There’s no Daphne-shaped hole to write home about, only the dusty ceiling of the musty library.
He freaked out the last time we mentioned the Living Library, meaning he knows of it.
Now it needs some help so we can see the floor.
There’s an incredible solution to both things.
I climb to my feet, catching his attention. He grimaces as I place my hands on my bare hips. I’m naked, not growing an extra limb. Get over it.
“All Knowing, I appoint the key librarian to be the caretaker of the Living Library.”
No answer.
“Who are you talking to?” he asks.
I tap my foot on the floor. That’s right, sassy Daphne is the new Daphne. Ugh, I need to pick a lane. I feel you get one chance to pick your new persona after death, and if you do it wrong, you are stuck with it.
Channeling my inner Nash, I raise a brow in treacherous condemnation and wait for cooperation as if it’s a given thing.
“What qualifies him?” the All Knowing demands.
The key librarian drops his books on the floor and gasps. Is he trying to prove he can’t do this job? Book safety is basically the task’s description.
“Who is that?” he whispers.
“The All Knowing. He’s stuffy and thinks he knows more than the rest of us.”
“I do,” the All Knowing points out. “It’s all in the name.”
“Too on the nose. You can’t even locate my sister or knights.”
“I can.”
“But you won’t, which is worse.”
“Get to the point, Daphne,” he demands.
“You need someone to clean up the mess.” I point to the wide-eyed librarian. “He is a hugely qualified and skilled dude who has dedicated his life to preserving books, knowledge, and offering judgy looks. He’s perfect.”
“Fine. Trial basis.”
I give the librarian a thumbs up. “You got the job, dude. I’d stay and celebrate, maybe share a sausage.” I will not share my sausage with anyone. Even those who are owners of the said sausage and know how to use them to make my eyes cross.
“I’ll get you a blanket,” the librarian says. “I’m not paid enough coin for this. Oh, and we didn’t discuss terms.”
“The joy of being in my sacred space is payment enough,” the All Knowing declares.
Well, that sounded delightfully dirty.
The librarian returns and pushes an itchy black wool blanket into my hands. “Cover yourself before you start a war with those knights.”
“Do you know where they are?”
The librarian nods and opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, his face squashes, crumples in on itself, and he’s sucked down a hole and pops out of existence. Wow, that is disconcerting in the worst way.
“Have fun,” I holler as I wrap myself inside the blanket.
I eyeball the books on the floor and decide to leave them. I don’t want to use up any chaos control I might have banked on stuffy books. He can sort them when he returns.
Now, to find the folks who love me but whom I must seek out myself.
It becomes an obvious issue the tempo I leave the library—I can’t remember whether to go left or right to the knight’s chambers.
If I keep going in the same direction, that will take me in a circle, so no matter what, I will come across the right stairs.
That makes perfect sense. Look at me conquering directional challenges on my first day of existence.
I am rocking my new life. I have newborns beat.
They can’t even speak, and I’ve already negotiated a job and dressed myself.
Being zero annus old is amazing. Everything resets.
I blink as I round the first corner. Is everything reset?
Like floof land? Holy Idol babies, I am a born-again virgin.
A smug dude with blond hair and blue eyes stalks toward me, a sword he’s never used dangling at his side. There’s no mistaking his lineage.
“Charming,” I shout, as if we aren’t the only two people in sight. If he’s like the Charming pursuing my sister, he isn’t all that smart. “Point me in the direction of the knight’s chambers, please.”
He freezes, his hand skimming the pommel of his sword. Ugh, nope. Traumatic memories. “You are here.”
“I am, but I want to be there.”
Told you. Not very smart.
He pales a few shades and points at a set of stone steps. “Third floor, second door on your left.”
I dash up the stairs, my heart beating double time in anticipation of our reunion. First, I’ll declare my return with naked intentions, and then hug my sister until she can’t breathe. I should do that first to avoid the nakedness.
Proving miracles happen, I arrive at the familiar door with the swords and dragon etched on it. I fling it open and throw my arms out. Guess I’m doing the naked part first after all. My body beats my brain. “I’m alive.”
“That’s amazing for you.”
I blink and study the familiar room and furniture, but it’s filled with strangers and strange things. What is this?
A candlestick scuffles across the floor, its wicks lighting up every time it jerks and then fizzles out. I wrap my body back in the blanket.
“It’s her,” a white rabbit says as he hops across the floor and pulls out his pocket watch.
“It is she.” If he dares comment on my tardiness from resurrection, I may find myself with an abundance of rabbit sausage.
Ooh, instead of Disaster Daphne, calamity extraordinaire, I’m now Murdery Maiden, licensed to wield sharp objects.
I like it, apart from the murder. I think my deep-rooted issues with swords need to be explored before I’m ever put in charge of one again. If ever. I should be the last choice when it comes to weapons.
Perhaps I can oversee the murders?
The creepy grinning cat from Wonderland emerges in the air before my face. “It is you.”
“This is good. We have time,” the rabbit declares, shaking his pocket watch.
Is the watch faulty?
“My sister and knights?”
“Dress,” the cat says. “You have places to be.”
“Where?” I grumble as Pete, the Pinocchio with lying wood issues, struts out of Theo’s room with a wink. That’s creepy.
“Your knights are about to claim their future and set into motion something that cannot be undone.”
I mean, I thwarted death already. Fate seems fickle at this point. “What do you mean?”
He grins. “Your knight is about to claim the crown.”
Malachi is getting crowned? Good for him. Not sure why that’s an issue.
“Once a heartless Hart bears the weight, the kingdom is lost,” the rabbit says.
Wait, Hart is becoming the king? Oh wait, yes, we spun the story that he’d slain the dragon.
“So get dressed and let’s make him whole,” the candlestick squeaks. Aww, he’s super cute.
“Daphne, get dressed so you can ride in to save the knight you love before he dooms the realm to an endless nightmare,” the rabbit says.
That sounds bad. I rush into Malachi’s room and hunt in his wardrobe for a gown.
Of course, he kept them. I note the small things: the crack in the mirror, the broken headboard.
That better have been from missing me and not from another female.
I’m not responsible for my actions if that’s how he got over me.
Look out, realm—a murderous maiden is on the loose in the castle.