Chapter 46 #2
“See?” She shakes her head, her eyes dripping with poisonous pity.
Those same leaves she’s been using to control us appear in her palms. She tosses them into the air.
“When I’m still alive, powerful and radiant in youth, your shriveled body will die alone, only to be tossed back to the earth, forgotten. ”
“If you understood love, if you knew love, you’d know that was a lie.” A pang hits my temples as the leaves fall at my feet. “You think you can control me with those leaves, but now I know the truth. I won’t let them control me any longer.”
“If that’s the case, I suppose it’s time for us to say our goodbyes.
” She wiggles her fingers and vines spring out of her palms, twisting and curling around the throne, hundreds of sharp-pointed leaves bursting into bloom.
“Now that I can add the Kingdom of Württemberg under my control, you aren’t necessary anymore. Goodbye, my little stepsister.”
She raises her palms into the air. Instantly, her vines snake across the floor like serpents. The leaves rip off the plants and twirl in the air. My heart slams into my chest.
“Jacob!” I scream. “Run!”
Jacob abandons Wissen and instead reaches for my hand. The two of us race across the ballroom, leaping over dead bodies, sliding on blood. But we aren’t fast enough. The leaves whirl through the air, cutting my arms, slicing through my golden locks, slashing my dress to ribbons.
We burst out of the ballroom, but the hallway is blocked by werewolves.
“This way!” I call and dive into the small chapel, slamming the door shut and bolting it.
Jacob stalks the chapel, blade ready at his side as he inspects the room.
His clothes are shredded, revealing a toned and muscular chest. His hair hangs over his face, and despite the blood running in rivulets down his arms, he looks so alive, so wild.
In this moment, I want him to be mine more than anything I’ve ever wanted before.
“Jacob. I’m so sorry. I came tonight to warn you about Marianne. I was too late.”
“Nothing about any of this is your fault. I should’ve suspected something. She must have used magic to hide her mark.”
He closes the space between us in a heartbeat, eyes burning with a fire that steals my breath and snatches my soul. His hand catches my chin, and then his mouth crashes into mine. The kiss is passionate, all-consuming, and my knees nearly give out as the world narrows to nothing but us.
It’s a kiss that ends all things, and my soul aches for what we could’ve been.
“Stay here. I’m going to get you your happy ending.” And then he’s gone through the door, leaving me alone.
“No!”
No, no, no.
Marianne will definitely kill him. Wissen’s likely planning on chopping him up as a snack for his beasts.
My mind screams for a solution. Candles flicker around the chapel like tiny prayers of hope.
The air sings with the rich scent of the woods beyond, calling me away toward freedom.
There’s a single window above the altar, so tiny that only a small person could get through it.
I climb up the wall and push open the stained glass, revealing the dark plunge that dives into the valley below.
Jumping is suicide.
Fear spirals in my stomach.
I pull the prince from my pocket. “I’m sorry, Fritz, to leave you here like this, but you're safer as a frog.”
I set him on a bench, hoping he’ll remain unharmed. No one will give a second glance to a frog. The chapel door groans as vines twist through the cracks. It crashes to the ground with a boom. Dr. Wissen and Marianne step into the chapel. My heart sinks. Where’s Jacob?
“There she is,” Marianne says with a proud flourish. “Your lovely bride is waiting for you at the altar. How convenient.”
“I’m not your bride, now nor ever.” I crawl onto the windowsill. I’m small enough to fit inside. Perhaps being a ‘stunt of a daughter’ isn’t such a bad thing, after all.
“Now don’t go killing yourself,” Wissen says. “You’ll ruin everything. You don’t wish to die a spinster, do you?”
“You’re completely sick.” I bite my lips, laced with salt and panic, as I shimmy to the edge of the window. “You’ll never have my magic.”
The cool night breeze slithers across my bare shoulders as if begging for me to join it. I close my eyes, trying to focus. Hoping I’m right.
The doctor lunges, reaching for me. As his fingers scrape across my body, I throw myself out of the window. My body plummets. Air rushes against me, encasing me in the night. My heart screams in terror while I pray I’m right about my transformations.
Then it happens.
The fiery pain, the piercing of feathers through skin, the sharpening of sight and hearing.
In a swoop, I correct my fall to an ascent. Now I’m soaring toward the stars, soaking in the inky darkness. Free. Nothing but wings and wind. But then I remember I’m supposed to do something. What is it?
Marianne, sitting on the throne, clapping.
Blood dripping off Dr. Wissen’s ax. And the realization that Jacob might be dead.
Rage rips through me like wildfire. It’s time for me to use the magic of my family to save us.
Not to hide from who I am, but to become my true self.
I caw into the air, calling every bird of flight to me.
Join me, I cry out. Avenge my attackers.
As I circle the castle tower, I’m only met by silence. But then I see Aunt Fiona, the seven ravens, and the two birds I rescued flying toward me.
Well, if you aren’t full of surprises? Aunt Fiona chirps. You transformed at will.
That’s one way of putting it, I say, deciding not to tell her how I jumped out of the castle tower. I found out where all the birds on our property have been going. Marianne, my stepsister, is a witch. She’s been using their lifeforce to feed her powers.
I tell them what I saw in the witch’s garden, and the rescued birds pipe up with the rest of the story.
I need to stop the witch while we have the chance, I say. Will you help me gather up others?
You’re using your abilities to make a difference, Aunt Fiona tells me. Your mother would be so proud.
They swoop into the trees, asking the others if they’d join us in our fight against the witch.
Soon the rustle of wings beat against the night, and the sky blots out the moonlight thanks to the birds of every kind.
I chirp my message: Destroy the werewolves and any who attack the king.
They don’t hesitate. With a squawk of rage, they flood every gate, every window, eager to follow my directions.
I bank left and follow in their wake. As I sail back toward the castle, glittering in a thousand lights, a part of me wishes I could leave it all behind and enter the thick, rich forest of forgetfulness.
But as I dart into the ballroom, the sounds of fighting and the smell of blood overwhelm my senses.
I spot Jacob, sword flashing in the candlelight as he battles against a pack of werewolves.
One beast lunges for his throat, but Jacob twists and slams a boot into its chest. The creature sprawls on the floor.
Another jumps, latching onto Jacob’s arm, tearing at fabric and skin.
I dive in, on wings that slice the air. My talons rake across the wolf’s back.
It whimpers and scurries away. Meanwhile, Jacob swings wide and cuts through another beast. Blood and steel blur together in his dance against the horde while my beak pokes at their eyes and my talons cut through fur until their howls echo against the stone walls.
One by one, they stumble and thrash. Together, Jacob and I fight against the pack.
I’m a bird of prey with Jacob, my beloved hunter, at my side.
The werewolves, now blinded, snarl and break into cries as their bodies shudder and twist back into human form.
The castle guards seize the moment and surge forward, shackling Wissen’s men in chains and dragging them away.
Only Wissen remains. He staggers in the courtyard’s center, shrieking as birds swarm him, tearing at his flesh.
Now that once handsome face is marred and bleeding.
When at last they break away, he crumples to his knees, groaning, hands covering his once beautiful features like he’s in mourning.
Then, in a violent whirl of crimson, his body shimmers and swirls into a stream of ink that’s sucked into the book Wilhelm is holding. It’s like magic took him away.
Grimm magic.
Now I fully understand what Jacob and Wilhelm do. A mix of awe, fear, and pride fills me. I flutter to sit on top of the ballroom chandeliers, pleased with the success of my flock.
Thank you, I tell them. You have done what humans couldn’t. Go now and be free.
With those words, the birds take flight, squawking in victory while I stay behind. Except there’s no victory here, only death from greed and selfishness. I swoop into a dark alcove where no one can see me.
When my clawed feet hit the cold marble floor, I tug at the human part of me, allowing the transformation to take over, twisting my body until I’m human again.
Sluggishly, I pick myself off the floor.
The glitter from my dress drifts away like the magic can’t hold onto it any longer.
My gloves are gone, my necklace is snared in my ragged hem, and my slippers lie forgotten on the ballroom floor.
Curls hang over my face, tangled and wild.
Once I’ve tucked my shoes back on my feet, I survey the ballroom, blinking as my eyes adjust.
The hall is still as the stone it was hewn from. The guards have already dragged the prisoners away to the dungeons. Nothing moves except for Wilhelm, hovering over a body by the grand staircase.
My pulse drums against my temples. Every fiber in me warns me to turn around and flee. Except my heart drags me across the silent hall. To the one my soul yearns for.
To Jacob, lying in a pool of blood, cuts and slashes ribboning his face. His neck is gouged by the werewolves’ bites, and his body lies still as the marble floor. Raging sorrow slams against me, and it feels like my heart is being ripped out of my chest.
“No!” A sob escapes me. It can’t end like this.