Song #3

Scruggs merely chuckled and held the razor-sharp edges of the scissors against Bridgette’s exposed throat. “I could do that, Macleod, but I won’t just yet. Not until you hear my proposal,” he said in his Kentucky drawl.

Edward’s fists were balled so tightly that his knuckles showed white. “What is it?” he growled.

Scruggs glanced over at the suspended cage and smiled. “I see you’ve found your mother. You’ll find that she’s in a special kind of slumber; one that can’t be awoken by any power but the Jackal’s.”

Scruggs turned his gaze back to Edward. “Your father is also, how shall I put it . . . beyond your reach. He died in his cell a few minutes ago. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that this girl is all you have left in the world.”

Scruggs pressed the blades of the scissors firmly against Bridgette’s neck, causing her to whimper.

“Let her go!” Edward roared. The news that his father and mother were out of his reach filled him with despair. His hand mechanically reached into his pocket, searching for his father’s ring. He wouldn’t let the Jackal steal any more of his loved ones. He already had Edward’s parents. He couldn’t have Bridgette, too!

“None of that, Macleod!” Scruggs hissed, jerking hard on Bridgette’s hair. Tears flowed down the girl’s cheeks, but Edward could tell that she was doing everything she could not to let Scruggs see her weaken.

Edward removed his hand from his pocket. He’d never felt so helpless. “Just tell me what you want!”

“To your left, you’ll see a large, stone table. Upon it is a contract that states that you’ll give yourself to the Jackal’s service.”

Edward looked over and saw the ornate table with the roll of parchment on it.

Scruggs continued, “The Jackal has big plans for you, Macleod. He’s decided to make you a captain. You’ll have legions of Groundlings under your command. All you have to do is sign your name to that piece of paper and it’s done.”

Edward glanced up sharply. Scruggs wore an expression of greedy anticipation on his face. Edward didn’t know what to do. If he didn’t sign the paper, Scruggs might kill Bridgette.

Bridgette saw Edward’s hesitation and shouted, “Don’t do it, Edward!” But she was quickly silenced by Scruggs’s hard jerk on the back of her head.

“And if I do this, I have your word that you won’t hurt her?” Edward demanded.

The voices of the Four were exultant. Edward knew that he couldn’t trust Whiplash Scruggs, but he had no choice.

As if in a dream, he felt himself walk over to the table and pick up the long black plume. He recognized it immediately.

Feeling sick to his stomach, Edward picked up the pen. Bridgette writhed in Whiplash Scruggs’s grip and shouted desperately for Edward to stop. But Edward was cornered. He couldn’t stand to lose anyone else he cared about. His mother was under a spell that he had no hope of breaking. His father was dead. This was his only option; a last, desperate move to save Bridgette.

Looking down at the ancient contract, he saw the names of other Guardians who had signed it before him. Row upon countless row of doomed Guardian signatures decorated the contract, each one dated at the time of their “Fall.” He scanned the long list, wondering what had brought each of the Guardians to the terrible choice to join the Jackal’s army.

Just then his eyes fell on a signature near the end of the list. The hair on his arms and scalp stood on end as he realized that he was looking at the very same contract that had shaped his life so long ago. He read the ornate signature several times, hardly believing what he was seeing.

It was his father’s name. And there was a blank space just below it, an area that seemed as if it had been purposely left that way. Had the Jackal always known that someday Edward would add his name to the very same contract that had doomed his father?

With a sinking feeling, Edward realized the truth. For all his thinking that he could somehow become the legendary hero who would defeat the Jackal, in the end, fate had decided his destiny for him. He didn’t have a choice.

Edward’s eyes slowly began to change, growing paler as he dipped the quill in an ebony bottle filled with crimson ink. The poisonous voices of the Four gibbered wildly, shouting in triumph.

And for the first time, Edward didn’t resist their taunts. As he placed the tip of the quill against the parchment, he realized for the first time that the Four weren’t just taunting him, making his worst fears seem real.