CURSES AND ROSES
That night, we made camp in the center of a small ruin, surrounded by crumbling walls and gargoyles being choked by thick black bramble. A shattered fountain that might’ve been a mermaid once but was now nothing but a tail and a pair of arms stood desolately in the center of the room.
Nyx leaned against the lip of the fountain with her legs crossed and her blades in hand, staring at the tunnel we had come in, making certain no nasty bug or giant centipede slithered into the room with us. Coaleater, too, had taken up guard duty, planting his large body in the doorway, so that if said giant centipede tried squeezing in, they’d get an angry Iron horse to the face.
(One might think all these centipede precautions were going a bit overboard, except we’d all seen the big ugly bastard as we slipped back into the Briars tunnels, a fifteen-foot monster making its merry way through the thorns, bright yellow antennas waving. And since I liked bugs as much as I liked a rousing kick to the gonads, I thought being overprepared was better than waking up with a centipede trying to eat my eyeball.)
I glanced at the lovebirds, who had claimed one of the far corners. The Iron Queen sat with her back against the stone wall, with Ash crouched in front of her, his silver gaze intense. Meghan still looked pale and exhausted, which was prompting Ash to be even more protective and overbearing than normal. He looked like he wanted to scoop her up and take her back to the Iron Realm, which Meghan would never allow and would likely kick his ass for attempting, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to.
“I’m fine, Ash,” she told the hovering Ice Prince, for the second or third time, I was guessing. “I told you, I’m just tired.” Raising a hand before her, she gave a rueful smile. “Probably shouldn’t have expended all my glamour at once, but it had to be done. Just give me an hour or two of sleep, and I’ll be ready to go.” Ash started to say something, and she glared at him. “Unless I don’t get any rest from the constant hovering of an overprotective Winter faery who is worried that I’m not getting enough rest.”
Ash slumped in defeat. “Fine,” I heard him say. “As you wish, my queen. But if you pass out or fall asleep during the fight with the big monster, I get to be ‘unbearably overprotective’ for the next month.”
Meghan yawned. “And that is different from everyday life, how?” she murmured, leaning back and closing her eyes.
Ash snorted, placed a kiss atop her head and rose, black coat and protective glamour aura falling around him. He caught me watching them, and one brow lifted before he turned and started making his way in my direction.
I stiffened, angry memories stirring to life once more, even as I tried shoving them down. “Ice-boy,” I greeted, smiling coldly as he came up. “That’s quite the talent you’ve got. Even after all this time, you can still make me want to stab my eyeballs out.”
He didn’t say anything at first, just leaned back against the lip of the fountain next to me, crossing his arms. For a moment, we didn’t speak, gazing silently over the ruined courtyard, an icy barrier radiating between us.
“How long?” Ash wondered at last. Puzzled, I glanced at him, frowning, and his jaw tightened. “How long have you felt this way, Puck?”
“Always, ice-boy,” I answered softly. “From the moment I saw you and Meghan dancing at Elysium. Oh, I got over it, but it’s always been there. You know better than anyone that I’ve always been kind of a sore loser.”
Ash briefly closed his eyes. “I don’t want this, Goodfellow,” he murmured. “I thought we were done with this feud. I don’t want to have to fight you again.”
“Well, that’s too bad, ice-boy. ’Cause we don’t always get what we want.” I sneered at him, making his eyes narrow. “I didn’t want to have to fight you for countless years over an oath. I didn’t want to watch Meghan fall in love with you, when I was at her side the entire time. I didn’t want to get smacked down by a big ugly bastard who brought all these lovely memories right back to the surface again. But I did, and now we all have to live with it, whether we want to or not.”
I crossed my arms, imitating his pose, and gave him a challenging smirk. “Just be glad my good old-fashioned talent for revenge has a bigger priority right now than you. Once this is over, get ready to meet the real Robin Goodfellow. And like your brothers, you’ll find out he was an even bigger bastard than anyone realized.”
“Puck.” Ash pushed himself off the lip of the fountain, not looking at me any longer. A flash of pain crossed his face before he could hide it. “I can’t fault you for wanting revenge, not after my oath with Ariella, but...” He paused, as if struggling with himself, then said, very quietly, “Rowan and Sage are gone. You...are the only brother I have left.”
He turned and walked away before I could reply, striding back toward the now sleeping Meghan, leaving me staring after him.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Nyx at the mouth of the bramble tunnel, her golden eyes shining in the gloom as she watched us. And I knew that she had heard every word I’d said.
Dammit. I slumped against the stones, putting a hand over my eyes, and teetered between planning the most cruel, horrible prank in the history of the Nevernever and hoping no one saw the water trickling slowly between my fingers.
I woke up to the smell of...roses?
Opening my eyes, I gave a start. Once black, stark, and empty, the thorns and brambles that covered the walls and stones of the ruins now blazed with color. Roses in red, white, black, blue, yellow, and purple had sprouted everywhere among the thorns, filling the air with the scent of flowers and a riot of pigment.
“Ohhh-kaaaaaaay.” Cautiously, I rose, seeing everyone else gazing around with their hands close to their weapons, too. “Who ordered the wedding setup? Or is the Queen of Hearts attempting to smother us with rosebushes?”
“No idea,” Coaleater said, stamping a hoof that sparked against the stone floor. “They just bloomed out of nowhere a few seconds ago.” His nostrils flared, as if he was contemplating setting fire to the lot of them. “I don’t know what this means, but I don’t like it.”
Meghan stood up. She looked stronger now, almost back to normal. “They don’t feel hostile,” she mused, touching a fingertip to a yellow rose petal. It stirred at her touch, almost like a cat waking up to someone petting it. “I don’t think they’re here as a warning or a threat.”
“It is the castle.” Grimalkin peered down from atop the broken fountain, golden cat eyes seeming to float in the gloom. “It knows we are coming.”
Nyx appeared beside me. I could feel her presence with every fiber of my being, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at her right then. I didn’t want to see anger in those moon-colored eyes, or worse, disappointment. Because she had seen the real Robin Goodfellow again and knew he could never be trusted.
“If it knows we are coming,” Nyx said softly, “then I see no reason to keep it waiting.”
The roses continued through the Briars, forming a passage of color and scent. We didn’t need Furball to guide the way anymore, as it was obvious which direction we needed to go. Following the trail of flowers, we pushed our way through the Briars tunnels until they opened up once again, and we stepped into a massive courtyard.
“Well,” Meghan commented as we all stared at what awaited us at the end of the road. “I’d say we found it.”
Silhouetted against the sky, an enormous stone castle rose from the brambles and thorn bushes, towering over us in ominous, medieval glory. Multiple towers and turrets rose into the air, pointed roofs stabbing at the clouds, and dozens of stone gargoyles peered down at us, their faces twisted into frozen snarls and leers. Black, thorny vines slithered their way up the stone walls, curling around railings and gargoyles and making the entire castle bloom with roses. The courtyard was covered with them, too, tangled in the trees and coiled around crumbling pillars, the smell of ash and dust mingling with the scent of flowers. A full moon, glowing bright overhead, cast an eerie silver luminance over everything.
My gaze went to Nyx. Unlike everyone else staring up at the waiting castle, she stood with her eyes closed and her face slightly turned to the sky, basking in the glow of the moon. Her hood had fallen back, and her hair, rippling softly in the breeze, looked like liquid silver in the darkness.
She was absolutely beautiful.
And I didn’t deserve her. Not for a second.
The cat took the lead again, and we followed him, walking carefully across the courtyard that, for some reason, had a light dusting of snow covering it. More brambles split the flagstones and coiled around statues of twisted beasts scattered through the yard.
I peered closely at one and wrinkled my nose. It looked like an ambitious sculptor had tried chiseling out a horse, but halfway through had either forgotten what a horse looked like or decided to switch to a bear or some other shaggy thing. The result was a warped amalgamation of animal parts that definitely should not have gone together. The statue beside it didn’t look much better and had actually covered its face with both grotesquely long arms, as if embarrassed to be seen like this. I shook my head in sympathy.
“Man, who’s the landscaper here? I think we need to have a talk, unless ‘creepily ominous’ was the vibe they were going for—oh.” I paused, seeing a crooked sign bearing the words Keep Out! and No Trespassing! poking from the brambles. “Or, ‘stay the hell away,’ that would work, too. Anyone else get the feeling we’re not really welcome here?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Meghan said quietly from up ahead. She turned down a path that led straight to the castle, contorted statues of unnamed beasties lining either side. “The oracle said the Forgotten with her memories is hiding here. We need to find it, and see what they know about this monster.”
“Monster?”
One of the statues moved. Something huge and shaggy, with massive shoulders, horns, and a muzzle bristling with fangs, stepped from the shadows into the middle of the path. With a growl, it rose onto two legs, looming over us, enormous clawed hands opening at its side. Cold blue eyes, slitted like a cat’s, glared down with feral intelligence.
“You want a monster, trespassers?” the creature said in a low, gravelly voice. “Here I am.”
Meghan held up a hand, stopping Ash from pulling his sword, as the rest of us tensed behind her. “We mean no harm,” she told the shaggy beast blocking our way. “I apologize for trespassing, but we wish only to talk. Will you allow us to speak to your master?”
The creature curled a lip. “I am the master of this castle,” it growled through its fangs. It took a step forward, causing Ash to drop a hand to his weapon and Coaleater to give a warning snort. From the corner of my eye, I saw Nyx’s cloak ripple, and knew she had called her blades to her hands.
The monster eyed them warily before turning to Meghan again. “You speak to the lord of this land now. Who are you, and what do you want?”
“I am Meghan Chase, Queen of the Iron Realm,” Meghan replied, and the monster’s blue eyes widened a fraction. “These are my friends and companions. We’re looking for a faery who supposedly fled here and is hiding in your castle. Do you know anything about this?”
“Iron Queen.” The creature’s guttural voice turned flat. It gave a snort of its own and backed off, shaking its shaggy head as if the matter was done. “So, you are the queen of the poisoned realm,” it growled. “The one the shadow fey won’t stop talking about.”
“Oh, look at that, princess,” I said into the surprised silence. “We are expected, after all.”
Meghan took a step forward. “It is here, then.”
The monster curled a lip. “I caught the creature lurking about my gardens,” he said. “It was deranged, screaming and crying about things that made no sense. I tried driving it out, back into the Briars, but it refused to leave. Said something was after it, and it would rather die than risk whatever was coming. So, I offered it a room in my tower cell, where it could wail and sob in peace.” The creature made a disgusted gesture with one huge claw. “It is still there, if you think you can get any sense out of it, Iron Queen.”
Meghan exchanged a glance with Ash, then nodded. “If you would let us speak to this Forgotten,” Meghan said, “we would very much appreciate it.”
The creature snorted again. “Iron Queen, if you can actually get it to stop squealing like a tortured pig or babbling like a fool, you would have my eternal gratitude. This way.” It raised a hairy forepaw and turned, beckoning us forward. “Follow me.”
Dropping to all fours, it lumbered toward the castle, and we trailed bemusedly after.
The inside of the castle was elegant and surprisingly clean, though I wondered where the servants were. I didn’t see anyone, and I was certain our hairy guide didn’t do all the sweeping, cooking and cleaning himself. I had a quick mental image of the enormous shaggy creature in a white apron, sweeping the furniture with a tiny feather duster, and snickered out loud.
Ash shot me a warning look, as if he knew what I was thinking, and the monster glanced at me over its wide hairy shoulders. “Something funny, Goodfellow?”
“Oh, nothing important,” I said, grinning back. “But you know who I am, that’s good to hear.” I smiled wider and glanced at Nyx. “See, even cursed, lonely beasts know me. Everyone knows me.”
Nyx only rolled her eyes, but the creature gave a disgusted growl. “I’ve lived here for a while, Goodfellow,” he rumbled. “I’ve heard the stories, same as everyone else. I would ask that you kindly keep your hands to yourself. I would hate to have to rip them off your arms.”
We continued, following the creature up a flight of cracked marble stairs, down a long hallway with soaring arched windows that looked out on the courtyard, and up a spiraling staircase to the highest tower. Coaleater was forced to change into his more human form to fit inside the claustrophobic staircase, but other than letting out an exasperated sigh that filled the doorway with smoke, he did so without complaint.
About halfway up the staircase, the babbling started.
We all stopped, listening to the low, constant murmuring that drifted down the steps. The voice was too soft and faraway to make out, but I caught a few choice words like death and futile and it’s coming.
“Oh,” I remarked. “Good. That’s the type of thing you wanna hear. Those are the words of a completely rational faery. I can’t wait to have a perfectly ordinary conversation with him.”
The monster shook his shaggy head, curling a lip at the sounds floating down the stairwell. “Now you know why everyone avoids this part of the castle,” he growled. “When the shrieking starts, you can hear it all the way out in the halls.”
Meghan’s brow creased in sympathy. “Have you been able to understand him at all?” she asked the monster, who snorted.
“A few words. I don’t really listen. He screams ‘it’s coming’ a lot. Considering that he’s hiding here and refusing to leave, I’m guessing he thinks something is after him.”
“Or something is really after him,” Nyx put in.
The monster shrugged. “It would have to find this place first, and then it would have to get past me. Not that I care what happens to him one way or another, but I don’t take kindly to trespassers.” A shriek rang out somewhere overhead, and he winced. “Ugh, it’s starting again. This way, Iron Queen. Once the wailing really starts, you won’t be able to get two coherent words out of him.”
He turned and started padding up the stairs, and we followed him to a small stone landing with a thick wooden door set into the wall. Sobbing and nonsensical mutterings echoed through the door, filling the small enclosure, buzzing in my ears like really whiny mosquitos.
“The door isn’t locked,” the monster told us, gesturing to the handle with a huge hairy paw. “You can just open it...” He pushed on the wood, but was met with a clunk, and the door stayed firmly shut. The monster sighed. “Unless he’s barred it from the inside again.”
“If you’ll allow me.” Meghan stepped forward, and the creature moved aside with a shrug. Stepping up to the door, the Iron Queen put her hand against the wood and closed her eyes. Glamour flickered around her, and something on the other side of the barrier clicked, then dropped away.
She pushed the door open, and a howl immediately echoed through the chamber as something came hurtling through the doorframe. Meghan ducked, and Ash’s sword flashed out, striking the small clay bowl and shattering it into a dozen pieces.
“Noooooo!” shrieked a voice that seemed to come from nowhere. “I’m not here! Not here, you won’t take me!”
We all peered into the room. At first, I couldn’t see anything but shadows. Dank stone floors met dank stone walls, with the only light coming from the door and a tiny barred window near the top of the room. The back of the cell was nearly pitch-black, and nothing seemed to move in the darkness.
Then, a glimmer of yellow light winked into existence, followed by another, like a pair of round golden fireflies. After a second, I realized the two floating lights were actually eyes, belonging to the shadowy form of a Forgotten crouched in the corner of the room. Unlike Nyx, this one looked like the Forgotten I was used to: jet-black and featureless, like a shadow come to life.
I squinted against the darkness, trying to see it better, but it was like trying to spot an ink stain on a black carpet at midnight. And the extra bright glowing eyes, huge and round like car headlights, were not helping.
“Nooooo.” The Forgotten’s voice slithered out of the cell again. It wasn’t loud, but it still caused the hairs on my neck to rise. “No, not yet. Not yet, it isn’t time. The dream is not over. It sleeps still, not time yet.”
“Calm down.” Meghan’s quiet, soothing voice cut through the rising tension. “We’re not here to hurt you. We just want to talk.”
“The queen.” Even though I couldn’t see him clearly, the Forgotten was clearly talking to himself. “The queen has come. The end is nigh.”
Meghan straightened at that, and Ash pressed closer to her, crowding the door. I scowled and stood on tiptoes to peer over his shoulder, as from the corner, a piece of the darkness slid away from the rest, coming into the light.
A thin silhouette of a humanoid faery, meaning it had two arms, two legs, and one head. Its ears were long and pointed, and it didn’t seem to have any extra limbs, wings, or tails. But that was all I could say for certain, as the Forgotten really did look like a shadow had stepped off the floor and come to life. It might’ve been beautiful, terrifyingly hideous, or covered in bright orange feathers; we would never know.
“Iron Queen,” the Forgotten whispered. “You have come.” It trembled, then like an ooze of ink running down a wall, sank to the floor. “She is here,” it moaned. “It comes. It comes with her. The end has started at last.”
Meghan stepped into the cell. The rest of us, even Ash, hovered in the doorway, watching as the Iron Queen walked to the faery’s side and knelt, gazing at the undistinguishable lump on the floor. “You’ve seen the oracle’s memories,” she said, and the Forgotten moaned, curling in on itself, looking even more like a blob of oil spread over the floor. “What are you talking about? What’s coming? Do you mean the creature that’s stalking the Nevernever? The one that can transform fey by touching them?”
“It comes,” moaned the Forgotten. “It comes. For me. For you. For us. For the world. The surface breaks and shatters, and the darkness beneath rises to swallow us all. You cannot stop it. No one can stop it. The world will fray apart and drown in hate. The harbinger will find us. You cannot hide, cannot run, cannot will it away. It...”
The Forgotten stopped. Grew very still. For a second, it was a motionless dark lump on the stones of the cell. Then, a giggle escaped it. And another. Rising, it threw back its head and laughed, high-pitched and frantic, making the hairs on my arms stand up to join the ones on my neck.
Ash’s hand slid to his sword hilt, but Meghan remained calm in the face of the Forgotten’s laughing fit; she even reached out to steady the faery when it seemed in danger of collapsing again.
Behind us, the beast let out a disgusted growl, the hackles on his neck and shoulders standing up like spines. “This is what I mean, Iron Queen,” he said over the shrieking laughter of the faery in the cell. “The creature is inconsolable when he gets like this. Want me to knock him senseless and give us all a little peace and quiet?”
I was tempted to say yes, but the Forgotten then stopped, as suddenly as flipping a light switch.
“No.” He panted, a few hysterical chuckles slipping out, and shook his head. “No, you do not understand. Iron Queen...” He clutched at her arm, though Meghan did nothing to shove him away. “You’re too late,” the faery whispered. “Too late. It comes. For me. For you. For us all. I have seen it. It will not stop, it is unstoppable. It...”
He raised his head, a chilling, terrifying light sliding across his vision. The realization of something that could not be taken back. “It is here.”
A baleful, familiar howl rang out somewhere in the night.