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Annabell
Elfriede’s Castle, Das Unbekannte
“Cole! I said not to bring anyone else here!” I shouted as my father brushed dirt from his pants. Jack wore a scowl, but all said, he was in good shape after having been carried from Goldene Stadt to our castle in Das Unbekannte. Hayden stood by his side with her hand on his back, a loving gesture of support though she could not mask her smile.
“He attacked me like a savage beast,” Cole said. “You said I could not kill anyone, and so I did not.”
“How does that relate to bringing him here?” I asked.
“I wanted to kill him, but instead, I might have hit his head upon a few trees along the way. The wolves are invincible. He shall survive a few bumps. I assumed you would prefer I bring him here than injure him defending myself.”
“I oughta—” Hayden grasped Jack’s arm and stopped him before he neared Cole.
“Perhaps we should not,” Hayden said. “Just, um... maybe this once we let the slights slide?”
Cole huffed and turned his attention back to me. “I try to do what you ask, Ellie, but what am I to do when I am attacked? I can only control what is inside me for so long, and when I am pushed to my limit, it is even more difficult to control such things.”
Jack narrowed his eyes. “Ellie? Her name is—”
“Jack! Let’s... go sit by the fire and warm you up,” Hayden said, urging her husband to move where he was less likely to be in the line of fire if Cole was angered.
I took Cole by the elbow and pulled him out of the castle. He followed, but reluctantly.
“You are clear that I despise all who live in this forest, right? That I believe they are traitors to your crown, and should all suffer the consequences, yet I have not attempted to slay a single one of them because you requested it of me? Elfriede, I am not a being to be trifled with. I am to be feared, and that part of my heart that you own is all that stands between me and complete destruction of this entire land.”
I pursed my lips and crossed my arms, an old habit that wouldn’t die. “You can control yourself better than that. Surely, you can. I’ve seen moments of kindness in you since I arrived, Cole.”
His black hair fell into his face again as he worked to control his breathing. His shoulders tensed, and his jaw locked before he gripped his hands into tight fists. “It has taken all my control to do what I have done, Elfriede. I do not think you understand what is at stake here. If I do not absorb the Seven soon, then what I am, this vessel will overflow with darkness. I won’t be able to dilute it, to control it, nor will I want to by then. It will have tainted what little soul I have beyond repair. You remember that feeling. You remember how hard it is to control it.”
“You were born to control it, Cole! How can a being born to do something possibly be unable to do the very thing it is intended to do?”
“That makes no difference! I was born a vessel, but that does not mean I am bottomless! Even the finest pottery can crack, and what is a pot if not to hold water? What does a cracked pot do, Ellie? I was meant to pass this on to my child, just as my father did to me. But how? How can I create a life whose purpose is to endure misery like mine?”
“Your child would be stronger than you are? More capable of controlling this?” I asked, still working to comprehend all that he was. I should have paid closer attention in my first life, then perhaps I might have been able to change where we ended up.
Cole pinched the bridge of his nose as he often did when dealing with mortals—in this case, a former princess who was probably as clueless and petulant as everyone had believed. “Yes. Each generation is stronger, almost as if our ability to contain it grows. So, you see, I must absorb light or... or have a child to do it, and I will not subject my child to such things. If I do not, then—”
“Everything releases into the world. Is there nothing that could contain it completely? Forever? If there was something, then you would not have to kill innocent people, nor would you have to produce a child to inherit your curse.”
Cole laughed and swiped the hair from his face. “Perhaps something with greater light power, but certainly not something earthly. It would require a massive influx of pure, clean energy to dissolve it entirely. But as it is, I am the only one available, so I must.”
I thought for a moment, realizing he had just described what I intended to do. My belief that I could destroy the forest’s dark energy with the help of the stars was reinforced, but I needed to know one more thing. “If that were possible, if such a thing existed, then what would happen to you?”
Cole shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve never considered it because such a thing does not exist, so it is a useless waste of my time.”
“Would the Darkness return in time? New darkness born of new sin?”
“The Darkness grows each day, Ellie. That is the nature of the humans that live here—everywhere, to be precise—but I would think if the forest’s original, magical evil were eradicated, then what remained would be the usual darkness of a human world uninfluenced by magic.”
“Oh,” I said, pondering what that might mean. Would all magic disappear if I succeeded in eradicating the forest of its magical darkness? Would my power disappear?
Cole shuffled his feet and stuffed his hands in his pockets, a rather boyish thing to do given the circumstances, but it did serve to distract me from my thoughts. I smoothed my palms over my dress and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. For a moment, it felt as it did when Cole first began courting me all those centuries ago, then he cleared his throat.
“Should I retrieve more food so that your father might eat?” he whispered.
“That... that would be very thoughtful. Thank you, Cole.”
He turned to go, then looked over his shoulder. “Tell him I apologize for the bumpy ride.”
With that final word, Cole turned and disappeared into the forest. I felt the breeze of his shift and smelled the smoke, but he was long gone. Cole had inadvertently given me the last piece of information I needed to complete my plan. Nothing earthly could contain the darkness, but there was nothing earthly about me, not anymore.
I realized how diabolical the Darkness really was as I stood staring at the place Cole had been. To be born with the sole purpose of containing evil, yet also born with the capacity and desire to love was a curse. To have even a sliver of conscience as Cole did, however small it was, while containing uncontrolled evil was the cruelest joke fate or life could play on any soul.
My eyes closed as a tear slid free. Maybe Hayden was right? Maybe, beneath his curse, Cole was redeemable? I shook my head. It didn’t matter. I had a job to do, and if I failed, then the whole world would fall. Absorbing the Seven might stabilize Cole forever, but it would not eliminate the Darkness. I couldn’t waste time worrying whether Cole’s soul was salvageable, not when he might not even survive the transfer of his darkness... to me.
“Annabell?” Hayden’s voice drifted from the balcony above.
I released my sadness and went back inside the warmth of the castle. Despite the multiple fires roaring in every fireplace, I still felt a chill. The closer the moment of truth came, the more I dreaded everything that would happen—most of all, how much Hayden and Jack would suffer once everything was complete. Cole might die during the transfer, but there was a very real possibility I would also perish. That much darkness would take a lot of energy, and though my body was stronger than most, it was still mortal. Even so, if we both died, it was worth it to save everyone else. Once my light dissolved the darkness, its magical influence would be gone forever.
“Annabell, are you okay? Did he harm you?” Jack asked the moment I entered my chambers.
“I’m fine, honestly,” I said.
Hayden smacked Jack’s arm. “You doofus! I can’t believe you leaped from the balcony on top of him! He could have killed you!” She continued to smack him, and he continued to squeak and dodge until he realized he could just grasp her hands to make her stop.
“I should remind you that you did that once yourself,” Jack said.
“Yes, but I did not leap on top of... him,” she said, almost as if her opinion of Cole had somehow shifted, grown into a deeper understanding. She pulled her hands free and kissed Jack, then asked, “How is Dominic?”
“Safe in the bunker with the guards. He doesn’t even know you’re missing, though I would assume if we never return, then he’ll be told,” Jack said.
My heart broke. I had not considered how my death might impact Dominic. “I should never have let him return with me. It was a mistake, but I know he will be safe with the others.”
I tried to soothe my own conscience, but the truth was, Dominic wouldn’t have taken no for an answer. If not for him, our missions in the future would have failed more often than they succeeded, and when I needed a friend to confide in, he was always there. The night Wil died—Dominic’s best friend—it nearly broke him as much as it did me. We’d had each other’s backs for so long, there was no way I would have been able to do everything I had already done in the forest without him. A child or not, Dominic would survive.
I glanced up to find my parents staring at me. How confusing it all must have been for them, even from the beginning. Everything that happened to them had been my fault, brought upon them by my actions both in the past and in the future. If I had never left Cole, if I had found a way to manage my own grief and stand up to him all those years ago, they would never have suffered the curse in the first place.
“What are you thinking about, Annabell?” Hayden asked.
“Just that so much could have been avoided if I had only chosen differently so many times.”
Jack grasped my hands. “We love you, no matter what, Annabell. Whatever you did back then or in the future doesn’t matter now. We’ll figure this out together as a family. Now tell me, was that giant streak of light across the sky from you?”
“It was,” I admitted, hoping Cole hadn’t seen it.
“And what was it?” he asked.
I sucked in a breath, ready for the next phase. “It was the beginning of the end. By tomorrow, Cole and his Darkness will be no more.”
“Cool,” Jack said. “Does this place have any peanut butter?”