Four: Emma Endless
1573 Words
Chapter Four
Emma Endless
He was there again.
My son.
I could sense him outside the door of the tower that I was in. Somehow, it always came back to this. The Princess locked in the tower. I had bargained my life for his, and the demons and fairies had still found ways to twist him against me.
We named him Edward, after my grandfather. It had seemed appropriate at the time. Before the omen, before he became the monster that had locket his mother up. I’d gone to great lengths to save him and this was how he repaid me.
My physical form had been cursed, in a sleeping spell. But my soul he had taken up and locked away in the dream world. The place I’d once traveled to so that I could make sure he was a human, and not the faerie King Oberon from my nightmares. I’d had so much trauma from being married to him and being kidnapped by demons I had thought that for the longest time. I’d even bargained away his future to the demons.
Then, when it became clear that he was actually human, my lovely boy…I realized what a mistake I had made. There was no knocking when he arrived. The door just opened. He looked exactly like me.
He had my dark hair, and green eyes. Or he would have, if he were still human. The truth was, Edward had been taken over long ago. By Omen, a demon who inhabited children and made them do horrific things.
If Edward was still out there somewhere, I had no idea where.
“What did you do?” were the first words out of his mouth.
I’d been staring out the window, the one bit of solace I had. The dream palace he’d locked me up in was exactly like Oberon’s, a living, breathing thing made from the forest. But from outside, he had made it so that I could see the Endless estate. My home. But I could never leave this place. Never go there.
“Whatever do you mean, son?” I said. “You of all people know I can’t leave this place or have contact with the outside world.”
“But you’ve done something. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have found him.”
“Him who?” I asked.
“Uncle Bradley,” he said.
I shuddered at Omen referring to my brother. My brother, who’d been cursed and left without his memories god knows where by Aphrodite for going back on a bargain he’d made with her.
“How?” I said, genuinely surprised.
“Titana,” he said, “that little pixie of a cousin of mine. How did she do it?”
I shrugged. “She’s Bradley’s child. My guess is she’s incredibly clever. It was only a matter of time before she found him.”
He scowled. “I hope you know that this doesn’t mean anything. You’re still a prisoner, and they won’t come to get you. There’s no way for them to. They’d have to have someone else that’s cursed that’s been here.”
“I gave up the hope of being saved long ago,” I told him, “just as I have given up any hope of saving you.”
He stormed over to me, towering over me. I’d never seen him as a boy. He’d grown up in Hell, and the time difference there had made him age. He was a man now of twenty-one. A young, angry man. But still a man.
He reached out and grabbed me by my throat. “I should just kill you and be done with this. There’s no reason to keep you.”
My throat was closing up, and I could scarcely breath let alone speak. But I still wheezed out, “If you kill me, there’s nothing stopping your father from killing you.”
That thought seemed to frighten him, and he let me go, knocking me to the ground. “I suppose you do have your purpose then. You may yet live to see another day.” He stormed out of the tower room, slamming the door behind him.
Despite being in a dream state, I could still feel things. Pain shot through my wrist as I pushed myself up off of the ground. Then, I went to the towers small desk and pulled out a silver mirror that Omen didn’t know about.
It had been gifted to me as a wedding present from Oberon, and somehow still worked as a way of communicating. I conjured the image of who I wanted to talk to, and Hook’s face appeared.
My heart clenched at the sight of it. Hook.
His Caribbean Sea blue eyes stared back at me, his long, dark hair had been cut short ages ago. “Emma,” he breathed.
“Hook,” I said, “did it actually work?”
He nodded. “I found the antidote to the sleeping curse love. I found the blue roses. And your message was received by Titania. Saw it with my own eyes using the mirror you gave me.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
The truth was, I wasn’t a blood Endless. My father had had an affair with the goddess Aphrodite, so that he and his wife could trick Oberon into not taking my sister Louisa. I’d been nothing but a pawn to them.
But it meant I was a demi-god. Half human, half goddess. I’d always had an uncanny ability to make people fall in love with me, and it came from my mother. But being trapped, I’d had time to develop my powers.
I was the Goddess of Fear. Once I stopped being so scared myself, I’d learned that I could project myself into people’s nightmares. I’d used it to contact Hook and give him another magic mirror that I’d stolen. I’d also used it to tell my niece that I’d found Bradley.
The magic mirror allowed me to see whatever or whoever my heart desired, and that included my brother. Long ago, Bradley had been cursed with a dragon form. He was human, but he had the soul of a dragon and could shapeshift into one.
If we could get Bradley back, and his memories, we would stand a chance against Omen. I could escape, and we could return faerie back to what it had been.
“Wonderful!” I clapped my hands together, ignoring the pain in my wrist. “With Bradley’s memories back, we should be able to find the white rabbit and then restore things back to how they were.”
There was a pause. Hook’s blue eyes grew distant. “You might not love me. We won’t be able to be together.”
“I’m not going to change everything,” I said, “I just need to make Clark let me go, so that Omen is never born. Because the truth is he was never supposed to exist. I’ll show Oberon that I’m not an Endless, and he’ll be forced to let me go. Then we can reunite him with Titania.”
“How can you be so sure he still loves her?” Hook asked.
“Because,” I said, “they’re the heart and soul of faerie. Without them, faeries become a twisted, dark horrifying place. Even when it was just Oberon ruling, it was still cared for. If we restore the King to his Queen, order will be restored. And you and I can be free to be together.”
“Are you absolutely certain about this?” Hook asked. “How do you know that he won’t come after Louisa?”
“Because,” I said, “Nia is Louisa’s true love. Like you’re mine. Oberon was cruel, but he would never interfere with something as sacred as that. He can’t, because if he did faerie would strip him of his powers. Just like he won’t be able to interfere with us.”
“Are you sure?” Hook asked. “He didn’t seem to care when he was alive the first time.”
“He didn’t know,” I said, “at least, I hope that he didn’t know. But this is going to work, my love. We’re going to be together and everyone is going to get what they deserve.”
“I’ll go anywhere you go Emma, do anything you want to do,” he said, “I have faith in you love.”
“I have faith in you too, Hook.”
He blew me a kiss, and then I watched as his image faded. It wouldn’t be long now, and soon we would be able to be together.
- Writer
