Chapter Twenty-One: Louisa Endless
2070 Words
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
LOUISA ENDLESS
In the middle of the night, I woke to the sound of a voice calling my name, “Louisa. Lou.”
“Please be alive!” I gasped, as I woke up.
I looked to find Ben still there, still asleep. This time, surprisingly, restful. I looked from the bed over to where the voice was coming from.
It was Bradley. “Brad, what are you doing here?” I asked. “I told you that you needed to watch the gate while I watched him.”
“I did,” he answered, “but…. well…someone is here.”
My heart leapt in my chest. “Hecate?”
He shook his head. “No. I wish it were. It’s someone worse.”
My stomach dropped, knowing that there was only one person that it could be. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Positive.”
“Watch him,” I ordered, “don’t let him die.”
He mock saluted me as I got up and took my seat. I walked through the long, dimly lit halls, down the stairs, until I reached the main entry way of the house. Sure enough, Oberon was there, looking as hellish as I did.
He didn’t wear the robes he traditionally did, instead the suit that we had seen him in those few times in New York.
I stepped forward. “What’s happened?”
“There’s been an attack,” he croaked, “from the summer court. Solis.”
I had met the summer Lord on more than one occasion. I knew of his firey personality, and that it was not one to be tangled with. “What did he do, Oberon? Don’t toy with me. Tell me now.”
He swallowed, hard. There was none of his domineering personality now. In fact, if I hadn’t known that he was a faerie, I would have mistaken him for a ghost.
“I took Emma flying,” he began, “I wanted her to know what it felt like, I wanted her to see faerie. To see what we could have, if she would let us. It was after we had had a war council, because I wanted them to know, that the King and Queen were strong. I didn’t want them coming between us.”
“And?” I pressed. “Emma’s not….”
“She’s alive,” he croaked out, “but barely. She injured her pelvis, and Godmother’s great at healing flesh wounds, but not so much---”
“Wounds inside,” I finished.
I stared at him. This King, coming to me, looking for answers about my sister. His wife. A girl he had made a bargain for. I had thought many things of Oberon over the years, none of them kind. This side, this desperate, pleading side of him was new to me. I didn’t know what to make of it.
They hadn’t even been married that long.
Three days.
Three days it had been, and here was this King groveling for my sister. What was it about her that inspired that kind of devotion? I could never understand.
“What are you asking me to do?” I asked.
He looked blearily at me. “We can’t take her to a human doctor. It goes against faerie rules. However, I can heal her, but it will require…the gatekeeper’s permission.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“If you’re asking, you know that I am,” he replied.
“No. Absolutely not. You’re not even supposed to exist,” I hissed, “I’m not giving you permission to make more of you, let alone my sister. She didn’t even want to be in your world in the first place.”
“Let me be perfectly clear,” he said coldly, his voice echoing off the walls of our old, family home, “everything you have, your very existence, has been brought about because of me. I have been generous, because of a certain affection I have for your Grandfather. Edward was a dear friend, but I’ve been generous long enough. Emma was supposed to be mine. No. Emma is mine, and I’ll not lose her. Do you understand? Besides which, this is your sister that we are speaking of.”
I clenched my jaw. “I am perfectly aware that we are speaking in regards to my sister. If you do this, Oberon, she will never forgive you. You are trapping her. How do you plan on keeping your end of the bargain?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said, “but I’m not losing her.”
“Fine,” I told him, “fine, but I want something in return.”
“Other than the luxury and protection that my magic has afforded you?” he spoke so acidly I was half scared to even speak the words. But I had to do something. I couldn’t simply let him remake my sister without making sure that it was worth the sacrifice.
“Save Ben Taylor,” I told him, “take away the curse that you placed on him.”
Oberon raised an eyebrow. “Ben Taylor?”
“Emma’s former fiancé,” I said, “he came here, looking for her after you kidnapped him. The wound that you put on him.”
He sighed. “Show me to the boy.”
I took him upstairs. My bedroom door was open, and Ben’s low moans could be heard from the door.
“Why do you care about him?” Oberon asked. “You don’t know him.”
“I’m the gatekeeper. It’s my job to keep humans alive. He’s a human, he falls in under my protection.” I tried to keep my voice steady as I spoke. I’d been so focused on keeping Ben alive, I hadn’t had time to consider what it would mean if I actually managed to save him. There was a spark there, a fragile, flickering thing. The kind in the bottom of a firepit, at the end of a bonfire, barely giving off light but still there, still dangerous.
I wanted to explore it. At the same time, I was perfectly aware that I would end up ashes, either way.
Oberon chuckled. It was amazing that, despite everything, he could still manage to laugh. “The thing about not being able to lie, Louisa, is that you learn to notice when people do. You’re lying. You and Emma have always had a strained relationship. I know. I see things, I sense things.”
I stopped and glared at him. “You know nothing, Oberon, and if you say anything to Emma----”
“You’ll what?” he said sharply. “You are a gatekeeper. You are here because I permit you to be. The laws of the universe do not require that I have you here.”
“No, but Hecate does,” I reminded him, “and we all know that she’s the one who is really running the show.”
He went still for a second. “As much as I regarded Moira, as difficult as her situation was, I am actually pleased that you are the one who took up the post after your grandfather died.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you don’t back down,” he replied, “in that, you and your sister are alike. When she wants something, she goes after it with her whole being.”
“Shame that won’t ever be you,” I replied cruelly.
His lips twisted into a dark, cruel, smile. “Oh, Louisa, if only you knew the things that I had seen….”
I tried hard not to think about his words. Instead, I went into my room with Oberon following behind me. He glanced around for a second, as if looking for something, although what I couldn’t fathom. There was nothing of interest in there for a faerie king.
My old room still had posters on the wall from my former Twilight obsession, and stuffed bear who had been sewn together so many times I’d lost count. Still, his look left me a little unsettled.
He made a face. “You’ve had a faerie in here.”
Bradley looked up from where he’d been sitting, watching Ben. “Louisa never has anyone in here. Except for maybe me or Clark.”
Oberon made a face. “The orphan your father found wandering by the door to faerie?”
“Yes,” said Bradley.
“That story always seemed a little too unbelievable to me. The reason changelings happen is because of the snatchers who take them. Snatchers don’t kill parents. They simply take children. The scenario that your father told me was that Clark’s parents died.”
“We’re not here to discuss Clark,” I said, “we’re here to take care of Emma and Ben. Do it.”
Bradley scratched his head. “What happened with Emma?”
“She got attacked by the summer court,” I told him, “she fell while flying, and her pelvis is broken.”
Bradley winced. “But can’t you just---”
“Bone,” we both said in unison, “the bone is broken.”
Bradley raised an eyebrow. “Why can’t bone be fixed?”
“Bone is merely the thing that holds us together. It has no life in it,” Oberon replied, “It’s the skin that helps meld everything together, gives it life.”
“But bones grow back,” said Bradley.
“They do, if the world allows for them to,” I said, “bones work differently in faerie. Why do you think faeries don’t age? They’re not made of bone. They’ve got nothing growing and stretching underneath. They’re made of dust.”
“But they’re the product of fallen angels and humans,” Bradley reminded me.
“Yes. And angels are nothing more than dust from the universe, who exist because a god brought them to life,” Oberon explained, “the reason humans exist is because God wanted to have play things. He was lonely, being the only being in the world. He did not make humans so that they could endure. He made them so that they could break, so that he could watch to see how much they would survive. We, on the other hand, weren’t meant to exist at all, so we do not bend to his rules.”
“Well,” said Bradley, “that’s grim.”
“That’s fairy,” Oberon replied, “step aside, boy. I’ve got work to do.”
Bradley moved from the seat, making way for him.
Oberon looked to me. “Louisa, if you ever want to think of your young Mr. Taylor the same way again, I suggest you leave. As for you, Bradley, go with your sister and keep her company. Make her some tea. She’ll need it.”
“I’m perfectly capable of seeing curses be removed,” I said sternly.
“People yes,” Oberon said, “Ben Taylor, no.”
“Come on, sis.” Bradley placed a hand on my shoulder and dragged me from the room. The minute we left, the door slammed, a light shown through it, and Ben’s screams echoed through the house.
I closed my eyes, trying to ignore it, and focused on Bradley leaning me down to the kitchen. Because if I focused on Ben screaming, I might die a little each time I heard it.
- Writer
