Chapter Twenty-Three: Clark Endless
2502 Words
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CLARK ENDLESS
Hesitantly, I stepped inside, not sure what was happening. “I…. well…. your majesty…” I was at a loss for words. I didn’t know what to say. As far as I knew, Tatiana was cursed, in a coffin in Brooklyn.
“You thought I was cursed, hmm?” she smiled.
“Well…yes,” I admitted, “I saw you. I saw you, in a coffin, in Brooklyn.”
“Bradley is an excellent trickster,” she informed me, “the fake death was his idea. I believe he called it ‘a Reichenbach? The Tatiana you saw was never me. My husband tried to curse me. It didn’t stick.” She smiled, clearly pleased with herself.
“How?”
“Take a seat,” she gestured to the nearby table, “we have a lot to discuss.”
I walked towards the table, where a tea service had been set up. My head was spinning, surprised at finding out that Bradley was involved with this. I didn’t give my brother enough credit.
She sat across from me and took the golden tea pot to pour me a cup. “Sugar?”
“Yes please,” I answered.
I took it from her, taking a deep drink, swallowing it quickly, not caring that it was still scalding hot. The burn on the roof of my mouth distracted me from focusing on the million questions that I had swirling around my head.
“You look like your father,” she whispered after a moment.
I blinked. “I looked nothing like Moira Endless’s husband.”
“Of course not,” she said with a wave of her hand, “I mean your real father.”
“You…” I paused. “You know my real father?”
“I do,” she said, “you came here looking for answers, Clark, and the forest will provide them. I will provide them.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because your truth is my truth,” she supplied, “your story, about being found by the gateway with your parents killed never quite made sense did it?”
I hesitated. “I…well…I never knew anything besides what Moira told me. Her husband, Wade Walker, ended up getting turned to stone when he tried to find answers.”
“I know,” she admitted, “I was responsible for that one, not Oberon, but if he had talked, he would have ruined everything. Do you know how faerie’s work?”
“I know you’re descended of fallen angels,” I said, “and humans. That Hecate created this place to keep you safe, and humans safe from you.”
“That’s the gist of it, yes,” she confirmed, “but, while God would like to have you believe that he can control everything himself, the world, and the universe are not designed to answer to his whims only. God cannot roam as he once did, nor can his angels, for the very sight of one of them will bring a human to madness. So even though we were not supposed to exist, he called on us to nurture the seasons. It is why we are still allowed to be here, why we haven’t been consumed with the rest of the damned. Without us, the world would not spin as it does. Faeries try to harmonize nature, although sometimes it is still too rough, too wild to be harmonized. Your sister is the gatekeeper of our world, I like to think of us as the custodians of yours. Well, your siblings. No, your friends.”
I noticed her change of word choice and wondered at it. Faeries were incapable of lying, a curse placed on them by God himself if you believed the legends. They had to be very specific with their word choice, if they wanted to deceive anyone, and so far, it seemed that Tatiana didn’t want to deceive me.
I wanted her to say the words. To tell me the truth, of what I had long suspected but had never been able to admit.
“What does any of this have to do with me?” I asked.
“This world, our world, was created as a place for faeries by The First Witch. She wanted to make certain that we had order, so she dictated two rulers. Myself, and Oberon. We were the strongest of the fae. But Hecate knew that she needed someone to protect the humans from us, and she decreed that whichever one of us first had a child our family would be the one who protected faerie. For a while, Oberon and I tried to have a child together, but it was clear that we couldn’t. That we weren’t supposed to. So, we looked to human mates. When it seemed that we weren’t going to be successful, we agreed to appoint someone as gatekeeper. That was where Edward Endless came into the picture. He was a young boy who cared about humans, and about fae. He knew our worlds. It seemed the perfect compromise…. then…. Moira came into the picture.”
“Moira was sick,” I said, “she was never a threat to anything.”
Tatiana smiled. “She was a threat to me.”
“What did you do?” I whispered. I had never been close to Moira, but she had been the closest thing I had to a mother. I had watched her struggle with her illness, watched Louisa, Bradley, and Emma struggle with losing her. It hadn’t been easy for any of us.
“I did what I had to, to protect myself,” she answered, “it wasn’t anything too bad. It was only a small curse. A mere illusion, really. Something to keep Oberon from doing what he had been trying to do since the girl was old enough to know what love was, which was seduce her. I was saving them both, really. They wouldn’t have survived each other.”
“But Moira died!” I exclaimed.
She smiled. “Did she?”
“I was at the funeral,” I told her, “I remember burying her.”
“But do you?” she challenged.
I thought back to that day, trying to remember what had actually happened. Moira had died when Emma had been twelve, I’d been fourteen. I remembered holding her hand through the entire service. I could tell you about the black dress that she wore, but I couldn’t tell you about if I remembered seeing her mother lowered into the ground.
Or if there had been a coffin or an urn at all.
“Moira never died,” she replied, “Oberon, unfortunately, figured out my trick. He couldn’t remove the curse that I’d placed, but he could save her, so he turned her to stone. It was quite convenient, really, when little Emma went to faerie to make a deal with him to try to save her mother.”
I remembered. The entire reason that Bradley had had to trade five years of his life, because Emma had made a ridiculous bargain with to try to save her mother. I had never known what had specifically happened.
“Moira was the one to propose the idea to Oberon in the first place,” Tatiana explained, “she was eighteen, she wanted him, and she wanted to be Queen. I couldn’t let that little upstart take my throne, and then, well…”
“Well what?” I asked.
“I met someone. A young man, a friend of Moira’s actually. You might know his family still. Henry March. He wandered into faerie one day, chasing a sheep.”
Her eyes, for a moment, sparkled with sadness in them as if remembering some long forgotten, painful thing.
“We met for a summer,” she continued, “I never expected anything to happen. I had made love multiple times, never had any issue with pregnancy before. But I suspect it was Henry’s previous exposure to faerie that made him more susceptible.”
“Henry March was Adelaide’s uncle,” I remembered, “he went missing around the same time that Moira died. Adelaide was over at the house a lot because of it. Her parents didn’t handle his disappearance well.”
“He didn’t disappear,” she seethed, “he was turned to stone, by Oberon. Moira knew the whole thing, and because Edward was still gatekeeper, she had to help me. If Oberon had found my child, he would have killed him. Killed you.”
I stared at her, understanding her words. “You’re…. you are….”
“Your mother,” she said, “you’re the prince of faerie. The rightful heir to Oberon’s throne, and your children would be the ones who take care of the gate. Why do you think you were raised alongside Emma? I planned it that way. It was the bargain I made with Oberon, in exchange for my not killing Moira right not the spot when she tried to usurp my crown.”
She smiled and reached out to stroke my cheek. “My precious boy, you have no idea how happy you’ve made me. You’re finally home, and we’re finally going to get what is rightfully ours. All you have to do is win back Emma Endless.”
“You’re telling me to rescue Emma?” It was everything I’d ever wanted to do, something I hadn’t dreamed that I would be able to.
“Yes, that is exactly what I want,” Tatiana said, “you were meant to be together. You always have been.”
I knew she was right. She wouldn’t have been able to say those words if they were a lie. It was all I had ever wanted. To be the one that saved Emma. That loved her. But…. “There’s one thing…I…I came here because of Emma, and----”
“Ben Taylor is none of your concern, from this moment forward,” she told me, “we will get Emma back, and we will reclaim faerie for ourselves. Do you understand?”
I nodded. “I understand.”
“Good, now wake up, and get going.”
I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, she had vanished. A jolt went through me, and when I opened my eyes once more, I found myself still in the cabin. Only this time, it wasn’t Tatiana that I saw there.
It was Hecate, sitting across from me, smiling.
I looked around the room wildly, hoping for some sign of the faerie queen.
“You can relax, Clark,” Hecate said, “to answer your question, it was real. She astral projected here. I arranged it. We’ve been planning this for quite some time. I made faerie as a place to be safe, not as a place to torment people with magic. Oberon has abused his power for far too long, he uses it as a weapon instead of a tool to help people. I don’t want him to be King anymore, but a King can only be killed by another King. The same of Queens, which is why they never die. Kill Oberon, and win Emma. Do you understand?”
“Do you think she’ll have me?” I asked.
“I know it,” she said, with a firm nod, “can you do this for me?”
“I have to,” I answered.
“Good. There’s something you’ll need to retrieve, but it’s protected. You might need help getting it. I suggest you return to the Endless estate, retrieve Bradley, and the two of you work on getting what you need.”
“What is it?”
“Hidden deep within faerie is a tower, that reveals itself only to the most honorable of souls. In there is a sword, guarded by a dragon. Get past the dragon, retrieve the sword.”
“Oh, I only have to get past a dragon to do it?” I stared at her, wide-eyed. “Hecate, you can’t possibly be serious.”
“I don’t kid,” she reminded me.
“Of course not. That would be too much fun,” I muttered, “anything else I should know about?”
“Yes,” she nodded, “the sword is in an enchanted stone. This stone will only release the sword if you are worthy. The sword belonged to the arch angel Michael, and then to a King who called himself Arthur. It is the only object that can kill a faerie. If you aren’t worthy, you won’t be able to remove the sword, or kill Oberon.”
“Wait, you…. you want me to find a tower, get past a dragon, and retrieve a sword that I’m pretty f*****g sure is Excalibur?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know that the sword has a name. It didn’t have one on it, although it has been a while since I last saw it.”
I swallowed hard. “Cool. Cool. Cool. No big deal, or anything. Also, if I do this does this mean that I’m going to be King of Faerie?”
She stared at me. “I thought that was understood.”
“Right,” I said, “right. Hey Hecate, you mind being super cool and just whisking me home? Because I don’t think I’m much good for traveling right now. Might run off to the woods, never come back.”
“Don’t worry, Prince,” she said with a smile, “we’ll get you to your happy ending.”
She waved her hand, and I was no longer in faerie. I was back in the kitchen of my own home, with my two siblings looking at me from the tiny kitchen table.
Louisa and Bradley looked at me with wide eyes, mid sips of tea.
“Where the f**k did you come from?” Bradley asked.
“That’s a long, f*****g story,” I replied.
Louisa leaned back, took a sip of her tea, and stared directly at me. “Do tell.”
- Writer
