Chapter Three: Emma Endless
889 Words
Three
All of us stared at one another, hardly daring to move. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. This was worse than my siblings showing up unexpectedly. The faerie king, there, in the flesh.
Oberon come out to play.
Oberon come for me. Again.
I’d always thought Oberon had a vague Thor like quality about him. Long, blond hair, pointed ears, and muscles. He was dressed wearing mortal clothes, a suit almost the mirror image of Clark’s which made him even more unnerving. As if he were giving us all an unspoken warning.
He was sitting in a chair next to me. So close that his shoulders grazed mine. “Ah, my future Queen, my bride….” He reached out to stroke my cheek. “How radiant you look. You wouldn’t be plotting an escape of some kind, would you? You’ve a wedding. You remember the way, I trust? Or should I leave you with some faerie food to help you travel?”
“I’m perfectly capable of getting there myself,” I said through gritted teeth, “and I still have six days left. Wouldn’t want to rush anything, would we my King? Let’s savor this time.”
“Oh, of course my dear girl,” he said, “but I thought I had better come remind you, just in case you did anything foolish, like say….”
He paused. “Try to marry someone else?”
I gripped the mimosa glass I had in my hand so tightly, I could hear it starting to shake. “You didn’t come here just to give me another warning. What did you do?”
He grinned. “Me? I wasn’t the one in the wrong here, my dear. You tried to weasel your way out of the bargain. You know how this works. You fulfill your part, or your family loses everything. That includes the Endless estate. I’ve been lenient, until now, but I will not be made a fool.”
“Where’s Ben?” I demanded.
He leaned forward, and whispered into my ear, “Some place far, far away from you.” He vanished, like smoke, as though he hadn’t even been there in the first place.
I stared at my brothers and sister. “He took him. He took Ben! I’ve got to go after him.”
“No!” said Clark coldly, “you’re not doing anything. You are going to go to stay here until the week is out. That was the deal that Bradley made on your behalf. You’re not the only one with something to lose because of this bargain, Emma. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are.”
“He’s an innocent mortal, Clark,” I said, “what would you have me do? Leave him to fend for himself?”
He sighed. “I’ll go after him.”
“What?” all three of us chorused, staring at him in shock.
“I’m the only one here that has a faerie protection rune. Regardless of his ill-fated romance with Emma, Ben Taylor doesn’t deserve the kind of treachery and torment that awaits him in the faerie realms. I will go after him.”
“But your job,” I whispered, “your life….”
He shrugged. “I didn’t have much of one. As for the job, I’ll find another. I always do. What’s important is that no one else gets dragged into this damned bargain that doesn’t have to. There’s already enough of us. Finish out your week, then, when the harvest comes, you’ll go to faerie. You’ll marry Oberon.”
When I was younger, Clark had been my everything. He chased away the nightmares, he read me stories to get me to sleep. The moment I hit puberty, all that had changed, and “brother” was replaced with something, someone else.
I ached for the Clark who read me bedtime stories, who told me everything was going to be okay. The Clark that loved me. I didn’t know who the Clark was standing before me, didn’t think that I would ever know.
He glanced at Louisa. “Lou, will you help me with the portal?”
She coughed. “Sure. Let’s go.”
The two left me alone, with Bradley, who continued drinking mimosas.
“You know,” he said, as he tipped back what I was fairly certain was his fifth one, “Oberon might be a prick, but he is a very, very well-dressed prick.”
“Hoorah for that,” I muttered.
“Mimosa?” he offered, grabbing Clark’s unfinished one to hand to me.
“Why the hell not?” I said. “Every bride should celebrate her wedding day, after all.” I tossed the mimosa back. Because nothing mattered anymore, now that Ben had been taken. All that was left to do was wait to accept my fate.
- Writer
