Chapter Six: Emma Endless
1187 Words
The Church of The Incarnation was located at 1290 St. Nicholas Avenue. It was built in the gothic style and was intimidating enough to the humans that visited there. Faeries wouldn’t dare to enter its premises, unless they wanted to get scorched by hellfire.
It was late, and the church was technically closed. But Louisa had a lot of pull as the gatekeeper, which she used to get us in. Although why the priest at The Church of The Incarnation owed my sister a favor, I couldn’t tell you. She could though.
“There was a faerie infestation a few years ago,” Louisa said, as if reading my thoughts when we entered, “that’s how I was able to get them to open it for me.”
“How does a church get infested with faeries?” I asked.
“When a demon is trying to get in,” Louisa replied.
The faeries were descendants of a fallen angel and their offspring. They had created their own world, using humans as sacrifices. Humans were the ones that had given them the sweet, kindly exterior of granting wishes. In truth, the wishes were just as bad as demon deals. But faeries at least gave you an out, where as a demon deal only had one way out.
Which involved hellfire. Even at my most desperate, I had never considered a demon’s help.
I shuddered at Louisa’s words, and we took a seat at the front of the church in one of the pews.
Bradley looked around the place in disgust. “Churches always give me the creeps. If humans really knew how useless these places were, they wouldn’t go to them.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re a shelter from the faeries, so they’re not completely useless.”
Bradley still made a face. We’d gone to a private, catholic school not far from the estate. I knew his real reason for hating the church had more to do with loathing the nuns that had taught us than anything.
“Now,” said Louisa, using her older sister voice, “what did you do?”
I took a deep breath. “I made a new bargain with Oberon.”
Louisa and Bradley exchanged looks. Even without knowing what they were thinking, I knew them well enough to know what those looks meant.
“What kind of bargain?” Bradley asked.
“He doesn’t want a wife. Not for the long term. All he wants is an heir. He wants me to be his wife long enough for the child to be born, but after the child, he’ll take my memories so that I don’t have to remember them. The child will grow up in faerie and know nothing of me. In exchange, I’ll get my freedom. The only thing is, we can’t fall in love with each other, or I forfeit my right to leave.”
Again, Louisa and Bradley had a whole conversation with their eyes.
“Em….” Bradley hesitated. “Em, he’s going to win.”
I glowered. “You don’t know that.”
“He’s a faerie King, Emma. You’re going to be the mother of his child. There’s no way that you won’t be able to take one look at that baby and be able to give it up. Give him up. He’s got you.”
“He doesn’t,” I insisted, “not every woman is programed with some magical, need to take care of a baby. Or babies. I don’t want children, I never have, and if this means getting my freedom, I’m completely fine with that.”
Louisa coughed. “Emma, it’s not that I don’t think that you can do this but….”
“But what?” I demanded sharply.
More silent conversation. I wanted them to talk to me, not through each other. They didn’t know what it was like. Didn’t understand to have had all their choices made for them. Even Louisa, being bound as gatekeeper, had more power than I did. More authority in fae than I did. I was simply the girl who was part of Oberon’s bargain. I was powerless. At least, in this small way, I could make one choice for myself. I didn’t care whether they understood the choice that I had made.
“You’ve got a soft heart. You’ve always had to be protected by us. How do you expect to make it through this?”
“I have to do something don’t I?” I said. “Besides, this is the only way that I will be able to get Ben his freedom.”
“We’ve already sent Clark there to get him.”
“But there’s no guarantee that Clark won’t get turned into stone too. It’s not exactly as if it’s easy to communicate between worlds, and it could be ages before we know if both of them are okay. At least this way, we’ve got a guarantee.”
“What about the child?” Lousia asked. “Do you really think that you can handle not knowing your own----”
“I have to,” I told her, “I have to. It’s the only way that I can actually save everyone. Besides, I never wanted anything to do with faerie. I had this forced on me. This child was never meant to be mine. It’s Oberon’s. Please, support me on this. Please. If I’m going to survive this, I’m going to need help from both of you.”
The third silent look of the evening. Bradley took my hand in mine, as did Louisa. “Whatever you need,” they told me.
“Good. It’s agreed,” said Bradley, “can we please get out of here now? My soul is aching to sin already, and we haven’t even been here a whole hour.”
“Mother should have named you Blasphemy instead,” Louisa informed him, with a roll of her eyes. “Let’s go. We’ve still got an apartment that we have to finish packing, and we’ve got to come up with some sort of excuse for your work about where your going so they don’t end up filing a missing persons report. Do you have any subscriptions you need to cancel?”
“Plenty,” I said.
“Give me a list. I’ll take care of them. Come on. We haven’t got much time. The Harvest is almost upon us.”
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