Chapter Seven: Emma Endless
1562 Words
“Help!” Clark’s voice rang through my apartment. “Lou, Bradley, Emma? Help. Someone help!”
I had just opened the door when we heard Clark’s cries. The three of us stumbled through, racing inside to get in. There, on the center of my living room floor, was Ben. He had on a black t-shirt for his book series, The Dragon Queen, and jeans.
He groaned in pain. There was blood coming from a wound that had been caused by a blade with a silver, ruby encrusted handle. I ran to Ben’s side, kneeling next to him. “What happened?” I looked up at Clark.
“We were attacked the minute we tried to escape. He wasn’t turned to stone, like Oberon usually does. He was in the dungeon. I had to get him out. The guards attacked us. He ended up getting hit----he wasn’t quite with it when I got him. They’d been drugging him.”
“What with?” Louisa asked, as she kneeled down next to me.
Clark swallowed. “Absinthe.”
Absinthe. The faeries drug. Once a human drank it, it addled the senses. Most never recovered.
“Emma!” Ben cried. “Emma, lovely Emma. My lovely fiancé!”
Ben was panting, sweating. His eyes were glassy as he looked at me. He reached out to stroke my face. “I missed you. Do you know, this man says he’s your brother? I didn’t even know that you had a brother! Or that you were Queen of the Faeries. You forgot to tell me that, Emma!”
“Oh Ben,” I said softly, “Ben, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten you involved. I should have stayed far, far, away from you.”
Ben laughed. “No. No, you can’t stay far away. I need you. We’re getting married today! Except the faerie king says that we can’t get married.”
I looked at Louisa. “What do we do?”
“Move,” she answered.
Even though it pained me to do it, I moved away from Ben. He laughed again and tried reaching for something that was only visible to him.
“Hold him still,” Louisa ordered Clark and Bradley.
Clark took care of Bens arms, Bradley took care of Bens legs. They held him down, making it so that he wasn’t flailing.
Louisa ripped off Bens shirt. She stared, wide-eyed, at Bens chest. “Sister, I know this is the wrong place to say this, but really Emma, you do have excellent taste.”
“Sister, just save him!” I snapped.
She nodded, turning her attention to focus back on him. To my surprise, Louisa pulled out the blade from the wound without even wincing. Ben, on the other hand, groaned intensely, as if he were being stabbed all over again.
“Emma, I really, really don’t like your siblings,” Ben told me, as he breathed heavily.
I wanted to say anything, to comfort him, but I didn’t know what to do. All I could think was that Ben had gotten stabbed for no reason. He was in pain because of me, and I was supposed to be the woman that he loved.
We were supposed to be getting married. If he hadn’t been taken, we would have already been married. Maybe even on the honeymoon that we were supposed to go on. But I had ruined all of that, and I didn’t know that Ben would even want me after this.
I certainly would understand if he didn’t, and then…there was the matter that with Oberon’s new bargain, after all of this, it wouldn’t matter anyway. Because Ben wouldn’t be allowed to remember me. If he did remember me, he would remember me as the strange woman who had gotten him kidnapped and stabbed by faeries.
I watched as Louisa put her hands over the wound. A soft, golden, light emitted from her hands. My brothers and I watched in shock. The blood seeped back into Bens chest, and the wound was sealed up with a new layer of skin.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
“Perks of being a gatekeeper,” Louisa answered, “healing powers. We protect humans from faeries, sometimes that includes wounds that only we can fix. Because of that, I have the power to fix Ben. Now, there’s another matter we have to discuss.”
Ben had gone strangely silent. I looked over at him, and he was now staring at us all with wide, shocked eyes. There would be no going back to normal after this. No explaining what had happened.
I took the potion that Louisa had given me earlier, the blue vial of forget-me-not. With shaking hands, I uncorked it. “Ben I…. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to drag you into this. I should have never let any of this happen.”
“Emma?” he stared at me, his voice raspy as he spoke. “Emma, no. What are you doing?”
“Ben, please trust me,” I begged, “please. Drink this. It will make you feel better.”
“I don’t want to,” he said, “Emma, you’re scaring me. What’s going on? Please give me an answer.”
“We have to say goodbye, Ben. I’m sorry. Please drink the vial.”
He took it from me, his hands trembling, and drank the potion. I watched, as Ben turned to dust before me, leaving no trace that he had ever even been in the apartment.
“What happened?” I asked Louisa. “Where’d he go?”
“Back to his apartment,” Louisa answered, “it will be for him as if these past few months never happened. He’ll know who you are, but he won’t know that he was in love with you, or that we were ever part of his life. He won’t know anything about faeries.”
“Let’s finish packing,” I said, “we’ve got more things to put away, and Harvest is coming soon.”
Louisa patted me on the back. She took the bloodied blade in her hand, then went to the sink, and started washing the last remains that Ben Taylor had ever been in my life down the drain.
Bradley started packing away books.
I stood there, staring at the spot where my fiancé had nearly died.
Clark came to stand next to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know him for too long but----”
“Don’t,” I said coldly, “don’t. You’re the last person that I want apologies from. Tell me something. Did you even try?”
“Try what?” Clark asked.
“Try to save him. I’ve seen you fight, Clark. I’ve seen you fight faeries. I know that you can hold your own against him. Which means two things. Either you didn’t try, or you didn’t care.”
“I cared, Em. I cared. But they sent…”
“Who?” I demanded.
“The Morrigan,” Clark replied, “and you know, as well as I do, that even the fastest warrior----fastest fae warrior-----can’t stand against The Morrigan. It’s death. She’s death. She was out to kill.”
“Are you sure it was The Morrigan?” I asked.
“Positive,” Clark answered, “I remember, when she tried coming for mother that one time. I still have nightmares about it. She knew me to, remembered me. Said that she would not harm a single, hair on my head as long as I gave up Ben.”
I clenched my jaw. “He knew. He…. knew.”
Clark’s brow furrowed. “Who knew what?”
“He made a new bargain with me. He said that as long as I gave him his heir, he would let me go free. The compromise was that Ben would have to forget who I was.”
“Did you already agree to it?” Clark asked.
I hesitated. “Sealed with a kiss.”
“Do you still intend to honor that?”
I looked over to where Louisa was, by the kitchen sink, still washing away blood from the blade. “No. No I don’t.”
“Go to him on Harvest. Don’t mention Ben. Follow through with the bargain. We’ll think of something to get you free of him, Emma. I swear it. Remember, he can’t touch me, but I can touch him.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder. “I really am sorry.”
I nodded, and wiped away a single tear, trying to collect myself. “Come on. Let’s go pack.”
- Writer
