Chapter Two: Bradley Endless
2228 Words
CHAPTER TWO
BRADLEY ENDLESS
The dream happened again.
I should have known it would. It always did, every night when I went to go alone to the pub to see her. She’d go out to have drinks with Sylvia, before returning to the farm. Ever since I had gotten back to the village of Dale, she was all I could think about. It hadn’t been this bad since I was a teenage boy. Or when I had first been cursed by the witch Hecate to be a dragon.
My family protected the gateway to faerie. My oldest sister, Louisa, was the gatekeeper, protecting humans and fey from each other. My adopted brother, Clark, had become King of Faerie after finding out his birth mother had been the Queen. Tatiana. And my youngest sister, Emma, had escaped a terrible marriage to Oberon, the former King of faerie, by killing him with the only device capable of doing it: the sword of Excalibur.
She had been declared the new Queen after she had retrieved the sword from the stone, but Emma had wanted nothing to do with it so she’d relinquished her power to Clark. Clark cold now choose the new Queen, but he was hopelessly in love with Emma.
Emma, meanwhile, had asked for a year before making her decision on if she would rule with him. She was taking time to discover what it meant to be on her own, to not have her life ruled by another world. When she was young, our mother had made a bargain with the faerie King that Emma would marry him. The marriage hadn’t ended well, and in the end Emma had killed him by cutting off his head.
We’d gone back home, and I’d stayed, helping Emma adjust to everything. Emma had been engaged temporarily, to an American named Ben Taylor. She had thought that by marrying him, she’d be able to escape marrying Oberon. But Oberon had found out, and the engagement had been broken off.
Strangely, Ben had connected with Louisa, and the two of them had been spending time together. But I had been home, listless, with only Adelaide March to keep my thoughts occupied. Which was why I had spent time in the pub, just to catch a glimpse of her.
At night, I saw her in my dreams. And tonight, I had been dumb enough to tell her that she was my soulmate. The worst part was, it wasn’t even a pick-up line. It was the truth.
Once, Emma and Adelaide had snuck into faerie together to try to save Emma from having to be married off to Oberon. They’d gotten cornered by the huntsman, a horrifying fey who lived in the woods taking people’s hearts.
I’d had to make a deal with Aphrodite, the goddess of love in order to save both my sister and Adelaide. I’d given up my first kiss with her, and our first child. But then…I’d made a different arrangement. I’d given Aphrodite my heart, which she was only to take after I died. In exchange, Adelaide and I would be free to be together.
The problem was, Adelaide had no clue who I really was. She could never know. Because the Endless estate protected faerie, it was cursed. If people came onto the property, they knew us. But the minute they left, they forgot all about our history.
It was the same with Adelaide.
She had no idea I was her first kiss, no idea how much our time together was really interwoven. And I couldn’t tell her.
I could, but she wouldn’t remember it the next day anyway. Except, I had the power to make certain that she would now. In exchange for my heart after I died, Aphrodite had given me something that would give me the chance to make Adelaide mine.
I was in my childhood room now, wide awake and staring at the ceiling. To help Emma win her freedom from Oberon, I’d had to stay, locked in a tower. In that tower, Aphrodite had arranged another deal for me.
One that would give Adelaide the sight, so that she would remember me once she stepped off the Endless estate.
I just wasn’t sure that I wanted her to know everything, or if I wanted to start fresh. But starting fresh would be harder….
There was a knock on my door.
“Who is it?”
“Emma.” My little sister sounded tired, weary. I knew by the tone in her voice that she needed to talk to someone.
“Come on in, sis.”
The door opened. Emma had curly, jet black hair, and brilliant green eyes. She was beautiful, and it was easy to see why so many men ended up falling for her. It was no surprise she’d been Oberon’s obsession, or Clark’s.
“Did you just get back?” I asked.
She was dressed in a purple ball gown, the kind that came from faerie. Since Oberon had been defeated, and she’d given up the throne, she’d been helping Clark find his place as king. And helping her decide herself if she wanted to be Queen. “Yes.”
“Usually you’re happy after coming back. What happened?”
“Scooch over,” she said.
I did as told making room for her right next to me. She crawled into bed, pulling the blankets up to her chest.
“One of the water faeries from the Spring Court brought us a baby blanket at the ball tonight, in front of everyone.”
I winced. “Does that mean….”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, “aside from the first time we were together, we’ve been using protection. Water faeries can see the future, and faeries don’t lie…. but she’s also a Spring Court faerie.”
“And that’s bad?” I asked. “How dangerous can the Spring Court be?”
“Floris and Louisa have a history, apparently,” she said, “and I think he wants the crown. He hasn’t openly said it though. It’s all in the way that he talks.”
“Does human protection even work against faeries?” I asked.
Emma winced. “I don’t know. I…. Bradley, what do I do? I don’t want to be Queen, and if I am pregnant, Clark will want me to be. I’ll have to give my freedom up before I even have it.”
“Is that so bad? You killed your last husband for Clark.”
“Oberon wasn’t really my husband,” she reminded me, “I was forced to be with him because of a stupid bargain Grandfather and Mother made. There might have been a marriage ceremony, but Tatiana was still alive. Cursed, but still alive. I don’t count anything about that real, except for the part where I killed him. How’d it go with Adelaide?”
“Nice change of subject,” I chided, “I didn’t do it. I didn’t even take the damn necklace with me.”
“Why not?” she asked. “You’ve been in love with Adelaide March for as long as I can remember. Now, you finally have the chance to really be with her. Just go do it, Bradley.”
“It’s not that easy. She only knows me as the mysterious weirdo. She doesn’t realize we have this whole history. She’s had a boyfriend this whole time. Telling her everything, it could change things.”
“Bradley…” Emma looked at me with warning. “Did you….”
I winced. “You already know the answer, Ems. Why bother asking?”
“Bradley Endless, you tool!” she took the nearest pillow, and whacked me with it. “I can’t believe you slept with her!”
“We were both consenting adults!”
“It’s not consent if she can’t remember what happened afterward! You probably gave her the fright of her life.”
“She remembers it when we’re here,” I reminded her, “this is why I don’t know if it should start up or not. Mate or not, Emma, I don’t deserve her.”
She frowned. “Bradley, you know as well as I do what happens with dragons who aren’t mated. You might be only part dragon, but you still have to follow the same rules as they do. Take her the necklace, Bradley. Let her make up her own mind. Adelaide deserves that much.”
I frowned. “When did you get so wise? Aren’t you supposed to be sneaking out of windows, and kissing village boys?”
“I’m twenty-one,” she reminded me, “and I sincerely think that if I kissed a village boy right now, Clark would destroy Dale in a fit of rage. He’s dominate as a faerie, it’s quite strange.”
I chuckled. “Good on Clark. I always knew he had it in him, he was simply too in love with you to show it.”
She smiled faintly. “Despite everything, he does make me happy.”
“I know sis. I know.”
“And you deserve that kind of happiness too.”
I laughed. “I don’t know about that one, Ems. I’m not good, like you. You gave up your shot at true love, and you killed Oberon to keep us safe. You pulled Excalibur from the stone. If that doesn’t make you a good person, I don’t know what does.”
Emma winced. “I’m not completely good.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve kind of been doing something I shouldn’t have been.”
“Which is?” I looked at my sister in interest.
“Ben Taylor,” she answered, blushing.
“Emma!” I was shocked. “Aren’t Louisa and Ben together?”
“Ben thought that they might have had something, but he claims that since Louisa got back she’s been acting distant.”
“They’ve been hanging out together.”
“Yes, but nothing has happened, and Louisa said she wanted us to have time to figure out what we were. I mean, we loved each other enough to get married. But I could never be with him, because of Oberon.”
“How did you get around that one?” I asked.
She blushed. “Told him we were Catholic, and that we had to wait until marriage.”
“You’re cruel.”
“But I thought you were in love with Clark.”
“I am,” she said, “but this is also the first time I’ve been able to be myself, without worrying about an angry faerie king in the corner.”
“Does Clark know?”
Emma sighed. “He knows. He understands, but he doesn’t like it. Of course, it’s not like we’re engaged or anything, and I have until next October to figure it out but…. with the water faerie bringing up that whole baby thing, he’s now even more convinced I should be his Queen as soon as possible.”
“Well, you can’t blame the guy. He’s spent a lot more time pining than you have. He knows he’s got competition too. Tell me, what’s Ben think of all this?”
“Honestly he’s been…. secretive. Louisa told me he mentioned some things about his family when he stayed here, and I tried getting him to talk about it. He said it wasn’t safe for him to discuss it with me, and he wanted to keep me from ‘getting involved’.”
“It is kind of strange he’s handled this so well,” I commented.
Emma sighed. “You’ve got a shot at real love, Bradley. Give Adelaide the necklace. At least it will let her make up her mind and after everything you’ve put her through, she deserves that much.”
“Alright, alright.” I pulled her close to me, wrapping my arms around her. “Can I just say, it’s really, really nice having you here? I’m glad you didn’t have to stay married off to the crazy faerie King.”
“Me too,” she agreed.
We talked for hours, until eventually, the both of us fell asleep.
- Writer
