Chapter Fifteen: Emma Endless
1732 Words
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EMMA ENDLESS
I watched Bradley go into faerie after Adelaide. “Perhaps I should have gone with them. Maybe I was wrong, to get into a fight with Clark.”
Louisa looked at me seriously. “Emma, it’s your choice if you want to follow through with having this child. I understand if you don’t. I’ll protect you, whatever your choice is.”
“I can’t be Queen, Louisa,” I said, “Clark might have found his place in faerie, and I’m happy for him but faerie is the place of my nightmares. I have spent twenty-one years trying to escape it. If this child is his, he won’t ever let me go.”
Louisa placed a hand on my shoulder. “I thought you loved him.”
“Of course, I love Clark. I…. he’s family. I’ll always care for him. But we haven’t even had a chance to be a couple yet. I’m always going to be his dream girl, and sometimes, I don’t know that I can live up to the hype.”
“Is that why you’ve been exploring things with Ben?”
I bit my lip. “To Ben, I’m not some mythic, unattainable figure. To Ben, I’m the girl he met and fell in love with at the conference.”
“Ben lied to you,” Louisa reminded me.
After I had taken the pregnancy test, everything had bubbled up out of me. I told her all about Bens family, all about everything with Clark and the demon. “But he doesn’t love me because he can use me,” I said.
Louisa sighed. “Yeah, I guess I can see that.”
I looked at the gate, where Bradley and Adelaide had disappeared through. “Maybe I should stop fighting. Oberon died, but faerie still seems to want me as its Queen. Perhaps I should give in. But I’m protected by a demon, and if the baby gets used by them I don’t know what will happen.”
“Well, lets first find out who the father is,” Louisa said, “I sent word to the Godmother, and she should be here soon. I thought waiting might help you keep your mind off of things. I also thought that maybe you didn’t want to be alone with Ben right now.”
“No,” I agreed, “I don’t. Although he’s…. he’s actually been wonderful. I didn’t think that he would be.”
Louisa’s face fell for a moment, but she quickly recovered, plastering a smile on her face. “Well, that’s good.”
I looked at my sister. “Lou, I know we haven’t talked about this but…”
She sighed, and leaned against her staff, which glowed brightly, as if sensing her agitation. The staff had the power to tell her moods, the better to protect her from whatever dangers were nearby. “That’s because there’s nothing to talk about, Emma. Nothing happened between Ben and I. Nothing is going to. Honestly, I…. I think it was more because I was alone, more than anything else. All of you got to leave, but I was stuck here, protecting the gate.”
“I thought that was what you wanted,” I said.
“It is,” she admitted, “but it’s also really, really hard. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have more. When I was younger, I was always scared…scared that I wouldn’t ever find someone to love me, because I wasn’t like everyone else. But then I went to faerie, and I found people like me for the first time. I thought now…. that is a place that must be protected. But I’m the gatekeeper. I have to be impartial, and I can’t fall in love with faeries otherwise I lose my post, and we’ll lose everything.”
“I wouldn’t mind, you know,” I told her, “sometimes, I think it would be nice to not be an Endless. To not have the responsibility that comes with the name. Faerie is an amazing place, but it’s also terrifying. If you ever wanted to give it up, I’d support you.”
She gazed at me, a thoughtful expression on her face. “What would you do, if you weren’t an Endless? Be with Ben?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I liked my life in New York. I liked working at the publishing company, I liked making other people’s stories come to life rather than being part of them. I liked my friends. Of course, none of that would matter, because they wouldn’t remember me anyway now.”
Before Oberon had come to claim me as his bride, I’d had an entire life that I’d built for myself. It wasn’t exactly party central, but I did pretty well. I had lunch in Central Park every day, I went to art gallery openings, and book launch parties. I was part of something, instead of being forced off to the sidelines. Or put on display.
“Why did you get engaged?” Louisa asked. “Did you really think that Oberon would just let you go because you found someone else?”
I brushed back a strand of my jet-black hair. “I hoped so. Honestly, I…. I would have done anything to get away from faerie, except going after a demon.”
“Yet it seems like you’ve done that anyway.” A stranger’s voice spoke, and I turned to see the godmother standing there. A hard-faced woman with ebony skin wearing a white robe stood in the gateway. “I could smell the demon on you before I even came, girl. What have you done, your majesty?”
I winced at the use of the title. “I’m not the Queen,” I reminded her.
“Oh, but you are,” said the Godmother, “faerie was always meant to be yours. It calls to you. You are the heart.”
Louisa coughed. “Well, as great as that is, Godmother, I called you here for a different reason.”
She smiled. “It’s because of the babe, isn’t it?”
Unthinking, I placed a hand on my stomach. The babe. The child that was growing within me.
“Yes,” I said, “we…we don’t know who the father is.”
From within her robes, she pulled out a wand that she waved over me. A bright, blue, light came from the tip of the wand. “You’re having a boy,” she said, “and more than that, my Queen, you are having a Prince.”
I looked over at Louisa, then back at the Godmother. That was when the world went blank, and I found myself lost in the darkness. When I came to, a woman with red hair, and slit eyes was staring at me.
“That took long enough,” she said, “I was beginning to think you would never arrive. Welcome, your majesty.”
“I’m not a Queen!” I hissed. “And where the hell am I?”
The woman chuckled. “Funny you should mention that.”
“Mention what?” I asked, pushing myself up off of the ground.
“Hell,” she answered, “because you’re in it, honey.”
I scrambled up off of the ground. “No…No…I don’t understand. This can’t be possible.”
She threw her head back, laughing. “Of course, it’s possible. Your soul mate made a deal with a demon to protect you. I’m simply doing my job.”
“That only extended while Oberon was alive,” I said.
“Oh no, your majesty,” she said, “he never specified when the protection was to end. Right now, you are a human carrying the future King of Faerie. You are the most fragile, dangerous little thing in the world.”
I stared at her. “Your Lilith?”
She grinned. “The one and only.”
“What do you mean, I’m the most dangerous little thing in the world?”
“No human has ever carried a fae King before. You are not of faerie, carrying its future ruler. If something were to happen to that child while you were carrying it, you, and faerie, would cease to exist. Which is why you need the biggest, baddest, b***h around to protect you.”
“And that has to be you?”
“It has to be me,” she said, “so sit tight, and enjoy your stay, your majesty. It’s going to be a long thirteen months.”
“Thirteen?” I whispered.
“Fey pregnancies aren’t like human pregnancies,” she told me, “but don’t worry, I’m supposed to protect you, not kill you. We’ll make your stay comfortable, I promise.” She snapped her fingers, and I found myself in a golden cage.
“No. No. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m a demon, sweetie,” she said with a smile, “the only thing we do with kids is eat them.” She vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving me alone, in a strange, dark place with no way of knowing where I was. Or if I would ever get out.
Once more, I was the girl in the tower. Only this time, I had more than myself to think about. And I was determined to get the hell out, pardon the pun, no matter what it took.
- Writer
