“You know how long I’ve wanted to kill you, Charmwill?” she asked the old man who lowered his eyes silently with shame. “So long that I’m willing to let your prodigal Dreamhunter get away with the princess.”
It wasn’t surprising that Charmwill knew Carmilla. Loki hadn’t figured out most of the truth about this fairy tale world after all. He just knew that he wasn’t going to kill the princess, and that he had chosen to stay in Sorrow and forget about finding out who he really was. But it killed him inside him to see Charmwill like this. He’d known how proud the man was. Charmwill had never been afraid of death. It was the shame that he feared; the shame of getting down on his knees and bowing to the forces of evil. Even if he were immortal, killing Charmwill in the dream was putting him into sleep forever in the real world. The rules that applied to the Demortals also applied to Dreamhunters in the matters of life and death.
“Stay where you are, Loki,” Charmwill pleaded again, his head still low, ready for the Queen to chop it off. “The dream is ending. You’ll be safe if you have patience.”
“But I can’t leave you,” Loki felt a tear roll down his cheek. He was about to take a step toward him. The only thing that stopped him was that it was a step away from Snow White as well. “You don’t want to kill him,” Loki diverted his eyes toward the Queen. “You want Snow White, and she’s here with me,” the words ached in his heart when he said them, because he didn’t really mean them. He knew deep inside that he wasn’t going to be able to give up on the pale princess. But he was trying to fool the Queen to buy some time.
“I don’t need her,” Carmilla said nonchalantly, raising her glass sword in the air, “at least not now.”
“What do you mean you don’t need her?” Loki grimaced.
“I forced her to bite on the apple. It’s a blood apple. She’s cursed now with being one of us. And she’ll stay cursed until someone finds the cure, which I’m sure you will never find, foolish Dreamhunter.”
“Tell me what the cure is,” Loki demanded, knowing it was indeed a foolish request, as if the Queen of Sorrow was going to tell him.
“You can take her along with you to the real world. She’s no threat to me at the moment. The apple will turn her into a dark vampire. She’ll probably kill you once you pull the stake out,” Carmilla took a deep breath, preparing to bring the sword down on Charmwill.
“Don’t worry, you’ll know how to save her if you open your heart and cross the oceans in your mind,” Charmwill said to Loki. “Just wake up with her and you’ll be alright. And Loki,” Charmwill turned his head to face him. “Take care of Pickwick.”
Pickwick fluttered through the air and rested on Loki’s shoulder. Charmwill’s request might have sounded ordinary to the Queen, but Loki understood its many meanings. For one, Pickwick held all the true fairy tales that Charmwill collected and protected all his life. Now, it had become Loki’s responsibility to do so. Two, Loki felt it was an honour; Charmwill handed him the flag to continue his quest with his blessing. Loki decided he’d close his eyes so he’d not see his guardian die.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to kill me while facing me,” Charmwill told the Queen, raising his head proudly up. “I’m Charmwill Glimmer. If you want to kill me, you should know I only die with honour, head up, and not stabbed in the back.”
Loki heard the glass sword slice through something and Carmilla letting out a sigh of relief. It was as if she’d always wanted to kill him, and Loki wondered about the many secrets he’d unravel within time about this world.
Charmwill’s death came with a hysterical fluttering of crows. When Loki opened his eyes, the Queen was gone. He saw mountains falling in the distance, crumbling to dust. A river flooded nearby and the stars fell like snowflakes from the skies.
He walked back to Snow White, lifted her up with both his hands, and stood in front of the mess. A flood was approaching as he stood still in front of it. He knew whatever it was going to do him, it didn’t matter as long as he had saved the girl he’d come here to kill.
27
Blood Apples
When Loki woke up, Axel was pounding his chest with his fist.
“Get off me,” Loki pushed Axel away and sat up, still feeling a bit dazed. “What the heck is wrong with you?”
“I’m giving you CPR.” Axel said.
“Why? I’m not dead!”
“A second ago he was almost kissing you,” Lucy murmured in the background. She was texting someone, like usual.
“You looked very much dead to me,” Axel explained himself, ignoring Lucy. “I didn’t really mean to kiss you. I meant to breathe in your mouth.”
“Where did you even learn CPR?” Loki said, rubbing his wrist, feeling stripped without his Fleece.
“I took a course,” Axel said proudly.
“God bless me for tolerating you,” Loki rolled his eyes. It had been a rhetorical question.