“Thank you,” I whispered to the only person who had never once asked anything from me. I hoped DumBeau would be okay but knew he wouldn’t be able to hold her long.
Kato held vigil near the shore, at the edge of the circle of dead grass. It had grown larger, and unconscious Dorthea was still being held by Oz’s and Verte’s magic. Hydra was back, without the nose clamp and accompanied by an army of fiery, pink and purple unicorns. So, not Hydra. Gwenevere.
Mordred ran toward me. “Do you have it?”
“Run!” was all I had time to say before the lake exploded behind me.
“Too late.” Blanc grabbed my ankle and started dragging me back. “Kill them all,” she commanded an army of hammerheads, crocodiles, and other water creatures that had risen from the depths at Blanc’s command.
Kato soared over and ripped me out of her grasp. He deposited me in Mordred’s arms. “Get her out of here.”
Mordred nodded and ran away from the chaos.
“Hey, put me down. We have to help.” I kicked and fought. “Coward.”
“You may pay for that name-calling later, but for now you have to get out of the way and let them fight without worrying about your safety.”
As he ran, I could see the battle over his shoulder. Verte and Oz put up a shield around Dorthea. Kato and Mic used their might as chimeras to pick off every creature that came for them. I expected Blanc to charge toward me, but something caught her attention. Something she wanted even more than the grail, me, or Dorthea. She spotted Gwen.
Blanc raised her hand and brought a massive tsunami up from the lake and down on the shore. Dorthea was protected in her force field, but the rest of us got drenched. Including the night mares. Fires out, the unicorns abandoned their mistress.
Blanc hadn’t taken a step out of the water before Gwen was on the hill. I knew what the water witch had planned when I saw her pull out the spark of gold.
“Gwen’s going to die and Hydra with her,” I said with absolute certainty. After grabbing Mordred’s hand, I shoved the inkwell in it. “Keep your promise.”
“Aye, but what are you going to do?” he asked, but I was already running full tilt with the trident in my hand.
Blanc twisted her hands, and water flowed from the lake, forming a bow with a strand of kelp. As soon as she fired, I hit Blanc’s arrow using the trident like a bat, but the arrow curved and corrected course. The magical golden arrow had perfect aim, and Blanc’s obsession with Gwen was written on her face. If she saw me running at her with the trident, she didn’t flinch.
“It’s all you,” Kato yelled as I ran past. The air turned frigid, and the water around Blanc turned to ice, freezing her in place.
As I reached into my pocket, I briefly wondered if Kato would have helped me if he knew what I was about to do.
With a final burst of speed, I ran Blanc through with the trident. When her mouth opened in surprise, I shoved in the pearl just before her arrow struck Gwen.
It wasn’t the way the pearl was intended to be used, but Blanc’s eyes grew wide as the magic did its work. The wheels of time ground to a halt. Even the breeze seemed to hold its breath. Then the arrow spun around as Blanc forgot everyone except who was right in front of her—me.
A sense of déjà vu struck me along with the arrow in my back. I guess, some things are just destined to be, no matter how you try to change them. When I died the first time from Griz’s stormbolt in the back, I should have stayed dead. Except Dorthea became the Storymaker and changed the ending I’d been written. With my shadow growing, I knew my end was out of her hands this time.
“A willing sacrifice. The final piece I needed to rise again. I’m growing impatient, so while your body dies, I’m afraid I’m reclaiming your soul for some unfinished business with me.”
My world turned to shades of gray as I fell to the sand, blood and shadow spreading out beneath me and swallowing me whole.
“Rule 301: For maximum effect, the prince should wait until the last grains of sand are tumbling through the hourglass to swoop in and rescue the princess. The princess should wait patiently—and hope that the prince’s watch isn’t running slow.”
—Definitive Fairy-Tale Survival Guide, Volume 1
35
I’ll Follow You Down
The landscape of Nome Ore that used to rise and fall was now barren and flat. Empty. All that remained was the forge and ink pit. The wails of Forgotten were eerily absent. Tragic that even their last protests were taken from them.
Mine were as well. My shadow was now completely controlled by Morte, corporeal and restraining—inky tar oozing over my mouth and nose and every inch of me. As if that torture was incomplete, Griz slithered back and forth over me, creating snake tracks.
I have been waiting for thissss.
Entombed in tar, maybe I couldn’t go kicking and screaming into the dark night, but Morte had left my eyes uncovered. And I could glare with the best of them.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Morte said. “I’m giving you exactly what you wanted. To be special.” He pulled my mangled and melted plotline out of his suit pocket. It was no longer straight and knotted. Some parts were thick and braided with green-oxidized wire, while other parts where so thin and withered the wire looked like it would snap. “You are my masterpiece. Every death, every piece of magic thrust on you and in you has honed your meat sack into a suitable host for me. You chose this as much as I did.” He then ran his scythe along my cheekbone. Griz ran her forked tongue along the other. “I’m going to take my time and enjoy this,” he said as he pressed the line against my neck.
“Sorry,” a voice said, filling the empty air. “I came as fast as I could.”
Kato.
Somehow, he’d come for me. My soul felt light, and the tar grew less sticky, sliding off me.
Morte eased off some of the pressure and looked up. “I’m sorry, but the office of death will be closed indefinitely, so I’m afraid you’ll have to help yourself.” He turned his otherworldly, white eyes to me, squinting at the ink sloughing off my skin. He looked at Kato again and threw his head back with a guttural sound. “No. I forbid it! You can’t bring her back to life again. I’ve spent far too long preparing this girl. She chose to die; that makes her mine.”
“That’s where you are wrong. I didn’t have to bring her back to life because, technically, I got to her before her heart stopped beating,” Kato said, stepping close enough for me to see his front paws muted and gray. And not a claw left on either of them.
“What have you done?” Morte released me and stalked over to Kato.
The rest of the tar slid off me, my soul growing lighter to the point of turning to mist. Griz fell right through me as I began to rise. “Nononononono,” I bellowed as I clawed and flailed, trying to hold on to something. I reached for Kato, but my hand slipped through him.