Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kellan

My head tilted to the side, and I woke at the feeling of falling toward Ernest's shoulder. My gaze felt hazy from sleep. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms and looked around the dungeon.

Ernest snored beside me, while a rat scurried over the top of my boot. I jerked my foot away, splashing the ankle-deep water around me.

Ernest jerked awake. "What is it?"

"Just a rat," I whispered. I couldn't help but keep quiet and listen for any signs of Deidamia. It'd been a quiet morning waiting on Josephine. I had no idea of what time it was or if Deidamia was in the castle.

I'd fallen asleep with the hope that a portal would open in front of me and Josephine would walk out with the spindle. It hadn't happened, obviously. I was still sitting next to several skeletons that had died at Deidamia's hand.

"What time do you think it is?"

Ernest looked at the window on the opposite side of the room. There were thick bars trapping us inside, but through it, the sun looked high in the sky.

"Midday," he groaned, attempting to stand up.

I helped him to his feet and did the same. My jeans were soaked from the leak down here. I'd appreciated the hiding spot, but it smelled like rot and death. I was ready to get out. I was ready to see my girl.

Feeling something in my pocket, I pulled out the picture and ran my thumb over it. "Do you have any light?" I asked.

Ernest waved his hand and offered a light in the center of his palm. I showed him the picture.

"I found this in that diary upstairs."

"It looks like Deidamia and her mother. Maybe a sister?"

I nodded, and shoved the picture back into my pocket. "The bird wanted us to see it. I don't know why, but he did."

I stomped over the bones littering the ground and toward the window. Picking myself up, I looked out into the bayou. That was where the leak was coming from.

"Is there another way out?" I asked. "I mean besides walking into her room and hoping she's not there?"

Ernest looked around. "I could possibly get us out of the window if I have time. We need to wait on Josephine."

Doubt began to leak into my mind. It'd been a long time. I couldn't imagine what she was going through. Had her parents accepted her back? Had they stopped her from coming back into this realm? Had she not found the spindle?

Ernest seemed to have hope in her, and I was her soulmate. I needed to keep my hopes high. She was smart. I just needed her to find the damn thing.

I ran my palm down my face and leaned against the wall. "Will the portal open here?"

Ernest shrugged and picked up the edge of his robe from hitting the floor. "It should open here with us," he said.

My fingers touched the picture in my pocket. "Why would that crow want us to see that?"

Ernest shrugged. "Who knows? It's a bird."

"That was once a person. That's what the wolf told me. I'm not sure how much I can believe of what comes out of a wolf's mouth."

A shadow drew over my face from the window. I ducked at first, hoping it wasn't Deidamia, but it was the crow. Ernest reached his forearm up, and the crow slipped through the bars and hopped onto him.

The crow cawed loudly, and my skin began to crawl.

"Shh," Ernest whispered, stroking its feathers. "Are you a person?" he cooed.

I gave him a weird look. I didn't trust the bird enough to touch it. The bird began to caw loudly. Ernest kept calm, though the bird didn't stop squawking.

"Shut him up before I knock him into tomorrow," I mumbled.

Ernest wrapped his palm over the bird's beak, but he slipped from him and flew toward the railing of the stairs. My heart fluttered at the eyes staring back at us from the stairwell. Those green eyes would scare any grown man, and when she stepped into the light, that smile felt like evil incarnate.

"I have visitors," she said softly. Her horns shimmered in the sunlight as she stepped down into the dungeon. The water splashed around her feet the closer she grew to us. I attempted to swallow my fear, and she laughed.

"It's rude to trespass into someone's home. Even ruder to hide in the dungeon and plot someone's death."

Ernest kept oddly quiet as he studied her. I couldn't understand his calmness. I wielded my sword and prepared for her to attack.

"Where is Josephine?" she asked.

"Don't you know?" I asked. "Your little bird spies on everyone."

She glanced over her shoulder at the bird gawking at us. "She's been different lately."

"Josephine is coming back with your spindle, so you can let us go."

"She left the realm? Clever girl, isn't she?"

"Stay back," I said, pointing my sword at her. I couldn't let her kill me. I hadn't seen if Josephine made it back yet. I deserved to live. I deserved another chance at love.

I tightened my fingers around my sword as the sound of the portal materialized in front of me. It knocked Deidamia back onto her ass while colliding into the wall of the dungeon, bashing bricks and debris around us.

It left a giant hole, so we could escape. I couldn't focus on Deidamia or the hole. I searched the portal for Josephine. My heart drummed in my chest so loudly the portal seemed lightyears away.

Minutes ticked by when Fern stepped out and onto the dungeon floor. The golden spindle was in her hands. My fingers twitched as Josephine stepped out seconds later with the other end in her hands.

There was a mixture of emotion on her face. Fear. Confusion. And then she saw me. Tears coated her cheeks as she dropped the spindle and raced into my arms. I pulled her close to my chest and rested my head on top of hers. "I've never been so scared in my life," I whispered, pulling back to kiss her deeply.

I didn't care that Deidamia watched or that Ernest pulled the spindle behind him in protection from Deidamia.

I loved the taste of her mouth. The feeling of her skin. She felt like forever materialized in my hands.

"We have to go," she whispered, pulling away. "She's not far behind us."

"She?" I asked.

She nodded while wiping tears from her skin. She jumped backward as she noticed Deidamia staring daggers at us.

"You found it?" she said. "Well, aren't you a good girl?"

The tone of her voice slithered over my skin. We had the spindle, and she was still pissed at Josephine. Why?

"I got your stupid spindle, witch. Take it—"

"Not so fast," she said. "Who took my spindle?"

Josephine looked like she didn't want to say it. "My mother," she spit.

Deidamia's eyes widened in shock. "Your human mother came into our realm and took my spindle?"

Josephine opened her mouth when the portal reopened, and she stiffened. "We have to leave," she whispered. "Now. Come on. Please. She"s after us."

Josephine waded through the water of the dungeon toward the hole in the wall. She was frightened. What did she find out about her mother?

Ernest grabbed the spindle, lifted it with magic and slung it out of the dungeon. I followed Fern and Ernest out of the dungeon and into the sunlight.

I stopped at the hole in the wall and watched as Josephine's mother stepped out of it. She looked crazed. Nothing like the woman that cried that day in her husband's office.

Josephine's mother turned circles until she saw Deidamia standing in the corner. "You're the one that stole from me?" she asked.

She chuckled deeply. It didn't match her face, and she slowly slid her palm back over her head. Like the dark magic that she was performing, her entire face changed, and Deidamia gasped loudly.

Josephine called to me, but I couldn't look away. "Didn't see that coming, did you, Sister?"

I'd endured plenty of shock in my life, but this topped all of it. The woman staring at Deidamia looked very similar to her. Dark hair and green eyes.

Josephine's palm gripped my forearm, and she began to pull me when she noticed her mother. She dropped her hand and stared. "Who is that?" she whispered.

"Your mother turned into her. She's Deidamia's sister."

Josephine stared in silence. I couldn't determine the look on her face, but I sensed her heart hammering against her chest.

Ernest gripped my shoulder. "We need to leave. This isn't going to go well."

I pulled Josephine toward the Dark Woods, while they held a silent conversation.

It wasn't until we made it halfway through the bayou that I heard an angry scream. Deidamia's scream reminded me of a wounded animal.

She was shocked.

She was hurt.

She'd been blindsided and she wasn't the only one.

We didn't stop running until we hit the Dark Woods. Ernest leaned against the tree, while Josephine dropped to her knees and covered her face. "I don't understand what's happening. That's not my mother."

When she looked up at me, I looked at her ebony hair and blue eyes. I always thought she looked like her father, since her mother was light haired.

"I don't know—"

I pulled the picture from my pocket and handed it to her. "I found this in her room." It looks just like the woman her mother turned into.

"Why would she do this? Why would she steal her spindle? Why is she a completely different person?"

I had no words. I didn't understand any of it any more than she did. "I've never been so scared in my life," she whispered. "My mother has been chasing us. She's ... distant. She's not my mother."

Ernest gestured for me to get her up. "We need to leave. I don't think they are done with us."

"She has the spindle?" Fern chimed in.

"Yes, but Josephine's mother did not want to hand that over. If she makes it out of Deidamia's castle, she will come after you two. We need to get as far away as we can."

Josephine climbed to her feet with tears rolling down her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around me, and I lifted her into my arms.

"You're going to be okay," I whispered.

Ernest cleared his throat. "I think we should leave this realm."

"We can't take them to Earth, Ernest. They'll demolish it."

"Do you know of a place that we could hide? A place back home that wouldn't draw lots of attention if a fight broke out?"

I groaned inwardly, while they all looked at me. "Yes."

Ernest materialized a portal swiftly. "Take us there."

Josephine clung to me as I stepped toward the portal. "Where are you taking us?"

"Home," I said.

"Your home?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yes. Hold on and pray they don't follow us."

Josephine dipped her head against my shoulder and screwed her eyes closed. I tipped over into the portal and held Josephine close to me.

At least she was safe.

Deidamia had the spindle.

Now we had to figure out who in the hell her mother was before she ripped us to shreds.