Of Fairytales and Magic by Emma Hamm
Chapter 11
Brother?
The word tumbled through Freya’s mind, even as the owl woman turned away from them. Eldridge claimed he had family, although he rarely wanted to talk about them, and she’d always respected his privacy. But this was his sister? This owl creature who lived not in the Autumn Court per say, but with the gods that had plagued the faerie courts for so long?
It didn’t make sense, and yet it did. Eldridge had hidden so much from her, and this was something he’d be horribly embarrassed for anyone to know.
He wasn’t just the most powerful faerie in the courts. He’d been given an advantage in becoming the Goblin King that no one could ever have guessed. Growing up under the wing of an old god certainly would have crafted him into a man far more deadly than the other faeries.
She looked over her shoulder and raised a brow. “Brother?”
Eldridge chewed on his lip. A muscle in his jaw bounced as he tried to figure out what to say that could make this all better. Part of Freya wanted to stop him. He couldn’t explain this away, and it wasn’t necessarily something that he should be forced to explain, anyway. He had a right to keep his family to himself.
It would have been useful to know that they were going to visit his blood, however. They might have used that to their advantage. Now, she was walking into a family reunion without knowing a thing about them.
Why did that make her so nervous? She should be excited to meet his family.
She supposed it might have been easier if that same family wasn’t deciding if she should live.
Blowing out a breath, she eyed the owl woman, who was already disappearing into the fog. “I’m not going to ask too much about this strange circumstance, but I do need to know if she’s going to lead us to certain death.”
“There’s never any way to know with my family.” He sighed heavily. “But I think the only option here is to follow her. I didn’t think we’d drag up so much of my history, or I would have told you more before we came in.”
“Would you?” Freya somehow doubted that. She thought it more likely he would have approached his family before he’d brought her here and warned them not to tell her a thing because he wasn’t ready to be that honest with her.
Maybe he never would.
With a heavy sigh, she placed her feet onto the winding path and started after the owl woman. “We’re going to talk about this later,” she threw over her shoulder. “I know you don’t want to talk about it now, and I don’t want to push you. But you will tell me everything.”
“I know,” he replied. “I know that very well.”
Gravel crunched underneath her feet as they made their way into the mist. This time, Freya used no magic to see what surrounded them. Somehow, using magic at a time like this felt as though that would be a grave insult to the Owl Mother. Whatever the god wanted hidden should remain hidden.
She tried hard to follow the owl woman, but the faerie disappeared into the mist faster than Freya could follow. One second she was right in front of them, and then Freya would blink. No one would remain other than a swirl of fog where the creature had once been.
But then she’d walk down the path a little farther and look to her left. The owl would appear off the path, cloak precariously balanced on the back of her head, staring at them as though she were a creature who had stepped out of her nightmare.
Finally, Freya had enough of jumping at every shadow. The next time the owl woman did it, she reached out and grabbed onto the woman’s cloak.
Hand fisting the fabric, she drew the owl close to her face and snarled, “Stop doing that. We’re not playing a game right now, and my test is not to be completed by you. Any intimidation you think is happening? It’s not. You’re only annoying me.”
The woman grinned, though it looked strange on her owlish face. “I don’t care if I’m annoying you. You aren’t here to be comfortable, Freya of Woolwich. Mortal women are not meant to be here at all, and yet, you snuck in with magic you shouldn’t have.”
Mist coiled around Freya’s wrist, tugging at her grip on the cloak. As if the creature was using magic to get her off.
Freya released her hold, pressing her tongue against her teeth and smiling back at the little monster, who continued to think that she had the upper hand. “This is my magic now. I know it must be horrible to look at a mortal who you think so weak, having something that you want.”
“I don’t want it,” the owl woman replied.
“Yes, you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be trying to annoy me. You’d simply take me to the Owl Mother and then you’d be done with the dirty little human you think shouldn’t even be in your realm.” Freya tilted her head to the side, watching this faerie’s eyes flick back and forth. Anywhere but Freya. “You’re looking at everything but me. You know you cannot lie, and now that I’ve caught you in your own deceit, you cannot lie to yourself any longer. Can you?”
The owl woman snapped her beak, then looked behind Freya. “What are you going to do about this, Brother? You’re standing there, with not a care in the world, as if this mortal hasn’t stolen something of yours.”
“It’s not mine,” he replied.
Freya wrapped her hand around the owl faerie’s jaw and forced her to look back to the mortal she so hated. With no small amount of pride, Freya lifted her hand and let the dark stone on her finger do the talking for her.
The owl woman spluttered out a sound that was a mixture of an owl’s call and a woman’s choked horror. “What is that?”
“Proof that I’m more than worthy of the magic you think shouldn’t be mine.” Freya released her with a slight jerk. “Now, no more games. I’m not interested in speaking with anyone other than her. Especially if they’re all foolish little girls like you.”
Again, that horrible, cawing chuckle erupted from the faerie’s mouth. “That’s hilarious. Brother, you know you cannot help her while she’s in here, don’t you? I thought you were here to watch the mortal flounder and then fail. But you’re actually here to see her win!”
“I love her with every fiber of my being,” he replied. “I will not see her fail. But even without my help, I think she would prove herself more than worthy of this power and this position.”
Freya watched the two of them argue. She should have been focusing on their words, but instead, all she could see was the resemblance that she’d never put together before.
The tips of Eldridge’s tufted ears she’d always assumed were fur. Now that she could see his sister, it was so obvious those tufts were feathers. They even ruffled in the wind differently than fur, and she felt like a dunce for not noticing sooner. Even his claws were not that of a furred creature. His fingers were talons. After all this time, she hadn’t noticed until this moment.
She felt like a fool.
“Eldridge, you are going against everything our family has always struggled for. You used to hate mortals just as much as I,” the owl faerie snarled.
“And yet, I was always the one who was willing to grow while the rest of you remain stuck in the pit of your own despair. I will not, and never will, become someone who cannot admit when I am wrong.” He pointed at Freya with a jabbing motion. “That woman is better than half the faeries I’ve met in my life, and you would be lucky to call her the Autumn Thief.”
“And your opinions are clouded with lust.” With a disgusted sound, the owl faerie waved her hand in front of him. “You need to learn a lesson, Brother, and I am not so weak that I cannot teach it to you. Did you forget that you are no longer in your realm, or that of the fae? Whatever I want to do to you, I can.”
The spell she cast spilled over the Goblin King like water. Freya watched as the glamour he’d created around himself shivered, shifted, and melted away. She only caught a single glimpse of what he looked like. A nightmarish visage of a half man, half owl, before he let out a cry of horror.
His own magic shimmered to life, a dark cloud erupting to cover the owl head that had replaced his own and the smattering of feathers that spread down his shoulders and arms. Eldridge turned into a great horned owl, then burst into flight and disappeared into the mist.
It all happened within the span of a heartbeat. So quickly that Freya wasn’t certain she had seen what he looked like at all.
“There,” the owl woman muttered. “Now, Brother, you won’t meddle in things you shouldn’t. Men.”
Freya held her breath and tried to focus. She was alone now. She had power, even though she didn’t know how to use it. Perhaps another day would be dedicated to train and learn and grow. But right now, she stood in front of a very powerful faerie who served a god, and who clearly didn’t like her.
Eldridge, she thought, where did you go?
The owl woman gestured for Freya to follow her. “Listen to me, darling. He is not on trial. You are. But he has always had a soft spot for women he can save. And there is no saving you, because then he’d be the Autumn Thief again. That’s not what Mother wants.”
“Mother?” Freya repeated.
Eldridge had claimed his parentage was noble, yes, and that they were a king and queen. Gods weren’t that, and besides, he wasn’t the child of a god. None of that would make any sense at all unless... Unless...
“Wow,” the owl woman muttered. “While it’s very interesting to watch the thoughts dance over your face, I would very much like it if you’d hurry up.”
“Excuse me?” Freya muttered, still in a daze from the reality of her situation.
“Let me just lay it out for you, little mortal. Yes, Eldridge is the son of the Owl Mother. He was born into a life knowing that his mother was a god and that he would likely become the Goblin King. His power comes directly from her, and if it didn’t, then he would not be who he is. After all, a Goblin King must have some sort of godly powers or no one would respect him.” She added a sniff for good measure. “But here’s the thing. The rest of us know he’s nothing more special than the others. He was the lucky one that was older than the rest. Nothing more than that.”
The owl woman turned with a flounce and started back down the path. But Freya knew that while there was some truth to what she said, the last bit was wrong.
Eldridge was so much more special than these creatures. He saw the future, and he wasn’t afraid of it. He saw differences and loved them, rather than feared them. But more than anything else, Eldridge had seen a mortal woman and knew she would do something good with the powers she’d been given.
At least, Freya hoped.
“I think you’re afraid of him!” she called out.
The owl woman froze in the middle of the path, turning back around with a wide-eyed stare. “Afraid of who? The little man I just turned back into an owl? Back into the most basic form he could suffer?”
“Yes.” Freya straightened her shoulders and squeezed her hands into fists. “I think you’re very afraid of him. I think you see Eldridge as someone who challenges the old ways, and the idea of that frightens you. You can’t control him.”
“I can control him. Did you not see how he’s an owl now? No longer a man?” The owl woman scoffed, then turned around and gave Freya her back. “You can keep arguing until you’re blue in the face, little mortal. But you aren’t in your realm any longer and you certainly aren’t in the Autumn Court, either. This is a place of old gods and legends. You don’t belong here.”
But Freya did. Because she was the Queen Killer, the one person who had brought every single court ruler to their knees and then decided to marry the Goblin King. Freya was no ordinary woman, and not even an owl faerie could convince her otherwise.
She continued down the path in silence, but this time with a courage that brewed deep in her belly. This was no one else’s confidence but her own. She didn’t need Eldridge here to whisper in her ear that everything would be okay. Freya knew it would be.
Let the trials begin. She’d been ready to be Queen long before stealing the Autumn Court’s magic.
