With a Golden Sword (DFZ Changeling Book 2), page 24
“No, it’s not.”
Lola jumped a foot off the cushions. She clenched her fists as she landed, whirling to face her doppelganger, who was standing behind the couch with her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest.
“How do you keep doing that?” Lola demanded, yanking her gossamer.
“Because you need me!” her double cried, yanking it back. “You made me to be you, and you’d never let yourself go through this alone!”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Lola snapped. Then she fell back into the couch. “But it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore.” She covered her face with her hands again. “Just do what you want.”
“What I want is for you to get a grip,” her double said, stomping around the couch to pry Lola’s hands away. “Valente gave me a message before he sent me back. He told me to tell you he wasn’t going to throw the fight. He said that he believed in you, and that he’d stay alive as long as it took for you to set him free.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” Lola cried, staring at the other her in horror. “Valente is dead! I know I didn’t give you much of a brain, but how can you possibly think telling me this now would—”
“Because he kept his word,” her double said fiercely. “Did you not see how hard he fought against Orlando? All he had to do was try a little less, and he could’ve died just like he’d planned, but he didn’t. He fought with everything he had and won because you gave him hope.”
“And look where that got him,” Lola said, slumping harder into the sofa. “Victor betrayed him in front of the entire world, and no one even cared.”
“Victor betrays everyone,” the other her said in a stubborn voice. “That doesn’t make what the Rider did any less amazing.”
“But it still came to nothing,” Lola muttered. “Valente tried his hardest, but he’s still dead. So’s my sister, and I’m pretty sure it’s only a matter of time before Simon is too, if he’s not already.” She closed her eyes, too defeated even to cry. “There’s nothing left. It’s done.”
“Only if you let it be.”
Lola didn’t think she had it in her to be mad anymore, but some part of her must have still been kicking, because that statement made her growl. “Why does everyone keep saying that? You and the DFZ both act like giving up is some kind of moral failure, but I’ve tried my whole life to beat Victor, and I just can’t.”
“That doesn’t change what you have to do,” the doppelganger said stubbornly. “Hope is what let Valente win even though Orlando was stronger. That’s why I gave you his message, because if you lose hope, if you stop fighting, then Victor doesn’t just win today. He wins forever.”
“So I’m just supposed to keep beating my head against the wall?” Lola yelled. “Keep beating myself bloody and putting people in danger even though nothing I do ever works?”
“Yes,” her double said without a trace of irony.
Lola flopped over on the couch. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong to make her copy so delusional, but she could see reality just fine. Even if there was something she could do at this point, it wouldn’t change anything. What was the point of soldiering on when everyone you’d been fighting for was gone?
“You’re not gone,” her double said, reaching down to squeeze the wrist where Lola’s thread still gleamed. “Valente believed you could beat Victor. The DFZ believed you could beat Victor. While you were inside Fenrir, the whole world believed you could beat Victor. The only one who never believed it was you.”
Lola glared at her suspiciously. “How did you know what I was thinking? And how do you know what the DFZ said? You were supposed to be off being a distraction.”
“I know because you know,” the doppelganger told her with a smile. “I’m made from your magic. That’s why I know you can do this.”
“Then tell me how,” Lola begged. “What’s the secret? What am I missing?”
The double shrugged her shoulders, and Lola scowled. “If you don’t know any more than I do, how are you so sure?”
“Because you’re the only one that’s left,” her other self said simply. “It doesn’t matter how you feel about it. If you give up now, Victor gets away with everything, and you’re not going to let that happen, are you?”
Lola scrubbed her eyes with a long, tired breath. She supposed it made sense that her doppelganger would know exactly what to say, but wanting to do something wasn’t the same as doing it. If he’d actually done what it looked like he’d done, then Victor was basically a god now. Lola had no idea how to even start with that, but her idiot copy was right about one thing: if she didn’t do something, then her sister and Valente and probably Simon had all died for nothing.
That was the thought that finally got her off the couch. Even if it was stupid, even if it failed, she couldn’t leave things like this. She was racking her brain to think of something, anything Victor might have overlooked when her gossamer gave a sickening twist.
Her double vanished with a surprised yelp. Lola wished she could do the same, but her body was no longer hers. She couldn’t even move her arm two inches to grab the couch as her magic turned itself inside out, transforming her into the sickening tunnel she always felt right before Alberich appeared.
He did so with a crash, falling out of her body into Tristan’s coffee table with a splatter of rainbow gossamer. He was back in his boy form, not the towering monster she’d seen on TV, but that didn’t make him any less scary. His face was all sharp teeth and fresh blood as he pushed out of the broken glass and turned on the frozen changeling with a snarl.
“Where is my treasure?”
Lola might have been defeated in every other way, but this was one hill she would always die on. “For the last time,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “she’s my sister.”
The bloody king rolled his eyes, but Lola wasn’t having it. “Why are you even here?” she demanded, tugging against his hold until she was looking him in the eyes. “Your only redeeming quality was the fact that you were supposed to be able to beat Victor, but you lost. Shouldn’t you be slinking back to your barrow after getting your butt kicked in front of the entire—”
“I did not lose!” the fairy roared. “You think a mere human could best me? Me? The Mouth in the Dark? The King of the Hunt?” He scoffed. “I have not yet begun to fight. You’ll see, little changeling. You’ll all see.”
He started stomping toward the guest room the moment he finished, but Lola got in his way, vaulting over the back of the sofa to block his path. Alberich bared his teeth and grabbed her gossamer to shove her aside, but the fight with Victor must really have taken it out of him, because Lola was able to hold her ground. She was straining to keep it that way when the room burst open.
That wasn’t hyperbole. Tristan’s entire barrow opened like a flower, leaving Alberich, Lola, and the sleeping human girl in the guest bed stranded in the middle of a wide-open battlefield. The trampled grass was littered with dead trolls and the glittering bodies of headless fairies, the largest of which still had Tristan’s silver-armored boot planted on its chest. Beside the knight was a beautiful woman Lola had never seen before, but assumed must be Lamb from the curly white hair and side-slit sheep eyes. Both fairies were covered in the shimmery gossamer blood of their enemies, but neither held a candle to Morgan.
She stood at the center of the battlefield like the ancient queen she was, towering and terrifying with a brace of severed heads hanging from her golden girdle like a string of onions. Yet another dangled by its dark hair from her fist, a lovely head with ridiculously large teeth that Lola recognized at once.
“Is that Alva?” Alberich said, letting go of Lola to give Morgan an approving smile. “About time you cleaned house, wife.”
“Victory requires timing,” Morgan replied as she added Alva’s head to the rest of her collection. “Your battle with the blood mage provided the perfect opportunity to take back my barrow. I thought I’d be eating these traitors to bolster my strength for the battle against you.” She turned to give Alberich a scathing look. “I never imagined you’d lose.”
“For the last time, I did not lose!” Alberich bellowed. “That traitorous dog set me up! He thinks he’s so clever, but this isn’t finished. That blood mage is about to learn what true fear looks like!”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Morgan replied as Tristan and Lamb came over to flank her. “Stand down, husband. It’s over.”
“Nothing is over until I say!” the king snarled, baring his sharp teeth. “You think I’m weak like you? That I will roll over and hide from the humans just because they spilled a little of my blood? Never! I am the Nightmare King! I fear nothing, and I will not be pushed around by—”
“Enough,” Morgan said, handing her string of heads to Tristan. “You had your chance, and you failed. Even your treasured human is nothing but an empty shell.” She nodded at Lola’s sister lying on the bed. “She has no more power to feed you, little king. Your only choice now is to retreat with us and regroup.”
Alberich narrowed his golden eyes. “I do not run.”
“Then I will drag you,” the queen snapped, losing her temper at last. “I thought the changeling was delusional when she said you could lose. I foolishly assumed that you were still the great king I’d married, undefeatable by any save myself. Clearly, those years in Victor’s box left me blind, because I never even considered that the Nightmare King could be beaten by a human. A human, Alberich!”
“He beat you first!” Alberich bellowed. “Victor took your head, but you don’t see me rubbing that in your face, because there is no shame in losing to a treacherous backstabber who refuses to fight as monarchs should! But I won’t fall for his treachery again. The next time I fight him—”
“There won’t be a next time,” Morgan snarled, baring her own teeth. “Open your eyes, you old fool. Victor Conrath’s got all of humanity behind him now. Even if we fought him together, we wouldn’t stand a chance. Our only shot at survival is time. Mortal love is fickle. The mob will tire of him eventually, and when it does—”
“That’s not going to happen,” Lola said.
All the fairies turned to look at her, but she just stared right back. “Victor never stops,” she said. “Just because he finally got his godhood doesn’t mean he’s going to sit around enjoying it. He’s going to take this victory and use it to launch his next campaign, and the next, and the next. He’s going to keep punching higher and higher until there’s no one left above him.”
“All the more reason to crush him now,” Alberich said.
“Except for the part where you can’t,” the queen reminded him, her beautiful lips curling in disgust. “You already blew your shot, and now the rest of us have to clean up your mess, as always.”
“Oh, of course,” Alberich sneered. “You’re such a responsible monarch, leading our people deeper and deeper into their holes while our prey walks all over us. This is why my court was always bigger than yours, because I did not ask my subjects to cower before worms!”
“And now your subjects are worms’ food,” Morgan replied icily. “But your opinion in this matter means nothing.” She waved an elegant hand at the bloody battlefield surrounding them on all sides. “You’re in my barrow now, Nightmare King, and I say you will not leave this place to face the blood mage again.”
As she spoke, Lola felt the queen’s gossamer tighten around them like a net. Alberich must have felt it too, but all he did was sneer.
“You’re not the queen of me, wife,” he proclaimed, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest. “We both know there’s still one way to defeat Victor, and you will not keep me from it.”
The queen’s fair face grew pale. “You can’t be serious.”
When Alberich didn’t reply, she pulled herself to her full, spectacular height. “I forbid it! If you put on your head to fight, you won’t just be giving the blood mage the chance to slay you again. You’ll be destroying an entire fairy kingdom! The Wild Hunt can be rebuilt, but your barrow is the largest stronghold we have left. If you let Victor cut your head, the Underground Kingdom will be lost, and all of us will be weaker for it!”
“I don’t care about the rest of you,” Alberich replied haughtily. “You have no right to tell me what to do, because unlike you sniveling cowards, I still remember what we are. We are the hunters, not the hunted! And frankly, if it’s come to the point where a fairy king wearing his head can’t beat a human, our species deserves to die.”
The queen’s lovely face turned crimson with fury, but before she could say another word, Alberich threw out his hand. Lola doubled over as he did, gasping in pain as the king spun her gossamer into a bubble around them, blocking out Morgan and the others. Tristan countered immediately, but he’d never been able to take over Lola’s gossamer even back when she was Victor’s, and he couldn’t do it now. His sea-smelling magic rolled off of hers like water off a duck’s back, leaving him banging soundlessly on the invisible wall as Alberich walked toward the bed where Lola’s sister was sleeping.
“Stop!” Lola cried, fighting his hold. She’d resisted it before, but yelling at Morgan must have fired the king up, because his grip was back to its usual strength. She couldn’t do more than wiggle feebly as Alberich whipped the blanket off her sister’s body.
“Please no,” she begged. “I know my sister fed you before, but she has nothing left to give. If you need dreams to get your strength back, you can have mine. Just leave my sister alone!”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Alberich said, giving he a cruel smirk. “Silly little changeling, just where do you think my head is?”
Lola went still in his grip, and the king burst out laughing.
“Surely you didn’t actually think a human was my treasure?” he goaded, reaching down to pinch her sleeping sister’s cheeks. “It’s true her delightful dreams are the only reason I’m alive, but that starvation ended as soon as I broke out. What you see now is just a box. My real treasure’s hidden inside it, and you’re the one who helped me keep it safe.”
He leaned to the side, grinning around the frozen Lola at Morgan, who was still screaming soundlessly on the other side of the bubble. “That’s right, wife! You’re always so quick to call me a fool, but I got one over on you this time. I knew you’d send your White Knight to scour my barrow the moment I was out of it, so I hid my head in the last place you’d look: right under your nose! Even the blood mage didn’t realize what I’d done because the changeling’s gossamer and mine are identical. Of course, if I’d known your precious Tristan couldn’t handle a few old trolls, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble.”
He paused to savor Morgan’s look of fury before turning his grin back to Lola. “They still might have found it if not for your guard dog routine. Such a marvelous little irony, but I’m afraid the joke is over. The time has come to put that uppity blood mage in his place, so if you’ll excuse me…”
Lola screamed as the king stabbed his hands into her sister’s stomach. Then she screamed again, writhing against his grip on her gossamer. She might not have been able to enter her dreams, but she could feel Alberich’s fingers digging into her sister’s flesh like it was her own. The thread on her wrist lurched at the same time, plunging straight down so hard that Lola’s arm dropped with it despite Alberich’s lock on her gossamer. She’d never felt anything so heavy, but she knew what it was.
It was death. Lola was feeling her sister’s physical death through their shared connection. The pull grew heavier still as Alberich dug, plunging his hands into her sister’s stomach to the wrist as he searched her insides. It got so bad that her sister actually made a sound, an involuntary gasp of pain as Alberich killed her. Lola could feel every agony through the thread, but so long as Alberich had control of her gossamer, she was helpless to stop him.
Hopelessness welled up inside her like a tidal wave. Her sister’s empty body was the last thing she’d had left. Now the king was ripping her open right in front of her, and Lola couldn’t do a thing. She was a failure to the end. A hopeless weakling who hadn’t been able to save any—
“No!”
Lola couldn’t move her head, but she managed to twitch her eyes over just enough to see her doppelganger appear beside her. The copy’s gossamer was so runny it was spilling down her sides, making her look like a melting candle, but she still had enough structure left to grab Lola’s shoulders.
“You can’t give up!”
“What is that?” Alberich asked, removing his bloody hand from Lola’s sister to snap his fingers at her double. “You there! Get back in line.”
Her copy started melting even faster at the king’s command, but she didn’t let Lola go. “Remember what happened between the trucks,” she gurgled as her body collapsed. “Remember what happened in the hospital. Your gossamer depends on your belief, no one else’s! That’s why you can’t give up. If you let yourself believe it’s over, then it really is, but it doesn’t have to end this way!”
Her hands fell apart as she finished, but her voice had always been Lola’s, and it was screaming in her ears.
“For the love of all of us, Lola, fight him!”
It was on the tip of Lola’s tongue to say that she was fighting, she just wasn’t winning, but her double collapsed before she could say a word. And weirdly enough, that was what got through to her, because with Alberich gripping her like this, her doppelganger shouldn’t have been able to move any more than Lola, but she had. She’d defied the king who supposedly controlled all their gossamer, and if a brain-dead spell like her could do it, then maybe Lola could, too.
With that, she shoved her despair away. She threw it all away—the hopelessness, the fear, the failure—and focused on what she could do. Yes, Alberich had her pinned, but he only controlled her gossamer. That was the only part of her that belonged to him, the only thing holding her back, so with a roar that shook the foundations of the queen’s barrow, Lola cut it away.
