The Heart of the Darkness by M. J. Padgett

Author:M. J. Padgett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: grimm, fairytale adaptation, fairytale, little red riding hood, snow white, beauty and the beast, cinderella
Publisher: MJ Padgett
Published: 2021-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Annabell

Elfriede’s Castle, Das Unbekannte

COMMUNICATING WITH Stella had gone much smoother, but it still drained a lot of my energy. I hoped she trusted me because if she didn’t, there was no doubt all chaos would break loose once Cole made his move. For a moment, I thought I should contact her again to remind her that fighting was a bad idea, but I did not have the energy. All I could do was hope she would assess the situation, see that I was right, and contain herself and the other hunters.

I stood and stretched, then crossed the room to the bed. Jack and Hayden were asleep, so I covered them with another blanket and made my way downstairs to the gardens. I needed time to process, and the cold weather would help me cleanse my mind.

I had only taken one step into the garden when I saw Cole’s shadow. I’d know it anywhere, the way it moved and melded with the darkness, how it morphed from one shape to another, and how the light seemed to shy away from it. I needed to speak with him, if only to confirm our agreement that he would not harm anyone in his attempt to retrieve the Seven Sworn.

I trudged through the new-fallen snow, now calf-deep. When I approached, his hand moved swiftly across his face, and he stood with his back to me.

“Cole?”

He turned to face me, but it was too dark to see his face clearly. Even so, his ragged breathing and his constant swiping said all that need be said. Cole’s tears hit me hard, like a thousand-pound boulder that crushed my heart until there was nothing recognizable that remained. One would think it impossible for anything to cause such pain for an instrument of death and destruction, yet it seemed I always found a way to break him. I was his only weakness, and I hated it.

“I will take the Seven when day breaks. I thought you should know,” he said curtly.

“And you will honor our agreement?” I asked.

He snickered. “Yes, I will honor our agreement. It is the only thing you truly care for, after all.”

“That’s not true, Cole,” I said. I sat on the bench he’d just vacated and stared into the night. All I could see were stars, but I felt his presence not only beside me but deep in my heart and in my soul.

“I wish you had never found me back then. Maybe then my life wouldn’t seem so meaningless, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much now,” he admitted.

I grasped his hand and pulled him to sit beside me. “No, then the darkness would have taken you completely. This is your redemption, Cole, this ability to care about what you must do. I know you must do it and that some part of you enjoys it, but I also know that there is another part that despises all you are. That part loves me, and that you are capable of love is the reason you deserve so much more than life has given you.

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