The Endless Series book 1: The Fairys Bargain

Chapter Two: Emma Endless

Two

The last week of September was always the point the year seemed to fall into a steady rhythm. Just as you had gotten used to writing down the correct date on your check, just as the last green leaves from summer turned orange, or brown, or red…. a calm, steady pace took over everything. As if the rest of the world seemed to realize that the year was coming to a close, things made sense in September.

Kids returned to school, work started again, and it was still dry enough, but not too dry. But the morning after Oberon had returned to my apartment, things did not make sense. I woke to the sound of knocking, for a start, which was unusual because the only person who ever came was Ben.

With faeries lurking in the shadows, and my family’s past, making connections was hard, and I kept most people at a distance. I never knew who wanted to use me for “literary connections”. I’d been screwed over by more than one starving, artist writer type who had just wanted to use me to get published. Ben, thankfully, wasn’t that.

But regardless, it was easier to keep it simple. Rather than explain that the reason everything I owned was off-brand was because at eighteen, I’d donated my inheritance to a charity once I realized the scam my Grandfather had been running.

The only other person it could have been was my brother. And if my brother was there, nothing good could come from it.

I got up from my bed, in scarlet and yellow pajamas with a Gryffindor crest on them. The wooden floor was cool to my bare feet, and creaked as I padded across it. I opened the door, to find my brother Bradley standing there.

He smiled at me. “Hello, sister.”

I immediately slammed the door in his face. “Go away.”

“Oh, come on, is that any way to treat your brother? You know where I was before I came to see you? I was on a yacht, in the middle of the Caribbean ocean, getting fed grapes by a Victoria’s secret model. Until your Prince showed up to ruin things.”

I huffed a moment and opened the door.

Bradley strode in. For siblings, we were exact opposite. I had long, jet black hair, green eyes, pale skin, and full lips. Bradley was like the sun. He had blonde hair, hazel eyes, and sun kissed skin. He wore jeans, a leather jacket, and a Black Sabbath t-shirt.

I shut the door behind him.

Bradley ran his hand over the nearby entryway table, as if examining it for dust. “Quaint. To this day, I will never understand why you gave up your inheritance.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course, you wouldn’t. You’ve never done anything honorable in your life.”

He coughed. “Excuse me, aren’t you forgetting something?”

Guilt washed over me. Bradley, even though he was a pain in the ass, was the entire reason that I was here. If it hadn’t been for the deal he’d made on my behalf, I would have been married to the faerie king on my eighteenth birthday, instead of my twenty-first year.

“Oh, goddess,” I mumbled, covering my face in the palm of my hands, “tell me that he didn’t go there to tell you that. About the five years that you traded for me.”

“He did,” said Bradley, “and, strangely, to ask for my blessing. It seems in faerie; the blessing of the oldest family member is very important for weddings. Who knew since kidnapping wives without their consent seemed to be their thing?”

I wrapped my arms around him. “Bradley, I’m so, so, sorry.”

He shrugged. “It’s alright, sis. I made my choice a long time ago. I’m happy with the choice that I’d made. I’d do whatever I had to if it meant keeping you safe. But, Emma is it true?”

“Is what true?” I asked.

I led him to the small space I’d sectioned out as a living room, complete with a couch, a small television, and a coffee table.

We sat down so that we were facing each other.

“About the fiancé,” he said seriously, “about the f*****g wedding.”

I bit down on my lip, so hard, I had to wipe blood away as it dribbled down.

Bradley’s eyes widened, my reaction being answer enough for him. “Emma.”

I took a breath. “You haven’t met him. He’s nice. He’s caring. He made me feel….”

“Made you feel what? Enough to lose him? You know what happens to people who get involved with our family. They disappear, or they get turned to stone. Do you want him to be in the family garden like grandfather? Like father?”

“There has to be some way to escape it. Mother managed to escape it!”

“The faerie king granted her leniency, because of the cancer, and because she found true love with father. Do you really believe Ben is your true love?”

I sucked a breath in sharply. “You know, that’s an impossible question for me to answer.”

He grimaced. “If you’re marrying him, should it be that hard, then?”

I sighed. “Have you told the others?”

There were four Endless siblings. The first was Louisa Endless, my oldest sister, who served as Gatekeeper between the faerie and the mortal realms since grandfather had passed. She was twenty-six. The second was Bradley, charming, roguish, and always looking for trouble. He was twenty-five. Then there was Clark, who had been adopted after we found him before I was born in the woods when the faeries had tried to kidnap him as a child in exchange for a changeling. They’d killed his family, so we’d taken him in. He was twenty-three reserved, quiet. But he had no Endless blood in him and didn’t have to deal with things like faeries and bargains, but he knew of the faerie realms. Enough to stay clear, away from us, unless necessary. He worked as a lawyer in London, living a nice, normal, life.

Then there was me, the youngest. I was unexpected. Mother’s body had been ravaged by cancer, no one had thought that she could have another girl. But she worried Louisa would be lonely when she died, and she made a bargain with the faerie King on my behalf.

She would give him a bride, a connection to the mortal realms, if he would give her the wish of a healthy, baby girl.

Bradley’s long pause was enough of an answer.

“Bradley!” I screeched. “Why would you do that? Tell me they’re not coming here.”

He scrunched up his face. “Well…”

If my siblings were coming, there really was no hope. Louisa almost never left the Endless estate, and Clark hated everything to do with faeries.

“How soon do I have before they come?” I asked.

“Well, it depends on if Louisa uses the portal or not----”

There was a strong, gust of wind that came in the apartment, rattling everything, almost earth quake like in its power. Two people appeared, standing before us. Louisa was tall, with blond hair, blue eyes, behind cat eye glasses. She wore a blue blouse, a red skirt, tights, and black patented Mary-Janes.

Clark was tall, with red hair, and freckles. He’d gotten muscled since the last time I saw him, wearing a fitted, expensive looking suit. Somewhere, underneath that suit, on his right shoulder, there was a faerie protection rune. It was a diamond shape, with sharp, pointed edges that swooped out from the side.

Once, he had tried to convince me to get the same tattoo. The artist hadn’t been even able to get the needle to pierce my skin. The bargain my mother had made on my behalf was too strong. Even a protection rune was useless.

The magic knew I was for the faeries.

“What were you thinking?” Louisa hissed the moment she saw me.

Louisa, who was normally so reserved, was frightening when angry.

I pursed my lips together. “I was thinking, I’m old enough to drink now, I should be able to make important, life decisions without my family having to hold council about it. When you meet Ben---”

Louisa put her hand up. “No one is meeting Ben. In fact, I brought you a forgetfulness potion.”

Bradley rolled his eyes. “Lou aren’t you being a bit dramatic?”

She whirled her gaze at him. “Absolutely not. How can you be so cavalier about this? I know you’re off galivanting around, but I’m at home. I’m the gatekeeper. I have to look at those statues of people cursed by faeries every day.”

She stared at me, for a moment her gaze softening, her resolve weakening by whatever warmth had temporarily crept over her. She sat down next to me. “Em, I know this is hard. But we’re Endlesss. We don’t have the luxury of falling in love. You of all people should know that. We’ve got to do what’s best for Ben Taylor and make him forget.”

She pulled something from her pocket. It was a blue, glass bottle, labeled forget.

“Did you go to her for that?”

Louisa glowered. “Yes, I did go to The First Witch. I’m the gatekeeper. We have to work to keep the order, or else the gate will fall, and the faeries will wreak havoc on the mortal world. I know you don’t trust anyone magical, but if I didn’t, I’d never get any work done. I did a favor for her, she did a favor for me. We’re even.”

“Are you honestly lecturing me about bargains, and you’re off taking favors from witches?” I crossed my arms over my chest. I glanced over at Clark, who had remained pointedly quiet about the whole thing. “And you, do you feel the same way? Expect me to just get sacrificed on the faerie kings alter without fighting back?”

Clark jumped, startled. “I thought it best that I not say anything, considering….”

There was a pregnant pause. Clark had never felt comfortable in our family, even though my parents had taken him in. He’d never felt comfortable with me. As a teenager, he’d been bitter, and angry. I could never figure out what his resentment towards me was, until Louisa had explained it to me one day.

I remembered it well. I’d been sixteen. It had been a hot, summers day, and I’d sat by the pool reading a novel. Clark had come home from college and come out looking for a swim. He’d been shirtless, in nothing but water trunks. When he saw me stretched out on the chair, he’d given me a dirty look, and stormed off, not even saying hi.

Louisa had come out with drinks for us just as he’d been storming off. “Really?” she’d chided him.

“Yes really,” he’d muttered, brushing past her without another word.

“What’s his problem?” I’d demanded.

Louisa sighed. “Sis, if I tell you something, you promise you won’t tell Mum and Dad? Or anyone?”

“Of course,” I said.

“Well, we adopted Clark. You know that. He has no Endless blood in him. He’s been raised as our brother, but the problem is well…” she blushed, and couldn’t meet my gaze. “you came along right after he did. He’s always had a certain affection for you, but as you got older…”

She didn’t have to finish.

I knew what she meant. “Clark…he….”

“He’s in love with you,” she explained, “but he doesn’t want you getting hurt, because we’re supposed to be siblings. Because of the bargain mother made for you with the faerie king, he’s decided it’s best not to interact with you right now.”

I put the book in my hands down. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“I wish I were.”

“I’ll be right back.”

“Emma!” she said sternly. “Emma, whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”

I ignored her. I jumped from my seat, storming into our family estate, calling after my dear ‘brother’. “Clark! Clark!” I called out. He didn’t answer, but I knew where to find him anyway.

There was a single tower in the Endless estate, used for astronomy. Clark spent most of his time there, looking at the stars. Even though it was a nice, hot, summers day out he could sometimes still be found mapping constellations.

I made my way there, and found him hunched over a desk, working on one in a notebook. “You’re not going to speak to me now because I have boobs, is that it?”

He tensed and let out a groan. “Don’t say ‘boobs’, Emma….” His voice was soft as he said it.

“Boobs! d**k! Ass!” I walked over and hit him each time I said it. “You don’t get to disappear on me. You’re my brother.”

“I’m not!” He jumped from the chair, rage blazing in his hazel eyes, looking at me as he had never looked at me before. He’d grabbed hold of my wrists. My body was now inches from his, shaking, in his grasp. “I’m not your brother, Emma. I’ve never been. You have been the light of my life for so long, somewhere along the way I became addicted to you….and now that you’re older…”

He paused, a groan escaping him.

Something else was escaping him also, his c**k pulsing up against my bare leg through the swim trunks he still wore.

I should have been repulsed by all of it. We were supposed to be siblings. We’d been raised together. But there was something thrilling about being noticed by a boy, about being noticed by Clark.

But I couldn’t even begin to register my thoughts. The moment I started to speak, Clark smacked me hard, across the face. “Get out of here, Emma. Away from me. I don’t want you anywhere near me!”

My face stinging, I yanked myself from his grip, and I left the astronomy tower. It had been one of the most confusing, frustrating times of my life. Something I had never even been given a chance to make sense of, because of my mother’s bargain.

Clark there, in my living room, was the most I’d seen him since then. “Fine,” I said tersely, “do nothing, the way you usually do.”

Bradley clapped his hands together. “Alright, whose ready for a drink? We’re here, together, for the first time in years. I say we go get drunk.”

“It’s morning, Bradley,” said Louisa, her face pinched in disapproval.

“So, brunch then? Day drinking is always acceptable at brunch. Look, I’ll pay, if that helps.” Aside from his inheritance, Bradley made money by doing modeling campaigns. His exceptional good looks made it easy for him to get work, and his lack of enthusiasm for doing anything made it the perfect job for him. Also, no one cared about his schedule mostly, so if he disappeared for a faerie related emergency no one cared.

“Let me get dressed,” I grumbled.

I stumbled towards the hallway, where my bathroom was, brushing past Clark in order to do so.

He put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me, and whispered in my ear, “Emma, if there was anything I could do, I would. You know that.”

I shot him a withering glare, making my way to my bathroom. I showered, and dressed, changing into jeans and a black t-shirt. I put on a red sweater, and the four of us left my apartment.

It was Saturday, so the only thing that I had to worry about was picking up Ben later on. We took the subway, and went to a place called Bronte Brunch, a literary themed brunch place that served things like Green Eggs and Ham with Margaret Mitchell Mimosa’s. It was in a refurbished, abandoned factory, which meant it had high ceilings, exposed brick, and looked like an ** addicts dream.

Bradley was the only one who had the stomach to eat anything, but all of us were drinking the mimosas steadily.

Clark, noticeably, was looking anywhere but me.

“Waiter!” Louisa called. “Can I get another one? Keep ‘em comin!”

The waiter approached us, it seemed to give her a refill, but as the waiter approached I realized the stranger wasn’t a stranger at all. Standing there, before us, was the faerie king. “Well, well, well,” he drawled, “a family gathering. Isn’t this a pleasant surprise? I’m hurt I wasn’t invited, considering how soon I’ll be family too.”