Fire Rises

Ugly Truths

I wandered down the halls completely lost in my thoughts. I still had about 45 minutes before I had to meet Archer and I needed to balance my emotions before seeing again.

As I walked down the corridor I felt the same stirring from earlier begin again. This time I knew exactly what it meant. I wasn’t sure if I should run towards or away from the cause of the fluttering. As I had my internal deliberation, the decision was made for me. Maverick rounded the corner ahead. When our eyes locked there was only one possible answer.

Towards, definitely towards. He seemed to have been having the same struggle and reached the same ultimate conclusion. My feet carried me urgently towards him as he took long strides to meet me. I stopped just inches away, at least a few of my senses holding me back from jumping onto him.

He reached out, his hand landing gently on my arm. His fingers carefully caressed up and down before his locked on mine. “So perfect,” he murmured. I wanted to say something back but approaching voices caught both of our attention. He wrapped his hand around the arm he had been caressing and pulled me into the nearest doorway. The voices grew louder and I recognized the one speaking.

“Explain it, Sophia. NOW.” Autumn sounded pissed.

“I-I-I’m not sure… It should have worked. Maybe she didn’t put it on yet? What… I mean how… who could anticipate Eve finding her true love-”

Um, who’s my what, now?

“HE IS NOT HER TRUE LOVE!” I whipped my head up at Maverick who looked like he was feeling a mix of emotions. He gave me a weak smile before placing his hand at the spot where my shoulder met my neck. His thumb started calmingly rubbing the back of my neck as the conversation outside continued.

“Pft. And your brother is? If he was you wouldn’t need my spells in the first place.” 

Their footsteps stopped abruptly as a sickly sound of flesh smacking against flesh echoed down the hallway. It was quickly followed by Sophia’s shocked gasp. 

Autumn hissed at her, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not her affections I need him to earn. He’s got that already.” 

Maverick’s hand paused on my arm for a moment before withdrawing completely. I immediately missed the contact. Without thinking I reached for his hand and replaced it on my neck. I was rewarded with a big smile that momentarily distracted me from the upsetting scene unfolding in the hallway. When the voices started again, it took every ounce of my willpower to concentrate on Autumn and Sophia.

“Don’t forget your place, you little bi-”

“Don’t forget yours! You may be some twinkly little fairy with cute little spells and tricks, but my family rules this kingdom. I say one word and you’re sent to the Dark Place with the rest of society's dregs.”

“Fine. You’re apologies, your highness,” the formality was dripping in acid. “Just don’t forget the deal. Your brother will be mine.”

“And just how do you suppose that’s going to work out, Sophia? The spell will literally bind them together-”

“But she found her true love! Why should she get mine, too?”

Autumn’s voice was chillingly sweet and sarcastic when she responded. “No one knows that she found her true love.” 

“Think Autumn! We weren’t even in the room and we know about it!”

The momentary sweetness seemed to evaporate as she added, “You’re wrong. You’ll see. And in anycase, Charming is not your true love! Honestly Sophia, your desperation is showing and it's not cute.”

Silence filled my ears for what felt like forever and I wasn’t sure if they were still there. I tried to peek through the doorway to check but Maverick pulled me back just as Sophia began speaking again.

“Well, either way, the spell will still work. She’ll still be at your brother’s disposal. Her powers are coming back and getting stronger. She's began breathing fire and it's only a matter of time before she accesses her full potential. As soon as she puts on the cloak he’ll be able to use her for whatever he’d like. Now all you need to do is convince Charlie-”

“Oh my god Sophia! You are so f*****g annoying! His name is not Charlie!”

“You just need to convince Charming that he needs to weaponize her powers to overthrow the kingdoms… for the good of the people. Shouldn’t be hard seeing as it was disturbingly easy to convince him to bring people from the Dark Place here.” 

Autumn chortled a laugh. “Honestly the man is gorgeous, but there really is nothing going on in that head of his.”

“Shut up, Autumn…”

The footsteps began again and became quieter as they made their way away from our hiding place. I looked up to Maverick who gave me a slight head nod signaling that he was definitely down to follow them with me. I slipped my shoes off to minimize the noise of my own footsteps. If I was good at anything, it was being morally questionable. Sloothing seemed to fall within that category, though under these circumstances I couldn’t be sure how immoral this behavior actually was. 

Oh well, doesn’t matter.  

Without me even asking, Maverick carefully took my shoes in one hand, and my hand in his other.

When we heard them turn the corner we made our way out of the room we were hiding in and followed the footsteps.  When the footsteps ahead stopped and a door creaked open, Maverick moved his shoe holding hand in front of my waist to halt me. 

The door closed and we silently moved as close as possible before pushing our backs against the wall. Maverick never let go of my hand and it calmed me just a bit.

The conversation inside the room continued, “So, let’s talk strategy. Can’t you just snap your fingers and put the cloak on her yourself?”

“Autumn, seriously? If that was possible don’t you think I would have just enchanted one of the first things I put on her in my boutique? No, you i***t! She has to put it on voluntarily.” Maverick’s grip tightened around me and he pulled me closer to him. If this was his reaction, I needed people to plot against me all the time.

“That should be simple enough, I’ll just have Charming request her wear it to dinner. I have something kind of similar so I’ll just say I want to be twinsies with my new sister. He’ll love that. She has no reason to suspect anything, so no reason to not wear it.” She scoffed at her own ridiculous thoughts.

“And then what’s your plan after that? Are you worried about the witch? Maybe I could make her something special, too and then we’ll have double the powers to work with…”

“I’m not worried about her. She doesn’t seem to have any knowledge about how to use her powers and she’s so meak. Maybe harnessing her powers would be beneficial down the road, but for now let’s stick to the plan.” Fire started leaking from my mouth as I exhaled. Plotting against me was one thing, but bringing Ari into this was a quick way to have me burn the whole place to the ground. Maverick raised an eyebrow at me, but his playful half smirk let me know he wasn’t afraid. 

“I don’t know… it makes me nervous.”

“Trust me. She isn’t a threat.”

“So, get Eve under our control-”

“My control… and only vicariously, Sophia. Know your place. She is still going to be my sister-in-law. I know that she will love this just as much as I will. She just needs to stop fighting herself to be good.” She spat the word.

Sophia’s voice deflated, “Your control. Then at the wedding when every king and queen from all of the kingdoms are gathered in one convenient space we use her powers to control them and then we rule-”

“I rule… vicariously,”

“Sorry, you rule… kind of... all of the kingdoms.” I looked at Maverick who looked disgusted. I on the other hand was honestly not surprised. I guess Maverick had decided we had heard enough because he lifted my hand and kissed the back of it before gently leading me away from the conspirators. 

****

“Maverick, I have to go meet him. He’s going to get suspicious if I don’t show up.” We had made our way back to the guest room where he was staying. 

“I can’t let you go back there, Eve. You heard their plans! It isn’t safe!” I walked to the chair he was sitting in and curled up in his lap. I surprised even myself at the forward gesture.

Eh, he’s my true love. It’s cool. My silent thoughts were answered when he tipped my chin towards him and gave me a gentle, sweet kiss on my forehead. I coiled my hand around his neck and absentmindedly played with a lock of hair that laid at the nape of his neck. I couldn’t stop myself. It was true love’s first forehead kiss and I was loving every second of it.

I pulled away and he gave me the most beautiful smile. “Please, please just stay with me.”

“Trust me, I want to, I really do, but we need to be smart about this.” I continued to play with his hair as I thought. Realization suddenly overcame me, “Besides! They’re trying to harness my powers. I’m clearly going to be the scariest thing in that room.” 

Oof, maybe don’t scare the man off immediately. He didn’t seem afraid, though. He looked at me like I was the most precious thing in the world. Nevertheless I quickly added, “And it’s just the prince. Those two clearly consider him harmless.”

“You’re right. You can do this, but can we at least make a plan?” I smirked, appreciating the trust and confidence he already had in me.

“You got it!” I gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Did you have something in mind?”

He tapped his grizzly chin as he thought. He suddenly snapped his fingers, an idea seeming to have come to him. “GOT IT! Okay, you said that you have told Clara and Ari about everything up until this, right?”

“Right...”

“Go tell them about this new development. Have Clara store the cloak that Sophia gave you somewhere safe. The plan was to have Charming ask you to wear the cloak to dinner. I will go into town and have another identical one made. That should buy us a little time to figure out the rest.”

“What about everyone else?”

“Well I think that qualifies as 'the rest.' I’ll think about the next steps while I’m in town.” 

“I think our best bet is going to be exposing their plan.” I groaned when I realized what that meant. Exposing their plan, meant exposing my inner monster to everyone. 

Maverick seemed to understand the direction my thoughts had taken. He gave me a reassuring smile. “You are powerful, Eve. That doesn’t mean you will use those powers for evil. Everyone just needs a chance to see that! You’re beautiful, baby, inside and out. Just look at your reaction to this situation! Their plans would literally hand you power over every single kingdom and instead of chomping at the bit to join them, you’re trying to figure out how to stop them. I can see how good you are and I know everyone else will, too.” The butterflies in my stomach were going wild. His words didn’t make me feel sick, they made me feel confident and safe.

I kissed his cheek, before prying myself out of his grip. “Welp, let’s go f**k up some evil plans!” He chuckled and stood with me. 

“You’ve got this.” He lifted his hand and I wasn’t sure what he wanted. People beyond the Dark Place were always doing weird things with hands. He recognized my confusion so he reached for my hand with his free one and brought it up to slap the hand suspended in the air. “High five!”

“Umm, okay, yeah sure. High five.” I giggled at the proud smile he gave me. “You’re kinda weird, Maverick.”

“HA! It’s a thing, I swear! Besides, I’m not the one that breathes fire… that definitely makes you the weirdo.” He lifted our intertwined hands and brushed his lips against the back of my knuckles before opening the door for me to leave.