My Brother's Keeper

Preston throws me to the ground as he takes off toward Pax. I try to chase after him, but Odile binds my feet to the earth and stands there with a scowl on her face.

“It was supposed to be easy. Get the prince to kill himself, then pin it on you. They would send you back to Eider, and Preston would kill Nurse Patterson before taking you. It was a foolproof plan, but no, you had to interfere.” Odile holds the knife at my throat. “It was supposed to be easy. I get the magic, and you get the man.”

“Did you ever stop to think I didn’t want the man? Not if he was going to hurt my brother?” I growl at her.

“Preston Stuart is a good choice for you, sister. Mother thought about it, and I agreed before she took the poison to force the swap. Soren was always so meddlesome in our lives. He concealed you from the world. Kept you locked inside his mirrored world where you grew and learned how to be a good girl.” Odile laughs maniacally.

“Did Mother seduce Doctor Stuart to get him to hurt Soren?” I demand.

“Oh, Mother did far more than seduce Doctor Stuart. Why do you think he was always so kind to you? Preston is to be king, dear sister. There’s no reason to question it. You should feel special because he wanted you. Of all the women he could take to the castle, he wanted Odette Sloan. Must have been your right hook that got his attention.” She investigates the darkness and then back at me.

I scowl at the idea. “Why me?.”

If I keep her talking, I can produce a plan of escape. Pax is in danger, and I’m stuck in one spot, unable to protect him. Preston is going to kill him.

“Because you’re the imposter, the black swan. I may be in your body, and you may be in mine, but they are the same. The body is the shell, yet our shift is tied to the flesh. Therefore, you are dark, and I am the light. It’s an odd little thing.” Odile shrugs. “You’re just like our aunt. Why else would he want you?”

I do not know what she’s trying to tell me. Nothing she says makes sense.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I rephrase the question.

“You are the tiny sliver of good leftover after our great-aunt died. Mom went dark, and when we were born, there you were, this brief glimmer of hope. She hated you as much as I did. She always blamed Dad for your goodness. And then, with Soren sticking his nose into things, I thought he was saving you. I lived in your world for five years. Trust me, it isn’t as exciting as one would think. Other than traveling from mirror to mirror, it’s boring. Good thing I had Preston to talk to.” Odile winks and sits down next to me. “You know, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I figured you would get killed at Eider or at least mortally maimed. Shockingly, you pulled off one kill on your own.” My sister laughs. “Just means you’re the perfect patsy.”

“What are you talking about, Odile?”

“Preston thinks he’s getting a sweet piece of ass for helping me open the door. He forgets one tiny detail.” She leans in and places her head on my shoulder.

I narrow my eyes. “And that is?”

She bursts into a fit of giggles. “Once I have your magic, I’m going to kill both of you and lay you out on the beach like a murder-suicide. Imagine what the people will think. Preston Stuart with Odette Sloan? How scandalous.”

“You’ve lost me.” Nobody was going to believe this plan. Preston and I didn’t have a stellar history. I hated him, and I thought he hated me.

“I’m opening the gates and taking the kingdom for myself. I know how to close the door and will leave things just as they are. What was it you called it? Oh, yes. An hourglass waiting for time to run out. It won’t be long, maybe six months before total anarchy.” She takes the knife and runs her fingers down the blade.

“What’s keeping you from killing me now?” I ask.

“I need fresh blood to open the jar, and if I kill you now, it won’t be fresh when Preston returns with baby brother’s head. It’s only a matter of time.” Odile crosses her ankles.

“This is all sorts of messed up, even for you.”

A scream tears through the darkness and causes us to go silent. I watch as Odile’s smile curls up and her eyes sparkle. “It’s showtime,” she states with a triumphant squeal.

She stands up and grabs me by the neck, forcing me to my feet.

I feel the hot tears welling, ready to fall down my cheeks. I’m frightened, and Pax is dead. I failed in the one goal I’ve made with this ordeal. I’ll never see my brother again and won’t watch him take the throne. I’ve fulfilled Karen’s darkest nightmare. Her son isn’t coming home.

It doesn’t matter that I’m going to die. I couldn’t care less about everyone else in the city. All that I care about is Pax, and he’s gone.

“Oh, don’t cry, sis. Maybe I’ll give you a few minutes alone with Preston, and you guys can pretend you’ll live to see tomorrow.” Odile laughs evilly, waving the knife in my face.

Strength had been something I found inside Eider the day Dad and I went to see the files. Strength had been there when Preston hurt my brother, and I threw him into the wall. Strength is what I need to get away from my evil sister. I may not like Preston, but he also deserves to know she has intentions of killing him.

As my strength grows, my eyes focus on a familiar pair of sneakers in the dark. Just as I raise my face to ensure I’m not hallucinating, an object is hurled through the air, landing at Odile’s feet.

She makes a disgusted snort as she reaches down to flip the object over, then screams in anger when her eyes focus on the fact that it’s Preston’s head at her feet.

“I’m assuming you want this?” Pax yells, lifting the mason jar high enough for her to see.

“You stupid boy!” Odile screams at him.

“What? Did you think selling my sister to this asshat would keep me from stepping in? You forget one thing, sis!” he hisses at her.

“And what is that?”

“I love my sister and won’t let anything happen to her.” He grins devilishly and places his hand on the top of the jar.

Odile freaks out for a moment and lets her guard down. She releases her magical hold on me, but when I reach out to grab her, she turns around and plunges the knife into my stomach. The look on her face is complete shock as I hold the hilt and step away from her. I fall back onto the ground, hitting my head on a log.

I hear Pax screaming as I stare up at the night sky. I will die here on the beach, and Odile will kill Pax and still get her way. Maybe she won’t get my magic, but she will open the gates.

“You bitch!” I hear Pax scream as a bright white light flies over my head and collides with my sister, sending her backward a good twelve feet.

I’m sure I’m dreaming.

“Do you think that was smart, baby brother?” Odile screeched as she wiped the blood from her face. I watched as her hands spun and twirled, and a blue ball of energy spun between her palms.

“You don’t get to call me that.” Pax explodes with magical energy.

Odile counters and then looks in my direction.

“Looks like a sissy is going to die. Hand me the jar, and I will let you live.” She waves her hand at me.

I know blood flows from multiple locations on my body, and I’m too scared to pull the knife from my stomach. I’ve seen the movies. I know if I do, I’ll die, and the last thing I’m going to do is leave Pax alone with her.

I raise my hand and point to the jar.

“I’m coming,” Pax says to me, and Odile breaks out into a fit of laughter.

“She wouldn’t even know what to do with it if she had it in her hands.” She’s taunting me, which only makes me want the jar more.

She said it would take my blood to open it. I’m covered in blood, so I might not have to do much. As Odile shoots her blue orb toward Pax, in a last effort, he tosses the jar in my direction. I’m groggy and fading, but somehow that damned jar lands right at my side.

Odile is screaming. Pax pushes everything he has toward her, and I grab the jar. With one slight twist, the glitter springs up in my face, and I sneeze.

That’s it. I opened a jar and sneezed. What was supposed to happen?

Odile giggles, shooting spell after spell at Pax.

“That son of a bitch was going to betray me.”

“No,” Pax calls out to me. “It just takes a minute for it to kick in.”

Why is it that every time something different happens to me, it’s like something straight out of a fairy tale movie? My body lurches into the air, a light shooting from every tip of my fingers and toes, and suddenly, I’m standing with a knife in my stomach, feeling like I can take on the world.

So, what do I do?

I stupidly grab the knife and rip it from my body, thinking the magic in me would heal the wound. I’m wrong. I’m so wrong. So. Much. Blood.

Whack!

“No, you don’t!” I close my eyes just as Lenny’s image appears. “I am no longer afraid of you!”

“You know she’s not dead. She is misplaced but not dead. It’s amazing what you can do with a witch’s spirit when you pull her from the body,” Odile announces as I regain my strength. “She comes to you as you remember her. The torso.”

“She’s alive?” I demand.

I may still be bleeding, but I’m angry. With one last burst of energy, I raise my hands and pray it does something. A steady stream of white plasma expels from my fingers and collides with my sister. My strength was fading, but she had just told me I lived my whole life thinking I had done my mother wrong when, in fact, she had done me wrong. She set me up to take the blame for her stupid plan to get even with my father.

I’ll be damned if I don’t die without opening the city’s borders.

Odile is draining herself, and Pax is on the verge of the same. I reach for my brother, hoping my little strength can help him. When he wraps his arms around me, the same ball of energy encases us, and nothing Odile does can penetrate the ball.

A blood-curdling scream comes from Odile’s direction as a giant creature with two-foot talons grabs her by the shoulders and carries her off into the night. Pax let me go, and we both collapsed onto the earth.

“You okay?” he asks as I look for any sign of my sister in the air.

“It hurts, but I’ll survive,” I reply with a forced smile. “Where’s the body?”

“Don’t worry about that right now. We have time,” he says, checking my stomach wound.

“We have to get his blood. We have to open the gate.” I pull myself to a standing position.

“I already did everything I watched you do. What else do you need?” Pax is holding me the best he can.

“Burn the body. We need to burn the body. I have to make sure he never comes back.” I look at my brother hard, praying he understands what needs to be done.

He whimpers, “I need to get you help.”

“Burn the body, Pax. Please, I want to see the kingdom before I die.”