Red clamped her eyes shut. She would not let the tears fall. The negotiations were done.
Chapter Fourteen
Red woke. She turned over on her side and snuggled into warmth under the animal hide.
She was alone under the fur. She glanced around, saw she was alone in the room and stretched lazily. Her muscles were sore, burning from a thorough workout. She had slept well. No dreams.
She hadn’t slept like that in more days than she cared to count.
She touched her side gingerly. Her ribs were healing. Goldilocks had given her some herbal cream to put on. It stunk of swamp water, but soothed her bones and muscles.
She sat up. The hide fell off her, exposing her na**d br**sts. She shivered in the cool morning air.
She rubbed her arms vigorously as she looked for her clothes. They were in a neat pile beside her. She smiled, thinking of Wolf. She dressed quickly.
She wondered where the others were. She moved out of the room, snatching a piece of bread off the table as she passed. She crept down another dirt passageway. She heard muffled voices. As she neared the entrance to another part of the cave, she could hear more clearly.
“I can not believe she does not know.” Rapunzel’s voice was strained with anger.
“It was not my first priority to tell her,” Wolf answered his voice deep and gruff.
“I bet getting in her pants was,” Goldilocks giggled.
Red bristled at the sound of her laugh. It grated on her every nerve.
“Shut up, Goldi.” The voice was either of the Bears’. Red could not distinguish between them yet.
“It should have been the first thing you told her,”
Rapunzel said.
“Do you really think she would have believed me?
She can barely believe that I didn’t savagely murder her Granny. I’m not absolutely sure that she still does not think me a murderer.”
“She is falling in love with you, Wolf. She will believe what you tell her.”
“Love does not make one stupid, Rapunzel. Red will decide what she believes.”
There was a long pause.
“The prophesy is real, whether Red will believe it or not. She needs to know her role in it. She needs to believe in it. Or we will all be doomed.”
Red stepped through the chipped out entranceway into the large room. They were all gathered around a high wood table. Various weapons piled on top. They all stopped moving when the light flickered over Red’s taut form.
She smiled wryly. “’Morning, all. Could someone please tell me what the f**k is going on?”
Goldilocks laughed, her golden ringlets bouncing with glee. “Hang on sweetheart, and get ready to have your mind f**ked.”
Everyone at the table glared at her, but she continued to giggle.
Rapunzel neared Red. She gestured to the empty stool at the table. “Please sit, and I will tell you a tale that should have been told to you long ago.”
“I prefer to stand.”
Wolf stared at her. She avoided his eyes. He could see the mistrust on her face. The bridge that he was so carefully building between them was crumbling before him. And after she was told, he feared that there would be no hope in rebuilding it.
Rapunzel closed her eyes and began to talk.
“They say the lands of Germania were a peaceful place. Before our wars, disease, and famine, people lived in relative harmony and brotherhood. Peoples’
lives flourished. There was no need for bounty hunters or hired killers. Brother did not go against brother.
But that all changed, when the Brothers Grimm appeared in the lands. No one is sure where they came from. It was like they appeared from thin air. A sorcerer's trick. Some say that they were the true creators of Germania. They soon took control of the lands again. Kings and Queens fell under their spells.
Seduced by their evil enchantments. The lands were soon plunged into chaos.
The Kings and Queens plundered their own lands.
Overtaxing their people, forcing them to give all their possessions to the kingdom. Soon people started to starve, disease broke out, and fighting erupted from the ruins. Brother stole from brother. We are all a product from this world.”
She looked at each of them as she spoke.
“Thieves, outlaws, bounty hunters, hired killers, and spies. All traitors to the ruling aristocracy. We are all exiles. Each marked in their own way as an enemy of the kingdom.”
Red smirked. “You’re not telling me anything I do not already know. I was told these fairy tales when I was a child too.”
Rapunzel turned her icy blue gaze onto Red. “Not fairy tales, Red. No. The prophecy says that the end of the lands of Germania will come. The Brothers Grimm will crush them in their iron fists like the crumpling of discarded paper. But from the ashes of the ruined lands will come hope. A band of seven will come together. Seven exiles, each branded with their own marks of fury. And from this seven, one will arise. The one who has the power within them to destroy the Brothers. To restore the lands to their former glory.”
Red glanced around the room. “Let me guess.” She counted them around the table. “We are the seven.”
Rapunzel nodded. “Yes, that is what I believe.”
“Who is the one?”
Wolf stood. His face set in stone, his eyes dark and unlit. “You are.”
Red’s face fell. Her heart leapt into her throat. It was impossible. They were feeding her a load of shit.
She started to laugh. “Yeah, right. I am the one that will lead us to battle and smote the enemy with my mighty sword.” She raised her arm in the air, humor in the gesture. “Then I will restore the lands to its former glory and be declared its rightful ruler.”
“Yes,” Rapunzel plainly said. No humor sparkled in her eye. No laugh lifted her mouth.
Red looked around at the group. They all stared at her, reverence gleaming on their faces. All except Goldilocks. She had a look of distaste, jealousy perhaps. Red looked away, and turned her eyes on Wolf.
He walked toward her, his hand reaching out.
“Red—.”
She shook her head and backed away. “No, no, no.
Impossible. I will not believe your lies.”
“Why would we all lie to you, Red? What would be the purpose?”
“To manipulate me. To force me to do something against my will.”
Wolf stopped in his tracks. He lowered his arm.
“Do you think that of me? Do you really think I would do something like that to you?”
Red searched his face. She found the truth in it.
Something she’d always seen. “No.”
“I know this is hard to believe. But that is what you must do.”
Red squeezed her eyes shut. She opened them quickly and stared at Wolf. “I think I will sit after all.”
She stumbled sideways, her legs giving out. Wolf was next to her in a moment, cradling her in his arm.
He helped her to the vacant stool. She sat on it, and held onto the table for support.
“Anyone have a drink?”
The Bears grinned. Junior handed her a bottle. She uncorked it and swigged half of it down. She set the bottle down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “All right. Why me?”
Rapunzel sat and steepled her fingers together on the table. She looked intently at Red. “Because only the heir of Germania has the power to take revenge.”
“How can I be an heir? My mother and father were not of noble blood. Their parents before them, simple peasant folk. If I had been of some descent, surely my Granny would have told me.”
She saw something flash across Wolf’s face. He lowered his eyes.
“Wolf? You have been begging me to listen to the truth, so now I want to hear it.”
“The blood of power runs through your veins. The Brothers’ blood.”
Red dug her nails into the wood. She needed to hang on to something as her vision swam before her.
Her head spun. She had drunk too much alcohol. That was it. She was hallucinating. The alcohol had not cleared her head, but fogged it. She could not be hearing Wolf’s words right. She started to shake her head.
Wolf stood next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. He held her still. “You must hear the rest.”
“No, I will not.” She shook her head harder, pain furrowing her brow.
“Your mother and father were not your real parents. They raised you out of respect for your Granny. She was your true mother.”
Red tried to struggle from Wolf’s grip. But he held her firmly.
“She returned from a trip abroad with you already growing in her belly. No one knew who the father was, she would not say. It was odd for a woman of her age to conceive, but not unheard of. She thought it best you be raised as her granddaughter.”
Red stopped struggling. She laid her head on the table. Her breathing was labored. She did not want to hear, but the words were sly and slipped into her ears regardless. She was powerless not to listen.
“I believe your parents suspected something amiss in your tenth year. Your Granny started taking you more and more. You would travel with her to places no one knew of. I think your father found out. He was killed that year. An accident in the barn. Your Granny was there that day. ‘Twas no accident.”
“I have no memory of what you say.” Red’s voice was cold and hollow.
“You were a child, Red. We often block painful memories from our past,” Rapunzel explained. “They will come back.”
“I’ve had dreams.”
Rapunzel sat forward on her stool. “Yes, these are your memories trying to come back to you. Tell us of them.”
“I will, but first I want to hear the rest.” She glanced up at Wolf, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Those who knew of the Brothers return started to suspect that the prophecy was real. They suspected that you were no ordinary child. And your Granny was not who she portrayed herself to be. It was soon obvious that she had other motives. The Brothers knew this. They also knew of the prophecy.”
Red sat up. She could hear the tremor in Wolf’s voice. She stared at him, knowing that his next words would devastate her. She could see the pain swimming in his glowing eyes. Like ink trailing a dark path through golden waters.