Storykiller (8 page)

This shut everyone up for a minute.

Snow spoke up finally, though she clearly didn’t want to. “In fairness to The Scion, he had kidnapped her minions and her Advocate. He did try to kill her, likely because he wanted the border closed, and he had been killing Mortals in some numbers. He also killed her Advocate before The Scion was able to defeat him."

The group took a long moment to consider this, and it gave Tessa time to think about how much trouble she might be in. What could they do to her? She didn’t know the rules here, and she’d walked almost willingly into a totally uncontrollable situation, and she had to worry about Micah and Brand, too.

Somewhere inside her an ache for escape began.

“Still,” Midas said weakly.

Morgana leaned against the dais and held her head as though she had a terrible headache all of a sudden.

“Still, what?” Tessa said. “Guy was a killer and also a complete douche bag. I didn’t set out to kill him, but I wasn’t about to let him kill me just because it’s against rules I didn’t even know existed.”

Morgana stood back up. “Scion, we understand. It’s just, he was an old Story, this doesn’t happen everyday, the death of a Story. Snow has explained to you what this means?

Tessa nodded. “She has,” and then opened her mouth to apologize, but felt a surge of anger over the whole situation and went on the offensive instead. “He didn’t leave me much choice.”

Morgana looked to Snow as if to confirm the situation. and Tessa registered an almost imperceptible nod from Snow. Wow, you really couldn’t count on The Snow Queen to have your back. I mean, technically, she’d backed Tessa up, but
barely
. It made Tessa even angrier.

“Maybe if I had been the slightest bit prepared it could have been avoided.” Tessa said flatly, not sure who to blame, but desperate to share blame she didn’t understand.

“Well, if anyone is to blame for that, Scion, it’s your own mother,” Midas practically spit.

And with her mother thrown down into the mud with such disdain, Tessa fully lost it. “What did you say?” she asked through gritted teeth, practically rolling up her sleeves as she prepared to punch Midas into oblivion.

Morgana stepped in her path, forcing Tessa to pull up short. “Forgive him, Scion, he has no mother. He does not understand the impact of his words.” Tessa looked at Morgana though her vision clouded with tears.

“What does he know about my mother—what is he talking about?”

Midas opened his mouth to speak again and Morgana hissed at him, “If you so much as open your mouth again I will permanently remove it!” Tessa could have sworn there was a flash of greenish-gold in her otherwise dark eyes. Morgana turned back to Tessa. “We apologize, Scion. Your mother should never even be mentioned.”

“Then why—” Tessa began.

Aladdin stepped in. “Midas only meant to say that, for whatever reason, your parents did not tell you about this. Your mother surely knew, or suspected, and they have chosen to keep it from you. You have moved around much, have you not?”

Tessa nodded, her fists still clenched.

“So it was hard to find you. Even for your Advocate we must assume, since he did not find you until today.”

Tessa’s head swam with information and emotion. She just wanted to get away from these people.

“The past is the past, Scion,” The Frog said. “What matters now is that you get to work and that you are trained and protected, so that you can defend yourself, preferably without using your gifts to kill Stories.”

““Yeah, about that…” Tessa said, looking at her hands that seemed to almost hum with power.

“Standard superhero package, no need to thank us,” Midas said, slumping in his seat like a spoiled child as Morgana threw another warning look his way.

“You people thought I was going to thank you?”

Morgana eyed her. “Well, no, but we didn’t think you’d be so incensed, child. Besides, it’s not like we actually gave it to you. Surely you felt the power come to you today when you turned 17?”

“If by ‘felt’ you mean puked up everything I’ve ever eaten, then yeah, sure, I
felt
that.” Tessa continued to stare at her hands. “You realize that in the last six hours since I got these fancy superpowers two things have tried to kill me, I’ve gotten an innocent man killed, my friends have been kidnapped, my house has been ransacked, and I’ve killed someone, right? Why on earth would I thank you? Great power, great responsibility, yadda, yadda, yadda. I mean, I assume these superpowers come with some kind of expectation? That’s what you’ve been going on about, right? You’re not just going to send me on my way—this doesn’t look like a place where I just get sent on my way with badass gift baskets.” Tessa paused to look at the court. “What if I just say no?”

“Scion, it’s best not to waste time denying something you cannot change,” Morgana said, before adding, “Besides, when word gets out that The Last Scion has been called, things will only get more dangerous, I’m afraid.”

Tessa eyed her, everyone, skeptically.

Aladdin spoke up. “Scion—”

“Don’t call me that,” Tessa snapped. “My name is Tessa.”

“Apologies, Fair Tessa,” Aladdin said, hands raised in surrender. “But there is no denying birthright. The powers, the destiny, all of that ‘yadda yadda’ you mentioned? We cannot do anything about it, regardless of how you feel about it or us. It comes to you regardless. You are the one.”

“Balls,” Tessa said under her breath and glanced at Brand and Micah standing there, stunned. Snow stood up and descended the dais, her glittering white dress flashing under the robe as she moved. Her purring voice was like clinking icicles, irritating clinking icicles.

“Scion. Listen to me. Everyone is handling you with kid gloves. You are no kid. Or if you were, you are one no longer. You’re going to fight to save your world and ours, to keep the balance, there’s no way around this, so just deal already.”

Tessa clenched her fists and Morgana seized on her hesitation.

“And it’s not just that, Scion. Something has been happening in Lore.”

“What do you mean?”

“We don’t know exactly,” Aladdin said, “But we’ve had some very concerning reports coming in—some missing Mortals, some unaccounted for Stories.”

“So they just live there, in Lore? Just running around pretending to be Mortal?” Tessa asked, trying to make all this new information fit in her head.

“They are not tied to Lore, they can go anywhere in the Mortal world, and many do. But many also stay in Lore because there is a dimensional rift there, and it’s comforting to be close to home even when in another dimension,” Aladdin explained.

“So what, they have, like, jobs and stuff?”

“Some of them, those that can pass or have magic to help them pass. Others have, let’s call it family
money. Stories, just like Mortals, come in all varieties, Scion,” The Frog said.

Tessa lowered her head and closed her eyes. She took some deep breaths. There was so much to know.

And it was all freaking crazy.

Micah and Brand watched her closely and just as she opened her mouth to speak, Midas sighed again from his throne.

“I don’t know why you are all even bothering with her. What can she do? She’s just a girl. She’s untrained, clearly irresponsible. The idea of her being able to help us at all is ridiculous. Let the child go. Really, what do we care if she gets eaten by lions, tigers, bears, or worse? We have adult problems, not bratty untrained Last Scion ones.”

Tessa’s fists clenched, her eyes narrowed in anger. The entire court was glaring at Midas when Tessa looked up at him, seething.

“Nobody ever wants to hear from the guy telling the truth,” Midas said, gesturing dismissively at everyone. Tessa relaxed her hands.

“You know what? He’s right. I don’t want any part of this. I can’t help you and I kind of don’t want to. So—good luck!” She spun on her heel and headed for the hallway.

“Scion, wait!” Morgana called.

“What are you worried about, Morgana? It’s not like she can leave anyway,” Midas said, unconcerned.

Tessa looked back over her shoulder at him, her voice steely. “Wanna bet?” Tessa raised her arms in the air, looked toward the ceiling, and screamed, “Return me!” As she said it, there was a crackle of blue light and a snap of power and the doorway made of brilliant, glowing blue stood before her.

“Oh great gods,” Morgana breathed.

“Tova,” Snow whispered, stunned.

“She…she opened a door. How can she do that? Can a Scion open a door?” Aladdin asked, clearly shaken.

Morgana shook her head. “Not until now.”

“Scion,” Morgana pleaded, “Let’s not be rash, there are many things still to discuss.”

Tessa looked at Brand and Micah. “You coming non-minions?”

“Oh, hell yes,” they said in unison. And the trio walked through the blue gateway, which swallowed them up, snapping closed behind them.

Gape mouthed, the Court stared at the empty space where, just moments before, the three teens had vanished. Morgana, closest to the closed gateway, turned to them, a helpless look on her face. Aladdin sat down, defeated.

Morgana spun on Midas. “You idiot!” she shouted and then unclasped her cloak and cast it aside on a chair, revealing a glittering red dress, too clingy and low-cut to be considered PG-13. She sat on a chair and leaned forward, massaging her temples. “Tova,” she whispered,
more to herself than anyone else.

“I don’t know what all of you are so worried about,” Midas groused.

Aladdin glared at him. “She has been The Scion for less than a day and she has killed a powerful 300-year-old Story. You do not think that is worthy of concern?”

Midas tried to shrug and looked to Snow for support. “Was it really that impressive?”

Snow looked at him. “To be honest, I have never seen anything like it in all my days.”

“We didn’t even have a chance to tell her about the war,” Frog said.

“I doubt it will matter,” Midas said dismissively.

Morgana rolled her eyes. “Only an absolute fool would think that The Last Scion is not going to play a part in this war. Things are going to come to a head much more quickly now.”

Snow removed her own cloak and spoke to everyone but Midas, “We need someone from Story to be close to her.”

Midas perked up, seizing on the idea, “Yes!”

Everyone ignored him.

“A spy?” Frog ventured.

Snow chose her words carefully. “An
emissary
.”

Frog and Aladdin nodded in agreement.

Midas tried to join in. “Who can we use? A Story that’s already in the Mortal world?” he ventured.

Morgana shook her head. “No, you know how twitchy some Stories get when they’ve been out there too long. We’ll have to send someone ourselves, just to be sure.”

“Agreed,” Aladdin said, running a well-manicured hand through his dark hair. “Who should it be?”

Morgana looked up. “Snow.”

Snow snapped to attention, her blue eyes flashing in anger. “Me?! What? Are you insane?!”

“She already knows you, it’s half the battle,” Morgana said.

Midas’ hand shot up. “Seconded. All in favor?” Aladdin and Frog both raised their hands less enthusiastically. Midas surveyed the hands. “And the motion passes.”

Snow turned on the lot of them and seethed, “No. No way am I going to LIVE in the Mortal world—you can’t—you treacherous little imps—you traitorous fools!” and realizing the futility of her dramatic words she spun on Morgana. “You utter
bitch.”

Morgana eyed her coolly. “Regardless. It’s done.” She waved her hand and a crackling blue gateway similar to the one of moments ago opened next to Snow and she
was sucked through it without another word.

The Court was silent for a long time, and then Frog cleared his throat.

“What about the mortal boy and girl?”

“Yes,” Aladdin said. “Do you think they’ll change?”

Midas sighed, annoyed with the level at which they were all ignoring and disrespecting him. “Of course they’ll change. No Mortal has ever set foot in Story and not exhibited some side effects.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Morgana knew he was right. “They’ll change. Time will tell exactly what the change will be, but they’ll change, that much is certain.”