Blood, Milk & Chocolate - Part 1 (The Grimm Diaries Book 3) (21 page)

"Shew's
heart is now twenty-one grams," Fable explained. "I know of a way to
cut it out and split it among us. If we do that, the Queen has to catch the
seven of us to get it."

There was
a long silence.
A really long silence.
And Fable
sympathized with them. One had to think such a thing over and over again. Fable
had witnessed the moments that changed the course of fairy tales. The reason
for the Queen's hunting of them all.

"I
like it," Ladle said.

Fable
smiled. Of course, Ladle was quirkily fearless. Why wouldn't Death carry
someone else's heart?

"If I
cut Shew's heart out and split it among the seven of us," Fable said, "each
one of us will have to live with a heart three grams heavier."

"Three
grams heavier?" Marmalade said, as everyone remembered they had talked
about the consequences of a heavier heart in Jack's house earlier. "But we
said we're not sure what happens to those with a heavier heart."

"I am
utterly confused," the Star said. "Are we going to cut the poor girl
open?"

"It's
not like that," Fable said, although she wasn't sure. She tried to express
the inner thoughts she had as spontaneously as possible. "No cutting is
involved. It's a dark spell, one the universe will not approve of.
A spell against the norms of life.
But if we want to help
Shew, this is all I know."
And I don't know how I know it.

"What
does that mean, 'a spell against the norms of life'?" Marmalade squinted
in the faint light.

Loki's
threatening voice outside urged them to decide.

"I
have no idea." Fable truly didn't know. "I never tried the spell
before. I just know you're not supposed to do it."

"Who
taught it to you?" Jack asked.

Fable
looked at Cerené.

"I
don't think we have time to delve into that," Cerené said. "Either we
spilt Shew's heart or we fight outside."

It seemed
that none of them had anything to contribute.

"How
is this done?" Cerené seemed to be the only one who understood. Maybe it
was her unconditional love for Shew, or her prior experience with the Art.
Magic was a consequential art. It came with a certain baggage that only
practitioners understood.

"We prick
Shew's finger," Fable said. "Then we must prick ours. Each one has to
mesh his or her blood with Shew's. Just a little bit will do. Then we hold
hands and circle her, while I say my incantation."

"Just
like that?" Ladle asked.

"It's
not going to be easy," Fable warned them. "The transformation will be
the greatest pain any one of us has ever endured."

"Why
are we doing this, again?" Jack scoffed. "She is a ruthless vampire
girl."

"She
is the Chosen One," Cerené said. It was the first time Fable had learned
this. "It is mentioned in a prophecy that she will end the reign of
vampires."

"So
each one of us will have a chunk of the Chosen One's heart in us?" Ladle
chirped.

"As I
said, I don't know how the spell works." Fable had to go through the
burden of repeating what she wasn't sure of.

"You
mean you don't know how the forbidden spell works at all?" Jack said.

"I
know
how
it works, but don't know the consequences of each one of us
living with a heavier heart for a while. We're not supposed to have a heavier
heart. It's against the universe's orders."

"Well,
good luck to all of you. I'm pretty awesome with my heart." Jack stood up.
"I'm out of this."

"Stop!"
Marmalade called out. It was a foolish endeavor, as her voice was too loud this
time. Everyone waited to see if someone outside had heard her.

The
panthers' breaths were audible now. They were sniffing the earth around the
cave. It was too late to hesitate any more.

"Come
out, wherever you are," Loki sneered outside.

None of
them uttered a single hiss, wishing he'd just give up and look somewhere else.

"That's
it. I'm fed up!" Loki lost it after a long silence. "The hell with
the Queen and her daughter," he roared. "I don't have to bring her
the heart and liver. Personally, I just want to kill the bratty Princess."

What did
he mean he was fed up? None of them had an answer to that.

Then it
came, shockingly fast: "Burn down this place—the trees and the
caves. Right now!" Loki ordered his huntsmen. "Let's burn every
living thing in this area, whether they come out or not."

41

The Queen's
Diary

As it
turned out, Angel didn't choose the whale. In many ways, it seemed to have
chosen us. Angel told me that while he was struggling to protect me against the
raging sea, he sank as deep as he could, and waited until it calmed down.
Luckily, no mermaids followed us, because they had fled from Fate's wrath. Fate
being a monster with a child's brain played in our favor.
But
for how long?

"So
all the lines I saw in the night were the whale's curvy ribs from inside?"
I lay in Angel's arms, contemplating whether being here was romantic or morbid.
Did I have to worry if I could ever leave this whale? Could this be our new
kingdom?

"Exactly,"
Angel said, brushing my hair. "Right here we feel like we're not moving,
but the whale is swimming in the Seven Seas."

"But
this water under the raft is deep," I remarked.

"It
is." Angel laughed. "There is fish, too, and shells at the bottom. It's
like the whale is a sea of its own. Which is why we should be careful."

"Why?"

"All
these fish somehow came in through the whale's mouth, I guess," he said. "Meaning,
who knows what the sea could throw in here?"

"I
see." I tried to look as far as I could to glimpse the whale's mouth's
opening, but this thing seemed immense, and the lights were dim—strangely,
the inside was lit by fireflies, glowing a random gold light here and there.
Either the whale had its mouth shut or it was much bigger than I could imagine.
"But Hook controls the whales at sea."

"Not
this one," Angel said. "When I swam around, I found there have been
many other people before us here. You can tell from the carvings on the whale's
bones."

"Do
you think they escaped Fate, too?" I said.

"Hard
to tell, but the whale saved them from the evil in the sea one way or another.
The writings suggest that. Some claim to have slept here for seven years
without need to eat or drink. But they're just stories."

"I
wonder where these people are now?"

"I
wish we'd meet a survivor so we can know where to go from here," Angel
said. "There is a common name I came across many times on the wall's ribs.
I have no idea what it means, but it's always capitalized and found among other
names of people who have been here. Maybe that's the name of someone we should
look for."

"What
name?"

"Moby
Dick," he said. "Funny name, right?"

"Strange
name," I said. "You think it's a man's name? Maybe it's a message?"

"If
it is, I don't know how to interpret it," Angel said. "I really don't
care about this. I just want us to rest and then sail this small raft out to
the Seven Seas. We have to find the Tower of Tales, like I promised."

I tried to
talk, but Angel put a finger on my mouth.

"Shh,"
he said. The gold in his eyes flickered, but in a good way. "I have put
you through a lot and we have to reach our destiny. My father will not give up
on hunting us. We might have less time than we think."

"You
think he would chase us here?"

"He
won't give up, Carmilla," Angel said. "He can't."

Before I
said anything, I remembered the mermaids claiming Angel hadn't really been
honest with me.

"There
are things I haven't told you, Carmilla," he confessed. "I still want
you to trust me, though."

"What
didn't you tell me, Angel?" I turned and faced him.

"If I
tell you, you will run away, afraid," he said. "Trust me. And I don't
want to lose you."

"Do
you think I can go anywhere now?" I said, my eyes briefly scanning the
immense structure of the whale. It was as big as a cathedral. "I can't
swim. I can't stare and see my face in water. I am helpless, Angel. What are
you keeping from me?"

"Remember
when I was away for two years, after you were held captive by my father?"

I nodded.

"I
really wanted to be with you, but…" Angel shrugged, something he never
did. "I learned a few things that would happen if we'd be together."

"Like
what?"
A few things?
Not just one
thing? And Fate thought I was lucky?

"Well…"
His face was really near, but his eyes were distant, although looking straight
into mine. "First of all, my father thinks you're one of us."

"What?"
Even though I loved Angel dearly, my reaction was a bit insulting to him. I
backed away a little. What did he mean by "one of us"? Angel himself
wasn't one of them. "That's nonsense."

"I
never got to know why exactly he thinks so, but…" He shrugged again. "If
you think of it, some parts make sense."

"What
are you saying, Angel?" I said. "You aren't one of them. Neither am
I. We choose to be who we are." Then I realized what he was trying to say.
"You think I'm a vampire?"

"A
half-vampire, maybe," he said. I was shocked. "Or have a susceptibility
to turn into one."

"I
can't believe my ears."

"Look
at it this way. You can't look at mirrors, like us."

"Because
of a curse by some nameless witch—"

"That
nameless witch can only curse vampires, Carmilla." He looked like he
regretted telling me. "I asked around, and everyone confirmed she only had
power over vampires—and half-vampires; anyone who has vampire blood in
them."

"How
can you be sure?"
Shocked
didn't nearly describe what I felt. "What's
her name, the witch?" I remembered the mermaids asking me to meet her.

"No
one told me," Angel said. "Remember that I'm an outcast. I rarely
lived among vampires. I don't know the lore or the history. Not accurately or
detailed. And there is the blood, milk, and chocolate thing."

"What
about it?" I didn't need to recite the incidents in the vampires' dungeon
to remember it.

"I
have no idea what the significance is, or why they submerged you in it,"
he said. "But it should hurt any non-vampire. It should drive them insane,
which didn't happen to you. Anyway, I tried to keep away, because whatever
susceptibility to turning into a vampire you had, I didn't want to be the one
to trigger it. I had been resisting becoming a vampire myself, and you don't
know what it does to me. You don't know how many times I want to bite you, to
have your blood, and hold myself back. If I hadn't just fed from the sea, I
wouldn't be able to hold myself from you."

I was too
lost and confused to say anything.

"But
I came back for you, two years later, because I couldn't live without you,
Carmilla." He leaned in to kiss me. I pulled away.

"This
doesn't make sense, Angel," I said. "You're holding back something
else. The mermaids told me you held some big secret from me."

"The
mermaids?" Angel seemed offended.

"I
feel it," I said. "My love for you, my bond to you, and all this we're
going through. Captain Ahab knowing who I am, and asking me to leave his ship.
Fate dying to make me sell my soul to him.
Why am I so
important?
The fact that I brought apples with me into the
world.
Your father wanting you to 'have me'?
All of this intensified when I met you. What are you keeping from me, Angel?"
My voice echoed inside the hollow whale, so loudly I thought it shook a little—maybe
it thought of my voice as some undesirable gas or something. "Who am I?"

"You're
my True Love." Angel grabbed my arm, his eyes moistened and almost teary.
Tears that were meant to conceal the truth from me.

I felt
furious all of a sudden. This moment held echoes of my childhood anger when I'd
asked my mother to call me "the beauty of them all." I wasn't myself.
That unexplained darkness in me rose again. I pulled my hands away from Angel
and crawled on all fours to the edge of the raft.

"Carmilla,"
he called after me.

I didn't
turn back, and he didn't stop me. I was going to see my reflection in the
water. I didn't care anymore—I know I have said that a thousand times—not
after all I had been through and after all that'd been kept away from me, even
by my dearest ones.

Here it
was. I bowed over the edge, about to break all the rules that chained me. It
didn't matter if my land—or my parents—burned in hell.

I knew it
would take some time to find a good spot to see my reflection clearly in the
water. I tried to be near a tribe of fireflies, and used their golden light to
help see my reflection. I scanned the water for the calmest spot with most
light. Angel tried to grip my feet, pulling me back, but I slid away. I wasn't
going to be kept a prisoner in the name of True Love anymore.

My eyes
widened, as the water wasn't reflecting anything back.
That
damn
water and that damn light conspiring against me. I bowed closer, my
heart racing, afraid I'd fall into the water and die—who died from a fear
of water? What was this kind of life?

Finally,
the water began to form a face. I steadied my hands, kicking Angel away with my
legs. I knew he wasn't going to force me—he could easily have held me
back with his strong hands.

The face
in the water seemed to come closer, come to light, to clarity.

I smiled.

My reflection
smiled back, growing bigger.

I looked.

It looked
back, eyes a bit bigger than usual.

My nose
was bigger, too.

My face…

Oh…my God…

How was
that possible?

Was that
how I looked?

Who was
that staring back at me?