Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (40 page)

“It would be my pleasure, your Lightness,” she said, a grin stretching across her face.

“I think it’ll look better if you open the door and go out first. Would you mind?”

“What are you going to do once you get through the door?” Allison asked.

“I am going to demand that she give me back my grandfather.”

“And if she won’t?”

“She will,” I said.

Allison snorted. “But if she won’t?”

“If she won’t give him back, I am going to take him back.”

Allison zipped up her jacket and opened the front door. Just before she stepped through, out into the cold and uncertain morning, she turned back to me and said, “Who’s the bad ass now?”

*******

Alex and Estella were standing across from each other with their respective armies in a line behind them in mini-military formation. The way the two small groups had arranged themselves made it clear that everyone knew a fight was likely to break out. Still, they all bowed as I came down the stairs, even the traitors.

“Thank you for coming, General,” I said, surprising myself with a serene tone of voice. “Please come inside so we can speak more comfortably, out of the cold.”

She tossed her white blonde hair and laughed. “The cold doesn’t bother me,” she said. “Let us say what we must out here.”

Here’s the thing about being queen; my wish is pretty much everyone’s command. I want to ride a horse; someone saddles one up for me. I want to go for a swim; someone blows up my water wings. I want to go inside; we go inside. It’s that simple. By refusing to come into Witchwood Manor Estella was telling me that she was beyond my governance. I really don’t know if she thought I was too stupid to notice her insubordination or if she was goading me. Either way I was pissed.

“Let me get right to the point then,” I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw everyone take a step closer. Alex moved between Estella and me; Francis was directly across from her. George winked at me and Matthew clenched and unclenched his fists. The five of five hundred Estella brought with her moved closer too.

“You have something that belongs to me and I want it back.”

She put her pointer finger to her lips and pretended to think about it. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Tab.”

I am not a violent person but I wanted to punch the look of innocence right off her smug face. “You may call me Princess, your Lightness, or Ms. Bennett but only my friends call me Tab. And we’re not friends.”

“No,” she said. “We are not friends.”

I could feel the tension building. Any second the whole thing was going to snap.

“Whatever you hoped to accomplish by taking and torturing Bennett, it’s over. The Inbetween is mine just as he is mine and I don’t intend to lose either of them to you. Give him to me now and you will stand trial for treason and live out the rest of your long life in a prison. You should know that is the merciful option I’m offering today. The other choice in front of you is to fight and die. I’ll give you a minute to decide what you want to do.”

With a cry more terrifying than any other noise I’ve ever heard, she lunged at me. I jumped to the side just in time to avoid her and she hit the ground hard. Not that it mattered to her; the impact that would have knocked the wind right out of a sane person didn’t even slow her down. She rolled to her feet in a graceful turn and snarled at me.

I could hear metal on metal and the sound of fist on flesh but I didn’t take my eyes off Estella’s face. All she needed now was a chance to kill me; half a second would be enough.

“Where is Bennett?” I shouted to be heard over the commotion around us.

“He’s dead, or wishes he was.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” 

We could have gone on circling each other forever. For every step she took toward me I took a step away.

“I want him back,” I yelled.

“Well that’s too bad, Tab,” she said in a taunting tone, drawing out the “a” in the middle of my name.

“Oh that’s it.” I leapt at her. The surprise more than anything knocked her over and we fell, rolling in the snow. When we landed, I was on top. I hit her as hard as I could. She laughed, so I hit her again.

“You stupid, sad girl,” she said as she struggled beneath me. “You poor unwanted thing.”

I hit her again, ignoring the pain in my hand.

One of her men fell beside us. I followed Estella’s gaze to his knife, which lay just in reach, bleeding into the snow.  We both wanted it but I got it first.

“Hold still,” I said, holding the knife above her even though I knew I couldn’t actually stab her with it. I hated her and I wanted her to suffer but I just didn’t have it in me to push the blade into her flesh. But Estella didn’t know that. For all she knew stabbing people was my hobby.

She didn’t look frightened exactly, more like calculating. She was adding up her chances of survival just as I’d done when Nicholas and Nina came for me.

“Why are you doing this?” I yelled. I was gripping the collar of her jacket in one hand and the bloody knife in the other. “Why?”

I heard George yell and then the sound of someone falling but I forced myself not to look. I moved the knife closer to her neck.

“Why?”

“As a favor to your mother,” she whispered as she arched her neck, pressing up into the blade. “She knew you’d be born something dark and awful. She couldn’t bear to think of you on her throne, destroying her kingdom. Before she jumped from the tower she made me promise I would kill you. She had suffered so much; it seemed a small thing to ask. I knew that she’d already asked her lover but I didn’t believe he could do it so I agreed. And I was right, he’s done nothing with the chances he’s had for all these years.”

“Her lover?” I whispered.

Robbin? Not Robbin.

“That’s right; you know him. He’s your lover too, isn’t he? That’s why you’re still alive.” She laughed. She kept talking but I don’t know what she said. The world slipped away from beneath me.

Not Robbin.

The next thing I knew for certain she was grabbing the knife from my hand and hurling me to the ground. She jumped on top of me, and straddling my waist, she hit me hard once with the handle of the knife. The look on her face was terrible; her beautiful features warped and distorted. She screamed again, that same bloodcurdling wail.

“It’s almost done, my Queen,” she yelled to the sky as she lifted the knife above her head. “You are avenged at last. Be at peace now, your Lightness.” The knife flew toward my chest.

I heard Alex’s panicked voice yell “NO!” I closed my eyes when the blade was a second from my heart.

Only I didn’t die.

I opened my eyes to find out what was taking so long.

Estella and I were encased in the glow of the Gift of Light and Air. It flowed from my hands. It lit up a circle in which only she and I existed. I could feel it, this power, nudging me. Trying to figure out what I wanted it to do.

She struggled to get away from me but the light wouldn’t let her go. I probably should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. My gift spread out around me like a blanket, keeping me safe and calm.

I thought,
I want her off me
and she flew across the yard. I got up and followed her, the light still spilling out of me. She was scrambling away, hurrying across the snow on her hands and knees.

I thought,
I want her to stop
and she stopped. Around us the others had stopped fighting. They stood in a loose circle, watching us. Estella screamed and struggled but the light held her down.

I stood over her, looking down into the ice storm raging in her blue eyes. I could feel power surging up inside me, all this raw, terrible power. A thrill ran through my body as I realized her life was in my hands. Just for a second, I loved it.

“You have to stop,” I said, tears streaming down my cheeks. “You have to stop if you want to live.”

 “Not until you are dead. Not until They of the Dark have sucked the last of the meat from your bones. You’ll have to kill me to stop me. Kill me or die.”

Put like that, it really wasn’t a contest. “I’m sorry,” I said.

I looked down at her pale, twisted face and thought,
I don’t want to die
.

Estella’s body collapsed into the snow and the light that held us shattered away. I knelt beside her and gently pushed her eyes closed with the palm of my hand.

I was shaking by the time Robbin reached me. I backed away from him, stumbling as I did.

The power was leaving my body, slipping away, leaving me shaken and weak. I looked at Estella’s body in the snow. I looked at Robbin’s face and saw a man I didn’t know.

 “Don’t touch me,” I said.

“Babe?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I won’t. It’s OK.” He stopped walking towards me and nodded his head toward the Generals. They were standing together behind him, watching the scene between us with great curiosity. When I focused on them, they looked away. One of them bent to check Estella’s pulse. He nodded at the others, confirming what they must have suspected. “I think you’re going into shock.”

I turned and ran, ignoring the chorus of voices that called my name.

*******

By the time I went back to Witchwood Manor it was already dark. I let myself into the quiet house through the kitchen door. Alex was sitting at the table, the newspaper spread out in front of him.

“Is that a prop or are you actually reading this time?”

Relief flooded his face. He’d been worried. I could see it in his thoughts. He loved me. I could see that in his thoughts too.

“You’ve been gone a long time,” he said as he folded the paper and set it aside.

I had already decided to keep the things Estella told me about Robbin to myself, mostly because I didn’t want to think about it anymore. It was enough for one day. I gave him a half smile and a shrug. “I’ve been out walking.”

“You look cold. Come here,” he said, holding his arms open for me. “I’ll have you warmed up in no time.”

“Will you come with me instead?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“To the cottage,” I said.

He looked at me like I was a little crazy, which maybe I was.

“You don’t want to talk about what happened this afternoon?”

Estella’s name hung in the air between us, unspoken but very loud. I wasn’t ready to talk about her, about the things I’d done and felt when the magic had filled my body.

“Not right now.” 

He went to get his coat and shoes from the front hall. I grabbed a set of keys to the cottage out of the pantry and went to meet him. He opened the front door, gesturing for me to go first. At the bottom of the stairs, he wrapped his arm around me, tucking my body as close to his as possible.

“Do you want to know what happened after you left?”

“Yes, please.”

“Estella’s men swore loyalty to you as an alternative to execution. One of them took Matthew to the cave on the Northern Shore where Bennett was hidden. He’s in the Center now, being cared for. He will come home as soon as he is strong enough to travel.

“George was stabbed in the back by one of Estella’s men. The Guardian broke her collarbone when she jumped the Elf who’d slashed George; they rolled down the hill and crashed into a tree. She must have been in terrible pain, but she protected George all the while the fighting continued around them.” He was clearly impressed.

“Francis?” I asked.

“He’s fine.”

I sincerely doubted that, but he wasn’t hurt physically so Alex didn’t list him among the injuries our side had sustained that day. Personally, I think the emotional damage caused by watching the girl he loved try to kill me before seeing that girl murdered by what must have looked to him like the glow from a very powerful light bulb counted as a grievous injury. There was going to be a limp.