Chapter 26: Technical Difficulties
"I thought I'd find you here."
Nixie glanced up in alarm, only to deflate. "Hello, Xylan."
The Sister of the Earth strode forward, crimson hair an ember in the gloom. She wore her favorite green and white leotard, long white see-through skirt, and smug expression. Accompanying her, surprisingly, was the Spirit of Halloween, Sam Hain.
"How'd you get in here?" Nixie asked, curious.
"You know we can all get in here, Nix. Don't play dumb." Xylan stopped before her, raising an eyebrow. "Unless you're not playing."
"Leave me alone," Nixie grumbled. She waved her hand and brought up a box of water, placing it over her head.
Xylan rolled her eyes. "Ever the stubborn stain, I see. Well, whatever. I'm not the one who wants to talk to you." She pushed Sam forward with a toothy grin. "Heis."
Nixie hesitated, then dissolved the box of water down into the water that surrounded the pavilion. She looked Sam Hain up and down. She hadn't entirely met him just yet—she'd heard of his arrival to the Realm earlier through Eldrid. What could this silly trickster want with her?
"Yeees?" Nixie asked, staring down at the boy.
Sam gulped before taking a deep breath and staring right back up at her. "I am very interested in your water powers. Could you show me?"
Spanish. Interesting."Why?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know myself. I have a very deep yearning for the water, though. I feel like I have a connection to it. A historywith it."
"Because you drinkit," Nixie said, irritable.
Sam shook his head, making the chain on his hand clang. "It's strange. But when I heard you could control water, something inside me awoke. Could you show me?"
It was certainly one of the weirdest requests she'd ever received. But if it got rid of him…
"Alright." Nixie closed her eyes and felt the pull of power in her fingertips. She brought her hands up; the water swooshed and snarled. It rose and blended together into a serpent behind Nixie, hissing at Sam and Xylan with a flickering, watery tongue.
"How's that connection?" Nixie asked, grinning.
Sam's eyes were wide like the biggest pumpkins in the patch. "It's beautiful!" he cried, smile cracking open.
Nixie blinked at him, meeting eyes with Xylan. The Sister of the Earth cocked her head.
"Show me more!" Sam pleaded. "You're so amazing! Could I see more? Por favor?"
Something stirred in Nixie's gut. With a flick of her wrist, she had the serpent bend down to their level and get right in Sam's face, hissing murderously. But Sam just laughed and scratched the creature like it was his pet.
Nixie watched the Spirit of Halloween with interest. Strange boy. Not easily frightened.
"Do you think he could stay here for a bit?" Xylan asked, smiling her crazy, mischievous smile.
"What?" Nixie frowned, eying the boy, who seemed too occupied with the water serpent to pay attention. "Why?"
"I sense Mother; she's calling to me. And I don't want to drag him along."
"Why did you have him in the first place? Where's Pitch Black?"
"Spreading nightmares in Africa. He didn't want the boy to see."
Nixie wanted to protest. After all, she was busy plotting the demise to that wretched Second-Sighted girl. She didn't have time to babysit. But if it was to help Mother…
"Very well," she sighed.
"Thanks, sis!" Xylan smirked and turned on her heels. "I'll be right back!"
As she left, Nixie glanced at Sam. He and the water serpent were on the other end of the pavilion, but Nixie watched in alarm as Sam tripped over his boots and started to tumble over the edge of the pavilion.
Nixie thrust forward her arm, and the serpent caught Sam before he could vanish over the edge. As it laid Sam down on the ground, Nixie stormed over to him, eyes blazing.
"You foolish boy! Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been?"
Sam wheezed, taken back by the stumble. "But—it's just water."
Nixie rolled her eyes and clenched her fist. Sharp, jagged rocks rumbled up from the water, like a mouth of teeth was surrounding the pavilion.
"Just water, huh?" Nixie growled.
Sam winced. "Oh. Lo ciento."
=!=!=!=!=!=!
Bunnymund frowned up from his salad. "Oy, isn't that Frostbite?"
The Guardians watched as their youngest member sprinted to their table. He looked panicked and sick, and he was holding his chest like he'd just been stabbed. "Guys,"Jack hissed when he got to them. "We have a problem."
"We certainly do!" Tooth huffed. "You've been acting strange all evening! Is something wrong?"
"And vhere is Charlotte?" North added.
"Um, that's a large part of the problem." Jack glanced around and his face grew stricken. "Oh, MiM. Uh, okay, Cupid's done some crazy stuff tonight. At some point tonight, he shot me with one of his arrows."
Sandy spit out some of his wine. Bunnymund dropped his chunk of lettuce. Tooth's hands flew to her mouth. "VHAT!" North thundered, standing up, only to be ushered back down to his seat as the other creatures sent him looks of puzzlement.
"That explains it!" Tooth said. "That's why you've been acting so strangely! You were in love…with Charlotte?"
"Yeah," Jack said. "She just pulled thisout of me a couple minutes ago." He plopped a beautiful red and white arrow on the table, and the Guardians gaped. "I…I don't even remember most of tonight. I remember feeling super weird and hot and just like I wanted to be around Charlotte constantly, but I felt sick whenever I was. And then we went outside…" He buried his face in his hands. "Oh MiM, we went outside."
"What happened?" Tooth demanded.
"I…I kissed her!"
The Guardians were dead silent. Sandy was the first to react, jingling and making a sand image above his head of a girl with curly hair wearing a coat.
"Where is she now? I don't even know." Jack ran a hand through his hair. "She just kinda ran away. But she mentioned something about Cupid…."
=!=!=!=!=!=!
Charlotte watched from a distance as Cupid slunk away from the party and entered a secret passageway under one of his stained glass windows. Bursting into a sprint, she caught the door before it could slam shut and crept inside.
In reality, it wasn't the best idea to go alone. With only her sword and her furious mind, Charlotte didn't consider herself the most antagonizing person to the Spirit of Love. But this was something she had to do on her own. Cupid had messed with a very personal aspect of her, and she feared it wasn't the first time he had interfered in her love life.
Inside the secret passageway, Charlotte waited for Cupid's steps to disappear into the dark before whipping out her cell phone. The screen blared and allowed a tiny bit of visibility. Charlotte tiptoed down the tunnel, turning and weaving through the gloom until she arrived at a large steel door, shining loosely in the weak light of her cell phone.
She fumbled around for the handle and put her cell phone back in her bra. Seizing her sword, Charlotte inhaled, but still felt sick and broken. How was she going to do this?
"Come on een," a voice called from the other side of the door.
Charlotte hesitated. He can't actually know…oh, whatever.Then she swung the door open, sword angled in front of her.
Cupid wasn't facing her. In fact, he didn't make any indication at all that he'd even heard her enter. He was studying a portrait hung on the wall by a desk, hands clasped behind his back and standing with stiff stillness.
"I have been expecting jou," Cupid said. He didn't sound like the villainous troublemaker Charlotte had been casting him off as the past couple of hours. Rather, he sounded pleasant, as if he had been expecting Charlotte to come by for lunch, not for a confrontation.
Regardless, Charlotte glared, making her eyes extra icy. "Have you?" she asked, words clipped. "I can't imagine why."
"Now, beefore jou go trying to chop my head off weeth jour meestical butter knife," Cupid said, "I would like to speak to jou about a few theengs. I sense greet heartache within jou."
"And I to you. Speaking, I mean." Charlotte couldn't believe how calm she was. The anger was still there, bubbling in her soul, but she was doing a darn good job of shrouding it in the fierce tranquility that had just settled over her. She shut the door, but didn't budge from her place right in front of it.
"I am sure thees leettle veesit ees due to my shooting of zee Weenter Speerit," Cupid estimated.
"You'd be half right," Charlotte replied. "But just for the record, I'm heartbroken because yet again, my life has been twisted and stepped on by a mystical being who knows nothing about me, and I'm sick of it. Notbecause I like Jack that way. I should be surprised about the fact that you shot him and tried to hurt me, but I'm not—at least, not anymore. I heard what you did to North's wife all those years ago. You seem to have a bad habit of setting up relationships that aren't going to work."
Cupid's eyes flashed toward her, glowing a deadly purple. "Watch jourself, Second-Sighted One. We are not heere to deescuss that."
"Then what exactly are we here to discuss?" Charlotte snapped. "How you shot Jack Frost with a love arrow and made him fall in love with me? Because that's what I wanna talk about, but you seem to want to skip around the seriousness that part."
Cupid folded his hands and stood by the table that was in the middle of the room. "I deed eet beecause I had to. Zhere are theengs jou do not know. Dangerous theengs."
"You're working for Mother Nature, aren't you?"
Cupid cocked his head, drinking in Charlotte's accusation. "How deed jou know?"
"It's not hard to figure out," Charlotte scoffed, squeezing her sword. "Why elsewould you do it? Mother Nature wanted to try and bring a conflict into our side by making Jack fall in love with me. That way, it'd be harder for us to concentrate on defeating her."
Cupid pursed his lips and shook his wings. "Jou are close."
"I'm…I'm close?" Charlotte scowled. "What the heck does that mean?"
Cupid glanced at the portrait again, as if asking the man depicted if he should tell her. After a moment, he nodded to himself and turned back to Charlotte. "Jou must understand. Zee existence of love een zee Human World must be protected. Eef sometheeng happens to me…love could be lost. And zat cannot happen."
"What are you getting at?"
Cupid met her eyes. "Mother Nature was not trying to breeng confleect to jour side. She was meerely trying to hurt jou. And she has been hurting jou through zee power of love for a very long time."
Static danced along Charlotte's skin, making her feel cold. But Cupid went on.
"Many jears ago, she came to me. She wanted to make eet so zat jou expeerienced as many subtle pains een love, and zat jou would always feel separated from zee people around jou. Zat I should watch over jou and breeng you pain wheenever I wanted to." Cupid sighed, fixing the pink cuffs of his suit. "At first, I deed not want to do thees for her. But she claimed zhere would be a great war een zee future, and zat I would find myself involved either way. She promised protection during zis war."
"No," Charlotte gasped, the pieces falling together in her head.
Cupid looked at her with what appeared to be a heavy heart. "When jou and zee Guardians arrived yesterday, I knew zee time had come. I told Mother Nature. Shooting Jack was her idea. She knew eet would hurt jou. Zat ees what eet has always been about: hurting jou."
Charlotte's hands reacted before her brain could. In a second, she had lunged and brought the tip of her sword to Cupid's throat. "You're a liar," she hissed, voice dripping with malice. "You've been working with Mother Nature this whole time! You were never going to join us!"
"Zat ees where jou are wrong," Cupid responded, hands up in surrender. "I steell want to help jou. Jou and zee Guardians held up jour end of zee deal—I am going to help jou in thees war."
"But—you said Mother Nature offered you protection!"
"True. Zee deal ees that she weell not hurt me or my eempire. But zhere ees notheeng about fighting on jour side."
Charlotte scowled. "I don't want your help. We're leaving, and I never want to see your face again."
She spun to storm out of the room, but Cupid yelled, "No, jou do not understand, Second-Sighted One! Mother Nature…thees yearning she has to see jou…eet ees so powerful. Jou need my help. And I am not saying thees because I am a valuable ally," he added hastily, seeing Charlotte grit her teeth. "Eet ees beecause…I have spent years now hurting jou. I have dedeecated years to moldeeng and shaping jour heart to be nervous, angry, and separated from zee people around jou. And I have realized…even eef eet protects love for zee rest of zee world, I am going against my own morals. A greet man once taught me zat morals are unimportant—zee concept jou protect is what matters, not how jou protect eet. And for a long time now…I have known zat ees wrong." He stared her down with respect. "I do not want to hurt jou anymore…Charlotte."
Charlotte was speechless. She opened her mouth to prepare to reply, but it felt like dust was clogged in her throat. She finally settled for squaring her shoulders and saying, "I need to talk to the Guardians."
And then she left, head swirling with doubts on whether or not Cupid was being sincere or just a very good actor.
=!=!=!=!=!=!
First, she went to her room. Despite how much Charlotte loved the dress and shoes, she knew she was in no condition to do anything productive. She laid the dress out on the bed, the shoes next to it, and quickly changed into a new outfit: dark skinny jeans, a purple flannel button-up shirt, her gray boots, coat, and white beret.
Packing up all her stuff and tidying up the room, Charlotte crept back down to the party. She peeked in: the Guardians were still at their table, but they were obviously engulfed in conversation. Charlotte darted through the crowd of people on the dance floor and made it to their table just in time to hear Bunnymund growl, "Well, tha' tears it. Sourdough can't be trusted." He looked up as she stopped, green eyes wide. "Charlotte!"
"Hey—guys," Charlotte panted. "Listen, I have a pretty good idea about what you're talking about, and I know it's important, but we gotta go.Like, now."
"Vhat's going on?" North muttered under his breath, looking at her with nonchalance—she guessed he didn't want anyone to see them appearing distressed.
"Cupid,"she hissed. "We can't trust him. He and I just have a very interesting meeting."
"You went to Cupid without us?" Tooth sounded almost appalled. "Charlotte, he's extremely dangerous. MiM knows what he could have done to you."
"I had my sword!" Charlotte tried to defend herself, but by the way the Guardians shook their heads, she knew it wasn't a good argument. "Look, okay, I know it was dumb. But I know the truth—he's been in with herever since the beginning! It's the same thing as Lady Luck!"
Sandy raised an eyebrow, an arrow and a question mark forming over his head.
"ThatI can also explain," Charlotte answered, mentally wincing as Jack's head sank into his hands. He clearly wasn't taking being manipulated well. "It's all stuff I can't explain here. I can tell you guys in the sleigh—when we're awayfrom Cupid. We can't trust him to be on our side."
Charlotte had her doubts about Cupid's claim of wanting to help, despite being another piece to the puzzle that was why Mother Nature hated Charlotte so much. Even if he was being sincere, she couldn't trust someone who had been messing with her heart for so many years.
Not after he tried to shatter it beyond repair.
"I am on Charlotte's side," North declared, seemingly pleased with the idea. "Ve all know of Cupid's trickery. I do not know vhat Manny vas trying to tell us with this direction, but it is not working. I say ve go."
"I agree," Jack piped, now looking angry with the aspect of Cupid's existence.
Bunnymund, Sandy, and Tooth exchanged glances.
"I think I've heard enough." Bunnymund shrugged.
"But…MiM…" Tooth's feathers drooped. "I agree if Sandy agrees."
Everyone looked to the Guardian of Dreams. Hesitantly, he gave a grave nod.
"Alright." Tooth's voice was stronger, all signs of uncertainty gone. "Let's ride."
All five Guardians rose in unison from their chairs, and Charlotte felt their loyalty replace the dead batteries in her heart with a fresh, new pair. All at once, she felt uplifted and recharged, ready to take on anything and go anywhere. Cupid may have had a hand in her old love life, but he had no power in this new life of hers—the world where she loved the Guardians as much more than childhood heroes, but real-life heroes.
They started out of the room, North already mumbling plans to sneak out the back way and book it to the sleigh. They wasted no time in gathering their things from their rooms and sneaking back down, where it occurred to them that hadn't seen Cupid at all.
"I think he's still down in his secret room," Charlotte reasoned to them. "I'll explain later," she added with an exasperated eye roll as they gawked at her from the mention of a "secret room."
Just then, a ribbon of green and pink fazed through the wall, squeaking excitedly.
"Baby Tooth!" Tooth said, holding out her hands. "What's wrong?"
The tiny fairy tweeted like crazy and pointed to the door, mismatching eyes bright with worry. Tooth set her jaw. "Something's coming," she warned the others.
Like her words were a cue, there was a crash from inside the party room, and screams of surprise. Bunnymund hopped over to the door and flung it open.
There was a huge whole in the wall, revealing the night sky outside. And floating right above the frightened crowd of guests were Aura and Xylan, Sisters of the Wind and Earth.
"Or someone," Charlotte corrected feebly, the color draining from her face.