Author's Note: Hey, this update is on time. And right on the heels of the last one, so be grateful. And please read and review.
If you guys get the chance, pick up The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I'm obsessed with the series right now.
Also…while it's still on my mind- "Cosmo Rules" established Cosmo is very distantly related to Jorgen. I've forgotten certain episodes haven't aired here yet, since I've seen all of them now.
Chapter Ten: Think Well, Do Take Your Time
Warm air blasted in her face and she sputtered, eyelids fluttering, struggling to locate the source. Blurry shapes danced before her eyes and she groaned, reaching for her wand. Her fingers found no purchase; they brushed a cold metal table and the pervading 'wrong' sense halted her. The warm air, issuing in bursts at her eyes, ceased and she rested her left palm flat on the table. She jolted. There were no such tables in the castle; beside her always was a nightstand. The realization brought home yesterday's events and she rubbed her eyes; at least her hands were unfettered. Her legs, however, were bound at the ankles and knees by thick leather to the stretcher upon which she found herself.
Once her eyes adjusted, she recognized the room. It was the same as yesterday and Doombringer was beside her.
"Juandissimo sent you to Cosmo and Timmy, didn't he?" she said. Wanda scowled.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said. Of course, it'd been obvious who the culprit was, but she hadn't actually been awake for his sending.
"Don't lie," Doombringer snapped. "You were with Cosmo and then magically reappeared around four a.m. I have security cameras, you know. I know every little thing you and your disgusting cohorts do."
Here would be the time to tread lightly. The thought of Doombringer watching their little episodes last night turned her stomach. Morbid curiosity compelled her to ask.
"How much did you see?" she said. Her mouth dried and she licked her lips.
"Which part?" Doombringer said and her eyes sparkled. Wanda squirmed, unable to help it, and Doombringer grinned viciously. She touched Wanda's cheek the way Cosmo had and Wanda almost wrenched something evading it. Doombringer chuckled.
"You really should know better than to discuss vulnerability in the enemy's stronghold," she said. "I thought a don's daughter, at least, would know to keep her mouth shut."
Chilled to the bone, she asked the question she'd been wondering yesterday. "How do you know so much about us?"
"From studying you, mostly. Crocker has surveillance cameras, but they never seem to work. He might be subconsciously sabotaging himself," she said and shrugged. "You also have a penchant for speaking loudly when you think you're alone, and…well…Juandissimo knows a remarkable amount. In the beginning, I had to wring it out of him, but it worked out in the end."
Wanda clamped her jaw shut and whimpered. So he had betrayed them. Whatever small comfort he'd allowed her by transporting her to Cosmo paled in comparison to the depth of knowledge Doombringer had from him. She started to curl into a ball and her legs wouldn't accommodate her. Forcing herself to be strong, she met Doombringer's gaze and held it as long as she could.
"Not what you expected to hear was it, little faerie?" Doombringer taunted. "I also expect you wouldn't want to hear about what I have in store for Cosmo, Timmy, and Tootie later."
She stared at her. She was still shocked by Doombringer hearing them at their most vulnerable to formulate a proper reply. In the back of her mind, she sensed the darkness resonating within her, clamoring for use again, whispering magical seduction and escape if only she succumbed to it. There was a way out, it whispered, although there'd be blood on her hands. She winced. The thought of Timmy and Cosmo tortured was abhorrent. So was the idea of killing someone.
"Originally, I planned on seizing everyone in your family and seeing how well you stood up to seeing them in pain, but then I realized," she said. "One, I'd have to visit Fairy World without alerting Jorgen to my existence, and two, I'd take the chance one of your relatives might disapprove of me. I'm not quite ready to deal with the less compliant faeries."
"So you'll let me go?" Wanda said, knowing there was no chance of it. Doombringer laughed in her face.
"No," she said and twirled the Dark Crystal between her fingers. "Since you have no chance of escaping me, even if you transformed, I thought I'd tell you a little of what I have in store."
She snapped her fingers and the table dropped her into a small cell, not unlike the one she'd briefly shared with her family. However, theirs wasn't lined with butterfly nets. Wanda went cold inside and her teeth chattered. In addition to the butterfly nets covering the walls, she tasted iron in the back of her throat. The Dark Crystal glowed and a sensation she hadn't experienced in hundreds of years returned in full force.
Hundreds of years ago, realizing the faerie were highly susceptible to iron and that it posed a serious health risk to faerie stationed on Earth, Jorgen had commissioned the doctors to produce a cure. Although it gave faeries that used to be highly affected the chills once in a while, it didn't induce any strong reactions. Wanda, who had always been least affected, felt the iron resonate within her again stronger than ever.
Her stomach cramped and she curled into a ball, grateful she was no longer bound. The iron made her feel like her skin was on fire, her bowels rippled unpleasantly, and she tasted blood, like the iron, in the back of her throat. She reached for Cosmo to remember he wasn't there and Doombringer laughed.
"Every day, you'll spend your time in that cell. Every night, I'll take you out and test your magical skills. If you can prove yourself, you'll earn the right to stay with Juandissimo again. If you can't use magic to my satisfaction, I'll increase the cell's effects. I've heard, in strong doses, iron could kill faeries."
She laughed again and it echoed. "Also, so you don't get bored down there, there's a small monitor. I'll show you entertaining excerpts from Timmy's training."
A small circular hole in the ceiling was the only view she had of Doombringer, who cocked her head as if considering a new matter.
"Juandissimo won't be happy at first," she said. Then she hissed, "But that will teach him to poof you away to Cosmo when he thinks I'm not paying attention."
Chills wracked her and she curled tighter into a ball. Her teeth chattered and although her skin burned, she felt like she'd never be properly warm. Again, she caught herself before she grabbed the non-existent wand. From the way the cell was shaped, she could feel butterfly net fibers beneath her and, if she stretched out, she touched the netting. Her stomach cramped again and she swallowed back nausea.
"Think well, Wanda," she taunted. "Do take your time. Think about how important your family is…alive."
Timmy awoke to discover Cosmo stomping on the floor. His brow was furrowed and he had devised little hooves to paw and see whether he could dig up the cement.
"What the heck are you doing?" he said.
Cosmo didn't answer. Timmy frowned.
"I said-" then he stopped. Cosmo was in a rare state for him, concentrating on the task at hand, and dark wisps floated around his hands and feet. Without warning, Cosmo flopped to the floor and shoved his hands against it. The darkness spread and Timmy yelped, jumping back. There was something supremely unsettling about his godfather's usually bright and cheerful aura subsumed by black and competing for control over the green.
Cosmo rose, on his knees now, and yanked on an invisible leash. Tootie stirred, rubbed her eyes, and clamped her jaw shut. Cosmo's gaze was focused on something no one but he could see and he growled, using both hands to reel it in. He fell over backward, onto his rear, and didn't notice. Instead, he continued tugging and there was an audible snap. Light showered his godfather and Cosmo whirled, his whole body glowing with strange magical sparks hopping all over his frame. It gave Timmy the creeps.
"Okay, let's go go go!" he said. They stared.
"There's only a foot of cement underneath the floor and then it's just mud," he said. "I have enough magic to break through it and shift into a gnome, but we have to do it right now!"
"Um," Tootie said.
"Uh…" Timmy added. They were at a complete loss.
"Fine, I'll go first," Cosmo said and shifted into a jackhammer. Tootie yelped and jumped into Timmy's lap in time for the green haired faerie to crack up the entire floor. Alarms sounded and Tootie wrapped her arms around Timmy's neck. Timmy, on impulse, had wrapped his arms around her waist.
"What was that?" he said. They couldn't see anything, but they could hear loud, earsplitting shrieks from nearby.
"I don't know, but I think Cosmo triggered it!" she said. The mounting volume rendered anything below screaming inaudible.
He shifted his hands from her waist to his ears and she did the same. Their eyes met and Cosmo, out of the corner of their vision, shifted into a gnome and dove into the soil. Timmy upended Tootie, rushed to the tunnel Cosmo was hurriedly building, and magic whooshed around him. It was like the magical equivalent of an energy drink rushing to the surface.
"Not so fast," Doombringer snapped and the alarms stopped. Timmy looked down. Cosmo had tunneled at least two feet below the surface and he didn't need further encouragement. He launched himself after his godfather and Doombringer whistled.
Juandissimo raised his wand and a red rope snagged Timmy around the waist. It glued him to the wall and then searched for Cosmo who was, to his credit, trying his hardest to evade capture. Every time the rope found purchase and Timmy and Tootie gasped, Cosmo moved another six inches down. Timmy's heart pounded in his chest. Maybe his godfather might escape.
"Damn it," Doombringer snapped. "I should have known better than to underestimate him."
"Would you like me to fetch him personally?" Juandissimo asked.
"If he escapes, he'll warn the others," Doombringer said and stared at Timmy and Tootie. "But he won't be gone for long. He can't abandon his godson and he knows I have Wanda."
She frowned. "However, he might run to Fairy World and get help."
"Is that a 'yes' or 'no'?" Juandissimo said, sounding irritated.
"Yes," she said. "Go after him."
Juandissimo shifted into a mole and leapt into the hole Cosmo had created. Timmy stared at the broken floor Cosmo had sent flying and Tootie moved it into position, covering back up the escape route. Doombringer snarled, rubbing the Dark Crystal, and his throat burned again, along with feeling like someone was sitting on his chest. Tears prickled his eyes and all he wanted to do was submit, to make the pressure stop and the unshakable terror cease. And yet…Tootie kept moving.
She didn't stop until she'd covered the hole completely, both with the cell floor fragments and the pile of dirt.
Then she raised her chin and stared at Doombringer. "My Timmy is in danger. Anyone he loves, I love too and I won't let you hurt them."
"What a touching speech," Doombringer snapped. "Juandissimo, leave Cosmo. I want this child."
"For what?" Juandissimo said. His voice was muffled. "You already have Remy."
"I wonder what kind of team she'd make with Wanda…" she said. "There's suppressed anger and determination to protect what's hers. She and Wanda may be kindred spirits after all."
"Tootie doesn't have magic," Timmy snapped.
"That's where you're wrong, child," she said. "She still has magic…from when Cosmo and Wanda were her godparents."