A Queen Named Victory

Chapter Sixteen

"What are we doing here?"

"This is where we first met."

We stood within a grassy clearing surrounded by thorny shrubberies and berry bushes. In the distance, a low owl's hooted. I shook my head. It was not possible. I would have remembered meeting a beastly forest creature with sharp teeth and a tail. Memories filtered through my mind but left me empty-handed. Children's sounds neared us as their incoherent voices bounced through the trees.

"Just watch," Grendel whispered when I turned to him.

"Go, Iggy," my shrilly voice commanded. "Up, go up!"

The bright illusion of a fearful young Ingrid clawed her way past the thorny barrier into the clearing where I stood with Grendel. Blurry memories of that day returned to me.

Ingrid climbed the branches of the massive aspen tree. She did as I had commanded by closing her eyes and covering her ears once she was at a safe height from the ground. More voices followed us into the forest. "Get the little bitches! You'll pay for your mama's curse, witch spawn!" Emeril shouted.

His father convinced him that our mother cursed his family for underpaying her when she served as their midwife. They lost the baby to inadequate breastfeeding, but they felt more comfortable with accusing my mother of witchcraft than confronting their neglect. I frantically searched for a weapon. At worst, they would give me a quick whipping. It could not be any worse than Papa's punishments. I shoved rocks into my dress pocket and armed myself with a large stick when Emeril and his lackeys crossed into the clearing. I hurled stones at them until they were too close for comfort.

"You still have a terrible aim," Grendel noted.

"I'll practice on you when we return to Montver."

I flung the last of the stones and began hitting them with the stick. Emeril clutched it with one hand and tossed it aside before he loomed over me. The town's children pounced on me after he gave them the signal. They kicked, slapped, and beat me while my sister sat blindly in the tree.

"AH!" Erik screamed, "She bit me!!"

I clutched a mound of Faye's hair, pulling her to the floor with me. Low grumbling shook the berry bushes, and the other children paused their thrashing. I expected the wolverine from my memories to appear from its cover to scare them away, but instead, I found myself face to face with a young lanky pale-haired fey child growling and flinging rocks. Grendel had the same mischievous glazed eyes and spiked smirk.

At once the children clambered out of the forest. Their fearful screams were reduced into faint echoes. I threw the wood branch at the fey boy.

"What was that for?!" He rubbed the spot on his shoulder where the stick smacked him.

"I'm not gonna let you eat me!"

"You've got little to no meat on your bones, and I bet you'd taste nasty too." He stuck out his tongue. The boy crouched beside me and helped me to my feet. "What are you?" I looked past his body at the tail on the floor. He startled me when he wiped the blood from my nose with a square cloth.

"What are you?!" I said again while holding his wrist from touching me further.

He tsked, "You don't have any manners, do you? You should thank me."

I blew a raspberry at him. "I didn't ask for you to jump into my fight when I was fine on my own. Can you control your tail like a cat?" My cheeks reddened while he laughed at me.

"Don't laugh at me," I said, poking him.

"Are you going to keep your sister up there?" He motioned to Ingrid. I left Ingrid in the tree while I talked to the nameless boy. Just this once, I convinced myself. I only retrieved my sister after he promised not to eat us both. Ingrid shied away from him behind my wild hair.

"He's frightening," she murmured.

"I'm here," I reminded her while I squeezed her plump hand.

"Hello Ingrid, I'm the king of the mountain," the boy said proudly with a bow.

"No, you aren't," I scoffed.

"Yeah huh."

"Then I'm a princess."

"Why be a princess when you can be my queen? Sigrid, Queen of the Forest." He stretched his arms, motioning to the bountiful fern-covered trees. He then used his glimmering magic to construct an ornate wooden crown out of the air above his fingertips and placed it on my head.

"What about me?" asked Ingrid.

Grendel grabbed his chin with his little fingers.

"You can be the fairy princess. Ya, look just like them."

"But I want to be a queen too," she pouted.

"Fine, be the fairy queen then. I already have a queen," he brushed aside her whining pouts. Though she quickly moved on when he placed a little crystal crown on her head. We giggled our way deeper into the forest with our newly bestowed royal titles.

"You came back for me."

Grendel sat atop the wooden stump where the old aspen tree stood. He combed his hand through his hair.

"I've loved you since the day you threw that stick at me."

He visited me often even though his father forbade it. He removed every reminder of the old king within the castle, besides the dark handprint on the entrance wall. Grendel's father embodied the rumors of the Dimikyrs. He was a ruthless killer who used his enemies' weaknesses and bathed in their blood. He took the throne by force and turned Montver into the most war-dependent kingdom of all fey lands. He left his son with too many burdens to endure alone.

We both had assholes for fathers.

I sat beside him, holding onto his hands. In one moment, they were kind and gentle to not to scratch my skin. Yet in the next, he cut off the limb of a king for threatening me.

"I was wrong to hide so several truths from you," he admitted. His voice trembled, and he averted his gaze.

We sat together in the same spot where we played as children. Foggy memories reappeared after years of undisturbed slumber. Grendel was not the monster I made him out to be, and I was not as righteous as I thought of myself. "I'm sorry for calling you a heap of shit," I blurted awkwardly. "And for being so..."

"Judgy?"

"Hm," I paused.

"Distant? Untrusting?"

"What? Uh."

"Close-minded," he offered. I tugged his ear, forcing him to stop talking.

"I'm sorry for assuming the worst of you."

Grendel stopped his chuckling after I released my grasp of his hands. The sight of his glimmering hair and blushing cheeks brought a grin to my face. Grendel caressed my cheeks, guiding me closer to him.

His sweet elderberry scent excited my already pounding heart, and my inner willow warblers flapped their wings wildly. Thrilled shivers spread from the nape of my neck to my lower back. Grendel's touch ignited a fire under my skin. I savored him slowly until my lips begged for more. We kissed under sparkling moonlight that leaked through outreaching aspen branches.