“What are those black tattoos he has on each shoulder?” Charmwill asked.
“They are black stars,” Justina said, “it’s how the Council of Heaven brands banned angels—or half-angels in his case. It will stick with him until he kills the ninety-nine demons or dies as a Minikin.”
Pickwick raised his eyebrows because he didn’t know what a Minikin was.
“We call ordinary people who aren’t related to the Fairyworld, Minikins,” Charmwill explained to Pickwick. “’Kin’ means ordinary human in our fairy language, and ‘mini’ means small and helpless. So, why does he have two tattoos, and why are they on his shoulders?” Charmwill turned back to Justina.
“They’re placed where he should have grown wings if he’d passed the age of sixteen without breaking the Council’s rules, and would have been promoted to angel,” Justina explained.
Charmwill didn’t comment. He ordered the mermaids to move Loki to his canoe so he could sail him back through the fog to the Ordinary World.
He is also not allowed to use his last name,” Justina said. “Will you choose a new one for him?”
“Blackstar,” Charmwill smiled, looking at a sleeping Loki. “Loki Blackstar. I like it,” he added as he turned around to walk away, “sounds badass.”
“What did you just say, Charmwill?” Justina looked furious.
“It’s just a word I learned in the Ordinary World,” Charmwill blushed. He wasn’t supposed to say such words in her presence. “It means…nobleman.”
The mermaids and Pickwick snickered for they knew that the word meant otherwise.
“Yes, he’s going to be badass,” one of the mermaids agreed.
“Oh,” Justina said. “One last thing, Charmwill,” she said. “Can I ask you why you’re doing this? Really? Saving a damned boy? There must be another reason than just believing in a prophecy.”
“Of course, there is, Godmother Justina, and it’s very simple,” Charmwill said stepping down the zigzagged dragon’s tail. “No one deserves to die before knowing who they really are.”
Charmwill climbed into his canoe and rowed away with Pickwick and the Boy Who was a Shadow. Soon enough, the boy would wake up and Charmwill would have to teach him a lot of things. He raised a finger again to test the wind and commented on how the day had gotten even better. A smile landed upon his face as he puffed the pipe again.
“I hope the Godmother doesn’t find out that I enchanted the rotten apple. It’s a little magic I learned,” Charmwill told Pickwick. “She thinks she can balance the good and evil in the world by sitting on her lazy butt next to her scale. Little does she know that it needs hard and dedicated people and strong hearts to outsmart evil in this world. I have a feeling only two kids in the world can do that. One of them is Loki Blackstar; the Boy Who was a Shadow.”
2
Deadly Ever After
The screaming Cinderella ran up the stairs. She held the rim of her blood-spattered dress while the wooden steps creaked underneath her. Her predator, a Prince Charming with fangs, climbed after her with a chainsaw.
“I love you, and can’t live without you. Kiss me or die. Mua, ha, ha!” Prince Charming proclaimed.
Cinderella threw him a flirty look over her shoulder before he caught her by her dress and pulled her a step down to him. He rolled her back into his arms theatrically and embraced her. Instead of killing her with the chainsaw, or kissing her, Prince Charming bit Cinderella on the neck, a true love’s bite.
Everyone at the party cheered happily. Boys and girls saluted the couple on the stairs, raising their half-filled glasses in the air while pink silly-string poured from the second floor. The bass in the music throbbed like a mad frog, croaking from inside the walls, and everyone danced frantically. A girl’s dress, smeared with blood-like red syrup, hung loose like a crescent moon from the ceiling. It had the party’s theme written on it:
Deadly Ever After
And a little below, it read:
Dead is the new cool.
The masquerade party bustled with teens at the secluded Haunted House at 112 Ocean Avenue. The place was decorated like the setting of a cheap horror movie. Everyone was disguised as a fractured fairy tale character mixed with unusual vampires and other legendary monsters.