Chapter 21
It took them around two hours to reach the end of the Fairy Tale Road. It may have been humanly impossible to drive that fast in the old battered pink car that Doris sat in but Gemima drove it the faerie way-magically fast.
Gemima parked the car as close to the central town square of Bremen as possible. A few tourists were about (human and faerie both) but they didn't seem surprised by the strange-looking trio.. Doris with her dirty and jaggedly torn gown and glass slippers, Adam with his bruises and dirt-splattered sneakers and Gemima with her beautiful yet determined face and blood plastered hair near the temples made a very strange-looking trio.
Doris wanted to ask how a the cursed castle was in such a town. She looked all around her but there was no sign of a castle. Beautiful, old-looking buildings yes but no cursed castle. Before Doris could enquire, Adam asked the question, "Where's the mighty and lonely castle where our beast lives?"
"Don't," warned Gemima turning to look at him angrily, "call him a beast."
Adam gave a shaky laugh and shrugged, "Yeah, fine. No calling him beast."
Gemima nodded and turned away.
Adam whispered to Doris, "I still can't get over the fact that your aunt's boyfriend is a beast."
Doris sighed. Ever since Doris had told Adam about Brandon and Gemima's tricks all Adam could talk about was the beast. The part about Gemima being behind all of their problems shocked him but after two long hours to get over the shock he was busy wondering about how such a huge beast living in such a huge, cursed castle had never made it to the news.
Doris had told him that faerie updates never made it to the news but that didn't drown his spirits. She guessed he was happy that the deal was going to be fulfilled. She should have been happy too. They still had about six hours and soon only two statements would be left on the deal. It was the second of these two statements that bothered her.
Earlier Doris had tried to calm herself about the subject concerning the resurrection of her dead mother because she had felt her Aunt Gemima could manage that somehow. Now, Doris was not so sure. Gemima hadn't ever talked of how such a thing was possible. Doris felt that Gemima hadn't thought of anything further than setting free Brandon. Gemima had never been concerned about the fulfilment of the deal. She had her own reasons for accompanying them and after they saved Brandon her ride would come to an end. And this was why Doris couldn't share Adam's high spirits and happiness. He felt he was going to meet his family, alright his foster family, in a few hours while she felt that they might all die in a few hours.
Doris was trying to cope with her thoughts by repeatedly telling herself that everything would be fine and the deal would get fulfilled in time. That was how she coped with tests, exams, difficult sums or any other problems and she had seen that my convincing herself that everything would be fine, everything did turn out to be fine. She hoped it would work this time too.
Gemima stopped in front of a bronze statue. The statue was interesting. It showed a rooster standing on a cat standing on a dog standing on a rooster.
"The town musicians of Bremen," Adam said.
"What?" Doris asked.
"It's a fairytale," Adam answered her.
Doris hated how Adam being a boy knew so many fairytales while she, in spite of being a girl, knew nothing. Well, he had a loving family. Then she remembered how Adam's family had been ripped apart. He hadn't always lived with his foster parents. There had been a time when he had lived with his real parents-King and Queen of Topaz-and this made Doris guilty of always having imagined his perfect life. Adam acted so normally that it was difficult for Doris to remember that beneath the happy, helpful exterior there was a Prince who had faced several hardships and was probably as lonely and sad as her.
She wanted to apologise. Really she did but as usual something inside of her prevented her from opening her mouth and apologising. To ask for forgiveness is, after all, not an easy task.
Gemima's voice broke through Doris' train of thought, "Both of you, put a hand on my shoulder." Doris and Adam did as told. Gemima placed her hands on the horse-statue's golden hooves and whispered something in Greek.
A red light began to grow outwards from the hooves. Doris couldn't watch it. It was too bright. She had to turn away. The tourists around them didn't even bat an eyelid. It was as if they couldn't see them at all. The light went on increasing until it had covered all them and Doris was forced to close her eyes tight.
There was a whoosh of wind and Doris opened her eyes. The red light was nowhere. Gemima was standing in front of her just like before, holding the golden hooves of the bronze statue. Adam was right beside. Everything looked the same except the town square and its people had vanished. The strange-looking trio now stood in the middle of miles and miles of snow.
Doris just needed to look at the snow to begin feeling cold. A cold wind passed through her slim, knee length gown making her shiver and ask through chattering teeth, "What happened?"
"We passed through the doorway," Gemima said simply.
"What doorway?" Adam asked, looking around.
Gemima pointed to the statue, "The two statues make a doorway between the two places."
Doris peered through the white landscape and when she had turned around 18O degrees she saw it. The Cursed Castle. It looked like any other castle should look like except it emitted a kind of warning signal. Something invisible that made Doris' veins quiver with a strange addictive fear. She knew she shouldn't advance towards it but at the same time she wanted to know more, see more and hear more.
"It's so creepy," Adam said, rubbing his arms.
Doris shook her head, "It's so beautiful."
Gemima didn't share either view. The castle was cursed and that was it. All she was concerned with was getting Brandon out of there. She pointed towards the snow between the castle and them, "See those gold lines?"
Doris had difficulty in finding the two gold lines. It's not every easy to separate a two thin lines of gold from the never-ending expanse of white. She nodded when she finally saw them. They looked like two wires spread at parallel distance from each other and if you at them from any other angle you wouldn't be able to see them. You had to be at the right spot to see them or you would lose them.
"Those are the human and the faerie barriers," Gemima informed them. "Doris, you are the only one who can pass through both of them since you have both human and faerie blood. All you got to do is pass over a gold line and, when you reach the other side, drive these knives into the line, one on each. You can pass the human barrier from here but pass the faerie barrier from behind the castle. Its weaker there."
Adam had a question, obviously, "Wait, this seems pretty dangerous. Didn't you say, your mother got killed by one these barriers? If Doris has both human and faerie blood then isn't she in danger of being repelled by both barriers?"
"Way to boost my confidence," Doris scowled but the same idea had occurred to her. It was a risk that she would have to take.
Gemima said, "No, it doesn't work that way. The faerie in her will pass through the human barrier unaffected and the human in her will pass through the faerie barrier unaffected." Doris didn't need to study her face to know that even Gemima was hundred percent sure.
Doris nodded and told herself that everything would be fine. She would be alive even after crossing both the barriers. Taking a long breath, she walked towards the first barrier and at the last moment turned back. She didn't look at Gemima because she didn't want to remember all the bad things in life if she was about to die the next moment. No, Doris McQueen looked at the boy she had believed she would hate all her life. The boy who had shown to her that he was not just a tall, slightly-long-haired boy with the most amazing grey eyes who had once been Doris' competition but was someone whom she could trust with her life (a life that she, in fact, owed to him). Doris McQueen looked at Adam Topaz and wondered if she should have kissed him.
The thought was so strange that it made her smile. Kiss Adam? A slight blush rose to her cheeks as she realised that she really liked him. Not because he was the handsomest guy she had ever seen (other girls at her school would swear by his looks), not because he was a Prince and not because he had a sad history but because he was someone who tried hard to be happy and even harder to make others happy. There should be more people like that, Doris thought. But she had met only one-Adam. Adam who brought her a birthday gift even when they had fights, saved her from being teleported off with Laurine and helped her countless times while they chased an impossible deal across the world. She should have kissed him and with that thought she turned back and stepped over the gold line that marked the human barrier.
Adam watched her step over the barrier and wondered if he should have kissed her.
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OKAY, #ADORIS IS GIVING ME THE FEELS. These two cuties.
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