Page 34 of Rumpelstilzchen

Rumple had done a lot of things lately that arguably he shouldn’t. “Too late?” he asked, keeping his form obscured and his voice low. He didn’t know how many other earth geists might be close enough to overhear. Hundreds, possibly.

“Ja. He vanished,” the tiny geist pulled his hands from his pockets and counted on his fingers. “ten turns of the moon ago.”

“He?” The question was out there before Rumple realised he had spoken.

With a definitive nod of his head, the earth spirit added, “The rest of the family remained, and we stayed because we thought he might come back.”

Rumple’s shadows swirled with vehemence. The tiny spirit was referring to Boy. These other geists had found him first. Had used him to strengthen their magick. Used him to place a protective ward when they had no right!

His shadows lashed against the earth geist’s barrier in fury, and Rumple roared loud enough to shake the ground beneath them. In need of retribution, a thick tendril of shadow magick wrapped around the rock and the cowering earth spirit popped a golden defence ward.

Rage forced Rumple to partially materialise. His shadows lifted both the rock and the surprised geist through the magickal barrier with ease, and he seethed. “You have no claim! Boy is mine!”

Without warning, hundreds more earth geists sprang from the ground, each wrapped tightly in the gold and green aura of their earth magick. The diminutive spirits moved as one as they rushed towards Rumple with astonishing speed.

Rumple retaliated with expert precision. His thick and oppressive shadows surged forward. They blanketed the churned-up ground of Boy’s homestead, swallowed the angry geists’ war cries, and dimmed their glittering light.

“Please! Stop!” cried the tiny spirit, who was stuck fast upon his rock. “We didn’t know there was a Heart-Bond. He bore no sign!”

The shadows that had crushed the rock so tightly a fissure had developed through its centre paused.

“A Heart-Bond?” Rumple repeated out loud.

Emphatically, the earth spirit nodded his head, and the wild swing of his dark and messy hair accentuated the motion. “No magick had entered him. It’s why we blessed the land.”

Rumple slowly lowered the rock and trapped the other earth geists in place with his shadows while he thought through what this meant. Boy was an amplifier, an artefact, it was only natural that he would have drawn the earth spirits to him. But Boy wasn’t made for earth magick, it couldn’t enter him, and so the best the tiny spirits could do was as they had done—live close by and benefit from his vitality.

Boy was, however, made for shadow magick. He was his Heart.

Rumple placed the rock back on the ground and withdrew his shadows as a slow smile overtook his face. All this time, he’d been searching for a way to possess his Heart—to take it into himself—when it was the opposite that needed to happen. To claim his Heart, Rumple simply needed to infuse it. He needed to imbue Boy with his shadow magick, much like he had with his golden thread collar.

Rumple’s features fell. But if he did that, if he claimed his Heart that way, then would he risk losing Boy? The human who had captivated him and blessed him with his own magick.

The leather of his gloves creaked when Rumple’s fists clenched. He had finally learned how to claim his Heart, and yet he still couldn’t do it. He ground his back teeth.

Furthermore, if he claimed his Heart now, then Boy would also be consumed by the Queen’s black magick. But could Rumple leave him unclaimed, knowing that Boy would remain mortal and vulnerable to abuse by other geists?

Rumple was responsible for Boy’s life, and either way, it would end.

The earth geist anxiously wrung his hands together, and the tiny spirit’s visible agitation vexed Rumple.

“What?” he abruptly demanded.

“It’s just… You said the artefact is yours, but…”

Rumple roared in frustration, and the earth geist’s aura gleamed a brighter shade of green in response.

“There was no Heart-Bond,” the earth spirit spoke in a rush. “Which means he has yet to choose you.”

The homestead fell silent. Rumple’s shadows froze. “He has yet to choose,” he repeated.

“What makes a living artefact special,” continued the small spirit, “is that they cannot be possessed. You cannot claim him.” The earth geist pushed his hands back inside his pockets and rose up on his tiptoes. “Only the human can form the Heart-Bond. He has to choose you.”

The hollow of Rumple’s chest ached, and his mind reeled.

The Queen’s fresh summons ripped through him so suddenly and definitively that he staggered in place.

“Mirror, mirror.” Queen Schön’s musical lilt washed over the gathered earth geists like a powerful wave, and they sank back below the ground. “Show me my Pet.”