Briar Blackwood's Grimmest of Fairytales by Timothy Roderick

forward. Briar put her arms out to protect the spinning wheel. The wolf that was left cowering on the ground, suddenly growled wildly and leapt at the first wolf, sinking his teeth savagely into his side.
    The two wolves brawled, barking, growling angrily at one another. Finally the whining wolf caught the first one by the throat and clamped down. His muzzle became drenched with blood as he pinned the first wolf to the floor. The pinned wolf cried and wildly attempted to get free, his limbs helplessly flailing. But eventually he became still and his tongue lolled from his open mouth.
    â€œGet out!” Briar’s imperious energy filled the chamber. The victorious wolf, huffing in the cold chamber air, bared his fangs again. He looked away from Briar, almost deferentially. He bit the dead wolf by his blood-drenched pelt and carried his slack carcass from the chamber.
    Briar followed the creature to the door and once it was gone, she slammed the door shut. She turned back now to the spinning wheel and outstretched her shaking hand.
It’s mine
, she thought, stepping slowly, allowing the moment to linger before she savored the sharp bite. Not knowing any longer who or where she was, Briar inched forward. Just one more step—
    â€œStop!” Briar heard a resonant voice from behind her. A rope swooped around her waist. Quick as a striking rattlesnake, shefelt herself jerked away from the spinning wheel and she fell on her backside to the floor. She squirmed to free herself, but the lasso only tightened.
    â€œLeave me alone. Let me go! It’s mine!” she shouted as she struggled to her feet to face the man who was holding her captive.
    There at the far end of the room, holding the end of the rope, was Ash dressed now as a cowboy. “There’s nothing in this place for you, Briar. Nothing that you want.”
    â€œI found the spinning wheel. It belongs to me,” Briar protested as Ash pulled her away.
    â€œThis was a trap,” Ash said. “One touch of that spindle and you would have been infected with the sleepdeath.”
    â€œI don’t care! I don’t…I…” Briar couldn’t finish. She felt conflicted, dizzy, disoriented. Ash noticed that the key on Briar’s necklace was outside her outfit. He flicked it with a finger until it made contact with the delicate skin at her throat. At once Briar felt as though a haze was lifting. She began to realize how strangely she was behaving. It felt as though she were waking from a deep sleep, a distorted dream.
    â€œWhat happened?” she asked. “How did you get here?”
    â€œI got here the same way you did,” Ash said. Then he pulled Briar close enough to untie her. “You were under the influence of something very dark and powerful. And we would have lost you forever had you touched that spindle.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Briar looked over her shoulder at the spinning wheel standing near the window, contrasting so simply with its surroundings: wood, stone, metal. It seemed so small and unimportant. “It was—it was poisoned?”
    Ash began untying her and he helped her to stand. “It was more than poisoned,” he said. His face was now long, his eyes filled with an understanding tempered by some unspoken pain. “Your arrival in these Realms has been anticipated from a time before remembering.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œMany await you, Briar. But to some who hold power, you are a threat. And the only protection you have right now is that
trinket,”
he said. He eyed the iron key pendant.
    She touched it with one hand. “This thing?” she asked.
    â€œYes, that thing, as you call it, isn’t simply a necklace. It is a
trinket
, a link to power and protection. It is the only thing as potent as the dark magic on that spinning wheel.”
    Briar held the key in one hand and silently regarded it.
    â€œMyrtle, Poplar and I forged