After Will had described the remains of the Cinderella Story to Emrys and he and Rampion had said their farewells to Vivian, they were ready to depart. Emrys looked anxious as he faced the others, chewing his lip. They'd had no time to rest, and he was still recovering from both his fight with Gothel and his overuse of magic from before. Will rested a hand on his shoulder. "You can do it," he told Emrys quietly.

The boy looked shaken. "What if I knock myself unconscious?" he asked. "I won't be able to help you. I'll be useless." He glanced at Morph, as if annoyed with the demigod for carrying him.

"Even if you knock yourself out, you won't have been useless," Will retorted. "You're the only one among us who knows how to make a Story door. You could have no greater use to us than that. And you certainly aren't in charge of keeping all of us safe. That's my job, as the adult."

"I'm an adult," Morph protested.

Will shot him a look that quickly silenced him. "Don't worry, Emrys," Will said. "Nothing will go wrong, and you'll bring us there safely. You'll make your father proud."

Tears filled Emrys's eyes. "Thank you," he whispered before he closed his eyes.

Vivian had left the room to deliver her good news to her husband. The others remained silent, watching Emrys while trying to appear not to be watching him. His face was pale, and his robes had never seemed to swallow him so much. Morph laid his hand on Eve's shoulder, and Lana was gripping Gwaine's hand. Will had Rampion in an embrace, watching Emrys. Eve could clearly see the tears he was trying to hold back. She couldn't blame him. He had to be the adult of them, but he had more to grieve than the rest of them. He'd lost his wife, someone he'd vowed to love until death, and he was taking his daughter and the children of his friends into a place that he and his friends had been unable to overcome. The place where his wife had perished.

A Story door appeared. Unlike the others, its form was rundown and cracked, splintered and ruined. Emrys opened his eyes, looking dead on his feet. Gwaine left Lana's side and supported his brother with an arm under Emrys's. "You did it," Gwaine told him.

Emrys nodded, an uncertain expression on his face. "I did," he said.

Will managed a smile. "Well done, Emrys. And you're still awake. I suppose we'd better get a move on. No use letting the grass grow beneath our feet."

Eve glanced at him. His face was ashen and he looked no better than Emrys. They were in terrible shape to be moving into another Story. They'd had no rest, no food, and no chance to unwind. Emrys was swaying, looking as if he were ready to fall over at any moment, and Will was just as bad. Nimueh had done a lot of damage to him with her mental torturing. But they also had no choice. If they were to defeat Nimueh, they had to go now. Any chance for them to rest was also a chance she could find them and finish the job.

Will inhaled slowly. "Alright, then," he said. "Let's go."

. . . . . . . . . .

The broken Cinderella Story was just as Will had described it. Black rocks were strewn about, sticking out of the ground and destroying the dying grass. The white stone path, which Eve could tell had been beautifully lain out and neat at one point, was ravaged by brown, dying weeds and the black rocks. No sun shone, and there were no stars or a moon to indicate that it was night. A strange chill settled over Eve, sending shivers up and down her spine. Gwaine still maintained his grip on his brother, and the two had ashen faces as they viewed the dead place.

Rampion clung to her father's hand, tears running down her face. Morph kept his hand on Eve's shoulder, and she was grateful for that. The others were probably wondering when they'd become great friends, and they weren't—but Morph was her relative. The person she could rely on the most. He wouldn't abandon her.

Lana gave a small hiccupping noise. "This place," she gasped. "There. Right there." She pointed, but to Eve, it just looked like another dead place. Everything was black as night, blanketed in a fog of gloom. But Lana's face was drawn and pale, her lip trembling.

"What is it, Lana?" Will asked, his eyes narrowing in concern. It was as if he had some idea of what was going to happen.

The bard let out a piercing shriek that seemed to echo all over the destroyed Story. "Father!" she screamed. In hysterics, she pulled away when Will tried to touch her arm and she ran off. Eve attempted to stop her, but Lana had always been a quick runner and she nimbly avoided all of them. The silence that fell over them after Lana's sobs had faded to nothing was suffocating.

"Somebody needs to go after her," Emrys said quietly. "This place is dangerous. Evil is practically covering it."

"It's where her father died," Will whispered, his eyes locked in the direction Lana had gone. "I shouldn't have brought her here. And I shouldn't have let her run off ..."

"Go after her," Eve said, surprising herself. The others all turned to stare at her. "Go find her, Will. You owe it to her, don't you? You blame yourself for her father's death." Eve had never been so good at reading people, but it was painfully obvious from Will's torn face. "Make it up to her. Bring her home safely."

"But the rest of you," Will stammered uncertainly.

"We'll take care of ourselves," Morph said. "Rachel's in the castle. She's still alive, and I aim to keep her that way."

Will nodded, still chewing his lip. "Thank you," he said. He kissed Rampion's forehead before breaking away from her and running after Lana. The fog quickly claimed the redhead from Eve's sight.

Emrys let out a pent-up breath. "We just lost our protector."

"We'll be fine," Morph said, but it sounded like he was trying to reassure himself more than anything. "We should get moving. The longer we stand around, the more chance there is that Nimueh will find out we're here."

The other children followed Morph, relieved that he'd taken the initiative and started moving. The abrupt departure of Will and Lana left Eve feeling even smaller. "I can't believe this," Rampion said. "We've been abandoned."

"It's not abandonment," Eve insisted. "He felt he had to go after her. That he'd failed her enough as it was. Can't you understand that?"

"He's my father," Rampion protested, and Eve saw her lip tremble. She had a sudden insight into Rampion's apparent bitterness. The girl had been struggling to get her father back, to the point of making a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, only to have him go running off—after another girl to save her. It must have hurt more than anything in the world to have that.

Emrys squeezed Rampion's shoulder. "He'll be back," he told her.

"By the gods of Greece," Morph said, interrupting them. "Look at that place!"

"That place" was the castle—or what had previously been the castle. Giant, jagged spires of rock had pierced the structure, giving it an almost demonic look. The moat had an eerie-looking brown sludge in it, and the bridge was rotted and broken. "Well," Emrys said, sounding like he was trying very hard to remain calm. "That's frightening."

The other children were silent. Eve swallowed dryly, trying not to think about Nimueh executing Merlin and Rapunzel inside the castle, yet thinking about it anyway. What would she find when they got inside? Her mother and father, safe and sound? Or that Nimueh had killed them too?

"I'll have to carry a person across, one at a time," Morph announced, breaking the silence. "I wouldn't trust that bridge to hold my big toe. Heaviest person first." All eyes flicked to Gwaine.

The knight blushed. "Rude," he said.

Morph put his hands on Gwaine's sides and his cloak fell aside. His wings spread out and he strained to raise the knight into the air. "Gee. You need to eat less," he told Gwaine before flying across the moat. He was barely above the bridge, but somehow they made it safely.

Rampion went next, her hair dangling down. It reached the strange muddy substance at the bottom of the moat, and when Morph dropped her on the other side, she eyed the caked-up substance at the bottom of her hair in annoyance.

Emrys and Eve were brought over without trouble, but by the time Morph had left Emrys on the other side, he looked exhausted. "By the River Styx, that was a struggle," he muttered.

"Are you alright?" Rampion asked.

The demigod shuddered, his wings shivering with him. "Fine," he muttered. "Just great." He closed his eyes briefly. "Rachel is in the throne room. Guy is in the dungeons. I don't know if Morgana's with him or not. She just might not be sleeping."

"Is my mother?" Eve questioned.

Morph shook his head. "Unconscious. Guy is the only one who's sleeping."

Eve winced, wondering what horrors Nimueh had been bestowing on her mother. Emrys laid his hand on her arm. "Go with Morph, Eve," he said. "The rest of us will go and rescue my mum and your father."

"We shouldn't split up," Eve protested.

"We'll be your backup," Gwaine suggested. "Nimueh won't see us coming. And from the Stories I've read, your father is a supreme swordsman! He and Mum will be the best backup you could ever imagine."

Eve was unconvinced, but Morph grabbed her arm and pulled her through the demolished castle gates. The others followed behind them until they reached the staircase in the middle of the hall. Weeds grew through the broken marble floor, and each step crumbled beneath Eve's feet as the marble shards cracked and shattered. "This place is unbelievably creepy," Emrys commented. He pointed at the stairs leading down. "I guess that's our destination."

"Be careful," Eve warned the other three. "I don't want to have to bury any of you."

A flicker of utter grief crossed Emrys's face. "Don't worry," he managed, his voice choked. "We'll be careful." With that, he, Gwaine, and Rampion went down the steps.

Morph indicated what had probably been the grand staircase before. "I guess that's for us," he said. "I'd be willing to bet that the throne room is right at the top."

"Those stairs don't look particularly safe," Eve said nervously.

Morph grabbed her arm. "I've got enough strength to pull you up if you fall through," he told her, which wasn't really very comforting—it meant that he thought they would fall.

Thankfully, they didn't. Mostly because Eve wasn't positive he was strong enough to lift them if something went wrong, but she didn't get to test her theory. They reached the top of the stairs and found the only door that wasn't completely destroyed. With a nervous glance at each other, they pushed on the massive doors and they swung open.

. . . . . . . . . .

Emrys and Gwaine almost fell down the stairs a total of eleven times between themselves. The brothers made a silent pact not to say who it was who fell more, but it was Rampion who kept them from falling through the holes in the stairs to the ground below—far below. She had wrapped her hair around them and held them in place every time they nearly fell.

Finally, after about ten horrible minutes of heart-stopping almost-falls, they finally reached the bottom. Rampion removed her hair from around their waists, eyeing them in the light from Emrys's flaming fingertips. "How many times were you two planning on trying to plunge to who-knows-where?" she asked.

"Eleven," the brothers chorused at the same time. The girl glared at them before marching down the hall. After exchanging amused looks, they trailed after her. It was easy to find her with her bright red hair. Emrys eyed his robes with some misgiving, seeing the mud that her hair had left there.

The dungeons could no longer be qualified as "cells". None of them had three walls and bars anymore; they were all either destroyed or completely unsafe. Any prisoner locked in any of the cells would either have ended up buried by rubble or escaping through the gaping holes in the back wall. "Was Morph wrong?" Emrys asked in a defeated tone.

Gwaine hadn't been looking at the cells. His eyes were locked in front of them, and they went wide. "Look—who needs a cell when you've got a cave with bars?"

The three children ran forward, but at the last moment, it was just Emrys moving. The other two had stopped. "Mother?" Emrys called anxiously. What if his mother had been killed with his father?

"Arthur?" Morgana's slim fingers wrapped around the bars of their prison cave. Behind her hovered a dark-haired man who could only have been Eve's father, Guy of Gisborne.

"Mum?" Rampion asked, her voice trembling and the word coming out like a whimper. Gwaine gently slipped his hand on her shoulder. The reunion would not include Merlin or Rapunzel, they knew.

Guy's cold face softened. "I'm sorry, child."

Rampion looked away, tears streaming down her cheeks. She buried her face in Gwaine's shirt, sobbing. Emrys could see something covered towards the back of the cave. He didn't want to see any more than that. "How do I get you out?" he asked a little more aloofly than he'd intended.

Morgana smirked. "Right to business, just like your father. I assume blowing up the bars will work just fine."

Emrys nodded a few times, nevertheless feeling anxious. "Blowing up" the bars sounded far easier than it actually was. Too powerful and he'd blow everyone up and possibly burn himself to ashes from using too much magic. Too little and all he'd do was make a lot of noise. "Very well," he said.

"I have faith in you, brother!" Gwaine told him, slapping his shoulder.

A strange feeling came over Emrys. "Gwaine?"

"Yes?"

"Leave your hand on my shoulder."

Clearly puzzled, Gwaine did was Emrys had asked, putting his big hand on his shorter brother's shoulder. That feeling surged through Emrys again, like he'd been struck by lightning. "My word," he breathed.

Gwaine flexed his fingers. "This hurts," he complained. "I feel like I'm pouring my energy into you."

Morgana was watching her sons with a peculiar look on her face. "I think I know why," she said quietly. Everyone looked at her, but her eyes were firmly locked on her sons' faces. "Gwaine's magic must be lurking inside of him, not powerful to emerge or enable him to cast spells, but still lingering. With two parents with magic, I always thought it was ridiculous that he never had any trace of it. Gwaine, you really are pouring your energy into Arthur."

They exchanged stunned glances. Emrys broke the spell of silence by grumbling, "Couldn't you have found that out before I knocked myself unconscious in the princesses' castle?"

"I guess not," Gwaine admitted with a shrug. "Alright, brother, let's blow this door clean off."

Emrys didn't bother trying to explain that he didn't want to blow it off completely. If he did that, he'd probably blow up both Guy and Morgana as well. But explaining that to Gwaine would be like explaining snow to someone in the desert—a hopeless cause.

Instead, the sorcerer focused on channeling all of his energy into the spell. He took careful notice of the hinges on the left side of the bars, figuring if he managed to channel all his magic into those, the bars would be less likely to fly off and injure someone. "Watch yourselves," he warned the others before starting the spell in Welsh.

With Gwaine helping, the spell wasn't nearly as difficult as Emrys had anticipated. It seemed that, while Emrys had gotten the power of magic, Gwaine had gotten the control. That didn't do either of them much good unless they were physically touching, it seemed. Before long, the hinges turned orange with heat and popped off. Rampion caught the bars before they could squish the brothers. Morgana left the cell first, followed by Guy. "Where's my daughter?" Guy demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"She went after Rachel," Rampion answered.

Morgana put a hand on her hip. "What about my husband?" was her question. "He was with you, then Nimueh, filthy witch, dragged him off."

Emrys and Gwaine exchanged glances, but it was once again Rampion who answered. "He's dead."

It looked as if Rampion had slapped Morgana. "W-what?" she stammered. "Impossible. He's the most powerful sorcerer in The Story. What could possibly have killed him?"

Emrys stared at his feet. "Mother, I'm sorry."

The sorceress gently laid her hand on his arm, obviously trying to control herself. "It's not your fault, Arthur," she told him quietly. "I suppose it happens to the best of us eventually, and ... he's with his greatest friend now."

"Lana's father," Rampion guessed.

Guy and Morgana exchanged guilty looks. "You know about him?" Guy asked.

"Yes," Gwaine said.

"But Lana doesn't," Emrys hastened to add. "At least, not anymore. Father ... he wiped her memories again when she did remember."

"Except she had some kind of a breakdown when we got her and ran off," Rampion reminded them. "Papa went after her."

Guy glanced in the cell behind him, grimacing. "Will's here?" he said. "Blast. I don't want ..."

"He already knows," Rampion whispered, very obviously trying not to follow Guy's gaze.

"Eve?" Emrys reminded them, trying to get off the subject of deceased parents. His heart ached that his reunion with his mother would not and never again would include his father.

Guy regained his composure. "Right. Let's save my daughter and my wife."

. . . . . . . . . .

The sight that met Eve's eyes when she and Morph entered the throne room seemed to be from her worst nightmare. In the center of the unfurnished and demolished throne room was an altar-like object chiseled from stone. Chained to the table was Rachel Andric, her blonde curls spreading out around her, and Nimueh, the witch, standing above her, fingering a knife. "So," the woman said, her eyes firmly locked on them. "You actually came."

The door slammed shut behind Eve and Morph, giving her the feeling of being sealed in her own tomb. Rachel opened her eyes, meeting Eve's gaze, but she said nothing. Perhaps she couldn't, Eve thought, her heart nearly breaking. It was likely that Nimueh had cast some kind of spell over her. "Mama," she whispered.

Her mother looked up at her, tears building in her eyes. She mouthed the word "Eve" but no sound came out. Nimueh looked at Morph with an expression of disgust on her face. "I can't believe you've made it this far," she said. "How did you not become a giant's lunch?"

"I'm lucky, I guess. And you are definitely pushing your luck," Morph added. "It's time for you to stop punishing The Story, woman. And leave her alone."

"Are you concerned for the family member you've never met?" Nimueh asked. "What a pity. You make one move towards me and ..." She placed the knife against Rachel's heart. "I think you know what I mean."

"Leave her alone!" Eve shouted, finding her voice. "I won't let you hurt her. Take my life instead, if you must have some blood!"

Nimueh laughed. "I have you trapped," she said. "Why trade when I can have both?"

Morph spread his wings out, and Eve could see how each feather quivered with tension. "You won't get either of them," he snarled, moving to take a step toward her.

The knife pressed uncomfortably close to Rachel's chest. "I don't think so, my dear," Nimueh said. Though her words were light and airy, her voice was tense and angry. "Nobody takes what I want from me. The Guardians will die with her."

Morph stepped forward, and Nimueh bared her teeth in a snarl. "You don't know what you're doing," Morph warned her, but Eve heard anxiety in his voice.

"I think I do," Nimueh replied.

Rachel met Eve's eyes and mouthed the words "I love you" to her. Then Rachel's gaze switched to Morph and she smiled at him. The young demigod's face blanched when she mouthed "Thank you" to him. "Rachel—" he began.

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted. Nimueh, with a savage grin of triumph, brought the knife down and plunged it into Rachel's chained-up body.