Eight Months Later:

Dot Curie-Lock, in her elf form, lifted 100-pound planters and flower arrangements into her spare delivery van and dropped them off in front of Yoleta's rose-colored castle by the sea.

The florist was not a bony weakling, but 185 pounds of solid muscle. Sweat poured down her dirt-covered face.

She took a water break in the back of her truck and cleaned herself off.

Her cell phone rang, and she set her bottle aside and placed her phone on speaker mode. "Dot's Flowers 4 Most Occasions. What can I do for you? Oh, Quig, hi. You're not canceling family dinner night, are you? I'm looking forward to cocoon rolls and potato soup."

A sob reached her ears.

"I'm...sorry. Dot, I'm so sorry. Noel is in the hospital... and he isn't going to make it. I'll bring him home to die. Zoreon could've murdered him in the contest legally, but... he used slow-acting death-binding magic."

Her brother's words echoed in his head. It was five years since Zoren cast that spell, and everyone was sure Noel was in the clear, that it hadn't worked, and he'd live to raise his son, but now death was calling with a hunting melody.

"King Zoreon Kiffed couldn't have murdered our oldest brother..." Dot's voice trailed off.

"Noel left his son to you in his will."

"Wouldn't you be a better choice?" she asked.

"Dot, you're the best choice, and you can stay in my cabin as long as you need. He'll be moved here as well."

She stared at the white roses, around her, and said nothing.

*

Four Months Later:

Quig covered Grew-Ella's mother's body with his own because he wasn't the intended victim.

King Zoreon Kiffed pummeled Quig on the back, his eyes glowed, and he started to whistle, a death song meant for Grew-Ella's mother.

"No death magic, that is cheating!" Quig swung around, punched Zoreon in the face, and went back to protecting Grew-Ella's mother with his own body.

Grew-Ella flew, her hands reached out like claws, and her nails scratched at the puppet king.

"Grew-Honey, I'll send you to a workhouse or Kill Home if you don't leave. Neither you nor your mother can be queen." King Zoreon Kiffed tossed her into a planter.

"Why would we depose Quig's mother?" Grew-Ella yanked at him, but Zoreon barely budged.

Fragile bones in Quig's left-sided wing were crushed between Zoreon's fingers, and he screamed in pain.

The king hacked off a piece with a switchblade from his pocket. He tossed a clump of feathers, muscles, and flexible bones, and it collided with the wall-sized glass window.

Quig scratched at his attacker's surgically enhanced elf ears.

Zoreon sprayed Quig with caustic repulsion spray, a type of truth serum that never worked, and both gagged.

Sticky, pungent sweat mixed with hair dye trickled over the side of Zoreon's cheek onto his chiseled chin, exposing patches of blond strands as he struck Quig in the back with a potted succulent.

Quig shielded Grew-Ella's short mother with his body, and he punched Zoreon in the knee twice. His bruised hands reached toward the warm light streaming over him, but his arms collapsed onto the broken tiles.

Grew-Ella smashed a vase displayed on the party table, and she clutched a sharp piece and jabbed it into Zoreon's muscular thigh. She stabbed him again, and the tip broke, leaving bits of green and white porcelain embedded in his flesh.

Quig couldn't hear Zoreon's thunderous screams because he lost consciousness.

A team of private medics and security officers rushed into the garden room.

Yoleta The Executioner pointed to the moth-shaped badge on her black and pink silk uniform.

"Quig called them, and they'll kill you for me, but Grew-Ella I'll have mercy on you because you'll be my pet." Zoreon lunged at the young woman, his fingers violently pressing into her throat. He sniffed her hair and his lips lingered near her ear.

She stabbed him again.

He screamed and let go.

Grew-Ella wrestled him to the floor, grabbed chains from Yoleta The Executioner and wrapped them over his struggling wrists.

Quig stared up at Grew-Ella and tears filled his eyes, and he attempted to speak.

The lead medic brushed Quig's black hair out of his tear-filled eyes and strapped an oxygen mask over his face.

A medic stepped over broken planters, her gold boots imprinted in the dirt, and she lifted Quig's severed wingtip.

Grew-Ella rushed in and out with a jug of ice and handed it to the medic.

Zoreon struggled with the dark metal chains. "I'm the king. Arrest Professor Grew-Ella or give her to me as a tribute." Droplets of blood trickled down his leg and fell upon pots of roses and their wounded petals. "She's so young and feisty."

"No," Grew-Ella said.

King Zoreon Kiffed landed on the thorns of dying roses. "I have a legal right to slaughter Kindness Rebels. Grew-Ella can't become the future queen, and her so-called mother helped her escape death."

Yoleta grabbed his arm. "Sweetie, I'll make this vanish, but I require a deal that the Prime Minister and I won't try to assassinate each other."

Zoreon grinned. "Sorry, but I don't have to sign anything. The king is allowed to slaughter anyone he wishes to."

Yoleta sighed and unlocked his wrists. He won like he had won his crown through violence.

Queen Avery entered wearing a velvet cloak. "Where is my son?" She stared at Quig and screeched in despair.

Zoreon giggled.

Avery-Joy addressed the medic. "Treat him for the same death-binding magic that killed Noel."

"You can't prove I killed Quig's brother," Zoreon said.

"Noel died two weeks ago, and I decided not to relinquish the crown for the prosperity of the kingdom. You repaid my generosity by slaughtering my son."

"Quig is still alive," Zoreon said. "He was just in my way, and the death magic was directed at Karen."

She tossed her black and silver crown onto the floor. "The queen chooses when we abdicate!"

"I'd have to resign." Zoreon shook furiously, his eyes glowed, and attempted to whistle, but his mouth was too swollen. "Yoleta will execute me, and I don't plan for that to happen."

"If you sign a blood contract, she won't send you to the Kill Home," Avery said. "It looks like that prophecy of a Kindness Rebel Queen is coming true only because of your stupidity."

"I did what the prime minister asked me to do," Zoreon grunted in pain and spoke to the queen. "Even if you steal my crown, I'm still a workhouse leader, and a blood contract only will prevent me from killing you and Yoleta." He touched Grew-Ella's arm. "Though it hurts, I like women with a little fight in them. She'll do nicely when I'm healed."

Avery yanked Grew-Ella and placed her behind her. "My son's friend is off-limits."

"She's safe for now, but Prime Minister Silvan-Mack still thinks she's the queen, and if she is, he'll give her to me. While he'll be upset about Quig, you still have two sons left to marry into our workhouse family."

*

Three Minutes Later:

Quig couldn't speak or cry out as the medics carried his stretcher to the ambulance. For a split second, he envisioned a specter in the driveway, but she appeared wet and translucent. Fog covered her face and wings, and garbage stuck to her before she vanished.

His sister, Dot, drove up in her flower delivery van. She shouted at Grew-Ella. "I got here as soon as I could!"

Medics loaded Quig into the ambulance, and he opened his eyes. Grew-Ella and Dot forced themselves inside.

"We're not leaving you." Grew-Ella stared at him and whispered. "I sparkle pony, you."

Quig attempted to laugh at her reference to their favorite childhood show, but his thoughts faded in and out. Dreams abandoned him as his mind awoke, and his once-fragmented thoughts no longer hovered between life and dreams. He remembered a flash of hospital lights, a nurse, and a surgeon.

Voices surrounded him, but he couldn't speak or move.

His mother, Avery, always came alone. The gorgeous elf in her early fifties clutched Quig's hand. Her perfect skin glistened under even the harshest hospital lights. Lavender-colored hair fell on her shoulders, and her eyes sparkled with tears. Avery was a woman of distinction, a woman of glory, and a woman of royalty. "I'll love you forever, my baby boy."

His mother always left when Dot and his father came.

Quig attempted to cry out to them dozens of times, but he was too weak.

*

Hospital:

Time passed and Quig heard everything but couldn't interact or see.

"Grew-Ella is returning. Don't call me Dad in front of her," his secret father, Rodrick, said.

Dot spoke. "She's safe."

"We have to protect the rebel queen, and having Grew-Ella knows, puts her life in even more danger," Rodrick said.

"I love you, Quig." Dot hugged him.

'Sis, I love you as well,' Quig thought. He heard footsteps, and Grew-Ella had to have returned.

"I bought hot chocolate," Grew-Ella said softly.

"It's delicious." Dot's voice broke into an unfinished sob. "Thank you for being here when I can't. I have to finalize the adoption for my nephew. Why can't my brothers raise their children? It's unfair. Why do they keep dying? I don't want to be alone. Quig was my greatest support because he had raised Betsy since she was a baby and my other brothers abandoned me. I can't do this without his support."

"You're strong, and I'll help you like I helped Quig," Grew-Ella said. "But he can't and won't die. When he wakes, he'll have a job waiting for him. I'm looking for a new co-professor who is a published author. Dean Frog will hire him in a heartbeat."

Another voice filled the room. "Grew-Ella, you're my gorgeous girl, not Quig's. Why do you choose to be the primary caretaker for a half-dead reject instead of attending movie premieres with me? I'm a broken elite and the best you'll ever do."

"My brother isn't a reject." Dot pointed at the door. "Chase, only four people are allowed in the room, and my brother needs Grew-Ella."

"The guard can leave then," Chase said.

Quig's bed was raised at an angle. Dot's image came into focus, and he could see his sister. Claws extended from her fingers, and fangs formed. She transformed into a wolf.

Chase touched Dot's paw pads and patted them like she was a cute puppy. "Grew-Ella comes with me." He possessed an uncanny valley quality because of his perfection. Stumps from his surgically removed pixie wings could not be seen through his dress shirt.

Dot yanked herself away and pressed the security button.

"Quig is my best friend, and I'm staying!" Grew-Ella grasped Quig's hand.

He felt the softness of her fingers, but he couldn't grasp them back.

"Whoever attacked Quig should have killed him and saved us from his pretentious writing." Chase narrowed his eyes.

Quig tried to scream at him, but he couldn't move.

Dot spoke. "Planet Earth 23 owns the hospital, and you have to follow their laws."

"Celebrity princes are never banned," Chase said.

Dot pointed to the door. "They are when I carry pruning shears."

"But you love me." Chase wrapped his arms around Dot.

"What has gotten into you?" Dot pushed him away.

"Your brother should die. He'll join your other one. How many brothers do you have left?"

"Noel and Quig were the ones closest to me, but I wouldn't even want the brothers; I can't stand to die," Dot said with a hint of sadness. "Why do you have to be so cruel?"

"Rodrick, you were supposed to drag Grew-Ella out, and you're sipping hot chocolate," Chase said.

Rodrick spoke. "I don't work for you; I work for Lana, and she wants me to keep an eye on him. Let Grew-Ella mourn the life of her best friend."

Another nurse came in and gave Quig a sedative. He struggled to stay awake, and he fell asleep.

*

Ten Minutes Later:

Prince Chase Vice sat on the floor, his eyes glazed over, and he appeared asleep like Quig was, but instead of regular dreams, alternative timeline fragments flooded his tired brain. He saw himself as if he was watching a nightmarish movie.

Zoreon and his future self dragged Grew-Ella from Quig's hospital room into the elevator, where her sister waited.

"You couldn't fight off two of them, and I'll give you to Zoreon because Quig is my way of getting into Avery's family," Phyllis said to Grew-Ella.

Chase's phone rang, waking him, and his depressing vision ended. He answered the call, and walked into the hall, so Grew-Ella couldn't hear because Chase knew exactly who was on the other end.

"I'm still waiting inside the elevator, and Zoreon claims you blocked his entrance," Phyllis said.

"Stop chastising me because Zoreon let his lust get in the way of the mission," Chase whispered.

"He's the king," Phyllis said.

"Former king, and if Grew-Ella was the rebel queen, she'd trade herself for Quig. I bet Zoreon didn't tell you that he's the one who attacked Quig, and that is the reason Avery is abdicating."

"King Zoreon has money, and I don't know who told you those lies," Phyllis said.

"Unless you want to have your status lowered for real, you're going to send him away." Chase hung up, walked back inside, hugged Grew-Ella, and pretended to kiss her. "Grew-Honey, you forgive me, right?" He pretended to snuggle against her ear to disguise what he was telling her. "You have to behave, or your sister will leave you in a workhouse or force you into a local beauty contest. Do you want to end up dead underneath a bouquet of roses?"

Grew-Ella stared at him and smiled. "Chase, I'm the one who stabbed Zoreon. I never thought I had it in me, but anything can be a self-defense weapon."

He backed off. "Good for you, but I wish you killed him." Chase sat on the floor and started to sob uncontrollably. "The way you care for Quig is beautiful. I hope he wakes; I really do, and I'm sorry." He sniffled.

"Do you mean that?" Grew-Ella didn't get up and clutched Quig's hand.

Chase sobbed harder. "Yes, and if it was my choice, I'd break our fake engagement contract. I should've asked the story editor at the radio station before I became a broken elite, but no, she's too bucktooth for my former status. Bet she wouldn't have cheated on me and forced me to be engaged to her sister."

Dot sat next to him. "Are you okay? Did Grew-Ella's sister cheat on you?"

"Chase, I hate to see you hurting, but it's not your fault, and I don't blame you for any of this." Grew-Ella continued to hold Quig's hand.

"Maybe, but I'm still not allowed to break the engagement contract because I have to still pretend to be engaged to you, and I don't want to be." Chase bawled on Dot's shoulder and spoke to her. "Can you lie that I'm with Grew-Ella all the time? It's for her safety. Her sister is evil."

"I hate fibbing, but if you're here as well, it isn't a lie." Dot handed him a tissue.

"No, I have to go. Zoreon is trying to break into the hospital, but no one outside this room is going to believe that he attacked Quig because his stolen money and power are all people care about. He's still a workhouse leader, and even more dangerous."