1 The Bitches of Everafter (23 page)

Ashford caught her in his arms and kissed her. Then, like a whisper, he faded away.

Punzie spun around. “Where did he go?”

Grimm gave her a sad look. “I’m afraid I was only able to capture him for a moment, your Majesty. He has returned to Enchantment.”

Snow stepped forward and embraced Punzie. A single tear slid down her porcelain cheek and she asked Snow, “What’s happened to us?”

“That, my blood-sister, is what I intend to find out,” Snow said.

Snow turned to see Bella staring at where Ashford had stood only moments ago, a frown on her face.

“What is it, Bella?” she asked.

“I’m just wondering.” She cocked her head toward Grimm. “Is Beast…the dog, I mean…is that
my
Beast?”

“That enormous canine? No, no.” Grimm shook his head vehemently.

Bella sighed in relief. “Thank God. The things I’ve seen that dog do to himself...”

“There isn’t much time,” Grim said. “With the first drop of rain, I’ll be gone. So I want you to listen and listen good. There is talk of a curse. After you disappeared, the kingdom was left in chaos. No one has stepped in to lead, and Enchantment has fallen into a state of mayhem. Many have fled the kingdom entirely. I fear the curse was cast as a plot to take over the land.”

“Have you any idea who’s behind the curse?” Snow asked.

“Nay, but it must be someone of great power. I haven’t seen magic of this magnitude in Enchantment since before the treaty.”

Cindy said, “An evil queen?”

Aura said, “A witch?”

Grimm shook his head, “I truly don’t know, but whoever it is is strong. Stronger than you can imagine. And I suspect they may be stealing magic, as it’s difficult to come by these days.”

Snow considered Grimm’s words. “There’s a room in Granny’s house. Filled with clocks and watches and numbers. It reminds me of no story I have ever read.”

Grimm thought for a moment. “Nor I. It isn’t mine, and it isn’t my brother’s. But it may mean something else.”

“What?” Aura asked.

Grimm hesitated, but Bella tapped him on the shoulder. “Spill,” she said.

“It has been nearly a year since you and many others vanished from Enchantment.”

The women gasped and began firing off questions one by one.

The clouds rolled in faster now and thunder boomed directly over their heads.

Grimm looked up with worry. He stretched his arms out. “There’s no time for questions, nor have I answers, so gather round, princesses.”

The five women huddled around the scribe. “Each of you is like a daughter to me and each of you has seen her fair share of strife. As individual women, you are strong, fierce, and powerful. As a unit, you must also be loyal, honest, and brave. You’ve been all those things in the past and you can be again. You must trust each other, rely on each other. Always remember that together, you can accomplish anything. For it was the five of you who brought peace to Enchantment.”

They nodded.

“Now, go get your kingdom back.”

A drop of rain splattered on Grimm’s shoe.

And he was gone.

42

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

The five princesses left the stolen vehicle at the top of the canyon and piled into Bella’s car. There were more pressing matters to attend to. Like where was Granny? Who was behind the curse? And who, in this land, was friend and who was foe?

Snow racked her brain to come up with a logical enemy. They all had villains, to be sure, but most of those axes had been ground out years ago.

The answers, she was certain, were back at Granny’s house.

Granny’s house. Funny how magic began to find Snow as soon as she stepped inside that place. Odd too, that none of the others felt it before she arrived. And that she was the first to recover her memory.

But, as Grimm said, she was the first princess.

Unless...was this all because of her? Was the curse somehow linked to Snow? Was it really a coup? Or did someone hate her so much that they would go to such extreme lengths to dispose of her? She could recall no enemy so grave, but if that was the case, then it was because of her that Enchantment and its people were left without their leaders.

The storm blew into town with them, the rain pelting the windshield like pebbles. Bella turned the wipers to high. She briefly explained that she had managed to get Tink into the school and that last she saw, the sprite was being hauled off to the detention quarters by an angry teacher.

Punzie sat next to Snow her braid curled around her waist. Every so often she asked a question and Snow and Aura tried to fill in the gaps of her awareness with what they knew—and what they didn’t. Every so often, she reached in her pocket as if Bob was still nestled there.

Bella said, “I want to examine those rooms, Snow. The minute we get back.”

Snow agreed. The ballroom, the room with the clocks, the locked room that not even Aura had a key to open. What did it contain?

They drove the rest of the way to the house in silence, with only the drum of rain accompanying their thoughts. They had a mission now—one that was even more daunting than the ogre problem they had faced all those years ago.

An entire year. They had been away from the kingdom, their people, for an entire year.

All that they had worked for, all that they had built, gone in a flash.

Her anger built as the car crested the hill to the darkened, dilapidated home.
Oh yes, someone will pay for this.

The women got out of the car and entered the house.

There was no sign of Granny. No lights on, no smells of coffee or food, no footsteps, no piles of “treasures.” Just the eager panting of Beast, who greeted them excitedly.

Bella ushered the dog into the kitchen while Aura ran upstairs to collect the key ring she had copied from Granny’s master set. Punzie volunteered to get Granny’s inventory notebook, and Cindy ran to retrieve the notes Snow had taken on her exploration. They moved like a well-orchestrated symphony, each doing her part. Like the old days. 

Snow wound her way around the house to the locked room. She turned the handle, knowing it wouldn’t open, but she had to try. She had to do something.

She heard Bella call to her. “Snow, come on. Show me that room you were telling Grimm about. He might not know the story, but I may.”

Snow ran back through the parlor and met up with Aura, Punzie, Cindy, and Bella.

“I’ve got the key here somewhere,” Aura said, shuffling through the huge ring.

Punzie flipped through the notebook, searching for a clue, as Aura slipped a key into the lock. The door creaked open, and Snow and Bella stepped inside the cramped space that held nothing but numbers and timepieces.

“I can’t make heads or tails of it,” Snow said.

Bella approached the lower shelf first. She tentatively touched each clock and watch that she could reach. She closed her eyes, concentrating.

Snow watched as Bella moved her hands along the next shelf and the next, picking up ticking timepieces one by one.

She stopped abruptly, examining an alarm clock with closer scrutiny. It was set to six o’clock. Bella picked it up, turned it over in her hands. Snow studied her and by the twitch of her cheek, knew there was an idea forming in Bella’s mind. She set it back down, then picked up another clock shaped like a cat. Its eyes bulged and its tail swayed. Snow thought it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen.

Bella took a step back, looking at the numbers on the walls. Some were multiplication problems that didn’t add up—4x5=12, 4x6=13. Some were random numbers—2, 5, 7. She inched forward again, picked up another clock in the shape of a white rabbit with pink eyes and a bell  between its ears. She stepped back again. She touched a heart-shaped watch, then snapped her hand away as if she’d been burned.

Her face twisted with rage. She turned to look at the other princesses. “I can’t believe it.”

“What? What is it?” Snow asked.

“Do you know who’s behind this?” asked Aura.

Cindy said, “Is it my stepmother?”

Punzie was still flipping through the book. “There’s nothing in here. No names anyway.”

“Don’t any of you read?” Bella snapped.

Cindy looked at Punzie. “I like romance novels.”

Punzie shrugged. “Do bathroom walls count?”

“I’m a mystery fan,” said Snow.

“Me too,” said Aura. “Hey, have you read—”

“Shut up!” Bella ran a hand through her dark waves. “Look closer at the clocks. The heart, the cat, the white rabbit.” She stepped forward and pulled out a clock in the shape of a deck of cards. “Playing cards. Ring a bell?”

Snow looked at each item. The clocks ticked away and chimed, mocking the thoughts running through her head.

She gasped, met Bella’s stare. “No, it can’t be.”

“Oh but it is, my pale friend,” Bella said.

“Alice?” Snow looked at her compatriots.

“That bitch!” said Punzie. “After we granted her asylum from Wanderland?”

“But she’s only a kid,” said Cindy. “Barely twenty.”

Aura said, “A kid who once ruled her own kingdom, don’t forget.” Aura sighed, looked at the others. “So now what?”

Snow said, “Now we find a way home. And we start by breaking into that locked room. Maybe there’s a mirror in there. Maybe more than one.”

“Would a mirror be enough to make magic?” Cindy asked.

“Perhaps. With the apples,” Snow said, “Only one way to find out.”

Aura said, “I told you, Snow, that thing is a fortress. No one’s getting in there. There’s not a key that works and nothing in my arsenal can penetrate that lock.”

Snow smiled. “Then we break it down.”

The rain poured down on her in buckets as Snow jogged out to the shed to retrieve the ax. She stepped over the bag of apples, around a lawn mower, a hedge trimmer, and seven shovels, but she couldn’t find the ax anywhere. She had just seen it when she grabbed the chainsaw to cut the tree down not more than a day ago. Where was it?

“You looking for this?”

Snow spun to face Hansel. He was sopping wet, muddy, and haggard. His tee shirt clung to him, his jeans were soaked through. He looked like something that had crawled out of a grave. The ax rested casually on his shoulder, and Snow was about to say yes, but something in his tone and his stance stopped her. A flash of lightning lit his features and revealed Tink’s black shadow hovering over him. Attached to him.

Snow backed up slowly. She felt behind her for one of the shovels. “Hansel, what are you doing?”

She found a handle, gripped it.

“The queen of hearts must have her parts,” Hansel said mechanically.

“Is that what Alice is calling herself these days?” Snow asked.

She tightened her grip on the shovel.

Hansel hefted the ax in his hand. “The queen of hearts must have her parts.”

He sprang on her then, so fast that she didn’t have time to bring the shovel around. Instead, she spun away from him and the ax bit into the shed wall. He pulled at it, grunting.

Snow grabbed the shovel and swung it at Hansel’s head. The blow connected, but it only dazed him. He yanked the ax out of the wall with a roar, pivoted, and crouched into a fighting stance.

Snow matched his movements. She planted her feet, ready for the next attack. “Hansel, do not do this. This isn’t you.”

Hansel let out a warrior cry and lunged at her. Snow fended off the ax with her shovel. The shock of the blow hurt her hands. The clang of metal crashing into metal echoed through the small shed, stinging her eardrums, overpowered only by the booming thunder.

If she could just hold on, just maneuver until her back was to the shed door, she could flee.

And then what?

Hansel said, robotically, “I must have your heart. It’s in the cards.” He swung the ax at her head, but she ducked under the blow.

“Over my dead body!” She used the shovel to push him, and he stumbled back, tripping over a hose.

Snow saw her opportunity and dashed around Hansel, but he grabbed her ankle and she smacked to the floor. She grabbed the shovel and struck his hand where it gripped her leg. He cried out and let go.

Snow scrambled to her feet and ran, but stumbled over the sack of apples and flew out of the shed. She slid into mud, cold grass and slimy leaves. The apple sack was just within reach. She stuck her arm inside it, felt around.

Rotten. All of them. She flipped over, but before she could stand, Hansel was straddling her.

He lifted the ax high above his head and she shielded herself with the blade of the shovel. The ax came down with a
whoosh
as Snow cried out. The blade cracked in two, the pieces spiraling to either side. One struck Hansel’s left arm, spearing through his bicep and knocking him away.

Snow flipped onto her stomach and crawled a few pitiful inches before Hansel grabbed her feet and yanked her back. She squirmed out of his grip and rolled over searching for something to hit him with. There was nothing but the apples. Hansel still had one good arm and the only weapon. She couldn’t outrun him. She was no match for his strength.

She wasn’t going to survive this.

Her last thought, before she put the mushy apple pulp to her lips was—
This is all my fault. It’s me they’re after.
Perhaps if she was gone, the spell would be broken and the other princesses—and Enchantment itself—could be saved
.

And so she bit into the sour apple meat, knowing that it was the less painful way to die.

An arrow buzzed over her head, piercing Hansel’s neck and Tink’s shadow all at once. Hansel’s eyes widened in shock. The ax slipped from his hands and fell to his side. His body collapsed next to Snow’s.

Snow looked up. “Robin Hood.”

He bowed. “At your service, your Majesty.”

Snow scrambled to her feet and picked up the ax. Something had been niggling at her mind, something about Alice’s story. Something about time and a year…and the whole world crashed into her at once.
We’ve already been here close to
a year,
Grimm had said.
There’s almost no time left
. And Snow was not about to allow her people to remain trapped in Everafter. Not as long as there was life left in her.

“Robin, thank you. I have to—”

“Go!” he said.

Even as her strength ebbed, Snow rushed back into the house, back to that locked room, and called for the others in a weakened voice.

Footsteps rang behind her as she reached that forbidden room. Footsteps that seemed miles away.

She lifted the ax with both hands, and with the last drop of her strength, shattered the thick door with one blow.

Smells of forest and greenery enveloped her instantly. She was frozen for a moment, drinking in the scene. The ax slipped from her fingers as she gasped. It clanked to the floor like a broken dream.

Could it be? Was this where it would end?

The other four princesses rushed up behind Snow, each of them sputtering in disbelief at what lie beyond the door.