Blood, Milk & Chocolate - Part 1 (The Grimm Diaries Book 3) (26 page)

52

Fable's
Dreamworld

The Queen
of Sorrow walked before Fable and Baba Yaga. She was still dressed like a
queen. Not one mud stain caught her clothes, as if she walked an inch higher
off the ground. She approached Fable slowly, not showing anger. Her chin was
still up, and her crown was sewn to the golden curls on her head.

She was
still pulling something behind her, hoofing over the forest's earth.

"I'm
truly sorry, My Queen," Baba Yaga wailed. "I'm begging you to forgive
me. It's Fable's fault."

"Her
name is Fable?" the Queen said. "This pigtailed girl again?"

Fable was
terrified having the Queen of Sorrow so close to her. Was she going to pull her
closer with those enchanted breadcrumbs again?

But the
Queen didn't give Fable much attention. She had her eyes on her daughter, who was
about to die soon and deny her a most sought-after heart.

The Queen
circled her daughter, still pulling that thing behind her. Fable could see it
now, showing under the thin moonlight. A corpse.

Fable's
heart gasped. How cruel, ungrateful, and selfish the Queen of Sorrow was.

The thing
she pulled behind her was Loki's unconscious body. Carmilla Karnstein had taken
matters into her own hands. She had cut off Loki's unicorn's leg to get hold of
his corpse. How cruel was this woman, even to those who protected her?
Her favored Huntsman.

Fable
certainly didn't know what to do now.

"Go
help Baba Yaga give Shew a new heart, before it's too late," the Queen
demanded, looking at Fable.

Fable was
willing to do whatever was in Shew's best interest, but she wasn't sure about
the heart. Which heart was the Queen of Sorrow talking about?

"You
mean to give her your best Huntsman's heart?" Baba Yaga crowed.

"If
my daughter, even though I hate her and I wish her a sweet death, is going to
have a heart, then it has to be a strong one, so she can survive long enough
for me to collect the hearts from these lowlife peasant boys and girls who call
themselves the Lost Seven," the Queen said. "Loki's heart is strong.
Now do it."

"But
Loki hates her, My Queen," Baba Yaga argued. "What kind of life will
Shew have?"

The Queen
smirked. "He did hate her, but he was weak enough never to catch her when
she escaped. To tell the truth, I liked him." She looked down upon him. "But
he wasn't up to the mission I repeatedly handed to him. I'd like to punish him
as well—his heart living in a body he despises sounds like a good
punishment."

"She
will hardly know it's his heart," Baba Yaga said. She seemed experienced
in the matter being discussed. "It rarely happens. A few other things
rarely happen, but…"

"You're
wasting time, Baba," the Queen said. "I will kill you too, if you don't
save my daughter's temporary life. Now do it, before it's too late."

Fable had
no say in this. Would she save Loki or Shew—again?

She stood,
paralyzed, watching Baba Yaga cut Shew's chest open, chanting some spells. They
were trying to correct a mistake with another, complicating matters in a way
that Fable didn't fully grasp.

Fable
continued to watch, her head spinning, her eyes darting between Shew and Loki.
If she stopped them and saved Loki, she would have killed Snow White with her
spell. If she approved of this—which she was already doing unconsciously—then…
wait. Then what?

The
ceremony didn't seem hard for Baba Yaga. Cutting, eating, and exchanging hearts
didn't seem like a big issue in the Kingdom of Sorrow. Fable had only agreed to
help Baba Yaga to get nearer to Loki and secretly pull his Fleece and tuck it
in her pocket. It was so easy.
So easy.
Looking
at Loki's Fleece, Fable couldn't believe it.

But what
was the price for getting it? Had this really happened in the past? Of course
it had. Everything here was just a memory, like Babushka had said. Fable could
barely change anything.

Fable's
eyes darted toward the unconscious Cerené, and she wondered if Cerené were so
afraid of the Queen of Sorrow that she only faked her unconsciousness. But
Cerené loved Shew dearly.

Too many
thoughts roamed in Fable's head, but survival was at stake. She knew the Queen
was going to kill her once Shew was alive and beating with Loki's heart. She
had to be prepared.

Fable
waited and watched with amazement as Shew breathed back into life. She looked
dazed, and her eyes seemed to reflect a bit of Loki's darkness, but she was
alive and kicking.

Then she
fell back to her death.

"Shew!"
Fable screamed.

The Queen
of Sorrow pulled her violently and threw her a few feet back. Fable watched as
Shew shrieked back into life, gasping for the air in the forest like a newborn
child.

Baba Yaga
smiled at the Queen, who camouflaged her satisfaction by yelling. She told Baba
to pull Shew into the Queen's carriage back inside the forest.

Fable
looked back at Cerené and saw she was gone. So she had been awake all this
time, just to make sure Shew was alive again. Smart girl.

Fable didn't
hesitate, and stabbed the fat Baba Yaga with her own glinting knife. The poor
girl was shocked to the bone. Fable knelt down and held Shew before the Queen
could attack her. "Remember, I did all of this for you and Loki,"
Fable said. "I tried my best."

Shew,
dizzy and confused, didn't seem to even know who Fable was.

"Let
go of my heart," the Queen growled at Fable. God. She couldn't even
say
"let go of my daughter."

Fable
pulled mud from the earth and threw it into the Queen's eyes. Then she ran
hysterically into the dark of the forest.

"Charmwill!"
she screamed into the dark. Soon the Queen would catch her. All Fable wanted
was to end this dream. She had finally managed to get what she wanted, right? "Please
help me. I have what I came here to get!"

"I'm
here, Fable," a voice said.

Fable
stopped. It was Alice Grimm.

53

The Queen's
Diary

Angel and
I bought a small boat from a fisherman on an island nearby. Fate, my sorrow
bringer, had been unexpectedly generous and pointed him to us. We knew that we
couldn't stay on land, or Night Von Sorrow would find us. We bought some food
in exchange for a few days' discreet work and then pushed the boat back into
the sea, on a new journey looking for the Tower of Tales.

Once in a
while, the sirens swam around us and spat on us and tried to scare us. They
even hummed their melodies again and again some nights. But having a boat was a
blessing. Although some nights were tough, we still could sail away from them.

I wanted
to go back and ask Fate why the mermaids were able to still harass us, but I
didn't want to remind him of me. Nothing seriously sorrowful had happened to me
since. Had he forgotten about me or was he just taking his time? After all,
Fate thought that the best sorrows came after the highest of joys. I assumed he
was waiting for me to be really happy, and then strike me with misery.

But
neither Angel nor I cared. Life didn't change much. It was still dangerous, and
promised almost nothing. Who knew what the tides had in store for us? But it
was
all good
, as long we were together.

As
long as we found the Tower of Tales soon enough.

One night,
when the moon was full, I decided to open the sack. Now that I knew that its purpose
was to hold on to something, it didn't really matter what I would find in it.

Angel was
asleep when I dug my hand into it like a child fetching a present from his
parents. My hands met a round thing. A plate.

I pulled
it out. And stared at it. It was a white plate, among other things in the sack.
This thing seemed to be the biggest in size.

What's the
moon but a white plate?
I remembered Captain Ahab's words.
You
could have summoned the moon yourself.

I grimaced
at the thought. Then I gazed at the full moon above. I pulled the plate up and
saw they really looked alike. Could it be real? I adjusted the plate so it
exactly hid the moon behind it.

"Are
you real?" I whispered
,
embarrassed at what I was
thinking. Who'd believe Captain Ahab?

I pulled
the plate down, ready to check the rest of the things in that mysterious sack.
But then I saw it again. The moon was smiling at me.

Come on,
Carmilla. This isn't happening.

Again, I
adjusted the plate to hide the moon, and began to play "hide and smile"
with it. She was smiling again, but whenever I caught her, she pretended not
to.

I rubbed
my eyes and looked again. It wasn't smiling.
Of course not.

I put the
plate back and decided I'd call it a night without checking the rest of the
sack. I preferred Angel's warm embrace to the moon.

But then
it came. I mean…
she
came.

I saw
someone descending from the sky, shimmering with light that pooled and circled
our boat. Colorful, tiny fish surfaced from underneath to greet the light. Not
sirens or vicious creatures. They stuck their mouths out to the light and
squeaked.

The light
was too bright. I shielded it with my eyes. Then it dimmed a little, and I saw
the moon wasn't up there anymore.

As my eyes
got used to the light, I saw a glowing girl walk toward me. She was younger
than me. She walked on water.

"Hello,
Carmilla." She smiled.

I couldn't
say a word, my eyes wide, staring at pure white light.

"You're
real," I gasped.

"Of
course I am," she said. I wished I could see her features better.

"But
you never showed—"

"Shhh,"
she said. "It's too soon to talk about that. You're taking the right path
so far. You have done extremely well."

"You
watched me?" I said. "Then why didn't you—
"

"Help
you?" she said. "It's true. I help the goodhearted to sail across the
sea at night. And sometimes I fight for them. But I only do it for those who
have fought for themselves first. You can't have my services until you serve
yourself. Look what you have done." She smiled, pointing at Angel
sleeping. "He doesn't know he is immortal yet."

"What?"

"Because
of you, Carmilla," she said. "You loved a man so deeply that you have
granted him immortality with True Love."

"True
Love." The words melted in my mouth. "Angel is immortal."

"Now,
don't worry," she said. "I will take care of you, as much as I am
allowed to, on your journey to the Tower of Tales."

"You
will?"

"But
let me check on something first," she said. "Could you dig your hand
in your sack and count the items inside? Including the plate in your hand, of
course."

"Oh,"
I said, and did as she asked.

"You
don't have to pull them out and look at them," the Moongirl said. "Just
count them."

"Six
items." I rummaged through the sack without looking.

The
Moongirl didn't seem happy.

"Wait,"
I said. "Seven. There is small bag of…something."

"Beans?"
The Moongirl nodded, her face glowing again. "That's good, Carmilla. The
plate in your hand belongs to me. It resembles me when I am full. Guard them
all with you life. They are your ticket to cross over to Sorrow when you reach
the Tower of Tales."

"Sorrow?"
I had already grown to both love and hate that word.

"The
Kingdom of Sorrow." The Moongirl smiled. "Your destiny, and the
destiny of all of us. We're counting on you."

"You?"
I didn't know what she meant. "Counting on me?

The
Moongirl said nothing. She kissed me on the forehead and swooshed away before I
knew it, leaving
me and the fish
in the sea undone
without her light.

"One
more thing, Carmilla," she called from above.

"Yes?"
I stood up, staring at the night sky.

"Tell
that bastard Captain Ahab that I am real." She took her place back in the
sky, smiled at me once,
then
turned to a simple moon I
had once underestimated.

"But
of course." I laughed. "If I ever see him again."

54

Candy
House

Fable sat
at the porch outside Candy House, staring at the breadcrumbs in her hands.
These weren't the enchanted ones that the Queen of Sorrow had used to expose
her. Those were hers, the ones that had traveled with her to the Dreamworld and
back. Only Fable and her breadcrumbs knew what had really happened there.

She turned
her head back inside the house, and saw Shew and Babushka busy with
resurrecting Loki. Now that she had gotten his Fleece for them, the
resurrecting ritual would take a day or so, according to Babushka.

Fable
stared at them with empty eyes.

She stared
at a mother eager to bring her son back to life, not really knowing what a
monster he really was.

And she
stared at Shew, heartbroken and feeling guilty, wanting to make it up to Loki
after killing him in her Dreamory. Little did Shew know about Loki's heart
inside
her.
Little did she know about the lie she
believed.

Fable's
face tightened. There was no such thing as True Love. Shew simply had Loki's
physical heart in her.
His real heart.
But she didn't
know it. That was why she had no memories of Loki being in love with her—only
one questionable memory in the World Between Dreams when he'd asked her to save
him. Other than that, it seemed that Shew had been made to love him because
Loki's heart was dug into her chest by a dark witch who used to eat
children and send girls to the Queen of Sorrow so she could bathe in their
blood
.

Fable hadn't
told Shew about any of this. She pretended she was tired and wanted to talk
later about the dream. Fable wanted to think it over before she told them a
truth that didn't make sense yet.

A
truth that would hurt Shew deeply.
A truth made of lies.

She stood
up, opened the door, and went inside. Neither Babushka nor Shew noticed. Of
course, Loki took all the attention.

Who was
this boy they were resurrecting? Fable was going crazy. How could he be so nice
in the Waking World and someone else in the Dreamworld? This boy had never been
in love with Shew in the past
. From what I have seen, it's all a lie.
A beautiful lie?
I doubt it.

Still standing,
she remembered meeting Alice Grimm before she returned from the Dreamworld. She
had asked her about Loki's story, but Alice told her she didn't have enough
time to explain. She helped Fable return to the Waking World, and asked her to
go on with the plan and resurrect Loki, so he could help resurrect Charmwill
and find the Lost Seven later. Fable had so many unanswered questions, but like
always, there was not enough time.

When was
there ever going to be enough time?

Fable
found herself walking down to the cellar. She walked as if hypnotized. The
secrets she kept were too much for her.

If Baba
Yaga put Loki's heart inside Shew, and the Lost Seven had a piece of Shew's
real heart in them, how was Loki alive? Whose heart did he have inside him?

It was
mind-boggling, but not as frustrating as Fable's own story. How did she learn
those Dark Arts, and where had she been the past few months? Why did Cerené
stop her from telling anyone, saying, "They wouldn't understand"?

One of
Fable's favorite books was H.G. Wells'
The Time Machine
, where the
protagonist decided to use the eponymous device and return to the world he had
just discovered, because not all of his questions had been answered.

Fable
decided she'd do the same.

She lay
down in the Dream Temple, not sure if she could enter the Dreamworld on her
own, without another dreamer beside her. But she was some kind of Dreamhunter
now, wasn't she? Why couldn't a Dreamhunter enter
their own
dreams?

She began
the ritual, hoping it would work. She needed to go back. Really needed to go
back.
This time to know who
she
was.
Who she really was.
She put the two Obol coins on her eyes
and whispered the Incubator to herself. This time she knew what it was without
anyone telling her.

"The
Witch," she said, and wondered why her eyes itched while she drifted away.