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“In the end, it was her or me. I chose me.”

—Hans, quoted from
Candy Kills
about his decision to leave his sister in the cottage

My knees sank into the ground. There had to be some explanation for what I was watching. Rexi wouldn't betray me. She was my friend. Surely I was watching the Mimicman. But if so, why had she looked at me like her heart was breaking?

She handed Griz the star and then stood there, head down, unwilling to meet my eyes.

Griz tossed the star in the air and then caught it. “It was so kind of you to show me this little spring, but I'm afraid I can't let you use it.” She threw the star up again, and this time let it fall to the ground. “You see, I rather like the chaos. Stories are so much more fun when you don't already know the ending.” Griz's chunky boot heel came down on the star with a stomach-churning crunch. “Don't you agree?” The pieces of bone and hair that used to be the wishing star rose again. She tugged on one side of her fitted vest and the pieces tucked themselves inside.

“Why?” I croaked.

Griz looked confused for a moment. “Because the Storymakers never let us win. Our defeat is predeterm—”

“I wasn't talking to you, hag. I was talking to her.” I pointed to the betrayer. The wolf in my friend's clothing.

Rexi didn't respond, but everything about her looked miserable.

Good.

“The why is obvious. Isn't that right, dear?” Griz took the back of her hand and ran it down the side of Rexi's face. Rexi turned a shade whiter and looked ready to puke again. “Basic survival instinct.”

Reaching down her side, the Gray Witch produced a tasseled satchel. With great flourish, she tugged the drawstrings open and removed a large empty glass vial that looked a lot like the ones from Crow's house. She handed the vial to Rexi with a little smirk. “Go, little Jill, fetch me a pail of water.”

Rexi stared down at the vial but didn't budge. Griz moved her hand to under her shirt and pulled out her necklace—and squeezed. Gasping sharply, Rexi staggered and a bright red-orange tear leaked from her eye.

“The opal.” Kato had finally taken off the goggles and apparently figured out the same thing I just did.

Griz's opal necklace pulsed orange with opalescent flecks. It pulsed with life magic. If I didn't miss my guess, Rexi's life, to be exact.

But when? Did Griz catch her after the clouds? Perhaps, but I think it started earlier. I replayed events in my mind, going in reverse. Her acting weird. The overwhelming fear anytime Griz was near. Disappearing from the Ivory Tower just to be replaced by Griz. Maybe I'd seen Rexi's life force actually sucked out in the nightmare. Had she ever really been my friend, or was it all an elaborate ruse to do the bidding of the Gray Witch? Rexi's every action from frog until now was suspect.

I wanted to hate her. Watching her bend down to scoop up the spring water made the human flamethrower in me want to come out and play. Cold emanated from the boy beside me. I put a hand on his arm. “Don't.” Kato gave me a puzzled look but obeyed.

Rexi's hand trembled as she put the stopper in the vial and walked back to Griz. I wasn't sure what to believe anymore, but everything about her right now screamed that she was not happy being a de facto member of Team Evil. Villains took pleasure in causing pain; they didn't tremble with their own. I wouldn't harm her and neither would Kato. It was probably my fault that Griz got her tacky nails on Rexi anyway.

Griz very carefully took the vial from Rexi and stuffed it down her dress. “Now, I would love to stay and chat, but I have a bit of a family reunion to attend.” Griz conjured a thundercloud and hopped on. She floated into the sky, high above the spring.

It was probably too much to ask that ozmosis would kick in and drop her into the water.

Griz snapped her fingers. “Bring the girl. We'll need her to get into the mountain.” Several of the flying puppies picked up a squirming Rexi and took to the sky. “As for the others…
bon
appéti
t
!” She flew away on her cloud, the sounds of thunder and Rexi screaming trailing behind her.

And we watched them go, because there wasn't a pixing thing we could do about it.

“Makers help us, she's going to set Blanc free. I have to warn Bob; they're going to need help.” Kato chewed the last nail off his left hand and phoned home.

“And what about us?” I asked worriedly. Griz had left behind three demon puppies and the Tinman. With just me, Kato, a dead sprite, and Hydra's headless body fumbling around, I was not liking our odds.

The puppies circled to the left of the spring and the Tinman came at us from the right. Kato still had his eyes closed, deep in telepathic communication or whatnot with Bob.

“Umm, Kato…” I started backing up, pulling him with me.

He snapped back to attention. “Right. While I've got the magic boost, I'll work my Beast King mojo. It should be able to control the dogs—maybe the gigan too. You grab Hydra's head and run.”

I really hoped he knew what he was doing. Hydra's gypsy head was still where the sprite had tossed her. I checked back on Kato to see how he was doing. The puppies had stopped their approach and stood still. The Tinman, on the other hand, kept moving. His armor had lots of little rust spots on it though.

The spring water. Wherever it touched the metal, rust holes formed. But not enough of it was falling to make him stop his advance on Kato.

With a deep breath, I told myself,
I
can
control
the
fire. The fire doesn't control me
. I let the emerald flames leap into my hands. I forced my arms outward and threw the flames at the Tinman. He barely paused from their impact. I, however, swayed from the amount of effort it took out of me.

“Hey, you big tin can,” I panted. “Come and get it.” I visualized reaching inside myself and pulling out every last bit of heat I had, then pushing it toward the gigan. The result was a continuous stream of emerald fire that burned through his armor right where his heart would be if he had one. Looking down at the hole in his chest, he staggered backward. Stepping on Hydra's wandering body, he lost his balance, falling into the spring. The Tinman's flailing arm took out the three remaining puppies.

The
very
definition
of
a
happy
accident.

That was the last normal thought I had before my vision clouded with green and the curse took over. I could feel the Tinman like we were connected—feel him rusting from the bottom and melting from my flame on the top. Through the haze of green, I saw something floating toward me. When it hit, my weakness faded. The gigan's strength and life force filled me.

More. You could be so much more.

The voice was right. I could feel the Tinman's power feeding me, making me grow. If I ate more, I would grow stronger. Nothing would be able to take me down. I planted my hands into the ground and searched, using the power. In my mind, I saw the life force of everything around me—the trees, the grass, the boy…everything.

The
boy
glows
with
life
and
power. Take it.

I wanted it. No, I needed it. Without it, I couldn't win. But if I took it, I had a feeling I would lose far more. Inside me with the heat, a cold shell tried to form around my heart. I focused in on the glowing power of the human boy. He was talking to me. He had a name and importance beyond a power source. If I could remember it…

“Kato,” I muttered and mentally shoved the power back, rejecting it and the metallic taste in my mouth. The flames left my hands, and I no longer felt all-powerful; I felt like something the Cheshire cat might throw up.

“Are you all right?” Kato's cold hands gripped my arms and helped me up. The icy contrast to my heat helped the world come back into Technicolor focus, ditching the green tint.

No. Once again, I'd stolen a life and a power that didn't belong to me. Good reason or not, I felt a weight from the deaths of Crow, Moony, the puppies, and the Tinman. Thinking about how close I'd been to adding Kato to this list threatened to tip the scales. I'd managed to control the curse, but for how long?

I didn't want to worry Kato, so I pointed over to Hydra's flattened body and the rusty pile of scrap that clogged the spring well and lied. “Considering the alternatives, I think I fared pretty well.” Steadying myself, I picked up Hydra's head. “How 'bout you? Sorry about the body, by the way.”

“Vas time to trade up I am thinkink.”

I cradled her head under my arm and sighed. Too much had happened in the last few minutes to even process. Our foursome had turned to two and a half, and my hopes for a bright, shiny future had been crushed. Literally. “So, now what? How do we stop Griz? We can't catch up on foot.”

There was the saying,
It's always darkest before the dawn
. But the suns always came up.

Didn't they?

Right now, just to mock me, the third sun, Pathos, was setting.

I looked to the sky and called out, “Okay, whoever's there, now would be a really good time to send in reinforcements—a flying elephant or deus ex something or other.”

Nothing happened except Kato looking at me like I had burned a few too many brain cells. He didn't understand, so I tried to explain. “You see, there has to be something. I've felt it. I know someone's up there.” I let go of Kato's arm and yelled at the suns. The light seemed blurry. “Where are you, Storymakers? Where's the magic sword in a stone or a lamp to give me new wishes?”

No sparkling dust flew. No sound of wind chimes flitting through the air. No sign at all that anyone cared. I'd been saved so many times, but now at the greatest hour, I'd been abandoned. In my heart I feared I was no longer worthy of saving.

“I've done the best I can and it's not enough.” My voice cracked, making it impossible to speak loudly, so I lowered my head and whispered, “I can't do this on my own.”

Kato put a hand under my chin and turned my face to his. “You don't have to.” His eyes were soft with an unfathomable expression as he placed his hands on either side of my face. “No matter what happens, I will always be here, so you're never alone.”

Then, without warning, his lips were on mine—softer than the silkiest mousse and sweeter too. My lungs burned for breath, but there would be time for breathing later. I let everything go and lived in this one moment, this one perfect grain of sand in the hourglass.

I threw my arms around him, dropping Hydra in the process. She landed with a thud and cry of pain. The sound startled me enough to break the kiss. “Pix! I am so sorry.” I looked down to make sure I hadn't irrevocably broken anything on her, and then turned back for more kisses.

My prince with the auburn hair and dirt-smudged face was gone. The ice blue eyes still looked at me with what I now recognized as regret while he unfolded his wings—one brown, one white.

“Oh Grimm, you knew…”

His fur rubbed against my cheek. “It's the only way. But at least I finally got to kiss you once.” His voice had the rough, grumbly chimera quality to it again.

I nodded, no longer trusting the sound of my own voice. It was official—I had lost everything.

My chimera prince was nearly full grown now. He kneeled and flattened his wings so I could climb on. Hydra coughed softly, showing unusual tact in an effort to not be forgotten.

I picked her up and climbed onto Kato's back. Nobody said a pixing word. There was no need. There was only one place to go and one thing to do.

Save the world before the grains of sand ran out.

“You see that apple, and you know it's poisonous, but it still looks so good.”

—Snow White from
An Apple a Day

Kato flew like our lives depended on it, which they absolutely did. Griz was the nastiest witch I had ever seen—and she was supposed to be the nice sister. The combination of Blanc and Griz together would make any evil queen quake in her dragon-skinned boots.

Griz only had a ten- or fifteen-minute lead on us, and Kato had warned Bob ahead of time. A whole mountain full of fire-breathing chimeras should be able to hold off one witch, an unwilling accomplice, and six demon puppies, right?

The smoke coming out of the cave opening indicated otherwise.

I knew what was coming; I had been on this ride before. Flattening myself against Kato's back, I smooshed Hydra under my chest so she wouldn't fall out. She muffled some sort of protest about not being able to breathe, but without lungs, I thought the point was moot.

We dove steeply and spiraled into the mountain. This time it was my coughing that echoed off the walls rather than Rexi's screams. Smoke billowed in big, thick clouds like a volcano was about to erupt. Hopefully Bob hadn't pushed the self-destruct button or something.

He waited for us in the field of fire flowers. Blood stained his muzzle, and more oozed from a gash on his side. He didn't seem surprised to see Kato as a chimera. Then again, I guess Bob never knew that Kato had changed back into a boy.

He galloped toward us as we landed. “My lord. The traitor—”

“We know. Rexi.” Kato and I spoke at the exact same time.

“Is jinxed,” Hydra said gleefully while I hopped off Kato's back. All the head throwing and dropping might have given her brain damage.

Bob's eyebrows drew closer in consternation while he shook his head. Drops of blood flicked onto my skin. “No, my lord, it's Grifflespontus. He has joined the uprising and—”

“The defenses have been triggered. Does that mean the White One is free?” Kato interrupted.

“Not yet. We have the witch blocked off near the secret entrance. But, sire, Griff—”

“Is right here.” Griff stood by the lava flow, blocking the path to the furnace room and looking bigger and scarier than ever. His broken horn dripped with blood and something thicker.

“Stand down.” Kato growled and postured himself like a bull ready to charge. Though Kato had grown significantly since the last we were here, he was still much smaller than Griff.

“Thanks anyway, pup.” Griff snarled and spat out something globby and red. “There's a new order around here. A human is no longer king of the mountain—especially one
pretending
to be a Chimera.” The serpent tail rose up behind him and hissed menacingly.

“So, what, you'd rather take orders from a human in a skanky cocktail dress?” I really should know better than to mouth off to creatures bigger than me.

Griff roared and charged across the large room.

“Freeze him, freeze him,” I urged frantically as Griff got closer.

“It's not working anymore.”

Kato pushed me away with his wing, put his horns down, and braced for impact.

I cringed at the ripping sound of horn meeting flesh. Bob ran in and gored Griff from the side, knocking him off his collision course with Kato. But Griff wasn't done yet. He reared up and swiped a paw across Bob's wing, the claws shredding the delicate feathers.

Kato bounded over to help and hollered along the way, “Go, Dot! Do whatever you have to. Do not let Griz leave here with Blanc.”

Asking me to guess Rumplestiltskin's middle name would probably have been easier. The ground shook and smoke filled the open passageways. I took off down the one that I was pretty sure led to the furnace room. Several chimeras fought in the carved caverns. I didn't know who was on which side. The chimeras weren't wearing team colors or anything.

A barbed tail swung just over my head and hit a stalactite. Pieces of rock fractured off as it hit the ground and bounced into my leg, making me crash. A shock zipped up my body from my right foot. Sitting up, I assessed the damage. The ruby heel had broken off one of my shoes and my ankle throbbed, indicating it was probably twisted. And to top it off, I'd lost Hydra's head in the fall. My eyes burned. I couldn't see it anywhere; it was probably rolling off somewhere. I'd have to find her later, assuming there was a later. To stand, I braced myself against a miniature volcano—the one the Griff had tried to kill me with. That meant I was almost there.

Shoes in hand, I hobbled into the furnace room just in time to see Griz clobber one of the chimera guards protecting the stoic Blanc. Rexi stood in the center of the room, looking like she would run and save her own hide at the first opportunity.

I dropped the shoes so I could bring the flames to my hand. Hoping for a dramatic entrance, I fired a single shot into the ceiling of the cave to announce to Griz that I had arrived. Instantly, I felt the strain of the curse waking up, wanting to be fed.

End
this
quickly. There is nothing here that doesn't deserve to burn.

I pushed the thought away like I had before, holding on to the name I needed to save.

“Hand over the vial and Rexi's necklace, or the next one goes right into Blanc's prison.” I walked forward and allowed the fire to form in my hand again to show her I was ready to do it.

Why
wait? Just fire.

I shook my head to knock the voice loose. “Shut up.”

Griz leaned to the side and studied me. “Having a bit of trouble controlling it, are we?”

I chuckled. It sounded half-mad to me, so I hoped it sounded just over the edge of desperate crazy to her. “I don't need to control it anymore. I can just let it go and erase you and your sister off the pixing page.”

That was not the answer Griz was hoping for. She frowned and yanked the opal off her neck. “We seem to be at a standstill. You are threatening someone important to me, and I have something important to you. What do you propose we do?”

She'd made the right move by holding Rexi's life hostage. Even though she had betrayed me, she was still my friend and I was going to save her life somehow. If I survived the rest, I could beat her senseless later.

A
shuffle
shuffle
came from the back of the room. “Do what you were born to do.” Verte stood in the left entrance next to the desk. She was a little roughed up but still alive.

My sparks flared up in response.

“Stop.” Another Verte appeared in the entrance behind me. She looked exactly like I remembered her from the garden—down to having a little green friend peeking out from under her hat.

My double vision could only mean one thing. Well, two things actually. Verte was here and alive. And so was the Mimicman.

Oh, yeah, and I didn't have a fairy flippin' clue who was who.

I motioned to the Verte behind me. “You, move closer to the other…you.” I needed to get everyone in a single field of vision.

“You come to me, child. Use your powers. I will help you control them.” This from the beaten-up Verte. “The evil sisters cannot be allowed to live.”

The other Verte walked with her back closely to the rounded wall. “Humph. Can't necessarily argue with that fact. But using that abominable curse is not the way. Let it go, Dot.”

I didn't know who was real or what to do. Where was a Grimm-forsaken mirror when I needed one?

Logic told me that the battered green witch was the real Verte, because the Mimicman was on Griz's side—he would want to protect her, not tell me to kill her. The other Verte looked too perfect, but she had called me Dot. There was just no way to be sure.

Burn
them
all.

Both Vertes glowed with magic. The voice was seductive and the power wound its way along my insides. It felt different from the first time I had used it at Crow's. There, it had been a single voice, a single thread. There were multiple voices now, one had a tinny quality to it, another distinctly woodsy. And the thread had grown into a twisted strand. If I focused inward, I could almost see the newest shiny thread, and I still had the metallic taste of the gigan's life magic in my mouth.

Right then, I finally realized the full danger of the curse. At the least, I thought Hydra had been warning me against using all my own life and, at worst, warning me that I would grow to like the feel of power and control and become addicted. Both valid concerns, but I foolishly thought I would be okay—that I could be stronger and tune out the voice if I just used the flames sparingly. But in feeding the Tinman to the curse, I'd taken in more than just his power.

I could feel his mindless savagery fused to the flames within me, the dinner guest that wouldn't leave. Moony too. If I killed Griz and Blanc with emerald fire, they would join in and become my evil Jiminy Cricket consciences. I'd be madder than a March hare in minutes. I would burn down the world and laugh while doing it.

Being lost to my thoughts for just a moment was long enough for Griz to take advantage and hurl a silver bolt my way. One second, I was staring at the silver mercury coming closer, the next, I was staring into Rexi's wide green eyes. She smiled a little half smile and fell forward into my arms.

Her weight dragged me to my knees. The bolt in her back melted and oozed away, losing its shape as it trickled onto the floor. I laid Rexi down flat on the ground, and a mixture of silver and blood pooled beneath her.

My tears were there, but the flames burned them before they could reach the surface. Rexi's final choice answered the questions that had been plaguing my mind about our friendship, and it proved she was not the cowardly lion she believed herself to be.

Griz sighed. “That was…unfortunate.” The opal necklace clattered to the ground. Its bright, pulsing light dimmed.

By jumping into the path of the stormbolt, Rexi had not only saved me, but she had also deprived Griz of her source of magic. Unless the Gray Witch had something heavy to float at me, she was out of tricks.

The scuffed-up Verte yelled at me while pointing to Griz, and her green face reddened with anger. “What are you waiting for? Blast her!” In the beginning, she had been hunched over and injured, so I couldn't get a good look at her. Now that I wasn't drugged and had a clear view, I could tell that I was looking at the Mimicman. Even his ability to mimic couldn't copy the emerald eye in Verte's belt. His looked like cheap green glass.

Griz confirmed what I had just figured out. “Don't listen to him!” She put her hands out in defense. There was something in her face that I hadn't seen yet.

Fear.

If the Mimicman wanted her dead as well, the only ally she had left was locked behind a prison of fire and my number of allies had just increased. Kato padded into the room, panting and favoring his left paw.

Perfect timing.

“Kato, will you please go eat the Mimicman? He's the Verte closest to Griz.” I pointed him out.

The false Verte looked about to protest, but as Kato drew closer, the Mimicman gave up the game. With a great shudder, the Verte disguise flaked off. Now he was a chimera, with golden horns.

The Beast King.

“It's a lie,” Kato growled.

If that was true, then why did it look like Kato was struggling and unable to move any closer?

Griz ran to hide under the golden horns. “You finally reclaimed your first true form, Bestiamimickos. Now is your last chance to reclaim your former glory and side with us. Once the bindings are broken, your powers will be restored and all will be forgiven. Just prove your loyalty and bring this whole mountain down on the Emerald brat once and for all.”

The last piece of the sordid puzzle. Apparently some parts of the story get glossed over in the retelling. The noble Beast King led astray by unrequited love was really just a
magnificently
spineless weasel.

He roared, making both Griz and Kato back up. “We both know the empress would kill me before her bracelet bindings hit the floor. And even if I believed you, it seems I'm destined to make the same choice again and again.” Looking over to me, his eyes seemed to burn gold. “In that blaze of green, you are more perfect than you can ever know. I will find you once more. You will love me.”

“Only in your worst nightmares,” I snarled.

“Finish the empress and fulfill your destiny. I'll be waiting.” Abandoning both Griz and me to play out the rest of the story, the Mimicman loped out the side entrance. With him out of sight, the spell he had on Kato broke and the current Beast King bounded after the old.

“You fool,” Griz cursed, then realized her mistake in drawing my attention to her again.

The longer the emerald flames danced in my hands, the harder it was to remember why I didn't want to use them. Rexi's body still lay at my feet, so I
really
wanted to use them.

“One down, one left.”

“Wait. You still need me. I have what you want.” Griz reached into the pouch at her side. Out came the vial in one hand and the
Book
of
Making
in the other. “What you want more than anything in the world—your parents. They might have been erased from
this
story, but they are still alive in another world.”

The dream came back to me, the one I'd had by the lake, the picture of my parents on the gold-leaf page. As my flames went out, my sanity returned.

Griz ran a drop from the spring along the binding of the book, and the red engraved cover flew open, finally unlocked. She released the book from her hand and floated it closer to me in a flurry of pages. When it finally settled, the pictures moved across the paper, animated like Blanc's story had been earlier. My parents were wearing strange clothing and sitting in rocking thrones on a porch. Dad wore blue pants with something like pinafore top with buttons, and a big straw hat. Mom had her hair in a disarray like I'd never seen, and it was gray. She wore an ugly floral skirt and a white top that had the letter
I,
then a picture of a heart, and then the word
Kansas
. Whatever that was. A little animal ran around their feet. Not a demon puppy, but a small little black dog about the size Kato the chimera had started out as.