The Everafter War (9 page)

They had not walked long when Henry stopped to consult the crude map King Arthur had drawn for him. When Veronica asked if they were lost, he held up his hand for silence but said nothing. After more scrutiny he climbed atop a rocky cliff and peered over the horizon. Sabrina thought she’d seen most of the woods around Ferryport Landing—after all, she had been chased through them by enough monsters—but she had no idea where they were. If Ferryport Landing had anything in great supply, it was creepy forests. She hoped they weren’t lost.

“He’s like this in the car, too,” Veronica said as she watched her husband turn the map one way and then the other.

Sabrina giggled but Daphne said nothing. She sat on a stump sulking, her head tilted downward as if the most intriguing thing she had ever seen were the ants at her feet.

“Well, that’s new,” Veronica said quietly, as if she had just come upon some exotic animal in the woods. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your sister angry.”

“Stick around,” Sabrina replied. “It’s a regular event these days.”

“You two have changed so much.” Veronica sighed.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Sabrina said. “We had to adapt.”

Henry scrambled back down the cliff toward the family and tucked his map into his pocket. “OK, I know where we are. It’ll take about two hours to get to the train station if we hurry. We should be able to catch the 6:17 to Grand Central.”

“So, Henry, what are we going to do when we get to the city?” Veronica asked.

“I haven’t figured it out yet,” Henry said, urging everyone to their feet. He walked on, leading them along Arthur’s trail.

“Oh, so we’re just going to stumble into New York City with no money and no place to sleep? That’s your plan?”

Henry shook his head. “I have some money—enough to get us a hotel for a night. Tomorrow we’ll need to tackle our bank accounts.”

“Tomorrow is Sunday,” Veronica said. “The banks will be closed.”

Henry’s steps faltered for a moment but he soon continued onward. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Daphne and I slept in plenty of homeless shelters when we ran away from foster families,” Sabrina said. “I know places that will take us.”

“Oh good!” Veronica cried. “We can sleep in a homeless shelter. Our problems have been solved.”

“Sarcasm is not necessary,” Henry said.

Veronica laughed. “Oh yes it is! It’s the only way to get you to react to what is going on around you. Henry, we can’t leave. I’d love to go back to the city, but not this way—with your brother wounded and the entire town in jeopardy. On top of that we’re broke and homeless.”

“I would rather have us sleeping in a gutter in the Bronx before we spent a night in this forsaken town!” Henry said. “I know you don’t agree with what I’m doing or how I’m doing it but I’m going to protect this family. I can’t do that in this town; there’s too much Everafter craziness. I don’t want my family around it. And to be very, very clear, I mean I don’t want anyone in my family around Everafters. Not even the ones that live in New York City!”

Veronica’s face fell. “You were eavesdropping?”

“Imagine my surprise when I learned my own wife was working with Everafters in Manhattan behind my back!”

“I had to! I knew you wouldn’t approve. I was trying to be helpful. Isn’t that what Grimms do?”

“Don’t throw that silly catchphrase at me,” Henry said.

“So now that the secret’s out, you must know there are at least two hundred Everafters running around New York City, so if you’re trying to get away from them—”

“Not a problem. We’re moving,” Henry said.

“Moving!” Sabrina gasped. Moving away from the Big Apple was not part of the dream reunion she had imagined when her parents woke up. They couldn’t move!

“Yes, we’ll move to somewhere no Everafter would want to live!”

“Like where?”

“I don’t know. Canton, maybe.”

“Canton, Ohio!” Veronica groaned. “
Human beings
don’t want to live in Canton, Ohio!”

“It doesn’t matter where we move as long as it’s boring,” Henry shouted. “We’ll find someplace where the mayor isn’t a prince and the local police aren’t magical transforming pigs!”

“Actually, the Sheriff of Nottingham is running the police department now,” Sabrina corrected.

“I didn’t say good-bye to Elvis,” Daphne whimpered.

“So, you’re laying down the law, huh? Do I get a say in any of this?” Veronica asked. “Or am I supposed to play the dutiful wife? Perhaps you’d like me to put on an apron and make you a pot roast, too?”

Henry scowled. “Veronica, that’s a bit dramatic.”

“I didn’t say good-bye to Elvis,” Daphne repeated.

Sabrina frowned. She hadn’t said good-bye to the big dog, either.

Veronica continued the argument. “You’re not going to drag the girls and me through this world hiding from pixies and fairy godmothers. They’re out there, and most of them are not bad people.”

“Pixies are not people,” Henry snapped. “Don’t try to tell me what I know about Everafters. I’ve lived side by side with them most of my life. My mother’s best friend is one. I used to be in love with one.”

The girls cringed, then turned to their father. He cringed back. Henry had stepped in it, and Sabrina’s mother was boiling mad.

“I’m painfully aware of your previous love life, Henry Grimm. After all, I just woke up this morning from a two-year sleep to find your old girlfriend sitting over you with her big moon eyes!”

“Veronica! I can’t believe you’re jealous.”

This time Henry put his head in his hands. Sabrina didn’t know much about adult relationships, but everyone knew that accusing someone of being jealous of an old girlfriend couldn’t be a good thing. Her mother looked like the top of her head might blow off like the cork on a champagne bottle.

“JEALOUS?”

Henry sputtered. “I didn’t exactly mean jealous—”

“What do I have to be jealous about? I’m the best thing that ever happened to you, pal!”

Henry nodded sheepishly.

“You hit the lottery when you met me! I’m smart. I’m funny. I can throw a sixty-mile-an-hour fastball! And I’m a babe!”

“I agree.” Henry’s face was bright red. “I am the luckiest man in the world.”

The family walked on for several yards in silence. Sabrina wondered if her parents would ever speak to one another again, but then Veronica broke the ice.

“Henry, I know why you want to leave. The loss of your father, the problems the girls have had for two years, our kidnapping. I get it! But we’re still a family—a team—and we’re supposed to make decisions as a team. Besides, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you all, and I … wait, where’s Daphne?”

Sabrina spun around but Daphne wasn’t there. “She must have gone back to tell Elvis good-bye.”

“Daphne, we don’t have time for this,” Henry shouted.

“Daphne!” Veronica called. There was no response.

Henry shook his head. “When did she get so stubborn?”

Sabrina shrugged. “Actually, that’s what people usually say about me.”

“Wait here. I’ll go after her,” Henry said. He took off running back the way they came. Veronica and Sabrina looked at one another, shook their heads, and then raced after him through brush and creek beds. Sabrina could hear her father shouting for her sister farther along the path, demanding that Daphne come back, but he was wasting his breath. Sabrina had been trying to manage her sister for some time and it was like pushing a car up a hill.

When Sabrina and her mother finally caught up with her father, he was standing in a clearing of trees with his hand clamped on Daphne’s arm.

“This is unacceptable, young lady,” Henry scolded.

“I’m not leaving,” Daphne said. “They need us.”

“What makes you think you can do anything to help?” Henry demanded. “You’re only five years old!”

“Dad, she’s seven,” Sabrina said.

“Eight in two weeks, and I’ve fought plenty of bad guys in the last year. I am a Grimm. This is what I do!”

Just then, a dozen hulking figures stepped out from the trees, surrounding the family. They all stood nearly seven feet tall and each had bumpy, gray skin that looked like it had been peeled off an alligator. Their eyes were twice as big as a normal person’s. Their ears, however, were unlike anything Sabrina had ever seen—sharp, pointy, and covered in what looked like porcupine quills. Most held spears, though a couple clung to knotty clubs with dozens of rusty spikes jutting out of them. Their leader, a brute with a chest full of gaudy medals, stepped to the front of the group. His face was a collection of scars, broken bones, and jagged teeth. Like all of his soldiers, his chest was painted with the mark of the Scarlet Hand. He surveyed the Grimms and then grinned like some twisted kid who has just decapitated all of his sister’s dolls.

“I knew I recognized the foul stink that comes off humans, but I never suspected we’d meet ones who are so famous,” he said.

“You want an autograph?” Sabrina grumbled. Henry shot her a look that told her to keep her mouth shut.

A second soldier stepped forward to join his boss. He was just as ugly, with a tuft of red hair on his decidedly pointy head. “They must be coming from Charming’s camp,” he said. “They’ve allied themselves with the traitor and his troublemakers.”

“That means the camp must be nearby,” the leader crowed. He turned back to the family and gnashed his yellow teeth. “The Master will reward us for finding the camp. To avoid any unpleasantness, perhaps you would like to tell us where it is?”

“We don’t have the foggiest idea what you are talking about,” Henry lied. “We’re not coming from any camp. My family and I are just out for a picnic.”

The hobgoblin leaped forward and stood as close to Henry as he could. Their faces were only inches apart and he blew his rank breath on him. “You lie. You’re a Grimm. All of you lie.”

“That’s not a very nice thing to say,” Henry said. “I’m hurt.”

“If you don’t tell me where the camp is you’re going to be hurting a lot more.”

Henry shook his head. “We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. Let’s start over. My family and I are not involved with Charming or his camp. We have refused to take a side in your little conflict and to avoid any further problems we are on our way to the train station. So, if you’ll kindly step aside and let us pass, we’ll get out of your hair.”

“You’ll go where I tell you, human,” the monster snorted, then turned to his men. “Arrest them and bind their hands. If they won’t take us to the fort, we’ll beat the answer out of them, starting with their children.”

One of the brutes clamped his hands down on Sabrina’s arms. She tried to pull free but he was impossibly strong. She could see the rest of her family getting the same rough treatment.

Then there was a flash of fists and feet, loud groans, and the cracking of bones. At first Sabrina thought that some unearthly force had come to their rescue, but it soon became clear that there was nothing supernatural at work, only her mother and father—who fought like trained prizefighters.

Henry was like a tornado, whipping from one soldier to the next, planting punches with incredible accuracy. Sabrina had never seen someone so quick and yet so precise. The way her father fought reminded her of a dancer, kicking and punching to a rhythm only he could hear. Veronica was not quite so elegant. She snatched a thick limb off the forest floor and clubbed anyone who got close to her. Sabrina remembered one evening when her parents had taken her to the boardwalk at Coney Island. They passed some batting cages and Henry and Veronica decided to see who could hit the most fastballs. Veronica won by a landslide. Sabrina had felt bad for the balls that night as her mom drove one after another into the netting. The monster’s ribs and heads weren’t nearly as hard as baseballs, but she swung for the fences anyway. Working together, Sabrina’s parents managed to take out eight of the monsters.

Sabrina looked over at her sister. “Our parents are so gravy.”

Daphne scowled. “That’s not how you say it.”

“Girls, run for the fort,” Henry shouted as he defended himself from one of the creatures who was charging him with a heavy chain in hand.

“We can help,” Daphne said, stepping into the fighting stance she had learned in self-defense class.

“Listen to your father!” Veronica cried, jamming her branch into the belly of one of the beasts and knocking him to the ground.

Sabrina snatched her sister by the hand and pulled her down the path toward the fortress. She looked back, hoping her mother and father were right behind them, but they were nowhere in sight.

“We have to go back!” Daphne said. “We can’t just leave them.”

“You saw them. Our parents are tough,” Sabrina said, doing her best to sound confident. “They’ll be along soon.”

They ran and ran and by the time they came to Charming’s camp Sabrina’s lungs were on fire, but she forced herself to shout for help. Daphne did the same. A sentry appeared in a tower and aimed a magic wand at them. “Stand back, invaders!” he shouted and a second later a blast of white-hot fire exploded at Sabrina’s feet.

“Who goes there?” he demanded.

“Open the gate!” Sabrina cried. “It’s Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. Monsters are chasing us.”