The Hunt for Snow (16 page)

“What does the weapon do?” I asked, dreading the answer.

Max’s mouth thinned into a white line. “It shuts the portals between the realms down.”

He took a wicked-looking knife from his boot and leaned closer. I shifted back with a whimper, but he held a hand up. “I’m just going to cut your binding.”

He sawed through the rope, and once it fell away I rubbed my wrists. They were raw but not bleeding. “Thanks,” I murmured. “What use would Naomi have for something like that?”

He gave me a look as if I was the dumbest thing alive. I bristled until I thought about it. “Oh,” I said meekly. It would keep me away from the castle and prevent me from securing my crown. I wrinkled my nose as I thought about it. “If she’s trying to keep me away, why am I here right now?”

Max stood and walked over to one of the unlit oil lamps. He took a small tree limb and lit the wood with another of the lamps. He lit that one and walked over to all the other dormant ones until the room glowed with a yellow cheery light. Once he’d extinguished the limb, he shrugged. “I’m assuming she has plans to toss you back out when she returns.”

I mentally pored over my weapons catalogue. I had guns out the wazoo and an entire wall full of knives. I had mace, pepper spray, bear spray and any other spray you could think of. I had Tasers and stun guns galore and surveillance devices galore. I had a magical dagger in my possession, but I didn’t think it would help Naomi’s cause. All it did was keep your wounds from clotting. It was wicked and dangerous, but I felt like using it would be cheating so I kept it on the wall as a decorative piece. That was it. I had a thing for items that could shoot, stab, sting and kill, not magical doohickeys.

“I have no idea what she’s looking for,” I said in frustration. “Are you sure it’s a weapon?”

Max gave me a blank stare. “With power like that what else could it be?”

“Maybe it’s not a gun or a knife. Maybe it’s something…else. Like a tchotchke.”

He blinked. “A…what?”

“You know. A trinket, a doohickey. A…” I fumbled for words. “A pretty thing that does nothing except look pretty.”

“I know some of those,” Max said and snorted.

“No, dummy,” I said, trying not to laugh. “Like a decorative figurine or a piece of…” I stopped.

“What?” he asked, sitting up alert.

“Jewelry,” I finished. I knew what she was looking for. And it wouldn’t be hard for her to find.

“You know what she seeks, don’t you?”

I nodded. “It was something my father gave to me after my mother died.” I thought back to that day, the earnest, serious look on his face as he gave me the sapphire necklace. How happy I was to receive such a thing from him. How the urgency in his voice told me how important it was. But I was too young to understand the implications. I thought it was a bauble. A beautiful, mysterious bauble—but a bauble nonetheless. My heart sank as I thought about losing one of the only ties I had left to my parents, but my anger grew knowing my father never told me about the extraordinary power he’d given to me.

I felt helpless. This wasn’t like one of those movies where I suddenly solved the case and was able to jump into my vehicle and squeal into the driveway to save the day. I was in another freaking dimension, and I doubted Maleficent could open another portal for me so soon after the hotel debacle. It was looking bad for the home team, that was for sure. And our brilliant plan of using that potion went right out the window, too. We couldn’t do anything until we recovered that necklace. Who was to say she wouldn’t use the damned thing while she was trapped inside of her curse, effectively shutting the door on anyone going in or out? This was very, very bad news…for everyone. Earth and the Enchanted Forest were not the only realms on the chopping block. We had multiple places…alternate dimensions, Oz, Wonderland, Neverland and so many other places that would be closed off. Trade routes would be shut off, or at least under the complete control of Naomi. And what was worse? Being shut off, or being ruled by a tyrant? Right now she only had control of the forest. Once she had that necklace, she could control everything.

Her rule had cast a pall over the kingdom, making it extraordinarily difficult to grow food, so the villagers dealt with the other realms in order to survive. I’d seen the beginnings of it when I was chased out of my home, but I could tell the problem had grown worse since I returned.

The necklace would not only solve the problem of me popping in and out when I pleased, but would also solve her other problems and give her the control of a tyrant. Max leaned closer, his eyes glittering. “What does it look like?”

“What does it matter?” I stood, studying his room to see if Max left any weapons out I could use to get out of here.

“I need it.”

I stopped my visual search and looked back at him. “Why do you need it?”

“So I can remove her from the Enchanted Forest and escape this binding.”

Something wasn’t checking out here. “How will the necklace help you do that?”

“If I control the portals, I can trap her on Earth permanently.” His face was serious, with a hint of malice underlying his even tone.

I blustered. “You want to trap a sorceress on Earth? Where not a single soul possesses a shred of magic? Do you know what an idiotic plan that is?”

Max shrugged, the red flash in his eyes creeping me out more than usual. “Why do I care about Earth? It’s a great place to visit sometimes, but it’s more important to get Naomi out of here.”

“You don’t mean that, Max.” My heart fell as I realized the extent of the damage Naomi had done to him. “There are billions of people there. Letting someone like her loose is like opening all the cages at the zoo right into the lion’s den. Casualties. Many, many casualties.”

“I have something important I need to save here,” he said.

“And that’s worth the amount of destruction you’d wreak if you trapped her on Earth?” I asked him, incredulous.

He nodded once, a sharp tight gesture. “Aye, it is.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know who you are.” I laughed at the absurdity of it. “I never have.” I turned away from him. Anyone who would be willing to sacrifice that many people for an object was no one I wanted to know. My heart felt shattered, and I felt the last few days of craziness weigh upon my shoulders like Atlas and the heavens.

“Snow,” Max said with urgency. “You do not understand. You could not possibly understand. Naomi needs to be taken out. I can
never be free
with her here.”

I laughed without mirth. “Then why don’t you just kill her?” I turned back to face him. His face was haunted.

“I cannot rise to strike against her outright. Every time my hand reaches for my weapon or poison or anything, I lose control of my muscles. They just stop.” He scratched at the stubble on his face. “And then she looks at me and smiles, this hideous knowing smile. She knows I want to slit her throat, and she laughs at me.”

He bowed his head. “I am able to fight the binding, especially when she isn’t here. Her proximity and yours is what causes it to grow stronger. But I have this urge to kill. All the time.” Max blew out a breath and stood up, his hands outstretched, his gaze beseeching.

I couldn’t trust him. I knew I couldn’t. He could be lying to me right now. Naomi could be hiding somewhere around the corner whispering to him to tell me these lies and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Maybe he was using me to find the necklace. Maybe Naomi never went to my house at all. My mind spun. I couldn’t trust him, and yet as I looked into his eyes, I wanted to…so much.

“I’m not telling you anything until you come up with an alternate plan, instead of just dumping her in Wisconsin.”

Hope appeared on his face. “Like what?”

“Strip her magic. Bind it, I don’t care, but she’s too dangerous to just let loose.” I was nervous all of a sudden. I felt like I was making a devil’s bargain. Quick movements in the shadows of the corridor caught my attention. Was I being watched? I turned back to Max. His hopeful expression hadn’t changed, but he was nodding.

“I can ask Maleficent to help. Or Rumpel. Is that enough?”

I didn’t tell him about our meeting with Rumpel, or what we had in store for Naomi if we got close enough to strike. I trusted, but only so far. I nodded. “Make sure she’s fully mortal, and yes.”

He pulled me into an embrace and kissed the top of my head. “Good. Now, Snow, what does it look like so I can make sure I steal it when she returns?”

I stared at him, my heart beating a hundred miles an hour. Something felt off. I was prone to trust my instincts, and knowing Max was under a binding I did the only thing I could.

I lied.

“It’s an emerald. A large one,” I said, describing one of the necklaces I’d worn to my coming of age ball. “It’s set in antique silver, filigreed around the stone. You won’t be able to miss it.”

He nodded. “And in case Naomi hasn’t found it yet, where is it? If I can avoid tangling with her and just get the necklace, it will be much easier.”

I looked at him with suspicion. “How are you going to get back to Earth?”

“Naomi has a portal in the castle. I can come and go as I please.” His hands fidgeted, something I’d never seen before. He was lying to me about the necklace. I was sure of it. I tucked the portal knowledge into the back of my mind. That could come in handy, especially if Naomi managed to get her hands on that necklace.

“The necklace is in Cyndi’s jewelry box, inside her bedroom. She borrowed it from me a couple of times.”

Max flinched at that, as I would have had I known how much power she was flaunting around on her many dates. “Are you sure?”

I nodded, and took a couple of steps closer to the corridor, sensing something awful was about to happen. “As sure as I can be. I haven’t seen it in a few months.”

Naomi stepped into the corridor then, her familiar blood-red attire lighting up the room. “Wonderful,” she said and turned to Max. “Well done, understudy. You’ve done admirably in your tasks.”

I took one long deep breath and controlled the urge to curse up a storm. I shouldn’t be surprised. I knew it. He hadn’t killed me yet because he needed information. I’m just glad I didn’t give it all to him. Suddenly, I was glad Father had given me dozens of necklaces during those teen years. Although I was forced to pawn some of them for money when I first came through, I still had several pieces left. Going through mine and Cyndi’s jewelry boxes would give me enough time to hopefully get to Maleficent in time for her to open the portal and get me back in time to get it before they did. I just needed to figure out how to get out of here alive first.

Max gave her an impassive nod, but his attention never wavered from me. There was a world of emotions swimming in his gaze—anger, regret, sadness. I met those emotions with a blank face. If I managed to wiggle my way out of this, I’d kill him the next time I saw him. My fingers itched to pull out the curse and use it now, but my head told me to wait. With Max here and under her control, it could end badly for me.

“You’ve been so helpful, Snow, that it really is a pity I’m going to unleash Max on you now.” She smiled at me, her blood-red lips startling against her strong white teeth. With one long, elegant hand she opened up a door within Max’s chambers and exposed a long, narrow staircase. As she walked away, she turned her head and said with a smile in her voice, “Kill her.”

We stood there, me poised to run, and Max in a casual stance staring up at Naomi’s retreating figure. When she could no longer be seen or heard, he turned to me. “I know you lied about the necklace.”

I said nothing, watching him to see if he was going to strike at me.

“I wouldn’t trust me, either.” He reached into his pocket. I tensed, and he held up his other hand in a beseeching gesture. He pulled out a small black stone, pulsing with a dark purple light. It looked much like Maleficent’s magic.

“Before Naomi sent you back here, Maleficent gave me this.” He swirled the stone around in his fingers. “It decreases the effect of her binding. I’m still not trustworthy, you see, but this helps me not to become the monster I fear I’d become without it.”

I relaxed, just a bit. “How do you break the binding?”

He snorted without mirth. “I’m assuming her death would do it. Throwing her out of the realm would at least break her hold on me, but I don’t know if it would completely sever it.”

“Are you going to kill me?” I felt naked without any weapons.

He smiled and tossed me one of the daggers he had at his waist. “No, but we’d better make it look good for Naomi.”

I gave him a bloodthirsty grin and motioned him to strike. “Deal,” I said. “Come at me, bro.”

He laughed as he stalked toward me, a carefree sound that made my heart twist with yearning. A wicked dagger glinted in his hand, and I blinked as I never saw him pull it out.
Damn
. Maybe I shouldn’t be so cocky. I stepped closer to the corridor, debating the odds of engaging in hand-to-hand or just running like hell to tell my friends what had transpired.

For once in my life, common sense prevailed. I winked at him and shot through the corridor, wincing as my shoulder hit the wall as I scrambled sideways through it. I was much smaller than him and was able to get through in minimal time. I snorted as his muffled curses echoed through the stone. Once I was out, I shot back through the muck and mire and hauled ass back to the entrance we’d gone through the first time.

I was making noise like a drunken elephant. I cringed as my boots squicked through the mud and other unmentionables, but I didn’t slow my pace any. Thunderous footsteps echoed behind me as Max taunted me.

“Snow White, I’m going to geeet yooouuuu. Come here, you sexy little thing.”

I let out a crack of laughter and shot him the finger. But I kept running. Once I reached the entrance, I shimmied up the rocks, but a vise-like grip grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. We crashed into the sewer, me on top of Max and both of us cursing up a blue streak.

“Max! Gross!” I struggled to get out his grip without having to stab him. I was going to have to take a decon bath and get a tetanus shot after all this was done.

He laughed maniacally, but didn’t let his grip up. “Keep the wiggling up, lass, and I’ll take you in this sewer.”

“Ugh.” As much as I wanted him, I didn’t think sewer monkey love would ever be worth it.

I stopped wriggling, and stared at him, those beautiful green eyes looking back at me deep with emotions. I gave him a brilliant smile, straightened my neck, and head-butted him in the nose with my forehead as hard as I could.

His shout of pain made me feel a tad guilty for being such a dirty fighter, literally, but I’d given him what he wanted in order to keep him safe—a giant black eye that he could take back to Naomi. His grip relinquished as he continued to groan, and I scrambled off him and out of the dungeon. As I stood above the entrance looking down, Max had one hand over his bloody nose, his eyes swelling and tearing up with both amusement and pain. He shook his head at me as a blood-filled smile quirked his lips.

“Crazy bitch,” he murmured.

I gave him a wave and left him lying there. His pained laughter followed me out.

I smelled like I’d been rolling around in a dumpster. My clothes were wet and sticky, and I gagged every time the wind blew in a certain direction. However, it didn’t stop me from moving as fast as I could into the village. I needed to find everyone and let them know what happened. I didn’t doubt Naomi was back on Earth tearing my house apart trying to find that necklace. We’d bought ourselves some time but not enough.

Once I plodded into the village, my boots squelching out sewage water with every step, I found the one and only inn. I received lots of curious stares from people, but as soon as they got close enough to talk to me, their noses wrinkled and they gave me a wide berth. Thank goodness. I was in no mood to talk right now.

I opened the broad wooden door of the Enchanted Inn and strode over to the front desk. The kind-faced woman’s smile faltered as I got closer. Her nose wrinkled, and her eyebrows almost shot up to her hairline.

I waved a hand. “I know. A bath is first on the agenda. I’m looking for Belle and Cyndi. Are they here?”

She nodded, and I could tell she was holding her breath.

“Okay, can you give me a key to the room?”

She checked something on her ledger first, and shoved a key at me, all without saying a word. I gave her a polite smile and made my way to the stairs.

As I walked past a group of men, one plugged his nose and said, “Lord Almighty! You smell like my neighbor’s horse stall. Get ye gone before I drag you out by the ear and toss you into the river.”

I smiled, even though I was tempted to box his ears, and made my way up to the room. I knocked once, then opened the door with the old skeleton key. Everyone stood and talked all at once.

“Cripes! I was so worried about you!”

“Snow, are you okay? You worried us to death.”

“God Almighty…you smell fierce!”

“Wow. I’m not coming one inch closer. I’ll run you a bath.”

I trudged after Cyndi, peeling off clothing one layer at a time. Once we stood in the bathroom, she looked me over, and sighed. “I am so glad you’re here. I thought for sure this was the time when Max was going to make good on his promise.”

“Maleficent gave him a handy little magical tool to keep the binding from taking him completely. We still can’t trust him, but I no longer think he’s actively trying to kill me.”

She studied me, a concerned look on her face. “Are you okay?” She was talking about more than just my ordeal.

I shrugged and unhooked the satchel from my waist before I peeled off my disgusting leggings. Everything would have to be burned. “It’s been ten years since I’ve seen him. These past few days have been tense and…exciting, but he belongs to Naomi, not me. Until we can get rid of her, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t trust what he says. I can’t.” As I was balling up my clothing, a crinkle caught my attention, and I pulled the letter Giles had given me earlier from the back pocket. I smiled as I realized he had enclosed the letter inside a Ziploc bag. That guy knew me up and down, but my smile faltered when I realized how much damage Naomi could do with the information she could glean from him. I wiped the bag off with a clean rag and sat it beside the counter. I’d read it later. I rummaged through the rest of my pockets, not finding anything else of note. My attention turned to the satchel, and I exhaled with relief as I pulled out the curse Rumpel had given me. After all that sewer wrestling it was a miracle it was still intact. I held it up to the light and chuckled ruefully. Knowing Rumple, and knowing me, he’d probably put a heavy duty armor spell on the thing to keep me from inadvertently crushing it and cursing the wrong person. I set it down carefully next to the note. Right now the only thing I wanted to do was get clean.

Cyndi tested the water, and satisfied it was warm enough, she motioned for me to get all the way undressed. She picked up one of the laundry bags and started shoving my clothes in it, a distasteful look on her face. “Say goodbye to these. You’re never going to see them again.”

I lowered myself into the bath, feeling the sting of the soap against my cuts. “I loved those boots,” I said as I sank in with a contented groan. The hot water soothed my aching muscles.

“I’ll run out while you’re in the bath and get you some new clothing.” She held out the bag from her body like it was nuclear waste. It might as well have been.

I glared at her. “No dresses.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Thanks.” I grunted and closed my eyes for a moment, enjoying the first peace I’ve had in what felt like days. “Don’t let anyone else leave. We have much to discuss.”

The only sound was the door clicking shut.

For those who’ve never taken a swim in sewage before, it takes several shampoos and tubs of water to get the smell out. By the time I felt (and smelled) like myself again, my fingers and toes were pruny. The last batch of water was finally almost clear. The last three batches were a murky brown that made me shudder in disgust. Damn that Max. I turned on the water again, but this time with the shower running and made one final rinse. Satisfied I wouldn’t offend the masses, I stepped out and reached for the towel Cyndi left for me.

After I wrapped it around myself, I stepped out and to my delight saw fresh new clothes sitting on the sink. I must have really been out of it if Cyndi managed to get in and out of the bathroom without me noticing it. I picked up the shirt, a white tank that would fit snugly against my body. I nodded in approval. The pants came next, but they were more like breeches. The Enchanted Forest hadn’t quite caught up with Earth in the blue jeans department. They were soft brown leather and stretchy cloth and would fit like a glove. Next came a pair of supple brown leather boots with lace-ups to the knee, a pair of thin knit socks, and modest undergarments. Everything would fit. I’d look like Lara Croft, but at least I would be clean.

I slipped the clothing on, loving the feeling that only comes after a nice long shower, and shoved Giles’ letter in my bra. I wiped the condensation off the antique mirror, and then ran a quick brush through my mussed black hair. Bright blue tired eyes blinked back at me. I pinched my cheeks to get some color back into them and stepped out into the room.

God bless my friends. There was a spread of food laid out, along with a tankard of ale and a couple bottles of wine. They all smiled at me and gestured for me to come over. I started to speak, to tell them everything that had happened, but Robin placed one finger to his lips.

“Eat first. Let’s take a few moments to decompress, and drink and be merry. Our troubles will wait for that.” He winked at me and offered me one of the plain white plates. I nodded, made a zipping gesture on my lips, and piled my plate high with goodies from the table. Ham, a salad made out of greens only obtainable from the Forest, mashed potatoes heavy on garlic and butter, wild rice, and more desserts than I’d ever seen.

Everyone followed suit, and soon we were spread all over the room making yum yum noises. When I finished, I leaned my head back against the wall. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”

Groans of agreement rang out. Maleficent smiled. “No use dying on an empty stomach, right?”

“Ha,” I said. “About that.” I got everyone up to speed on what had happened, including the necklace I’d been unknowingly in possession of for all those years, and the portal sequestered in the castle.

Maleficent looked thoughtful. “Naomi wouldn’t waste any time finding such an artifact. She might have already been in and out of your house.”

“I know. That’s what I’m worried about.” I gave her a hopeful look. “Is there any way you can check?”