The Hunt for Snow Read online

  I kept psyching myself up and repeating like a mantra, All you gotta do is not miss. Don’t miss. Don’t miss. For the love of the gods. Don’t miss. I patted the vial strapped onto my waist. The leather strap was still secured and the bottle was still nestled inside. We’d storm the castle in the middle of the night. It was still daytime right now, so we had several hours to go.

  We crept out of our hiding places and opted to head back to the village for a few hours of desperately needed sleep. I trailed behind everyone, keeping a careful eye on my surroundings, looking for traps or guards. Maleficent, Belle and Robin plowed ahead, seemingly unworried about the events to come.

  I, however, was terrified. There were only two endings to this I could see—either Naomi would win, or I would. Maybe three—we’d all die. I ran a hand through my dirty hair and cringed as I pulled away spider webs and other unsavory things. A hot bath was first on my to-do list once we found a place to stay back in the village.

  I found myself lost in thoughts of what ifs, so I didn’t hear the soft crack of the twig behind me until it was too late. I flew off my feet and into the hard chest of someone very male. A large warm hand covered my mouth, but left my nose open to breathe. A courteous kidnapper. Nice.

  “If you scream, I will slit your pretty white throat.” The whisper against my ear did delicious things to my insides. Max had found us. I wasn’t sure whether to be delighted or terrified.

  I nodded once, but Max’s grip didn’t loosen. Instead, he picked me up like I weighed no more than a sack of potatoes and slung me across his back. I grunted in pain as my stomach hit his shoulder, which alerted Robin. His horrified shout rang out, but Max had already taken off running back to the castle, jarring my teeth with every step he took.

  “Stay back!” I managed to shout. “Remember our plan!” Of course, our plan wasn’t much good if Max found the vial strapped to my waist, but I’d deal with that when the time came. I reached to my back and felt one of my hands ensnared by his.

  “Don’t you even dare,” he said with a growl as he continued to haul ass through the brush.

  Secretly I was thrilled he found me. I felt very Jane versus caveman, but the self-preservationist inside of me was racking my brain for a way to get out of this. The sounds of pursuit faltered and stopped behind me. Robin would figure this out. He always did.

  Max slowed his pace after a few more moments and slid me off his shoulder. We were in a heavy cover of woods behind the castle, no guards or Naomi in sight. Instead of letting me go, he pulled me against him and ran his fingers through my hair and down my shoulders. I was starting to get excited, but when he forced my arms up in the air and ran his hands down my waist, I realized the bastard was looking for weapons. He unhooked the satchel from my waist, took a cursory glance inside and not seeing any weapons, he tossed it to the ground beside him. I kept my face blank, but my knees almost buckled in relief. Rumpel’s curse was still intact and safe. As long as he didn’t look too closely, and I was able to retrieve the satchel when I managed to get the hell away from him, all would be well.

  His hands cupped my breasts, lingering long enough to tell me he wasn’t unaffected by his thorough search, and slipped down to the undersides. He lifted them up, my mouth going dry as he took his time. His hands spanned my waist again and stalled when he reached the small of my back. He took out my Sig and tossed it to the ground, silent in his examination.

  He lifted my shirt up, his warm hands again at my waist. I shivered against him and when his gaze met my own, his eyes were the normal forest green I expected them to be, although I wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d broken Naomi’s hold. It was only dormant for now.

  His head inched closer to mine. “Where are the rest?” he whispered. I tried to knee him in the groin, but he sidestepped me and tightened his grip on my waist. His lips were barely an inch from mine, and I studied them, remembering exactly where those lips had been just a little while ago. I eventually looked up at him.

  Knowing and answering heat reflected back in his gaze. “There are no more,” I said, lying through my teeth.

  He chuckled. “I’ll strip you naked if I have to. Where are they?”

  I glared at him, refusing to be cowed. “If you’re so good, find them.”

  He pulled me so close our bodies melded together. My thighs were trapped in between his, and I felt the heat of his want resting in my apex. I swallowed hard and dared him silently.

  In answer, he tore my tunic down the front. I gasped in outrage, and pulled the ragged cotton together to cover myself. The familiar tinge of red in his eyes was more evident than it was before. “Show me your weapons, Snow, or I will hurt you.” His face filled with silent pain, and he shook his head once as if to clear it. “The binding grows stronger when I’m close to you. I will not be able to fight it much longer. Do as I say and I might be able to let you walk away from here.”

  I pulled a wicked knife from my boot and the pepper spray from my bra, and tossed them down on the ground in front of him. I spread my hands out in front, the remnants of my shirt dangling. I had another small knife in my other boot, but I’d die before I’d give it up.

  “Take off your boots.”

  I stood my ground. “Why?”

  “Because I know you. Take off your boots and stop arguing.”

  I bent over and slid one boot off, then the other. “Satisfied?”

  “Turn them upside down and shake them out.”

  I stifled a curse word as I did what he asked. My last hope made a soft thump in the grass. Max bent and scooped it up. He twirled the small knife around in one hand as he studied me. “Would you really have stabbed me?”

  Yes. No. “Maybe.”

  “Good to know. I guess you’ve already shot me, so what’s a little stabbing among friends?”

  “Looks like you’ve healed just fine.” No doubt due to Naomi’s ministrations.

  His face darkened. “There are…perks to my situation.”

  “No doubt,” I murmured. Silence fell between us. The sky was beginning to darken even more so as the sun began to set. Max barked at me to put my boots back on.

  I slid them on, but wondered why I should have even bothered. My shirt was torn in half and I had no weapons. The odds of me outrunning him were low, but the odds of me wounding him were even lower. All I had now were my bare hands and my wits, one which was stronger than the other. Once I was somewhat dressed again, Max tied my wrists in front of me with rope he secured from the leather pack he carried at his waist. If I was in a better mood, I would have made fun of him for carrying what looked suspiciously like a fanny pack. Instead, I just glowered and allowed him to tighten the ropes so hard they chafed like a too tight pair of underwear. He leaned down to pick up my satchel and, to my surprise, fastened it around my waist before he took hold of the rope and pulled me forward. With that small action, Max had almost assuredly signed Naomi’s death warrant.

  He led me with ease through the woods, comfortable enough in his surroundings to know where we were going. I, on the other hand, was lost. The castle was still in view, though, which I found strange. Why hadn’t he just taken me to the front and paraded me in front of everyone? After walking and stumbling around for what fell like forever, we made it to the back end of the castle. There were no guards around this time, and I filed that away for future use. I didn’t think Robin would make a move when he wasn’t sure where I’d been taken, so if I managed to break away, we might be able to use this to our advantage.

  Max pulled me closer to the castle and loosened a grate concealed behind several large bushes. I balked once I realized what he was doing. “You want me to wade through the sewer?” I asked in disbelief. “What the hell, Max? Why are you being so secretive and weird?”

  “Just do as I say,” he barked and shoved me toward the entrance.

  I heaved a grunt of frustration and shimmied my way into the grate. I landed in six inches of muck and mire and let out a sailor-worthy string of cu
rse words. I loved these boots. Max dropped in beside me, grinning maniacally at my pissed off face. I glowered at him as he motioned for me to follow along. Well, what the hell was I going to do? Run away? I’d never been in this portion of the castle before and had no idea it existed. This was time to get familiar with things, just in case our first plan didn’t work out.

  We slogged through disgusting waste water until we came to a lit up area. The smell was overwhelming, and I gagged every few steps, my stomach roiling and churning. I’d already managed to throw up my stew thanks to Maleficent, so I had nothing left to give. Max motioned me into a small area concealed against the gray stone. If I hadn’t been looking for this place, I would have overlooked it. I had to walk sideways to shimmy in, and Max followed behind me, his nearness overwhelming. I still couldn’t figure out his game.

  After a few minutes of sideways shuffling, the corridor opened up into a small room with a bed and nightstand. It was lit with a couple of small oil lamps. I looked around, realizing this was Max’s room. I schooled my face, trying not to show sympathy. There were little personal touches here, nothing to give me a glimpse into the man I’d fallen hard for. The bed was small and rickety and held one threadbare blanket on it, not big enough for Max. How or even if he managed to get a good night’s sleep here remained a mystery. The nightstand held a lamp and a single old paperback—A Game of Thrones, one of the few things in the room with Max’s touch on it. The walls were bare and the temperature was cooler in here than the areas we’d just walked through.

  Nervousness seeped into my stomach. “Why am I here?”

  “Relax. I’m not going to kill you.” He motioned at me to sit on the bed.

  I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was with that, so I sat on the edge, my knees together and my bound wrists on top of them. He shook his head in amusement and sat in front of me on the floor. “You possess a weapon, Snow. A powerful artifact. Naomi wants it. Where is it?”

  I blinked. “What weapon?” I had tons of weapons, but didn’t think anything I possessed was overly powerful. Some of it was magical, but nothing I had was rare or even all that special. My items held significance for me, but not for anyone else.

  He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it. “I don’t know,” he gritted out, “but that’s where she is right now.”

  My heart stuttered. “Where? My house?” I squeaked.

  He nodded. “Why else would she dump you here?”

  I cursed under my breath. Naomi never did anything halfway. She’d dumped us here to keep us away. Instead of doing the sane thing and maybe sneaking over to my house during the conference, she went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and decided to send an entire hotel into another realm. It worked, though. Instead of having Maleficent open a portal to return, we blindly went forth and searched for Rumpel. But I didn’t understand what it was she wanted.

  “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 fac
e 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.”