The Hunt for Snow Read online

  14

  We sat there for several minutes, shocked at our defeat. We’d lost everything, and, in addition, Robin was now trapped here. Maybe forever. I stared at the bottle in my hand, wishing I could have made a different decision, but knowing in my heart it was the right one. We didn’t have to lose anyone to win. This wasn’t how fairytales were supposed to go. But, so far, this hadn’t been a fairytale, it had been a nightmare.

  “This is the worst thing to happen since the nineteen-forty Bears versus Redskins game,” Robin said out of the blue.

  I choked on a laugh. “Football, too? You’re a man full of secrets, aren’t you?”

  “Football is cool.”

  “Losing is not,” I said and looked at the destruction of my home. We had maybe five minutes before sirens sounded, and we had lots of explaining to do.

  I jumped up and dusted off remnants of glass and the gods knew what else. “Cyndi, Belle, get dressed into something normal. Robin, get a broom.”

  “A broom?” he asked with distaste.

  “Yes!” I yelled as I ran back into my room, praying I’d have an old pair of jeans stuffed somewhere in my closet. “Sweep up as much of the glass as you can.”

  I rummaged through the closet and then through my dresser drawers, finally unearthing a pair of black yoga pants and a long sleeve Notre Dame shirt. I pulled the pants on as fast as I could, and then washed off the blood from the shallow cuts I had all over my arms before I pulled the shirt on. I threw on a pair of cheap Old Navy flip flops, took a cursory glance in the mirror, and grimaced. I turned on the sink in the bathroom and cupped some water in my hand. I ran that through my hair and tried to get it to look like I hadn’t just engaged in a battle with a supreme sorceress.

  The sounds of sirens intruded into my thoughts, and I muttered a naughty word. I rushed out of the room and noticed that the majority of the glass had been swept up and Robin was busy righting the upturned furniture. Cyndi and Belle scrambled around helping him, so I joined in while muttering to everyone about getting our story straight.

  If I thought too much about what just happened I’d break down in tears and curl into the fetal position for a week, so I focused on the immediate tasks at hand. I’d get through this and then figure out how it all went wrong later.

  A few moments later I heard the police pull up in front of the house, the red and blue lights engulfing the entire inside and throwing eerie shadows across our faces. I nodded at everyone, and waited for the inevitable knock at the door. A handsome well-groomed officer stood at the door, his right hand resting on the butt of the service weapon at his hip.

  I smiled brightly, and when I saw his confused look, dimmed it down a bit so I didn’t look like too much of a lunatic. “May I help you?” I asked, acting the picture of politeness.

  “Ma’am, there have been several reports of gunshots, explosions and screaming from this home today. Is everything okay?” His eyes flicked to and fro within the house, his neck craning slightly as he tried to see around the door.

  I pulled it a little tighter to my back. If my knowledge of the law was correct, he wouldn’t be able to enter, but I didn’t feel like testing it and getting it wrong. “Oh, I am so sorry about that,” I said, suddenly affecting a bad southern accent and trying not to hear the muffled snorts of laughter behind me. “We were watching football and it got a little bit out of hand.”

  “Football?” he echoed in disbelief.

  “Yep!” I smiled again, my teeth set in more of a grimace, I was afraid.

  “And the explosions?” he asked, the surprise evident on his face. He wasn’t buying a word of this.

  “Oh that. See, we were fighting over whether to watch football or Predator. And Robin here,” I leaned back and gestured frantically at Robin, “didn’t agree. So we got into a wrestling match and then,” I giggled like a co-ed and cast cow eyes at Robin now standing by my side, “well, then it got really out of hand. Why I barely had time to get dressed before I heard the sirens. Right, darling?” I wrapped my arm tightly around Robin’s waist, and stared, daring him to disagree with me.

  I should have known better. He gripped me tight around the waist, gave the officer a dazzling smile and said in his cool British tone, “She’s very naughty when she gets angry, you know.” His hand reached down and gave me a firm pinch on the bottom.

  I jerked, but managed to keep the smile plastered on my face. “That’s me.” I laughed awkwardly. “A naughty, naughty minx.”

  The officer stood there, his mouth wide open. He shook his head, pulled out his notebook and wrote something on his pad. “I’ve met weirder,” he mumbled as he tore off the warning for noise violation.

  I doubted it. I apologized profusely about the noise, thanking my lucky stars he’d only given us a warning, and watched as he shook his head and took off down the stairs. As he got in the car and gave me one last confused look, I offered him a cheery wave, shut the door, and punched Robin in the shoulder.

  “You had to pinch my rear end? You couldn’t just smile and nod?”

  Robin looked way too happy with himself. “You presented me the perfect opportunity. How was I supposed to pass that up?”

  “Willpower and self-control?” I shook my head.

  We turned around to trudge back in, but Belle stood there with an angry look on her face. “Ass,” she muttered.

  She followed this up with a punch to Robin’s face. He fell like a stone, and I stood there gaping at her. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

  She gasped and flailed her hands like a beauty queen who discovers someone jacked her mascara right before runway time. “I’m sorry. I have no idea. He just made me so mad!” She stomped her small foot and glared down at the unconscious Robin.

  I leaned down and slapped him on the cheek. “You’re jealous,” I said, and waited for the inevitable explosion.

  “I know,” she whispered, stopping me in mid-smack. She stood there chewing on her thumbnail like a lost little girl.

  I straightened and took her by the arm. “Let’s just put that aside for now. We need wine and a plan.”

  We left Robin there, grabbed Cyndi and headed into the kitchen. He seemed just fine, but was going to be mighty angry when he woke up. I reached up and took down a bottle of Syrah. Once we were settled in with large glasses of wine, we all started talking at once.

  “Now that was an intense conference,” Belle said.

  Cyndi said, “So that was the most fun we’ve ever had on a weekend.”

  “I can’t believe I almost died. Multiple times.”

  We laughed, and weariness seeped into my bones so heavy I laid my head down on the bar. “What are we going to do?”

  A deep voice spoke from just outside the kitchen. “First of all, we need to figure out how to activate this thing. Did anyone happen to hear the word Naomi muttered?”

  I lifted my head up and stared at Robin, about to tell him off for being a smart-ass. But as soon as I opened my mouth, I closed it, because in his hand dangled my sapphire necklace. I sat up straighter. “How in the world?”

  He winked with the eye that wasn’t slowly turning black and purple. “I’m the best thief in the Enchanted Forest, that’s how.”

  “You pickpocketed the Evil Queen?” Belle asked in disbelief.

  “I don’t speak to people who punch unsuspecting thieves in the face.” Robin didn’t bother to look at her, instead keeping his focus on me.

  “So we have this, but no portal back.” I gestured for him to bring the necklace over. I hadn’t really looked at it since the day I took it off and put it in that box almost a decade ago. He dropped it in my hand, and I tested the heavy weight of silver and stone. The sapphire, glowing so bright under the power of Naomi, now rested silent, still a deep blue but no longer alive with power.

  “Maleficent is bound to know something went wrong as soon as she lost control of the portal,” Cyndi said as she tipped up her wine. “But there’s no telling what Naomi had to do to
destroy it and how that may have affected her.”

  “She’s been expending tons of magic lately. It could be some time before she’s able to reopen a new one. I’d say we’d be lucky to hear from her within a week. For now, we might be stuck here.” Belle stood, brought down another bottle of wine and gestured to Robin to see he if wanted a glass. He nodded, giving her a long heated look. At least he didn’t look murderous anymore.

  She opened the bottle, filled a glass for him, and refreshed ours. “We need to figure out how to get that thing to work so we don’t have to rely on Maleficent.”

  She was right. We were holding incredible power in our hands, but we had no idea how to use it. The most magical words I knew were abracadabra and shazam, and those would get me laughed right out of my house. I tucked the necklace into my pocket for further contemplation and a thought struck me.

  Cyndi excused herself from the table for a moment, a happy look on her face. I shrugged and addressed the thief in our midst.

  “Robin, how have you been traveling back and forth to Earth? Those weapons you had weren’t from the Enchanted Forest.” I knew Maleficent wasn’t involved in his apparent scheming, but he never told us how he’d done it.

  His face darkened. “I’d rather not discuss it right now,” he said. “Let’s just say I’m stuck here for now.”

  Damn, there went that plan right out the window. I swigged the rest of my wine and plunked the glass down. The sun was sinking down over the horizon, darkening the house along with my mood. I was tired and defeated. It wasn’t as bad as I’d initially thought, but we were stranded here for now, and the gods only knew how Naomi would react once she realized she didn’t have the necklace. Her portal could take her right back into my living room, so it probably wasn’t safe to stay here any longer.

  I frowned at Robin. Here I thought my secrets were the only important ones. Belle was going to have her hands full with him. I shifted off the stool. “We shouldn’t stay here tonight,” I said. “Naomi could be back at any minute.”

  Belle’s smiled like she had a secret. “No worries. I can ward this place within an inch of its life and keep her out of here.”

  “You know how to ward?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Yup.” Her eyes glittered with magic. “It’s super secret squirrel stuff, but basically it has to do with the Wi-Fi signal and flammable material. She won’t be able to make a portal inside the house, and if she tries to break in from the outside, she’ll go boom.”

  I blinked. “What if someone knocks on the door? Will they go boom?”

  Belle frowned. “You might want to tell your friends to stay away for the next seven days.”

  I waved a hand at her. “Set it up. At least we’ll be able to stay home. That’s two for our corner.”

  Cyndi came back into the kitchen carrying a long heavy clothing bag. At the quizzical look on my face, she grinned at me and waggled her eyebrows. “We went to the conference with the best of intentions, but considering it barely got off the ground, I wanted to show you the ball gown I picked up for you. You know…just in case we don’t get the chance to do it later.”

  I read between the lines. Just in case we died, she meant. Cyndi unzipped the bag and pulled out a long fuchsia gown. I sucked in my breath. It was the same color as the shirt she’d bought for me, so I knew right away it would look fantastic against my skin. She hung it up on one of the cabinets so we could get the full view. She’d outdone herself. There was no ornamentation on the dress, but it didn’t need it. The entire gown was made out of lace. It had a square modest neckline, and three-quarter sleeves, but it fell into an A-line skirt. It would both cover and compliment my sparse curves and still leave me with room to plant many surprises inside the skirts, i.e. weapons. It was gorgeous. Suspicious wetness filled my eyes.

  “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

  She gave me a shaky smile. “Does this make up for the luggage?”

  I shook my head and laughed. I had plans in store to retaliate for that one. “Not even a little bit, but you’re on the right track. How did you get this back here?”

  She chuckled. “I brought it back as soon as I realized we were never really there for a conference at all. We were there for Naomi. I brought a few other things back, too, so not all is lost.”

  She was a lot smarter than I’d ever given her credit for. “You’re a rock star, you know that?”

  She blushed and waved the compliment away. After Belle and I oohed and ahhed over the dress some more, I said goodnight and trudged back to my room. I felt my pocket, satisfied that the weight of the necklace was still heavy but comfortable resting next to my hip. Once I was inside the room, I sat on the bed, the weight of our almost total failure weighing heavy on my mind. As I leaned forward to sink my head in my hands, I heard the crinkle of plastic and paper. I reached inside my shirt and pulled out the letter I’d shoved in my bra hours ago. My breathing picked up as I stared at the almost illegible print on the letter.

  My first name was written on it as almost an afterthought. It was a terrible night to read it, I knew. I was not in the right frame of mind. Depressed, sick over what happened and the people we may have hurt in the process, worry about how Naomi was going to retaliate once she realized what Robin had done. But I opened it anyway. It was dated nine years ago.

  Snow,

  Belle tells me you are safe on Earth, although she refuses to divulge where. She’s always been the intelligent sort. There are things I want to, no, need to, tell you. Your stepmother has plotted against you for years. I know by now you are beginning to realize the depths of her depravity, but be warned. Coming back will seal your death warrant. And I’m afraid it will be me carrying out the deed.

  I’ve been in Naomi’s service for over a hundred years now. Hard to believe, yes, but her magic keeps me eternally young. And eternally bitter. She’s taken everything from me, but one thing—my daughter, Lana. Naomi assures me she’s still alive, and every night I wander this castle looking for her, but my searches come up fruitless. Thoughts of her keep me waking up every day and eager to find a way to break this hold Naomi has over me.

  But thoughts of you, Snow, keep me burning. I pray that one day circumstances will find us in different places, so I can show you I am no monster. My actions are not my own and are driven by the darkest of magics. My willpower is sometimes the only thing that stops me from carrying out the worst of her nefarious deeds. That is not to say I am an innocent. I am no innocent and the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people weigh heavy on my soul.

  I tell you this to tell you, Snow, that if there ever was a woman made for me, I am sure it is you. By now you may know that I had a wife. I loved her yes, but it was built out of mutual respect and our family’s desire to merge our families. But you, Snow, are the woman who makes me want to be a better man, who fans the fire of my fight against Naomi and all that she seeks to destroy.

  I know you will not heed my wishes to stay away. And I do not know when that day will come or how much stronger Naomi’s hold will be over me by then. I beg of you to not look at me as a monster, but as a man who fights every day to be free. A man who wishes to be with you against all the odds. And a man who once again hopes to hold his daughter in his arms, free of the wicked ties that bind me.

  If I can tell you one cryptic thing that could help you in the future, it is this—Naomi wears a bracelet she never takes off. Ever. I’ve had over a hundred years to watch her. I don’t know if this will help, but considering how futile my efforts have been to break away from her, it is the only thing I have to give.

  I have no right to ask this of you, Snow, especially after my actions on the day you left this cursed place. Wait for me. Give me the chance to prove to you that I deserve your love.

  Max

  Tears fell down my face. Years of wonder and hope and regret. This letter could have changed so much. Maybe I would have gone back sooner. Maybe I could have saved him. I lay down on top of the covers, clutch
ing the letter to my chest, my thoughts spinning with the what if’s and what could have beens.

  I dug the necklace out of my pocket and clasped it around my neck. After the cool weight lay heavy against my skin, I stripped off my yoga pants and flipped off the lamp on my nightstand. Tomorrow would be a new day. We would fix this. The entire Enchanted Forest was relying on us. And one man had placed his hopes on me. It was time I made a stand and took my place as the rightful queen of my homelands, no matter how high the odds were against me. My only hope was that my friends and Max would be standing beside me when all of the dust settled.

  As I drifted off to sleep hours later that night, my dreams were filled with haunting green eyes and the wicked, triumphant laughter of the Evil Queen.