Of Enemies and Endings (36 page)

hat afternoon, a small crowd gathered near the Tree of Hope. Last time I had seen the Tree, it had still been on the roof of that brick house. If it was back in the ground, someone must have moved it. They must have also reattached the roots, because it stood as straight and tall as it had before the invasion.

I didn't see why everyone seemed so pleased about it. The Tree looked awful. Soot blackened its trunk. Very few branches still snaked down to the ground and then back to the sky. Most of them had fallen off. Many had been charred. Only two limbs had any green leaves left on them, and even those drooped, wilted and unhealthy.

I skimmed the area for anyone who might have answers, and I spotted two elves standing beside a clump of excited sixth graders. I threaded my way through the crowd.

Rufus was clearly thrilled about the poor broken Tree, and a few steps later, I could hear what he was saying. “. . . already impressive as a magician. But to lose her hands . . .” He whistled. “Once she learns how to control all that magic, she'll be unstoppable. She's probably almost as powerful as the Snow Queen.”

“But there's no time for her to learn control,” said Kefmin mournfully. “Gretel asked Lena to
move
the Tree, not put it back where it was. Do you think the Triumvirate has any chance—”

They noticed me. Kefmin gawked, clearly shocked that he'd been caught talking about us.

But I couldn't care less. I was too focused on the other thing he'd said. “
Lena
did this?”

Rufus nodded. “The Director wanted to get it off the roof. She asked us”—he pointed to himself and Kefmin—“to start chopping it up and hauling it away. She said she wanted the reminder of last night out of the courtyard.”

That sounded like the Director. “And she thought she should put a new sorceress to work right away?” I said, a little ticked off.

“We cleared the area,” said Kefmin, mildly offended. “In case Lena lost control and dropped it on someone.”

Control and aim weren't the problem. Lena has always liked to challenge herself.

“Lena didn't even need Gretel to teach her,” said Rufus proudly. “She knows all these spells. She has been a magician for years. She said, ‘Up, Tree' and the Tree sailed up.”

“And that's where it landed,” said Kefmin, a lot less excited. “She passed out approximately six seconds after that.”

“She's fine. She just used too much magic,” Rufus explained, seeing my face and the panic that must have blazed across it. “The Director sent her back to bed to sleep it off.”

I was already backing away. The Tree forgotten, refugees suddenly unimportant, I sprinted over to her house and up her steps, throwing myself at the knocker.

Mrs. LaMarelle answered the door with a smile. She wouldn't have been so cheerful if Lena wasn't okay. A little bit of my panic eased. “You too? Nothing like a fainting spell after a close call to bring friends running. Don't wear her out, you hear me? Ten minutes is all you get. Otherwise I'll need to steal some more Water to revive Lena.”

I recognized Chase's voice from all the way down the stairs, and I heard Kyle's when I reached the second floor.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I didn't need to. The second I opened the door, they all went quiet. For one split second, Lena looked as trapped and terrified as she had when we'd gotten stuck in the Searcasters' bread box during her Tale. Kyle's face clearly said,
How much did she overhear?

Chase didn't even turn my way.

They'd been talking about me.

“Hey,” I said. A solid opener.

“I'm really feeling much better,” Lena said. She was in bed, her new hands resting on top of the covers.

Maybe I should have just scuttled back out and let them finish their conversation. Maybe I should have—

But Chase pushed himself off the wall. “Kyle, we gotta go take care of that thing.” Wow. He didn't even want me to know what he was working on. He slipped out the door, staring over my head, sending the
I need my space
signals loud and clear.

Kyle loped after him, obviously feeling as awkward as I was. He paused in the doorway just long enough to smile at Lena. “See ya.”

“Have you talked to him yet?” Lena said the second we heard the front door open. I didn't answer. I wasn't sure I had to. Chase clearly didn't want to speak with me. “You
have
to talk to each other.”

“It's you I came to see,” I said lightly. I couldn't force him to do anything. That was what Adelaide had done.

“It's what the Snow Queen wanted. She wanted to weaken the Triumvirate—she wanted . . .” Lena stared down at her lap, at her golden fingers.

The Snow Queen and General Searcaster had wanted to kill her.

“Did you get your letter yet?” Lena suddenly asked. I stared at her, wondering why she wanted to talk about random mail at a time like this.

“From Rapunzel,” Lena added.

“Rapunzel left
letters
?” I said.

If she'd left me one, it would tell me what I needed to do to defeat the Snow Queen. It would tell me what was behind the door in my dreams.

“Melodie found mine when she went back to the workshop for supplies.” Lena nodded at her nightstand. An envelope rested there, and Lena's name curled across its front. Rapunzel's handwriting was old-fashioned, full of loops and whirls and flourishes no one bothered with anymore. When she'd learned to write, alone in her tower, she'd had a lot of extra time to kill. “Chase and Sarah Thumb found theirs shoved under their front doors. Henry found his tied to his cane with a silver ribbon. The Director's was actually in the pocket of the dress she put on this morning. Apparently, that upset her, but I think it's kind of funny.” She looked at me expectantly.

“I didn't find one.” I wondered
why
. The other letters had been easily discovered.

“You can read mine if you want. She says the tower belongs to me now,” Lena explained, before I even asked. “She says I can use it as my very own workshop. She . . . she said she knows how difficult the choice was—whether to become the new Rapunzel or to let yourself die.” Lena's voice quivered a little. Without thinking, I reached out and touched the back of her hand. The metal was as warm as her skin used to be. “She said it might be even harder for me, because I have to deal with becoming a sorceress, too. She said she at least had a little warning. . . .”

I was suddenly desperate to cheer her up. I would do anything.

Lena added, “She said you would probably lend me the light she gave you. Examining it might make a good distraction.”

I had it with me. Actually, I had my entire carryall. I wanted to be prepared whenever the Snow Queen struck. I unzipped the front pocket, slid the glass vial out, and wrapped Lena's hand around it.

When I let go, she only barely managed to snag its chain before it crashed to the floor. “Thanks. Sorry,” she added. “These hands take some getting used to.” She set the glass vial on the table with extra concentration.

We were quiet for a moment. I was wondering if it would be totally insensitive for me to tell her about Adelaide's visit, considering everything she'd just been through, but then she said, “Kyle kissed me.”

I had
not
been expecting that. “What? Just now?”

“Before Chase came in.” Lena's eyes filled with tears. I hadn't expected
that
reaction either. “He came to see me, and he took my hand, and he told me how awful it was, to see me like that, so hurt, and to not be able to do anything about it. Then he kissed me.”

It was her first kiss too. Hers was so simple, so nice, so free of wishing-coin girlfriends and sleeping enchantments and the Snow Queen's traps. I'd seen the look Kyle had given her from the doorway. She knew where she stood with him.

Lena lifted her hands from the covers. Her golden palms caught the sunlight through her window. For a second they seemed to glow. “And the whole time, I kept thinking about how I'll never feel him holding my hand.”

“Oh,
Lena
,” I breathed. It was such a minor detail in
The Livves & Tymes of Sorcerers & Sorceresses
. I'd completely forgotten it. When magic regrew a limb, it didn't usually grow back the nerve endings.

“I'm happy to be alive. I can't ever repay Rapunzel for saving me.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “But you never realize how much you feel around for stuff until you
can't
anymore. I almost broke my glasses this morning, searching my nightstand for them. And being part of the Canon? Well, I never thought I would get stuck looking fourteen for the rest of my life. I already look a little young for my age. I'm going to be such a freak.”

I didn't take her hand—I knew she wouldn't feel it. I squeezed her shoulder.

So much for a simple kiss. Sometimes I was a terrible friend.

“Plus, solid-gold hands are
heavy
. My arms are so sore, and it's not like I can put them down for a rest.” Lena sat up and wiped her face on her shoulder. “I really don't want to go to tonight's Canon meeting.” I resisted the urge to ask if she was serious. A meeting with all its boring reports and all the Director's sniping seemed like the last thing EAS needed. “They want me to swear a Binding Oath. The Director is going to order me to make stuff, more and more and more, and I'll never ever leave the workshop, and I'll know everything I create is out there, destroying—”

“Whoa. Hold on,” I said before she picked up steam again. “You don't have to let the Director boss you around. The last Rapunzel—” A lump clogged my throat. I swallowed it. “Well, she wasn't super obedient. She ignored the Director and did her own thing all the time. Change the Binding Oath. Say that you'll do what is in the best interest of the Characters the Canon serves.”

Lena pressed her lips together. “I'm sorry about Rapunzel, Rory,” she said, and in my chest, in the great hole Hansel and Rapunzel's death had left, I felt how much she meant it.

I couldn't talk about Rapunzel yet, even with Lena. We couldn't both break down. “I'm glad you're okay.”

Footsteps thumped on the stairs. Lena's grandmother was coming to tell me my ten minutes were up.

I stood. “Lena, you're the best magical inventor the world has seen in centuries. Melodie thinks you could be even better than Madame Benne. If
anyone
can figure out a way to replace those golden hands with real ones, it's you.”

Lena looked at me before her gran opened the door and her face was better than the Tree of Hope returned to its usual spot. Her inventing spark was back.

I went back to my apartment and searched everywhere for my letter. I dumped out my carryall and every drawer in my room and every cabinet in our tiny apartment. I checked under beds and mattresses, beneath plates and between books. I even checked all of my pockets.

I couldn't find it.

“Maybe you're not
meant
to find it yet,” said Amy, watching me throw my clothes against the wall in frustration. She didn't say anything about the mess I was making, but I knew my sympathy pass would run out soon.

“Maybe she didn't write me one,” I said, trying not to sound resentful. “Maybe she told me everything she needed to say in person. She did talk to me the most, at the end.”

But I didn't believe that. It had to be
somewhere
, and in it, Rapunzel would tell me how to stop the Snow Queen.

“I'll help you look until Maggie and I have to go,” Amy said, feeling under the sofa cushions for the letter. “There's a sort of town hall thing happening before the Canon meets.”

Wow, it was like Ever After School had completely forgotten an invasion could hit the human world any minute. “Well, that is a colossal waste of time.”

Amy shot me a sharp glance over the couch. “You better hope not. Half the families are thinking about leaving. It's obviously not safe here, like we thought. Your parents are going to try to talk them out of it.”