Once Upon the End (Half Upon a Time) (3 page)

They wouldn’t stop. They’d never stop looking for her, not while she hid away.

by order of the queen
.

The words terrified her.

But not as much as living out this story terrified her. Not as much as staying here, hidden away, causing other people harm terrified her. Those in the city around her. Phillip . . . other people.

A minute later, May was dressed in her jeans and T-shirt, the only objects she had from her old life all tucked into her pockets: a cell phone that hadn’t worked for six months, a piece of paper from a Story Book, and a set of pipes that had once belonged to the Piper.

At the bottom of the drawer was a glass slipper, something she’d been left by Merriweather. For a moment, she considered taking it, too, but then stuffed it back into her drawer, under her working clothes. The slipper belonged to Cinderella, and Cinderella sat around waiting for life to get better. She was done with waiting and done with this whole story.

Everything set, she sat down on her bed and played the pipes, a song she’d practiced many times but had never had the guts to actually play on the pipes themselves.

A song calling out for her fairy godmother.

Only, not Merriweather. Merriweather wouldn’t come, not after May had traded Cinderella’s life for protection against a genie six months ago.

But May had someone else in mind anyway.

Music floated in through the window, a harmony to the song she played, and May watched as a beautiful woman appeared out of nowhere, her eyes containing no pupils, her dress black as a starless sky.

“Now,
this
is interesting,” Malevolent said to her, a wide smile on her face.

The monkey shrieked and leapt at May, but to defend her or to hide, May had no idea. Just as his hand touched her hair, the monkey, room, and house all disappeared, and May found herself back in a throne room she hadn’t seen in six months.

“Now,” Malevolent said. “There are so many ways to kill you. However will we decide?”

CHAPTER 3

U
ntil now, Jack had never been allowed close to the Queen’s castle. Signs posted on every corner warned
all humans to stay indoors from sunset to sunrise!
and
danger—no humans out after dark!
but who those signs were for was a mystery, since Jack didn’t see any humans on the street, beyond a few that had been turned to stone at one point or another, mostly with terrified expressions on their faces.

Now, goblins roamed the streets—goblins, and worse. Trolls weren’t allowed in the city, but you could hear them howling outside the gates throughout the day and night. And Jack wasn’t sure where the dragons or ogres were kept, but there was certainly no room for them in the city.

What there was room for, in every dark corner, were the . . . well, something. All he knew was that the shadows moved when no one was around, even in bright sunlight. Not that the sun ever shone inside the city. Much like everyone else, the Sun Giant was far too afraid to ever come out of hiding, not this close to the seat of the Wicked Queen’s power.

Along with the howls of trolls, Jack could hear voices raised in fear from every side. By order of the Queen, thousands of humans throughout the city were making wishes, wishing to the fairy queens, insuring that the fairy queens could not turn their gaze on the human world without being overwhelmed with terrified voices. A horrible yet effective way of keeping them distracted from whatever the Queen might be doing.

“Don’t you just love the BIG city, Jack?” said Captain Thomas from his spot on Jack’s shoulder. Captain Thomas laughed at his own joke, but Jack couldn’t bring himself to join in. The city was far too bleak.

His apprenticeship had taken place entirely outside the city, so while he’d been training, he hadn’t seen much of anything beyond his instructors, the one other recruit who hadn’t lasted more than a week, and a few moving shadows. Jill had dropped him three months ago, and he hadn’t seen her or his fairy since . . . not to mention the father Jill had promised back in the Fairy Homelands.

“The Queen’s been anxious to see you again, my boy,” Captain Thomas said, his tiny, glowing sword pressed almost casually against Jack’s neck, as if it could be an accident and wasn’t entirely on purpose as Jack knew it was. One step out of line, and that’d be it.

“I’m pretty anxious to meet her myself,” Jack said. “There were some nights I thought I’d never get this far.”

“Oh, your family’s always had talent for such things,” Captain Thomas told him.

His family? Did that just mean his sister, Jill, or—

“Stop here,” Captain Thomas told him, and a tiny pinprick in his neck instantly froze Jack’s forward momentum. They were at the gate out of the capital city toward the long, treacherous rock pathway that led to the Queen’s castle. The pathway’s sides were sheer cliffs, rising hundreds of feet above the water to a castle of dark, almost black stone, jutting turrets and piercing towers. Lights flickered madly from window to window, far faster than any human could move, and with a random insanity that made Jack nervous just watching it.

“Oh, don’t be scared!” Captain Thomas said, slapping him with his tiny palm. “What’s the worst that could happen? The Queen burns you to ashes? I stab you in the neck and drop you from that pathway? Creatures of darkest magic invade your soul and curse you to an eternal torment?” He laughed again. “It’s not like you’d be the first! Buck up, lad!”

“You’re a huge comfort,” Jack told the little man.

Captain Thomas’s eyes narrowed. “Is that a height joke?!”

The gate creaked open, saving Jack from a potential death by tiny man. Captain Thomas slapped his neck, and Jack made his way up the treacherous path, promising himself not to look over the sides at any point, and breaking that promise exactly thirty-four times in the first minute.

The height made him a bit woozy, but the jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliffs clarified everything a bit too much, honestly. Fortunately, the man on his shoulder distracted Jack with tales of other Eye initiates who’d died right here, or on that stone over there, who’d fallen there, NO, THERE! all the way up, so that helped. Hugely.

And yes, that one
was
a size joke.

The gate to the Wicked Queen’s palace wasn’t guarded any more than the gate leading from the city had been. And just like that former gate, this one opened on its own as well, then closed just behind Jack, leaving a faint odor of iron and selfishness in the air, with maybe an earthy hint of fried potato, of all things.

“Excuse the smell,” Captain Thomas said, patting his chest. “Lunch isn’t sitting particularly well.”

Well. That explained the smell of selfishness. The miniscule Eye hadn’t offered anything.

Inside, flickering torches lit what little of the palace Jack could see. Corridors ran off in every direction, as if anywhere he looked, there was another hallway hiding potential creepiness. Each step Jack took, a tingling in the back of his head made him jump, like something was JUST. RIGHT. BEHIND. HIM.

Of course, there
was
something there. The shadow creatures, whatever they were, seemed to be everywhere.

Captain Thomas led Jack down hallway after hallway, meeting no one, backtracking at times but never lost. If the captain was trying to confuse Jack, it was working. Honestly, even if he
wasn’t
trying, it was still working. Overall, though, they seemed to climb more stairs than they walked down, and finally they came across a set of tarnished silver doors easily four times as tall as Jack, a beautiful stag carved into each one, facing each other and rearing back, as if ready to attack.

“The Queen’s throne room,” Captain Thomas said in a whisper. “Here’s where I offer you the only advice I have in this type of situation.”

“Yes?”

“Try not to die too much.”

“Perfect.”

Jack started for the doors, which, as always, opened by themselves. A slight pressure lifted on his shoulder, and Jack turned to find Captain Thomas leaning against the far wall as if he’d been standing there for hours. “You’re not coming in with me, sir?”

“Oh, she wants to speak to you alone. Don’t worry, you’re no danger to her. She could handle the entire Order of the Eyes all on her own, let alone you.”

Jack smiled at that, purposefully not thinking too hard about
it. When a certain Queen could read any of your thoughts, after all, you learned to keep your mind away from anything that could get you killed. He’d spent the last three months training himself not to think about dangerous things, like schemes, plots, or certain blond girls with blue streaks in their hair.

Some of those thoughts were easier to block out than others.

With a final deep breath and a salute to Captain Thomas, Jack walked in.

Enormous golden vases exploding with fire lit the throne room every ten feet or so, sitting between marble columns long since marked with some kind of obscure alphabet. Jack walked slowly, not able to make out who or what was waiting for him at the end of the room, the fires were so bright.

Fortunately, not everyone had that same problem.

“I was beginning to think the Mirror must have been wrong,” said a voice warm with ice. “But of course, it never was, so this must be exactly when you were meant to arrive.”

“I bow before your wisdom,” Jack said, wondering if he should actually bow but choosing to instead keep walking toward the voice. If he squinted, he could just barely make out a human shape sitting on what looked to be a throne sculpted from dragon bone.

The voice laughed, and Jack suddenly remembered helping this same woman up stairs made of snow in the Palace of the Snow Queen barely six months ago. He stepped closer and found himself staring up at a woman as beautiful as a barren field of stone, her hair black as night except for a streak of white here or there. Those imperfections just served to make her more striking, as did the deep purple gown she wore, covered by a robe that almost sparkled in the pure blackness. A blackened bone crown rose from her hair, pronouncing this woman every inch a queen.

“Your Majesty,” Jack said, and this time he did bow.

As he looked back up, his eyes locked on a coffin carved from ice to the left of the throne. Snow White, at the right hand of the Queen, almost like a trophy.

“My newest Eye,” the Wicked Queen said with a smile. “Do you come to betray me, then?”

Jack paused. “No.”

She looked at him carefully. “You speak the truth. But why should I believe your words? Isn’t it far more likely that you’re here to attack me when I’m defenseless and vulnerable?”

Time to go all in. “You’re thinking of my
sister
, Your Majesty. She is the one planning on betraying you.”

One of the Queen’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Indeed?”

Jack shrugged. “So she told me when she was trying to convince me to join the Eyes and help her with her plan.”

The Queen smiled. “And you would betray her so quickly to me? Even if it means her death?”

“You won’t kill her, Your Majesty,” Jack said. “You’ll keep her close and not tell her you know so that you can use her as an Eye. And then when the time comes, you’ll be ready for any attack and watch as she fails. THEN you’ll tell her you know. At least, that’s the smart thing, so I imagine that’s your plan.”

“So much like your father,” the Queen said, still sounding a bit surprised.

“I really hope not.”

“So you aren’t here as some misguided attempt to help my granddaughter, then?”

Jack gritted his teeth, purposefully not picturing anyone, certainly not at the very mention of her. It’d been three months, and the last thing he needed was some blond princess’s face popping into his mind to knock him off track.

“I want just
one
thing from you, Your Majesty,” he said. “And to get it, I will follow any order you give.”

“And what might that be?”

Jack pulled out his grandfather’s Story Book and opened it to the marked page, then held it up for the Queen to see. “I want to leave,” he said, showing her a picture of the Huntsman carrying the Queen through a blue fire portal. “I want to leave this world and live in one without magic or royalty.”

The Queen’s eyes widened just a bit, and then she stared at Jack with a curious expression.

“That is quite a request,” she said. “After all, I would not gain much from you leaving. Still, there are possibilities. How far would you be willing to go, though?”

“Whatever you ask.”

“You would tell me where May is, then?” The Queen sat back on her throne and smiled.

Jack ground his jaw closed so hard it gave him a headache. “If I knew, yes. However, I have no idea where she is.”

“Again, you tell the truth,” the Queen said thoughtfully. “I would not have thought you’d let her out of your sight.”

“She has her story to live out, I have mine.”

“Quite the story hers is, too,” the Queen said. “A handsome prince, true love . . . things we all wish we could find, no?”

Jack took a deep breath, then two, then three. She was baiting him, that’s all this was. If he couldn’t get through this, he certainly wouldn’t have any chance of reaching the other world. “Everyone . . . wants different things, Your Majesty. I’m not particularly interested in a handsome prince myself.”

The Queen laughed. “You’re a remarkable boy, Jack. And no matter, if you truly don’t know where she is. I have my best hunter out after her, so it should only be a matter of time.”

“Let’s hope she hasn’t found a red hood, then, Your Majesty.”

“Indeed,” the Queen said, her eyes locked on his. “But let us return to your request. I could grant your wish. And if you give me your oath to follow my every order, I will do exactly that.”

“Then you have it,” Jack said, bowing his head.

The Queen stood up and gestured, and Jack’s sword jumped into her hand. She pointed the sword at Jack, and he kneeled down in front of her.

“Then I declare you one of my Eyes in all things and every land,” she said. “And if you disobey me even once, I will kill you.”

“I know the price of betraying you, Your Majesty,” Jack told her, his mind on the image he’d seen of his sword hanging over Phillip.