Snow White (Enchanted Fairytales) (2 page)

Channy turned to face her, grasping both of her hands desperately. “Don’t go, Snow. Whatever you have to do, don’t go.” Snow felt the genuine fear rolling off Channy, a fear she shared. “
Promise me
,” Channy urged desperately.

Snow gl
anced back at the trees,
cold dread in the pit of her stomach. “I promise,” she said, wondering how in the world she was going to
keep her promise
.

*****

Katerina had never stepped foot in Snow’s room. Not before she married her father, and not since. She had servants who took care of each part of the house, including Snow’s wing. Lying in her bed,
eyes closed,
dreading the fact that Katarina was now on
her way for the first time ever
nearly brought on the migraine that Snow was claiming. The fact that Katarina was coming
to her room
spoke volumes about how angry she was with Snow for upsetting her plans.

“Leave.”

Katarina’s harsh voice
boom
ed in
Snow
’s ears
as she commanded the maid to leave. Snow
knew
the maid would scurry from the room in terror without
as
much as a backward glance at Snow. Snow’s heart dropped. She’d hoped the maid would be here to give her
the
courage to stand up to her stepmother.

She kept her eyes tightly closed. She and Channy had Googled the symptoms of migraines to make sure that Snow would have her story right. Even with them closed, she felt the presence of her mother
standing
next to the bed.

“What’s this about, Snow?” Katarina demanded.

Snow winced—that wasn’t a put on—and turned her eyes toward her mother. She knew her eyes were red. She’d been unable to sleep, terrified of facing Katarina this morning. She hoped they helped back her story.

“Horrible headache,” she whispered, physically unable to raise her voice
any louder
in her choking fear. “I think it’s a migraine.”

“You’ve never had a migraine before,” Katarina said, her dark eyes burning with fury. “How very ironic that you would get one on the very day you’re to go hunting. One would think you subscribe to the suspicions of the silly villagers.”

Snow’s eyes slid closed. She hated it when her mother referred to the townspeople as “villagers
,
”
a
s if they were primitive and lacked any intelligence. “No, of course not.”

Her stepmother leaned down, placing her face close to Snow’s. Snow opened her eyes at the intrusion and saw the blackness swirling within the depths of Katarina’s eyes.
Panic gripped her, and she forced herself to remain calm. She
couldn’t
go into the forest. She suddenly knew, w
ithout a doubt, that if she did
she would never return.

“Well, then,” Katarina drawled menacingly. “I’ll excuse all of the servants for the day to keep it quiet for you.” Her words were of comfort, but her tone promised something much more sinister. “Can I bring you something to eat?”

Filled with poison
, Snow thought. She was shocked at herself. Why would such a thought enter her mind? But she knew from the internet that nausea quite often accompanied migraines so in spite of the fact that she was hungry, she shook her head.

“No, thank you. I don’t think I could keep anything down right now.”

Her stepmother
straightened
to her full, impressive height. She stood half an inch shy of six feet. She looked down on Snow, and Snow shuddered involuntarily at the expression on her face.

“I’ll come
and
check on you in a while,” her mother said
, the words holding
threat. She turned and strode quickly from the room, her perfume wafting behind her, turning Snow’s stomach.

Snow breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind Katarina. She knew this was but a temporary reprieve. They’d have to come up with something else for next time. A slow smile crossed her face. She wanted to call Channy and tell her they’d succeeded
. It was
better
to
wait a while, until she was sure she was completely alone.

*****

Snow jerked awake. She wasn’t sure what had disturbed her as she glanced toward the window. She couldn’t see out of it from her bed, but a chill crawled up her spine at how close she’d come to having to enter to forest today. She reached for her
bedside
phone to call Channy.

“Feeling better?” The cold voice stopped her hand mid-reach.
She turned
.
Her stepmother sat
in a chair near the door. Fear trilled down her spine.

“Oh, mother, there you are.” She tried to act as if she had been expecting her. “I was going to call . . . you . . . to s
ee if you’d bring me . . . soup,” s
he finished lamely. Lying was something she’d never been good at.

Katarina stood, regal in her every movement.
“It seems we think along the same lines.”

She moved to a small table where a tray rested. Snow hadn’t
noticed
it before. Katarina lifted the tray and brought it to Snow, who sat up.

“It isn’t good for you to go so long without food,” she said, placing the tray on Snow’s lap. “I was about to wake you and urge you to eat.”

H
ow long her mother had watched her
before she’d woken?
The idea
of being watched by Katarina while she slept
creeped her out
.

She glanced down
at the soup, wondering who
made it if her stepmother had truly
sent all their servants home. She’d never seen Katarina lift a finger in the kitchen. It was tomato, Snow’s favorite. Did her mother know that, or was it coincidence? She lifted the spoon and tentatively tasted it. It was delicious, a slightly tangy taste she couldn’t place.
And she was starving. She forced herself to eat it slowly, since her stepmother stood and watched her eat.

When she was finished, she took a large gulp of the water. Katarina walked over and lifted the tray from her lap, replacing it on the table. She turned back to Snow, and stood watching. Snow leaned back against the head of her bed, uncomfortable beneath Katarina’s gaze. It was weird, the way she continued to watch her. As if she were waiting . . .

It began in her fi
ngers, the
numbness. She flexed her fingers
a few times, p
ins and needles
beginning
.
The feeling quickly
climbed
up her arms and into her chest, traveling down her legs into her feet. When her cheeks began to go numb, she looked up at her stepmother in horror. Katarina continued to watch her, her expression steely.

“What did you do . . .” She
fell silent as her throat numbed
and she slid sideways on the bed. Katarina moved then, stepping forward and catching her before she fell to the floor. She pushed Snow back up onto the bed with a strength Snow didn’t know she had.

“Not to worry, darling, everything will be well now.” Katarina tucked Snow’s blankets around her, as if she were settling her in to bed for the night. Snow was completely numb, and yet aware of all that was happening.

Katarina moved to her closet, pulling a backpack down. She then walked around the room, putting pairs of pants and t-shirts in the bag. She pulled a large wad of money from her pocket and shoved it into the backpack.
What is she doing?

A few minutes later, a knock sounded on the door. Snow’s eyes followed her mother as she opened the door, widening when she saw the large man who stood there. He towered over her tall
step
mother, and dwarfed her in his breadth. His arms were as big and sturdy as tree trunks. His wiry red hair was bound back into a hair tie. A fuzzy red beard covered his face beneath
a
hawked nose. He looked like a fierce warrior from a storybook.

“Just on time,” her
step
mother said to him. Snow’s eyes shot to her mother. She
knew
this man?

“You know I’d never be late, milady.”

Milady?
Snow felt as if she’d been dropped into an alternate version of reality. Whatever drugs her stepmother had given her were causing her to hallucinate. That had to be the explanation, because there couldn’t be any other.

“I have everything in the backpack,” Katarina said. “Are you sure you weren’t seen?”

The man leveled a look at Katarina that would have caused even the bravest of men to tremble, but Katarina stood unwavering, one brow lifted as she waited for his reply.

“Of course,” he said. He glanced at Snow and terror ripped through her. “That her?” he asked, jerking a chin in her direction.

“Yes,” Katarina said, turning to move toward Snow. She leaned over, soothing one hand over Snow’s brow. She could barely feel it through the numbness that shrouded her. Katarina clucked sympathetically. “It’s too bad you decided to run away, Snow. Here I was trying to give you a nice surprise, and instead you used my kindness to convince me you had a migraine in order to be left alone
to make your escape.
And
you stole a large amount of money from me. I’ve been reporting it to some of the servants, asking them if they’ve been taking it over the past month. How stunned and saddened I will be when I realize it was you taking it, hoarding it, plotting your getaway.”

Snow tried to shake her head in denial, she opened her mouth to say no, but all that came out was some panicked sounding noises from the back of her throat.

“Don’t worry, darling, I have plenty of people who will co
mfort me in my time of need.
I won’t spare any expense in trying to locate you.” She glanced back toward the large man waiting patiently in the doorway. “Of course, they will never find you. Not one soul will brave th
e forest to search
for you, not when it appears you left of your own free will.”

Katarina
turned back toward the man. “Hugo, come get her.”

He moved forward and scooped Snow up into his arms with no effort. Small squeaks escaped from Snow. Neither of them acknowledged her.

“You must bring me her heart,” Katarina said, and Snow’s breathing came in fast pants at the alarm that threatened to drown her. “The box is in the backpack. Don’t fail me.”

“Have I yet?” he asked,
as Katarina set
the
backpack on Snow’s abdomen. Snow
closed her eyes, concentrating everything she had into moving, to wiggling out of his arms. Nothing, not a twitch. He carried her down the stairs and out the back door. Even if Snow had been able to scream, there would likely not be anyone who would hear her. Their
sprawling
property was secluded and private. No one entered without permission—other than Channy, that was, who knew how to sneak onto the property and into Snow’s room undetected.

Channy
. Snow closed her eyes, wishing with everything she had that Channy would show up and see her being carted off. Channy would know better, she’d know Snow wouldn’t run away.

The man, Hugo, continued to carry her easily across the property. As they neared the tree line,
Snow’s fear encompassed her. She knew she’d never return from the forest. Hugo would kill her, cut her heart out to satisfy the vengeance Snow had no idea Katrina harbored against her, and no one would ever know. Hugo, she had no doubt, would survive his trek. Based on his conversation with Katarina, she could only guess he’d done this kind of thing before.

As the shadows of the trees closed around them, Snow was aware of the cold pervading the area. There weren’t any of the usual sounds associated with a forest, no birds chirping, no leaves rustling, no creatures scurrying about. Only an eerie silence.

Hugo kept walking, endlessly it felt like. Snow wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she felt the first stirring of feeling returning to her fingers.
She glanced up at Hugo, who
star
ed
intently forward
. He hadn’t said one word
or looked at her
. Slowly, tentatively, she flexed one finger. It moved.

She willed herself to hold completely still, to remain limp and silent as Hugo carried her and her body gradually regained feeling. If Hugo noticed a change in her, he didn’t remark on it.

Eventually he stopped, laying her down on the ground. She remained limp, not adjusting her position at all from where he laid her. He looked down at her then. He lifted one hand and ran a thick finger down the side of her cheek. She suppressed the shudder and the overwhelming desire to shove his hand away.