Snow's Lament (10 page)

I’d quickly gone through the room, but had only picked up the needle and a couple other small items I’d stowed back at the house on Earth. I relayed the story to Maleficent, who sat there holding the needle reverently in her hand and staring at me with a stunned expression on her face.

When I finished, she blinked. “And no one has come after you?”

My heart skipped a beat. “Noooo,” I drawled out, gooseflesh prickling my skin. “Why would they?”

She gave a disbelieving chuckle. “You silly, wonderful girl. This is Koschei’s needle. You’ve stolen one of the most powerful artifacts in the entire universe.”

A trickle of cold sweat trailed down my back as the implications of what I’d done came to me. “Oh.”

Maleficent grinned.

“Oh shit,” I said eloquently. I was a complete idiot. My brow wrinkled. “Why would a suburban housewife be hiding something like this in a sealed off room?”

Maleficent covered her grin with a trembling hand. Her shoulders shook with laughter.

“What?” I asked, dread pooling in my stomach.

“That suburban housewife was none other than Baba Yaga.”

“The witch?” I asked in a tiny voice.

She held the needle up and studied it. Magic pulsed from it in waves. “Indeed. The witch.”

“Crap,” I muttered with feeling. “Should I put it back?”

Maleficent giggled like a teenager. “Sure. Go ahead and put the fate weaving needle back into Baba Yaga’s secret room.”

I ran a hand over my face. I’d stolen a powerful artifact from a crazy Russian deity. When I screwed up, I did it with style.

Maleficent carefully put the needle back into the leather and wrapped it up. “I am honored you’d trust me with such a treasure. I will protect it with my life.”

“Fate weaving, huh?” I asked as the implications of what I’d done began to sink in.

“Koschei’s needle possesses the soul of a powerful deity. With it, fate can be undone. You are extraordinarily lucky to be alive. I would not think Baba Yaga would easily part with such a treasure.”

But something was bothering me. “She knew who she hired. Why wouldn’t she come after me?”

Maleficent pursed her lips in thought. “She is a powerful clairvoyant. Perhaps she saw something that made her think parting with it would be better than holding on to it.”

“But I’m a nobody.”

“You are a queen,” Maleficent snapped. “And you need to start acting like it.”

I jerked in surprise and decided to let it go. She was right after all. “But how could she know I’d give it to you?”

Maleficent shook her head. “I do not know how her magic works. I will cherish it, though.”

“And not rewrite time, I hope?” I’d felt so right about giving it to her before I knew what it was. While I trusted her, I also knew how power could corrupt.

She stood, tucking the pack under her arm. “Of course not, girl. I am no fool.”

As she walked out of the room, no doubt to find a better hiding space for it, I couldn’t help but mutter, “But I am.”

After she’d left the room, I realized we never got around to talking about the glamour spell. I cursed under my breath and decided to just wait until dinner when everyone was there. I spent the rest of the day outside with Robin, taking turns shooting his bow and arrow. I was competent, more than competent with it, but Robin had a grace born of the gods. Every one of his arrows rang true. Every single shot glided through the air effortlessly and hit the target with a soft
thunk
. Before all the Enchanted Forest craziness started, Belle had told me everyone born within the forest had a special, magical gift bestowed upon them at birth. While she suspected mine had been stolen, I suspected Robin’s gift was right in front of his face and involved his unholy attachment to the bow he’d affectionately nicknamed Big Bertha, or Bertie for short.

After missing a shot due to a gust of wind, I’d tossed Bertie down in disgust.

Robin quickly bent to scoop it up and stroked it lovingly. “She didn’t mean it, darling. She just doesn’t know how to stroke your curves the right way.”

I rolled my eyes. “Weird, dude. Seriously weird.”

He waggled his eyebrows as his long fingers strummed over the ebony curve of the bow. “I know how to treat the ladies. Don’t be jealous, love.”

I watched as he seamlessly notched an arrow and sent it flying true into the target. “Do you ever wonder how you’re so good at that?” I questioned.

He shrugged nonchalantly and notched another arrow. “Same as anyone who’s good at anything. Years of practice.”

I frowned. “No. You have an incredible and unearthly talent. Supernatural, almost.”

He lowered his bow, confusion on his face. “Supernatural?” He scoffed, but still didn’t raise his bow. “There’s nothing supernatural about hard work, love.”

I brushed away a pile of leaves and sat cross-legged in the grass. “I wonder why you doubt this being your gift. You’re incredible with a bow.”

Robin shook his head, a lock of chestnut hair falling across his brow. He tenderly leaned Bertie against a tree and sat beside me, one of his legs cocked at an angle that looked uncomfortable to me, but completely natural on him. “I used to always tell people this
was
my gift. But now that I’ve had time to think about it, I don’t think guys like me get gifts like that.”

I brushed away a wet leaf sticking to my boot and thought about his words. “You know that sounds ridiculous, right?”

He shifted uncomfortably and refused to meet my eyes. “It’s not ridiculous at all. I honed my talent over the years and this is the result.”

I stared at the target suspiciously. My arrows were all over the place, most on the target, but some scattered around it, lying at odd angles on the ground. I was proficient, but by no means an expert. My niche was guns—wonderful, oiled up guns. Robin’s arrows lay in perfect symmetry on the target, one arrow split perfectly down the middle by another.

“Tell me who else has talent like you who worked as hard as you did.”

Silence rang throughout the cool air as I watched him open his mouth to answer and then close it just as quickly. A frown furrowed on his brow and he picked at the leaves on the ground.

“Exactly,” I murmured.

He inhaled a deep breath and sighed. “Now you’ve gone and ruined my fun, girl. Can’t a man think he’s worked hard on something and that’s the reason he’s talented?” He picked up a handful of leaves and threw them in disgust. “Instead of it being magic?” He sneered as he said the word, as if it were a bad thing.

“Magic has gotten us out of a whole lot of messes,” I reminded him.

He absentmindedly rubbed a hand against his chest, the spot where he’d been struck by Naomi’s magic. “Aye, guess it has, lass.” His gaze roamed over to his bow and a flicker of sadness crossed his expression.

Regret filled my heart. When would I ever learn to keep my big trap shut? It didn’t matter if Robin’s gift was the result of magic, it mattered that he possessed and cherished it.

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“You’re like an elephant, darling. Always angrily stomping around, swinging your trunk into everyone’s business.”

I lowered my head in shame. He wasn’t wrong.

A deep chuckle burst from his chest. “Don’t look so downtrodden. You force us to see the truths we’d like to deny. There isn’t anything criminal about that.”

My thoughts drifted back to Belle and the secret I was keeping from her—a secret that could threaten her very existence…and ours as well. “I don’t always do that,” I murmured, her secret like a tight, twisted ball of shame at the base of my heart.

His gaze narrowed. “Why would you say that?” he asked lightly.

I forced the secret down, down, down. Right now, I would not tell. I would not tell anyone but her. And I would tell her eventually. I blew out a breath and stood abruptly, brushing off the leaves clinging to my jeans. “No reason,” I said brightly and gave him a two fingered salute.

His curious stare followed me all the way back to the cabin.

I woke up face down on the bed with drool running down the side of my mouth. It wasn’t dignified for a princess to drool, but I contented myself with the fact that I was alone and no one had seen it.

“You look so hot right now, I can barely contain myself,” a dry voice said from the other side of the room.

I jerked, rolled off the side of the bed, and pulled my gun while bracing myself for the impact of the floor.

The shock of the hardwood reverberated through my lungs and stole my breath, but I had managed to get the safety off. I lay there quietly for a second, waiting to see if the person inside my room would react.

“Overdramatic as always.”

My brows knitted together as the familiarity of that voice sank in. I came to a seated position and poked my head above the white quilt resting on top of the bed.

Amused green eyes met my own. “Hello.”

I clicked the safety back on, shoved the gun into my holster, and catapulted over the bed into Red’s thin arms. I hadn’t seen her since the hotel we’d been in for that ill-fated conference took a ride through space and time back into the Enchanted Forest. She, like so many of my other friends, had disappeared into thin air.

We embraced, she with a slap on my back and me with a punch to her arm. “Where the hell have you been?” I exclaimed, searching her face and body for any signs of injury.

“Me?” Red gave me an incredulous look. “The entire Enchanted Forest has been searching for you for months.”

I stepped back and studied her. She looked the same. Jet-colored hair, wide green eyes, generous smile, but right now, she looked serious.

“I was stuck on Earth.” I sighed. “Again. But this time, not of my own volition. Naomi trapped us there.”

Red plunked down on the bed and stretched out, her knee-high leather boots off to the side to avoid getting the bedspread dirty. Guess Red was just as fearful of Maleficent as the rest of us. She fingered the white material as she stared at the ceiling, a thoughtful look on her face.

“Everyone thought you left them again.”

I sucked in a breath, sick at the thought. “I wouldn’t.”

Red brushed back a long lock of black hair from her face. “I told them so. Most of them didn’t believe me.”

I sat down and held my head in my hands. “They don’t trust me.”

Red patted my thigh. “They’ve never been given the opportunity to. You were ran out of the kingdom before that could happen.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Regaining their trust was something I had to do. I wasn’t a woman of many words, but I was a woman of action. And when action failed, often sticking a gun in someone’s nose worked wonders.

“Not that I’m not glad to see you, but why are you here and how on earth did you get in?”

Red rolled her eyes and sat up gracefully. “Through the front door. I’m not an animal, you know.”

I had my doubts about that considering what I’d seen her do in the past. “Uh huh. And Maleficent just let you in?”

“Of course I did, child. I’m not a monster.” Maleficent glided in through the door and sat in the worn rocking chair next to the large window by my temporary bed.

I frowned at both of them. “I feel like I’m in an intervention.”

“Not exactly.” Red picked at an imaginary spot on her patent leather pants. Not exactly forest wear, but Red almost always looked like she’d just walked out of a dominatrix club.

I waited.

“I suppose you’ve heard about Max?”

I wondered when it would stop hurting to hear his name. I nodded once.

Red offered an apologetic smile. “He gave the village people twenty-four hours to swear fealty to Naomi before he started burning them alive.”

Numbness spread through me. “And?” My voice shook with rage and the hair on my body stood on end. So it began.

Red scooted away from me and raised her hands in supplication. “Don’t shoot the messenger, Snow. I’m just here to tell you what’s happening.”

I ignored her. “And?” I asked again, my jaw clenched so tight, a headache began to bloom.

She sighed. “The twenty-four hours were up yesterday.”

I shut my eyes as tears threatened to well over. A hushed silence fell through the room as the implications rushed through us.

“Who was it?” I rasped through my suddenly dry throat.

Maleficent stood and placed a warm hand on my shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.”

I shook her hand off and stared up at her in disbelief. “Of course it matters. How could you say that?”

Her gaze brimmed with sympathy. “Because they are dead and not even the most powerful of us can change that.”

I swiped a hand across my face. “It matters to me.” It mattered because the man I loved had murdered someone in cold blood. It mattered because I wasn’t there to stop them. It mattered because today…today I was a coward.

Red cleared her throat. “A family of five. Katriona, her husband, Sean, and their three children.”

I didn’t know them, but a sob still escaped me. Trembles ran through my body as I tried to stop the images from flicking through my brain. The man who so lovingly caressed me, who professed such sweet love words to me, couldn’t possibly be the same person who would commit such atrocities.

I stood and headed over to the dresser where I’d packed some of my belongings. Two of the drawers contained clothing. The rest of them contained weapons. I shoved through bullets and miscellaneous other things paranoid me thought I should pack and pulled out an extra nine millimeter, a knife I’d lovingly nicknamed Mr. Stabbykins, and the blinding powder. It could come in handy later.

I crammed extra bullets into the other pocket in my holster and the leather jacket I’d brought with me. I pulled the jacket on, the extra weight of the bullets a balm to my soul, and turned to face the concerned faces of Maleficent and Red.

“Staying or going?” I didn’t wait for their response before I spun around on my heel and walked out. Not stopping for niceties, I banged on Robin’s door, and yelled, “Five minutes, we ride!”

Belle and Cyndi poured out into the hallway, confused looks on their faces, but when they saw mine, Belle pulled Cyndi back. One quick nod was all we needed to communicate that shit was about to hit the fun. When Cyndi questioned what was going on, Belle quietly shushed her and pulled her back into one of the rooms.

I heard the swish of Maleficent’s skirts before I felt her touch.

“This is a fool’s errand, child.”

I refused to look at her. “I will avenge their deaths.”

She sighed, and it sounded like the weight of a thousand years sat upon on her shoulders. “I’ll get my staff,” she said after a moment and released me.

Red stepped out of the room and leaned against the doorjamb. “I didn’t come here so you could get yourself killed.”

My fist tightened against my side. “I’m going into the village. If Max is there, he’s the one who has to worry. Not me.” That wasn’t exactly true. Max and I were closely matched, but now, with the full power of Naomi behind him, I didn’t think it was so close. I’d had a few close calls with him, the most recent I would have lost had Maleficent not stepped in.

But, I couldn’t allow him to murder innocent people. Even if he wasn’t himself.

I would kill him first. No matter if it would destroy me.