Snow's Lament (9 page)

Maleficent was ignoring me this morning. She’d made just enough breakfast to feed everyone but me, and then conveniently dumped the rest of the coffee down the sink just as I was beginning to walk down the hallway. Who knew she had a passive aggressive streak in her? I guess it was better than being turned into statuary. I didn’t say a word. Instead, I grabbed a muffin from the covered dish, filled the carafe with water, and started another pot to brew. Robin was the only one who looked confused.

I mouthed, “Later,” to him and sat at the table, squeezing between Belle and Cyndi. Silence fell over the room until Maleficent excused herself and left.

“You’re going to have to talk to her,” Belle said helpfully.

“Cyndi filled you in?”

“Oh yes. Another fine moment in your verbal history, friend.”

I snorted. “Shut up. I wanted to take it back as soon as I said it.”

Cyndi giggled. “Story of your life.”

I crammed my mouth full of muffin so I wouldn’t say something else I’d later regret. I obviously had a problem with doing that. I settled for glaring at my friends.

Robin still looked confused, but he was never one to dwell on things, so he shrugged and finished the delicious looking eggs Maleficent had screwed me out of. I eyed his eggs with longing, but was too stubborn to get up and make my own. The muffin would have to do.

“I’m going to have to ask her for a favor today,” I said after a moment of chewing. I wasn’t looking forward to this, not even a little bit, but I would need a strong glamour spell if I hoped to break into Naomi’s castle to talk to Giles.

Robin stopped chewing. “I don’t know what happened, love. I’m assuming you stuck your foot in it once again because you are amazing at that. She’s your friend, though. We get mad at each other. In the case of you and Max, you shoot each other and then make up. It’s what we do.” He shrugged, finished the rest of his coffee in a large swallow, and got up from the table.

We sat there staring at him, open mouthed. Leave it to a man to simplify life for us. I sat back in my chair and contemplated his words.

“I guess you’re right.”

Robin chuckled. “Of course I am, lass.” He set his mug in the sink. “Now, go make nice with the evil sorceress.” He gave me a two fingered salute. “I’m headed out for some archery practice. I’m a little rusty.” He snagged the bow propped against the back door and made himself scarce.

I blew out a breath. “I’ll go as soon as I finish with this.” I eyed the muffin. Maybe I could drag breakfast out for the rest of the day.

“I always wonder what you’d look like as a toad,” Belle said.

Cyndi giggled. “She doesn’t do toads anymore. Maleficent is…” she lowered her voice, and in a dramatic whisper, said, “
modernizing
. Statuary is the new thing now. Toads are so nineteen-ninety-five.”

My lips twitched, but I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t think she’d turn me into a toad. However, I would make sure I went in armed. I shoved the last of the muffin in my mouth and stood. “Wish me luck,” I said.

Belle waggled her eyebrows. “It was nice knowing you!”

I huffed and headed back into my room to grab something. Maybe it would soften the blow.

Maleficent sat in her garden surrounded by fragrant flowers and numerous statues. I swallowed nervously as I walked her way and tried not to think about how many statues were people who had pissed her off. I held the leather-wrapped bundle in my hand and swished my feet against the leaves behind her so she wouldn’t be surprised.

“I wondered when you were coming to talk to me,” she said.

I started. “How did you know it was me?”

Her back was still turned. She sighed and waved a hand around in a careless manner. “Evil sorceress. Clairvoyant, psychic, wicked witch, et cetera, et cetera.”

She sat ramrod straight in her chair, facing a giant Willow tree. Its elegant boughs swept up and over in gentle curves and trailed on the ground, snaking all the way over to her feet, almost in supplication. It was the first time I’d seen her out of her jet black robes. Instead, she wore a pair of soft, flowing pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Ebony hair swept down her back and the ends swayed gently against the ground. With a wave of her pale, thin hand, a second chair appeared beside her.

I stepped over to her quietly and sat. For a moment, neither of us spoke. I hated apologies, but more than that, I hated doing something where I was required to apologize. I had serious foot-in-mouth syndrome. I wished I could be one of those people who always knew the right thing to say in any given situation. On the flip side of that though, was the fact that I thought we were way too nice to each other. Way too polite and no one ever got called out for being a first class jerk. Not that Maleficent was, this was entirely my fault, but I had a point in what I said.

“You were right, you know,” she said after the silence became too heavy.

I sat back in the chair and tilted my head toward the gray skies. “How do you get your flowers to bloom without the sun?” I asked instead.

I felt her smile. “The same way I do most things. Magic.”

“It wasn’t right of me to say it.” I fidgeted with the small packet on my lap. I’d found it during a PI job several years ago. It hummed with magic. I had no idea what it did, but I suspected it was powerful. After Maleficent risked her life helping us last time, I knew I wanted to give her something. When I’d been stuck at home, I’d gone through my artifacts and weapons cache, searching for something I thought she might like to have. My gut led me to this. I just hoped it wouldn’t be another foot-in-mouth moment.

“Maybe not, but it doesn’t make it any less true.” I felt her shift and her deep violet eyes landed on me. I turned and met her gaze. “I am not a good person, Snow.”

“Neither am I,” I said, and I meant it. “I ran away when I should have stayed. I stayed away when I should have gone back. I’m in love with a complete psychopath and I’m scared to death about what happens next.”

Maleficent laughed, long and bright. She reached over and took my warm hand in her cool one. “That’s just called being human, child. I’ve killed for small slights. I’ve ruined lives. I’ve destroyed kingdoms. People fear me.” She paused. “And rightly so.”

I thought about the best way to respond to her. We all had our burdens to bear. I was the prime example of making poor choices. I’d never killed for pleasure, but I have still killed. Were her sins so much worse than mine? “You helped us when no one else would. You helped Max at the risk of your own peril. You stuck your neck out when everyone else was too afraid. I don’t think you’re a bad person. I think you’re a damn hero.”

Her hand tightened against mine for a second, almost imperceptibly. “Your definition of a hero is different than ninety percent of the people living.”

I grinned and dropped my gaze from hers. “How about anti-hero?” I nodded. “That’s what you are.”

She chuckled. “That’s what we all are.”

I nodded in agreement. It was true. Robin was a womanizer. Max was a psychopath. Cyndi…was maybe too concerned about fashion, and Belle…maybe she was the only one of us with true heroic attributes. The rest of us were like a walking juvenile detention hall. “Maybe not Belle,” I voiced.

“She will have her own burden to bear soon enough.” Sadness laced her words.

“Witch of the Woods, eh?” I said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

She toyed with a long strand of her ebony hair. “If you think Naomi is bad, the witch is two-hundred percent worse.”

“How did Belle turn out so good?” I wondered aloud. She had all the virtues I wished I had. She was beautiful, magical, and flexible as hell—all qualities I wished I had.

“She has not embraced both sides yet. When she does, I do not know which one will win. Have you ever heard of yin and yang?”

I nodded. “The forces of light and dark. In each of us there is light and darkness.”

Maleficent stood and walked over to a bush full of purple roses. She bent down and touched the petals of one of the flowers. I watched as the stem of the flower rose and craned itself toward her, almost like a puppy yearning for a scratch. A small smile played upon her lips as she bent down to inhale the flower. “Sort of,” she said, her voice muffled slightly in the mass of petals. “It’s two halves of a whole. One cannot only embrace the light and be whole. One has to embrace all aspects of their personality to become free. In each of us, there is a careful balance. In my case, the darkness sometimes wins. Belle has not yet been tested. When you split two halves of someone, there is a constant chase to recover the missing part. It’s only in balance we find who we really are.”

“So, the witch is dark and her father is…light?” I’d never heard of her father before and had no idea of his magical capabilities.

She stood and turned to me. “It isn’t quite that simple. Her father is not just a simple technomancer.”

I sat up straighter in my chair. “But that’s what you told Belle,” I said, narrowing my gaze.

She shrugged a thin shoulder and trailed one finger along the thorny stem of the rose bush. “I was truthful in what I told her.”

I laughed; I couldn’t help it. “But you didn’t tell her all of it, I’m assuming?”

A gentle breeze floated through the gardens, picking her hair up so it swirled around her calves like sentient darkness. Perhaps it was. Who could tell with Maleficent?

“Dropping the witch of the woods on her was enough for a day, don’t you think?”

I chewed my lip, a sick feeling working its way through my body. I knew I wasn’t going to like what Maleficent was about to tell me. “Spill the beans, Sorceress.”

“Her father’s name is Nixon.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “You’ve already told me this.”

She bowed her head for a second and took a deep breath. When she looked up at me, the expression on her face stole any smart retort I’d been about to make.

“He also goes by the name of Merlin.”

I fell out of my chair.

Stunned shock kept me on the ground. Merlin was…legendary. Any idiot knew about Merlin, even if they didn’t give a fig about fairytales. I stared up at the sorceress, waiting for her to burst out laughing and tell me she was kidding. She didn’t.

“Merlin?” I choked out. “The Merlin of the white beard and bad ass magical mojo?”

Her lips thinned. “The one and only.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed. “Holy
shit
,” I repeated. “And she has no idea?”

She shook her head once. “Not at all.”

I trailed my hands through the copper-colored leaves as I thought about it. “She’s powerful, isn’t she?”

Maleficent’s laughter wasn’t amused. “She could very well be the most powerful sorceress ever to live.”

I tried to reconcile that image with the beautiful, nerdy girl who wore dark spectacles and practiced yoga in our living room each morning. I’d been impressed with her quick thinking skills with the copper pots, but she could have blown us all into smithereens.

“So, what you’re saying is, my best friend could be a walking time bomb?”

“‘Could’ is a positive word. I’d lean more toward is. She
is
a walking time bomb.”

I gave her an accusing glare. “Why are you hiding this from her?”

“Belle already knows she is one half of a powerful sorceress. Don’t you think she’s curious about that? Don’t you think she wonders what type of untapped powers she has? To tell her she’s also related to Merlin, that she is his child…it’s a disaster waiting to happen. She needs time—time to adjust and plan her next move. Knowledge is dangerous for the curious, Snow. And Belle has an insatiable curiosity. Telling her about Merlin could be dangerous to everyone’s health. Right now, she has only discovered her technomancy. It’s an easier magic to use. Merlin and Selene’s blood line together…” she paused and shook her head, “it’s a deadly combination.”

I came to my knees and brushed off the seat of my pants. “You’re playing a dangerous game. Belle will find out. And you’ve put me in an awkward position. I’m her best friend. Not telling her is a betrayal.”

Maleficent pinned me with her ancient gaze. “Whereas telling her could very well get her killed? Merlin has no plans to make nice with his daughter. She’s adopted for a reason.”

I blew out a breath and ran a hand through my hair in frustration. “This whole thing is messed up. So very messed up.”

Maleficent offered a hand and I took it. I stood and she linked her arm within mine. “Enough of such talk. Tell me why you’re here. Since you’re bearing gifts, I’m assuming you need something.”

I tried to force down the blush creeping up my cheeks. “Oh ye of little faith,” I muttered.

“So, you don’t need anything?” she asked, amusement in her voice.

I huffed out a laugh. “Yes, but I’ve had the gift for awhile.”

She led me to the back door and held it open. “Let’s go into the living room.”

Talk of sorcery, bloodlines, and death stalled as she took the leather-bound pouch from me. I sat on the couch and leaned forward in anticipation. Although I initially thought I’d give her a weapon, for some reason, this item called to me. I watched as she carefully unwrapped the ancient leather.

Her breath sucked in and her hands shook as she pulled out the glowing golden needle. Her gaze flew to mine. “My
Gods
. Where did you find this?”

I shrugged. “I found it on a PI assignment. We were tailing a guy whose wife thought he was cheating. Once I snagged the pictures I needed, I tested the front door. Turns out, the doofus left it unlocked, so I went inside to see what else I could find to support my case.”

I smiled as I remembered finding it. The house had been tidy and well kept, more the wife’s influence than his I’d guessed, but there was something off about the bedroom. I was trained to notice anything suspect in my surroundings and spotted a crooked frame next to a large bookcase taking up the majority of the back wall. Curious, I’d investigated, straightening the frame, only to hear a suspicious click. I’d felt around the bookshelf until I felt an uneven portion and had pulled, revealing a small dust-filled room filled with items of power.