The Council of Mirrors (25 page)

Sadly, we have another tragedy on our hands. Atticus has taken Snow White. Apparently murder wasn’t enough for him. Bunny is
beside herself with worry. She wants to race after him, but Baba Yaga has reminded her that she doesn’t have the power to stop him. With Morgan trapped in the old castle, the coven is broken and only the super-charged power of the three kept them alive the last time they encountered Mirror and the blood prince
.

We left their graves in the woods and moved our camp in case Atticus or Mirror returns. We have to keep moving and I need to share less with the others about where we are going. I’ve asked everyone to destroy any mirror they might be carrying. I can’t take the risk that he might be able to see us through them, and the mirror room is locked and off limits
.

And then there’s me. Something is happening. I’m sick. But sick isn’t the right word exactly. I feel weird. When the mirrors exploded, a little piece flew into my arm, and I haven’t felt myself since. It started out with dizziness and feeling tired, but now, well, I feel like I’m dying. My eyes are blurry and my head is pounding. I just want to lie down, but I know I can’t. Everyone is counting on me
.

Sabrina stood before her army, their faces fresh with grief. She tried to stand strong. She knew that she could not let them see how terrible she felt.

“I didn’t know this until very recently, but Mirror has been
watching us through the Council of Mirrors. He could see us making our war plans from the beginning. The only reason we were able to trap the Hand inside Charming’s castle is because the Master let us.”

“So he can see us?” Goldilocks asked.

Sabrina shook her head. “Not anymore. The mirrors have been destroyed.”

Some of the crowd gasped.

“And we have to deal with him, but first we have to deal with Atticus. He took Snow.”

“He tore through us, Sabrina,” the Frog Prince said. “Nothing we did stopped him. He’s a monster.”

Mr. Canis stepped forward. In his hand was the glass jar that trapped the Big Bad Wolf. “Perhaps it’s time we had our own monster.”

“Absolutely not!” Henry cried. “You are not letting that thing loose again. Canis, you spent hundreds of years trying to get rid of it and now you want to subject yourself to the misery again?”

“I don’t want to, Henry. It’s just what must be done.”

“Having the Wolf running loose is no better than having Atticus,” Mayor Heart said. She looked as if she might faint just thinking about the dire possibilities.

“I do have a certain level of control over him,” Canis said.

“Which you lost,” Mr. Swineheart squealed. In his anxiety, he transformed into his true form as a pig, snorting through his round nose.

“Then you will have to find a way to stop him,” Canis said impatiently. “There is always the horn of the North Wind.”

“It disappeared when the Hall was looted,” Daphne said.

“Then perhaps Beauty can help,” he argued.

“I could try,” she said. “Though it isn’t easy singing to someone who is running around tearing people to shreds.”

“I don’t like it,” the Pied Piper said. “Someone will get hurt.”

“This is not your decision to make!” Canis bellowed. Everyone stood agape at his boiling anger. “I know you’ve all found it perfectly convenient to have me babysitting and watching your belongings, but I am not and never have been a person who stands aside and lets others do what I must do myself. My dearest friend Relda Grimm needs help. The only way to get to her is to take Atticus out of the picture. I’m not here to ask any of you for permission. I’m telling you what I’m going to do!”

Red broke into tears and ran from the camp.

“She needs you, Canis,” Veronica said. “She’s already been abandoned so many times. Are you going to abandon her too?”

“I’ll go and speak with her,” he said, scooping up his jar and
cane. Sabrina watched him, bent over and struggling, as he disappeared into the trees.

“Sooo,” Puck said. “That’s going to be interesting.”

“He wants to feel necessary,” Goldi said.

“He’s going to get someone killed,” Beauty argued.

“Isn’t there someone else who should be here?” Cinderella asked. “Where’s William?”

Without warning, Sabrina felt something slice through her thoughts like a knife. She doubled over. The sensation was hot and painful, but along with it came a clear vision of the prince. He was curled on a dirty mattress inside the former mayor’s mansion. But how could she see him like this? Was she just imagining things? It made no sense. She staggered and would have fallen if her mother had not been there to catch her.

“Sabrina, are you OK?” Veronica asked.

Sabrina shook off the vision. She nodded. “Just a little tired. We’ll go to Charming and convince him to help us,” she said. “But listen, if we manage to get lucky and stop Atticus, there will be no more obstacles between us and Mirror. I want to be honest with you all. I don’t know what will happen. Our army is savaged, our coven is broken, and Mirror wants the spell that turns off the barrier. I have no idea what he’s going to do to get it, but it’s not going to be fun. I just know he can’t have it. If
you’ve thought about bailing on us, you should do it now so we know what we’re working with.”

Beauty stepped forward. “I have known your family a long time, and my rage at being trapped in this town has caused me to do things I regret. But there was always something that I respected about your family—your infernal principles! Wilhelm taught his children to stand for something, to look after our community and protect us, even when we didn’t want it. Douglas taught Sterling, and Sterling taught Spaulding, and Spaulding taught Josef, and so on and so on. Well, you can imagine how that integrity made us crazy. Now I marvel at it. I envy it. I will do anything to emulate it, so my daughter will know what it is to be a good person. I will die to protect you.”

“I will lay my life down for you,” the Wicked Queen said.

“You can count on me and my son,” the Pied Piper said.

“You have the birds,” the Widow crowed.

“You have my men,” Robin Hood said.

“And mine,” King Arthur shouted.

“It was never a question,” Goldi said. The roars of three fierce brown bears echoed her promise.

“I will fight,” Pinocchio said through his tears. “I will fight.”

All present made the promise, though Mayor Heart did so reluctantly. At the end of the chorus of cheers, the only person
who hadn’t spoken up was Puck. The crowd looked at him for his answer.

“Well, duh!” Puck said.

• • •

Sabrina, Puck, and the Wicked Queen marched out to find Charming. Bunny claimed she would force William to come back to the army if he wouldn’t listen to reason. The group hiked toward the old mayor’s mansion. The others were perplexed as to how Sabrina knew where to find the prince. She couldn’t explain, but she was beginning to believe that whatever gave her the visions was also making her sick. She was both fevered and chilled and had to stop several times to shake off dizzy spells and nausea. She was having a difficult time concentrating and her mind kept flashing on something she had seen many times before—a fiery red handprint. There were times when she thought she couldn’t take another step, but she couldn’t go back. Charming had to know what happened to Snow.

“What’s wrong with you?” Puck said. “You’re starting to look a little green.”

“I’m just tired,” Sabrina lied.

Puck spun around on his heels and transformed into a donkey. Bunny helped Sabrina climb on his back, but not before examining the jagged slash on her arm where the piece of magic
mirror had cut her skin. Bunny’s face looked worried, but she didn’t say anything.

The front door of the mayor’s mansion hung open, and all the windows were broken. When they stepped inside, it was obvious that it had been looted. There were huge holes in the floors and graffiti covered the walls. Sabrina hardly recognized the place.

The group climbed the once-grand staircase and found Charming asleep on the floor of his old office, just as in Sabrina’s strange, painful vision. His weapons and maps were gone, as was the portrait of Snow he kept on the wall, and the poor man looked and smelled as if he had been drinking.

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey,” Puck said.

Charming lifted his head as if the motion hurt him. He groaned and closed his eyes. “I told you to leave me alone.”

“That’s not an option anymore,” the Wicked Queen said. “Atticus has Snow.”

Charming strained to focus his eyes. “What? When?”

“A few hours ago,” Sabrina said.

“We would have come sooner, but we weren’t sure you were finished feeling sorry for yourself,” Bunny said.

Charming growled. “How dare you, Bunny? You meddled with my life—my memories, my identity—and you think I
should just snap out of it? You try to be a fictional character for a minute!”

“I’ve been a fictional character just as long as you have, William. I had to rewrite myself to keep Snow safe. I had to give up my daughter! I had to make her believe I was evil. I had to make her fear me, not to mention every Everafter I’ve encountered since. Do you think that was easy, being the scorn of an entire town for hundreds of years? I had to take on a completely different persona for centuries.”

“That was your choice,” Charming cried.

“So you were edited! It’s not like I made you into a fool. I gave you courage and strength. I made you the heir to a fortune and I gave you a girlfriend who is the most beautiful woman in the world. Was it really that intolerable?”

“This fighting is stupid,” Sabrina said. “We need a hero, and Billy, that’s you.”

“Bunny should open her magic book and write herself a new one,” William said.

“You know what? You’re not fictional at all and you never have been,” Sabrina cried. “Because you’re a jerk!”

“What?”

“She just said you’re a jerk,” Puck said. “I know because she calls me one all the time.”

“Bunny remade you into the ideal man: brave, strong, and clever. What she did not make is a grouchy, impatient, and arrogant crybaby.”

“She’s right, William. You really are an insufferable boor, which proves you are not a toy that I wound up and let loose. I wanted you to be dashing and romantic and ever-smiling. I wanted perfection.”

Charming slumped back onto his makeshift bed. “OK, I’ve heard enough insults for one day.”

“You don’t understand,” Sabrina said. “You constantly turn from perfect into a sour old lemon. So if Bunny didn’t write that into her daughter’s story, it must be coming from you. You’re a real person, William—warts and all.”

Charming sat up and looked them group for a long time. “This is the worst pep talk in the history of the world.”

Puck laughed. “It really is.”

“Is it working?” Bunny asked.

Charming nodded.

“So are you ready to put away the sad face so we can go save the love of your life?” Sabrina asked.

Charming snatched his sword off the ground. “I am.”

“Great, we got the band back together,” Puck said. “Now, where do we find Atticus?”

Once again, Sabrina’s mind was ripped open. She staggered and fell as visions of Atticus flashed through her mind. He was camped in a house that overlooked the river. It was perched on a rocky edge, probably the home of one of the humans who had abandoned the town when the trouble began. Atticus was hitting Snow White. She tried her self-defense techniques, but he was too strong. Nottingham stood nearby, watching as if amused.

Puck helped her to her feet. “What is wrong with you?”

“I know where he is,” Sabrina said. “We have to hurry.”

• • •

The road that led to Atticus twisted upward toward Devil’s Peak, running parallel to the choppy river below. To get to the house where he was camped Sabrina’s army had to take a steep path that cut back several times. Charming insisted on leading the group and demanded that everyone walk as quickly as possible. Canis stumbled forward as fast as his old bones would allow. Though his body was failing him, his eyes were confident, and for the first time in many days he was not depressed or beaten. He walked with purpose.

On the other hand, the Queen of Hearts wasn’t exactly in a hurry. Her wounded leg was still hurting her and she whined incessantly.

“This is a very steep road,” Heart complained. “Perhaps I should stay here and wait.”

“We’ve heard enough of your whining and wheezing, Mrs. Heart. If you don’t want to go, then stay here,” Pinocchio snapped. The boy now walked with determination, a simmering desire for justice keeping his feet moving forward.

Sabrina was sure her uncle would lash out at the mayor as well, but again he treated her with patience. “I would probably recommend you stay behind if Nottingham weren’t still around. I’d hate to be too far away if he were to show up. I know it is physically demanding, but I do think it’s safer if you stay with the group.”

Heart grumbled but continued the climb, wheezing like a tired pig all the way to the top.

And that’s when they heard the screaming.

“Snow!” Charming cried, and raced ahead.

“Charming, no!” Bunny said. “We need a plan!”

Sabrina’s brain buzzed with possibilities. There were so many different options, all laid out to her like the strands of a spider-web as big as the world. Each strand led to a possibility—some sort of final outcome—but there were so many. She couldn’t follow all of them to their conclusions. There were thousands of them and each one branched into another thousand paths.

So many ended in the deaths of people she loved. She followed one particular strand as far as she could—and found it ending in blood. Still, it seemed like the right choice, but there were so many others swirling and spinning her thoughts into mush. How did she know such things?

“We need to circle around, try to get behind Atticus,” Sabrina said. “It may be the only way to help him and save Snow.”

“How can you know?” Henry asked.

“I can’t explain it. I just do,” Sabrina said. “And we have to do it now.”

Everyone scurried through the bushes, circling around the house. All the while Sabrina watched Charming in her mind. Even though they were many yards away and hidden by foliage, it was as if he were standing right next to her.