The Council of Mirrors (27 page)

“The child is infected,” Baba Yaga said to her family and friends.

“With what?” her father said. He looked panicked.

“Magic, of course,” the old crone said dismissively. “Did you think I was giving her a checkup for chicken pox? This thing you love so dearly has the sickness.”

“You mean there is magic inside her?” Daphne asked. She placed her hand on her sister’s and nodded. “Yes, I can feel it.”

Sabrina shook her head, which made her dizzy. “When the mirrors exploded, a piece cut me. I guess some of it got under my skin. I haven’t felt like myself ever since, but I’m OK. No one needs to worry.”

“This is not good, Henry,” Mr. Canis said. “Your daughter is magic intolerant.”

“Yeah, I sort of get power hungry around it, but I’m fine, really,” Sabrina said as she tried to stand unsuccessfully. They were still at Atticus’s hideout. They needed to get to Mirror and were wasting time. “I have that under control. I just feel like I’ve got the flu or something.”

“You should lie down, honey,” her mother said.

“Let her stand,” Baba Yaga said. “She’ll be dead soon.”

“She could die?” Veronica said.

“Didn’t say could,” the old crone croaked. “Said will.”

“Then we have to get it out of her,” Puck demanded.

“Leave her be, I said. It’s inside her—in the tissue. It isn’t coming out.”

“Then what?” Bunny said. “We just let her die slowly? That’s our only choice?”

“It’s no choice at all, poison maker,” Baba Yaga said. “Best
thing to do is put her to work. She’s got the stuff mirrors are made of floating around inside her. Can’t you feel the power coming off of her? It rivals that of your monster, the First. If you’re wise, you’ll send her out to kill it. We have nothing that can stop that thing, and she might be our only chance.”

“You’re saying my sister has power like Mirror?” Daphne said.

“Not like him!” Baba Yaga snapped. “He’s out there somewhere enjoying himself. Her magic is killing her. But yes, they can do the same things. Bah! Enough talk, we’re wasting time.”

“Sorry if you’re on the clock, Old Mother,” Charming said, “but we’re going to sit here until we find a way to help her.”

“There’s a chance she could burn herself out,” Bunny said.

“A slim chance,” Baba Yaga argued. “You do these people an injustice giving them false hope. I’ve seen your handiwork. Even the tiniest splinter is enough to destroy a hundred worlds.”

“What are you talking about?” Puck demanded. “What do you mean burn herself up?”

Bunny sighed. She explained to Sabrina. “If you could use it all up, just give in to its power and let it take you over, you might be able to expel enough so that you run out. You do only have a tiny piece inside.”

“So all you have to do is just get crazy with the magic,” Daphne said.

“OK, we’ve got a plan,” Uncle Jake said. “Just use it all up. Let it all out on him.”

“I can’t. That’s Granny Relda’s body. I might kill her,” Sabrina said. Her words seemed to suck the hope out of the room. “I don’t want to die, but if that’s what’s going to happen anyway, I should do what I can to help Granny, not hurt her. But I need your help getting to him. He’s waiting on Route 9 near the barrier. He’s calling to me. He knows I can see him. He’s demanding I bring him the spell.”

“Then give it to him,” the Scarecrow said.

“Just let him out,” the Lion agreed.

“You don’t understand what he’ll do,” Daphne said as she took the real spell from her pocket.

Sabrina could see the webs and all of their possibilities—she could see the future that Mirror owned. She watched him step outside of town once the barrier fell. She watched him sweep across America, then Europe, Africa, and Asia, sitting on a throne held up by the broken bodies of men and women. She watched the stampede of panicked people running from giants and fiery dragons in the sky. She saw all manner of monster running amok. “Dad, I think you and Mom and Basil and Uncle Jake should leave the town. Take the spell with you. If it’s here, he’ll never stop and he may try to hurt you to get what he wants.”

Canis stepped forward and set a book in front of her. It was the Book of Everafter. “You can’t leave the town.”

“You had the book?” Daphne said. “Why did you take it?”

“I’m sorry to have made you worry about its whereabouts, but I had to have it. I had made some changes and—”

“What kind of changes, Canis?” Bunny said sternly.

“When your grandmother was taken by Mirror, I knew he would be able escape the barrier in her body. I also knew we were powerless to stop him, but the book offered an opportunity. It was an emergency. Something had to be done.”

“What opportunity?” Henry asked.

“I had hoped it would be a temporary solution while I made changes to Mirror in his original story. But every time I wrote a word into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the story would erase it, like it was protecting itself.”

“The stories don’t like being tampered with,” the Wicked Queen said. “You shouldn’t have been playing with it, old man.”

Canis’s face flashed rage. It was nearly has angry as when the Wolf had control of him. “Who do you think you are, woman? I’m not some retirement-home-bound burden. Wolf or no Wolf, I have been an important part of everything that has happened to this family for twenty years and you will not talk to me like I’m feeble and senile. This kind of nonsense is exactly why I
took the book without asking. While you people are trying to wrap your head around what to do with old Mr. Canis, he was working to stop the end of the world!”

Sabrina flipped through the book. At the very end was a short story. She scanned it quickly—there was hardly anything to it—but she spotted her name, and her heart sank.

“He wrote us into the book,” she said, then read aloud.

“‘Once upon a time there was a family called Grimm. They were detectives and lived in a town called Ferryport Landing. Relda, Henry, Veronica, Jacob, Sabrina, Daphne, and Basil were their names. The end.’”

“You turned them into Everafters,” Bunny seethed.

“He did what?” Veronica cried.

“I did what needed to be done. I couldn’t risk the chance that Mirror would just jump out of Relda and into one of you, so right after he took over Relda, I found the book and made you all Everafters. That’s why he can’t get out of town. He’s not inside a human being anymore.”

“So we’re fairy-tale characters now?” Daphne said. “Cool!”

“I thought it would take the fight out of Mirror when he realized he now had no chance to escape, but then Jake appeared with his infernal magic spell, and Mirror had a new goal.”

“I had no idea,” Uncle Jake said.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Veronica asked. “We could’ve helped.”

Canis’s eyes flashed with anger. “This was something I could do myself. I didn’t need anyone’s help.”

“So now we’re stuck here with him,” Henry said. “We can’t leave the town, either.”

“What are we going to do?” Uncle Jake asked.

“We fight,” Sabrina said.

She was too ill to walk, so she would have to be carried. Puck spun around on his heels to transform. She expected him to become something disgusting—a camel, a giant chicken, a farting bear—but instead he became a majestic white stallion. After Uncle Jake helped her up onto his back, she quietly thanked him. Daphne joined her on Puck’s back. Charming was too hurt to walk as well, so Poppa Bear offered him his back, and once everyone was settled, they began the march down the hill to the road that would lead them to Mirror.

Sabrina did her best to present a strong face like Puck had told her to do. Fake it until you make it, she reminded herself, but the power inside her was eating her alive. Twinges of pain soon became gut-searing agony, but she bit her lip and gritted her teeth. There were a few times when she was sure she would black out and fall off the horse, but Daphne wrapped her up
in her little arms as if trying to bear her sister’s pain. Her father walked alongside them with his hand on hers. Uncle Jake was on the other side. Veronica and Basil followed closely, as did Mr. Canis and Red. No one spoke, not even Puck. It was as if Sabrina were already dead and her friends and family were taking her casket to its final resting place.

She was too tired and hurt to be afraid. In fact, during the long journey she didn’t think once of what might be at the end. Spotting her grandmother in the road, madly contorted by the creature controlling her limbs, was almost a relief. The magic was building. She needed to let it out.

Mirror stood in a wide stance with his arms outstretched in a mocking welcome. It made Sabrina angry. He wasn’t taking her seriously. She could see in the expression he forced on her grandmother’s face that this confrontation was nothing more than the last annoying thing on his “to do” list.

Sabrina asked her father to help her and Daphne down. Puck transformed back into a boy and seized his wooden sword from his belt.

“You stay here,” Sabrina said.

Daphne shook her head. “We stick together. We are Grimms. This is what we do.”

“But—”

“We’re all going,” Goldi said.

“Now let’s go kick his butt,” Puck said.

The rest of the crowd shared his stubbornness. Only Veronica stood back to shield baby Basil from whatever might be coming. She offered to look after Red and the other children, but they refused. Mirror had damaged all of their lives, and they would stand with the girls to confront him. Everyone surrounded Sabrina and Daphne and took each painful step with them, until they were standing before the Master.

“There’s something different about you, Starfish,” Mirror said through Granny’s mouth. “Did you change your hair?”

“Don’t call me Starfish,” Sabrina said. “That’s a name a friend gives another. You have never been my friend.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “I see you brought your family and friends. I suppose that means Atticus is dead. Can’t say that bothers me much. He was a bit of a lunatic, that brother of yours, Billy—always shouting and carrying on with his threats. ‘I’m going to kill my brother! I’m going to have my revenge!’”

“He’s gone,” Snow said.

Mirror cocked a curious eye. “So our little schoolteacher stood up for herself. Is that why you’re all here? Did she inspire you? Do you plan to kill me?”

“I don’t want to kill you,” Sabrina said. “I don’t want to kill
anyone. I’m not like you. But I have to stop you somehow. I gave your thugs the same offer I’m going to give you. Stop this. Let my grandmother go. Bunny is here. She might be able to give you a body of your own.”

“Oh, Mother is finally going to help out her baby, is that it?” Mirror sneered. “She abandoned me, Sabrina. She gave birth to me and then turned her back. No thank you. I think it’s a little late for a mother and child reunion—but enough whining, right? Do you have the spell?”

“I’m not giving you the spell.”

Mirror’s fingers exploded with light, and suddenly from behind the group Veronica and Basil were dragged by an unseen force. It held them hovering over the crowd.

“Now, Sabrina, you know I can kill them. Just give me the spell.”

“Don’t do it, Sabrina,” Veronica cried as she struggled to console Basil’s fright.

Another blast of light and Henry joined his wife and child floating in the air.

“This doesn’t have to get ugly,” Mirror said. “Just hand me the paper.”

“Let them go, Mirror,” Sabrina said, her voice quaking from the tremors that rocked her from inside. She felt like she might explode—that her body might break in half and release a torrent
of violence on Mirror and everyone around her. She turned to Daphne, who gave her a brave smile.

“Sabrina, do not give him the spell!” Henry shouted.

A moment later, Uncle Jake was jerked off the ground and floating helplessly with the others.

“Our lives are not worth the whole world!” Jake shouted.

“A simple snap of my fingers will end them,” Mirror said. “It’s that easy, Sabrina. But you can have them back for one little piece of paper.”

“Daphne, give it to him,” Sabrina said.

Daphne shook her head. “Sabrina—”

With a wave of her hand, Sabrina commanded the paper to leave her sister’s pocket. Before the little girl could stop it the spell floated into Mirror’s hand.

“NO!” Henry cried.

“I can’t let you die!” Sabrina said. “I lost you once. I can’t let it happen again!”

Mirror’s face twisted into a smile as he gazed down upon the paper. With a laugh, he recited the ancient words, each growing with sound and fury.

There was an odd tinkling sound, and its great, ancient magic evaporated into the sky. The barrier was gone. Such a simple act for such powerful magic.

Mirror turned to the Everafters and smiled. “You’re free. You are all finally free!”

The crowd shuffled uncomfortably, as if unsure of what to do.

The Frog Prince was the first to try. He gingerly searched the air for the wall, but it did not stop him. He stepped through, suddenly free.

“It works,” he cried, urging his daughter to join him. She went with her father out into the free world. The Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion were next, followed by Cinderella and her husband, as well as the Three Blind Mice.

Mirror reached his hand through where the barrier used to be, and he grinned and laughed. “Finally!” He giggled.

“Don’t get too excited, pal,” Daphne said. “As long as we’re alive, we’re going to be on you like bedbugs. We won’t stop until your back in your mirror and our granny is safe and sound!”

Mirror turned to the girls, his eyes aglow and his hands exploding with flames.

“Leave them alone!” Henry shouted.

“Sorry, Hank, but the little one is right. As long as there is a Grimm, you will always manage to find a way to ruin the party.” He pointed his flaming finger at the girls, and a powerful force sent them flying through the crowd.

Just before they slammed into the ground, Sabrina felt a
bubbling explosion inside her, as if the top of a soda bottle shaken by a mischievous child was opened inside her belly. When they landed, instead of feeling the agony of tearing skin and broken bones, a metallic shell appeared, covering the girls and sending orange sparks zipping in all directions as they skidded down the road. When they came to a stop, they helped each other up as the hardened skin faded away.