The Hunt for Snow (18 page)

Naomi wasn’t about to give it to me, though. She looked down at me with disdain, and as I watched a thought flickered across her face. She smiled then, a genuine terrifying smile. “I have a gift for you, Snow White.”

“No thanks,” I muttered, afraid to move from my prone position.

“Oh, but I insist,” she said in that sexy, husky voice. “I know you’ve done something to my Huntsman. And once I figure it out I will make you all pay dearly. But for now, I want to show you why he’s so…
eager
to stay in my service.” She forced me to stand, her nails cutting into my arm as she pushed the gun into my side.

To this day I have no idea what she did to the portal, but with one twist of her elegant hand, it became sort of a two-way mirror. And through it, I saw my Huntsman before he became Naomi’s. He was gorgeous. Carefree, happy and…very much in love with someone else. My heart sank as I watched the beautiful blonde-tressed woman and him walking hand in hand through the woods. The smile on his face was genuine and loving. Different from anything I’d seen from him.

I felt my heart rend and tear in two. My friends dropped their eyes, not wanting to see my heartbreak. After a few moments, his head bowed and dipped as he kissed his lover, and they walked into a clearing where there stood a small well-tended cottage. Flowers dotted the landscape and the porch area. Large flower baskets were hung up with care, and gorgeous plants spilled out from the top.

The sky darkens suddenly, and my stomach turns as I realize what is going to happen. Naomi hurtles from the sky and drops to the ground, kneeling with her staff at her side. When she stands at full height, she looked terrible and beautiful all the same.

Max pushes the blonde woman back behind him and steps forward to speak to her. I couldn’t hear what was said, but I saw the fear on Max’s face, and the delight on Naomi’s. He was about to make a choice that would forever tear him apart. When he balks and tries to draw his weapon, Naomi merely smiles and in one small but heartbreaking gesture, lightning falls from the sky and strikes his lover down where she stands. I gasp in shock as she falls, her blonde hair spread out across the ground. I would always remember the horror and anguish written all over his face.

He falls to his knees beside her, tears streaming openly down his cheeks. I watch as he stands once he realizes she is gone. He turns to Naomi and nods once. She gathers her magic around her and binds him to her as I look on, helpless in horror.

They converse for a moment more, his face grim and drawn, before she turns away and leaves. He stands there alone, his shoulders slumped and his head bowed. I think this is it, so I look at Naomi who shakes her head and forces me to keep watching. I sigh heavily, having seen enough of this torture until I see the cottage door open.

My heart thumps heavy as I watch a little girl step out. I’m unable to suppress my cry of horror as I see she has the same long blonde hair of her mother. And the same forest-green eyes of Max. He motions her over and takes her hand as he leaves everything behind him and steps into Naomi’s blood-red magic.

The only sounds in the room were my choked gasps of horror. I swiped the tears from my cheeks and wrenched my arm out of her grasp. “Your cruelty knows no bounds,” I finally said when I could breathe again.

She shrugged. “Prophecy foretold of a day like this. I needed him so I took him.”

“Where is his daughter?”

Her ruby-red lips parted in a mocking smile. “Safe enough for now. She’s grown into a beautiful young woman.”

I stiffened, wishing I was stronger and braver. Wishing I could launch myself at her and scratch my nails down her face and tear that perfect beauty apart. If it weren’t for my friends standing there in just as much danger as I was, I would have done it, even at the risk to my own life. She’d destroyed my life, she’d destroyed my villager’s lives, and she’d torn apart a happy family all for her own ends. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to further her own power base. And now she had the one thing that could ensure she’d have it all.

“You have what you need. Leave,” I said, hoping all of us would make it out unscathed.

She threw back her head and laughed long and hard. “I’ve lived thousands of years, Snow. I am not stupid.” Naomi held up the gun and pointed at me. I watched, helpless and unarmed, as her finger began to depress the trigger.

The soft noise of something flying through the air caught my attention, and I dived out of the way. A gunshot and scream of pain rang out simultaneously. I waited for the inevitable blinding pain, but felt nothing. I looked around the room and saw Cyndi horrified and covering her mouth with her hands.

Naomi was on her knees, Robin beside her grimacing in pain. Her long red hair was askew, and her hands covering the gushing wound in her neck. Holy shit. Little Cinderella and Robin were ninjas. I spared a moment to give her a thumbs-up and scrambled to get the gun Naomi had dropped in the chaos. Sensing my attentions, she threw a hand up and sent it skittering out of the way.

Naomi stood up shakily. “Well,” she said in a shaky voice, “seems Cinderella has some claws.”

A flickering behind my friends caught my attention, and I noticed with horror the weakening of the portal. Naomi saw it, too, and pushed Cyndi and Belle out of the way in a huge burst of air so none of us could jump through.

She held up the necklace and admired it. “Looks like I don’t have to do anything at all to you, now.” She flicked a hand at the portal. “Maleficent’s magic weakens. Once that portal is gone, you won’t have a way to return.” She dropped the necklace into her pocket and gave us a wink. “But here. I’ll help it along.”

With all of our weapons across the room, and Naomi’s magic glowing like a beacon in the night, all we could do was watch in horror as she destroyed the portal in front of us. It winked out like a dead star, leaving behind our destroyed hopes. I still had the potion in my hand, but I’d hesitated too long. We’d given up a huge part of our lives for it, and I was scared to use it because of what would happen to Cinderella. There had to be another way. With a snap of her finger, she opened up the staircase back into her castle, blew us a kiss and disappeared without any further departing words of wisdom.

We sat there for several minutes, shocked at our defeat. We’d lost everything, and, in addition, Robin was now trapped here. Maybe forever. I stared at the bottle in my hand, wishing I could have made a different decision, but knowing in my heart it was the right one. We didn’t have to lose anyone to win. This wasn’t how fairytales were supposed to go. But, so far, this hadn’t been a fairytale, it had been a nightmare.

“This is the worst thing to happen since the nineteen-forty Bears versus Redskins game,” Robin said out of the blue.

I choked on a laugh. “Football, too? You’re a man full of secrets, aren’t you?”

“Football is cool.”

“Losing is not,” I said and looked at the destruction of my home. We had maybe five minutes before sirens sounded, and we had lots of explaining to do.

I jumped up and dusted off remnants of glass and the gods knew what else. “Cyndi, Belle, get dressed into something normal. Robin, get a broom.”

“A broom?” he asked with distaste.

“Yes!” I yelled as I ran back into my room, praying I’d have an old pair of jeans stuffed somewhere in my closet. “Sweep up as much of the glass as you can.”

I rummaged through the closet and then through my dresser drawers, finally unearthing a pair of black yoga pants and a long sleeve Notre Dame shirt. I pulled the pants on as fast as I could, and then washed off the blood from the shallow cuts I had all over my arms before I pulled the shirt on. I threw on a pair of cheap Old Navy flip flops, took a cursory glance in the mirror, and grimaced. I turned on the sink in the bathroom and cupped some water in my hand. I ran that through my hair and tried to get it to look like I hadn’t just engaged in a battle with a supreme sorceress.

The sounds of sirens intruded into my thoughts, and I muttered a naughty word. I rushed out of the room and noticed that the majority of the glass had been swept up and Robin was busy righting the upturned furniture. Cyndi and Belle scrambled around helping him, so I joined in while muttering to everyone about getting our story straight.

If I thought too much about what just happened I’d break down in tears and curl into the fetal position for a week, so I focused on the immediate tasks at hand. I’d get through this and then figure out how it all went wrong later.

A few moments later I heard the police pull up in front of the house, the red and blue lights engulfing the entire inside and throwing eerie shadows across our faces. I nodded at everyone, and waited for the inevitable knock at the door. A handsome well-groomed officer stood at the door, his right hand resting on the butt of the service weapon at his hip.

I smiled brightly, and when I saw his confused look, dimmed it down a bit so I didn’t look like too much of a lunatic. “May I help you?” I asked, acting the picture of politeness.

“Ma’am, there have been several reports of gunshots, explosions and screaming from this home today. Is everything okay?” His eyes flicked to and fro within the house, his neck craning slightly as he tried to see around the door.

I pulled it a little tighter to my back. If my knowledge of the law was correct, he wouldn’t be able to enter, but I didn’t feel like testing it and getting it wrong. “Oh, I am so sorry about that,” I said, suddenly affecting a bad southern accent and trying not to hear the muffled snorts of laughter behind me. “We were watching football and it got a little bit out of hand.”

“Football?” he echoed in disbelief.

“Yep!” I smiled again, my teeth set in more of a grimace, I was afraid.

“And the explosions?” he asked, the surprise evident on his face. He wasn’t buying a word of this.

“Oh
that
. See, we were fighting over whether to watch football or
Predator
. And Robin here,” I leaned back and gestured frantically at Robin, “didn’t agree. So we got into a wrestling match and then,” I giggled like a co-ed and cast cow eyes at Robin now standing by my side, “well, then it got really out of hand. Why I barely had time to get dressed before I heard the sirens. Right, darling?” I wrapped my arm tightly around Robin’s waist, and stared, daring him to disagree with me.

I should have known better. He gripped me tight around the waist, gave the officer a dazzling smile and said in his cool British tone, “She’s very naughty when she gets angry, you know.” His hand reached down and gave me a firm pinch on the bottom.

I jerked, but managed to keep the smile plastered on my face. “That’s me.” I laughed awkwardly. “A naughty, naughty minx.”

The officer stood there, his mouth wide open. He shook his head, pulled out his notebook and wrote something on his pad. “I’ve met weirder,” he mumbled as he tore off the warning for noise violation.

I doubted it
. I apologized profusely about the noise, thanking my lucky stars he’d only given us a warning, and watched as he shook his head and took off down the stairs. As he got in the car and gave me one last confused look, I offered him a cheery wave, shut the door, and punched Robin in the shoulder.

“You had to pinch my rear end? You couldn’t just smile and nod?”

Robin looked way too happy with himself. “You presented me the perfect opportunity. How was I supposed to pass that up?”

“Willpower and self-control?” I shook my head.

We turned around to trudge back in, but Belle stood there with an angry look on her face. “Ass,” she muttered.

She followed this up with a punch to Robin’s face. He fell like a stone, and I stood there gaping at her. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

She gasped and flailed her hands like a beauty queen who discovers someone jacked her mascara right before runway time. “I’m sorry. I have no idea. He just made me so mad!” She stomped her small foot and glared down at the unconscious Robin.

I leaned down and slapped him on the cheek. “You’re jealous,” I said, and waited for the inevitable explosion.

“I know,” she whispered, stopping me in mid-smack. She stood there chewing on her thumbnail like a lost little girl.

I straightened and took her by the arm. “Let’s just put that aside for now. We need wine and a plan.”

We left Robin there, grabbed Cyndi and headed into the kitchen. He seemed just fine, but was going to be mighty angry when he woke up. I reached up and took down a bottle of Syrah. Once we were settled in with large glasses of wine, we all started talking at once.

“Now that was an intense conference,” Belle said.

Cyndi said, “So that was the most fun we’ve ever had on a weekend.”

“I can’t believe I almost died. Multiple times.”

We laughed, and weariness seeped into my bones so heavy I laid my head down on the bar. “What are we going to do?”

A deep voice spoke from just outside the kitchen. “First of all, we need to figure out how to activate this thing. Did anyone happen to hear the word Naomi muttered?”

I lifted my head up and stared at Robin, about to tell him off for being a smart-ass. But as soon as I opened my mouth, I closed it, because in his hand dangled my sapphire necklace. I sat up straighter. “How in the world?”

He winked with the eye that wasn’t slowly turning black and purple. “I’m the best thief in the Enchanted Forest, that’s how.”

“You pickpocketed the Evil Queen?” Belle asked in disbelief.

“I don’t speak to people who punch unsuspecting thieves in the face.” Robin didn’t bother to look at her, instead keeping his focus on me.

“So we have this, but no portal back.” I gestured for him to bring the necklace over. I hadn’t really looked at it since the day I took it off and put it in that box almost a decade ago. He dropped it in my hand, and I tested the heavy weight of silver and stone. The sapphire, glowing so bright under the power of Naomi, now rested silent, still a deep blue but no longer alive with power.

“Maleficent is bound to know something went wrong as soon as she lost control of the portal,” Cyndi said as she tipped up her wine. “But there’s no telling what Naomi had to do to destroy it and how that may have affected her.”

“She’s been expending tons of magic lately. It could be some time before she’s able to reopen a new one. I’d say we’d be lucky to hear from her within a week. For now, we might be stuck here.” Belle stood, brought down another bottle of wine and gestured to Robin to see he if wanted a glass. He nodded, giving her a long heated look. At least he didn’t look murderous anymore.

She opened the bottle, filled a glass for him, and refreshed ours. “We need to figure out how to get that thing to work so we don’t have to rely on Maleficent.”

She was right. We were holding incredible power in our hands, but we had no idea how to use it. The most magical words I knew were
abracadabra
and
shazam
, and those would get me laughed right out of my house. I tucked the necklace into my pocket for further contemplation and a thought struck me.

Cyndi excused herself from the table for a moment, a happy look on her face. I shrugged and addressed the thief in our midst.

“Robin, how have you been traveling back and forth to Earth? Those weapons you had weren’t from the Enchanted Forest.” I knew Maleficent wasn’t involved in his apparent scheming, but he never told us how he’d done it.

His face darkened. “I’d rather not discuss it right now,” he said. “Let’s just say I’m stuck here for now.”

Damn, there went that plan right out the window. I swigged the rest of my wine and plunked the glass down. The sun was sinking down over the horizon, darkening the house along with my mood. I was tired and defeated. It wasn’t as bad as I’d initially thought, but we were stranded here for now, and the gods only knew how Naomi would react once she realized she didn’t have the necklace. Her portal could take her right back into my living room, so it probably wasn’t safe to stay here any longer.

I frowned at Robin. Here I thought my secrets were the only important ones. Belle was going to have her hands full with him. I shifted off the stool. “We shouldn’t stay here tonight,” I said. “Naomi could be back at any minute.”

Belle’s smiled like she had a secret. “No worries. I can ward this place within an inch of its life and keep her out of here.”

“You know how to ward?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yup.” Her eyes glittered with magic. “It’s super secret squirrel stuff, but basically it has to do with the Wi-Fi signal and flammable material. She won’t be able to make a portal inside the house, and if she tries to break in from the outside, she’ll go boom.”

I blinked. “What if someone knocks on the door? Will they go boom?”

Belle frowned. “You might want to tell your friends to stay away for the next seven days.”

I waved a hand at her. “Set it up. At least we’ll be able to stay home. That’s two for our corner.”

Cyndi came back into the kitchen carrying a long heavy clothing bag. At the quizzical look on my face, she grinned at me and waggled her eyebrows. “We went to the conference with the best of intentions, but considering it barely got off the ground, I wanted to show you the ball gown I picked up for you. You know…just in case we don’t get the chance to do it later.”

I read between the lines. Just in case we died, she meant. Cyndi unzipped the bag and pulled out a long fuchsia gown. I sucked in my breath. It was the same color as the shirt she’d bought for me, so I knew right away it would look fantastic against my skin. She hung it up on one of the cabinets so we could get the full view. She’d outdone herself. There was no ornamentation on the dress, but it didn’t need it. The entire gown was made out of lace. It had a square modest neckline, and three-quarter sleeves, but it fell into an A-line skirt. It would both cover and compliment my sparse curves and still leave me with room to plant many surprises inside the skirts, i.e. weapons. It was gorgeous. Suspicious wetness filled my eyes.

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

She gave me a shaky smile. “Does this make up for the luggage?”

I shook my head and laughed. I had plans in store to retaliate for that one. “Not even a little bit, but you’re on the right track. How did you get this back here?”

She chuckled. “I brought it back as soon as I realized we were never really there for a conference at all. We were there for Naomi. I brought a few other things back, too, so not all is lost.”

She was a lot smarter than I’d ever given her credit for. “You’re a rock star, you know that?”

She blushed and waved the compliment away. After Belle and I oohed and ahhed over the dress some more, I said goodnight and trudged back to my room. I felt my pocket, satisfied that the weight of the necklace was still heavy but comfortable resting next to my hip. Once I was inside the room, I sat on the bed, the weight of our almost total failure weighing heavy on my mind. As I leaned forward to sink my head in my hands, I heard the crinkle of plastic and paper. I reached inside my shirt and pulled out the letter I’d shoved in my bra hours ago. My breathing picked up as I stared at the almost illegible print on the letter.

My first name was written on it as almost an afterthought. It was a terrible night to read it, I knew. I was not in the right frame of mind. Depressed, sick over what happened and the people we may have hurt in the process, worry about how Naomi was going to retaliate once she realized what Robin had done. But I opened it anyway. It was dated nine years ago.

Snow,

Belle tells me you are safe on Earth, although she refuses to divulge where. She’s always been the intelligent sort. There are things I want to, no, need to, tell you. Your stepmother has plotted against you for years. I know by now you are beginning to realize the depths of her depravity, but be warned. Coming back will seal your death warrant. And I’m afraid it will be me carrying out the deed.

I’ve been in Naomi’s service for over a hundred years now. Hard to believe, yes, but her magic keeps me eternally young. And eternally bitter. She’s taken everything from me, but one thing—my daughter, Lana. Naomi assures me she’s still alive, and every night I wander this castle looking for her, but my searches come up fruitless. Thoughts of her keep me waking up every day and eager to find a way to break this hold Naomi has over me.