Sneaky Snow White (Dark Fairy Tale Queen Series Book 2) (5 page)

We climb the round staircase. At the top, two guards stand beside the double doors. They look, to say the least, surprised to see me. Even more surprised to see my cohort of thugs.

“Open the doors,” I say smoothly. “And don’t make me ask twice.”

The guards obey without a squeak of protest. The Dwarves and I march into the main corridor of the castle. It lies before us like a black ribbon, the marble floor gleaming. Doors and chandeliers appear again in the floor, as if frozen under a dark lake.

“Find him. Search every room if you have to,” I say to the Dwarves. “Cooper, come with me.”

First I check Cinderella’s white sitting room. She isn’t there. Then I lead Cooper to the parlor where she attacked me. I find my jeweled dagger on the floor and slip it back into my belt. Ahead of us is the long staircase that curls up to Cinderella’s chamber. And I can feel The Mirror. It knows I’m here.

“Go on up,” I say to Cooper. “I’ll stay here and keep watch. The queen is probably in her chamber. If the door is locked, break it open. You’ll see a large mirror on the wall. Make
sure
you don’t look directly at it. And bring the queen down to me.”

“Why, what for?” Cooper asks.

“We will make her tell us where Hunter is.” And once that’s over, I will
end
the reign of the Evil Queen.

Cooper heads up the staircase, stepping over the iron candelabra that still lies across the lower steps. His face is grim and he holds the spiked club at a ready angle. I almost feel sorry for Cinderella.

I back against the nearest wall, feeling the need for something solid behind me. I hear bangs and echoed shouts through the walls as the other Dwarves search the palace. The running feet of palace guards, the screams of frightened servant maids. And I can’t help smiling. This dreary castle could use some chaos.

Cooper clomps down the stairs. “Nobody’s up there.”

“No?” I’m surprised. “Well… maybe she’s in the throne room.”

But the throne room is barren as a graveyard. The crystal chair sticks up like a headstone at the top of the room. I sit down, always stunned at its unyielding firmness, and tap my fingers against the arm. “Where could she be….”

The six other Dwarves tromp into the room, panting like they’ve run through the whole palace. “No Hunter,” says one of them. “We tried every room, the dungeons too. He’s not here.”

Cooper frowns. He hoists up his club until it’s level with my face. “If this is some kind of trick, little miss-”

“It’s not. It’s not.” I hold up a hand, thinking hard. Honestly, I’m too worried to even listen to his threats. “No, he definitely came here to see the queen. But now they’re both gone.” I can’t figure it out. Cinderella is a small woman, about to give birth. What could she possibly do to Hunter?

“Bring in the guards,” I say. “Maybe they saw what happened.”

One of the Dwarves makes a snorting sound. “You’ll have to wait until they’re conscious again.”

I curse and that makes the Dwarves laugh. But I’m in no mood. I need to find out what happened to Hunter. And not just because the Dwarves might kill me if I don’t. I’m scared for him. He is my Hunter. I wish I could
see
what happened when he came here.

I close my eyes. “Oh, no….”

“What?” Cooper says.

I grip the arms of the throne. There has to be another way…. But no, I know there isn’t. It scares the blood out of me. But I can do it for Hunter. He would do it for me.

“Um… are you fellows hungry?” I look past Cooper to the other Dwarves. “Why don’t you go to the kitchen while Cooper and I figure this out? Help yourselves to whatever is there. Just… don’t hurt the cook, all right?”

“Sounds good to me,” says the Dwarf with the dark beard. The six of them leave the throne room, lightly swinging their weapons. I slide out of the chair and already feel sick to my stomach.

“What’s your plan?” Cooper says.

“There’s only one way to find out what happened to Hunter,” I say softly. “I have to ask The Mirror.”

I climb the curling staircase to Cinderella’s chamber with Cooper behind me. I gave him a quick explanation about The Mirror, said it had magical powers but could also be dangerous. He looks skeptical, to put it mildly, but he doesn’t argue with me.

One of the doors stands ajar from when Cooper searched the room. I can’t see The Mirror, but I can feel it reaching for me, coaxing me to come in with long, curling fingers.

“Can you feel it?” I whisper to Cooper.

“Feel what?” he says.

“Never mind. The last time I looked in The Mirror I nearly killed myself. I want you stand in front of the window and stop me if that happens again. In fact, if I do
anything
strange, drag me out of the room.”

Cooper frowns. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“It isn’t. But it’s the only way to find Hunter.”

I touch the handle and slowly push the door open, keeping my eyes on the floor. Cooper goes and stands by the window, like I asked. I turn, shut the door, and draw a deep breath. Oh, I’m so scared.

I turn back to the room, my eyes still lowered. Though I’m not looking directly at it, I can see it. Huge and dark and ovular, like a great mouth waiting to swallow me. I wrap my arms around my body, over the simple grey dress Hunter gave me. With awkward, shuffling footsteps, I creep toward The Mirror.

It’s glad to see me. Waves of love and warmth wash over me and I almost feel as if I’m being caressed by ghostly hands. But I resist. I don’t want to feel happy. I just want to know where Hunter is.

I’m now standing in front of it. Still hugging my sides, my head downward, my hair a black waterfall around my face. Cinderella used to talk to The Mirror, out loud. I don’t want to – it feels stupid – but I guess I have to try.

“C-can you tell me where Hunter is, please?”

I feel another wave of warmth and a message comes with it.
Look.

No, I don’t want to look. I just want an answer.

The Mirror is waiting. Patiently. Lovingly. All it wants me to do is look. It won’t hurt me. It won’t frighten me.

I’m shaking with the fight to resist. Looking gives it power, I have seen that with Cinderella. But if I don’t look, it won’t tell me. And I have to find my Hunter.

Slowly, I turn up my face and I lift my eyes.

There’s a girl in the mirror. A young girl, no more than eight years of age. She is small and soft and gentle. Everything about her is beautiful, her delicate hands, her shining black hair, her tiny pink mouth that smiles sweetly. I can feel this child is precious, so precious to The Mirror. And the child is me.

Like a well flooding over, emotion surges through my body and my eyes fill up and drop tears. I have not felt like anyone’s precious child since I lost my mother. I felt abandoned. Often, I still feel like a child that needs someone’s arms to curl into. I wasn’t expecting this, that The Mirror would understand me. That it would know me.

I’m no longer afraid. I feel calm and confident. I know how to speak to The Mirror.

“Mirror, Mirror, on the wall. Where is my Hunter, brave and tall?”

My reflection fades. A scene appears before me as if I’m looking through a window. I see the dungeon and a stone slab on the floor shifting sideways. Hunter climbs out, emerging from the secret passage. The Mirror makes me understand that what I’m looking at has already taken place.

He creeps through the dungeon, his eyes alert and wary. Slowly, he makes his way up through the palace, easily avoiding the idiot guards who have grown too used to safety. I gave Hunter instructions on how to reach Cinderella’s chamber. After a few wrong doors, he locates the parlor and the stairs that lead up to her room.

I feel proud as I watch him. He’s as silent as a bobcat, his face expressionless. As he glides up the stairs, he slowly eases the crossbow off his back. My heart begins to pound with excitement. Maybe he did it. Maybe the reason I haven’t seen him is because he’s out burying her body.

Hunter reaches the top of the stairs and the corridor that runs outside Cinderella’s chamber. The angle shifts so I can see what he sees. The doors to Cinderella’s chamber are closed. And she’s lying on the floor outside of them.

I mean it. Cinderella is lying on the floor, in her long black dress, shut out of the room that holds her precious mirror. She’s curled up like a sleeping cat, her back facing Hunter. Talk about the perfect target.

Hunter crouches on one knee and lifts the crossbow. For a long minute, he simply stares at her, his finger hovering over the trigger.

Come on, Hunter,
I think.
Just do it!

Cinderella stretches and rolls onto her back. She sees Hunter. Slowly, she pushes herself up until she’s sitting against the door. Her hand is pressed to the place where I cut her, above the swell of her stomach. I don’t know why Hunter doesn’t shoot her now. Her face looks dead already.

Her beautiful blue eyes gaze at Hunter. Not afraid. Not surprised. “Go on,” she says in a lifeless voice. “It’s the kindest thing you can do for me.”

Hunter’s crossbow lowers. And with it, my heart.

“Why are you sad?” he asks in that tender voice that could conquer a kingdom.

Cinderella is quiet for a long time. Then she says, “Everyone… leaves me. No matter how much I need them. Papa…. Godnutter…. The Mirror. I am always… left alone.”

“You’re not alone,” Hunter says softly. “But I do think you’re ill. When did you eat last?”

Cinderella closes her eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”

“All right.” Hunter slings his crossbow over his back and smiles at her. “If nothing matters, then you won’t mind coming with me. I’m taking you away from this place.”

“No….” Cinderella moans. But she doesn’t fight when Hunter hoists her to her feet. He guides her down the stairs, his arm around her shoulders, and when a palace guard appears, he says he’s taking her out for some air. Since Cinderella appears to be cooperating, the guard lets them go.

I watch Hunter lead her out of the palace. Then the scene disappears and I’m staring at the ordinary reflection of my face.

“No. NO!” I smack the glass with my palm. “I’m not done yet, where did he take her?”

The glass doesn’t change. But the word
Safe
enters my mind.

“What happened?” Cooper asks gruffly.

I turn to him, annoyed. The Mirror’s aura is gone and I feel cold without it. “Hunter is fine. He found the queen sick and wounded and he took her away. Someplace safe. That’s all it will tell me.”

“Safe?” Cooper looks like he’s thinking about it. “Probably our cottage, can’t think where else he’d go.”

“Your cottage?”

“Aye, most likely. I’ll have one of the fellows go check. Barker can do it.”

I nod. “Tell him to bring Hunter back, if he’s there. But not the queen. Tell him to remind Hunter that he must finish his task.”

“What task?”

“He’ll know.”

Cooper shrugs. “If you say so, miss. I’ll talk to Barker.” He leaves the room and I hear his heavy tread on the stairs.

I sneak a tentative glance at The Mirror. And suddenly I’m struck by how ugly this little gray dress is. A princess shouldn’t look like that. I will go up to my room and change immediately.

It is nightfall when Barker returns. I wait for him in the crystal chair. I’m now wearing a white dress with long, tight sleeves and a full skirt embroidered with intricate silver swirls. I feel much better.

“Well?” I ask. “Where is Hunter?”

Barker bows before me. He looks older than Cooper, with gray hairs mixed into his long, dark beard. He usually carries a huge battle axe and his left hand is missing two fingers.

“He’s at our cottage. The queen’s there too. He wants to speak with you at the well tomorrow, the usual time, he says.”

I narrow my eyes. “He wouldn’t come back with you?”

“He said he wants to talk to you first. He said not to worry.”

“Did you see the queen?”

“No. Hunter said she was resting.”

Oh, I do not like this at
all.
Hunter and Cinderella alone in a cottage. I don’t care if she’s sick and pregnant, that woman if full of wicked wiles. I’ve seen the effect her beauty has on men. They can’t even move when they see her.

I rise from the throne and look at Cooper. He’s standing behind Barker with the other Dwarves. “Take me to this cottage,” I say.

Cooper chuckles. “What’s your hurry? It’s dark and it’s cold and it’s far. You can wait for tomorrow.”

“No, I cannot. You will take me there now.”

Cooper smirks. “That’s not what Hunter wants, little miss. Don’t you
care
about what he wants?” His voice carries a hint of menace.

I stamp my foot. Look at them, seven brutes all towering above me. Any one of them could snap me in half. This isn’t fair, I have no power.

“Fine!” I snap. “But if I’m staying, you all have to stay here with me. I need protection. You can have the whole palace, eat what you want, take what you want, I don’t care. So long as you stay.”

“Fair enough,” Cooper says. “Beats prowling through The Wood in the dark, hunting strangers for a few coins. We’ll look after you – for now.”

“Thank you,” I say coldly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m very tired. I barely slept last night. Help yourselves to whatever bedrooms you want, there are plenty.” I spring off the chair and sweep out of the throne room, hoping I look haughty.

Guess I don’t have to sleep in my little tower room now that Cinderella is gone. Oh, who cares, I’m used to it. I’m heading down the hall, looking forward to my bed, when suddenly I feel it: the tug in my chest.

The Mirror wants me.

I stop while I think about it. Darn, I want to go. I want to see if The Mirror approves of my dress, I could tell it didn’t like the last one. I wonder if I’ll look like a little girl again, or if my appearance will change each time….

NO! I said I wouldn’t do this. I won’t let The Mirror control me. But the pull is so strong. I feel hurt because Hunter wouldn’t come to me. And frustrated with the Dwarves. At least The Mirror would be a distraction. Maybe it would comfort me, make me feel wonderful again.