“Are you alright, Loki?” Snow White said.
“Never been better,” Loki pretended he was, unable to open up and show her his confusion.
“I have a question. Since you’re sixteen now, I assume it’s the same year you died, right?”
Snow White smiled again.
“Why the smile? You should know I have a weakness for demon girls when they smile,” he avoided her eyes, and for the first time he was sincere about his emotions.
“I know about your weakness. I’m smiling because your question shows you finally care, even if it’s just a little bit. Yes, someone tried to kill me when I was sixteen years old, but I didn’t die. I found a way to stay immortal.”
“Immortal?” Loki frowned.
“Most of the fairy tale characters are,” she said.
“Say that again? Fairy tale characters? Are you saying they’re all real and alive?” he said, remembering Charmwill saying the same thing. “So who tried to kill you, your Wicked Stepmother?” Loki never thought he’d be asking such a question.
“That’s a complicated subject, but I’ll get to it later.”
“I can’t help but wonder why you just can’t tell me,” Loki sighed. “Why is it that no one can tell me anything I need to know? Everyone has to keep things from me, and then ask me to see.”
“I can’t answer that, but we can start with going back in time to learn about my father.”
“The king?”
“Yes,” she bowed her head a little. “Angel von Sorrow. That’s his name. Angel Night von Sorrow.”
“Nice to meet you, Snow White von Sorrow,” Loki said sincerely. “Von means ‘from’, right?”
“Yes, we’re from German descendants, and my father was a very important man,” Loki sensed how proud she was of her father. The way she stressed the word very was as if she was pleading for the innocence of someone who was wrongfully convicted.
“Of course, he was important. He was king. I don’t remember him showing up in your fairy tale, though.”
“I told you the tales were forged.”
“So he wasn’t an absentee father who didn’t know how to control his new wife or daughter?”
“Stop being rude,” she hit him on the chest again. It was a playful gesture, and Loki liked it.
“I’m serious, that’s what everyone in the Ordinary World thinks of your father.”
“There is a reason why the Brothers Grimm forged his part,” she said.
“Since this is turning into a friendly conversation between fairy tale characters and half-angels, why don’t we get out of this closet and get some coffee. You’ve had coffee in the 18th century, right?”
Suddenly, Snow White winced. Someone was calling for her outside; it was the deep, mysterious, and powerful voice of a grownup woman.
“Shew, where are you?” the voice summoned her. The woman’s voice was so demanding and acute that Loki felt a twinge in his body, and an uncontrollable urge to respond.
“It’s her,” Snow White said. Her eyes were a mix of horror and sympathy. “Don’t answer her. Her voice has an effect on people. You will want to answer her. You will want to obey her, and even sacrifice your life for her. Don’t let that feeling consume you.”
“How can she have such an effect on me?” Loki said. “Who’s she?”
“She Who Must Be Obeyed,” Snow White answered.
“That’s a pretty long name. I’m serious. Who’s she?”
Snow White nodded, grabbing the doorknob tighter. “It’s time to go back before she finds me, are you ready?”
“Wait a minute. Why are you afraid of her? Isn’t she your mother? Tell me about her.”
“Stop talking, or she will kill you in the Dreamory and you will never wake up again,” Snow White pleaded, listening to the woman’s voice approaching. “We have to leave,” she whispered.
“To where? How are you sure of what time and place you are taking us?”
“It’s my dream, remember?” Snow White whispered. “Shut up for a second.”
“But the Baby Tears—”
“The Baby Tears prevent me from controlling my dream so you can’t kill me, like when I made you enter it as a seven year old. But it doesn’t prevent me from showing you what I need to. When you used the word ‘Jawigi’, you gave me that power.”
“So Axel was right, again,” Loki told himself.
“Shew?” the woman’s voice was already in the room. Standing in the middle of it, the woman was alerted by the noise in the closet. Loki saw her from behind the small gaps in the closet’s door. “Oh there you are, darling,” the woman was approaching and Loki felt that a wicked witch was closing in on them.
“I agree. Better travel back in time. Do whatever you need to do,” Loki said, gripping his Alicorn. He’d never been afraid like this before. Even the creepiest demons couldn’t stir such fear in his heart like this woman. “Who is that woman?” Loki pleaded again as she was about to open the closet.
“You were led to believe that she is my Wicked Stepmother,” Snow White said.
“And the truth is?”