“You’re talking to a fortune cookie?” Axel asked while Fable didn’t even comprehend what just happened.
“It helps me make up my mind when I can’t decide where to go, or what’s wrong and what’s right,” Loki explained.
“Who are you, Loki Blackstar?” Fable asked with big, disbelieving eyes.
“Just a boy trying to find a place I can call home,” he mumbled, and it was obvious that he wasn’t going to elaborate.
“Good,” Axel adjusted his shirt—and prestige. “Now, I know we need to get you home before you go ballistic on us like your vampire princess did on the teens yesterday.”
“The coffin is locked—” Loki explained, not commenting on Axel’s remark.
“Good for us,” Axel said.
“From the inside,” Loki continued.
“Not good for us.”
Loki rummaged through the items in his bag, and pulled out a small hammer and handed it to Axel. “You will have to break the glass with this hammer.”
“Why me?” Axel backed up a little, staring at the hammer as if it were a poisonous snake.
“That, or you’ll have to stake her yourself while I break the glass. Pick your poison,” Loki said.
Axel shook his head, kicking the floor in frustration. “I guess cracking the glass open is like messing things up, which I am good at,” he took the hammer. “You don’t happen to have some gum in that bag of yours, do you?”
Loki shot him an incredulous stare.
“What? I just need something to chew on so I can relax. Out of the way, Fable. Do you always have to stand in my way?”
“You’re evil, Loki!” Fable stood up. “Why did you even come to this town? We were all happy before you came.”
Loki shrugged. Fable was definitely a weak spot.
Fable ran into Loki and started hitting him in the chest. Loki didn’t react to her sweet anger. The way her head ended up buried in his chest, and the smell of her pure soul on his skin, made him truly vulnerable to her. Loki and Axel had just shattered all she loved about her childhood princess in a matter of hours.
“I have to do this, Fable,” Loki said. “She’s a demon. Besides, I’m only staking her. I promise you that if I find a reason not to kill her when I enter her dream, I will let her live.”
“As if you can kill her,” Axel mumbled.
“You promise, Loki?” Fable looked up to him, literally and emotionally.
“I promise,” Loki said, eyes closed, and running his hand through her hair. He lied to her, only to calm her down, and he was ashamed about it. How was it possible for a half-angel to lie? Wasn’t he supposed to be the good guy?
Loki wanted to tell Fable that it wasn’t his fault that the world was full of vampires, or that it was his job to kill them, or that Snow White turned out to be a demon. Hell, Snow White wasn’t supposed to be real in the first place. Even with all those fairy tales Charmwill had told him, Loki never believed the idea that they were true.
“Could we get this over with?” Axel groaned. He parted his legs and stood over the coffin, holding the hammer up high with both hands, ready to break it open. He looked eager to break something. Loki thought he’d have to talk to him about the downside of repeatedly playing those Zombie games; they were causing him to be violent.
Looking at Fable and Axel, Loki still wondered why they acted like they were twelve. He felt like a sixteen-year-old who was a father and an older brother at the same time.
That’s the last thing I need, to have to care for someone else.
Loki patted Fable on the shoulder, after kissing her on the forehead. He knelt down next to the coffin, ready with his Alicorn.
“Pass the Magic Dust to Fable,” Loki told Axel. “In case I can’t stake her, you will have to throw it all in Snow White’s face,” he told Fable. “It will keep her unconscious for a while. If that happens, you should escape with Axel, and run as far as you can. I will handle the rest.”
“Why didn’t you use it yesterday,” Axel wondered.
“I was so paralyzed I couldn’t even think about it,” Loki said.
I’m not really telling Axel the truth, which is that I suck when it comes to demon girls.
“Are you with me, Fable?” Loki said.
Fable nodded, brushing her tears away, adding one last unnecessary sob at the end.
“Fable,” Loki stressed, gazing into her eyes. “Don’t do anything stupid. If you use the Magic Dust against us, we’re all going to become vampires-ever-after.”
She smiled with approval. “Then why don’t you use the magic dust on her now instead of the stake?” she asked.
“According to the Dreamhunter’s notebook, to enter her dream, I have to stake her in the heart while she is awake. If I stab her while she is asleep, I can’t enter her dream.”
“Why?” Axel asked.