"Oz?" Sabrina called out, but there was no answer, only the buzz of electric engines. "Oz, I want to ask you about my mother."
"Perhaps we should sit and wait for him," Granny said.
Sabrina hoped the security guards wouldn't lock them inside, but she took her grandmother's advice and sat down on a stool. When Daphne did the same, a robotic head that was sitting on the table next to her sprang to life and started giggling. The little girl screamed and snatched a hammer off the table, then smacked the head a couple times until it stopped laughing.
"Uh, relax," Sabrina said.
"You taught him a lesson, didn't you, marshmallow?" Puck said as he took the hammer from the little girl. He hit the head himself for good measure and scanned the room for something else to beat on. After awhile, he sat down and started peeking through a stack of papers on the desk.
"Don't snoop," Granny Relda scolded.
"Then someone better keep me entertained 'cause this is boring," Puck replied.
Sabrina got up and took the papers away from the fairy. "This is his stuff. Some of it might be private." She tried to collect them in a neat stack, but shoved in the middle of the pile was something quite different: a small, leather-bound journal with gold writing on its cover.
Fairy Tale Accounts June 1992 to present Veronica Grimm
Sabrina felt her heart rocking in her chest. With trembling fingers she picked up the book and opened it.
"What did you find?" Granny Relda said.
"It's my mother's journal," Sabrina replied. Veronica's curvy, slightly sloppy script filled every page. There were hundreds of entries chronicling her experiences with the Everafters of both Ferryport Landing and New York City. Sabrina read feverishly, turning pages faster and faster, absorbing as much as she could about her mother's secret life. There was story after story of the lives she had changed. She had helped people move, find jobs, and track down missing friends, and she had done plenty of detective work as well. On one of the pages she wrote:
My work with these people is exciting, fascinating, and most of all--important. I've found that there is more to being a Grimm than Henry ever told me. It's more than being a detective… sometimes, I'm the only hope an Everafter has of making it in this world. If only I could get them to work together…
Sabrina flipped to the back and found several folded pages from a yellow legal pad, covered with writing. She read through them, including all the scratched-out parts and tiny notes in the margins. It was a speech.
"This is the speech everyone was talking about. It was her plan for the Everafters. She was supposed to give it the day she disappeared," Sabrina said.
"Then what is Oz doing with it?" Daphne asked, taking the journal from her sister.
Granny got up from her chair.
"Lieblings,
I think it would be wise of us to--"
A voice from the shadows cut her off. "Oh, I wish you hadn't found that."
Oz stepped into the light. "Your mother was a remarkable woman, Sabrina. She had a charisma that was almost, well, supernatural. She could convince people to do anything she wanted. It was a talent I always envied. Your mother collected an army of supporters using only her smile.
"And I was one of them. I loved the little adventures we used to get into. She was part saint, part detective, and for a long time I thought I wanted to be like her. But then I would come into work every day, and have my boss criticize the displays. I'd go home to my little apartment in Queens and spend the rest of my time holding the hand of King Oberon. And it dawned on me that my life had taken a turn for the worse. I used to be the 'great and terrible Oz!' I was the ruler of an entire nation. People feared me. What had happened?"
"You're talking in circles, Wizard," Puck said, drawing his wooden sword from a loop around his waist.
"Kids--they always want the short version. Fine. One day, I was approached by a man who offered me something more. He promised me that there would come a day when the city would need a leader to rule both Everafter and human alike. So I signed up to be a member of the Scarlet Hand."
Sabrina gasped. "Then you killed Oberon. You put the mark on his chest!"
"Oh no, Moth killed him. I just took advantage of the situation in order to announce the coming of my master's army. I put the mark on Oberon's chest when I found him dead, then escaped just before his body was discovered. I'm no murderer."
"But you are a kidnapper. How else would you have my mother's journal?"
"It was part of my deal with the master, Sabrina. In exchange for your parents I get to rule this city."
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Puck asked
"Why, by taking over the world," he said. "The master is attempting nothing short of world domination, and not a minute too soon, either. The humans have had control for long enough. Look at what they've done with their time. The world is a cesspool of pollution, hate, and greed. It's time for the Everafters to start running the show."