“Hide!” I yelled in my most whispery voice.
Kato disappeared into the unbroken flower stalks while Rexi and I hid under a fallen bluebell. The ground shook beneath us with each step the Tinman took. Small tremors at first; then the impacts made the ground tremble harder. He was getting closer. I didn’t hear any creaking though. Someone must have oiled his joints.
A shadow moved in front of the light filtering in through the petal.
“Look harder! She was here. I know it. I saw her.”
I knew that voice. It was the one that had haunted my night. Griz had found us.
The Tinman spoke to Griz, I think. It sounded like grinding gears.
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Grind.
“Because the runt bears my mark, that’s why.”
Grind.
“I don’t care how. Just find her.”
Griz’s shadow passed our flower as she continued her search.
How did she know where we were? Then it hit me like a ton of gingerbread cookies. The nightmare. Had it been more than just a dream? My insides grew cold again at the thought.
“It’s gonna happen, just like I saw it.” Rexi let go of the book and put her hands over her ears, mouthing, no, no, no. Her rocking back and forth made the flower twitch every time she accidentally brushed it.
Her level of fear was extreme. She needed to calm down or the big gray wolf would come over and blow our petaled house down.
I gathered Rexi onto my lap and smoothed her hair. “Shhh…shhh. We’ll be fine. Nothing bad can happen to us.” I spoke so softly into her ear that I could barely hear my own voice.
“Yes, it can. There are no Storymakers,” she sobbed quietly.
“Storymakers or not, the bad guy never wins. It’s in the rules,” I said in my softest reassuring voice.
Instead of having the calming effect I had intended, Rexi’s body shook harder with her silent screams. I took her head between my hands and turned her face to me. Her eyes were huge circles. Her lips stopped quivering just long enough to mouth, You broke the rules.
“If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
—Gretel from Candy Kills: A True Story
24
Welcome to the Land of Ozmosis
With nothing left to reassure her with, I protected her with the only thing I had—my body. I draped myself over Rexi, using my weight to push her into the grass. Once I’d had seen a mama unicorn do something similar to her colt—push him against the fencing, the pressure grounding the frightened foal. It worked with my frightened filly. Rexi stilled; her breathing evened out.
Lying down, I noticed that my hair wasn’t as bright as it had been. Barely the slightest burning green sparked along the tips. They flickered to the time of my heartbeat. Since I was trying to force Rexi to be calm, I had slowed my own heart rate. Breathing deeper, I tried to bring it down even more. Sure enough, the ends died down to merely embers. That was a useful skill. The last thing I wanted was for my hair to light up like a signal flare and give away our hiding spot.
“Dot…” a whisper.
The voice came from outside the flower.
“Where are you?”
It could be a trap. Did the Gray Witch have a talent for imitation? Because I would bet that voice belonged to Kato. But was I willing to bet my life? I lifted the bluebell an inch and looked for the telltale paws. A wet nose slid under the gap and flipped the flower over.
My hair flared to life as my heart rate tripled. Kato shielded his eyes with his paw.
“Don’t do that!” I hissed. “You scared the fairy dust out of me.”
“Sorry,” he said, still squinting. “I think she’s gone. We need to move, in case she comes back.”
I reached out my hand to Rexi, who was still lying prone on the ground. She took it and pulled herself up.
“What’s her—ow!” Kato lifted and licked the paw I had accidentally stepped on.
We weaved through the stalks as delicately as we could. If we brushed one, it would wave a great big hello to Griz on a fly by. She was still out there. And the acid burns among the flowers made me think she had her puppies with her too.
I heard a buzzing sound.
Rexi squeezed my hand in a panic. “She doesn’t have killer bees does she?”
“I don’t think so.” I looked around but didn’t see anything.
We all looked up in time to see a basket fly by.
“What in Grimm’s name was that?” I asked.
“Don’t know. The question is, do we want to find out?” Kato answered.
Rexi spoke, her voice stronger than it had been. “It’s probably better to know what’s after you than to be surprised by it.”