“I would love nothing more than to give my nose the attention it deserves, but if I did, you’d be dead within minutes,” Puck said. His head suddenly morphed into that of a lion and he roared angrily.
Sabrina roared back, though it lacked the ferocity. It sounded ridiculous, but what was worse was the realization that the entire crowd was watching her and Puck. She had never been so embarrassed. Puck had an almost magical ability to get her to make a fool of herself. He could always find something that she was sensitive about, sometimes something she didn’t even know bothered her, and then poke at it until it made her crazy.
“Ahem,” Veronica said, then turned her attention back to the crowd. “We have come here with an invitation. Join our cause.”
There was a moment of silence and then an uproarious laugh so loud it hurt Sabrina’s ears.
Veronica waited patiently until they calmed. “We know there are those among you who have been pressured through violence or threats to join the Hand. We know that you aren’t sure where you can turn. We have a place where you can be safe. You don’t have to live in fear any longer!”
More bottles came crashing onto the little stage until Mordred had to step forward and cast a shield to protect the group.
“The Master has turned his back on you,” Veronica shouted over the bedlam.
“Who are you to question the Master?” Heart barked into her megaphone.
“Because he is a liar,” a voice said, and the crowd grew deathly quiet. Sabrina turned and saw her uncle Jake climbing the steps to the gazebo. She looked to her father for an explanation, but he seemed just as confused.
“Watch your tongue, Grimm, or my blade will remove it,” Nottingham raged.
“Two years ago, your savior kidnapped my brother and his wife, then cast a sleeping spell on them. Veronica was pregnant, and while they slept a baby grew inside her. Once that baby was born, the Master stole him for a sick and perverted purpose. He wanted to put his spirit inside the child. Now, why would he do that?”
“If you must know, he wanted to escape the barrier in the body of a human being,” Heart snapped.
Jake smiled sympathetically. “How would that help you?”
Heart stammered as if the question had never crossed her mind.
“Once he was on the other side, he could find a way to lower this magical cage your family built!” Nottingham howled.
“Once he’s on the other side? Nottingham, you’re a smart man. How could he turn it off from the outside?” Jake said to the crowd. “There’s no magic button on the other side. If he can’t lower it on this side, he can’t lower it on the other. He was playing you all for fools. He’s not going to set you free. He’s going to betray you the same way he did my family.”
“He told me himself he had no plans of freeing you,” Sabrina said. “You would be too much competition for power.”
“You lie!” Nottingham growled. “The Master will free us all, and together we will wipe out your foul, inferior race. This world will belong to Everafters, as it was intended.”
“I know you don’t all believe that,” Jake said, scanning the crowd. “I can see it in your faces. You know that what is happening here is wrong, but you’re too afraid to stand up to this mob. You can stop. I am extending the olive branch myself. Join us.”
Sabrina was flabbergasted. What happened to her uncle’s broken heart and anger? Where was his hostility and promises of revenge? Even Heart was speechless.
Nottingham took the opportunity to speak. “Don’t listen to this liar. He wants to keep us in this cage like dogs! We can’t know the Master’s plan, but he deserves our loyalty for opening our eyes to the truth! For too long our destiny has not been our own, and there is no one to blame but this family who now stands here begging us not to kill them. They know they cannot beat us this time, so they come arrogantly waving the white flag for truce. Well, they should be waving it in surrender.”
“The Master said he was all-powerful,” the White Rabbit cried. “He said if we helped him with his plans, he would free us. But we are still trapped here.”
Nottingham seethed. “Then perhaps he needs some more help! The spell that keeps us here says that when the last Grimm dies the barrier falls. If we kill them now, we’ll be free.”
The crowd grew louder and more excited.
“Except that killing us won’t get you what you want at all, you moron,” Jake said. “The Master is inside my mother’s body. He thought he could just walk out of town but it hasn’t happened. He can’t escape any more than you can—in fact, he’s making it worse on you because now he’s a Grimm too. Even if you were to kill everyone in my family, there would still be one Grimm alive—and who here is going to kill your all-powerful savior?”
The crowd grew silent.
“Now you’re getting it,” Jake continued. “The Master can’t get his freedom and he can’t give it to you, either. There’s only one person in the world who will give you your freedom. Me!”