Snow’s eyes were distant, as if she were looking back over the course of her entire life. She reached out and took her mother’s hand.
Charming, however, was clearly not ready for a family reunion. “What am I?” he whispered.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking,” Bunny said.
“I’m not real. I’m your creation. You twisted me into whatever suited your needs. Nothing that I am is me. I’m—I’m . . . I’m a fairy tale!”
“Billy, that’s not true,” Snow said.
“And how does Seven play into this?” Charming demanded.
“For some reason, the dwarfs knew the world had changed. They confronted me and demanded that I change it back. Mr. Seven was the only one who saw my point of view. He realized what I had done was for the better. It created a terrible rift between him and the others, but he stood his ground. He agreed to look after you and Snow and make sure our secret remained that way. He was also there to keep an eye out for Atticus, in case he found a way to return. And lastly, he was there to keep you on the path of being a good person, especially when my daughter refused to marry you. I was worried how you might react when life got in the way of the qualities I wanted you to have.”
“Do I even love your daughter?” Charming said. “Or is that one of your inventions?”
“William—”
“It explains an awful lot, woman! Why I couldn’t get over Snow after hundreds of years apart, my failed marriages, my obsession with rebuilding a kingdom for us to live in. I made this castle because of that desire. Tell me if it’s real or not!”
Bunny looked to the floor. “I can’t say whether it’s real or not, William. All I can say is it’s what I wanted.”
Charming got up from his chair and stormed out of the cabin.
“Billy!” Snow chased after him, and Sabrina and Daphne followed. They watched him stomp across the courtyard toward the front gate. “Where are you going?”
“I don’t know,” he said. He turned to look at the castle he had built. There was disgust in his eyes.
“You can’t leave,” Sabrina said. “These people need you. You’re their leader.”
“They’ll find another!”
“And what about me?” Snow said.
While the drawbridge lowered, Charming turned to her. “Your mother invented me to be the perfect man for you, Snow. She made me love you. She made me heroic. She made me up. I can’t trust my feelings for you. I can’t trust why I’m here. I don’t know who I am.”
“You’re William Charming!” Snow said.
“And who is he?”
“He’s the man I love!” she said.
“You’re in love with a person who doesn’t exist. In a town full of people who aren’t supposed to be real, I’m the one that’s a fantasy.” Charming walked through the iron gate and across the bridge. Everyone followed him, but he was soon swallowed by the forest and vanished.
Snow raced to the edge of the woods and begged him to return, but he was gone.
? ? ?
The cold misty dampness returned with the morning. The gray sky hung low and felt binding, like an outgrown jacket. It was the kind of weather that made bones ache, and it was the absolute wrong weather for a group of people suffering from death and insecurity.
The Pied Piper slouched on a bench sipping from a mug of coffee. Nurse Sprat was too tired to say good morning. Everyone moved slowly, as if each step were painful. Even Daphne looked puffy-eyed and tired, and she could usually sleep through anything.
If there was any good news, it was that Mordred and the Pigs had finished the castle, and aside from a few evil doors that slammed in people’s faces, it was ready for everyone to move in. Finding rooms to fit everyone’s tastes kept people busy and their minds off of Seven’s death and Charming’s departure, but as soon as everyone had gathered in the castle’s dining hall, the sour mood returned.
Gepetto stood. “I’ve decided to dismantle the cabins,” he announced to the crowd. “This is a big castle, and we’re going to need wood to keep it warm, especially since cold weather is coming. Right after breakfast we can get started.”
“We can’t stay here, Gepetto,” the Pied Piper said. “We need to find a place to hide.”
“Hide?” the Three Blind Mice cried.
“You said we would be safe here if we joined you,” the Frog Prince said.
“And you would have been if there were a few hundred more of you,” the Scarecrow said. “Our plan didn’t work. We don’t have the numbers to go up against Mirror or that Atticus lunatic.”
“Even Charming has left, and he’s the most stubborn man I’ve ever met,” Nurse Sprat said. “This was his plan—this whole army—and now he’s gone. Now we’re being led by a couple of little girls.”
Mallobarb agreed. “Maybe Charming has the right idea. Maybe we should just get lost.”
“He’ll come back,” Goldi said.