“Get in line!” Pinocchio shouted.
“NO!!!!” the Wicked Queen boomed, and with a clap of her hands the entire army fell to the ground. Bunny floated into the air and hovered over Atticus, her eyes white like stars and her hands red as magma. “I told you not to touch my daughter, son-in-law,” she said, her voice like thunder. “I told you what I would do.”
“She’s my wife! My property!” Atticus cried, climbing to his feet.
“You should have stayed inside the book, Atticus Charming,” she said as the energy built up in her hands. Sabrina could see she was going to unleash something wicked on the villain.
But before she could attack, the end of a sword pierced through Atticus’s chest. He looked down and squirmed like a worm trying to free itself from the fisherman’s hook. Behind him stood Snow White. Her face was bloodied and bruised, but she had the hilt of the sword in her hand.
“No,” she said. “He’s mine.”
And then Atticus fell forward and never stood again.
Snow rushed to Charming and helped him to his feet.
“William, you and I are getting married. No arguments,” Snow said.
Charming grinned.
“That was a lovely appetizer,” the Wolf said as he licked his lips. He turned toward the crowd and stomped forward only to have spindly Mr. Canis block its path.
“Well, look who it is,” the Wolf growled. “Step aside, old man.”
“No,” he said defiantly.
“You old fool. I’ll tear you apart.”
“Red! Red, can you hear me?”
The Wolf laughed. “She’s not listening.”
“Red, it’s time to come out of the darkness. You’re in charge. You can do it. Just follow my voice,” Mr. Canis said.
The Wolf let out an angry protest and doubled over as if in pain. Then he transformed back into Red Riding Hood. She stood before Canis, trembling and crying.
“I didn’t know it was like that,” Red sobbed. “The demon that controlled me wasn’t so angry. It was just crazy. This thing . . . it’s so vicious.”
Canis pulled her into his arms. “I’ll help you.”
Suddenly, Sabrina’s head was filled with an insistent buzz. It felt like there was a little man pounding on a door in her mind, and when she opened it she saw images flashing before her eyes: Uncle Jake’s face; serpentine blades glinting in the sun, slashing at arms and legs; cliffs over a rocky beach. She looked around at the gathered crowd. Jake was not there. Where was he? And worse, there was someone else missing too.
“Nottingham!” she cried.
Henry rushed to her before she could fall to the ground. “Sabrina, what is wrong with you?”
But she couldn’t answer. The images had taken over and all she could see was her uncle watching Mayor Heart and Sheriff Nottingham stabbing at each other with daggers. He wasn’t in any danger at all, but the two villains were trying to murder each other.
“You betrayed me, Heart, and that is something I will never forgive,” Nottingham said as he poked at his former ally.
The queen shrieked and slashed at him. “Stay back, you lunatic. Can’t you see the writing is on the wall with the Master? He can’t open the barrier. Isn’t that why we were doing all this? The Grimms offered us an alternative. Since when do you turn down an opportunity?”
“An opportunity! One you no doubt planned to keep to yourself. You’d happily leave me here.”
“Please, don’t fight!” Jake said, reaching into his pocket. He took out a folded piece of paper and held it out to the villainous duo. “Here, just take the spell.”
Nottingham snatched the paper from Jake’s hand and tried to unfold it, but Heart seized it from his grip.
“Give it to me!”
“It’s mine, you fool!”
Nottingham grabbed it, but Heart tackled him. They rolled on the ground, fighting and cursing and slowly rolling down the hill to the edge of the cliff. They were too busy struggling over the paper to notice.
“I should never have cast my lot with you,” Nottingham said. “The Master told me you couldn’t be trusted.”
“You and your precious Master. He cares nothing for you or anyone else.”
The two stopped their fighting as they neared the edge of the cliff. The queen held the spell.
“What is this?” she cried, when Nottingham snatched it from her with his free hand. He searched one side of it and then the other, and then crumpled it into a ball. “It’s a blank piece of paper. This is a trick!”
Uncle Jake took two daggers from his pocket and approached the edge of the cliff. “Yes, it is. I knew the two of you would turn on each other if you had the chance. I should have thought of it earlier. Maybe Briar would still be alive.”
“You manipulated us?” Nottingham said. He reached back to toss his blade at Jake.