“I had no idea,” Uncle Jake said.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Veronica asked. “We could’ve helped.”
Canis’s eyes flashed with anger. “This was something I could do myself. I didn’t need anyone’s help.”
“So now we’re stuck here with him,” Henry said. “We can’t leave the town, either.”
“What are we going to do?” Uncle Jake asked.
“We fight,” Sabrina said.
She was too ill to walk, so she would have to be carried. Puck spun around on his heels to transform. She expected him to become something disgusting—a camel, a giant chicken, a farting bear—but instead he became a majestic white stallion. After Uncle Jake helped her up onto his back, she quietly thanked him. Daphne joined her on Puck’s back. Charming was too hurt to walk as well, so Poppa Bear offered him his back, and once everyone was settled, they began the march down the hill to the road that would lead them to Mirror.
Sabrina did her best to present a strong face like Puck had told her to do. Fake it until you make it, she reminded herself, but the power inside her was eating her alive. Twinges of pain soon became gut-searing agony, but she bit her lip and gritted her teeth. There were a few times when she was sure she would black out and fall off the horse, but Daphne wrapped her up in her little arms as if trying to bear her sister’s pain. Her father walked alongside them with his hand on hers. Uncle Jake was on the other side. Veronica and Basil followed closely, as did Mr. Canis and Red. No one spoke, not even Puck. It was as if Sabrina were already dead and her friends and family were taking her casket to its final resting place.
She was too tired and hurt to be afraid. In fact, during the long journey she didn’t think once of what might be at the end. Spotting her grandmother in the road, madly contorted by the creature controlling her limbs, was almost a relief. The magic was building. She needed to let it out.
Mirror stood in a wide stance with his arms outstretched in a mocking welcome. It made Sabrina angry. He wasn’t taking her seriously. She could see in the expression he forced on her grandmother’s face that this confrontation was nothing more than the last annoying thing on his “to do” list.
Sabrina asked her father to help her and Daphne down. Puck transformed back into a boy and seized his wooden sword from his belt.
“You stay here,” Sabrina said.
Daphne shook her head. “We stick together. We are Grimms. This is what we do.”
“But—”
“We’re all going,” Goldi said.
“Now let’s go kick his butt,” Puck said.
The rest of the crowd shared his stubbornness. Only Veronica stood back to shield baby Basil from whatever might be coming. She offered to look after Red and the other children, but they refused. Mirror had damaged all of their lives, and they would stand with the girls to confront him. Everyone surrounded Sabrina and Daphne and took each painful step with them, until they were standing before the Master.
“There’s something different about you, Starfish,” Mirror said through Granny’s mouth. “Did you change your hair?”
“Don’t call me Starfish,” Sabrina said. “That’s a name a friend gives another. You have never been my friend.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “I see you brought your family and friends. I suppose that means Atticus is dead. Can’t say that bothers me much. He was a bit of a lunatic, that brother of yours, Billy—always shouting and carrying on with his threats. ‘I’m going to kill my brother! I’m going to have my revenge!’”
“He’s gone,” Snow said.
Mirror cocked a curious eye. “So our little schoolteacher stood up for herself. Is that why you’re all here? Did she inspire you? Do you plan to kill me?”
“I don’t want to kill you,” Sabrina said. “I don’t want to kill anyone. I’m not like you. But I have to stop you somehow. I gave your thugs the same offer I’m going to give you. Stop this. Let my grandmother go. Bunny is here. She might be able to give you a body of your own.”
“Oh, Mother is finally going to help out her baby, is that it?” Mirror sneered. “She abandoned me, Sabrina. She gave birth to me and then turned her back. No thank you. I think it’s a little late for a mother and child reunion—but enough whining, right? Do you have the spell?”
“I’m not giving you the spell.”
Mirror’s fingers exploded with light, and suddenly from behind the group Veronica and Basil were dragged by an unseen force. It held them hovering over the crowd.
“Now, Sabrina, you know I can kill them. Just give me the spell.”
“Don’t do it, Sabrina,” Veronica cried as she struggled to console Basil’s fright.
Another blast of light and Henry joined his wife and child floating in the air.