Sabrina frowned. She hadn’t said good-bye to the big dog, either.
Veronica continued the argument. “You’re not going to drag the girls and me through this world hiding from pixies and fairy godmothers. They’re out there, and most of them are not bad people.”
“Pixies are not people,” Henry snapped. “Don’t try to tell me what I know about Everafters. I’ve lived side by side with them most of my life. My mother’s best friend is one. I used to be in love with one.”
The girls cringed, then turned to their father. He cringed back. Henry had stepped in it, and Sabrina’s mother was boiling mad.
“I’m painfully aware of your previous love life, Henry Grimm. After all, I just woke up this morning from a two-year sleep to find your old girlfriend sitting over you with her big moon eyes!”
“Veronica! I can’t believe you’re jealous.”
This time Henry put his head in his hands. Sabrina didn’t know much about adult relationships, but everyone knew that accusing someone of being jealous of an old girlfriend couldn’t be a good thing. Her mother looked like the top of her head might blow off like the cork on a champagne bottle.
“JEALOUS?”
Henry sputtered. “I didn’t exactly mean jealous—”
“What do I have to be jealous about? I’m the best thing that ever happened to you, pal!”
Henry nodded sheepishly.
“You hit the lottery when you met me! I’m smart. I’m funny. I can throw a sixty-mile-an-hour fastball! And I’m a babe!”
“I agree.” Henry’s face was bright red. “I am the luckiest man in the world.”
The family walked on for several yards in silence. Sabrina wondered if her parents would ever speak to one another again, but then Veronica broke the ice.
“Henry, I know why you want to leave. The loss of your father, the problems the girls have had for two years, our kidnapping. I get it! But we’re still a family—a team—and we’re supposed to make decisions as a team. Besides, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you all, and I … wait, where’s Daphne?”
Sabrina spun around but Daphne wasn’t there. “She must have gone back to tell Elvis good-bye.”
“Daphne, we don’t have time for this,” Henry shouted.
“Daphne!” Veronica called. There was no response.
Henry shook his head. “When did she get so stubborn?”
Sabrina shrugged. “Actually, that’s what people usually say about me.”
“Wait here. I’ll go after her,” Henry said. He took off running back the way they came. Veronica and Sabrina looked at one another, shook their heads, and then raced after him through brush and creek beds. Sabrina could hear her father shouting for her sister farther along the path, demanding that Daphne come back, but he was wasting his breath. Sabrina had been trying to manage her sister for some time and it was like pushing a car up a hill.
When Sabrina and her mother finally caught up with her father, he was standing in a clearing of trees with his hand clamped on Daphne’s arm.
“This is unacceptable, young lady,” Henry scolded.
“I’m not leaving,” Daphne said. “They need us.”
“What makes you think you can do anything to help?” Henry demanded. “You’re only five years old!”
“Dad, she’s seven,” Sabrina said.
“Eight in two weeks, and I’ve fought plenty of bad guys in the last year. I am a Grimm. This is what I do!”
Just then, a dozen hulking figures stepped out from the trees, surrounding the family. They all stood nearly seven feet tall and each had bumpy, gray skin that looked like it had been peeled off an alligator. Their eyes were twice as big as a normal person’s. Their ears, however, were unlike anything Sabrina had ever seen—sharp, pointy, and covered in what looked like porcupine quills. Most held spears, though a couple clung to knotty clubs with dozens of rusty spikes jutting out of them. Their leader, a brute with a chest full of gaudy medals, stepped to the front of the group. His face was a collection of scars, broken bones, and jagged teeth. Like all of his soldiers, his chest was painted with the mark of the Scarlet Hand. He surveyed the Grimms and then grinned like some twisted kid who has just decapitated all of his sister’s dolls.
“I knew I recognized the foul stink that comes off humans, but I never suspected we’d meet ones who are so famous,” he said.
“You want an autograph?” Sabrina grumbled. Henry shot her a look that told her to keep her mouth shut.
A second soldier stepped forward to join his boss. He was just as ugly, with a tuft of red hair on his decidedly pointy head. “They must be coming from Charming’s camp,” he said. “They’ve allied themselves with the traitor and his troublemakers.”