Dot lifted her eyes to see her father holding her back with his big, hairy hand. The Sheriff was tall with a bushy black beard, a greasy mane of hair, and a bloated belly that hung over his belt, jangling with his jail keys. But his dark, stony eyes weren’t on his daughter. They were on the scim floating in the foyer of the dimly lit house. The scim was lethally sharp at both ends, one end pointing at Dot and the Sheriff, the other at Anadil and Hester, who were plastered against another wall.
“Tell us how to kill it, Dot,” the Sheriff demanded quietly. “Tell us what you did before.”
Dot swallowed, feeling Hester and Anadil staring at her, her friends cornered beneath the Sheriff’s famous gray sack, hooked on a wall.
Anadil’s red eyes flicked back to the scim. “Use your demon,” she whispered to her friend.
“Not unless I have to,” Hester whispered back. “If my demon dies, I die.”
The Sheriff squeezed his daughter harder. “Dot, hurry . . .”
The front door flung open—
Sophie and Agatha busted in, fingertips lit, only to see the scim pivot in their direction, deadly tip glowing. The girls stumbled back to a wall, tripping over shoes, old newspapers, balled-up underpants, and dirty dishes.
“What do we do?” Sophie breathed.
“Nothing stupid,” said Agatha, shielding her.
The scim spun between the pairs of captives like the arrow on a game wheel, as if deciding who to kill first: Dot and her father, Sophie and Agatha, Hester and Anadil. . . .
All of them looked at each other, thinking the same thing: there were six of them and one scim. If they worked together, surely they could take it down.
But perhaps the scim sensed these thoughts, for suddenly, through the open window, more scims silently floated into the room, joining the first.
Two . . .
Then four . . .
Then six.
Each one turned razor sharp and pointed at a prisoner’s heart.
“Dot, what are you waiting for! Do what you did at the Four Point!” the Sheriff hissed, fingers digging into her. Dot winced under her father’s grip.
“What is he talking about?” Sophie blurted.
“She saved all of you there!” the Sheriff shot back. “She beat the Snake single-handedly! Why isn’t she doing it now!”
Dot’s face was blotchy, her eyes ignoring her father and fixed on the scim pointing at her. “We need to send a signal to the rest of the crew,” she said shakily. “We need to tell them not to come here.”
On cue, Anadil’s rats skittered out of her pocket, crawling down their master’s leg and shuttling for the door— The door crashed open, sending the rats flying, as Beatrix, Reena, Ravan, Nicola, and Hort barreled in together. They saw the scims and scattered with shrieks and shouts to the walls.
Five more scims breezed through the window, each turning knife-sharp and taking its place in front of a student. Three smaller scims coasted in and set aim at Anadil’s rats.
But still . . . none of the eels attacked.
“What are they waiting for?” Sophie said, watching the scaly ribbons hover patiently in front of their victims.
The Sheriff’s eyes were widening, his hand slowly loosening on his daughter. “It’s not true, is it? You didn’t save anyone at the Four Point. . . . You made it all up. . . .”
Dot’s nose started running. “I—I—I just wanted you to like me again. I wrote you letters from school, asking you to forgive me. I missed you so much. But you wouldn’t even answer them—”
“Because you’re a curse,” her father snarled. “You helped Robin Hood escape. You sided with my Nemesis over your own family. And now when I finally think you’ve redeemed yourself, when I can look the people in the eye and tell them you’ve made something of your life . . . you humiliate me again?” The Sheriff burned red, nostrils flaring. “I thought at that school they’d teach you some sense, but instead it’s made you more stupid and delusional than you already were! Only reason you got into that school in the first place was because I did a favor for the School Master. Yeah, you didn’t know that, did you? Came to me with something he needed and in return, he took you off my hands. Plus, he enchanted my catching sack so that if I ever catch Robin again with it, this time there’s nothing you can do to foul it up! Robin would be still in jail if it weren’t for you! I’d be a legend in the Woods! But then you stole my keys and snuck them to him, all because you wanted to be his friend. As if anyone could ever be your friend! Should have known your letter was all lies. Was there anything true in there about you beating the Snake? About you being the real Lion? Even one word?”
Dot didn’t answer.
The Sheriff bared his teeth at her. “You ugly, disgusting pig.”
He raised his hand to strike her—
Hester’s demon slammed into him, bashing the Sheriff in the groin with its horns. Before it could gore him again, a scim ripped through the demon’s claw, pinning the demon to the ceiling.
The Sheriff crumpled to the floor, wailing high-pitched noises. Hester gasped, buckling against the wall, as if the wind had been crushed out of her, her skin turning white. Overhead, her red-skinned demon bleated in pain.
“H-H-Hester, you okay?” Agatha sputtered.
But Hester wasn’t listening, her eyes bloodshot and still fixed on the Sheriff.
“Too bad for you, your daughter has friends,” she said.
“Lots of friends,” Anadil seethed.
“And if you ever touch Dot, you ever speak to her like that again, those friends will tear out your throat,” said Hester. “We will kill her own father to protect her and we won’t feel an ounce of guilt. You don’t know us. You don’t know what we’re capable of.”
“And you don’t know the truth about your daughter either,” said Anadil, red glare slashing through the Sheriff. “She isn’t an embarrassment or ugly or any of the other lies you dump on her. She’s a miracle. You know why? Because she came from stock like you and is still the best friend anyone could ask for.”
Dot’s face flooded with tears, her whole body quivering.
The Sheriff sobbed in pain behind the couch.
Dot shook her head, panicking. “You shouldn’t have hurt Daddy—it was my fault—I shouldn’t have lied—”
Agatha moved to comfort her, but the scim aimed at Agatha jerked as if to strike, and Sophie snagged her back.
“Nothing stupid, remember?” Sophie said.
“We can’t wait here like sitting ducks,” said Hort, shirking from his scim. “We have to do something—”
“Our fingerglows don’t work against scims. . . . We have no weapons . . . ,” said Beatrix.
The crew looked at Nicola for ideas, but she seemed to be in a trance, her narrowed eyes roaming the scene. . . .
“What is it, Nic?” said Agatha.
“The scims were looking for someone,” said the first year. “And now they’ve lured us here. They lured all of us here. But if they’re looking for one of us, why haven’t they attacked? They’re using us as bait. To find who they’re really looking for. This whole thing is another one of the Snake’s traps—”
The door smashed open, this time ripping off its hinges.
Tedros stood in the threshold, his black hooded coat silhouetted in evening light. His eyes were watery and red, his face flushed.
He spotted Anadil and Hester first. “Agatha’s glow! I saw it! Where is sh—”
But now he glimpsed the Sheriff of Nottingham crumpled on the floor . . . the demon impaled on the ceiling . . . his classmates fixed to the walls . . . the scims aimed at their hearts.
Then Sophie.