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  Kato needed to use his ice magic to freeze the water.

  His eyebrows shot up. I think he was a bit skeptical. “I’m not sure I can freeze the whole thing at once. Especially if I can’t see it.”

  I pushed the glasses at him. “Now you can. As soon as the spring is frozen, the rainbow should fade, hopefully taking the barrier with it.”

  Hydra moved her jaw like she was a cow chewing her cud. “That is big whopper of chance.”

  “I’m not done yet. Hydra, you’re in charge of the sprite if he comes out. Talk to him, distract him, whatever.”

  “And vhat is it I am be distraction of?” she asked, winking one eye down.

  “Rexi,” I answered.

  At the sound of her name, Rexi jumped and put her hands to her chest. “Why shouldn’t he see me? I haven’t—”

  I walked over to her and grasped her hands. “You have the most important job. Kato is going to be freezing the spring, but I can’t drop the star in ice. And when he unfreezes it, I won’t be able to get close enough in case the spring unmagicks me.” I took the star from the pocket of the sack dress and gently placed it in Rexi’s hand. “As soon as the spring is liquid again, you run and toss this in.”

  She shook her head, her spiky hair waving back and forth. “I can’t. You don’t—”

  “Yes, you can,” I said with the utmost confidence. “Kato will guide you while he’s wearing the glasses, so you’ll know where to drop it.” I took a deep breath and turned to Kato. “Are you ready?”

  “No. But I get the feeling this isn’t optional.” Worry clouded his features again.

  I kissed the wrinkles on his brow. “It’ll work.” It had to.

  He pursed his lips and huffed through his nose, unhappy, but still he nodded and put on the spectacles.

  Magic was happening, even though you couldn’t see it directly. The temperature dropped, and my breath turned to foggy mist in front of me. There was a crackling and tinkling sound, like when you swish a drink with ice cubes. I could see Kato’s eyes focused intently through the lenses. His lips quivered, and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face, then froze before it could drip off.

  The rainbow faded from view.

  Rexi took a tentative step. “Did it work? Are the barriers gone?”

  I took a deep breath and steadied myself. “Let’s find out.” I walked toward the bright green patch of clover that marked the leprechaun’s final resting place.

  “Wait!” Kato protested.

  I’d left out my part of the plan on purpose because I knew Kato wouldn’t go along with it if he knew that I was going to be the one to test the barrier. But I couldn’t ask any of them to risk their lives for my crazy idea.

  There were more cracking sounds ahead of me. I called back to Kato. “Focus only on the ice. If you don’t, I’ll get zapped and soggy.”

  He set his jaw and stared ahead with a single-minded purpose.

  I needed to make sure it was safe for Rexi to cross. That meant I needed to stretch my hand across where the barrier should be but hopefully wasn’t. I stuck out my arm and inched forward. Then a little more. When I was ten paces past the clover patch without getting electrocuted, I finally exhaled the breath I’d been holding. It was probably safe to call for Rexi.

  To the side of me, there was a shimmer in front of a tree. My eyes refused to focus on the glitter, blurring the outlines of the bark. A seam of light formed a door in the trunk of the tree, and out stepped a tall, thin man. He had a hard gleam in his eyes that matched the razor-sharp, rainbow-colored tips of his Mohawk. His face and body were dotted with metal spikes and balls that hooked through and pierced his multicolored skin. With a name like Rainbow Sprite, I had been expecting a small, winged, fragile creature, not the sharp and very angry man in front of me.

  Hydra remembered her role just in time. She tossed her head at the sprite, and he, acting on instinct, put his hands out in front of him to catch the projectile. When Verte told me to use my head, I don’t think this was what she’d had in mind. The sprite didn’t expect it either though, and so, understandably surprised at holding a head in his hands, he didn’t pay attention to where he put his fingers. Hydra bit him. And her teeth were wicked sharp.

  The sprite yelled in pain and tossed Hydra’s head away from him. Hydra yelled as her head flew past me. I yelled for Rexi to run and for Kato to let go of the spring. Kato yelled at me to watch out.

  The sprite stopped yelling when a stormball crashed into his back.

  A lot of things happened at once. I saw Griz, the Tinman, and a few demon puppies on the other side of the clearing. The spring became visible between us even before the sprite hit the ground. Kato released his control of the ice magic, allowing the water to move again, spitting droplets of disenchantment. I ran as fast as I could, but some still landed on me. It felt like I was being stabbed in the head with a pickax.

  I made it to Kato and looked back at Griz. She was throwing stormballs, but when they hit the water, the balls dissolved. She couldn’t attack or come any closer with the water between us. The same applied to me; I couldn’t blast her with emerald flame and I couldn’t get any closer either.

  When I had played chess with Verte, she’d called something like this a stalemate. But I still had a pawn on the board. Rexi stood at the edge of the clearing, doing her best impression of Pinocchio before he came to life. I couldn’t even see her breathing, she was so terrified.

  Come on, come on. Move. I willed it silently because, if I called out to her, it would draw Griz’s attention.

  Finally, Rexi took one step. Then another. I could see the bulge of the star in her pocket. If she would have ran, she might have gotten rid of it before Griz noticed her. But she kept advancing slowly, and Griz and I both watched in complete silence.

  Rexi made it within throwing distance of the spring and stuck her hand in her pocket. But instead of pulling out the star and tossing it in, she turned and looked at me. Her face had droplets of water running down it and maybe a few tears. Her eyes were wide with sadness. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again without uttering a sound.

  Then she dropped her head and kept walking.

  To Griz.

  “In the end, it was her or me. I chose me.”

  —Hans, quoted from Candy Kills about his decision to leave his sister in the cottage

  34

  Gone with the Storm

  My knees sank into the ground. There had to be some explanation for what I was watching. Rexi wouldn’t betray me. She was my friend. Surely I was watching the Mimicman. But if so, why had she looked at me like her heart was breaking?

  She handed Griz the star and then stood there, head down, unwilling to meet my eyes.

  Griz tossed the star in the air and then caught it. “It was so kind of you to show me this little spring, but I’m afraid I can’t let you use it.” She threw the star up again, and this time let it fall to the ground. “You see, I rather like the chaos. Stories are so much more fun when you don’t already know the ending.” Griz’s chunky boot heel came down on the star with a stomach-churning crunch. “Don’t you agree?” The pieces of bone and hair that used to be the wishing star rose again. She tugged on one side of her fitted vest and the pieces tucked themselves inside.

  “Why?” I croaked.

  Griz looked confused for a moment. “Because the Storymakers never let us win. Our defeat is predeterm—”

  “I wasn’t talking to you, hag. I was talking to her.” I pointed to the betrayer. The wolf in my friend’s clothing.

  Rexi didn’t respond, but everything about her looked miserable.

  Good.

  “The why is obvious. Isn’t that right, dear?” Griz took the back of her hand and ran it down the side of Rexi’s face. Rexi turned a shade whiter and looked ready to puke again. “Basic survival instinct.”

  Reaching down her side, the Gray Witch produced a tasseled satchel. With great flourish, she tugged the drawstrings open and re
moved a large empty glass vial that looked a lot like the ones from Crow’s house. She handed the vial to Rexi with a little smirk. “Go, little Jill, fetch me a pail of water.”

  Rexi stared down at the vial but didn’t budge. Griz moved her hand to under her shirt and pulled out her necklace—and squeezed. Gasping sharply, Rexi staggered and a bright red-orange tear leaked from her eye.

  “The opal.” Kato had finally taken off the goggles and apparently figured out the same thing I just did.

  Griz’s opal necklace pulsed orange with opalescent flecks. It pulsed with life magic. If I didn’t miss my guess, Rexi’s life, to be exact.

  But when? Did Griz catch her after the clouds? Perhaps, but I think it started earlier. I replayed events in my mind, going in reverse. Her acting weird. The overwhelming fear anytime Griz was near. Disappearing from the Ivory Tower just to be replaced by Griz. Maybe I’d seen Rexi’s life force actually sucked out in the nightmare. Had she ever really been my friend, or was it all an elaborate ruse to do the bidding of the Gray Witch? Rexi’s every action from frog until now was suspect.

  I wanted to hate her. Watching her bend down to scoop up the spring water made the human flamethrower in me want to come out and play. Cold emanated from the boy beside me. I put a hand on his arm. “Don’t.” Kato gave me a puzzled look but obeyed.

  Rexi’s hand trembled as she put the stopper in the vial and walked back to Griz. I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore, but everything about her right now screamed that she was not happy being a de facto member of Team Evil. Villains took pleasure in causing pain; they didn’t tremble with their own. I wouldn’t harm her and neither would Kato. It was probably my fault that Griz got her tacky nails on Rexi anyway.

  Griz very carefully took the vial from Rexi and stuffed it down her dress. “Now, I would love to stay and chat, but I have a bit of a family reunion to attend.” Griz conjured a thundercloud and hopped on. She floated into the sky, high above the spring.

  It was probably too much to ask that ozmosis would kick in and drop her into the water.

  Griz snapped her fingers. “Bring the girl. We’ll need her to get into the mountain.” Several of the flying puppies picked up a squirming Rexi and took to the sky. “As for the others… bon appétit!” She flew away on her cloud, the sounds of thunder and Rexi screaming trailing behind her.

  And we watched them go, because there wasn’t a pixing thing we could do about it.

  “Makers help us, she’s going to set Blanc free. I have to warn Bob; they’re going to need help.” Kato chewed the last nail off his left hand and phoned home.

  “And what about us?” I asked worriedly. Griz had left behind three demon puppies and the Tinman. With just me, Kato, a dead sprite, and Hydra’s headless body fumbling around, I was not liking our odds.

  The puppies circled to the left of the spring and the Tinman came at us from the right. Kato still had his eyes closed, deep in telepathic communication or whatnot with Bob.

  “Umm, Kato…” I started backing up, pulling him with me.

  He snapped back to attention. “Right. While I’ve got the magic boost, I’ll work my Beast King mojo. It should be able to control the dogs—maybe the gigan too. You grab Hydra’s head and run.”

  I really hoped he knew what he was doing. Hydra’s gypsy head was still where the sprite had tossed her. I checked back on Kato to see how he was doing. The puppies had stopped their approach and stood still. The Tinman, on the other hand, kept moving. His armor had lots of little rust spots on it though.

  The spring water. Wherever it touched the metal, rust holes formed. But not enough of it was falling to make him stop his advance on Kato.

  With a deep breath, I told myself, I can control the fire. The fire doesn’t control me. I let the emerald flames leap into my hands. I forced my arms outward and threw the flames at the Tinman. He barely paused from their impact. I, however, swayed from the amount of effort it took out of me.

  “Hey, you big tin can,” I panted. “Come and get it.” I visualized reaching inside myself and pulling out every last bit of heat I had, then pushing it toward the gigan. The result was a continuous stream of emerald fire that burned through his armor right where his heart would be if he had one. Looking down at the hole in his chest, he staggered backward. Stepping on Hydra’s wandering body, he lost his balance, falling into the spring. The Tinman’s flailing arm took out the three remaining puppies.

  The very definition of a happy accident.

  That was the last normal thought I had before my vision clouded with green and the curse took over. I could feel the Tinman like we were connected—feel him rusting from the bottom and melting from my flame on the top. Through the haze of green, I saw something floating toward me. When it hit, my weakness faded. The gigan’s strength and life force filled me.

  More. You could be so much more.

  The voice was right. I could feel the Tinman’s power feeding me, making me grow. If I ate more, I would grow stronger. Nothing would be able to take me down. I planted my hands into the ground and searched, using the power. In my mind, I saw the life force of everything around me—the trees, the grass, the boy…everything.

  The boy glows with life and power. Take it.

  I wanted it. No, I needed it. Without it, I couldn’t win. But if I took it, I had a feeling I would lose far more. Inside me with the heat, a cold shell tried to form around my heart. I focused in on the glowing power of the human boy. He was talking to me. He had a name and importance beyond a power source. If I could remember it…

  “Kato,” I muttered and mentally shoved the power back, rejecting it and the metallic taste in my mouth. The flames left my hands, and I no longer felt all-powerful; I felt like something the Cheshire cat might throw up.

  “Are you all right?” Kato’s cold hands gripped my arms and helped me up. The icy contrast to my heat helped the world come back into Technicolor focus, ditching the green tint.

  No. Once again, I’d stolen a life and a power that didn’t belong to me. Good reason or not, I felt a weight from the deaths of Crow, Moony, the puppies, and the Tinman. Thinking about how close I’d been to adding Kato to this list threatened to tip the scales. I’d managed to control the curse, but for how long?

  I didn’t want to worry Kato, so I pointed over to Hydra’s flattened body and the rusty pile of scrap that clogged the spring well and lied. “Considering the alternatives, I think I fared pretty well.” Steadying myself, I picked up Hydra’s head. “How ’bout you? Sorry about the body, by the way.”

  “Vas time to trade up I am thinkink.”

  I cradled her head under my arm and sighed. Too much had happened in the last few minutes to even process. Our foursome had turned to two and a half, and my hopes for a bright, shiny future had been crushed. Literally. “So, now what? How do we stop Griz? We can’t catch up on foot.”

  There was the saying, It’s always darkest before the dawn. But the suns always came up.

  Didn’t they?

  Right now, just to mock me, the third sun, Pathos, was setting.

  I looked to the sky and called out, “Okay, whoever’s there, now would be a really good time to send in reinforcements—a flying elephant or deus ex something or other.”

  Nothing happened except Kato looking at me like I had burned a few too many brain cells. He didn’t understand, so I tried to explain. “You see, there has to be something. I’ve felt it. I know someone’s up there.” I let go of Kato’s arm and yelled at the suns. The light seemed blurry. “Where are you, Storymakers? Where’s the magic sword in a stone or a lamp to give me new wishes?”

  No sparkling dust flew. No sound of wind chimes flitting through the air. No sign at all that anyone cared. I’d been saved so many times, but now at the greatest hour, I’d been abandoned. In my heart I feared I was no longer worthy of saving.

  “I’ve done the best I can and it’s not enough.” My voice cracked, making it impossible to speak loudly, so I lowered my head and wh
ispered, “I can’t do this on my own.”

  Kato put a hand under my chin and turned my face to his. “You don’t have to.” His eyes were soft with an unfathomable expression as he placed his hands on either side of my face. “No matter what happens, I will always be here, so you’re never alone.”

  Then, without warning, his lips were on mine—softer than the silkiest mousse and sweeter too. My lungs burned for breath, but there would be time for breathing later. I let everything go and lived in this one moment, this one perfect grain of sand in the hourglass.

  I threw my arms around him, dropping Hydra in the process. She landed with a thud and cry of pain. The sound startled me enough to break the kiss. “Pix! I am so sorry.” I looked down to make sure I hadn’t irrevocably broken anything on her, and then turned back for more kisses.

  My prince with the auburn hair and dirt-smudged face was gone. The ice blue eyes still looked at me with what I now recognized as regret while he unfolded his wings—one brown, one white.

  “Oh Grimm, you knew…”

  His fur rubbed against my cheek. “It’s the only way. But at least I finally got to kiss you once.” His voice had the rough, grumbly chimera quality to it again.

  I nodded, no longer trusting the sound of my own voice. It was official—I had lost everything.

  My chimera prince was nearly full grown now. He kneeled and flattened his wings so I could climb on. Hydra coughed softly, showing unusual tact in an effort to not be forgotten.

  I picked her up and climbed onto Kato’s back. Nobody said a pixing word. There was no need. There was only one place to go and one thing to do.

  Save the world before the grains of sand ran out.

  “You see that apple, and you know it’s poisonous, but it still looks so good.”

  —Snow White from An Apple a Day

  35

  Double Bubble, Lots of Trouble