Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (46 page)

"There is no way that alone," Cinderella continued against Grimm's wishes. "I would feel unaffected by the Gulf's effects, as I do now, as I did before.
Without Norco and Togo, whom it is clear to me you did not create..."

Breath catching at the mention of the two strange creatures, Grimm looked for them around the clearing, exhaling in relief when he saw them nowhere.

"We would have passed a terrible first night in the forest. It seems to me, someone with power has been on my side from the very start. Knowingly or not.
If I am wrong about that, I suspect I shall suffer the consequence, but if I am right..." Cinderella paused, and Grimm could not read her expression, the
strange amusement upon her face mixed with rage. "Then I. Can trust. The queen. And we shall all be free."

Front of his vest seized, Grimm had no time to react as Cinderella swung him to the Gulf floor. Staggering back to his feet, he nodded for Queen Ino to
act, for despite Cinderella's erroneous belief, he had the advantage of fact. When the queen created the spell, he was right at her side, helping pen the
perfect ending.

Dagger twirled upon skilled fingers, Queen Ino hurled it toward him, and the blade pierced Grimm's chest, stopping his heart in an instant.

Glancing down at the decorative handle, Grimm let forth a hoot of joyous delight at how the queen had fooled Cinderella. She drew his blood with precision,
as she promised she would, and now he need only to pull the blade from his own chest and bury it into Cinderella's, where it would not kill her, but change
her. A most wicked spell, he admitted. For, when his blood flowed through Cinderella's body, she would feel his desire, adopt it as her own, want what he
wanted for her, conform to his plan.

Greedy fingers closing around the dagger, Grimm felt strength fail him. His tug upon the hilt weak, the dagger slid only a fraction in his chest, causing a
flare of pain he was not supposed to feel. Lifting his eyes to Queen Ino, he stumbled forward slightly, bubbles rising through him.

"I will want what you want?" Cinderella stepped into his path as Grimm bowed beneath the pain. "How would you make that happen? Some sort of blood magic?"
she queried. Grimm looked up, tried to see her, but her face fell into shadow. "Like, perhaps, your blood entering my veins? What would happen, Grimm,
if my blood was upon the blade first?"

"No," Grimm whispered, suddenly aware of the Gulf's chill, as he shoved Cinderella out of the way to cast his angry gaze to the queen. "No! She was to want
what I want!"

Argument was futile, though, he knew, for he had stood with the queen to pen the perfect ending, and had been quite adamant that the spell be irreversible.
Watching those the queen had rallied to the fight release their captives, Grimm realized he did not want to argue. He wanted what Cinderella wanted. He
wanted them to feel, to exist beyond him, to find their own paths through his world.

He wanted his creations to be free.

Yet, another part of him struggled against those desires, holding tightly to the legacy he had so worked so hard to create. Hands closing around the
dagger's handle, he made a last attempt to pull it free, and when Cinderella rushed up to him, hand on the hilt driving the dagger deeper, he cried tears
of joy, for she was free enough to end him, and it was everything he wanted for her.

"The others," he whispered, hands clutching Cinderella's on the dagger. "They have been erased. They are no more. They will die with me."

Cinderella's eyes growing distraught at the declaration, Grimm felt like a father as he patted her shoulder in comfort.

"No," she uttered. "There must be a way..."

"I am sorry," he whispered, feeling all energy leave him.

The ground shaking, Grimm hissed as they stumbled together, the dagger cutting deeper into his chest. "It hurts," he said, but Cinderella paid no mind to
his pain. She looked only toward his end, which, he thought, was fair.

Her eyes scanning the sky as a shadow fell over the whole of the Gulf, she dropped her gaze to his once more. "Perhaps, an effective form of mining," she
uttered, ripping the dagger from Grimm's chest and a howl of pain from his throat.

The bloodied hand of the queen rose, and Cinderella flew backward out of the way, before a violent wind sent all his creations tumbling. At the sound of
breaking limbs, Grimm glanced up to see a mammoth fist bearing down upon him and had only the time to smile.

Screams coming from everywhere, Cinderella collided with bodies mid-air, feeling the earth move beneath her as she finally skidded to a stop. "Rapunzel?"
she called, echoing the panic she heard in numerous other voices around her.

"I am here." A gentle hand moved across Cinderella's waist as Rapunzel lifted her head beside her.

Sitting up at once, Cinderella tugged Rapunzel into her arms, the solid feel of her assuring Cinderella they were both still in existence, as, behind
Rapunzel, Queen Ino stirred to push her hair back from her face, leaving an inadvertent trail of blood against her cheek.

"Marlinchen!" Christophe cried out suddenly, pushing off the ground and running full-force into a young woman with darker hair, but the same fair
complexion and eyes, who received the near attack with a tearful smile.

"Christophe," she said.

"Father!" Christophe shouted again, and a man rushed to them, wrapping them both up tightly.

"Sawyer." A familiar face appeared above him, hand falling tenderly upon his shoulder, and, whirling, Sawyer jumped to his feet.

"Rhian!" He grabbed the queen of Ceres in a hug.

Amazed gaze moving around the clearing, Cinderella saw more people she knew. Stace's grandmother, and, Cinderella assumed, the girl's missing mother cried
as they hugged her, and Ruth held George tightly against her side as she watched their believed betrayer approach.

"Oh, Ruth." King Balten went to his knees before them, removing his crown as if it was of little importance in the face of his wife and son. "I have
searched everywhere for you, always praying I would find you. Is this my son, George?"

Eyes casting about in fear, Ruth's panic eased when she saw Cinderella and Rapunzel.

"It is all right, Ruth," Rapunzel assured her. "He does not mean you harm."

Trusting Rapunzel more than her husband, Ruth at last allowed King Balten her hand, which he pressed tearfully to his lips.

Feeling the queen move again beside them, Cinderella watched her retrieve her dagger from where the blade was buried nearby in the earth, residual fear
radiating through her as the queen wiped the blade upon her fine skirts.

"Do you still desire to kill us?" she asked, and the queen's mouth quirked at once.

"I have expended my energy, it seems," she returned. "Perhaps, killing you will wait for another day, Love."

If not for the sly gaze that accompanied the statement, and the queen sliding the dagger back into its sheath, it might have sounded a threat.

"How did you know this would work?" Cinderella questioned.

"The magic is strong," Queen Ino declared, though the fact did not seem terribly pleasing to her. "Blood has much power. With Snow White's, I could shield
Grimm's eyes so he did not see me changing his story, right there in his own library." She smirked with some pleasure. "With yours, I could change a man's
heart. Your heart beats strong and pure, Cinderella. That is your beauty."

The queen's eyes uncommonly gentle upon her, Cinderella remembered hearing similar words once before, and turned her attention to the throng of bodies.

"Where is Caratasa?" she whispered, but the sound of the brigade rushing in drowned out any answer, as King Balten's guard at last arrived with additional
troops.

"Ah, the cavalry," Queen Ino declared, rising to her feet and dusting herself off. "Late, as usual."

The crowd thinning around them, Cinderella stood, helping Rapunzel to her feet, and was met at once with a terrified shriek.

"Look out!" Snow White cried, and Cinderella moved to shield Rapunzel as the light of the sorceress' curse flew past them.

Striking Queen Ino with deadly accuracy, the queen gave a cry as she fell stiffly upon the ground.

"What do you think of my power now?" The sorceress made her approach, and King Balten's troop drew their bows, but the sorceress was undeterred, moving to
stand over Queen Ino as she rolled to her knees and threw her head back, fingers digging into soft soil as an agonized howl carried from her throat. Body
convulsing with the pain, she fell to her side, suffering an unseen affliction, and Snow White rushed to her, pulling the queen's head onto her lap.

"I did tell her I would show her my power." The sorceress grinned.

"She was not even looking at you! She had no chance!" Snow White cried.

"She freed us all," Cinderella added, lifting her gaze from the queen's writhing form to the sorceress, and the blackened smile dropped from the sorceress'
lips.

"And I made her a martyr," she said, holding her hand out before them. "Rapunzel, would you like to come with Mummy?"

"No," Rapunzel replied, her anger trembling in Cinderella's ear.

"Come with me! It is not a choice!" the sorceress shouted, pointing her staff over Cinderella's shoulder.

Turning to block the sorceress' aim, Cinderella was trapped in the middle as Christophe, Sawyer and Jack came suddenly to her sides, their weapons drawn
upon the sorceress as if they could do her any damage.

"I would rather die than go back with you!" Rapunzel replied.

Staff shifting, Cinderella stared at its round, wooden tip. Dull and benign in appearance, she knew it was dangerous in the secrets it harbored.

"And her?" the sorceress questioned. "Would you rather she die?"

Choked sob escaping Rapunzel's throat, Cinderella felt the shift of Rapunzel behind her, and held her in place.

"I would rather it," she replied.

"That can be arranged!" The sorceress glared at her with utmost loathing, utterances that made no sense falling from her lips, and Cinderella struggled
with Rapunzel as she tried to push in front of her, trying at the same time not to trip over the dwarves suddenly at their feet.

An arrow flying past them, it struck the sorceress' shoulder, and, eyes flashing, she raised her staff to the king's army as a slew of well-aimed arrows
poked into her like a human pin cushion.

At the approach of hoof beats in greater number than before, the sorceress turned to the army that emerged on the other side of the Gulf, each arrow and
blade aimed directly for her as they recognized the threat. Seeming to accept that she could not kill them all before someone took her head or the arm that
threw the spells, the sorceress glanced back to Cinderella. "We shall meet again," she promised, going up in a cloud of gray smoke as the army closed in
upon her, and, across the way, Prince Charming and Prince Alluring retreated with the others, uninterested in making enemies of an army.

"Snow White!" The man who rode center to the army jumped down from his steed and ran for her.

"Daddy!" Snow White returned, looking up, and Snow White's father burrowed through the people and dirt to pull his daughter into his arms, squeezing her so
tightly Cinderella was sure it must hurt, but Snow White only looked happy to be found.

When the king turned his attention to his wife, the queen reached for him with surprising affection, and Cinderella realized at once how lonely it must
have been for the queen. Her own life was devoid of affection, but the queen's was far worse. For Cinderella could hope for love to one day find her, as it
had, but to fight the craving, the queen must have been forced to fight love at every turn.

"What happened?" the king asked, taking the trembling hand.

"The sorceress," Snow White sobbed, turning her eyes back to the queen. "Do not die," Snow White pleaded, pressing a kiss to the queen's blood-stained
cheek. "Not now. Do not die now."

"You would have preferred it earlier, I should imagine," Queen Ino breathed.

"I never wanted you to die." Snow White shook her head.

"That is because," Queen Ino said softly, "You did not truly know me."

Approaching the queen's feet, Gurr towered over the dwarves, who had gathered with rapt curiosity.

"You..." The queen laughed lightly upon seeing him. "You were wise to flee. You saved your daughter a most horrible fate. I should say you were dealing
with nothing short of a monster."

Taking an unsteady breath, the queen released it, and, even at a distance, it sounded like death. Her expression most serene, it was like Rapunzel's in the
snowstorm, like her mother's the night she died, and Cinderella could not watch. Tears filling her eyes, she glanced away, gaze alighting on something she
could not believe, but her heart could not deny.

"Caratasa," she breathed, watching her part the crowd through her presence alone.

"Caratasa!" Rapunzel pulled away from Cinderella and rushed to her, throwing her arms around the sprite's neck.

"Hello, Sweetie," Caratasa smiled, taking Rapunzel's face in her hands and kissing her on the cheek.

Bringing Rapunzel back to her, Caratasa raised a hand to Cinderella's face, wiping away tears Cinderella did not know had fallen. For the queen had done
nothing but threaten her life in all their encounters. What reason did she have to mourn?

"Can you do something?" Cinderella looked pleadingly at Caratasa, before turning her eyes reluctantly back to the queen's imminent departure.

"I cannot," Caratasa whispered.

Breaths chillingly shallow, Queen Ino gazed up at Snow White with glassy eyes. "I love you," she whispered, looking quite relieved to say such a thing.
"You are so hard not to love."

With a loud sob, Snow White kissed the corner of the queen's mouth and buried her face against her neck, and, with a tremulous sigh, the queen went limp in
her embrace.

Sensing the death against her, Snow White's sobs echoed throughout the clearing, as the king broke down beside her, tears flowing without shame as held
both his wife and daughter in his arms.