Fairytale Ambrosia (The Knead to Know Series Book 2) (15 page)

“Run,” I said to softly to Boone then launched myself at Phoenix, knocking him backwards. We tumbled down a small hill, landing in the soft moss at the bottom, Phoenix on top of me. The air in my lungs thinned.

“Ow,” he said, not at all trying to move. “You tackled me.”

“I saved you from the vines.”

He raised an eyebrow with a slight smile.

“I did.” I pushed him, but he didn’t budge. “This doesn’t mean anything.”

“Maggie,” Boone called from somewhere deeper in the forest.

“Keep telling yourself that. You know, if you knew yourself half as well as you think you know me, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Phoenix said, helping me up. “And with your strength and healing gone, you need to stop taking risks. In this world, you’re mortal, Maggie. Keep that in mind next time you try to save me from vegetation.”

I straightened my dress. “And you think you aren’t?”

“I’m a genie. I think my problems are much worse. All someone has to do is find my lamp, and I will have to do anything they wish me to do,” he said. “I don’t think I will be able to fight it. Genies never had much choice in the stories.”

“Maggie,” Boone called again.

“Your psychic is going to get us killed if he keeps shouting.” Phoenix grabbed my wrist and dragged me toward the sound of Boone’s voice.

“How do you know he’s a psychic? You haven’t met Boone before tonight.”

He didn’t slow as all as he pulled me along. “You couldn’t keep anything from me if you wanted to, which, by the way, you don’t.”

We spotted Boone at the summit of another hill. He waved us up. As I crested the top, and there it was. A life-sized gingerbread house with smoke coming out of the chimney and a creek to the side that looked a lot like chocolate.

Phoenix whistled. “She’s committed to this scenario.”

“How did you find this place?” I asked Boone.

“You told me to run and I did.” He gave me a pointed look at the fact that he had actually listened to me this time. “But then I got turned around. It was like trees were popping up behind me as I went and moving because when I turned around to look for you, nothing looked the same. The next thing I knew, I was here.” He frowned at the house. “I was led here. It’s probably a trap.”

“I have no doubt,” Phoenix said. “And I’m sure all the shouting didn’t alert any old hag who might live inside it to our presence.”

I headed for the cottage, sick of their shit. They could stand out there and argue until their lips fell off. I had two little kids to rescue. I nudged the gingerbread door open with my foot, craning my neck so I could see inside. I spotted the children immediately, sitting in a large cage next to the fireplace.

They looked at me with wide eyes, tears dripping down their rounded cheeks. It had to be a trap. Boone was right. He’d found it way too easily, and Phoenix was right as well. Someone had to hear Boone calling my name. Boone stopped me from going inside and lobbed a candy cane over my shoulder into the room. The moment it touched the floor, a wolf in a nightgown stepped out of the kitchen. Holda was blending her fairy tales.

Teeth gnashing and snarling, it came at us, claws out.

“Duck,” Phoenix said and both Boone and I dropped to the ground. Phoenix tossed a bucket of chocolate on the wolf and it froze, screaming, as fur and skin dripped to the ground with the chocolate.

“Death by chocolate,” I said as he helped me up. “How did you know?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t. I took a stab. I’d be willing to bet that every piece of candy, cookie, or cake here is toxic. This world is meant to trap us.”

I nodded. “Good call.”

Boone was already in the house, breaking away the bars of the cage that appeared to be made out of peppermint sticks. The kids huddled in the back corner. I knelt down in front of the hole he had made. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. We’re going to take you home.”

They shook their heads. “The witch will kill us if we leave.”

“I won’t let her,” I said, holding out a hand to them.

The boy reached for me, but the girl knocked his arm back down. “It’s a trick,” she said. “Don’t listen. Cover your ears like this.” She cupped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. The little boy did the same thing.

There was no way I’d be able to reach the kids from out here. I started to climb into the cage, but Boone caught the back of my dress.

“I wouldn’t,” he said, pointing to his work boot, which had been partially eaten away by the shards of hard candy. He took the ladle out of the cauldron on the fireplace and poked at the kids softly. They turned to dust.

Not them.

“Shit,” Phoenix said under his breath. “How are we supposed to find them now?”

I stood back up and we all headed for the door.

“Maybe this is Granny’s house, not the witch’s,” Boone said. “The wolf was here.”

“Granny didn’t live in a gingerbread house,” I said. “They have to be here.”

“They don’t
have
to be anywhere. Holda could have stashed them anyplace. Does anyone else think it’s fucking bizarre that this world seems to know we are here and is leading us to where it wants us to be, but we haven’t seen a single other person? What if no one else is here, and this whole thing is a trap? I sure as hell didn’t see a door to get back home—”

“The oven.” I slapped Phoenix’s arm. “In the story, the witch is constantly trying to put the kids in the oven.” I ran back into the house, straight to the kitchen. I slid the bolt back and pulled the oven’s large metal door open. Two little kids spilled out, scrambling to their feet with tear-streaked cheeks.

“I wanna go home,” the little girl said, throwing her arms around my waist, weeping into my dress. The boy did the same.

“We’re going to take you home.” I hugged both of them. “You’re okay.”

“I’ll be damned,” Phoenix said from the doorway as Boone helped free me, taking the boy’s hand.

This time when we left the house, a road stretched before us and the forest was gone. The castle looked closer than ever before. Phoenix hadn’t been wrong in what he said. This world was Holda’s creation, and it was responding to everything we did, said, or wanted, but to what end? Would it ever let us back out?

“Do you trust me?” Phoenix asked.

Not particularly, was my first mental response, but that wasn’t entirely true. It really depended on what context he referred to. I trusted that he wouldn’t willingly let me die, even if he had no problems putting my life at risk. Everything else was pretty much up in the air. “Why?”

“I want to test something.”

I looked at Boone, who shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. I don’t trust anything about this world.”

“Okay.” I held the girl’s hand a little tighter. “Lead on.”

Phoenix went to the road and headed the opposite direction of the castle. We only walked for about five minutes before the road turned itself around and we were once again headed directly for the castle. “It doesn’t matter how we choose to go. This is the only place we will ever reach,” he said. “She wants us in the castle.”

“That’s a comforting thought,” Boone said dryly.

The little girl looked up at me. “What’s in the castle?”

“A beautiful sleeping princess that we have to wake up. Then we can go home.”

She pulled in her bottom lip. “How will we get through the thorns?”

“What thorns?”

“The thorns that surround the castle that Sleeping Beauty is in.”

Crap. How had I forgotten about that? “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Chloe,” she said.

“Thank you, Chloe. I had forgotten all about those. Do you remember how the prince got through?”

She shook her head.

“Phoenix,” I said louder. “Do you have a plan for the thorns?”

He looked back at us then at his bare feet. “Working on it.”

A little while later, the castle was finally just up ahead, and as Chloe predicted acres of thorn bushes grew around it.

“Hey, kid,” Phoenix got the little boy’s attention and beckoned him forward. The child shook his head with wide eyes and edged behind Boone, barely peeking out. “This is all you, Prince Charming,” Phoenix continued. “He has to storm the castle to save the girl. That’s how the stories work.”

I looked at Boone. “He has a point.”

“Prince Charming goes with Snow White,” Chloe said. “Prince Philip is with Sleeping Beauty.”

I laughed. “And you’ve been schooled.”

Boone bent down so he was at the same level as the kid. “Adam, stay with Maggie. She will protect you.”

Adam raced over to me and Chloe, while Boone walked up to the thorn bushes.

“Don’t let them scratch you,” Phoenix said.

Boone stood back, staring at the bushes. He walked a little closer and reached a hand toward them, without touching one. The whole bush leaned toward him like he was a magnet. “Just like the vines,” he said. “Maggie, can I have your apron?”

I took it off and handed it to him.

He searched the ground until he finally found a stick and a couple rocks. He wrapped my apron around the end of the stick, knelt on the ground over it, and began sliding the rocks against one another, making sparks.

“Quite the boy scout,” Phoenix said. “I’m almost impressed.”

I didn’t bother looking at him. “Jealous much?”

“Not at all. He’s about to charge through a field of poisonous thorns to save another woman. I think I’m good. How about you? Are you feelings pangs of jealousy?”

I rolled my eyes. “I came here to get the kids and Nicole back. Why would I be jealous that we’re saving her?”

He shrugged. “You may not feel that way if you heard the things she said about you. Whew, she was angry and you were the root of all evil. But don’t worry, it’s a fun position to hold.”

This time I did look at him. “You were spying on them?”

He shook his head. “Not me, but one of my people. They’re thorough.”

I shook my head. “When we get back, all of this stops, okay? I don’t care what Holden said. You are not my personal bodyguard. If you can’t figure out how to be a friend, a real friend, then I don’t want you anywhere near my life. Is that clear enough for you?”

He nodded. “Do you want me to stop the jinn from promoting your bakery?”

My head whipped toward him. “What does my bakery have to do with anything?”

Phoenix shrugged. “I thought you might need a boost to get it off the ground.”

Shit. I should have known. Business had been too good, too fast.

The sparks finally took and my apron burst into flames. Didn’t think they were supposed to do that.

“You see, Maggie, I am your friend. You just don’t want to admit that sometimes you need someone like me, someone who isn’t afraid to take what he wants. And you’re even more afraid to admit that deep down, you like it. You like the benefits of it and you like the danger.”

Boone held the makeshift torch toward the thorns and they parted. “You ready?” he asked us.

“Go to hell,” I told Phoenix quietly, then added, louder, “Right behind you,” to Boone. “Chloe, stand behind me and hold onto my skirt. No matter what happens, don’t let go. Adam, I will hold your shoulders. Follow Boone.”

And that’s how we wove our way through the thorn bushes, back to front in as tight of a line as we could stand. On the other side, the castle door opened as we approached. Inside there was a courtyard with five possible paths.

“Five corridors, five people,” Phoenix said. “It wants us to split up.”

“No one splits up,” Boone said immediately.

“You have to go to the tallest tower,” Chloe said. “That’s where she will be.”

Phoenix pointed to the hallway to our right. “That’s the one that should take us to the tower based on the outside of the castle. So, we should go down that one.” He pointed to the opening on the left.

I nodded. “Everything is backwards.”

“Exactly.” He led the way and almost immediately we came to a staircase.

After about twenty flights of stairs, we hit a dead end. No rooms at all. We went back to the main entrance and chose the next hallway. This time there were only fifteen flights of stairs before they came to a disappointing end. By the fourth hall, I was beginning to lose heart and the children were complaining about their feet. Chloe climbed on my back and even Adam let Phoenix carry him. This time, though, the stairs kept going up and up and up and up until we finally reached a door. Boone pushed it open and revealed a bedroom. Nicole lay in the center of a small bed, with her arms folded over her chest.

“Nic.” Boone rushed toward her, taking her by the shoulders and giving her a gentle shake.

“You have to kiss her,” Chloe called out. “That’s how the prince saves her. True love’s kiss.”

Good thing it was her and not me. I’d be screwed. I didn’t have a true love.

Boone’s lips touched hers in what looked like the softest, sweetest kiss in the whole world, but all I could feel was pain. Phoenix was right. I was jealous of the coma girl. He kissed her the way I wanted to be kissed. Still worse, the way I wanted to be kissed
by him
. I looked away, not missing the fact that Phoenix was scrutinizing every move I made.

“Well, this is awkward,” Phoenix finally said.

“It’s the spell,” Boone said. “As you said, this whole place is backwards.”

“That is true,” Phoenix said slowly. “Maybe I should try.”

“Shut up, Phoenix.” It was bad enough Boone kissed her. Phoenix wasn’t getting anywhere near her.

“Mom says shut up isn’t nice,” Adam chimed in.

“Your mother is right, Adam. It isn’t very nice, is it?” Phoenix told the boy, then looked back at Boone. “Maybe the problem isn’t the backwards world. Perhaps you aren’t quite sure how you feel these days. After all, you spend a lot of time with Maggie. I can’t quite figure when you’re actually with Nicole. Apparently neither can she.”

“Stay out of it. This isn’t the time,” I hissed at Phoenix. “Just pick her up and we’ll take her like this. We need to go home.”

The door to the room slammed shut.

“I can’t allow you to do that.” Holda walked into the room. “I brought you here. It would be rude to leave before we had a chance to talk.” She cradled a lamp that looked an awful lot like a genie lamp in her arms. We were in big trouble.

How had she gotten away from Olivia? There was no way Olivia would have let her go. I glanced at Phoenix, but his eyes, churning with hate, were steadily trained on the lamp. He lowered Adam to the floor and nudged him over to me and Chloe.

“What do you want?” he asked in a slow and measured tone.

“I want my world to be complete, but going back and forth has weakened me. So I have a proposal for you, genie. I will keep the girl and everyone else here, but send you home. You will provide me with the people to finish my collection and at that time, I will release one person of your choosing.”