The Grimm Diaries Prequels Volume 11- 14: Children of Hamlin, Jar of Hearts, Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale, Ember in the Wind, Welcome to Sorrow, and Happy Valentine's Slay. (20 page)

I had no clue who that might have been, and what revenge she was talking about, so I asked to turn another card to find out about the second of the Lost Seven. Maybe I could find more clues in it.

The new card had someone in a cloak on it. I couldn’t see the face, but it was a red cloak and that someone held a scythe on their back, walking in our Black Forest.

“The Reaper,” Cassandra said.

“What reaper?”

“The Reaper brings Death,” Cassandra said. “Not necessarily bad death.”

“Is there good death?”

“Not necessarily good, either.”

I was beginning to feel frustrated with Cassandra with all her vague answers.

“What’s her power?” I asked.

“It’s obvious,” Cassandra replied bluntly.

“The power of Death,” I muttered.

“And the power of the color red,” Cassandra, the mysterious, added.

I always thought that Pomona had prohibited the color red in the past because it was the color of Death. If that was the Death Cassandra talked about, I am sure that no one had ever known who Death was. It was a mystery to all of us.

“How can I…kill Death?” I wondered.

“The way should be revealed, only if Death is free.”

“What does that mean?”

“Each of the Lost Seven has an archenemy. Sometimes, their weakness and the way to kill them can’t be revealed unless the Lost Seven kills his enemy first, then you could learn about the way to kill him or her. The Reaper’s enemy is the Piper, and as long as the Piper lives you can’t kill the Reaper.”

Frustrated, I turned another card.

It was what looked like a witch; her face was distorted, though.

“The Witch,” Cassandra said, and I wanted to burst out and comment that it was obvious she was a witch.

“What’s her power?” I asked bluntly now.

“Magic?” Cassandra sounded as if mocking me.

“How can I kill her? Wait,” I suddenly realized that killing the Lost Seven wasn’t my first priority. I had to find them first. I was going to kill them all eventually. “I changed my questions. Where can I find the Witch?”

“Whenever you follow the breadcrumbs, you will find her,” Cassandra said.

“Breadcrumbs?” somehow, I felt like I should know the answer to this one but it still escaped me. Why did breadcrumbs and a witch feel so familiar?

I realized that I had been asking the wrong questions again, because I should have asked about the seven items I had found in the cottage where Snow White lived with the Lost Seven

“Which one of these items belongs to the Witch?” I asked. “The mug, the fork, the bread, the vegetables, the plate, the knife, or the chair?”

Cassandra raised her head from the cards with a fading smile on her face. She liked my question.

“The bread,” she nodded.

“And which item belonged to the Phoenix and the Reaper?”

“That’s the second question I can’t answer.”

“What?”

“Once you turn a card, I can’t answer about those that preceded it,” Cassandra said.

I sighed and turned the next card, wondering if Snow White had a witch who used breadcrumbs among her friends. But then I remembered that she didn’t have friends, and if that little monster did, I didn’t know about them.

The next card showed a boy in a green hat. He was stealing from my castle but I couldn’t see his face.

“Is he stealing from me?” I grunted.

“The Thief,” Cassandra said.

“This is not possible. Did this little thief enter my castle?” I complained, but I remembered that it could only be one, someone I knew. It was Jack Madly, that little troublemaker.

“What’s his item?” I asked.

“Vegetables.”

I didn’t understand this item thing but at least I knew who one of the Lost Seven was. I couldn’t know the rest though. I knew that the Lost Seven could be among Cinderella, Pinocchio, Jack, Hansel, Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and many more of the teens in Sorrow before the curse, but I needed a guideline instead of chasing all of them.

“How can I find him? Who is his enemy?” I asked.

“Jack’s enemy is himself,” Cassandra said. “There is darkness in him that hasn’t surfaced yet.”

I didn’t care what that meant. I was going to find a way to get him.

I turned another card. There was a moon on it, and it made me smile.

“The Moon,” Cassandra said.

“Are we talking about the moon, the real moon in the sky?”

“It’s hard to tell from the cards,” Cassandra said.

“Do you mean it could also be just a metaphor?”

“Everything can be a metaphor.”

“What’s its item?” I asked.

“The plate.”

I had that imminent feeling that it was the moon. At least I wanted it to be the moon because I hated it. But how was that possible? Was the moon a boy or a girl? A spirit, maybe? And how did it help Snow White? Maybe Managarm could help me with it later.

Later?
A voice mocked me.
You know that in your heart you will refuse to accept the words later. This conversation is all in vein.

I had clues to five of the seven; one of them was for sure. I turned another card.

This one showed an ugly beast; his features so grotesque I couldn’t keep staring. I quickly glimpsed him eating something.

“The Beast,” Cassandra said. “Sometimes, the Beauty.”

“What does this even mean?”

“It means what it means,” Cassandra dared my eyes. “Now ask your questions.”

“What’s its item?”

“The knife.”

“Where can I find it?”

What do you care? You will not consider anything she says now to be true anyway.

“No one finds the Beast,” Cassandra answered.

“Now I am fed up. What does that mean?”

“The Beast finds you,” Cassandra said. “If you see the Beauty in him, the Beast finds you. Your last card, please?”

I turned the last card, my fingers shivering for no reason. Why did I feel that way?

The card had a star on it, falling from the sky.

“The Star,” Cassandra said.

“You mean the fallen star,” I corrected her.

Cassandra hid a smirk, and said nothing.

“What’s its item?” I asked.

“The Star has to be caught before you know its item.”

“What do you mean caught?”

“It has to be saved,” Cassandra said. “It has to experience redemption. The star is unreachable, yet hurt, and it’s angry, but it can be tamed, only if it’s loved.”

All in all, at least I knew about Jack. The last time I asked Peter about Jack, he claimed Jack was missing. I wondered if it was true. I was also sure that Cinderella was one of the Lost Seven but I didn’t know who she was? Was it possible she was the moon? Nah, that was ridiculous. But maybe Cinderella was the Beast who was sometimes the Beauty. I was confused, but what did it matter? I wasn’t going to act on any of this once Cassandra left the castle. And now that the huntsmen had left, there was no one left to tell me the truth.

It boggled my mind, this believing thing. If I wasn’t going to acknowledge everything she told me later, couldn’t I write it down on paper to remind myself that I should trust her?

But it wasn’t going to work. I had asked my trusted wizards before Cassandra came, and they told me that the curse was so strong the disbelief could not be removed from the heart. It reminded me of the way I had never believed in the goodness of people. I couldn’t ever imagine someone having the power to change that feeling in my heart after what I had been through.

“Is that all?” Cassandra, the poker face, asked.

“That’s all, Cassandra,” I nodded. “Can I ask you one more question?”

“If it’s not a forbidden question,” she nodded.

“Why am I searching for the Lost Seven?” I said. I was testing her.

Cassandra smiled. She knew I was testing her. “You know why,” she said, and I noticed that she hadn’t addressed me with majesty or my queen since she came.

“But I’d like to hear it from you,” I said.

“I wouldn’t insist on hearing it from me,” she said, standing up, preparing to leave.

“Why would that be?” Again, I resisted the urge to stand up. I was fascinated by my detachment of the effects I can have on people.

Cassandra took a step closer to me and bent over to whisper in my ears, “I wouldn’t want you to live the rest of your life, not knowing what you’re looking for.”

“I don’t understand,” I furrowed my brows, her breath in my ears like the calm before the storm.

“Don’t you get it, my Queen?” she addressed me with
my Queen
for the first time, and I smelled betrayal on her breath. There was something really wrong going on. “When you accepted me telling you about the future, knowing that you’d end up disbelieving what you heard, you made a big mistake. A big mistake, my Queen.”

I had already known that I had been fooled, but couldn’t understand how.

“Once I walk out of this room, you will spend the rest of your life chasing the wrong people, thinking they are the Lost Seven. You will kill, torture, and hunt innocents because deep in your heart you can’t believe, not for one second anymore, that the Lost Seven are the Lost Seven,” she continued. Her words were mind-boggling, and I was getting dizzy. “Because when the clearest evidence points at one of them, and when the truth is in front of your eyes shining like the sun, you will still walk away from them, disbelieving and let them get away,” I let out a painful shriek. I was going to faint. “You have practically shot yourself in the foot, Queen of Sorrow, because I have perpetually protected the Lost Seven from you. You heart is fooled, chained with disbelief, and protection for the Lost Seven. From this day on, they’re only ghosts in your eyes, unimportant strangers to your heart, and maybe they would become dear to you without you even understanding what is going on.”

Cassandra walked away from me, leaving me breathless and undone. I felt as if she had just ripped out my heart like I did to Jacob Grimm, and walked away munching on it.

The effect was starting to take place, and I was starting to disbelieve and doubt what she had just told me about the Lost Seven.

I, the Queen of Sorrow, had been fooled.

“Jacob Grimm sends you his most insincere greetings by the way,” Cassandra laughed and walked away, still mesmerized by the artistic castle. She couldn’t stop herself from checking out her dress in my finest mirror on the wall. “What a beautiful mirror,” she commented, fixing her hair. “You know I could answer your question about why the Lost Seven are so important to you, but then it means you will never believe they are important,” she said, still looking at the mirror. “But what’s the fun in that? You wouldn’t feel any pain, and that’s not what we want you to experience. We want you to suffer, my Queen,” Cassandra stole one last look in the mirror, rubbing her hair, as the wrinkles and lines in her face disappeared.