I smiled at him, the sentimental sap who hid behind poorly timed jokes and bad taste flirting. “I’m also sort of freaked out about leading the reconstruction while Jack is in America looking for someone he doesn’t even know.”
Jack had become consumed with finding the girl who saved him and begged me to work with our father to rebuild the kingdom while he searched high and low for her. He had no idea where to begin his search, but he had business to attend to in Philadelphia, so he decided it was as good a place as any. That business, I hoped, was addressing the tense situation between him and his adoptive parents.
“You still have a few days until he leaves, and I’m sure your father won’t leave you hanging. Besides, Cecily is excited about it.” He turned his head away from our son and looked to me. “By the way, Felix put in a resignation from the Royal Guard. Let me tell you, if he’s resigning from a job he’s loved for fifteen centuries, then your sister is definitely the one for him.”
“Mmm, that she is. My father enlisted him into the Goldene Stadt Royal Army this morning,” I said with a chuckle. “We stole him, but he did ask Father for Cecily’s hand, too, so it only seemed fair we offer him a royal position of sorts.”
“Let me guess, Daddy Dearest said yes right away, while I had to sneak around for years?”
I nodded and started laughing again. “I think the times have changed him, especially his time spent married to Cinderella. I think it will be alright. Thaddeus seems quite happy to take the Lieutenant position under Henry.”
Ely looked shocked and sat up straight. “You know more about my kingdom than I do for someone who doesn’t want to be queen. What else do you know?”
“Are you asking me to gossip with you, Eliot Sal—”
“Ah, ah, ah!” Jack said, approaching from behind. “New names only! I can’t take this second name business anymore. It’s too confusing.”
“Except my name isn’t all that confusing, you dote. Ely could easily be short for Eliot,” Ely teased, throwing a punch at Jack’s shoulder. Jack dodged him with a smirk on his face.
“Is it short for Eliot?” he asked.
“No, it’s short for Elijah, but that’s not the point.”
Jack rolled his eyes and ignored my fiancé. He fell onto the picnic blanket beside us and laid his head on my lap. He was the same carefree Jack, a little silly and often snuck the peanut butter when I wasn’t watching, but he was also a little changed. He was more assertive, more decisive than before.
We sat in silence for a while, watching and relaxing, then Jack said, “I found her.”
“What?” I yelled, accidentally forcing his head from my lap when I jolted in surprise.
“You’re kind of a spaz, did you know that?” he joked.
And you’re kind of a doofus, but I don’t feel the need to tell you constantly.
“Not on purpose, you don’t!” he shouted, reminding me I still needed someone to help me with that annoying habit. “Anyway,” he drawled, “I found her. She’s in a town in South Carolina, but it won’t be easy to get to her.”
“Why is that?” Ely asked.
“Well, she’s in a medical facility of sorts,” Jack said. “I found an article about a woman in South Carolina who nearly murdered a woman on the streets. She claimed her name was Bianca, and she was an evil princess. Her brother and sister were able to keep her out of jail with a good lawyer, evidently.”
“Holy smokes,” I said. “Was she injured? Why is she in a medical facility?”
Jack blinked several times. “Are you serious? Sierra, she tried to kill a woman in the middle of town. It was jail or—”
“Oh... I gotcha. How on earth do you plan to get into a psychiatric hospital?” I asked while Ely continued to laugh at my moment of naivety.
“Well, I’ll leave that up to the witch,” he said, then sat up fully.
“Heidi?” I asked excitedly, hoping somehow, she’d overcome her issues and joined the next dramatic adventure.
Jack’s face was downcast, but he composed himself and said, “No, Julianna. She and Caleb are still super ticked that Bianca tricked them, so I guess they wanted to pick up where they left off. Fiona wants to come along, but she’s too busy working out what happened to Jeanine. I’m pretty sure Julianna’s parents are going back to pack up and move here permanently. They’re going with us, at least.”
“Really?” I asked though I wasn’t all that surprised. It seemed strange to consider going back to a normal life after everything that had happened. I hoped Carlos and Nina Ortega would move to Schwarzwald permanently. I didn’t get to know them as well as I would have liked, but I felt that would change if they lived nearer to us.
“Carlos agreed to take some of Fiona’s books with him to decipher while the rest of us try to figure out what Bianca did and how to fix it. That said, I’m bumping up the timeline.”
I thought he might, so I swallowed my displeasure and asked the obvious question.
“Well, what’s her name? Where, exactly, are you headed?”
“Hayden Marks, and she’s in a hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. Are you mad at me?” he asked. I got the impression he’d decided against visiting with his parents first, but it wasn’t my place to force him to settle his grievances with them.
I patted his cheek and smiled. “Of course not, big brother. Go save the world from another wicked princess.”
The End
... not quite.
Acknowledgments
There are so many people to thank this time around! My amazing alpha and beta team members, Christy Saffold Freeman, Crystal Crawford, Beth Burnett, Allison Bratton Clements, Mia LaFornara, Nina LaFornara, and NJ Kahrme, who were incredibly supportive and helped make book two what it is. Thank you for reviewing so many versions of this manuscript to make sure it was ready to go!
My daughter, Lily, and husband, Jason, who patiently supported me while I toiled away so many late nights writing, editing, rewriting, editing again... thanks for always letting me do my thing.
My parents, Jerry and Jane, who don’t know how much their support means now and always has.
The Series
Deceptively Beautiful: Volume Three
When the entire kingdom of Schwarzwald is fooled by a beautiful woman proclaiming her brother was cursed by a witch, the family does what they do best—they rally behind good to fight evil. But the kingdom of Schattenland is filled with secrets that pose dangerous threats for our heroes, not to mention the hordes of trolls.
Hayden Marks never intended for her dreams to come true, but when a strange man shows up to break her out of a medical facility, she’s more than willing to take a leap into the unknown with him. She just hadn’t expected to land smack bang in the middle of the fairy tales she’d dreamt about. Evading trolls and figuring out her sketchy past might lead to the next clue in defeating the evilest evil that ever lived, or it could land her right back in the medical facility. Either way, she’s up for the challenge.
*Author’s note: In The Series section of Snow Kissed, Hayden’s name was Hudson. It didn’t seem to fit her so you will find her name has changed to Hayden for book three, but all other character names remained the same.
Autumn Awakens: Volume Four
The small kingdom of Weisserwald is desperate for help, and they’ll take anything they can get—even a narcoleptic police detective. Told from Parker Quinn’s point-of-view, Autumn Awakens is the only installment told from a male perspective—a male with one heck of a back story and a penchant for falling asleep at the worst possible time!
Gilded Lies: Volume Five
Not every tale the Grimm brothers wrote is widely known, which is why the little kingdom of Liliental was nearly forgotten until Larkin Gregory managed to find her way into the cloaked kingdom of Schwarzwald. Armed with little more than a hunch, she convinces the Salien family to raise their swords once again to save her homeland from a sinister ruler.
The Heart of the Darkness: Volume Six, Th
e Final Fight
The final installment of the series, the epic finale everyone’s been waiting for—at least Wil Grimm sure has! Going back to its roots, this installment is once again told from Calla Benson AKA Katharine Salien-Grimm’s point-of-view. There’s a darkness in the Black Forest, and it’s the heart of all evil in the world. Can the families join to defeat the darkness, or will they be betrayed by one of their own?
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Also by M. J. Padgett
The Immortal Grimm Brothers' Guide to Sociopathic Princesses
Snow Kissed
Ashes to Ashes (Coming Soon)
The Secret Author Series
The Yellow Note (Coming Soon)
The Postcard (Coming Soon)
The Letter
Watch for more at M. J. Padgett’s site.
About the Author
M. J. Padgett is first and foremost a mom. Her free-spirited kindergartener has quite the vivid imagination, and her antics sometimes find their way into her mommy’s work. She is a lover of all things chocolate, a Grimm and Dickens addict, a self-proclaimed smarty-pants, and an introvert to the core.
Writing is her true passion (after raising her daughter, of course), and she writes as often as possible. One of her favorite things about writing is creating a world where people can escape reality for a little while, maybe even walk away feeling hopeful about the real world around them. When it comes to reading, she loves a book that can make her forget where she is no matter the genre. If she can get lost and feel like the characters are her real friends, she’s a happy reader.
Read more at M. J. Padgett’s site.
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