"Wait," Hamstead called to the old woman, turning and rushing back toward the queen.
"Ernest, are you crazy?" Granny Relda called after him, but he didn't stop.
From Mr. Canis's grasp, Sabrina looked back to see the portly man run to the side of the blonde singer he had sat next to at dinner. Bess had been knocked to the ground and was cowering before Titania's murderous gaze. Her boyfriend, Tony Fats, had left her to die.
"No!"
Hamstead cried as he grabbed a heavy chair and used it to fend off Titania. The queen shrieked and ignited the chair w
ith her fiery breath. If Hamstead was afraid, he didn't show it. He tossed the flaming chair at the queen and then turned to help Bess to her feet. Together they raced out of the room just behind Canis and the Grimms.
When the group reached the main room they paused, and Hamstead asked Bess, "Are you OK, ma'am?"
"Ma'am is a name for old ladies," she said as she tried to catch her breath. "You can call me Bess, cowboy."
Hamstead blushed.
"We need to keep moving," Mr. Canis said.
"We can't leave without Puck!" Daphne cried.
Mr. Canis snarled and set the girls down. "Hamstead, take Mrs. Grimm and the girls to safety. I'll join you once I find the boy."
"I'm coming with you," Sabrina said. Canis shook his head.
"It's my fault Puck got hurt in the first place. He's my responsibility," Sabrina said, hoping that the old man could see she wasn't asking for his permission.
"Stay close," he said, shoving back through the crowd.
Sabrina followed at his heels, struggling against a tide of panicked Everafters. She craned her neck in hopes of spotting Cobweb, the fairy who was tending to Puck, but he was nowhere in sight. He and Puck had to be in one of the rooms that lined the back hall. Canis cleared a path through the main room to the hallway.
"Maybe Puck's in there," Sabrina shouted to Canis over the melee, pointing to the first closed door. She rushed over and turned the knob, but it was locked tight.
Canis turned the knob himself. It fell off in his powerful hand, and he pushed the door open. It was a broom closet filled with mops and bottles. Sabrina rushed across the hall to another door, also locked. Again Canis crushed the knob. They found Moth pacing a room in which sat what looked like a giant eggplant. It had deep purple skin with green veins running through it. Next to it was a small table covered in potions and powders. When she saw them, the fairy girl ran to the eggplant as if to protect it.
"How dare you invade my room!" she cried.
"Where's Puck? We have to get out of here," Sabrina said. Canis closed the door behind them. "Titania has gone crazy. She's trying to kill everyone."
"Titania won't hurt me."
Mr. Canis let out a loud growl. "Because I'll get to you first!" he barked. "Where is the boy?"
The fairy girl's eyes grew wide with fear and she gestured at the eggplant. "He's right there!"
"That's Puck?" Sabrina said, incredulously.
"He's in a cocoon stage as his wings heal," Moth explained.
Just then, something heavy slammed against the door, nearly knocking it off its hinges.
"She's coming," Mr. Canis said.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Sabrina cried.
Mr. Canis searched the room for other exits but found none. He turned to Sabrina and for a moment she thought she saw worry in his face. Then, his body grew in size. His face seemed more wolflike, as if he were somewhere between the old man she knew and the wolf she feared. He stepped over to the far wall and pounded it with his enormous hand. It crumbled and a small hole appeared. He smashed the wall again, this time making the hole big enough to step through.
"Girls, come with me," he growled, and though Sabrina was afraid of his appearance, she was more afraid of the monster trying to get into the room. She raced over to the cocoon and snatched it in her arms. It was surprisingly light and had a horrible smell like moldy pickles.
"Who are you, Everafter?" Moth shouted at Canis.
"He's the Big Bad Wolf," Sabrina explained.
"The murderer?" the fairy girl shrieked. "I'm not going anywhere with you!"
Just then, the door to the room blew off its hinges. Titania appeared in the doorway, her mighty wings vibrating the air. She roared like a lion and shot a stream of fire right at them.
"Suit yourself," Sabrina said, tightening her grip on the cocoon. She turned and ran through the opening in the wall with Mr. Canis following close behind. Moments later, Moth came flying frantically after them, her pink insectlike wings keeping her aloft.
They were back in the park where Daphne had first told the knock-knock joke that had revealed the Golden Egg. The restaurant had disappeared again. Sabrina had left her coat inside, and now she was freezing. She hurried alongside Canis, doing her best not to fall in the slippery snow, but it wasn't easy. She turned her ankle and almost lost her hold on Puck's cocoon. Moth landed in front of her and snatched the cocoon out of Sabrina's hands. "You have no right to touch His Majesty's healing vessel," she said indignantly.
"Fine! Keep the stinky thing!" Sabrina said as she scanned the area. Where could they hide?
Suddenly Titania appeared behind them, as if out of thin air. She soared overhead, preparing to strike.
Mr. Canis rushed over to one of the lamps that lined the park paths and pulled it out of its concrete mooring. There were several loud pops as the electrical wires inside were ripped apart.
Canis swung the lamp like a bat right at the queen and hit her hard. She was hurled into the pavement with enough impact to create a smoking crater. Canis stood over the hole, waiting for Titania to crawl out.
Granny, Daphne, Hamstead, and his new friend Bess appeared nearby and rushed to join Sabrina. Granny looked worried. "We should go," she said.
"Haven't I been saying that all day?" Sabrina cried.
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Titania rose out of the crater and screamed like a banshee.
"Any suggestions?" Canis asked.
Sabrina turned to Moth. "What should we do? She's going to kill us all."
"She won't kill me," the fairy said. "I'm a princess."
Sabrina scowled. If they survived, she needed to remember to introduce Moth to her fist. Just then, Mustardseed and his fairies appeared in the sky and surrounded Titania. They threw long, thick ropes around the queen, binding her as she fought and screamed. Mustardseed's men dragged her toward the spot where the Golden Egg had been and disappeared once again into the invisible restaurant.
Mustardseed landed next to Granny. "You must leave here," he said. "I will take my brother."
"Forget it," Sabrina said. "Puck stays with us."
"I'm not arguing with you, child," Mustardseed said angrily.
"Then don't. I'm not letting him anywhere near your mother," Sabrina said.
"I'm confused," Granny said to Sabrina. "You're talking as if Puck is with us."
"He is," Sabrina said, pointing at the cocoon Moth was holding.
"This is Puck?" Daphne said, placing her hand on the cocoon's skin. A sticky trail of goo clung to her fingers when she pulled it off. "Oh yeah, this is Puck all right."
"Mustardseed, as Puck's fiancee I will look after the crown prince," Moth said.
"Fiancee?" everyone cried.
Mustardseed thought about this for a long moment, seeming to weigh his options, then nodded reluctantly. "You may take him," he said to Granny, "if you take Moth, too, and keep them both safe. But do not take Puck from the city."
"Sorry, buddy. We're out of here now!" Sabrina cried.
"Do not leave the city!" Mustardseed roared.
Granny Relda nodded. "We'll stay."
The fairy looked relieved. "I must go to my mother," he said, and he turned and flew back toward the restaurant, disappearing in a blink.
Granny took the opportunity to usher everyone out of the park. When they were several blocks away, she stopped to catch
her breath.
"We should go back to the car and drive away from here as soon as possible," Sabrina said, shivering. "We have Puck. There's no reason to stay. If we stick around, someone is going to get hurt."
Mr. Canis removed his suit jacket and wrapped it around Sabrina to keep her warm. Daphne, who was also without a coat, squirmed inside, too, wrapping her arms around her sister.
"I agree with the girl," Canis said.
"We can't go! This is a mystery," Daphne said. "They might need our help solving it."
"Another good reason to leave!" Sabrina said.
"Daphne's right," Granny said. "We'll check into a hotel. We all saw the mark on Oberon's chest. The Scarlet Hand is behind his murder."
Before Sabrina could argue, Tony Fats buzzed the group and landed next to Bess.
"I'm glad you got out OK, Bess," he said.
"No thanks to you," she replied. Then she sighed, turned to Mr. Hamstead, leaned in close, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks, cowboy," she said. "What do they call you?"
"My name's Ernest," Hamstead said, as he turned pink.
Tony Fats grumbled, snatched his girlfriend by the wrist, and dragged her back down the street as Hamstead looked on wistfully.
Granny raised her hand and a taxi pulled over. "We need to find a hotel with a parking lot for a car," she said to the driver. He shook his head and told them if they had a car to leave it where it was. "Parking is insane, lady," he explained.
Granny shrugged and helped Sabrina, Daphne, Moth, and Puck's cocoon into the back of the cab, then climbed into the front passenger seat. She rolled down the window and said to Mr. Canis and Hamstead. "Can you two find your own cab?"
"Relda, I believe I'll walk," Canis replied. He looked shaken and out of sorts. "The winter air will help my condition. I can follow your scent."
"I'll go with him," Hamstead said. "I'd like to see as much of the city as I can before we have to head back. I'll see you at breakfast?"
Granny nodded. "Take care." She rolled up her window and the cab pulled away.
"Is that the thing that is stinking up my cab?" the driver asked, looking at the purple orb in his rearview mirror.
"It's a school project," Sabrina lied. "Science fair stuff."
"What's the project? How quickly can you make a full grown man lose his lunch?"
"Hey, it's no rose garden back here, either," Sabrina said. "You ever clean this cab?"
The driver grumbled and turned his attention back to the road.
Soon, the cab pulled up outside the Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel and the women clamored out. The hotel was a tall, old-fashioned building with an emerald-green awning. The smell of tobacco drifted from inside. A doorman invited them into the warm lobby where several tourists sat in front of a crackling fireplace, looking out the window at the falling snow.
"My goodness," one of the tourists cried as she pinched her nose. "I think the sewers are backing up."
"Ugh, it smells like someone died," another complained.
Granny ignored the reaction to the cocoon and approached the front desk, requested three rooms, and asked that sets of keys be left for Mr. Hamstead and Mr. Canis. A bellhop looked at the family with an odd expression when he was told they had no luggage. He took them up to their room on the fourth floor. Inside they found two queen-sized beds, a bathroom with a marble tub, and a pamphlet on the sights and sounds of the Big Apple.
"This is unacceptable," Moth said before they had even t
urned the lights on. "I am royalty and accustomed to refinements. We need to find a more suitable room for the prince and I! One that is private!"
Sabrina rolled her eyes and flipped on the light switch.
"Hello, Mrs. Grimm," a voice said from across the room. The women let out a shriek and nearly fell over themselves. There, sitting in a chair by the window was Mustardseed. Oz stood behind the fairy prince. "I hope that none of you was harmed this evening," Mustardseed said. "I'm sure you can understand that my mother's actions were due to stress and heartbreak."
"Well, she nearly flame-broiled us back there!" Sabrina cried.
"Yeah, she's a jerkazoid!" Daphne added.
Oz stepped forward. "But she was the only one of us who was thinking clearly at the time. Her only choice was to run everyone off. She had to allow the killer a chance to escape."
"Escape?" Granny cried. "Why on earth would she want to do that?"
"To protect the new king," Mustardseed said. "Otherwise, the killer might have hurt the heir to the Faerie throne."
"What's an heir?"
Daphne asked.
"Someone who inherits something from a relative," Sabrina explained, then turned back to Mustardseed. "But I thought there wasn't a Faerie anymore."
"Faerie exists in our hearts and hopes," Mustardseed explained. "Some day we will find a way to rebuild it. Then we will need our king."
"So you're saying your mom was trying to barbeque us so she could protect you?" Daphne said.
"You are confused," Mustardseed said. "I am not the heir to the crown of Faerie. That honor falls to Puck."
"Puck is the new king?" Granny said, astonished.
Mustardseed nodded. "Protecting Puck was my mother's greatest concern. I knew you could be trusted to keep my brother safe. After all, you brought him here."
"Well, I hope Titania doesn't think we killed Oberon," Granny said.
Oz nodded. "We know that. Oberon was poisoned."
"With a concoction only a fairy could make," Mustardseed added. "It takes something very powerful to kill an Everafter. The ingredients for this particular poison came from the original fairy homeland and the recipe is one passed down within our kind. Only fairies and a few Everafters know it."
"And do you have any suspects?"
Mustardseed shook his head. "My father had many enemies."
"We suspect it was a fairy, or someone aided by one," Oz said.
"Unfortunately, whoever it was is now free on the streets of New York City. We know your reputation as detectives. We could use your family's help in finding the murderer."
Sabrina tried to wrap her head around this task. New York City had over eight million people living in it. It encompassed five different boroughs, linked by hundreds of miles of subway lines. Sure, Sabrina had grown up here, but there were so many streets and neighborhoods, no one could know them all. This wasn't Ferryport Landing, where they knew everyone. They didn't know these urban Everafters or even where they lived in the city. The job seemed impossible.
"This is not going to be easy," Granny said, obviously sharing similar thoughts.
"If you are half as resourceful as Veronica, I will have no worries at all," Mustardseed said.
"Folks, I'm afraid we've got one more favor to ask," Oz said. "Puck might be the killer's next target and after today's fiasco, we're pretty confident that you people can handle just about anything, including guarding him. He won't be safe at the Golden Egg."
"Of course, he's like one of my own grandchildren," Granny said.
Mustardseed rose from his seat. "Moth, you will stay with the Grimms. You will watch over your betrothed and assist the Grimms in any way they might need."
"As you wish, Your Majesty," the little fairy said with a deep bow.
"Oh, this is just getting better by the second," Sabrina said sarcastically.
Mustardseed turned to Granny Relda. "I want to be kept abreast of every development. I will be quite busy, so you can report your findings to Oz at the store in which he works." He bowed deeply, then turned to the window, opened it, and leaped out into the night. Above the howl of the wind, Sabrina could hear the sound of mighty wings flapping. Oz turned and closed the window tight.
"Any idea where we should start?" Daphne asked him.
The Wizard shook his head. "We don't exactly have an Everafter phone book."
"Then how did you get them all to meet at the Golden Egg tonight?" Sabrina said.
"I use the Empir
e State Building as a signal," Oz explained. "You may have seen them light it up for holidays. On Christmas they use red and Saint Patrick's Day it's green. When we need to see everyone we use bright purple."
"Perhaps we should try that," Granny said.
"I doubt anyone would show up after Titania's fit. I can tell you this much: I know the dwarfs live in the subway system and I believe Sinbad lives somewhere down by the docks," Oz said. "We Everafters keep to ourselves here in the city."
"That's it? That's all you know?" Sabrina cried.
"I'll ask around about the others and let you know if I find out anything else," the little man said. He apologized, said his good-byes, and moments later he left the room.
"We're in the middle of a mystery!" Daphne clapped, nearly bouncing in anticipation. "Where do we start?"
"Let's make a list of our clues so far," Granny Relda replied. "Sabrina, could you find us an ink pen? I bet there's one in the desk."
"No," Sabrina whispered. "I don't want anything to do with this. We should all just go home."
The room grew quiet. Daphne and Granny Relda stared at her as if she were some kind of algebra problem with no solution. Sabrina had rarely felt so alone. Couldn't Granny see that ever since she and Daphne had gotten involved in the detective business, they had been like two human wrecking balls, causing death and destruction over and over again? They had survived the Jabberwocky by the skin of their teeth and now they were jumping back into the fire. What if someone got hurt again?
What if their luck finally ran out? The sting of tears filled Sabrina's eyes and she quickly turned and ran into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She sat on the side of the tub in the dark and tried to catch her breath.
After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and it slowly opened.
"Liebling?"
Granny Relda said as she flicked on the light and entered the room. She sat down next to Sabrina and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. Sabrina pulled away.
"I don't want to do this," she said to her grandmother.
"Sabrina, these people asked for our help. It won't hurt us to look around and ask some--"
Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4) Page 5
