by Laura Kenyon
Angus was inches from the door when a little voice inside her called out for him to stop. “Wait,” she ordered, her fist closing around her bracelet. “Why are you telling me all this? What do you want from me?”
By the time Angus faced her again, his lips were curved on both sides and his hands rested comfortably atop the cane smack in between his legs. “The monarchies are going to fall soon. It’s not even a question anymore. Their midnight is approaching, and it’s coming on fast. The people are finally seeing the whole system for the archaic, elitist institution it’s always been, and they’re not going to back down. The King of Braddax is a criminal. The Whites have been ostracized by everyone outside Tantalise. My niece’s thirst for the throne is seconds from starting either a civil war or a revolution in Riverfell. The Charmés have forsaken us. And Regian … well, I can crush them at any moment thanks to Dawn’s lust for her husband’s new business partner.”
“You’re a monster,” Belle muttered under her breath.
“No, my dear. You married the monster. Your friends dug their own graves with their decisions. I’m just shining a light on them.”
“What do you want from me?” Belle said again, stomping on each word like it was a mushroom in Beast’s favorite part of the lawn.
Angus shrugged. “Like I said, you remind me of my mother. I just wanted to give you a chance to abandon the ship you’ve been bound to for the last five years before I send it to the bottom of the ocean. Tell the people of Braddax what really happened to their heir. Let them know Donner is the end of the line, and stop dragging out the inevitable by giving them false hope. It’s a win-win for all of us. You get the sympathy and the support that you deserve, and I get to fulfill a promise I made a long, long time ago.”
“What promise is that?”
“To bring the monarchies to an end. To stop this constitutional nepotism that puts the lives of thousands in the hands of a fetal lottery winner without any sort of merit or vetting. It’s the right thing to do.”
Belle didn’t know what to say. She thought she’d been speechless before, but this was a whole new level of bewilderment. Angus appeared to know nothing about Jacara’s powers, but Ruby couldn’t have been more right about his intention to destroy the monarchies. Not that Belle didn’t agree with a few of his points. Blood by no means guaranteed a qualified leader, for example. And taking the crown off the table was the best thing she could do for her baby boy. But this wasn’t the right way to let that happen.
She was just about to tell him as much—minus the part about Rye—when a loud pop ripped through the air. She twisted up and around, expecting to see Hazel or Elmina or Grethel coming to her rescue. But instead, she spun right into Donner’s waiting arms.
“Are you okay? I was two miles from Avalon when I heard what happened.” He did a visual welfare check and then shoved Belle behind him. “Is this what you’re resorting to now?” he barked, turning to confront his secret half-brother. “Kidnapping pregnant women and holding them against their will? What is wrong with you?”
Angus didn’t move a muscle, save for the ones controlling the loaded smirk spreading across his cheeks. He looked directly at Belle but didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. She’d heard all he had to say, and now had a decision to make.
“Why didn’t you use the bracelet?” Donner asked, cupping both her wrists in his massive hands.
“I wasn’t ready yet,” she said. “I wanted to hear what he—”
“Never mind,” he cut her off, just as both doors swung open and four guards stormed toward them. “Just get out of here now.”
“Donner Wickenham,” one of the men shouted, stun gun at the ready. “Sir, you’re under arrest.”
Belle attempted to block him. “Donner, you can’t—”
“Go!” he ordered just as their contact broke and the distance between them increased.
Belle lurched after him, suddenly aware that Angus was right about one thing—she did want to protect Donner. The real Donner. The Donner who gave up his freedom when he handed her that bracelet, and was risking it again now in order to save her. He had his flaws, that was for sure, but more than anything else, he was a victim. He was the product of an infantile father, a narcissistic mother, a vengeful fairy, and now a hateful half-brother who’d used “science” to sabotage his own body and turn him into a raging beast.
“Just clear your head and go!” Donner commanded again, suddenly lost behind a crowd of struggling uniforms. “I can’t get out of here until you do, Belle. Now!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
RAPUNZEL
Rapunzel couldn’t understand why Ethan was being so manic. In the few hours since he’d returned from Stularia, he’d been moody, combative, grouchy, impatient, and even outright aggressive—but not in that sexy, tie-me-to-the-bedpost sort of way. Sure, she’d left him alone on a deserted island, but it wasn’t her choice. Donner was pretty much calling the shots at that point. She expected him to be fatigued from all the jet setting, but also thought he’d be generally happy to see her. She thought twenty hours on an airplane would have given him time to cool off.
But when she stepped into his father’s viewing box just before the coronation, Ethan looked at her with eyes the color of blood. His hands were so shaky he could hardly hold the program, and he reeked of whiskey. The only thing he seemed to care about was finding Donner so he could refill the flask he’d given him just before they disappeared. He was talking like a junkie, getting more and more agitated until the ballroom launched into chaos and his mood took a sharp U-turn.
Now, as he sobbed into Snow White’s loveseat after hijacking a boat to Tantalise because Rapunzel said Donner might be there, she was beginning to suspect foul play.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” Grethel asked as he bear-hugged her legs and used her beaded skirt as a tissue.
Rapunzel shook her head. She’d encountered highs and lows like this a few times before, but only with professional athletes who took too many steroids. That wasn’t Ethan though. Ethan was always so cool under pressure. It was one of the reasons she’d fallen for him in the first place. Her Ethan always smirked through conflict and cut through tension to reveal the logical solution everyone else was too incensed to see. She needed that Ethan now. They all did.
“I have no idea,” Rapunzel replied, wracking her brain for ideas. “I’ve never seen him this … volatile.”
Grethel made a painfully slow grimace, her eyes never leaving the emotional train wreck unfolding before them. “Do you know if he’s taking any new medications? It’s criminal the damage those can do to some people.”
Rapunzel frowned at this reminder about Grethel’s health, then frowned even deeper upon realizing she didn’t know whether Ethan took any medications at all. Or any vitamins, for that matter. A little extra D? A multi? Fish oil? Maybe Donner had been right. Good, earnest girlfriends were supposed to make note of such things. Ethan probably had her entire maintenance routine down pat, right down to her go-to brand of hair elastics. But that didn’t mean he was more serious about their relationship than she was. Did it?
“How about drugs?” Grethel tried again.
Rapunzel shook her head immediately. “No. I mean…” She faltered, unsure how to answer the question that usually preceded a story about her parents trading her to a witch to feed their rampion addiction.
“It’s okay, I’ve heard the spiel.” Grethel shifted her focus to the kitchen, where Snow was warming a bottle on the stove. She then panned to Ruby, who was perched in front of the news like Beast watching Gray prepare a steak dinner. “What do you think should be our next move?”
Rapunzel yanked her mangled dress from Ethan’s fist and replaced it with a hemp throw pillow. “I don’t know. But I was never a fan of this triad nonsense to begin with. I said from Day One that all we needed was a shred of proof and a good headline vilifying Angus. Though at this point, I might just pay him a visit at gunpoint and—”
A deafening roar swept through the house, followed by the sound of a dozen dishes shattering on the kitchen floor. Rapunzel jumped to her feet, sending Ethan face-first onto the cork flooring, and raced towards the noise. “Is Belle back?” she called, careening around the butcher-block island. “What in the world was—”
But before she could finish, she caught sight of Elmina and came to a screeching halt.
“Oh,” she said, not bothering to mask her disappointment. “You still haven’t found Belle? Did you try every place I said? The Phoenix? My apartment? Braddax Castle and the old abbey on the far side of the property?”
Elmina gave her an exasperated look, then pulled off her sandal and tipped it over Snow’s sink. A stream of dirt poured out.
“What about the zoo?” Rapunzel tried again. Elmina whacked her footwear against the sink five times, then reached down for her other foot. “She goes there sometimes when she needs to thi—”
“I checked the inn, the castle, the abbey, the gardens, the Hall of Curiosities, your apartment, as much of midtown Carpale as I could access, and every square inch of Selladóre— coast to coast. But like I told you before, I can’t evaporate everywhere. If she’s in a private building that I don’t have permission to enter, I…” She stopped, looked pointedly at Rapunzel, and let out an exhausted sigh. “Fine. Do you really think she would have gone to the zoo at a time like this? Chances are if she was wearing that bracelet you told me about, she would have come here. And if she wasn’t, she couldn’t have gotten that far from Selladóre without anyone noticing. The Braddax Zoo is what, a ferry ride and five miles away?”
Rapunzel stared at her but didn’t answer. Even pregnant, Belle was known to take Beast for ten-mile hikes and still be back in time to fix breakfast for everyone at the inn. If she wanted to travel five miles without anyone noticing, she could. “You’re the only one who can transport another person with your little magical teleportation act,” she said. “Please.”
Elmina shoved her sandal back on and leered at her. “Fine. Fifteen minutes. If I don’t find her by then, I’m coming back and we need to talk about our other problems.”
But no sooner did she disappear again than a second blast rang out. More pots clamored to the ground.
“Belle!” Rapunzel shrieked as she materialized directly behind Snow, knocking the teakettle into a tower of cookware. The lid of a saucepan rolled into the living room and wobbled frantically before finally stopping at the base of a potted aloe plant. “What happened? Where did you go? We’ve been worried s—”
“Where is he?” she hollered, racing into the living room, then down the hallway, then toward the window to look outside.
“Huh. Where’s who?”
“Donner! He should have been right behind me.”
“Donner?” Rapunzel repeated, unsure she’d heard her correctly. “Why would Donner be here? We don’t even know where Hazel is. Apparently she disappeared as soon as the Marestam Guard showed up, which I think means she might have sold us out.”
“She did,” Belle said, not at all the reaction Rapunzel was expecting.
“What?” Ruby asked, turning away from the news. “Are you sure?”
Belle nodded but still seemed intensely preoccupied. “Yes. I mean no. I mean that’s what Angus seemed to in—”
“Hold on,” Ruby interrupted. “You were just with Angus?”
“And Donner?” Rapunzel chimed in.
Belle stopped, then nodded, then launched into a wild rant about Angus being Donner’s half brother and plotting vengeance against the monarchies for decades. “He didn’t seem to know about Jacara’s magic though. He swears he would never use magic because he hates it so much, but I’m pretty sure he had something to do with Donner’s rampage anyway. He said something about science and hormones and how they can affect the brain. I think he spiked Donner’s—”
“Spiked Donner’s whiskey with enough steroids to enrage a rhinoceros?” Rapunzel interrupted, giving Ethan a nauseated—though moderately relieved—glance. “Yeah, that actually makes sense.” Belle followed her friend’s gaze, then gave her a look of both pity and solidarity. “But unless you were downing poisoned whiskey while you were pregnant, that doesn’t explain Rye.”
Belle paused. From the look on her face, this hadn’t occurred to her.
“It was just horrible timing,” Ruby interrupted, her tone almost one of relief. “That makes sense. That’s why the curse seemed so much stronger—so much angrier—than the original.” Rapunzel turned her eyes into slits and focused extra carefully on Ruby’s tone of voice, on her mannerisms, on how long she maintained eye contact as she spoke. She hadn’t forgotten the discussion with her friends a few hours earlier.
“He should be here by now,” Belle murmured just as the skies opened up and the outside became a soaking blur. “Why isn’t he here yet? He said he was two miles from Avalon.” Her huge brown eyes widened. “He could have been free. There’s no way he’s getting a fair trial if Angus is calling the shots. He’ll probably resurrect the death penalty just for that day, and then I’d be responsible for Rye never knowing his father.”
No one spoke—more out of fear than a lack of opinion—until a tiny voice from upstairs broke the silence. “Da!” it called, clear as a glass breaking during a funeral. “Dadada!”
Snow was at the foot of the stairs in seconds, warm bottle in hand. “I’ll get him,” she said as two more cracks rang out and a dark, hulking figure appeared in the rapidly shrinking room.
“Donner!” Belle called, rushing forward and throwing her arms around him. Donner stood there like a flagpole, then gave a humble smile, slid his arms under hers, and gently nudged her back.
“I’m fine,” he said as Rapunzel ground her teeth. But before she could say anything, an even scarier sight appeared beside the schizophrenic who’d ruined her best friend’s life: his mother.
Rapunzel immediately pulled Grethel aside and told her to go upstairs and keep Rye hidden. The last thing anyone needed was for Hazel Wickenham to realize Belle was no longer carrying her grandson—and was therefore fully expendable.
“There you are,” Hazel proclaimed, staring down the room but barely glancing at Donner. Her ordinarily perfect hair was sopping wet and stretched out in all directions—across her forehead, around her neck, swirled over the mascara that had puddled atop her cheeks. She looked more like a half-drowned mouse than the former queen of a kingdom. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you people. I must have missed the emergency rendezvous memo. Someone neglected to inform me that we were all supposed to turn tail at the first sign of trouble and hide in the woods. You do realize this wasn’t a dress rehearsal, right? My son is cursed and Marestam is in danger and you—”
“Oh, stop it,” Belle commanded.
Hazel’s head jerked back while her neck arched forward. “Excuse me?”
Belle pressed her hands into her hips and made herself as tall as possible. “Stop the act, Hazel. “We know you tipped off Angus.” Her eyes darted to Donner’s, as if asking for verification—or forgiveness. His look was one of disappointment, but not shock. “You’re the reason the triad failed and Donner’s still cursed.”
Hazel blinked a dozen times in five seconds but said nothing—which, for all intents and purposes, said everything.
Belle opened her mouth to ask why, but Donner beat her to it.
“How could you?” he snapped, lunging between his wife and his mother. “That was the only way for Rye to—” He glanced toward the stairs but stopped himself. So he hadn’t told her. Then, more subdued: “You have no idea what you did.”
“They were supposed to wait until after we broke the spell,” Hazel said, sounding simultaneously guilty, weak, and furious. “I didn’t want your curse to break just so these people could toss you in a jail cell for the rest of your life. But the only way you were going to keep any semblance of your old life was if I gave that snake something in exchange.”
“Something like the destr
uction of Marestam and the death of a thousand innocent people?” Belle growled, the ferocity in her voice taking even Rapunzel by surprise.
“The death of a thousand innocent people?” Hazel repeated, her focus narrowing on her daughter-in-law. “Now that’s more than a tad melodramatic, don’t you think?”
“No, it’s actually not,” Belle countered, getting her mother-in-law up to speed on Jacara’s abilities and how Angus could use them to undo the magic keeping every Selladórean alive. “Plus,” she said as Hazel denied knowing anything about this, “you ruined your son’s only chance to live a normal, curse-free life. Even if he had to do it outside of Marestam, at least—”
“Oh, that wasn’t his only chance,” Hazel corrected, quickly forgetting the whole Selladórean genocide thing. “There’s one other way to break Donner’s curse—a way that guarantees it will never, ever come back.”
Silence descended as everyone waited for Hazel to continue on her own. But for minutes, she just stood there, arms crossed, weight on one leg, chewing on her tongue and staring at Ruby.
“No one here is in the mood for this crap,” Rapunzel finally said, taking it upon herself to put an end to these games. “Unless you found the cure for all curses at the bottom of a hurricane glass, I highly doubt you know anything we haven’t already thought of, tried, and discounted. So spit it out already. I’m dying to know what it is you think you know that flew under everyone else’s radar.”
The whole room waited as a tiny little smile opened up along the far corner of Hazel Wickenham’s lips and slowly rose up her left cheek. “What do I know?” she asked, uncrossing her arms and inching forward. “I know that no one here actually cares about Donner. I know you think Ruby just used that as bait so I would join her stupid triad and find your missing friends—even though all she really wanted to do was get her powers back. And I know you truly believe Angus is the one responsible for what happened to my son even though—”
