Blood, Milk & Chocolate - Part 1 (The Grimm Diaries Book 3)

by Cameron Jace

  "Go away, Carmilla!" he said, shocking me. Never had he asked me to leave his proximity. He'd always felt stripped and naked without me near.

  "Angel," I pleaded. "What are you saying? I need your help. I saw those mermaids, and they scared me."

  "Go away!" He sounded like when I saw him in the dungeon, hurt and angry, and not quite himself.

  "What's going on, Angel?" I pounded harder, the door almost giving way. "Are you hurt? Should I be calling someone?"

  "For the love of all good things, please just go, Carmilla," he growled.

  Then I heard the mermaids hum that unmemorable tune again. Angel ached harder. Of course. It was the same tune his father had used on him. I could tell that, but couldn't remember it. So unusual.

  But I couldn't help myself. Angel was everything to me. I pounded through and broke the door open. Angel had his head buried between his knees, sweating and shivering.

  "Angel." I meant to approach, but before I did, he raised his head, and I saw his reddened eyes and the thick veins sticking out his neck.

  "Make them stop, Carmilla," he panted. "Please." He clapped his ears with his hands. His fingernails had strangely grown longer, as if he were changing into a beast.

  "I don't know how to do that," I said, agonizing as much as he did.

  "Then lock me in and go away," he growled. "I could hurt you, Carmilla. I could hurt you so bad, and I don't want to."

  I was speechless, feeling foolish and naive. But my attraction for him cemented me nearby.

  "As long as they play that tune, the urge to turn into a full vampire intensifies," he said. "My father must have sent them."

  I wanted to tell him that they looked like they had been sent by the nameless witch, not his father, that they wanted me, not him. But then, how did they know about this tune?

  Angel sprang to his feet. Faster than anything I had encountered, he grabbed me by my neck and snarled at me, my back to the ship's rail outside. How did he move so fast?

  "I want to have your blood right now," he said, not sounding like Angel anymore. "You have no idea how this feels."

  For a moment, I thought this was it. This was the end of our short-lived love story, where a beauty—supposedly me at the time, before the world got to me—was going to get bitten by the beast, Angel Von Sorrow. This was the moment when I was about to realize that my mother was right in not approving of our love. This was the moment when I realized that trying to break the rules by staring at my reflection in the Pond of Pearls was what brought me here. This…was the end of me.

  Maybe the mermaids were right; there was a reason why me and Angel shouldn't have been together.

  I closed my eyes, my vein pulsing and ready to be sliced open by the one I loved dearly. Was I going to turn into a vampire like him? Were we both going to be gifted—and cursed—with immortality? I had no idea. All I did was wait for his teeth to sink into my soul.

  29

  Fable's Dreamworld

  "You're not going to stare at my hands all day, right?" Cerené said, taking Fable in her arms.

  Fable let Cerené hug her while she stood cemented in Jack's hiding place above the clouds. The beauty of where he lived had been sucked away with the shocking revelation. Fable, the pigtailed, naive wannabe witch, was one of the Lost Seven—her mind hadn't the strength to argue with Cerené and ask how she was still alive. Her own revelation was her priority.

  What made it worse was that in the context of the dream, she couldn't ask anyone how this was possible. If she exposed herself and told them she came from another world, the dream would collapse and she wouldn't be able to help Shew and Loki—and that was if the Lost Seven didn't laugh at her.

  Cerené's arms were warm. It looked like she and Fable had been good friends. Fable wondered if this meant she was friends with Shew as well in the past. But how was all of this possible? The only thing that made sense was that her vision of Loki trying to kill her in Shew's last Dreamory was real. It was true. Somewhere in the past, Fable lived with her brother Axel in a small town in Sorrow called Furry Tell. And one day, Loki, the Huntsman, came looking for young lads with "splinters in their eyes" for the Queen of Sorrow, and was about to kill Fable.

  Tears rolled out of Fable's eyes as Cerené hugged her. She was devastated, both happy and sad, confused and feeling so lonely in Cerené's arms. After all, they were two people coming from two different centuries, and only Fable knew that.

  "Don't cry, Fable," Cerené whispered in her ear. Fable wondered why she whispered. "We don't want them to know what happened to you. I didn't tell anyone." Fable's confusion tripled. What was Cerené talking about? "Better not tell them your powers now," Cerené said. "They wouldn't understand."

  Fable assumed this had to do with when she woke up in the middle of the forest minutes ago. She had been scared and sweating and wanting to run away from something. Why did she wake up in the middle of the dream? And if she had to accept being one of the Lost Seven, what was it that had happened to her?

  "Welcome back." A quirky girl in a red cape approached Fable as Cerené pulled away. "Fable and Ladle always make a good team." The girl winked at her as she put her scythe to the side. Was that Little Red Riding Hood? Fable smiled meekly at the girl, wondering if her name was really Ladle. Who named their daughter Ladle, and why did she walk around with a scythe?

  "Here, I cooked you a fish." A partially naked girl with hair dangling onto her breasts approached Fable. "I don't know where you have been, but you surely look hungry." The girl patted her and handed her a pan with a cooked fish. She had a neat smile, and neater body. Fable supposed she was a mermaid. But she didn't remember seeing a mermaid mentioned as one of the Lost Seven in J.G.'s diary.

  Suddenly, Fable realized who the girl with the scythe was. She was the Reaper. Fable had seen it in the drawings of tarot cards in the diary with Axel. But who was the mermaid—and more importantly, who was Fable?

  Fable put the pan aside and walked through Jack's magnificent hideout above the clouds. The bed of the trees up there was strong enough that she didn't worry about falling through. It was as if the earth had been lifted up here. Jack's home seemed to have no end. In fact, it was like a little forest with a few cottages around. There must have been an edge she shouldn't be crossing, but she couldn't see it.

  Titling her head up, she saw how ridiculously close the moon looked from here. All those glittering stars and fluttering birds made it look like she was in heaven. Jack seemed to love pumpkins, because they were everywhere, along with the endless trophies he'd stolen.

  But Fable wasn't looking for that. She was looking for the last two of the Lost Seven. She realized Ladle, a.k.a. Red Riding Hood, was the Reaper. Jack was the Thief. Cerené was Cinderella, the Phoenix. The mermaid girl, whom Jack called Marmalade, was…maybe the Moon, as mentioned in the diary? Because the girl didn't look like the Beast or a Star to Fable.

  Wait! Fable thought.

  She had figured by now she was the Witch. Actually, she had known this a few minutes ago, but couldn't let the idea sink in. A grand, satisfied smile curved on her lips. So she wasn't a loser witch like her mom anymore? She was really a witch. She wondered what her power was, the one Cerené had told her not to tell the other Lost Seven about.

  Fable turned around and asked, "Where are the others?"

  "Are you asking about me?" a voice called from the dark.

  Fable tried to act normal and not to wince. She knew where the voice was coming from—somewhere under the shades of many leaves where no light shone through. She squinted to look harder, but her poor sight wasn't helping.

  "Don't try to persuade the Beast out of the dark." Cerené patted Fable. "He won't come out."

  "It's nice to see you, too, Cerené," the voice from the dark said.

  "You're welcome, Beast." Cerené laughed.

  "When are you going to realize that you're not ugly?" Ladle told him. "Come out, eat something, Beauty."

  Fable thought it was a nice
touch from Ladle to call him "Beauty," although she didn't know why he was called a beast.

  "Marmalade gave me a fish," the Beast said. His voice was calm, raw, as if he were older—wiser, maybe?

  "So where is the Star?" Fable tried to sound casual.

  "The Star isn't coming," Cerené told her, knotting her face, as if Fable shouldn't have asked.

  Fable shrugged and went to eat a fish. She noticed how she was almost everyone's favorite. Everyone patted her and took extra care of her. It dawned on her that she was the youngest, too. Maybe that was the reason.

  Fable continued eating, wondering how she should bring up the subject of Loki's Fleece. She didn't have to wait long, though. Cerené brought up the subject on her own. After all, this was supposed to be some kind of meeting.

  "So, here is my plan," Cerené said, tapping her blowpipe on her hand. "The only way to save Shew is to go to the Schloss and free her ourselves. We're not going to wait until the Queen of Sorrow consumes her heart."

  Everyone seemed to listen with great interest, but Fable needed to put the pieces together. The timeline of this dream's events confused her. She assumed that this happened after Loki had cut off Cerené's hands, and that Cerené had been resurrected somehow. It had to be, because Shew never mentioned Cerené knowing the Lost Seven. Or…

  "That's one hell of a daring rescue," Marmalade said, not really encouraged by the suggestion.

  "Anyone have another way to save her?" Cerené said. "We all know what it means if the Queen consumes her heart."

  Fable didn't know, but assumed there was more to the Queen preserving her beauty than what she previously knew.

  "Last time Loki cut off your hands, Cerené," Marmalade argued. "I have no idea how you were resurrected, but I'm glad you are. Do you want to risk Loki killing any of us again?"

  "It's the right thing to do!" Ladle waved her scythe happily. Everyone ducked to avoid accidentally dying before their time by the hands of a reckless reaper. "We have to save Shew." Ladle didn't seem to notice she was about kill someone. "And Cerené, we don't need to know how you came back, nor do we need to know where Fable has been all this time. All that matters is we're all together."

  "Of course Ladle would encourage you." Marmalade pursed her lips. Fable sensed that Marmalade was acting like a leader in this meeting. "She is Death. She isn't afraid to die."

  "Don't listen to my girl, Ladle." Jack bumped Ladle playfully as he leaned against a tree with that same white feather between his teeth. Of course, he had his hat on. Fable was surprised he and Marmalade were together. "But it would be neat if you woke up and discovered it was your turn to die today," he teased her.

  "Stop joking, Jack," Marmalade puffed.

  Jack rolled his eyes then winked at Fable, as if telling her Marmalade was nuts.

  "Last time, all of you sent me to the Schloss to befriend Shew and help her escape on her sixteenth birthday," Cerené told everyone. Fable grimaced at the revelation. "I did my best, and was about to save her. I understand that you couldn't reveal yourselves then. But look at what happened."

  "We were lucky Shew's heart wasn't really twenty-one grams that day," Ladle commented.

  "Thanks to Loki stabbing Shew so many times, she lost so much blood and her heart weighed less, or the Queen would have consumed it any time later."

  "Wait." Fable had to interrupt. "I don't understand." She partially didn't care if she'd acted out of the context of the dream. She had to know what had happened on the night of the last Dreamory.

  "Didn't we tell you about this before?" Marmalade sighed. Fable began to not like her.

  "She is the youngest," Jack told Marmalade calmly. "Sometimes I think it's unfair to drag her into this, so be gentle." Fable liked how Jack didn't lose his temper, although he seemed to be blaming Marmalade. "Fable"—he turned to her—"here is what happened. On Shew's sixteenth birthday her heart did weigh twenty-one grams at the Queen's measuring table in the castle. Luckily it turned out that her heart could lose its weight within seven days. When Loki fought Shew in the forest, he wounded her. She also bled more crossing the Wall of Thorns, which led to her heart's weight decreasing. It wasn't twenty-one grams anymore, so consuming it would be pointless. The Queen managed to hunt Shew down and imprison her in the Rapunzel Tower, waiting for her heart to weigh twenty-one grams again."

  "Oh." Fable tried not to look shocked at the details. A few things made sense now. The events of this dream were days or months after Shew's Dreamory. Cerené had been mysteriously resurrected, like she was supposed to be, as she was the Phoenix, although no one knew the details. And Shew's heart wasn't twenty-one grams again. "And Loki? Shew killed him, right?" Fable had to check, and wished it wasn't true, or there would be no Loki and Shew moment.

  "She did." Marmalade sounded calmer, realizing she had been harsh on Fable. "But Loki is a Dreamhunter. A half-angel. He doesn't really die. He gets what they like to call 'unshadowed.'"

  "Unshadowed?" Fable squinted.

  "Angels are buried in the water of the Missing Mile in the Seven Seas," Marmalade explained. "They can stay there forever and be considered dead, unless someone bails them out or convinces the creators to bring them back. The Queen of Sorrow manipulated someone and brought him back. Don't ask me how. They say he returned even worse than before."

  "All this happened while I was away?" Fable asked, trying to complete the puzzle in her head.

  Cerené nodded, and gazed at Fable again, as if reminding her not to spill the secrets of where she had been. Why did only Cerené know about Fable's past? It seemed not to matter now. "See? We have to go get Shew from the Schloss ourselves, even if it means confronting Loki and the Queen of Sorrow herself."

  "Entering the Schloss is almost impossible," Marmalade said. "It's not only guarded by Loki's cruelest huntsmen, it's guarding itself in many ways. The Schloss has a soul."

  "To get in, we have to sneak past its soul." Ladle seemed not to have a problem with the Schloss.

  "I approached it once," Marmalade said. "Just from afar, and felt a dark presence that scared me away immediately. This is more than mere magic. The Schloss seemed timeless, like an immortal who has lived a thousand lives." She looked paler now. "Some say the Schloss is alive, that it has lived a million lives before, in a million different places across the universe."

  "True," Cerené said. "It's such a scary castle, disguised as a beautiful mansion for the King and Queen. But I was in the Schloss many times. I know every part of it. I can enter through the chimneys and I know a few mazes inside. It's like a whole world of secret tunnels. Besides, we've got Jack. No one has stolen as much from the castle as he has. He gets in and out like a ghost."

  "Guilty as charged." Jack raised a hand. "Did you see the Queen's comb I stole? It tickles when you brush your hair." He chewed on his feather. Jack struck Fable as being nonchalant about Shew. Somehow he seemed not to like her much. Fable made a mental note to investigate that later.

  Marmalade eyed him, hands on her waist. Their relationship didn't seem to flow, Fable thought.

  "I'm in," the Beast finally said. "But this will not go smoothly. There will blood, and there will be killing. You better be prepared."

  "We have you, don't we?" Cerené smiled in his direction. It confirmed Fable's suspicions that the Beast was big and strong. "And we've got Death." She turned to Ladle.

  "I'm not allowed to kill unless ordered by the Tree of Life," Ladle said, pouting. Fable assumed the Tree of Life told Ladle whom to kill each day. "I shall not kill without being told to."

  "How about killing the huntsmen by accident?" Jack winked at her. "You were about to chop my head off accidentally a few minutes ago." Jack glanced upward briefly. "We can always fool the man up there with a few killings."

  Ladle giggled, then blushed. Fable thought Ladle and Jack would make a better couple.

  "Make Jack stop, Beauty," Ladle told the Beast.

  The Beast laughed from the dark. "Jaaack!" was all he said. Jack
nodded back with respect.

  "And you?" Marmalade said to Fable.

  Fable shrugged. Although she had felt really feisty in the Waking World this morning, she doubted she had any talent for fighting. She wondered about the power she possessed that Cerené had told her not to speak of. "I don't think I can fight," she said feebly.

  "Do you know of any magic tricks?" Jack winked at her. A few laughs scattered in the air. They weren't mean laughs. They just seemed to be close friends, and making fun of each other would be taken lightly.

  "I know magic?" Fable said. Of course she knew magic. That was why she was obsessed with it in the real world. But would any of her silly spells help in the Dreamworld?

  "Joking, little doll." Jack grabbed her legs and pulled her high. He flipped her on his back like a father would when playing with their child. Everyone smiled again, and Fable blushed, landing on her feet.

  "We all will take care of you, Fable," Ladle said. "But I'm sure you can help somehow in the castle."

  "So," Marmalade said, playing leader again. "How are we getting inside the Schloss?"

  "If you want to sneak past the Schloss' soul, you have to fool it into thinking you're one of its regular visitors," the Beast said with all confidence.

  "Great idea," Cerené said. "But who enters the Schloss freely without being questioned, other than Jack and me?"

  "The Queen!" Ladle chirped.

  "Stick to killing, Ladle." Jack nudged her playfully. "Thinking is not Death's business. Or Death wouldn't be killing anyone, really."

  "I have an idea," Fable found herself saying. She wasn't sure if she was interfering with the flow of events by interrupting. Maybe she was destined to say this. Maybe reliving the Dreamories never quite changed anything in the future like Babushka had said. "The huntsmen enter the Schloss every day with no one questioning them."

  Everyone exchanged gazes immediately. It seemed like they hadn't expected such an idea from Fable. She must not have been useful before.

  "You want us to show up as huntsmen?" Marmalade said admiringly.