Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (45 page)

Not exactly surprised at Snow White's willingness to forgive, Cinderella was still amazed by it, and wondered if such a tendency was wise as, with a tug,
she pulled Rapunzel away from the others.

Glancing toward King Balten, who was making fast work of readying his mount nearby, Cinderella turned to Rapunzel with a heaviness of heart she could not
lift. "The crows," she said, holding tightly to Rapunzel's hand. "They said the queen has a plan."

"What kind of plan?" Rapunzel asked.

"They did not say."

"To help us?"

"They did not say that either," Cinderella replied, watching the understanding set in on Rapunzel's face.

"So, we do not know what the queen will do," she surmised quietly.

"We do not know what the queen will do," Cinderella acknowledged. "But, apparently, the giant will have a part."

"Well..." Rapunzel said, and that pretty much captured Cinderella's thoughts on the matter. "Are you going to tell them?"

"That it may be a trap, and we may all die?" Cinderella returned. "Yes, I do not feel that is something I can keep from them. They have a right to stay
behind." As Rapunzel nodded her agreement, Cinderella's eyes locked on the scrape on one high cheek bone, flesh ridged and raw, edges rimmed in purple, and
wondered how many more marks she would be responsible for putting on Rapunzel's face. "As do you," she whispered, and blue eyes rose swiftly to her own.
"I called this fight with Grimm, I began it, I..."

Stepping suddenly forward, Rapunzel seized Cinderella's face, so she was forced to meet the steady blue gaze. "We," Rapunzel proclaimed. "It is 'we' now.
It will be 'we' from now on."

The voice pouring so softly from her lips, Cinderella swore she heard the song in it, and, tears slipping down her face, they felt nothing like weakness,
but as if they fortified her as they ran. Threading her fingers through white-blonde hair, she pulled Rapunzel closer, lips pressing to those so soft they
were a balm against all else in the world.

Pulling away before she could get lost in them forever, Cinderella turned to the clearing, Rapunzel's hand sliding into hers giving her a confidence her
past had never afforded her.

"The crows said there is a plan," Cinderella declared. "It is the plan of the queen. I do not know her intention. I do not know if she is truly with us.
When we go in, we go in not knowing. I do not care to return to Grimm's plan," she continued. "I do not care to lose what I have found. I choose it over
any other life. If you want only to live, I trust you will be safer staying here. So, who is staying? For I should like to say goodbye."

The quiet upon the clearing was so deep, Cinderella swore she heard the wind blowing through the needles of the missing Juniper tree, but there were no
deserters.

"Not one?" she asked in surprise.

Stepping forward between Jack and Snow White, Christophe looked a different man, a determined man, as his hand flexed against the thin sword he had found
amongst the dwarves' supply. "We have all lost," he said quietly. "But I believe we, like you, would like to keep what we have found."

The truth of Christophe's words gazing back at her from every face, Cinderella did not know what else to say.

"Ladies?" King Balten said when the silence ran long.

"Only one of them is," Esteban sniggered, and, even in the midst of the greatest uncertainty, it brought a smile to most faces, including Cinderella's as
she turned to the king.

"Shall we ride?" he asked.

"Yes." Cinderella nodded. "Let us ride."

S
ome light remained, against all sense, as their amateur brigade rode up to the black slick, but there was still an overwhelming darkness about the ring of
land that surrounded the Gulf of Broken Dreams.

"You must have been so scared," Rapunzel whispered, voice awed as she gazed over Cinderella's shoulder at the dark fall of liquid.

"Not nearly as scared as I am now," Cinderella confessed, but she nudged their steed toward the black curtain anyway, listening to the echo of hoof beats as
the others followed as if on command.

Horse protesting as they started through the frigid curtain, Cinderella ran a tremulous hand against its neck and pressed her knees more firmly to its
sides, offering comfort even as she compelled it into danger, which was all she could do for any of them.

She had warned them of the Gulf's effects, what they might see, what they might feel as they rode, providing enough detail so that they might truly
understand its horrors, and, yet, she knew she could not prepare them for it. Even having experienced it firsthand, she felt decidedly unprepared to endure
those same tortures again.

At last beyond the wall, Cinderella was surprised by the light inside, as if it was high-sun on the brightest of days, instead of dwindling into night. It
gave the Gulf a deceptively pleasant appearance, which only increased Cinderella's fears. The dread pressing down upon her with the cold, though, the other
horrors did not come, and the only hallucination, if it was hallucination, was Grimm, standing alone in the Gulf's core, watching without fear as they
circled around him.

His eyes observant, they waited for something more than they saw. Their suffering, Cinderella realized, as Grimm's eyes narrowed.

"Who combated the effects?" he demanded.

"Come now, Grimm," Cinderella smiled, though the uncertainty still weighed heavy upon her. "You, yourself, made Rapunzel the daughter of a great sorceress.
You cannot tell me you expected no continuation of power."

"But... but..." Grimm stammered. "She is not her real daughter."

"Oh," Cinderella feigned shock. "I guess we do feel weakened then."

At the sudden quaking that shook the Gulf, true weakness came. Their horses tottering into each other, there were shouts as the riders fought to hold on.
The mount that Christophe and Esteban shared lost its balance and fell, and they rolled across the Gulf floor.

"Are you all right?" Rapunzel called out to them.

"We are fine," Christophe said, helping Esteban to his feet and pulling his sword, ready for whatever came next.

If Christophe was truly ready, he was the only one, Cinderella thought, as countless recognizable faces appeared in the trees. Brandishing swords and bows
and arrows and daggers made of steel and leather, truer weapons than any their ragtag troop carried, save for King Balten's sword and the sword of Prince
Salimen that longed to draw Grimm's blood at Cinderella's hip, more and more enemies poured in. That was when Cinderella realized, Grimm was surrounded,
but so were they.

Across the way, she watched the sorceress smile in wicked delight, as Prince Salimen and his guards flanked her on one side and Prince Friedrich stepped up
at her other, but Queen Ino was nowhere in sight.

A subdued chuckle issuing forth from Grimm, Cinderella's gaze snapped to him, and she wanted nothing more than to tear the grin from his face.

"Feeling a bit... trapped?" he asked.

"Are you?" she countered.

"I feel well protected," Grimm assured her. "For I know something you do not know."

"Oh, I am sure you know many things I do not know," Cinderella returned. "Methods of torture through the ages. How to persecute and irk without even
trying. Being a prick, but avoiding the gallows: a layman's guide."

Laughing easily as the earth shook with such brutality more horses toppled and several pained cries filled the air, Grimm seemed pleased at the
consequence, and Cinderella did not dare pull her eyes from him to look for the victims.

"Defiant and cutting to the end," Grimm said when the rumbling finally ceased.

"Well, if I am going out," Cinderella declared. "I am doing so with style."

"Going out?" Grimm looked honestly surprised at the statement. "Why would you think I even want that? You know my motivation has always been your happy
ending."

"Yes." Cinderella's eyes roamed to the so-called Princes Charming and Alluring. "And you know our ideas of my happy ending differ drastically. For we have
already had this discussion, and I am tired of talking to you."

With a small laugh that looked less than humored, Grimm cast his eyes to the ground at his feet, looking up again with a piercing stare Cinderella found
far more honest than his attempts at civility.

"Step forward to me, Cinderella." His invitation was still polite, and Rapunzel's arms tightened around Cinderella's waist in drastic measure.

"Cin, please do not." Rapunzel's head burrowed against the back of her neck. "Please."

Grip desperate, but relenting, Cinderella pried it free, slinging her leg over the neck of the horse, and turned to face Rapunzel. The tears pooling in
them made her eyes sparkle, and, battered, exhausted and afraid, Rapunzel still possessed greater strength, and gave Cinderella more strength, than she
knew.

"You are the most incredible thing I have ever known," Cinderella declared, fingers whispering over a fading bruise on Rapunzel's jaw. "I love you."

"I love you," Rapunzel sobbed back, and Cinderella pressed a firm kiss against a mouth that would offer more protest if given the chance, jumping from the
mount before Rapunzel could further resist.

Turning toward Grimm, hand wrapping anxiously around the hilt of Prince Salimen's sword, Cinderella took only a few steps before a blade she recognized by
feel pressed between her shoulders. Wondering just how many times she would come into contact with the same piercing chunk of silver, she glanced back,
eyes skimming the familiar design of the dagger before alighting on Queen Ino's proud countenance.

With a flick of her hand, the queen knocked Cinderella's own hand from the hilt, and she pulled the sword from Cinderella's hip, tossing it back to a
waiting soldier.

"Be as smart as I know you are, Cinderella," Queen Ino advised her. "Listen to your creator." Then, the queen gave a hard thrust forward with the dagger,
and Cinderella choked back a howl of pain as the blade split the fabric of her dress and sunk deep into her flesh. Yanking the dagger free, Queen Ino's
smile looked unmistakably cruel, and Cinderella realized she was at the mercy of her enemies as she marched to meet Grimm.

It was the yell of Rapunzel that halted her approach once more, and she turned as Queen Ino dragged Rapunzel from the stallion's back, wishing it was
illusion, knowing it was not. The dagger's point threatening against Rapunzel's throat, Cinderella could see her own blood upon the blade, as more enemies
stripped her friends from their mounts.

"This, My Jewel, is what defeat looks like," Grimm casually informed her, and Cinderella pulled her gaze from the fear in Rapunzel's eyes to look at him.
"It is unfortunate really, as far as you have come, and incredible the brave face you still manage to put on, even when you stand at your end."

"If the choice is living under your rule or death, death will be a pleasure," Cinderella replied, though her thoughts with Rapunzel at her back, she did
wish more time.

"You think I am going to kill you now?" Grimm sounded appalled by the prospect, and Cinderella swallowed, more at ease when death was the paramount threat.
With all she had already endured at Grimm's hand, she could only imagine the tortures that lived inside his mind. "How many times do I have to prove to you
I do not want to get rid of you? You are my masterpiece."

Reaching out, his fingers feathered against Cinderella's hair, and she knocked his arm away, groaning as it made painful contact.

"Ah, see this." Grimm smiled, even as he cradled his arm against his chest, fingers rubbing out the pain Cinderella knew must throb through it. "We are not
just illusion to each other anymore. Can you believe it? I invented a magic powerful enough it transcends worlds." He was so delighted, he looked almost a
child, and Cinderella could not understand how a man so happy to create could also be so happy to destroy. "Do you not want to live in such a mastery of
creation, Cinderella? Do you not want to be happy here?"

"I want what is real," Cinderella countered, ground suddenly shuddering with a force that sent Grimm to his knees, as a slender crack opened the earth
between them.

Eyes following the jagged formation, Grimm smiled at the metaphor.

"Whatever it is you want, Cinderella," Grimm stated, pushing back to his feet. "You are a foolish girl to think you know what is best for you. You will
want what I want."

"A foolish girl?" Cinderella's laughter was hollow. "Of course. Does it not shame you then that I am such a threat to you?"

"You are no threat to me." Grimm's humor diminished.

"No?" Cinderella took a step closer. "You sent a prince for me. I outran him. You sent guards for me. I escaped them. You sent butterflies to take my
friends from me, and they failed. You tried to rip a cottage of treats out from under our feet, but you were too late. You took those that Sawyer and
Christophe and Stace love, thinking they would blame me, but they do not. You sent five people to kill me, and one to my rescue. I escaped them all. You
took Rapunzel. I got her back. You have come after me again..." Cinderella's hand pushed against his chest. "And again...." She pushed harder. "And
again..." Grimm stumbled, looking around the clearing at the witnesses as he lifted himself back to full height. "And I survived you. Strange..."
Cinderella shook her head. "Now that I say it out loud, I sound quite like a threat to you."

"You could not have done all that alone," Grimm declared. Anger growing at her insolence, he wondered if he was being too kind in sparing her life.
Perhaps, he was just too tenderhearted.

"You are right." Cinderella nodded, realization narrowing her gaze as she stepped closer. "I did some of it. My friends, they did some of it. There is no
way that alone, though, I could have opened the kingdoms. That, I imagine, was my mother. You see, Grimm, you can write about a mother's love, but that
love will always be stronger than any words you can put on a page.