Blood Red (64 page)

Vivi Anna

movement caused Rapunzel to roll toward her. Red pushed her back over to the side. She put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.

Wolf watched her and smiled. He took a pull on the wine. She would stay. He had never known her to run from a fight. And she would fight fiercely. She would never walk away from an opportunity to exact revenge on her captors. She would kill them for imprisoning her for a time, never knowing that they had been imprisoning her her whole life. He was unsure if he would tell her the whole truth. Maybe it was best for her to act under her own agenda, and not be burdened with the fate of the world on her shoulders.

“Wolf?” Red murmured. “What is the prophecy?”

He looked over at her. She was staring at him with clear green eyes. Like emeralds, he always thought.

“It’s nothing. You would not believe me even if I told you.”

“No, probably not.” She closed her eyes and tumbled into sleep.

Wolf watched her sleep. She was as still as a board.

The only indication of her slumber was the deep steady breathing, the twitching of her eyes under her lids. Her pale face was slack and she looked almost at peace. But Wolf knew she was not. Nor ever would be. He finished the last of the bread and leaned his head back against the wall. He struggled with it, but eventually succumbed to his own troubled sleep.

Red ran through the castle corridor. Her sword and
shield were wet with fresh blood. Her own arm ached from
the wound on her shoulder. Blood dripped down her arm.

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Blood Red

She reached the ornate wooden door and pushed it open.

A guard advanced on her. She slayed him with swiftness
and ease. He fell dead at her feet. She continued into the
room. The room she remembered from her dreams.

They were there. The tall spindly men. The ones that
looked like old withered willow trees. The Brothers Grimm.

They were talking animatedly with another man. A man
with long black hair and glowing eyes.

Wolf.

Wolf turned to her as she rushed into the room. The
guilty look on his face screamed to her. She stopped in
midstride, sword raised.

The spindly man pointed at her. “Slay her! We paid you
a king’s ransom to kill her. Now kill her!”

Red looked at Wolf, pleading in her eyes. “Is this true?

You have been hired to kill me?”

“Yes, once upon a time. But I would die a thousand
deaths before I would ever see you dead.”

“That can be arranged.” The spindly man drove a
dagger into Wolf’s chest, piercing his heart.

“NO!” Red ran to them, her sword raised high
overhead.

Red bolted out of her sleep when a hand clamped down on her mouth. She struggled against the restraint, but to no avail. The man that held her was strong. She looked up into his wide round face.

He was bigger than any man she had ever seen. He was much taller and wider than Wolf. Her thigh could easily pass as one of his biceps. Hers were probably too skinny. His ginger-colored hair was long and shaggy, and his face was covered with a scraggy beard. His brown eyes were big and round, and to 127