Of Enemies and Endings

by Shelby Bach

  “Thanks.” I burst through the doors to the Canon’s building and shouted, “I know why the Snow Queen’s immortal!”

  The Director stared at me from her huge thronelike chair, carved all over with roses. She didn’t look like she’d been fired. She looked annoyed at the interruption. The thrones of the Canon members were arranged behind her.

  “Really?” Lena stood in front. They must have been swearing her in.

  “Rory, you weren’t invited,” the Director reminded me.

  Maybe I should have thought things through before I crashed the meeting. But this was huge news. “Didn’t you hear me before? I figured out how to stop the Snow Queen.”

  I expected shock. I expected gasps and relief.

  Instead, the Director sighed. “Rory, this entire meeting is about how to stop the Snow Queen and her forces. If you believe you have new information to share, you can wait your turn.”

  “But—” She couldn’t be serious.

  “Sit.” The Director stabbed a finger at the student representative section, completely unoccupied except for Chase. The Director must have wanted to ask him stuff. He was the only person in the room not staring at me.

  Sarah Thumb shot me a look that said, She’ll kick you out if you don’t do what she says.

  I picked a spot a couple feet from Chase.

  His gaze was on his dad, who was pointedly looking at the floor, at the other Canon members, everywhere but at his son. I wondered if Jack had been like that since Chase had come home from his Tale. Maybe that was why Chase’s face was so blank. Maybe it was armor against a father who was too embarrassed to acknowledge him.

  The Director turned back to Lena. “Tell me again, how many of those flying swords and axes can you make before the battle?”

  “None.” Lena squeezed her hands together so hard it would’ve hurt her if she could feel them. “I’m busy making spell shields. Now that the other witch clans have joined the Snow Queen, we’re going to need them.”

  The Director frowned at Lena. “Our numbers are paltry beside the Snow Queen’s. We need any means you have of allowing one individual to fight many.”

  Lena glanced at me. I tried to smile encouragingly. Then she spoke a little louder. “If you’re really worried about numbers, you should focus on stuff that will keep us alive, not stuff that’ll kill us if it falls into the wrong hands.”

  The Director’s voice softened, full of fake understanding. “We have full confidence that you’ll find a method which ensures more safety for the wielder.”

  Lena wasn’t having it. Her chin lifted the way it does when she feels stubborn. “I’ve tried to do that and failed twice. I’m not risking it again.”

  “You’ll do this,” the Director said, “even if we have to forcibly remove you to your workshop and keep you there until you finish.”

  I would have defended Lena, but I didn’t need to.

  Lena raised both her golden hands. I think she was just trying to make a point, but she didn’t have great control yet. The air crackled, like it was full of static electricity. The Canon representatives shifted nervously. Jack leaned back so far that his throne actually squeaked. This was the girl whose magic had lifted the Tree of Hope, and no one was really sure what she was capable of. “I have a new rule. I won’t make anything I would hate my enemies to use against us. I’ll make the shields. If you don’t like it, lock me in my workshop. Let’s see how long I stay there.”

  No one argued with her.

  Lena walked over to the extra-tall throne and threw herself into it. Then she looked at me with an Oh gumdrops, what have I done? expression.

  I was ridiculously proud of her.

  The Director turned my way, furious. I’m sure she blamed me, but Lena made her own choices. “Well?” Aurora asked.

  “The Snow Queen doesn’t have a heart,” I said. “She cut it out herself after Rapunzel left her. Magic rushed in—the magic that surrounds the bearer of an Unwritten Tale. Power flows in Solange’s veins instead of blood, just like Rapunzel said.”

  “That’s impossible,” said Rumpelstiltskin.

  But Lena had pressed her golden hands over her own heart like she was making sure it was still there. Even Chase had looked up.

  Sarah Thumb’s whole face brightened. “Solange has done lots of stuff Ever Afters always thought were impossible.”

  “We need to get the heart,” I said.

  “The heart’s gone,” Gretel said, confused. “After a sorcerer is made, they don’t keep the body part they lost. The magic replaces it. That’s the whole point.”

  “Not necessarily true,” Lena said. “I mean, yeah, I didn’t keep my hands, but losing a limb isn’t the same as losing a heart. You need a heart. Something has to pump a current through your body—whether it’s magic or oxygen.”

  “Koshei the Deathless,” said Sarah Thumb, understanding. I sensed a magical theory discussion coming on.

  “Exactly,” said Lena. “The procedure itself has been done before.”

  “Koshei the Deathless didn’t have the power the Snow Queen has, and he stored his soul in an egg,” said Rumpelstiltskin, “not his heart.”

  “No, some texts say that it’s his heart,” said Lena firmly.

  “Koshei didn’t have the same amount of magic surrounding him that Solange and Rory do,” Sarah Thumb said.

  I wasn’t following any of this conversation, and I didn’t really care. “Look, we can work out how Solange did it later. But I need that heart. It’s the key to stopping her.”

  “No.” The Director didn’t even pretend to think about it. “A battle is coming. You are required here.”

  “It’s the quest in my Tale.” I glanced at Lena, then Chase. He was looking at me now, so intently that my heart skidded. I turned quickly back to the Director. “You can’t stop me and my Companions from going.”

  “This is merely a theory,” the Director said. “We don’t even know where she would keep such an item, if it exists.”

  “Her palace, of course—” I started, getting ready to tell her about my dream.

  The Director cut me off. “Too far. You can go on the quest, but not now. The invasion could start any minute. You carry the combs that stopped the Snow Queen during the last war. We need you on the front lines. We’ve already decided.”

  The only reason they don’t invite someone to a Canon meeting is if they’re discussing that person, the Director had said. So the Canon had talked about her first, then me.

  Sarah Thumb’s smile was full of sympathy. “Thank you for sharing this new development, Rory. The Canon will discuss it further, and we’ll get back to you soon.”

  “You children may go,” said the Director.

  Lena had that blazing look she sometimes gets when she’s inventing something new. She had an idea, but she hadn’t gotten up yet . . .

  “She’s not leaving,” Chase reminded me. I hated the blankness on his face. I couldn’t read him when he was this way. “Lena has to stay. She’s part of the Canon now.”

  “Oh.” That would take some getting used to. We walked out together, and I felt the Canon’s stares like needles in my back. I hadn’t been this close to Chase since I’d kissed him in the tower, and I wasn’t completely sure what to do with my arms. They felt awkward just swinging at my sides.

  His hands shoved deep in his pockets, he glanced over his shoulder. Jack was still examining the floor, but the Director was looking right at us, watching us go, her mouth a very thin line.

  It didn’t matter. She couldn’t read my thoughts just by looking at me. She couldn’t guess at the plan forming in my head. I needed to get the heart, so we could win the battle. It was the first thing I’d felt sure about in a very long time.

  We stepped outside. Half the parents had stayed in the courtyard to discuss the meeting. I didn’t see mine, but I spotted plenty of people glancing our way.

  The doors closed behind us. Chase didn’t leave me like I thought he would.

&nb
sp; I knew he was sort of not talking to me, but this quest was important enough for me to stop worrying about respecting his boundaries. I lowered my voice. “Chase—”

  “Not here,” he said, even though he couldn’t know what I was going to say.

  Someone called his name, and we both turned to see who it was.

  Mr. Zipes caught up to us and clapped Chase on the shoulder. “Thanks for speaking in there. I feel a lot better knowing what we’ll be facing.”

  So he’d spoken at the town hall, too.

  Chase’s expression didn’t change. “Well, you know, if I have to be lame, I like to at least be helpful.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said.

  “Why? It’s funny,” Chase said. I’d never heard him sound so bitter before. “If I have to be a Sleeping Beauty, I better have a sense of humor about it.”

  He knew I’d laughed when I’d found out what his Tale was. I wondered who told him. Kenneth, maybe? No, I remembered with a pang: Kenneth was dead. “Chase, I’m sorry.”

  “You have no reason to be sorry.” His voice was clipped and cold.

  Mr. Zipes moved away. Even the triplets’ dad could feel a fight brewing.

  “I do,” I said fiercely. “I should have listened when you said something was wrong with you.”

  “Things turned out okay.” Chase shrugged. “If Adelaide hadn’t done her thing, then maybe the Snow Queen wouldn’t have lured me to that tower and I wouldn’t have been gotten the chance to be the very first half-human spy camera—”

  “I said, stop it. Stop talking about yourself like that.”

  He was staring at the ground, just like his dad. “I’m just telling the truth.”

  “You aren’t a half-human spy camera.” I hear my voice rising. I could sense more and more people turning to look, but I couldn’t stop myself. “You’re the best fighter in our grade, in all of Ever After School.”

  “Not anymore,” Chase said, pointing at me.

  “You threw that fight,” I said, not caring whether or not it was true. “You’re the first Turnleaf the Fey have had in more than a century.”

  That got Chase to glance at me. And scowl. “Historically, not something to brag about.”

  “You can hold a glamour over multiple people for days.” I was complimenting Chase, and he was arguing with me about it?

  He rolled his eyes. “I have a tenth the amount of magic the average Fey has. Like a hundredth of what Lena has. Probably less.”

  “During the battle, you knew exactly what to do.”

  “Rory, the Snow Queen won anyway. She won as soon as she showed up.”

  “Do you think we could have saved the people trapped in the training courts if you hadn’t gotten us organized? Do you think Rapunzel would have had time to hide the Water?”

  Chase didn’t respond to this. He just stood there with his arms folded, back to glaring at the ground.

  I grabbed his shoulders, hard. That made him look at me again. “When the Snow Queen attacked the Unseelie Court, you went in and rescued her primary target. You got King Mattanair and your mother here safe and sound. You knew exactly what to say to convince the Snow Queen’s allies to turn against her last spring. You singlehandedly brought back Itari, which is so old even the Fey had forgotten it, and you taught it to like thirty people in less than three months. You are Chase Turnleaf, and you don’t need a Tale to be awesome. You never have.”

  The dead mask cracked. His mouth twitched. He met my gaze steadily, and for a second, all of his Chaseness was back.

  “I need you,” I said. “I can’t get that heart without you.”

  He shot me an exasperated frown and glanced over my head. I remembered how many people were watching.

  “No,” he said. “You can’t get the heart, period. The Director’s right. The battle’s more important now.”

  y hands fell from his shoulders. He couldn’t have seriously said that the Director was right. He knew this quest needed to happen.

  He sighed. His voice changed again. “I’ve seen the Snow Queen’s plans, Rory. You haven’t. We’re going to need all the help we can get.” He never sounded this patronizing, even with the third graders he helped in the training courts.

  “We can stop all her forces if we just stop her,” I said. “If she falls, her armies won’t keep going. No one can take her place.”

  “Searcaster could. I heard them talking about it,” Chase said.

  He was just determined not to listen to me, the same way I hadn’t listened to him. I couldn’t believe he would be so petty. This was bigger than us. “Chase, we’re still the Triumvirate. We’re still the ones who are supposed to take her down.”

  “Technically,” he said, “that’s your job.”

  He didn’t believe that. He couldn’t. He’d promised to help me. Things couldn’t have gotten this messed up. “You’re still mad at me.”

  “I’m not.” But he said it too quickly.

  “Do you want me to apologize again?” I said. “Because I’m not sorry for breaking the enchantment.”

  Chase’s jaw set. “I wouldn’t have been under an enchantment at all if it hadn’t been for you.”

  That wasn’t fair. “Are you still under an enchantment? Because you’re kind of acting like it.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Chase said, furious. If we didn’t have important things to do, I might have been relieved he’d broken out of whatever fog he’d been in since Adelaide confessed.

  “Then how can I make this better?” I asked. “What do you want from me?”

  “I wanted you to fight for me!” Chase said. “I would have fought for you. God, dating Adelaide sucked, but at least I got to be around someone who knew exactly how she felt, for once.”

  That last bit hurt more than the rest of the conversation put together. It hurt almost like watching Rapunzel turn to dust. This was a kind of death too.

  I refused to cry here. I could feel all those people looking at us.

  Even Chase looked kind of stricken. Shocked, like he hadn’t planned to give up the moral high ground so fast.

  But he’d meant what he said.

  Enchantments aren’t exactly subtle. Chase hadn’t mentioned that something was wrong with him until the day after my birthday. He’d spent months under the wishing coin’s enchantment without noticing it, and maybe this was why. Maybe a part of Chase didn’t mind letting Adelaide make being his girlfriend the biggest and most important thing in her life.

  First-kiss magic or not, I was never going to be like that with him.

  I didn’t have that in me. I couldn’t help who I was.

  “All right,” I said. “Good-bye, Chase.”

  Then I walked away, sailing past the crowd without even looking at them, feeling my insides splintering.

  Everyone probably thought I was going to my apartment to cry after arguing with Chase.

  That was what I wanted them to think. It was what I wanted the Director to think.

  Technically, taking down the Snow Queen was my job.

  I could still go alone.

  First stop was the storerooms. I stole two big sacks of dragon scales and threw them in my carryall. I wouldn’t risk running out again, especially if I was going to the Arctic Circle by myself.

  I’d decided not to hold up the quest for Lena. Waiting for the Canon meeting to end meant waiting for the Director to come out and check on what I was doing. I had just pretty much shouted my plans to go without permission to the whole courtyard. If I got caught, then no one would retrieve the heart, and the Snow Queen really would win. Maybe not this invasion, but eventually.

  The one-key safe was my second stop.

  Sebastian’s statue was still there, and I wasted a few seconds examining his face, searching his expression. He’d been shielding Solange when Arica had turned him to stone. Mildred said she never confronted Solange about Rapunzel, but maybe Sebastian did. Maybe they’d fought the day she lost him.

  At least he had still go
ne with her. I didn’t want Chase to turn to stone for me, but I didn’t think questing together was too much to ask.

  I reached for the Pounce Pot only to realize that I didn’t have paper or anything to write with, but Rapunzel had thought of everything. Some square stationery and a pen rested on top of the pedestal, right beside the dented saltshaker. I scrawled:

  • The Snow Queen/Solange de Chateies

  • General Genevieve Searcaster

  • The pillars

  • Anyone from the Snow Queen’s forces who might stop me

  I kind of wanted to add the names of everyone in the Canon, but I’d already put a lot of people down. Too many diluted the magic. Oh well. Once I finished up here and locked myself in my room, even the Director really couldn’t do anything to stop me.

  I wrote down the secret I needed kept: Rory Landon knows about the Snow Queen’s heart, and she’s going on a quest to get it.

  It looked so small on paper.

  No wonder the Canon hadn’t made a big deal over it. How the Snow Queen had gotten so much power wasn’t nearly as scary as what she could do with it. After hearing her plans, it was easy to see why they thought I was wrong.

  I grabbed the Pounce Pot and froze.

  A scrap of paper had been hidden underneath it, filled with tiny writing: I wished for Chase to be my boyfriend, and I still have am still using the wishing coin. Around the edges of the paper, like a tidy little border, were the names of everyone in our grade. Rory was underlined three times.

  Adelaide had found the Pounce Pot before Rapunzel put it inside the one-key safe.

  No wonder Chase had had such a hard time explaining what was wrong with him. No wonder I hadn’t been able to focus on the traitor until Adelaide had confessed and broken the spell. The Pounce Pot had protected her all summer.

  Rapunzel had moved it here on purpose. She must have known.

  The Pounce Pot wouldn’t have let her tell me. It wouldn’t have let her show me this slip of paper, but she could have told the Canon. She could have stopped it.