by Erin Johnson
“Do you have any extra cinnamon rolls?” a deep voice drawled.
My eyes slid up to find a pale face looming over me. I screamed, Maple screamed, Annie looked up and screamed—even Cat let out a high-pitched screech.
“We all scream for ice cream,” Francis drawled. “Are you all done?”
I pressed a hand to my beating heart while Maple panted beside me.
Wiley leaned away from Francis and shot him a mean side-eye. “Not cool, man. How did you even get in here?”
Francis gestured with a white, long-fingered hand. “The door.”
We all looked. It did indeed stand ajar.
“You ssscared me.” Sam adjusted his glasses.
“You need to make some more noise next time,” I grumbled as I resumed slicing butter. “You nearly gave us all a heart attack.”
“Apologies.” Francis flashed me a cat-like grin that showed off his long, sharp fangs. He lifted his dark, perfectly manicured brows. “Now about those cinnamon rolls? Rhonda wanted me to see if you had any.”
“Oh.” Maple cleared her throat. “I, uh—” She turned. “Annie? Do we have any left?”
Annie shook her head as she walked over to us. She carried a big copper bowl in her arms, a smooth mix of water and purple blueberry powder inside. She handed it over to Maple. “No. Royalty ate them all. Tell Rhonda sorry.”
A smile played at Wiley’s lips. “I’m surprised Rhonda didn’t foresee that.”
I shot him a look.
Francis’s big dark eyes settled on me. He ran a hand through his long, slicked-back black hair. “You know her visions come when they come.”
Of course Wiley knew, we all knew Rhonda couldn’t control her psychic powers, but the joker just had to get one in. I slid my eyes back to Francis and found him still watching me intently. I looked down at the yellowish butter, then back up at my vampire friend again. “Uh, Francis? Do you need anything else?”
He cocked his head to the side. “No.” Still he stared at me.
I frowned back.
“Mouse!” Yann, big and tan and bearded, shrieked like a tiny child. “Mouse!” He pointed at the floor and scrambled backward, then leapt onto a chair.
I was torn between laughing at Yann’s reaction and scrambling onto a chair myself. Maple and I eased around the table and looked in the direction of Yann’s frantic pointing.
“Oop! There.” I pointed to a skittering ball of black fur. The mouse zigzagged across the white marble tile. Annie followed, a rolling pin raised over her head.
“Oh, tell me she’s not going to kill it?” Maple covered her eyes.
Wiley slid up beside her and hugged her to him. “I don’t think she’ll have to.”
He grimaced, and I followed his gaze to Cat, who’d flown up to perch on a high shelf beside a couple giant copper pots. The little creature watched the mouse with wide eyes and teeth bared in a maniacal grin.
“Oh no.” I turned away after Cat pounced and just barely missed the mouse.
I peeked through one eye in time to see the rodent dash into one of the dark alcoves that served as a pantry with a growling Cat hot on its heels. I sighed. “I guess that’s one thing Cat’s good for.”
Yann still perched on the teetering chair. “Ees eet gone?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but stopped when Cat scrambled out of the alcove, his long cat-like tail tucked between his legs and his huge, globular eyes wide and frightened.
“Uhh… guys?” I gulped.
Maple and Wiley exchanged glances.
My breath caught in my chest as something moved in the shadows of the alcove—something much bigger than a mouse.
The outline of a man became visible, and then Horace stepped out of the shadows and into the bright light of the bakery.
His pale blue eyes found me. A smirk played at his full lips. “Miss me, sister?”
6
A Mission Impossible
I opened my mouth to speak, but only a hoarse, raspy noise came out.
“Oh good, those famous powers of persuasion,” Iggy shouted from the recessed bread oven.
Yann, still up on the chair, reached beside him and grabbed the heavy wooden spatula we used for sliding bread out of the oven. He cocked his beefy arm and hurled it at Horace’s head. It hit a magical shield and fell to the floor. At the same time Annie bolted up the stairs and pushed at the doors, screaming for help. Horace blinked at her, and the doors locked. She shook them, but they wouldn’t open.
My chest heaved as my eyes darted around the room. Sam pointed his wand at the sky, no doubt to send up the police signal, but Horace stretched his arm out and magically knocked the wand from Sam’s hand. Wiley eased himself between Horace and Maple. Francis—well, where was Francis? Some of the tightness in my chest relaxed a little, knowing my vampire friend lurked somewhere nearby, ready to help… I hoped.
I took a shaky breath. My pulse raced so fast I could actually feel my heartbeat throbbing in my neck. I stepped forward. “Don’t hurt them.”
Horace took a step forward as well. A muscle jumped in his angular jaw. “Who, your friends?” He spread his lean arms wide. He blinked slowly, lazily. “I know how much they mean to you—you did choose them over your own flesh and blood, after all.” He pressed his hands to his chest and glared at me with his pale eyes. He strode across the room, as if in no hurry at all. The room was so quiet that my own frantic sniffs sounded deafening to me. He strode past Sam. My poor friend shook so badly I could see from across the room. I bit my lip. Please, leave him alone.
“That’s why I’m here, actually.” He grinned without humor. “You all seem so tight-knit.” He leaned against one of the tall worktables and rested his elbows on it. He folded his pale hands together against his chin, the sunlight streaming in from above creating deep shadows below his eyes and cheekbones. “I thought to myself, what better crew to carry out my plan?”
I spat out the words. “What plan?”
I froze when his half-lidded gaze swung to me. “You’re going to help me break into Carclaustra.”
My stomach clenched. He had to be joking… didn’t he? Annie barked out a dry laugh, and as Horace turned to face her, Wiley lifted his wand and flung a spell at Horace before I could shout, “No!”
Horace lifted a palm in the blink of an eye and without even looking stopped the fire ball Wiley had shot midair.
Wiley sucked in a breath and recoiled. He thrust his arm out to shield Maple.
Horace’s full lips curled. He spun the ball of fire in the air by twirling one finger. He turned fully to face Wiley. “You want to play with fire?” He sneered and the baseball-sized flame grew and grew till it burned above him, like a small sun. I glanced down at the bowl of butter cubes, now melted into a yellow puddle. I swiped my arm across my brow as sweat beaded there and matted my bangs to my head. “What is it with him and fire,” I grumbled to myself. I gritted my teeth. Why was my stupid brother so determined to be dramatic and destructive?
“What?” Maple turned to me, her blonde brows pulled together in worry.
I shook my head. “Nothing—I meant—the fire monster.”
“Oh.” She swung her head back to face the giant ball of fire hovering above us. Its orange-red flames licked out in every direction and I clutched the table as the heat made me sway, light-headed. “Stop it,” I ground out.
Horace did not stop. The ball only grew larger. The red light reflected in his eyes and I shuddered as I remembered his fierceness up on the volcano. He had summoned a monster to kill my friends, among many other innocents, and left me to die with them when I didn’t support his murderous plot. I clenched my hands into tight balls at my side and felt my nails dig into my palms. My nostrils flared. “You chose to set a fire monster loose on the kingdom. What did you expect me to do? I couldn’t just waltz off to the Badlands with you knowing that everyone I loved was about to be killed.”
He glared at me. “Exactly. Everyone you loved.” He thumped a fist
against his chest and leaned toward me, his eyes blazing and teeth bared. “What of me—your own brother? You don’t know what I’ve been through, what I felt when I found out you were alive. And then you betrayed me.” The ball of fire grew till it almost touched the ceiling.
I pushed past Wiley and Maple and stomped toward Horace. I threw an arm out. “I want to love you—I do!” I slapped my palm against my heart. “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted a family. But you do these things that make it impossible!”
“Imogen?” Maple’s quiet, breathless voice startled me.
I turned to her, my chest heaving.
“Imogen, what are you saying? What do you mean about going to the Badlands?” Her eyes darted to Horace, then back to me.
Oh no. I opened my mouth to speak, but all the fire had gone out of me. I closed it again and dropped my eyes. My shoulders sagged. “I was going to tell you.” I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Tell her what?” Annie’s voice had an edge to it—anger, but also fear.
Horace chuckled. The heat that had burned the back of my neck let up, leaving my wet shirt cool against my sweaty back. I glanced over my shoulder and found the ball of fire had snuffed out. My brother lifted a lazy brow. “Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
I turned back around and pressed my warm hands against my face. I took a shuddering breath, then let my hands drop and looked up. “Back in the Fire Kingdom, I—I was having a really hard time with Hank marrying Shaday.”
Annie folded her arms and sniffed. “No secret there.”
I sighed. “And, Horace—Horace contacted me.”
Maple gasped.
I shook my head. “It was all right. I-I’d been trying to think up ways to contact him ever since Wee Ferngroveshire. Whatever else he is, he’s my brother and I just wanted the chance to get to know him.” I shrugged. “I felt confident he wouldn’t hurt me.” I bit my lip as tears welled in my eyes. “I guess I was wrong.”
Maple squared her jaw and stepped around Wiley, her arms stiff at her sides. “If he hurt you….”
I grinned in spite of myself as Wiley grabbed her around the waist and held her back. “No. He didn’t—exactly. He was there for me one night, the night before the wedding, when I got really upset. I just felt like I had to get away—it was too much to have Hank marry Shaday, and have to witness it, bake for it.” I shook my head. “Horace told me I could come with him to the Badlands and I—I told him I’d think about it. As upset as I was with Hank, I didn’t want to abandon you guys… especially you.” I looked at Maple and she blinked back at me, her mouth hanging open in shock. “But then, you two got together.” I gestured between her and Wiley. “And I knew everyone would be all right without me for a bit, so I decided to go with Horace, and Iggy and I went to the mountain and—”
“You knew?” Annie whirled on my flame.
Iggy narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. “Oh believe me, I didn’t condone this little escapade, but I figured somebody had to go and keep an eye on this one.” He jerked his little flame head toward Horace.
I let out a heavy breath. “So, we met him at the volcano and that’s when he decided to unveil his grand plan.” I shot Horace a narrow-eyed glare. “To unleash Tar and wreak some havoc on the kingdom.” I shook my head. “I told him I couldn’t go with him.” I shrugged. “And you guys know the rest.”
Maple pressed her lips tight together. “And you didn’t tell me.”
I shifted on my feet. “I wanted to, so badly. But I didn’t want to ruin your and Wiley’s honeymoon stage and I’ve been so busy and—”
“You could’ve found the time.” Maple folded her arms. “You know I would’ve wanted to know, no matter what.”
I looked down and shook my head. I spoke in a quiet voice, but the bakery had gone so silent, Maple could hear me anyway. They all could. “You’re right. I’ve made up excuses not to tell you guys and Hank—”
“Hank doesn’t know?” Wiley gaped.
Maple elbowed him hard and he snapped his mouth shut.
I withered even more, and groaned. “I know, I know.” I pressed my hands against my eyes. “I didn’t think anyone would understand me wanting to meet and know Horace. I thought—well, I feared that you’d think I was a traitor, or foolish, or— I don’t know.” I shook my head. “And even more so after he unleashed the monster. At that point, even I was struggling to find anything redeeming in him—”
Horace’s voice came out low and flat. “Gee. Thanks.”
I ignored him. “How could I expect anyone to understand?” My lips quivered and the tears I’d been blinking back finally overflowed and poured down my cheeks. “I was afraid I’d lose you guys.” I gasped. “And now I have anyway.” I sobbed into my hands. I’d kept secrets, big secrets from them, and now I’d put them all in danger. Horace was only here because of me. I sniffed and lifted my head, then turned to my brother. I roughly wiped away the wet tears from my face. “You’re here because of me. Take me to the Badlands, kill me, make me do your plan—whatever it is, just leave them out of it. They don’t deserve it. They don’t deserve a detritus-headed flotsam friend like me.”
I held my arms out in front of me, my hands hanging limp. I sniffled.
Horace quirked a brow. “What are you—?” He frowned at my hands. “I don’t have handcuffs; is that what you’re doing?”
Maple slammed a fist on the table and I whirled to face her. “Don’t you dare lock her up!”
“Again, I’m not doing that.”
Maple, eyes wet with tears, lifted her quivering chin. “She may have kept things from us, but it’s just because she was scared and too stupid to know that I will always love her and always be her friend, no matter what.”
“Oh.” My face crumpled and tears streamed down my cheeks again as I devolved into sobs. “I’m so sorry, Maple.”
She rushed forward as I ran to her and we threw our arms around each other. I hugged her tight against me. “I’m so sorry, I’ll never keep anything from you again, I love you so much.”
I mumbled and cried into her hair, so that I could barely hear her speaking through her own sobs. “You can tell me anything, I’m always here for you, your brother’s so mean.”
I lifted my face from her shoulder and spat some of her blonde hair out. I looked at the rest of my friends. “I love you all. I am so, so sorry for not telling you. I want you to know that I didn’t want to leave you guys, I just, in a weak moment, wanted to get away from the situation. But I always planned to come back.”
Annie let out a heavy sigh and leaned her hip against the table. “It’s all right, sweetie. Lord knows I made a lot of dumb mistakes when I was your age.” Her shoulders shook with a chuckle. “Before I met my husband, earth rest his bones, I nearly ran away with the Grovener boy from down the street. What a disaster that would’ve been. He was the definition of bad boy.” Her eyes grew distant and a smile played at her lips. “He was fine as a fox, though.”
I leaned back from Maple and we exchanged wide-eyed, tight-lipped looks. I grinned.
“Right.” Horace clapped his hands together and I startled. Maple and I turned to face him. “Hooray. She picked you idiots over me—rejoice.”
I glared.
“Not that I’m jealous or anything.” His pale eyes flashed. “We’re going to have a group bonding experience, in fact.”
I folded my arms. “You can’t be serious about us breaking into Carclaustra.”
“Eet’s eempossible.” Yann climbed down off his chair.
Horace gave a slow blink. “Well, with an attitude like that….”
I threw my arms up. “It’s the most high-security prison in the kingdoms, and we’re”—I gestured around the room—“a bunch of bakers.”
My brother lifted his chin and looked down his upturned nose at me. “Oh, well. You don’t have to, I suppose.” His lids dropped even further, so that only a thin slit of his pale eyes showed.
His voice dropped low and heavy with threat. “But if you don’t, I will torture and kill everyone you care about.” He shrugged and blinked. “Your choice.”
Annie stomped her foot. “This is ridiculous.” She lifted her wand. “I’m sending up the police signal.”
“And by the time they come, I’ll have disappeared. But then again, so will your grandson, Will.”
Annie froze.
“I’ll take him back to the Badlands with me, where I’ll cut his—”
“Stop!” My hands trembled in fists by my side.
The older woman stared my brother down. The color had drained from her face and her throat bobbed. “How—how do you know about Will?”
Horace sneered. “I know about Will and his parents in their seaside home in the Earth Kingdom. I know about your entire family, in fact.” He looked at Yann. “I know about your mother, Winnie.”
Yann whimpered.
“Maple, all those little siblings and your parents too—living so close to here.”
She slumped against Wiley.
Horace sighed. “And Wiley… kind of lone wolf. Dead mother and father, no other relatives—guess I’ll have to kill your girlfriend then.” He crinkled his nose at me. “Kind of a two birds with one stone thing, since she’s your best friend.”
“Hey!” Iggy shouted from the oven.
Horace’s eyes slid slowly toward him. “I’ll snuff that thing out, too.”
“That thing has a name.” Iggy narrowed his little flame eyes. Then they widened again. “Imogen, don’t let him snuff me out.”
I huffed. “I won’t.” I shook my head at Horace. “Do you think threatening my friends is going to win me over?”
He gave me a humorless, tight-lipped grin. “Do you think I still care about winning you over?”
I gulped.
“You had your chance, sister. You chose them, the enemy, and now I’m going to treat you like one of them.” He looked at each of us. “And just to be clear, if you tell anyone about this, any friend, or family, or police officer”—his eyes slid to me—“or prince… I’ll kill everyone you care about.”