Twisted Tales

Midnight

I had Prince Charming's ankle unbound in a moment,and he sprang to his feet at once.

For a moment I feared that he was about to take off, just start running for the cemetery gates and disappear into the darkness, but instead he only looked around at the countless dark trees that surrounded us. "All right, lead the way. Where are the four trees?"

"Eight trees," Alfred corrected him.

"What?!" I demanded, rounding on the wolf.

Alfred cocked his head at me. "Eight trees, Miss Rikki. There are four potential graves, but each grave has two trees over it, don't you recall? The mother's trees, and the tree that Cinderella became."

That wave of panic threatened to overwhelm me once again.

"Eight trees? Damn it, how much time do we have left? Oh my God, it could already be midnight!"

"It's not midnight yet," Charming assured me. "We'll know when it is. The palace bell tower will be rung at the stroke of midnight, signaling the end of the ball and the moment I will be declaring my choice in bride." He realized what he'd said,and gave a guilty wince. "The moment I was supposed to be declaring my bride. My father is going to be furious. But we'll be able to hear the bells from here."

"We probably only have ten minutes left, maybe less," said Erik, who was evidently keeping better track of the time than me, because my internal clock was screaming that we were already five minutes past midnight. "We'd better get moving." He jerked his head at Alfred to have the wolf lead the way to the first grave, but as we all started forward, a sudden voice from behind us stopped all five of us dead in our tracks.

"I think you'd better not."

We all turned as one, to find none other than Lady De Leon standing at the cemetery gate, her hair disheveled and falling out of its elegant updo; her eyes wild and flashing; and a long, thin, tapered stick pointed at straight at us. Rumpelstiltskin's wand.

"Lady De Leon!" Prince Charming said, his voice loud and clear and firm, and he took a regal step forward as if to intercept her.

The wand spluttered and her arm jerked. A few sparks burst from the end of it, falling to the ground where they threatened to catch the dry grass on fire. "Don't move," she ordered through bared teeth. "I haven't quite figured out how to work this thing yet, I'm liable to do much, much more damage than I intend to."

I swallowed hard. She looked as though she was hell bent on doing quite a lot of damage already. I grabbed Charming by his sleeve and yanked him back. "I think we'd better do what she says," I said in an undertone. At least for now.

"Yes," she hissed. "You'd better." Then her eyes slid over to me, and they narrowed. "You again. I should have known. I don't know what you think you're trying to do, you little bitch, but you won't get away with it. First you steal my carriage; and then you steal my prince; and then..." she trailed off, a flash of panic showing in her eyes as she glanced at the graves behind us.

"We did take your carriage—how did you follow us?" Jack demanded. I didn't really think now was the time for nailing down the details, and I shot him a warning glare.

De Leon laughed, and it touched upon hysteria. She gave the wand another wave, and a trail of sparks left an afterimage in the darkness. "This wonderful little thing, it just bends reality to my will! I flew like the wind, when I saw my carriage being driven out of the palace gates without me in it! And look where we are now." The last words were uttered in a seething whisper, and her trembling grip on the wand tightened. She took a step forward, and I took one back.