The Forgotten Fairytales (26 page)

Finn’s fingers trembled as he ran one hand over his cleanly shaven face. Drunk, tired, and rejected did not suit him well.

“I punched Alvin for you.” His voice was deep and unyielding.

“Again, I never asked you to do that.”

He took another step closer. The tip of my toes went back, ready to move away but he grabbed the midsection of my jacket.
What the hell?

“What kind of girl would you be if you didn’t go out with the guy who keeps saving you?”

My jaw dropped. “Are you serious?” Oh, hell. He did nothing for me. He rejected my accusation about Danielle being a psycho bitch and truth be told, I was almost certain that Finn was a bit crazy too. My anger had flared and I couldn’t control myself. All the emotion I felt over April, Gale, Danielle, and now Wolf poured into me. I seized his hand and pried it off my jacket with a strength I didn’t know I had. “Don’t touch me again. I’m sure you are well aware that I can kick your ass.”

He chuckled and reached for me again, craziness swarming his bloodshot eyes. He had to be nuts to try anything. In one swift motion, the fist at my side came up and I punched him right in the nose. A crack resonated upon impact and he screamed. Blood dripped into his mouth and a string of curse words flowed out like Niagara Falls.

“I said, don’t touch me.” Using my pants, I wiped the drop of blood off. He bent over and held his nose.

“Crazy bitch,” he muttered as I walked away. “You’ll be sorry.”

The only thing I was sorry about was ever seeing him as anything more than a drunk asshole prince.

K
ate stretched across my bed, arching her back like a cat, while I sat in the windowsill, soaking in the last ounce of bitter sunlight before night drifted in. I hadn’t left the window all day, well, except to pee and let Kate and Desiree in when they ambushed me.

“Tell me again what happened,” Kate said.

The party last night turned out to be a bust. My ‘threatening’ Gale only made April hate me more when he told her. “I told him, if he hurt April—”

“Then you’d personally cut off his dick and feed it to the wolves,” Desiree laughed and slammed one of the many story books on the floor shut. “Classy move, Norah.”

“Shut up,” I groaned, again, for like the fourth time since they came over.

“I like the part where she slaps him on the shoulder and walks away smiling. God, I so wish I was there to see the poor chap’s face. Between punching Finn and threatening Gale, I’d say you’re on a roll.” Desiree popped up on her feet. “Anyways, I’d better run. Some bitch took up all the washers and dryers yesterday, so I have, like, no clean clothes.”

“Bye,” Kate and I said in unison.

I hadn’t been as subtle as I’d wanted to be with Gale. Whatever, at least Gale knew I was suspicious of his attraction to her. How my sister could be so naïve as to believe them all, I’d never understand. I should’ve been grateful she wasn’t cutting or drawing on herself anymore, but I wasn’t, because the life she had was an illusion. And illusions didn’t last forever, in fact, when they end, life seems so much worse than before.

Kate sat up on the bed, her icy blonde hair twisted into a bun on top of her head. With very little makeup on, the scar was more prominent than usual. Again I found myself questioning how she’d received such a mark. We still hadn’t talked about it.

“Kate?”

“Hrm?” She murmured with a yawn. It was almost seven, soon she’d have to go back to her room and I’d be alone. Unless I wanted to go to dinner with the royals. Which I so did not want to do.

“How did you get the scar?” The words weighted heavily on my tongue, and I wondered if it was okay to ask the question silently plaguing me.

Kate shifted, coiling back like a scared cat. “The truth?” She traced the lines in the comforter. “Before Danielle and James were official, he and I secretly dated. Not dated as much as snuck around kissing and talking and stuff. We never told anyone. I was a year younger and he was destined for Danielle.”

“Whoa. James? But he’s so…not like anyone I’d ever see you with.” Not to mention the fact that he’s practically a zombie. Well, he was a zombie. Since I traded out the pills for allergy meds, he’s had a little more spunk, not as much as I hoped, but enough to tell me Danielle was drugging him so he’d do whatever she asked.

She sucked in a breath and nodded. “James was so different then, caring, loving, charming. Danielle was too. At least, I thought. Until James told her he didn’t care what the stories said, he loved me and we were meant to be together.” Tears swarmed her eyes, she wiped them away and pulled her knees into her chest.

“We were supposed to meet in the South end of the woods after he told her. I waited for hours but he never came. When I started to leave I got attacked by a creature. I still don’t remember what it looked like. I spent the next day in the infirmary and no matter what potion or cream I tried, nothing healed my face. When I went back to class again, I saw him with Danielle, holding hands, laughing. I tried talking to him but he stared at me blankly, insisting he never even knew me. Me! Of all the lies to tell me, he played it off as if we were strangers.”

Fear coiled through me like a vicious snake bent on taking my life. Kate choked back her cries. I leaned forward and wrapped her in my arms. Her back shook as she cried into my shoulder. My mind fried, yet spun a million miles per hour. Starting with Danielle and her evilness. I had no doubts she planted the creature there to attack Kate. She hated anyone messing with the system and they had. Just like I did. My heart stopped.
Just like I am.
Were the pills she gave him to help keep him from knowing Kate? That seemed insane.

I rubbed circles on her back.

“I just wish I could take it all back. Even James.”

“I know.”

But I didn’t.

I had no regrets really, at least not thus far, but then again, Danielle hadn’t ruined me yet. The pieces were in place though. What would I have to do to insure Danielle went down before me? Whatever it was, I’d do it. Living in fear wasn’t something I did, ever, and I sure as hell didn’t want to give Danielle the sick satisfaction. I swallowed the fear, killing it with determination.

“We have to take her down,” I said. “All we have to do is find some dirt, something we can prove.”

“Like?”

I pushed up to my knees and bounced. “Gale. I know he’s still in love with her. I just have to prove that she’s using him. Once I do that…”

“Whoa, slow down,” Kate cut me off. “You have to be careful. I mean really careful.”

The next steps played over in my head. Leaning across the bed, I dug a small box between the mattress and the box spring. Inside were the tiny blue pills. Kate was a lot smarter than me when it came to all things magical and chemistry.

“Can you find out what these do?” I asked. She peered in the box and took out a tiny powder blue capsule.

“Sure, but why?”

A grin took over my face. “This may be the first piece of Operation Glass Slipper: Cinderella Takedown.”

Kate giggled.”You mean Operation Glass Stiletto. Slippers are so last season.”

We laughed together, but the joy didn’t take away the desire for revenge. I had to be freed from the terror Danielle now brought me and most of all, of the person it had turned me into. Never had I been so full of revenge and so bent on destroying a person.

The answer to my problem was right in front of me, walking by my side like a mini fortune teller. I wondered why I hadn’t realized it before. Monday morning I hurried to my locker. I’d never been in such a rush to get to find Desiree. Especially after I’d bitched her out for telling asshat Finn that I liked him.

As expected, she sat in the desk behind the one Kate and I shared. The bright red pants she wore were hard to miss. I took a deep breath and tossed my bag on the desk before I swiveled the chair to face her.

“I finally figured out how to stop the witch,” I said.

Desiree’s thin brows bunched together. Today her eyes were grey and brown. The contrast was a little startling, but cool. “Which witch? Effie? I didn’t know she was a problem.”

“No, no. Not Effie.” I forgot I couldn’t be so literal. “Danielle.” Desiree perched in her chair, excitement building in her now hazel and charcoal eyes. “Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out sooner. You know everything, being
desire
and all. You know how I can ruin her.”

I practically bounced in my seat with joy. For once the cards were turning in my favor. Soon I’d have my sister back and safe, and Danielle would be history. After all that, I could convince Wolf we, too, could be together.

Desiree sank backward, her features darkening. “I can’t do that, Norah. For one, it’s totally against school policy to use dark magic and two, all magic comes with a cost. The consequences could be detrimental.”

“It’s fine. I can handle the backlash.” I was strong, strong enough to deal with the consequences of my actions. Didn’t she know how important it was for me to take Danielle down before she destroyed me?

“Sorry, Norah, but I can’t. You should let the whole Danielle crap go, focus on something less disastrous. Revenge is a really nasty desire.”

My lips pressed together. Desiree didn’t get it. She lived in a world where nothing mattered. She wasn’t bound to a person; she didn’t feel the need to protect others. I had to protect my sister and find justice for Kate. I wasn’t safe until Danielle was destroyed, and if Desiree wouldn’t help me, I’d do it myself.

R
evenge is a dark emotion, darker than anything I’d ever felt before. It filled me with determination and desire, a desire which ate at my soul, desperate to be filled. And I would fill it. I would fill it like my life depended on it.

Danielle wasn’t one to keep incriminating things lying in the open. The only way to find dirt was to dig. Luckily, Kate had an enchantment to unlock a locked door. At first, I wanted to leave her out of it and break into Danielle’s room alone, but she insisted. Denying Kate the pleasure of taking back her life wasn’t something I wanted to do. After all, Danielle ruined her already. She had nothing to lose.

The door creaked open, inviting us inside. Everything was as I remembered, except the new addition of April’s belongings, which were just as minimal as mine. The lights were dim and the curtains were shut, masking the room in darkness.