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I wandered through the thick woods shooting small pulses of magic from my fingertips. The forest wrapped its pine scent around me while the chipmunks dodged my spells in our daily contest of hide and seek. Today, the rest of the animals that normally joined the game were scarce. I paused to listen for danger.
Nothing broke the silence.
I reached the stream and dropped my buckets into the water. My reflection rippled. My red bow morphed into a morbid wave of dripping blood. I took a shaky breath and dragged the full buckets through my distorted reflection.
It had been years since the queen tried to penetrate the enchanted forest. My protection spell was bound by blood, and none of my bloodline remained. No counterspell would unlock this enchanted territory, and yet any time the forest animals didn’t behave normally, my nerves raged.
My illusion of safety didn’t stop my nightmares.
It didn’t stop my paranoia.
It didn’t stop my fears.
After all these years, I still wasn’t strong enough to face the queen. My magic was too pure to handle such evil.
Shaking the dark thoughts from my head, I turned back towards the cottage on the other side of the forest.
Henry, my best friend and beloved, leaned against a thick oak tree with a blade of grass between his full lips. His shirt hung open, and the ripples of his well-defined muscles distracted me. His chestnut hair ruffled in the breeze, and he smiled, flashing teeth as white as newly fallen snow.
My skin warmed more from his grin than from the afternoon sunshine. I couldn’t help but smile back.
“I didn’t hear you following me today.” My gaze drifted over his bare chest and back to his gray-green eyes. “I should have known you were there. The other animals weren’t playing, just the chipmunks, and we all know they are not the brightest in the bunch.”
He pulled the reed from his lips and crossed to me, stretching his hand out for one of the pails.
I raised an eyebrow. I was perfectly capable of hauling water back to the cottage.
“I’m just offering a hand, Maggie,” he said in that deep timbre that made me shiver.
I understood why some referred to him as Prince Charming, but he was fierce and protective and sometimes not charming at all. This was not one of those times. Right now, he represented his nickname in all its sappy glory.
With a resigned sigh, I handed him one of the buckets.
We crossed the open glade into the thick forest. The chipmunks decided to stay hidden. His hand drifted to the small of my back, and the brush of his fingers on my dress created such a delicious heat.
We walked and only the sloshing water interrupted my thoughts. His smile faded. He scanned the forest, sucking his lower lip between his teeth like he did when he was in problem-solving mode, or when he had news he knew I wouldn’t like.
I hoped it was the former. I let him stew on whatever was on his mind until we came into a large clearing. Our cottage sat a few yards away from the woods with a small plume of white smoke filtering from the chimney.
“What’s bothering you?” I asked and opened the door.
Inside, seven dwarves sat around our table with papers strewn about, pulling my attention away from Henry. We stepped inside, and their chatter ended abruptly. Every set of eyes moved from me to Henry and back.
Whatever Henry was brooding over had to do with the concerned looks on every dwarf’s face. I set the fresh water on the counter, turned to Henry, and crossed my arms.
He blew a stream of air from his lips before turning to the counter. His shoulders pulled taut, and he put his bucket down next to mine. The stress displayed in every one of his tight muscles set my own body on high alert. Henry didn’t tense up to just anything. He was my rock, my steady hand, my level head.
When he picked up one of the flyers on the table and handed it to me, I didn’t see anything that would cause the alarm sizzling on the air in the small cottage.
My picture stared back along with the queen’s bounty on me. According to the advertisement, I was worth one hundred gold pieces, but I had to be brought in alive.
“She upped her price,” I said and handed the flyer back to Henry with a shrug. She had been upping the ante for my head for years. This wasn’t new, but their faces said there was more than just another rate hike in the bounty.
“These were posted inside the edge of the enchanted forest. We caught one of her lackeys at the boundary,” Simon, the dwarf with the flaming red hair, said.
His words produced a darkness behind my eyes. The hunters were either insanely brave or insanely stupid to breach the enchanted forest.
I glanced at Simon. He was just as protective of me as Henry, and his lips were set in a stern line.
Now that he had my attention, he continued, “He said the queen has hired a powerful mage to locate you.”
“Really?” My eyebrows rose.
According to our sources, the queen had wiped the land of all who even remotely carried enchantments in their bones. She ingested the magic, leaving husks behind. I remembered the horrors she inflicted on my kind before the dwarves had whisked me away to the center of the forest for my protection. Besides the queen, I was the only living soul to still contain pure magic, but mine was nowhere near as strong as the queen’s dark magic.
At least not yet.
“There are no mages left,” Henry said.
Simon shrugged. “He said they know the forest is protecting the lost princess, Snow White. He said they know we are here.” He pounded his finger on the table.
I rolled my eyes, feigning a certainty I did not feel.
“He said they know how to nullify the forest’s magic,” Bernard, the second in charge behind Simon, said. His white hair seemed to drift on an imaginary wind every time he spoke as if the weight of his words moved the air around him.
That got my attention. I traded a glance with Henry.
“That’s impossible,” Henry scoffed.
It was utterly impossible, unless the queen had the blood of my ancestors. Only the spilling of their blood, or mine, could undo the protection spell I’d cast. Considering my mother was long buried and my father burned in a funeral pyre, I did not see how they could reverse my magic. But then again, I also thought all the mages in the land had been decimated.
A cold chill rode up my spine, and I stiffened my shoulders so it wouldn’t settle in the back of my neck. I was not ready for a confrontation with the queen. I was not ready to have my heart pulled from my chest, not when I had found a home for it with Henry.
I turned, trudged into the back bedroom, and sat on the edge of the oversized bed. Henry followed and closed the door. His eyes held the same dread as I felt settling in my bones. He slid into the spot next to me and draped his arm over my shoulder, pulling me into him.
“We’ll figure this out, too,” he said.
I glanced at him with an expression that I was sure screamed doubt. “I’m not strong enough yet.”
“Yes, you are.” There wasn’t an ounce of uncertainty in his voice or his face. “You are much stronger than you realize.”
“Playing games with the wildlife is nothing. It won’t keep me alive against Queen Odette. I have no defense against her dark magic.” I stared him down.
“And yet you created this place. You enchanted the forest to keep you safe. You’ve been able to keep the queen’s army out of these woods, and I don’t see that changing.”
For as much as I loved Henry, he sometimes could think foolish thoughts.
“If what Bernard says is true, then this is no longer a safe haven.” I waved towards the door. “Which means we have to run.”
Henry stiffened next to me and slowly shook his head. “There is nowhere to run to, Maggie.”
He should know. He and the dwarves were the only ones allowed to pass through the invisible gates of the enchanted forest. He had been beyond our sanctuary many times over the years.
I hadn’t left these woods since I fled the kingdom and escaped certain death at the hands of the queen.
My chest tightened. I had to come to grips with the reality of engaging in a final battle with evil.