Storykiller (4 page)

“And you expect me to believe all that?”

“I don’t care what you believe, Scion, but quite plainly, the monsters under the bed are all real. All of them. And a whole lot of them hate you. So, you know, weigh your options or whatever.”

“And you’re supposed to be…The Snow Queen,” Tessa said.

“I’m not
supposed
to be anything. I AM The Snow Queen.”

“Never heard of you,” Tessa said, just to piss her off.

Snow growled under her breath and then pulled to a stop outside a massive Victorian house not unlike Tessa’s but far larger and more ornate, set back from the road and rather buried in a rural wooded lot. The nearest house was at least a mile away and it was getting dark. The whole set-up made Tessa nervous. She chewed her lip and looked at the house skeptically. “How did you just happen to see this go down by the way?”

Snow pursed her lips. “I was following you.”

“Yes, but why?”

“The Story Court sent me. They wanted me to give you the drill, convince you to come to Story so they could give you the whole run down, begin the relationship on the right foot.”

“They want to start on the right foot and they sent you?” Tessa asked.

“Yes, haha. Very funny,” Snow said, thick with sarcasm, before reaching over Tessa to open the passenger door for her. “Okay, have fun!” she said cheerfully, as if dropping Tessa off for camp. Tessa wouldn’t have been surprised if Snow actually tried to push her out of the car. Before she could do so,
Tessa grabbed Snow’s slender wrist mid-reach.

“You’re coming.”

“No way.”

“Yup.”

“I’m not a fighter,” Snow said, taking back her arm and massaging her delicate wrist.

“Well, there’s something we can agree on,” Tessa said. “So fine, you can do what you’re clearly best at. Go. Be pretty.” Tessa said, waving her hand in the general direction that was Snow. Snow straightened her shoulders and looked blankly at the woods in front of them. Tessa snatched the keys from the ignition and got out.

Snow scrambled out as well and hissed at Tessa over the top of the car. “Okay. Done. See? Pretty. Now give me the keys!”

“Be pretty
at him,
” Tessa said, nodding her head at the house.

“Eww. No.” Snow crinkled up her nose in disgust.

“Yes. I need a distraction. I’ll go in through the back, you keep him busy in the front.”

“You really have language comprehension problems, Scion, I said no
,” Snow crossed her arms, faint hints of her shimmery sweater catching in the fading light.

“How about this,” Tessa said, holding up the car keys, “Do it or I throw your keys as far as my new super strength will carry them into the woods.”

Snow glared and stamped her impossibly tall heels into the dirt like a child. The temperature around Tessa dropped at least ten degrees. She raised her eyebrows at Snow in surprise. Snow’s skin looked even harder and whiter, her eyes a crystalline blue, much brighter
and sharper than before.

“Are you…are you doing that?” Tessa asked, flexing her hand as the cold bit at her skin and the temperature continued to drop around them.

Snow put her hands on her hips and harrumphed. Her eyes and skin softened slightly,
and the temperature shot back up almost as quickly as it had dropped.

“Scion, you are already such a huge pain in my—”

“Yes, yes,” Tessa said. “Don’t worry, the feeling is mutual.” Tessa pocketed the keys, shooed Snow away and took off into the woods, bat in hand. She waited a moment in the thick trees to see what the woman would do. Snow’s shoulders fell into a little curl, but after a moment she straightened them and smiled broadly and began the hike up the winding drive, her heels periodically sinking into the dirt, her bright white hair and sweater like a beacon in the oncoming dark.

Snow climbed the front steps to the porch cursing under her breath all the way. When she reached the front door she rapped lightly, half hoping she had tailed them to the wrong house. If she was wrong she could go back home to Story and a long cool bath and forget all this Scion nonsense. Unfortunately by her second knock, the door swung open wide and Snow was faced with Bluebeard. She hadn’t seen him in at least a hundred years. Unfortunately, he looked the same. Recognition sparked in his face immediately and his eyes widened in something between shock and fear. Snow spoke first.

“Don’t worry, I’m not here on official Court business.”

“Then they don’t know I’m here?”

Snow sighed, “I don’t know and I don’t care, I just know that it’s not what brings me here.

Bluebeard brightened ever so slightly. “This is a social call?”

“You wish,” Snow said, pushing past him into the house. He stepped to the side, too late since she was already inside, but he tried to make up for it by bowing slightly. Snow rolled her eyes. She’d hated this guy the last time she’d met him and it seemed nothing had changed. When he looked up, Snow gave him a tight smile and looked around the grand house, filled end to end with antiques and fussy-
looking furniture.

“Nice place,” she said, turning on him. “I see you’ve been abusing your Story talents.”

Bluebeard closed the door and stood with her in the large foyer. “Well…” he began.

Snow cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I don’t really care. Get me a drink already,” she said sighing. Bluebeard escorted her into the parlor and went to a bar cart in the corner while Snow sat back on a dark red velvet couch, crossing her long legs in front of her and inspecting the room if only to cure her boredom.

“So, if you’re not here on Court business, then what?” Bluebeard asked, a creepy grin spreading across his face, “I don’t suppose you’re in the market for a husband.”

“Gross,” Snow said, frowning. Out the far window, at the back of the house, Snow saw a flash of Tessa running across the lawn. She slit her eyes dangerously and looked back to
Bluebeard. “Get yourself a drink too. This is going to take a while.”

Tessa looped around the back and was happy to find there was no fence, just more woods, endless woods. She arced around the house, trying to get a lay of the land before making her move.

Dropping through an unlatched basement window, Tessa landed with a soft thud on the concrete floor. The basement was piled high with paintings and furniture covered in white sheets. She hurried across the floor to the stairs near the center of the room. Tessa made her way up the stairs, listening for Snow’s melodic yet cutting voice drifting through the house, demanding more ice, then her lilting false laugh, the occasional baritone of what Tessa assumed was Bluebeard. Tessa opened the basement door and found herself just under the main stair in the foyer.

She slipped up the stairs to the second level to find a slew of doors off of a long hallway. Tessa opened door after door to find only empty, overly furnished rooms. Finally, she reached the end of the hallway where a pair of doors stood opposite one another. Both were locked. Under the one on the right, Tessa could hear a distinctive shuffle that could totally be a couple kidnapped someones trying to escape. Tessa laid down on the wood floor and peeked under the wide gap at the bottom. She saw Micah, her hands and feet bound in thick rope. Next to her, similarly tied but knocked unconscious, was Brand and another man, perhaps mid-30s, dark hair, attractive in a stuffy young professor kind of way, his glasses broken and a trickle of blood running across his face. Tessa bit her lip.

“Micah,” Tessa whispered under the door. Micah’s head yanked
up and she stopped struggling.

“Tessa?” she asked, shocked and confused, but clearly relieved.

“Stay back,” Tessa whispered. “I’m coming in.”

Micah scooted around a little behind the door and Tessa stood up. She sized up the door. She was pretty sure she could break it down if she still had whatever she’d had when fighting the Troll, but it would be loud. And then she’d have three tied-up hostages, two of them possibly unconscious, while Bluebeard came crashing up the stairs. But she didn’t know how to pick a lock. She thought maybe she could just snap the doorknob off, but would that open the door or make it impossible to open without breaking it down? As she looked around considering her options, a key ring with at least a dozen large old-fashioned
keys slid under the door right in front of her.

“Or I could go with the key,” Tessa said to herself, picking them up and trying them in the lock one by one. On the sixth try, she got it and swung the door open to a smiling Micah, with Brand and the stranger just coming
to.

“Ohmigod. What are you doing here?” Micah asked, blinking a tear or two from her eyes.

Tessa shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said.

Brand struggled to sit up. “Does it have anything to do with the fact that we saw you fighting some kind of monster in your backyard and you seem like you’re a superhero, that possibly IS made out of adamantium?”

Tessa shot him a look and then softened. “Maybe,” she admitted.

The man spoke as Tessa worked on Micah’s knots.

“Tessa. I am so sorry, getting taken hostage certainly was not how I wanted us to first meet.”

“Dude, who are you?” Tessa asked as she fought with Micah’s bonds.

“He’s the freaking high school counselor,” Brand said.

The man cut a look at Brand and then turned back to Tessa. “That’s true, but much more importantly, I’m your Advocate, Benjamin Bishop. I’m supposed to help you with the—,” he glanced at Micah and Brand and edited himself, “With—stuff—but we didn’t know it was you—between all the boarding schools you were bouncing around in Europe and your dad kept listing you under his last name, instead of your mother’s name—it wasn’t until I saw your corrected name on the school register and the photocopy of your passport in your file this afternoon that I realized who you were, and that you were here. I came rushing over to your house, but—”

Tessa managed to free Micah’s hands and started to work on Brand’s while Micah began on her feet. “Mr. Bishop, I appreciate all that, but let’s just deal with the present ordeal and figure out the rest later, okay?”

“Of course. You’re right.” He nodded before continuing, “I’m certain it’s Bluebeard you’re dealing with, he’s rumored to have been living in Lore for a long time. Add that to the large number of young women that fit the profile disappearing over the last few years and…wait…is he still here in the house?”

“Yes, I’ve got someone distracting him.” She looked at Brand and Micah, still trying to free their feet, as she began to work on Bishop’s bonds. “Do they know what’s going on?” she asked, nodding at Micah and Brand.

“I told them some, I felt I should given the circumstances, you know, kidnapped and bouncing around in the back of a van together. I’m not sure how much they believed, but whatever they saw at your house certainly put them in the mood for believing the unbelievable.”

“The headless women in some of the rooms helped too,” Micah piped in absently as she picked at the ropes.

“And also, you know, the beard,” Brand chimed in. Tessa glanced at him, a questioning look on her face. “I mean, it’s straight up blue,” Brand said, shrugging his shoulders.

Tessa shook her head, nobody was supposed to learn this much stuff this fast. It couldn’t be good for her brain. She tried to listen to Bishop explaining about Bluebeard while keeping one ear on Snow downstairs.