Fairest of All (Whatever After #1) by Sarah Mlynowski Read Free Book Online Page B

black fingernail in my face. Hmm. There’ll be no fooling me a second time. If that key doesn’t give her away, those claws sure will. “Why are you ruining my plan?” she snarls.
    Is she kidding me? “I’m ruining your plan? You’re ruining my plan!”
    Before she can smush me with the hammer, I kick the door shut with my bare foot.
    Evil Evelyn tries to rattle it open. “I’m coming in! You can’t stop me!” She pushes against the door and then kicks it. Then she stops. I peek out the window. Two seconds later, she starts muttering to herself and smashing the hammer against the door.
    With the next bang, the hinges almost pop off.
    “Maybe this will help,” Jonah says, pushing the mini-couch against the door.
    “Good idea,” I say. “More!” The three of us heave over the mini–dining room table and the mini-chairs. They are much lighter (and smaller) than I wish they were.
    I push, Snow pushes, and my brother pushes. We will not — no, we will not — let Evil Evelyn in! On the other side, she’s yelling and grunting and hammering. We block the door with all the furniture and appliances we can find. The garbage pail. Chairs. A large pot. Fortunately, the windows are dwarf-sized. No way is Evil Evelyn fitting through them.
    “We have to scare her away,” Jonah says.
    “But how?” Snow asks.
    “We have boiling water!” I scream. “If you don’t go away in three seconds, we’re going to throw it at you!”
    “We don’t have boiling water,” Snow whispers.
    “She doesn’t know that,” I whisper back. I would never really throw boiling water at someone. But Evil Evelyn probably thinks all people are as evil as she is.
    There’s a pause.
    “I’m going to throw it!” I yell, feeling a bit sick at the thought. “You’ll be covered in burns and blisters! You won’t even be the second-fairest person in the land. You’ll be the first ugliest!”
    “I’ll be back,” we hear.
    Eventually the other side gets quiet.
    “I think she’s gone,” I say finally.
    Snow looks under the curtains. “I don’t see her.” She exhales with relief.
    “Now what?” Jonah asks.
    Good question.
    “So can we take down the blockade?” Snow asks.
    I crawl over to the couch and plant myself on a cushion. “Let’s keep it up. Just in case.”
    “She only comes around once a day,” Snow says. “We can try again tomorrow. Now help me tidy up before the dwarfs get back. Frances hates it when things are out of place.”
    I feel a little queasy. “This whole let-Snow-almost-die plan is not working. What if next time the queen comes back with a truck and mows down the cottage?”
    “What’s a truck?” Snow asks.
    “A really big horseless carriage,” Jonah says.
    “But what if she comes back with a cannon? Or a dragon? What if she keeps coming back until she gets the job done?” I wonder aloud.
    We need to save Snow’s story — before there’s no Snow left to save.

a fter our poisoned-cookie plan fails, I lead us back into the forest and try to retrace our steps. Not that I’m ready to go home yet. I can’t leave Zamel until I figure out how to change Snow’s story back to the way it was. Snow’s so nice. She deserves a happy ending. It’s not fair if she doesn’t get one because of us. And once the story is fixed, I want to skedaddle as fast as possible. I think time has stopped in Smithville, but what if it hasn’t? I don’t want Mom and Dad to worry.
    But first we fix the story. We HAVE to. If we don’t, Evil Evelyn could return and kill Snow for real.
    I can’t let that happen. Snow can’t DIE because of us.
    I feel cold and sick just thinking about it.
    “This is it,” Jonah says. “This is where we came out.”
    “How can you tell?” I ask. “All the trees look the same to me.” Forget Yopopa. Is my brother a genius? A nature genius?
    He points to a pile on the ground. “I see Mom and Dad’s law books. And the computer chair is behind that tree.”
    Oh. Right.
    “This is