The Council of Mirrors by Michael Buckley Read Free Book Online Page B

that made everyone blush.
    “Mom, please!” Mordred groaned from the corner, where he’d finally subdued the water tower. “Can you two give it a rest?”
    “Sorry, honey,” Morgan said. “My darling boyfriend has sweptme off my feet. In fact, he popped the question last night. We’re getting married!”
    “As soon as everything calms down,” Seven explained.
    Puck flapped up to the happy couple. “Wait a minute! You have to ask someone to marry you? No one told me that! I thought you just hit them with a club and dragged them back to your cave!”
    Henry put his arm around Sabrina. “You’re officially grounded from ever getting married.”
    “Thank you,” Sabrina whispered sincerely.
    Charming grumbled. “All this kissing and hugging is becoming quite tiresome. There is serious work to do here. The west wall needs fortifying. The armory is still not ready. The stables need cleaning. We can’t move into the castle until it’s complete. And these two are running off at the drop of a hat to stare into each other’s eyes!”
    “I seem to recall a certain handsome prince doing the same with me last night,” Snow White said from the doorway of one of the cabins. It seemed you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting some gorgeous princess or exotic enchantress around here, but Snow White was in a class all by herself. Her skin was creamy and flawless. Her hair was as black as night and her lips were full and pink. She wrapped her arms around Charmingand planted a kiss on his cheek. He looked as if her touch made him dizzy.
    “Snow, I—”
    Snow giggled. “I’m just teasing, Casanova.”
    “Harrumph!” Charming said, though he did flash a hint of a smile. The prince and Snow White had a long, complicated relationship. Hundreds of years ago she left him at the altar. In the centuries since, he married Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. None of those marriages had worked out, and Sabrina suspected the reason was Snow. Even after countless centuries, William Charming could not get her out of his system.
    “Come to join the army?” Snow asked the Grimms.
    “No,” Henry said. “We’re here to see Jacob.”
    Snow White’s smile disappeared. “Oh. Henry, maybe you want to leave the girls here with me.”
    Henry looked to Veronica. “Maybe—”
    Sabrina interrupted. “Sure, Dad. That is, if you can trust us out of your sight.”
    “We do have a tendency to get into shenanigans,” Daphne said.
    Henry frowned. “No, they’ll stay with me.”
    Daphne shared a knowing wink with Sabrina.
    As they continued their walk along the perimeter of the fortress,the group came across Gepetto, who, despite his advanced age, was splitting firewood with an ax. Pinocchio watched him for several moments, silently, as if preparing for a big speech. Finally, he sputtered out, “Papa?” like a little boy. Sabrina realized immediately it wasn’t a speech Pinocchio was readying—it was a performance.
    “Pinocchio!” Gepetto dropped a handful of wood and rushed to the little boy. He scooped him up in his arms and showered him with kisses. “My son! My son!”
    Pinocchio hugged the old man and forced a few tears. “Oh, Papa! I thought . . . Oh, it’s too terrible to say.”
    Sabrina and Daphne looked at each other in bewilderment.
    “And the Oscar goes to . . . ,” Sabrina said.
    “Papa, you have no idea how bad things have been for me,” Pinocchio cried. “These horrible people expect me to sleep on the floor and they are incredibly rude! We’re living on rice and—”
    “I know what you did, son,” Gepetto said.
    Suddenly, the crocodile tears dried from Pinocchio’s face. “Then—then—you have to hear my side of the story,” he stammered.
    “Your side of the story is that you betrayed a family I consider amongst my dearest friends. You helped to loot and destroytheir home, leaving them with nothing. You conspired with their mortal enemy—my mortal enemy. You helped a . . . a monster who