Red Hood's Revenge

Talia. Should you break this bond, your blood shall boil within your body.”
    Danielle grimaced. “That’s a little gruesome, don’t you think?”
    “It’s a standard fairy clause,” Snow said. To Roudette, she asked, “Do you accept this mark?”
    The tip of Talia’s sword pressing against her neck left little choice. “Yes.”
    The skin of her collarbone burned to life, but even as Roudette yanked away, the pain was dying. Roudette used her bound hands to pull back her shirt, examining the mark.
    A spot of silver the size of Snow’s thumb marred her skin. Roudette dug a fingernail into the mark, and was rewarded by a dark crescent of blood. Gouging the skin wouldn’t remove the spell beneath. Wordlessly, she extended her hands. Talia untied the whip.
    “You didn’t ask for how long,” Danielle said softly.
    Roudette tilted her head. “Excuse me?”
    “Most people, upon being given such a curse, would want to know how long it would last. How many years you would remain our prisoner, and whether you would ever be given your freedom.”
    Danielle was more perceptive than Roudette had realized. “Most people spend too much time thinking about what is to come. I trust my path will lead me where I’m meant to go.”
    They didn’t return her hammer, but Roudette hadn’t expected them to. It made little difference. Roudette could kill almost as effectively with her bare hands. She pulled her cape back into place. The runes on the cape protected her from external magic, but the fairy mark was within her now. The cape couldn’t remove it.
    But it might slow the effects. Not for very long, but perhaps it would be enough to do what she must.
    She watched Snow and Danielle closely. She knew Talia, but these two were new. Danielle appeared soft, yet she hadn’t hesitated to join the battle back at Whiteshore Palace, even though Roudette could have killed her as swiftly as a thought. As for Snow, her magic had held off fairy wolves and diverted a fairy ring, two things Roudette had thought impossible.
    They were an impressive team. It was a shame she would have to destroy them.
     
    Danielle sat with her back to a tree as she waited for the mirror on her bracelet to respond to her kiss. Talia had left them at the edge of the lake, where the thicker trees and grasses provided cover from the dust and wind, not to mention concealing them from the city.
    “Danielle?” Prince Armand looked up at her from the tiny mirror. “Are you all right? What happened? Where did you—”
    “We’re safe,” Danielle said. “We’re in Arathea, outside the city of Jahrasima. Talia has gone ahead to find us a place to stay. Is Jakob—”
    “He’s here with me,” said Armand, tilting the mirror so Danielle could see her son. “He wants to know when you’re coming home.”
    “As soon as I can. I promise.” Danielle braced herself. “Armand, what of Charlotte?”
    “Dead.” Armand’s voice was cold. “According to witnesses, it was a quick death.”
    Tears filled her eyes. Roudette had said as much, but still Danielle had hoped that somehow Charlotte might have survived. Even though Charlotte had always hated Danielle, she had also been the last survivor of Danielle’s childhood, the only piece of her former life. “Before the fairy ring took us, Jakob said Father Isaac had been hurt.”
    “Burned, but he’ll survive.” He was choosing his words carefully, trying not to upset Jakob. “The protective spells in the chapel saved his life. The sprite couldn’t attack him, but its mere presence was enough to set his robe afire. Tymalous is seeing to his care.”
    “It wasn’t Charlotte’s fault,” Danielle said. “She controlled it as long as she could.”
    Armand didn’t answer.
    Danielle watched Roudette pacing through the trees. “How many others were killed?”
    Her anger grew as Armand recited the list of the dead. Eight guardsmen had died today, not including those killed earlier when Roudette attacked Rumpelstilzchen. Melvyn the rathunter and three of his dogs had also fallen to Roudette’s hammer. A young woman and her mother were killed by Roudette’s wolves at the southern gate. Eleven others had been injured and brought into the palace, where Tymalous was doing the best he could to keep them alive. “Father Isaac is helping as well, against Tymalous’ orders.”
    This wasn’t the first time Danielle had faced death, but rarely had it felt so casual . Roudette killed without a thought,