Red Hood's Revenge

turning it about to study the latch, a simple iron hook through a small loop.
    The box appeared plain enough, made of unfinished wood and hammered iron. It was no wider than Danielle’s hand.
    Snow’s choker brightened slightly. “I don’t see any magical traps.”
    Talia set the box on a bench and dropped to one knee. A knife appeared in her hand, and she used the blade to unfasten the catch. The tip of the knife slowly raised the lid to reveal a folded note sealed with red wax. Talia opened the lid, scooped out the note with her knife, then swore.
    “What’s wrong?” Danielle asked.
    Talia turned the box so they could see the severed toe, barely larger than a cashew, sitting on a velvet cushion. She cracked the seal and unfolded the note, then passed it to Danielle. Brown bloodstains marred the corner of the page.
    Danielle,
    Rumpelstilzchen was a miserable wretch who deserved far worse than you would have given him. I promise in his final moments, he lived long enough to repent his crimes.
    Evil as the filthy creature was, how much worse was his partner? A human betraying his own kind to the fairies. Very much as your stepsisters once did, no?
    In gratitude for helping to rid the world of this foul creature and the human traitor, I’ve decided to offer you a gift. I’ve freed your stepsister Charlotte from her fairy mistress. Come alone to Stone Grove tomorrow at sunset and I’ll return her to you, to deal with as you see fit. Or if you’re too weak to see justice done, I’ll finish her myself.
    Yours,
    R
    The handwriting was beautiful, every loop and whorl drawn precisely in brown ink. Danielle read the note a second time before passing it to Beatrice.
    “What is it, Your Highness?” Andrew whispered.
    Danielle barely heard. It was more than two years since she had left Charlotte behind in Fairytown. She still prayed for her stepsister some nights, but for the most part she had tried to push those memories from her mind. It was a part of her life she preferred not to think about.
    She remembered the cooing of the doves at her wedding. The birds had lined the eaves of the palace, while the rats watched hidden in the grass. Her only friends, come to celebrate as she and Armand were presented to the crowd.
    The doves had swooped down, attacking her stepmother and stepsisters. They blinded her stepmother, who eventually died from her injuries. Charlotte and Stacia survived, but the attack left them both scarred.
    Danielle grimaced as she examined the toe. The skin was wrinkled, the nail ragged and yellow.
    Her stepsisters had conspired to kidnap Armand and kill Danielle. Closing her eyes, she could still see the despair and hatred on Charlotte’s face as she prepared to murder Danielle and her unborn son.
    Talia grabbed Danielle’s arm, yanking her back to the present. “From this moment, you go nowhere alone. I want you armed at all times.” She turned to Andrew. “Go straight to King Theodore. Tell him to double the guards at the gates and on the walls.”
    To Andrew’s credit, he waited for Beatrice’s nod before rushing off.
    “You know who sent this,” Danielle said, staring at the severed toe.
    Beatrice folded the note and returned it to the box. “Roudette has entered the palace once before. She would have killed me if not for Talia’s aid.”
    “She’s known as the Lady of the Red Hood,” said Talia. “Having failed to kill Beatrice, it looks as though she’s coming for you.”
    Danielle stared. “You’re telling me Little Red Riding Hood wants to kill me?”
    “Asked Cinderella of Sleeping Beauty,” Snow added with a smile. She plucked the toe from the box. “Interesting choice of bait. It was a clean cut, for whatever that’s worth. Look at the bone, where—”
    “I’d rather not,” said Danielle.
    Talia pushed back one sleeve, revealing a pale scar that cut across her forearm. “Roudette gave me this the last time she was here. She’s stronger than she looks. Faster, too. Some say she’s every bit as fierce as the wolf from her story.”
    Danielle wanted to laugh, but she knew Talia wouldn’t take a lesser threat so seriously. “How much of her story is true? There was a wolf and a hunter both.”
    “Nobody knows.” Trittibar looked more somber than Danielle had ever seen him. “Roudette is the hunter now.”
    Danielle sank onto the bench beside the queen. “Why would she want to kill me?”
    “A better question is who hired her to kill you,” said Talia.