Page 100 of Not Another Happily Ever After

The man lets out a loud, boisterous laugh. “You cannot undo a deal. It lives as long as you do.”

My face falls.

For as long as they live?

I look to the couple, trapped by the maddening melody as it carries them farther away from the child they sacrificed everything to feed. Their little girl will grow up carrying the unbearable weight of knowing what her life cost.

The man grabs the little girl. She reaches for her parents, sobbing as the music pulls them away.

No.

No!

“Stop! Please!” I surge forward. “I’ll take their place!”

The words leave my mouth before I can stop them.

Ice floods my veins as the man whirls toward me far faster than I thought him able.

“Deal.” He claps, and the thin blue thread binding the girl’s parents snaps.

The couple collapse to the ground, wrapping their daughter in their exhausted arms.

The knot in my chest loosens as I take in their smiling faces—an irony that isn’t lost on me.

I may not have saved the realm, but I saved theirs. And if this should be the price, so be it.

Glistening blue threads descend toward me. I wait to feel the strings pull on my wrists?—

Warm hands seize my wrists instead. My head snaps to a tall, cloaked figure as he pulls me through the crowd.

“Only the dead can escape the deal!” The stout man shouts, filling the street with his laughter.

Frog doesn’t slow. He pulls me faster and faster through the crowd.

I glance upward to find the tethers following us. They vibrate and hum as if laughing at our attempt to escape.

“Frog!” I cry.

Frog’s eyes snap up. We veer left, racing against the steady thrum of the music until it’s little more than a distant purr—until the yellow brick stones run out beneath us.

I chance another look back. The tethers are hot on our heels. I can already feel the pulse of their power.

“I’m not going to make it!” I cry, but my voice is weak. Tired, like every other part of me.

“Stay with me, Princess,” Frog calls over his shoulder. “We’re almost there.”

“Where—pant—is here?”

My knees ache, ready to give out…when the largest hedge imaginable comes into view.

Frog pulls us toward it and I realize it’s a wall. Made up entirely of woven vines and crimson roses, it towers high above the trees.

I lean back, my eyes tracing the impossible height of the hedges.

“Don’t slow down,” the Dark Knight urges, pulling me faster until we’re but a few feet away from the crimson wall. “Don’t look back.”

I look back.