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“Hey…” Garrison held up his hands. “I had nothing to do with this.”

Gage looked at him. “Are you sure?”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now, brother?” Garrison asked, wobbling as he rose to his feet.

“Tell me you aren’t working with the dark Queen and I’ll believe you.”

“I won’t.” Enzo snapped, but Gage shot him a look that shut him up and even caused him to retreat a little.

“I’m not working with the Queen. I told you. I wanted Snow alive just as much as you did.”

Enzo huffed.

“It’s true. She could have killed me. In fact, I’m surprised she didn’t. I betrayed her, and she rarely lets that slide.”

“That’s the point. She could have easily killed you, but she didn’t. Why?”

“Can you describe the light you saw?” I asked, curious.

“It was like this red flash and it felt like a dragon had kicked me in the chest.”

“A red light?”

“Yea, with specks of green. I’d never seen it before, although I’m not one for fighting with powerful, evil, witches…”

Interesting. “It should have killed you.”

“What?” Half of the house said.

“The curse she lobbed. It’s a death curse. There are only a few and even fewer mages, or witches, that are powerful enough to pull them off. The one she did is called the Dolorum Inferens Mortem Curse… or painful death. She wasn’t messing around.”

“It was painful…” He said rubbing his chest.

“I just don’t understand how you’re still alive.”

“I don’t know.” He looked at Snow and his face fell. “I failed you all, and I failed her. My job, my entire life, has been to rid this kingdom of that evil dark bitch of a Queen and every time she slips through my fingers. My job was to protect Snow.” He buried his face in his hands in frustration.

“I will find all of her little seeds of youth she has implanted, and I will destroy them all. I will take away her life source and then I will kill her!”

“Snow didn’t want that.” I said.

“Snow is dead!” Garrison shouted. “Because that… that bitch of a Queen killed her!”

“Tell me more about her… what you saw.” I asked, still holding out the slightest thread of hope we could bring her back again.

“I had been following Snow around all day and she was getting irritated, so I stayed inside,” he held up his hand. “I know you don’t need to yell at me now.” He sat down at the table. “I stayed inside while she went outside. She said she was looking for her horse she hadn’t seen in a while.”

“We think the Queen shrunk her horse the last time she was here.” I added, trying to give context.

“I heard people talking, and I panicked and when I raced to the door, I saw a young girl standing in front of her and Snow was smiling.”

“What were they talking about?” Gage asked, kneeling by Snow’s head.

It was interesting to see this side of Gage- a softer side. We had all assumed he couldn’t stand Snow, but the way he was acting right now… he was hurting…

“I don’t know, but Snow… she looked up… she looked happy.” I paused and started waving my finger excitedly. “The bracelet. She said it looked just like her mother’s! She said the girl found it in town… Snow… she was so excited and that’s when the little girl turned to look at me. She had a scarf wrapped around her head and when she cut her eyes at me, I saw the darkness in them and knew it was a disguise. She smirked at me and that’s when the bolt of light shot out and hit me and as I was flying back through the house, I heard Snow scream and then… nothing.”

Gage ran his hands over Snow, through her hair, around her neck, down her arms.