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Chapter Twenty One

T he door appeared then, right on schedule.

Grim looked at Serena with a fierce tenderness. “You did it, then. You broke my curse. The tale has ended.”

Now that he was back to normal, Serena felt almost shy at his intense gaze on her.

He took her hand then and led her to the door. “Let’s go home, then.”

Home. The term slipped out so naturally that she doubted he even noticed. But she did, and her toes curled in pleasure at the thought.

As she was about to pass through, the sparrow and the robin flew overhead.

“Leaving already, beauty?”

“And leaving with the beast!”

“You fool! He’s no beast now, don’t you see?”

“Thank you,” she said to them, sincerely. “Truly, I owe the both of you.”

They seemed to puff up their chest at her praise and then set off into the air, arguing once again.

Grim and Serena stepped through the door and into Lore’s lair.

“So,” said the shadowy demon, “managed to weasel your way out of another one, have you?”

There was no amusement on his face now, his eyes burning like two chips of hot coal.

“You’re a fool if you thought that exposing Grim’s secret would make me stop caring about him,” said Serena in a low voice.

“Oh?”

“Someone like you would never understand,” said Grim, putting an arm around her, and drawing her close. “Not when your heart has never known what it is to care about someone.”

“You think I don’t know love?” hissed Lore. “I have known love, boy. I have known it for all of its treacheries and trappings.”

Somewhere a glass shattered.

“Whatever you experienced, it was not real,” cried Serena. “Someone who knows that kind of warmth and feeling would never manipulate people like this. ”

“You know nothing.” He roared, a wave of power sweeping through the room.

More instruments shattered, and even his shadows seemed to quiver under his rage.

“If you think what I do is manipulating,” he hissed, “go ask your precious Faery Queen how exactly Arcana died and what it is that she wants from you.”

Serena looked at him in shock, but before she could question him further, he snapped his fingers, and they landed back in Primrose Cottage.