Story's End by Marissa Burt

Author:Marissa Burt
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

You’re the Warlock’s Apprentice?” Snow said to her mother again. The underground room felt pleasant after the swamp’s humidity, and she sat in the chair across from the crackling fireplace. Hopeful sounds of the vampire rummaging around came from the kitchen.

“Yes,” her mother said shortly. She was pawing through the rubble on the desk, tossing aside crumbling scrolls and mysterious-looking maps. “Now if I could just find his book of spells, I could release the Scroll of Fire. Even on its own, it is very powerful, and it may give us the upper hand against Fidelus and Duessa.”

“You know where it is? How?”

“Because long ago I helped discover it.” Snow’s mother frowned as she reached underneath the old desk and ran her hands back and forth. “And with luck, we’ll have it in our possession soon enough.”

Snow felt like she was looking at a stranger. She knew nothing about her mother’s past. And her mother had made no effort to change that. “Okay,” Snow said. “Let’s see here . . . you know where to find one of the Lost Elements, you’re some warlock’s apprentice, you have an underground house in the middle of the Enchanted Swamp, you’re an enchantress. Anything else I should know about you?” Just when Snow thought she was beginning to understand her mother, she dropped another bomb like this one.

“Which reminds me,” her mother said, grabbing an old piece of paper and scribbling something down. “I need to send a message to the Resistance.”

Snow frowned. She’s not listening to me. “Everything you’ve told me is a lie. How do I know if you’re good or bad? Hero or Villain?”

“You are keen on making hasty judgments, aren’t you, Snow?” Her mother shook her head and gave a low chuckle. “Just like your mother.”

“I’m nothing like you,” Snow mumbled. They might have reached an uneasy truce during their mutual imprisonment, but that didn’t mean Snow had forgotten what her mother was. An enchantress with lots of secrets. Not to mention a lousy mom.

Her mother blinked twice, turned back around, and finished her note. The sound of a pot lid clattered from the kitchen, followed by the crashing noise of pans hitting the floor and the leprechauns shouting wildly at the vampire. Her mother brushed by Snow in icy silence and started giving the leprechauns instructions about how to get to Resistance headquarters.

From the sound of it, the Resistance was part of some underground rebellion. More secrets. Snow pushed aside the feeling of guilt that was blooming inside her. A couple of days together didn’t make up for thirteen years. “Where is Archimago, anyway?” she asked when her mother came back into the room.

Her mother peered into the darkness below the desk. “Gone,” she said. “He wasn’t caught in the web. My best leprechaun trackers are looking for him. They say there’s no trace of him, no evidence of him returning to the castle. Perhaps he is still close by.”

“You think he’ll go back to Duessa?” Snow sucked in her breath.

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