Sneaky Snow White (Dark Fairy Tale Queen Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

girl. I will have to choose a name for this infant who will be both my child and my sibling. I doubt we’ll look alike, though. Cinderella and my father were both blonde, but I have the midnight hair and eyes of my mother.
    I remember my own mother well. She died when I was six due to some trouble with her lungs, my father said. She was as beautiful as sculpted ice, with haunting eyes that seemed to harbor a dark secret. She told me that my beauty came from her, but also from magic. Blood Magic, she called it. She said she would explain it to me when I was older. But, of course, that day never came. I miss my mother. If she hadn’t died, Old Cinders would never have come. I would still have my family.
    I’m now feeling nicks of impatience. Hunter should have returned by now. I strain my ears at the window, hoping to hear crackling footsteps or the feeble cry of an infant. Perhaps things did not go as planned. I should have gone with him, but I was afraid of Cinderella, and the palace guards, and more than anything else - The Mirror. Although I didn’t tell Hunter this, I know Cinderella was right: The Mirror wants me now. I have felt it for weeks, I just didn’t understand. I won’t let it find me. I won’t let it control me.
    I hope he made it past the guards. I hope he killed Cinderella but not the baby. I hope he was strong enough to cut the baby from her. I hope he got out of the palace. I hope he wasn’t attacked by Dwarves in the forest. I hope he will be here soon.
    All night long, I hope and I hope. But my Hunter does not come.

~*~ 14 ~*~
     
    I walk through The Wood at a hard, steady pace. Hunter never came back. Once morning gave me enough light to see by, I set out with the hunting knife clutched in my hand. He must have been caught, imprisoned at the palace. Well, I’ll get him out. Even if I have to slay every guard in my path.
    The forest is a sleepy gray, the sky wearing a wooly blanket of clouds. I’m still far from the palace, moving around clusters of oak and chestnut trees. It’s dim even in daylight and too leafy to see far ahead. Someone should really cut a path through this place, it would make getting through a lot easier.
    And then a Dwarf steps right in front of me.
    I stop in pure shock. I don’t think he knew I was coming either, because his bushy eyebrows shoot up. He’s holding a wooden club with iron spikes at the end. The thing is nearly as tall as I am.
    He gives a short nod. “Morning, miss. Glad I ran into you.” He looks beyond me and raises his voice. “Hey, fellows, look who’s here!”
    Oh NO! I whirl around but more Dwarves are creeping out behind me, pushing through ferns and around trees. They’re all enormous, close to seven feet. Oh my stars, I’m a dead girl.
    I spin back to face the one in front of me. I jab my arm upward and point the hunting knife at his face. A ripple of rough laughter circles around me.
    The Dwarf ahead of me smiles. He’s got sandy hair and a short beard, both untidy. One of his eyebrows has been split at the center by a deep scar. But despite all that, there’s something familiar about him.
    “Put it down, little miss, won’t do you no good. Sorry we scared you the other night, we didn’t know you were Hunter’s gal.”
    I drop my arm in surprise. “What?”
    “We don’t harm each other’s women. It’s in the code, more or less. Keeps us all on friendly terms that way.”
    “Us?” I ask, bewildered.
    “Us!” The Dwarf laughs and lifts his arms, gesturing to the six other men. “And our brother Hunter too, of course.”
    I keep perfectly still. I can’t process what I’m hearing. “Hunter is… your brother?”
    “We’re all brothers,” the Dwarf says. “Hunter’s the youngest.”
    “Hunter is a Dwarf! ”
    The seven men all rumble with laughter.
    “Naw, he’s too small for that,” the Dwarf says. “He came from Pa’s second wife, so he didn’t get the big bones of our mother. She was solid.”
    “So Hunter is