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( Dec. 10th, 2014 08:30 am)

Wednesday, December 10

“So now what are you going to do?”

Molly shook her head, continuing to roll out gingerbread cookie dough. “I don’t know, Sue,” she said to her best friend, who was taking her lunch break in the kitchen at CrossWinds Books. “I mean, Caliban creeps me out. But what if Jack did do what he says happened? What if he really is a murderer?”

Sue cradled her tea mug in her hands, frowning. “Well, you know what bothers me the most about these two?”

“What?” Molly laid her rolling pin aside and picked up a gingerbread man cookie cutter.

“That they’re both using you,” Sue said. “And they have no hard feelings about doing it.”

Molly couldn’t argue with that. “It’s obvious they consider us more like pets than anything else,” she said, cutting out gingerbread men. “I mean, Caliban basically said the fact that Jack killed immortals was a larger crime, because we’re doomed to die anyways.”

“What a jerk,” Sue said. “Seriously?”

Molly nodded. “But he was right about one thing, Sue. She needs one of them.”

“Oh?”

“Old Man Winter stopped by the house last night,” Molly said. She slid one tray of gingerbread men out of the oven and put them on the sideboard to cool, then put another tray in.

“Is that why we finally got snow?” Sue said. “I actually had to clean my car off this morning.”

“Probably. But he’s worried about the Snow Queen.” Molly pulled the last little bits of dough together and formed them into a cookie. “He said that she hasn’t come out of her rooms in over a week. She won’t even see him.”

“Wow.” Sue blinked. “What else?”

“He said she had to select a consort. That if she didn’t, she’d die the night of the Ball.”

They were both silent after that, considering what that would be like. Molly couldn’t imagine Carter’s Cove without the Snow Queen. It would be like Christmas without Santa Claus.

“We can’t let that happen,” Sue said finally, getting up and putting her mug in the sink. “We can’t.”

“I know,” Molly said. “I know.”

But how she was going to accomplish that was what was hanging her up. After Sue had left to go back to the museum, Molly pulled out icing materials and began to decorate the cooled gingerbread men, hoping for inspiration. It didn’t help.

“I hear you had an interesting conversation yesterday with my ex-best friend.”

Jack’s voice crackled with bitterness, and Molly looked up to see him standing in the doorway, leaning against the door frame. Once again, she realized how different he was from Caliban. Unlike the prince, he was normal-sized, and someone looking quickly at him would probably not even notice the slight haze of magic around him. His hair was pale, but not overly so, and his skin had the faintest hint of color, especially on his cheeks.

His expression was sour, and Molly wondered what he’d been eating.

“I did,” she said, beckoning him in. “Interesting is one word for it, I guess.”

“Did he tell you I murdered his brother?” Jack didn’t move from the door.

Molly nodded. “And that you were a coward.”

“Did you believe him?”

“No,” Molly said, and smiled as Jack’s eyebrows rose. “Did you think I would?”

“You’d be one of the few,” Jack said. “Caliban convinced a lot of my compatriots of his truth.”

Molly is hard to convince, Schrodinger said, pushing his head against Jack’s calf. When the spirit looked down at him, he said, Go sit down. I want some tea.

“You two are obsessed with tea,” Jack said, but he went, and the CrossCat followed him. They both took seats and Molly set out two new mugs, both with tea bags in them already.

It’s a lovely beverage, Schrodinger told him loftily. And sophisticated.

“If you say so,” Jack said, but Molly noticed that he didn’t disdain to drink the tea. Unlike Caliban, who had never even tasted the tea his servants had made. Yet another difference between them.

Lunch too? Schrodinger said hopefully, looking over at Molly. It’s been ages since breakfast.

“Ages, huh? And what about the muffin you shared with Sarah about an hour ago? What was that?” Molly teased him, but she pulled out two plates and assembled some sandwiches, which she set in front of them.

“So tell me, Jack, what really happened that day when you were banished,” she said, picking up her icing bag and going back to the gingerbread men. “Did you really leave them?”

“Is that what he told you?” Jack snorted. “I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s been singing the same tune to everyone who would listen for the last three hundred years.” He shook his head. “I did NOT become a coward. There was something in the mist that was coming up on us, something big. I went after it, with my guards, and when I did, Lothar’s company was ambushed.”

“Lothar?” Molly asked.

“Caliban’s younger brother. The one who would have inherited their father’s kingdom. The better brother, without a doubt.”

How could the younger brother have inherited? Schrodinger asked him, cocking his head in puzzlement. Isn’t that the older brother’s lot?

“Not if the older brother isn’t the father’s choice,” Jack told him. “The King and Caliban have never seen eye-to-eye. Lothar was a good man – just and kind – everything Caliban isn’t and never was. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Jade had chosen him as her consort. He loved the Cove as much as she did.”

“Then why isn’t his name on the memorial?” Molly asked. “It’s just Caliban’s.”

“Because it erased itself when he died,” Jack said. “The piece of his soul died with him.” He cupped his hands around his tea mug, much like Sue had earlier. “It shouldn’t have been Lothar. It should have been Caliban.” He sighed. “I sometimes think..”

“Think what?” Molly prompted, when his voice trailed off.

Jack sighed again. “I’m probably wrong, but I think Caliban wanted his brother dead. And since I was the only one strong enough to keep the enemy back, he had to draw me away. And then he had a ready-made villain for the crime.”

Molly had to admit that before she’d met Caliban, she’d have had a hard time believing that. But now, having seen the dark hatred pulsing in the spirit’s eyes, she could see him doing what Jack had said.

“So why does he want the Snow Queen now?” she said.

“What did he tell you?” Jack countered.

“That he loved her. That his heart was set on her.” Molly shook her head. “Which may be true, but it doesn’t feel right.”

He doesn’t know how to love, Schrodinger said. He wants to own her.

“She was his once,” Jack agreed. “He doesn’t take kindly to anyone or anything leaving him.”

“Why was she his?” Molly said, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine her with him.”

“We were young. We were different.” Jack finished his tea. “We all had dreams.”

“What were your dreams?” she asked him, refilling his mug and her own.

Jack’s face softened, and to her surprise, he smiled faintly. “I wanted to be a hero,” he admitted. “I wanted to ride in on a white horse, with my magic, and save everything, then get the girl and ride off into the sunset.” He shook his head. “War was a romantic myth to me. I learned the truth soon enough.”

Watching him, Molly realized that she hadn’t even considered giving Caliban a chance. For all his abrasiveness when she’d first met him, Jack had been genuine. Real. Caliban was a construct, the only real thing about him the rage coursing through his body.

“Jack, what does the banishment actually say?” she asked, and he blinked at the change in subject.

“It’s not what it says, so much,” he said after a moment. “It’s more like a compulsion. If Jade is here, I can’t be.”

What happens? Schrodinger asked.

“It feels like my skin is about to split,” Jack said, shuddering. “And if I resist that, my shape starts to change. It’s highly uncomfortable. I haven’t pushed it farther than that.”

“So you tried to see her.” Molly laid the used icing bag in the sink and then put the last tray of gingerbread men on the sideboard to harden and set.

“Of course I did. I love her.” Jack laughed bitterly. “I thought she loved me.”

She probably does, Schrodinger said comfortingly. That’s why the curse works so well.

Which made sense, Molly realized. The more emotion that went into something like the banishment, the more effective it would be. “So we have to remind her why she loved you in the first place,” she said out loud. “Time to remind her of the hero she saw.”

Jack looked up at her. “And how do you intend to work that miracle?”

“I’m working on that,” Molly said. She looked over at the calendar. “The Ball is on the 20th, and we need to have that banishment lifted by then. Which means getting you off the Snow Queen’s naughty list.”

And how do we do that? Schrodinger asked her.

Molly smiled and picked up one of the gingerbread men. “I’m working on it. But trust me, if I can, I will do it.” Then she looked over at Jack. “Are you ready to start?”

“Sure,” he said. “What are we doing?”

“What I always do,” Molly said. “We’re baking.”

Originally published at The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford. You can comment here or there.

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