VILLAIN

Chapter 25

I scrambled to my feet as fast as I could, my movements waking a disgruntled Tinkerbell from her slumber. Tiger Lily turned to me expectantly, but in my panic the words got all jumbled.

"Max...and they...sword...they need...but I...we have to help them!"

Tiger Lily's face set in determination, and she nodded once curtly, asking no other questions about my messy explanation. She notched a fresh arrow in her bow and we set off into Brick Haven. Tinkerbell wiped at her eyes, muttering something about rude girls shouting while she was trying to sleep, but did eventually follow us into the village.

I wanted to run as fast as I could, but I forced myself to only jog for fear of waking up the rest of the town and bringing an even bigger nightmare down on us. I kept my eyes switching back and forth between the buildings around me and the image in my mirror, struggling to identify where exactly they were. I suddenly hated the dozens of matching brick houses, cursing the fact that they all looked identical. Tiger Lily noticed my struggling and took over leading, taking one glance at Mirror's image before confidently turning a corner and making her way to the scene. Somehow, even when running, Tiger Lily managed to be graceful and lithe, her feet barely making a sound as they zipped across the brick streets.

I could see in my mirror that our friends had only seconds, but my racing heart drowned out the words Max was saying to the soldiers. Whatever it was, it wasn't working very well, because every second the men seemed to inch closer to their corner. Our group looked so very small compared to the dozen of armored guards, and, though I did notice with interest that Scarlet had drawn a small dagger from inside her red cloak, they were far outmatched. They weren't going to last long if we didn't get there in a hurry. I quickened my pace.

As we got closer, I began to hear the sounds of scuffling. Gasps echoed through the otherwise quiet night, the sounds of fighting stark against the backdrop of the sleeping village. I stopped watching my mirror, afraid of what I might see, and stuffed in back in the bodice of my dress – which had now stretched out to accommodate it nicely. The sounds grew louder the farther we went, until Tiger Lily stopped abruptly just before rounding a corner, nearly making me run into her. Just around the corner we could see the moonlit outlines of people fighting, a dozen swords glinting against the dark village street.

I sucked in one last breath to prepare myself, then followed Tiger Lily around the corner, sword clutched in both hands. I had never wielded a sword before, and I had absolutely no idea what the proper way to do so was. My heart hammered in my throat as my eyes began to take in the scene in front of me.

Scarlet was holding the guards off the mermaids with her dagger, Marci and Muriel cowering behind her, weaponless. Max was engaged in a tussle with a different soldier, but it was clear he wasn't winning. At first I just stood there, unsure of what to do. I saw one of Tiger Lily's arrows soar past me, hitting one of the guards in the shoulder and making him fall down in pain. This blinked me back from my stupor, and I frantically tried to decide where my help was needed most. Scarlet seemed to be defending the mermaids pretty well, but she wasn't going to last forever against four guards. Tiger Lily had already taken out two men, and she was aiming at a third. Tinkerbell fluttered around the scene, growing a massive flower out of the cracks in the brick and using her magic to tie up one of the attackers. And Max was...getting the snot beat out of him.

He laid on the brick street, chest heaving, fists bloodied and various scratches marring his person. I watched in horror as the soldier who'd been attacking him raised his sword over Max's head, Max closing his eyes and shielding his face with his hands. The guard seemed to move in almost slow motion, sword arching toward Max's body for ages. Then somehow I was there, blocking the attack with a clumsy thrust, still holding the sword in two white-knuckled fists.