“Shut up, Bagni,” Granny was saying. “There’s a reason you aren’t the brains of this operation. Dino sticks with me.”
Someone—Bagni, maybe?—responded, but Mitch couldn’t make out the words. Granny ignored whatever was said. “Tell your thugs to search for stragglers during the dance. You are to kill everyone you find. And you better be thorough.”
“Not a problem,” one of the men rasped.
“After killing the stragglers, you are to remain by the accelerant barrels until you can see the flames from the dance hall.Thenyou can light the barrels and join us at the rendezvous spot.”
“Sure you don’t need backup at the dance?” the same man asked.
A brief silence followed, then Granny said, “I’ve changed my mind. You, Bagni, will be with the men stationed in the cellar. Where I can keep an eye on you.”
“But that leaves only five guys to hunt down stragglers,” the rasper protested.
“You told me they were the best,” Granny answered coolly.
“They are!”
“Then it shouldn’t be a problem.” After a beat, she added, “Correct?”
“Correct, ma’am.” Bagni sounded completely cowed.
Apparently done with the men, the evil crone shooed them out. “Be off with you! I better not see you until after the dance. You are not going to ruin this for me by being stupid.”
“No, ma’am,” the men chorused, much louder now that they were on the front step.
Mitch eased backward, away from the front of the cottage. There was no reason to think the men would leave on this side, but he wouldn’t feel safe until he was in the woods.
To his great relief, the thugs returned to the trees on the town side of the cottage. He paused in the bushes closest to the window for the count of one hundred, then ghosted through the snow, careful to step in the most melted portions to camouflage his prints.
Tracking the red-cloaked beauty took longer than he initially expected. The conversation between Granny and her thugs had delayed him somewhat, but he didn’t think Tasia had had time to get this lost. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that shedidn’t know she was lost yet and was therefore still wandering. This theory was strengthened when he came to a spot where she had looped around and crossed over both of their footprints quite recently. The other prints were disappearing into the slush, but her newest ones were still crisp. It was becoming apparent that Mitch needed to teach her some actual woodcraft.
Finally, he found her propped against a large rock, fiddling with her tiny knife. He gave a little yip to notify her of his presence.
“Oh, good! You’re late.” Tasia beamed at him. “That means you learned something.”
Mitch shifted into his human shape and confirmed the good, or rather, bad news. Tasia’s face grew grim as she listened to him recite the conversation he had overheard. He could practically see her conviction harden into place as she straightened her back and stood tall.
“Now we know more than we did. And we have one week to come up with a plan.”
Chapter Fourteen
In Which Things Start Moving Fast
But determination alone did not count as a plan. Tasia wracked her brains and still couldn’t come up with a way to stop all of Grandmother’s thugs with only two people, even if one of those people could become a vicious wolf at will. Her frustration was further compounded by Pagona and her cronies.
The hint of slush-producing heat had retreated, and snow began piling in earnest. Pagona and Chara fussed and whined in tandem, though about different things. If Tasia hadn’t been tearing her hair out trying to stop an evil conspiracy, she might have laughed at the similarities between the three-year-old and eighteen-year-old sisters.
Chara would have been happy to play in the snow until her fingers were blue, but her mother wouldn’t let her until the mud was thoroughly inaccessible. Pagona shared her disappointment (loudly) with the world because the snow wasn’t deep enough for snowshoes yet, and as such, her friends couldn’t visit.
A mere two days later, Bunny, Nomiki, and Claudia invaded the Galanis home again. Tasia wasn’t the only one feeling out of sorts.Shewas antsy because there was no sign of Prince Frank, the girls being in the house meant she couldn’t go out to meet with Mitch, and theystilldidn’t have anything resembling a real plan. She didn’t know what Bunny’s problem was, but the younger girl was meaner than normal.
Claudia suffered from more insults than usual and several tricks that Bunny hardly bothered to disguise. Nomiki was subjected to a fierce denunciation of her entire family, and even Pagona was shut down when Bunny tired of her sycophantic attempts to bully Tasia.
It took two days of that behavior before Pagona grew a spine and informed her friend that she wasn’t going to put up with that sort of treatment. Nomiki rallied behind her. Claudia clearly wanted to add her voice, but months (or years) of being conditioned to just take it held her back.
Bunny rose to the occasion magnificently. Tasia had seen less convincing actors on the professional stage. Though Bunny displayed contrition and remorse—with tears, even—that the other girls ate up, Tasia didn’t believe it. No one cried genuine tears without a stuffy nose and red eyes.
Somehow, Bunny turned the accusation to her advantage. She confessed that she had been feeling off lately. Maybe it was the change of weather or the growing darkness. Or maybe it was because she was feeling so much pressure about her father’s famous cider. It was the first year she had been allowed to help with the process, you know.
