43. Snow

Chapter forty-three

Snow

I rush through the melee, hardly caring about my own fate as I race to Regina's side.

When she pointed that gun at him, my world fell apart. I can’t even fathom a life without Prince.

She was prepared to kill him just to spite me, but I won’t have my and Prince’s story end this way.

I know that one day we can learn to trust each other and become something more than what we are now.

Dare I say even family .

I throw my whole weight into Regina, and she goes flying across the floor, taking her gun with her.

But I only have eyes for Prince as I rush to his side. “Prince…”

He watches me strangely for a moment, and time screeches to a halt.

Now, it’s just the two of us. No longer do those mismatched eyes regard me with hatred.

No, they regard me with love and appreciation…

Unfortunately, the moment doesn’t last as his eyes flick to somewhere behind me, and then he throws me behind him, shielding me from Regina’s bullet.

A scream bursts from my throat. “Prince!”

It seems Angel didn’t completely finish her off with his knife, and now her bullet sits lodged in Prince’s back as he goes limp above me, losing consciousness.

Regina laughs like a wicked witch as she aims her gun at me this time.

But then the Angel of Death descends on her, and I look up to spy that maniac glinting in Angel’s sole eye.

He knocks the gun from her hand with his boot while I staunch the blood of Prince’s wound, gazing around helplessly.

Regina’s men are dead.

Now only my men remain, surrounded by the reinforcements they must have called in. Had Prince anticipated Regina’s move all this time?

He must have known some of his own men would betray him.

I spy some of them now begging for forgiveness, but my men show no mercy.

Hunter shoots a bullet in one man’s head, and I jump.

Moth throws his whole brass fist into the mouth of another, and the sound of shattering teeth echoes through the warehouse and my soul.

Casper goes into full villain mode, becoming the same character he plays on stage, slicing his knife across the throat of another traitor, his violet eyes possessed.

Saint snaps the neck of the last one. They truly are merciless men.

Regina truly was no match in the end.

My stepmother is still sniggering as she clutches her wounded shoulder, not seeming to understand that she’s lost. Angel pins her down as he tears his shirt, wrapping it around her wound.

They mean to keep her alive.

Knight rushes to my side, checking over Prince’s bullet wound. “Fuck! Hand me my equipment!”

Some of our men reach his side, handing him his medical kit, and he works on removing the bullet from Prince’s back.

Hopefully, it didn’t hit anything major.

He took that bullet for me…

A man who I thought hated me.

I grip his pallid cheeks as Knights gets to work, wiping the sweat from his brows.

“Why?” I whisper.

His mismatched eyes lose focus as he looks up, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face. “Because, Princess… only I get to point my gun at you…”

I blink. That’s… sweet, I guess.

Knight rolls his eyes as he dislodges the bullet from Prince’s back. Prince winces, and Ishush him, telling him it will be okay.

“Yeah, well, let’s hope it’s the last gun that’s pointed at her for a while, hey, Prince,” Knight remarks, dropping the bloodied bullet into a bowl at last.

“Ditto,” Saint chimes in, wiping the blood from his face with a rag as he helps Angel with Regina.

They’re covered in blood.

The sight does things to my traitorous body.

Maybe I really am messed up.

Prince chuckles. “Don’t count on it. Not in this family…”

Family. Because I am finally a part of his now.

A smile tugs at my lips.

Prince loses consciousness, head falling on my lap with a heavy sigh.

My breath stutters. “P-Prince?”

Knight checks his pulse. “He’s fine, Snow.”

A sigh escapes me. “Thank goodness.”

I brush the wet, black hair from Prince’s face as I whisper sweet nothings. “It’ll be all right. Knight’s got you. We all have…”

Prince looks so peaceful in slumber. Precious even. I bet it’s the first decent sleep he’s had in a while.

Knight smiles, removing his gloves as he shows me his dimples. “Prince really doesn’t deserve you. None of us do, Snow.”

I’m not so sure what to say to that as I look up, spying Regina in Angel’s arms.

He's tied her hands behind her back with rope, and it seems no one is coming to her aid.

Still, we’d best leave before more of her men arrive.

“What do you plan to do with her?”

Knight turns around.

Angel sniggers like a creepy clown, dragging her up to her heeled feet as he places his knife at her throat.

“Oh, we have plenty planned for her,” Angel titters.

Regina matches his creepy snicker, turning her face until her lips are inches from his.

My blood boils.

Not my Angel.

“Oh, please, do your worst…”

I place Prince down gently as I get up, sauntering toward the woman who made my life miserable for ten years.

She towers above me as usual as she looks down her nose at me, and even with her arms bound, she’s still a queen.

She makes those black ropes of Angel’s look like a fashion accessory.

But they look better on me…

She sneers down at me. “Come to gloat, Snow?”

My eyes narrow as I fix them on her ice-blue pair. Once upon a time, those eyes terrified me, but not now.

I’m not a little fourteen-year-old girl anymore.

Now, I am a woman.

“Not so sweet and pure anymore. Your Daddy would be turning in his grave knowing you’re fucking his enemies!”

Angel goes to dig his knife into her throat, but I stop him.

“No.”

Finally, I step even closer, meeting her eyes. “You lost, Regina.”

She shows me her shiny white teeth.

“Just tell me one thing… Did you kill my father?”

Regina’s smirk becomes serpentine, and something comes over me.

I yank Angel’s knife from his hand, placing it at her neck. “You… you killed him, didn’t you? Just tell me!”

Yet she only laughs louder, and the cruel sound echoes through the warehouse.

My eyes burn as tears streak down my cheeks, and I have no idea what happens next. I punch her hard across the face as Angel holds her up for me, whimpers escaping me as I get it all out of my system.

Ten years of grief.

Ten years of being her little slave.

I knew it.

“You fucking bitch! He loved you!”

“No! He didn’t!” she shrieks back, and I stumble away from her.

My stepmother breathes fiercely now as her perfect hair flies about her face, and she’s not so graceful anymore.

“I was never enough! In the end, I could never replace his precious Lilith or his sweet little Snow! It was you he loved all along. You and your whore of a dead mother! Not me!”

Her shout echoes through the warehouse, a lonely, desperate sound.

I sense the eyes of all my guys, and they watch me with bated breath.

They wait to see what I will do.

After all, this is my fight and mine alone.

I squeeze my fists, closing my eyes. “How?”

She sneers. “How what?”

“ How did you kill him?”

Her cackle makes my blood run cold, but I remain steadfast.

“I poisoned him with his favorite apple pie.”

Apple pie was always Daddy’s favorite.

I used to make it for him all the time, too.

My vision blurs as my eyes fill with tears.

So, it wasn’t suicide after all. Daddy didn’t leave me by his own choice.

It’s the closure I needed

Someone steps up beside me, and I look up to meet Moth’s dark eyes. He grips my shoulder, squeezing his fingers as he hands me his brass knuckles.

Hunter comes up to my left, a melancholy smile on his face.

They know I need to do this.

It will taint my soul forever.

After all, Daddy never wanted me to be a part of this world. He sheltered me my whole life,ensuring that I would remain the sweet innocent girl who liked to sing to birds and make wishes at a well.

But his world caught up with me in the end.

Just like I knew it always would.

It took away my mother, and it took away my father…but I’ll be damned if it finishes me off.

Sometimes, you have to play dirty just to survive.

I sense his gaze, and I turn around.

Prince is awake but barely. Knight has just finished bandaging him up, but when Prince catches my gaze, he nods.

It's all the confirmation I need.

I slip on Moth’s brass knuckles, stepping toward the woman who ruined my life.

So, she killed my father out of petty jealousy.

Because he never stopped loving me or my later mother.

He always put us first.

“Go on, do it, Snow. Kill me,” she taunts, and when I swing my fist, aiming for her right cheek, I knock out several teeth.

The blow doesn’t kill her, not like it did Ferdinand, who was already at death’s door by that point, but it’s still knocks her senseless.

I keep punching her over and over until I can punch no more.

In the end, I drop to my knees, sobbing in Moth’s arms as he holds on to me tightly, brushing the hair from my eyes as I finally got my revenge.

Yet, why do I still feel like shit?

It will never be enough.

Nothing could compensate for the loss of my father.

He's gone.

All because of her, and just like that, I become a teenage girl again as I cry over his bedside, touching the gray pallor of his cold, dead skin.

He's dead all over again.

Old wounds bleed yet again as I cry and cry.

All my men surround me now as I let it all out.

Only Saint and Angel see to Regina’s suffering, and they make sure it’s not a peaceful death.

She doesn’t deserve one.

I hear shuffling behind me, and when I look up, I spy the mismatched eyes of Prince.

Knight holds up his weight, scolding him for moving so fast.

But Prince only has eyes for me. His hand reaches out for me, fingers trembling as they wrap around the back of my head.

And then he crushes my face against his bare chest, and I cry into his solid muscles, getting my tears all over him.

We watch as Saint and Angel melt iron above a fire pit. It doesn’t look as if Regina’s men are coming for her after all.

They’ve given up.

Their queen is dead.

The war is over. We won.

But it doesn’t feel like victory.

Regina is barely recognizable now, her beauty now a thing of the past as Angel grabs the bowl of melted iron.

When he pours it over her feet, destroying her designer heels, I look away, burying my face against Prince’s chest.

Her screams don’t sound human now, and when they finally turn silent, a final sob escapes me.

Regina was the last family I had in this world. The final connection I had to my father.

And now, she’s gone.

I’m all alone in this cruel world.

“It’s over,” Prince whispers, soothing me as he runs his hand up and down my back.

But I can’t stop crying. Even when he sweeps me up in his arm, carrying me across the warehouse to his waiting car despite Knight’s protests, my tears never stop.

Prince leaves the others to clean up while he takes me home.

Home.

When did that happen?

The whole time, he cradles me on his lap, soothing me like I’m a helpless babe the entire ride.

“You should rest,” I say between sobs, but he shakes his head.

“No. You’re more important, princess.”

He still insists on calling me princess. Yet he doesn’t say it with hatred anymore.

Now, he whispers it with love and admiration.

“I was wrong, Snow. You weren’t my enemy…”

I meet his dissimilar eyes. The green shines with warmth, and the dark one simmers with newfound love.

Love for me.

Prince palms my cheek, brushing his thumb over my lips gently for once. This time, they don’t mean to conquer or bruise.

Now, his touch is reverent.

“No, you were just what I was missing all this time. I’ve been dead inside ever since I found my mother’s dead body at the age of nine.”

A shudder rakes down my spine.

That explains it all.

I was seven when my own mom died, so I empathize.

“Sure, our fathers were enemies. Your own killed mine, but despite that… I still love you, Snow.”

My heart thunders when the words escape his lips, and now I reach out my shaking hand, brushing it across his face.

Ever since I laid eyes on him, I have just wanted to caress his face, feel his skin beneath mine.

Prince submits to my touch, and now he shuts his eyes, letting me explore all the contours of his face.

When my fingers land on his lips, he sighs, and that’s when I lean forward and kiss him.

Then, I whisper, “I love you, too.”

Finally, he opens his eyes, and now he meets my kiss, slipping his tongue between my lips as we hold on to each other.

Somewhere, I sense our fathers smiling down on us.

And I say down…

Because I know now that they are both in heaven with their wives, both mine and Prince's mothers, respectfully.

It seemed they made a vow on the other side.

In order to cleanse themselves of their sins, they made a pact that their children should meet and fall in love, righting all the wrongs they both caused.

To stop the vicious cycle of revenge and bloodshed.

There is enough hatred and ugliness to go around in our world.

But through all the muck, there is still love to be found.

Because I love Prince. I love his brothers.

After all, they’re my family now.

And I vow to spend the rest of my life with them.

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