Page 4 of Cinder's Trial

“I’m aware, but that doesn’t mean I want or need a prince.” Give me a normal man, one not bound to me by a curse.

To my surprise, Godmother smiled. “In that case, I’ve come to the right place.”

“Excuse me?” I blinked at her odd reply.

“I want someone who is willing to reject the prince.”

“I’m confused.”

“I realize this might sound strange, but I’m here to help you escape your curse, permanently. But it won’t be easy. The Grimm Effect has been more virulent of late.”

“I’m aware.” The escalation began a few months ago and I’d been one of the first to notice at the bureau—AKA the Fairytale Bureau, in charge of minimizing difficulties that arose as the Grimm Effect forced people to follow its stories. Many of those who’d managed to evade their Grimm curse had been finding themselves entangled in a new version, one darker than before—darker being kinder than saying bloody. A desperate edge had begun appearing as people, in the throes of magical compulsion, went to greater, more violent extremes to satisfy the terms of their curse.

Take my friend and colleague, Blanche Hood. She’d been embroiled in a serial murder mystery that resulted in her having to kill the huntsman, and now she lived happily with the wolf.

“It would seem the Grimm Effect isn’t done with you,” Godmother announced.

I shook my head. “But I’m not interested in completing my story. Hence you’re wasting your time. Surely there’s some other Ash Girl who’d welcome your aid?”

“Not any like you. And trust me, I’m not happy about my role. Like many people in this world, I am bound by the Grimm Effect and forced to do its bidding.” Godmother’s lips turned down.

“Oh, I didn’t realize.”

Godmother nodded. “There was a time when I thought by complying with the stories, I could perhaps put an end to it. Alas, the magic powering the Grimm Effect has only gotten stronger. But there is good news. Some of the tales have been eradicated and those caught in them freed.”

“Eradicated how?” I asked with a frown.

“I’m not sure. At first, I thought it a fluke, that the magic petered out for those particular tales. However, it appears that some have managed to counter their misfortune to the point it cancels the story entirely. For example, we recently had a Red Cap who somehow managed to wipe out that storyline entirely.”

“So it’s true,” I murmured. “I’d noticed that the current Red Cap cases had pretty much vanished but thought perhaps we’d just not been very good at detecting new ones.”

“It and a few others are no longer of concern, but of more importance, it means the Grimm Effect can be beaten!” Godmother’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

“Which is great, but you said you don’t know how.”

Her lips turned down. “I wish I had a simple answer. I can only assume that those involved in those particular cases did something so completely out of the norm that the magic couldn’t handle it.”

“I rejected the prince, but that didn’t stop the Cinderella curse,” I pointed out.

“Because that’s obviously not the key to ceasing that particular tale.”

“Any suggestions?” Because I really didn’t want to have to fend off princes the rest of my life, which technically should be easy as long as I didn’t attend any balls.

“I don’t have any ideas, yet, but given the magic sent me here to force you back into that particular storyline, I’m thinking we have a chance to figure it out.”

I arched a brow. “We?”

“I’d like to help you.”

“Help me how, exactly?”

“That’s the problem. No idea. I’m afraid we’ll have to wing it, dear girl. But maybe together we can find a way to beat your curse.”

“I don’t know what you think you can do. I’m not even sure why you’re here. I haven’t been invited to any balls, and I’m not aware of any visiting princes.”

Knock. Knock.

I swiveled to eye my door, mostly because people rarely knocked. My apartment, a massive, converted attic in a triplex, had too many stairs for most to brave.

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