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“You say you’ve dealt with your sanity for a long time,” Hatter said. “I know crazy and you seem perfectly fine to me.”
Red sca
“Objection!” Bluebeard cried. “We are finished with this witness.”
Judge Hatter snarled at Bluebeard. “I say when a witness is ready to go.”
“It’s true that the Wolf killed my grandma, but I don’t think he could control himself. He was out of his mind. I know how that feels. I’ve done terrible things. I know it. The Wolf is dangerous but he does not deserve to die.”
“Objection!” Mayor Heart roared from her seat.
“Your honor. We rest our case,” Bluebeard said, frantically. “We’d like the jury to make its decision.”
Hatter shrugged. “Fine with me. We’ll take a one-hour break to allow the jury to decide.”
“So we don’t get to question this witness, either?” Robin Hood shouted.
“Objection!” Hatter shouted.
“I beg your pardon,” said the bewildered lawyer.
“I object,” the judge replied.
“You’re the judge. You don’t get to object,” Robin cried.
“Well I object to not being allowed to object. I find it . . . objectionable,” Hatter replied. “The court finds the Wolf not guilty!” he slammed his head with the gavel and then prepared to leave.
“Your honor!” Bluebeard cried. “The jury has to vote on whether the Wolf is guilty. You can’t do that yourself.”
“Oh, another of your silly rules,” the judge said. “Very well, I declare a recess. One hour.”
Judge Hatter got off his chair and raced through the aisle toward the double doors. Sabrina watched him pass, marveling at the fact that his neck could support his monstrous head and nose. As soon as he left, the crowd surged out behind him.
The family congregated at Briar Rose’s coffee shop. Briar took a break and sat with them, but not before she brought everyone fresh muffins and steaming cups of coffee. Sabrina, Puck, and Daphne were treated to chocolate milk with whipped cream on top. The princess sat next to Uncle Jake and kissed him on the cheek. Sabrina watched Briar’s fairy godmothers stew with anger.
“They’re going to turn me into a frog,” Uncle Jake said, gri
“Well, I won’t be the first princess in this town to date an amphibian,” Briar said.
“What do you think Canis’s chances are?” Uncle Jake asked Gra
The old woman sipped her coffee. “Who can say? The Judge is pretty unpredictable.”
“The judge is a certifiable nutbag,” Puck said.
Gra
“Maybe too unpredictable,” Sabrina said.
“I think Judge Hatter is the Scarlet Hand’s whammy,” Daphne said as she brushed whipped cream off her nose.
Just then, one of Robin Hood’s merry men came ru
“The . . . jury . . . is . . . back,” he gasped.
Everyone jumped up from their seats and followed the lawyer at a run until they got back to the courtroom. The double doors were closed and two card soldiers blocked the way.
“Court is in session. No one can enter,” the Eight of Diamonds said.
“You let me in right now, or I swear the two of you will get the shuffling of your life,” Gra
Befuddled, the guards stepped aside and Gra
“Uhm, as I was saying,” Judge Hatter said. “Has the jury reached a verdict?”
The man in the black cloak stood up from his seat. He held a folded piece of paper in his hands. “We have,” he said. There was something familiar about his voice, but Sabrina couldn’t place it.
“Very good. Read your verdict,” Hatter replied.
The man cleared his throat and unfolded the paper. “We the jury find the accused guilty of murder.”
Sabrina gasped. Most of the audience cheered, though Sabrina heard some angry boos coming from their loyal friends. The noise banged against Sabrina’s eardrums like a wooden spoon on an old pot. She felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. Gra
“I see,” Hatter said when the crowd grew quiet. “Then I suppose we need to sentence him, and I tell you folks, I’m going to give him a full sentence. Not a sentence fragment but a whole sentence with a verb and a noun and possibly an adjective. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a conjunction in there as well. I can’t stand these judges who run around with their half-baked sentences. That’s how you get salmonella poisoning! Thus, I sentence the Wolf to death by hanging!”
The crowd leaped to its feet. Some were dancing and clapping; others laughed and howled with twisted joy. Only Sabrina, her family, Briar Rose, Snow White, and their Everafter friends were brokenhearted.
“Order! Order in the court!” Hatter cried, striking his head with his gavel again. “The Wolf will be hanged tomorrow in the center of town at noon. I believe we should make an example out of the monster. This case is over!”
Hatter leaped to his feet and rushed out of the room. Bluebeard, however, stood beaming proudly at the Grimms. Robin Hood and Little John pushed through the crowd to them. Their long faces spoke a thousand words of remorse. Gra
“Old friend!” she said.
“Old friend,” Canis said, his features now almost completely those of the Wolf’s.
“We’ll work on another way,” Gra
Canis shook his head. “It’s over, Relda Grimm. It is how I want it.”
He turned and allowed the guards to lead him out of the courtroom.
Daphne hugged her grandmother and wept into the old woman’s dress. Tears were rolling down Gra
“I’m going to rescue him!” he shouted angrily. His wings sprang from his back and his eyes turned coal black. He snatched his sword from his waist and flew toward the door that Canis had been led through, but Gra
“No, Puck!”
“He needs our help, old lady!” Puck shouted.
“No! Not here. Not this way. If you go after him they will arrest you next. Stay with us, Puck. I can’t bear to lose another member of my family.”
“What now?” Sabrina asked her grandmother. For the first time since she had met the old woman, her gra
Snow White saw the unveiling as well. Her already pale complexion grew whiter. She bit her lower lip and a tear rolled down her cheek. She turned to Gra
Snow turned and ran out of the room. Charming watched her go, but then turned back to his new friends. Sabrina glared at the man like he was mold on the bottom of a toilet. She had never trusted Charming, but she had secretly hoped that Daphne was right about him. The little girl always believed he was a hero waiting for an opportunity. Even though he had come to the family’s aid occasionally, Sabrina had continued to have her doubts. It had never felt so miserable to be so right.