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for the night. I settled into bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment until I reached over for the letter I kept on my nightstand. I tried not to read it every night, but it wasn’t easy. Max’s words haunted me—the years of love for me he’d felt and never told me, the cruelty of Naomi.
    As much as I was loathe to admit it, Max wasn’t the most important thing right now. As a future queen, I had to place the needs of many over the needs of myself. I hated it, but I knew it was the right thing. First, I needed to get Naomi off the throne.
    Rumple’s words kept coming back to bother me. He kept calling the gem a “kingmaker”, but why would someone with royal blood need the gem to take the throne? And if I couldn’t activate it, was someone else meant to take the throne? It was confusing and disconcerting. Or maybe he was just playing games.
    The soft parchment whispered against my fingers as I stroked the strong scrawl of Max’s name. The letter took ten years to reach me—ten long years where I could have changed things had I known. It was too late for self-recrimination. It was time for me to take action. With Naomi gone, things would fall into place…I hoped.
    I read his letter one more time before I carefully placed it back on my nightstand and rolled onto my side. There would be plenty of time to think about things later. For now, I needed to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow would be a busy day.

4

Chapter 4
    “I’m pretty sure I hate you,” Cinderella said as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
    “I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual right now,” I muttered into my coffee.
    There was a stillness to the house that didn’t happen often. It was still dark outside and we were all in a foul mood. One thing we’d gotten used to as virtual prisoners was sleeping in. There was no need to get up early when the only thing we had to look forward to was digging through dirty books for information. While that was enough to send Belle into fits of ecstasy, it wasn’t enough to get the rest of us even remotely excited.
    So, here we were, 5:00 a.m., about to tear each other’s heads off. The only one who looked even remotely chipper was Rumple, but Gods only knew what his regular schedule was or even if he needed sleep. I could see him hanging upside down in his room, planning his nefarious deeds all night, and sucking the blood out of little children.
    Rumple turned and quirked an eyebrow up at me. I hadn’t realized I was staring. I blinked and turned my attention back to my mug. I was packed. Double checked this time, just in case Cinderella hadn’t learned her lesson. All was well so far. Black skinny jeans, heavy boots, long-sleeved shirts, holsters, and weapons galore. Earlier this morning, I’d gone through our kitchen and packed non-perishable food just in case we were stranded anywhere; stranger things had happened to us.
    Cyndi packed lighter than usual. I eyeballed her small duffel bag and gave her a nod of approval. She shook her head. “It wasn’t me. Rumple went through it this morning and threw out most of my clothes. Jerk.”
    I sniggered. “He has a point. We’re going to be trekking through the woods for awhile. There’s no need for anything other than t-shirts, jeans, and hiking boots.”
    She gave me a pitying look. “There is always time to dress up.” Cyndi glared at Rumple one more time before she picked up her duffel and dropped it in the living room. We would open the portal through there. It was the largest room and nothing in it was overly valuable just in case things went awry.
    Belle and Robin were already in the living room, sitting across from each other, their posture stiff and conversation polite. It was like listening to strangers at a party. For crying out loud, those two needed to be smacked. We’d nearly died together…more than once—that deserved some familiarity at least, or some jokes in poor taste.
    I dumped my bag beside Cyndi’s