The Hunt for Snow by S. E. Babin Page B

smile.
    “Oh my God,” she whispered. “I’ve missed you for ages. I thought about you almost every day. How in the world—”
    I smiled tentatively. “Giles managed to get me back here.”
    She laughed. “If anyone could get the elusive Snow to come out of hiding, it’s that wily old bastard.” Red gave me an appraising stare. “You look great,” she said, her tone serious. She stepped forward and pulled me into a tight embrace, the spicy familiar scent making me long for my old home again. “The Huntsman will be here in a few minutes. Everyone is all atwitter about your impromptu make out karate session,” she whispered in my ear.
    I stiffened, my mouth open. As I pulled back, Red laughed out loud at the look on my face. “Welcome home, Snow. You know nothing stays secret for long around here.”
    “Wow,” I managed. “That’s just…wow.” I shook my head and took another sip of my tea. How in the hell did anyone find out about that? Unless Giles was talking. Normally he was the picture of propriety and wouldn’t be caught dead gossiping, but things could have changed over the past few years. “How did you find out?”
    Red shrugged, her gray eyes sparkling. “Grapevine. No one knows who started it, or at least they aren’t saying.” The sound of a male throat clearing startled her. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Excuse my horrible manners.” Red gestured to the man standing next to her. “Peter, this is Snow, Cyndi and Belle.” We all nodded as my thoughts swirled. Peter…Peter who?
    I gave Red a questioning look and she mouthed that we’d talk later. If that was Peter Pan I was Mulan. But, that was the only Peter I knew about in the Enchanted Forest. I’d been gone too long, that’s for sure. Peter extended his hand to all of us, and as he reached me, I noticed he had a firm grip, but not overwhelming. After introductions were made, he excused himself. Red beamed after he left. “He can take social cues.” She smiled secretively. “That’s so rare.”
    “Peter?” I questioned.
    Red’s ruby lips pursed. “Oh, you haven’t been around for a while, have you? Crazy things have been going on. Realms not normally reachable have opened their portals. We have all kinds of new people, plants and animals milling together in the forest now. That man you just met,” her face contemplative as she watched him walk away, “was none other than the great Peter Pan.”
    “Holy smokes.” Belle swiveled her head to watch him. “But he’s not a boy.”
    Red sighed, managing to make it sound salacious. “No, he’s most certainly not, ladies.” She gestured for us to follow her inside the ballroom. I couldn’t help but admire how much my old friend had grown. She was lithe and lean, her skin a toasted almond color. Long, ebony hair swung back and forth across her waist as she walked, and she was wearing, no
rocking
, a short red dress showcasing mile-long legs. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Red was out to eat someone and the wolves in here had better watch out.
    I grinned remembering how well the real wolf fared when it went up against Red. You’d never seen someone as pissed as she was when it managed to get inside their house and tried to attack her grandmother. Before I left the Enchanted Forest, Red and I were thick as thieves. We’d been out gathering berries one morning when we noticed a wolf skulking closer and closer to her house. Red silently pulled out a wicked dagger and crept around to the side of the house. When the wolf jumped in through an open window, Red let out a banshee scream, threw open the door, and the next thing I heard were the high-pitched shrieks of a crazy woman and an animal in pain. I still wasn’t sure how it went down because Red was notoriously tightlipped about it, but what I did know was that when I finally made it inside the house, Red was still holding the blade, covered in blood and standing over the wolf’s body, a curl of disdain on her upper