Read Online Bayou Fairy Tale by Lex Chase - Free Book Online

her features. “Did I say you? I said we wanted the huntsman. We need you to help us secure him.”
    “By cutting out my heart?” Taylor snapped. There was always a catch to Enchant bullshit. “What kind of sick fuck are you?”
    Aliss narrowed her eyes, and her irritated frown reappeared. “I am the Queen of Hearts, after all. And either you’ll cooperate, or you’ll become another situation the Library has to clean up.”
    “How about you try cleaning piss off an antique wood floor?” Taylor growled and flipped her off. “If you think for one second you’re going after Atticus, you’ll have to go through me.”
    “Who are you talking to, Mr. Taylor?” a little girl asked behind him.
    Taylor startled and spun on his heel. Rachel, Miss Miriam’s perkiest student, smiled up at him, her blue eyes bright and almost too big for her face.
    “H-Hey Rachel,” Taylor said as the nerves crept into his voice. “I was just talking to my fri—” He turned back to Aliss, only to see the nothingness of the empty aisle. He knew it was useless to think she was elsewhere in the library. When magic was afoot, anything was possible. He shivered as he slowly digested everything Aliss had said. Free Corentin? By sacrificing himself? It had to be bullshit. There had to be another way. If princes and princesses could get their curses broken by making out, breaking the curse of a Cronespawn must be something just as stupidly simple.
    “Do you like my drawing?” Rachel asked, holding up her paper.
    Taylor slowly turned to her with a scripted smile on his face. The smile fell at the sight of Rachel’s medium: the Andersen Institute letter.
    A sinister stick figure drawn in red crayon grinned wickedly at him from the letter. In one of his appendages, he held a crooked club. Maybe a bat? Taylor ventured a guess. “Is he a baseball player?” he asked as he crouched to her level. “Your dad likes the Red Sox, doesn’t he?”
    Rachel laughed. “You’re silly, Mr. Taylor.” She pointed to the drawing scrawled over the paragraph discussing the specifics of Atticus’s current state of recovery. Taylor winced at the ruined letter. “He’s the Axeman.”
    Taylor froze.
    “The… Axeman?” he asked quietly, forcing himself to smile.
    Rachel nodded quickly. The poor thing was all too proud of herself. “He lives in my backyard.”
    “ Okay !” Taylor yelped as he shot to his feet. The hairs on the back of his neck stood, and he rubbed his hands together. He forced a chuckle and then clapped twice. “Hey, sweetie, can I have your drawing? I think my best friend would really like it.” He faked excitement as he folded his hands together in begging. He needed to get the letter. He prayed Devon hadn’t seen it. He had taken care not to mention Atticus to her. “Please? Please? Please, can I have it? My best friend would really love it. Really .”
    “Mr. Ten?” Rachel asked and bounced on her toes. Her sneakers squeaked and lit up with their pressure-sensitive lights. She giggled and spun in a cheerful circle.
    Taylor arched a brow and cracked a slow smile. He didn’t know what it was about Corentin, but he even had five-year-old screaming fans. Did he have all of Hancock County under some spell? Or his rakish charm? Maybe he poisoned the well water.
    Rachel started to hand over the letter but stopped in her tracks. “Oh! I should put my name on it!”
    As she scuttled back to the activity area, Taylor followed close behind. He noted where Miss Miriam and Devon were amid all the other children. Devon smiled at Taylor as she prepared the snack trays. Miss Miriam was instructing Bennett to use his right hand instead of his left.
    Rachel yanked out a black crayon and scribbled on the paper. “Tooo…. Misssteeeer…. Teeeeen…,” she said as she wrote. “Looooove…. Raaachel.” She handed Taylor the page in a flourish, as if she were a newspaper reporter flinging notes. Taylor took the letter and made sure he could