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

with her head’ and everything.”
    Taylor slowly pieced it together. “She’s a wicked queen, then?”
    Ringo shrugged. “Well. She is the Queen of Hearts. She’s not known for being lovey-dovey. Some say she’s totally all Lady Báthory kind of deal.”
    Taylor went silent and propped his chin in his palm. That explained why she wanted Corentin and not him. He was essentially the “sweet young maiden” for sacrifice. But it contradicted the Enchant legends—the princesses led the charge while the princes threw themselves on swords to protect their true loves.
    Perhaps it was Taylor’s turn to do something good for Corentin in return.
    But why did it feel so wrong? Taylor shook his head. His own selfishness was getting the best of him. He was so desperate to maintain his happy life with Corentin, he’d do anything to keep it.
    Even lie.
    “You’re right,” Taylor said.
    “Right? About what?” Ringo blinked his disproportionately huge eyes.
    Taylor forced a smile. “I probably made it up. You know. Sleep-deprived and all.”
    Ringo nodded once. “If you say so.”
    Pushing from the couch, Taylor watched Ringo. Would he lie with him? Or would he broadcast it everywhere? He held up his pinky. “Pinky promise?”
    Ringo seemed to catch the gist and took flight to Taylor’s level. He tapped his tiny pinky to the offered digit. “Pinky promise.”

Chapter 5: Toy Story
     
     
    May 3
    Ellsworth, Maine
     
    “THERE,” CORENTIN said as he plucked the hapless Barbie doll from the sewage pipe. The poor damsel definitely needed more than true love’s kiss to revive her, with her shit-slicked hair and toilet-papered dress.
    He turned her over in his grasp and hummed. “She’s last year’s holiday edition.” It had only occurred to him from his journal and the photographs of him and Taylor visiting the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience in Minneapolis. He shook his head with a grin.
    Corentin had kept his trap shut about the overload of pink and purple impugning on his manhood. He had mustered a charming smile for the little girls when Taylor and he had been assigned to a tea party table. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, Taylor had said. Corentin had promptly sought a palate cleanser of a Seahawks and 49ers game. He didn’t even like the Seahawks or the 49ers. But the battle of the gridiron was enough to recharge his depleted testosterone.
    As he considered the doll, he smiled at her mangled face. “Girl, put on some lipstick, have a drink, and pull yourself together.” He pulled a trash bag from his bucket and shoved the doll in like nothing more than a corpse into a body bag.
    “Got it,” he called up to the open living room window.
    He caught sight of Ramona’s wavy blonde hair. Naturally she had the time to style it before he had shown up. She perked up from her magazine and then turned to the window. “My hero!” she squealed.
    Corentin coughed into his elbow. “Got a place I can wash up?” He coughed again. Honeysuckle would turn him into a toadstool if he dared dump his soiled clothes in the laundry.
    “You can use the shower.” Ramona pointed over her shoulder, indicating the bathroom somewhere in the house. She seemed eager, and her smile set Corentin’s teeth on edge. He was sure she was just being nice, but Taylor’s playful ribbing stuck out in his mind.
    “No, ma’am.” He waved her off. “You got a hose out back, right?”
    Ramona’s smile fell slightly but returned again. “Behind the rose bushes. I’ll get your check.”
    “’Preciate it,” Corentin said as he hefted his bucket, with one Barbie doll ready for her dreamy date with an incinerator. The hose sprawled around the rose bushes in a tangled jumble of kinks and coils. Corentin reached into the bushes and felt around blindly for the spigot. When he found the familiar contours, he gave the faucet a stubborn, creaky turn, and the hose bulged with the first burps of water.
    Corentin set his bucket on the grass and pulled out