Grim Lovelies (Grim Lovelies 1)

Viggo glanced back at Anouk. “Any ideas, my love?”

Anouk thought. The glass wall prevented them from making a mad dash to the elevator, and it was too high to climb over. In every good recipe, there had to be adaptation. Room to substitute one ingredient for another, adjustments to be made in the event of a pot boiling over or a shortage of salt. She could do this.

Do you want to hear a story? Luc’s voice came to her, and just like that she was back in her turret bedroom, cuddled under a quilt as thunder cracked outside, Luc sitting cross-legged on the foot of her bed with a mug of tea that steamed delicate tendrils around his face. Once upon a time there was a girl locked in a thousand-foot glass tower. The prince of a warring country intended to keep her there until she agreed to marry him. No way out, no way down, not even bed sheets to tie together for a rope. Luc had smiled. Do you want to know how she escaped?

Anouk thought of the story, of the girl, and inspected the wall of glass keeping them from the elevator. “I have an idea,” she said, eyeing the stiff Marble Ladies. “But you aren’t going to like it.”

Chapter 22

Ten and a Half Hours of Enchantment Remain

As soon as Anouk told them her idea, both Cricket and Hunter Black scoffed.

“I told you that you wouldn’t like it,” Anouk replied, then warily eyed the Marble Ladies on the opposite side of the glass wall. “You’re sure they can’t hear me?”

“No ears,” Viggo said.

He was right—?their carved hair covered the place where ears would have been.

“Well,” Anouk said, “the invitation will let in one person, the bearer of the invitation. But here’s the thing—?it doesn’t specify who. So we go in one at a time, then pass the invitation back to the next person.”

“We can’t pass an invitation through a glass wall,” Cricket said. “And the Marble Ladies are too close to the turnstile for us to pass it through that way.”

“That’s the trick. It’s like Luc’s fairy tale about the girl in the thousand-foot tower. Remember how she got out?”

Cricket shook her head, looking blank. “Luc never told me that one.”

Hunter Black groaned—?he clearly knew it, and he knew what Anouk was referring to.

“You and Hunter Black have to work together,” Anouk explained. “In the story, the girl is an excellent climber, but she can’t escape on her own—?the glass walls are too smooth to climb down, and the trapdoor to the tower roof is too high. So she comes up with a plan, and the next time the prince comes to ask her to marry him, she drugs him with willow bark scraped from the bedposts, then leans his sleeping body against the wall and uses it to climb to the roof. She’s rescued by something, then. A dragon, I think.”

“A griffin,” Hunter Black corrected her. “At least get the details right.”

Anouk rolled her eyes. “Well, I propose the same. We can’t climb sheer glass, but we can climb them—?the Marble Ladies. You’re both in excellent physical shape. Hunter Black, you go through the turnstile, then climb up the Marble Lady on the opposite wall and pass the invitation through that vent back to Cricket on the other side. We don’t dare drop it—?it could get sucked up in the elevator machinery. She’ll give it to Viggo to go through, and we’ll repeat everything, and then I’ll go through, and then Cricket.”

Cricket snorted. “Climb those freaky statues? That’s a death wish.”

“You heard Viggo,” Anouk continued. “As long as we obey the rules, they won’t interfere. And we aren’t breaking any rules. Besides, I’ve seen you scale the courtyard wall just to break into the kitchen and steal a slice of cake. You’re an excellent climber.”

“Fine,” Cricket said. She ripped the veil off her head and stuffed it in her apron. “Hold this.” She shoved the feather duster into Viggo’s hands and then, after flexing her fingers a few times, she grabbed the nearest Marble Lady’s shoulders and set a foot in the stiff crook of her arm. She whispered a prayer as she climbed. She stepped on the statue’s shoulder, then on her head, and reached the vent.

Anouk took the invitation from Viggo and handed it to Hunter Black. “Your turn.”

He presented it to the Marble Lady by the desk, who smiled mechanically. “Welcome, monsieur.”

He passed through the turnstile. His grumbles were audible as he rested his hands on the shoulders of the Marble Lady on the far side of the glass and lumbered up on top of her, struggling under the bulkiness of his heavy coat. With a grunt, he took it off. Beneath it he wore a surprisingly plain shirt. He looked younger without his shell against the world. He climbed to the top of the Marble Lady’s body and reached toward the vent. He could just manage to pass the invitation through to Cricket.

She grabbed it and tossed it down.

“Your turn, Viggo.”

He passed through, and then they repeated the process, and Anouk went through.

“Welcome, mademoiselle,” the Marble Lady said.

Anouk was just handing the invitation to Hunter Black when the elevator dinged. The Marble Lady whose shoulder he was perched on suddenly turned toward the elevator, and he wobbled, barely holding on. She took a few strides toward the elevator and stopped there, waiting patiently by the controls. Hunter Black jumped off her shoulders and landed cleanly on the marble floor. Cricket’s Marble Lady turned sharply as well and returned to the reception desk. Frowning, Cricket climbed off of her.

“Um . . . what now?” Cricket called.