AS EVER, SHE WAS WEARING a frilly dress. The red patent shoes on her small feet looked shiny and new; the expressionless face on her mask seemed distinctly colder.
‘You heard it, didn’t you? What Masamune has just been saying?’
‘Can’t say that I didn’t,’ the Wolf Queen said in her usual evasive way.
‘I’m right, aren’t I?’ Masamune said. ‘We’re in parallel worlds, so you brought us together to weed them out. You’re the gatekeeper.’
The Wolf Queen turned to face him. Behind the mask, she seemed to be staring very intently.
Could Masamune have found her out? They watched, with bated breath, for her to reveal the truth.
‘You’re totally wrong,’ she said, shaking her head.
The tension in Masamune’s face ebbed away, as if he’d been completely mistaken. ‘What?’ he croaked.
The Wolf Queen flicked her hair flippantly upwards.
‘I listened to you going on and on about your grandiose theory. It must have taken a lot of effort to come up with that, but unfortunately, I have to tell you it’s all in your imagination. I told you from the beginning. This is the castle in the mirror. The place you come to look for the key to grant your wish. That is all. It has nothing to do with weeding out worlds, an outcome which sounds completely terrifying.’
‘You’re lying. If that’s true, then why can’t we meet up outside?’ Masamune looked stern. ‘That’s how it is with parallel worlds, isn’t it? If each of our realities is different and we can’t meet in the outside world, then what reason is there to gather us here other than to weed out our worlds?’
‘You can’t meet outside? I don’t remember ever saying that,’ the Wolf Queen said casually, stifling a yawn.
‘You mean – we can meet?’ Ureshino asked.
The Wolf Queen gave a small giggle. ‘Um. I’m not saying you can’t.’
‘You are such a liar!’ Masamune was enraged. ‘We cannot see each other!’ His cheeks and ears turned bright red. ‘I’m telling you, I asked them as a favour to meet me, and they did, but we still couldn’t see each other. How do you explain that?’
Masamune clenched his fists. Kokoro shut her eyes. Watching a boy cry was just too much to take. ‘Masamune!’ Enough already, she thought.
‘That’s right, Wolf Queen. We couldn’t see each other.’
‘But I never said you can’t meet up, or can’t help each other. It’s time you people worked things out. Don’t start barking up the wrong tree. Think about it, and don’t expect me to tell you everything. I’ve been giving you clues all along to help you find the key.’
The group fell silent. Masamune was still breathing heavily.
‘What do you mean, clues?’ Aki asked. The Wolf Queen turned to face her, and the group felt a force and tension in Aki’s words that hadn’t been there before. ‘You said you gave us clues, but what does that mean?’
‘Just what I said.’
The Wolf Queen’s voice sounded neither fed up nor irritated, just even-toned and unflappable.
‘I don’t get it. You always skirt around things. I mean, for one, you’re the biggest mystery in this whole place. With that mask over your face the whole time, and calling us lost Little Red Riding Hoods. You’re just making fun of us.’
‘Well, you’re right, I call you all Little Red Riding Hoods, but sometimes you all seem to me more like the wolf. Is it really that hard to find it?’ The Wolf Queen seemed to suppress a smile.
‘That’s what I said – the way you talk to us is so tricksy.’
‘I’ll say it again: this is the castle in the mirror, where you look for the key that grants your wish.’
‘Then I have a question.’ Rion raised a hand. He waited for the Wolf Queen’s full attention before he spoke. ‘This search for the key. I’ve sort of been looking for it all along. Under the bed in my room I found an X, so what does that mean?’
‘What?’ The others all looked at him in surprise.
‘At first, I thought it was just a stain or something, but it’s a clear X. You said you wouldn’t hide the key in any of our rooms, so what’s the story?’
‘So you have one in your room too, Rion?’ Fuka asked. The group turned to look at her, eyes wide. ‘I’m pretty sure there’s one under the desk in my room. I thought it was just my imagination. It looks like an X, but maybe it isn’t …’
‘There’s one in the bathroom, too,’ Subaru said. ‘The bathroom next to the dining room. I thought it was weird that there were taps but no water, and I found the X when I was investigating. There was a laundry basket lying in the bathtub, and when I moved it I found an X. I thought maybe it was just a scratch.’
‘There’s one inside the dining-room fireplace,’ said Kokoro.
Like Subaru, she’d been curious to know why there was a fireplace, if there was no fuel.
‘Dining room?’ Masamune sounded on edge. ‘That means I found one too. In the summer. There’s one in the kitchen, isn’t there? Behind the pantry shelves.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah.’ He frowned. ‘I thought perhaps the key was somewhere there, so I banged and scraped around, but nothing ever came out. So I thought the same, that it was just a stain.’
They exchanged a look, then silently turned to the Wolf Queen.
‘Were these clues too?’ asked Aki.
‘You can decide that for yourselves,’ said the Wolf Queen primly. ‘Like I said, you’ve had plenty of hints. I leave the rest up to you. Including whether the wish is to be granted or not.’
She took a breath. ‘But I do make one promise,’ she said quietly. ‘Even if someone has their wish granted, no one’s world is going to disappear. As I said before, once the wish is granted, this castle will vanish from your memories. And you will all simply return to your own realities. These will never disappear.
‘For better or for worse,’ she added.
‘So, can I ask one more thing?’ Rion said.
The Wolf Queen pointed her muzzle in his direction. Rion waited until they were face to face.
‘What is your favourite fairy tale, Wolf Queen?’
The question came from left field, and the Wolf Queen had clearly not expected it. She was for an instant speechless. ‘Do you really need to ask me?’ she said. ‘Just look at my face. It’s Little Red Riding Hood.’
Kokoro wasn’t sure at all why Rion had asked this. Maybe he just wanted to take her by surprise.
‘Anything else?’ the Wolf Queen asked.
Kokoro felt like she had a million things she needed to ask, but no idea how to ask them. That evasive answer still didn’t make it totally clear whether they could – or could not – meet up outside.
‘Hold on a sec!’ Masamune said.
Too late.
‘When you have anything else to ask, you know where I am,’ the Wolf Queen said. And then she vanished.
The group were left staring at each other.
‘That girl said, You will all simply return to your own realities, didn’t she?’
‘What?’
They looked at Subaru. He was always so mature, so easy-going. If anyone could get away with calling her that girl, it was him.
Subaru looked at Masamune.
‘Our worlds won’t vanish, won’t be weeded out. She sort of dodged the question of parallel worlds, but at least the Wolf Queen said, your own realities. That must mean something. She seemed to be saying we could see each other, yet the worlds we all live in seem to be different.’
‘And no one can reach anyone else’s world.’
Wouldn’t it be awesome if the others could join my world, thought Kokoro. She could take them to her school. If only she could do that …