Free A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

“We?”
    â€œYes, my brothers and I.”
    Gretel opened the window and in fluttered three ravens, as black as could be.
    â€œYou shouldn’t tell her she’s stupid,” said the second raven to the first. “It isn’t polite.”
    â€œEven if it is true,” said the third.
    The first raven cleared his throat. “We happened to be flying by, dear girl, when we noticed that you were upset. We felt bad.”
    â€œPersonally responsible,” added the second.
    â€œAccidentally complicit,” said the third.
    Gretel, who had had a very long day already, plopped down on her bed and stared.
    â€œYou see,” the first raven continued, “all the misfortune that you and your poor brother have experienced is really the result of a ... well, I guess you’d say, an indiscreet conversation that the three of us had.” He cocked his head apologetically.
    Gretel continued to stare.
    â€œIndiscreet,” the second whispered.
    â€œWhat about it?” the first replied.
    The third rolled his eyes. “ Indiscreet, dear girl, means we shouldn’t have been talking about what we were talking about where we were talking about it.”
    â€œOh, that was helpful,” said the second. And then, “Why don’t we just explain it to her?”
    And so, once the three ravens had settled their feathers and found comfortable perches on the windowsill, they told Gretel the whole story, from the very beginning. They told her about her grandfather’s dying wish, and how her father had found the portrait anyway, and then how he had stolen her mother ...
    â€œHe did what?” Gretel interrupted.
    â€œMoving right along,” said the second raven.
    Then they told her about their indiscreet conversation, and how her father’s servant, Faithful Johannes, had heard it and used it to save her parents’ lives.
    â€œYou see,” the first raven continued, “any wedding between your parents was destined to be cursed.”
    â€œThe three of us know all about destiny,” interrupted the second raven.
    â€œIt’s sort of what we do ,” said the third.
    â€œThey were destined to be cursed,” the first began, “though what they did to you children ...”
    â€œThat goes a little beyond the scope of the curse, I’d say,” finished the second.
    The third raven added quickly, “But it certainly isn’t your fault.”
    â€œIt’s probably ours,” said the first magnanimously. “Had we kept our black beaks shut, none of this would have happened.”
    Gretel scrunched up her face. “Because my parents would have died before Hansel and I were born?”
    â€œExactly!”
    â€œThat doesn’t seem much better,” Gretel pointed out.
    â€œHmm,” said the first. “I guess that’s right.”
    â€œNo,” Gretel said. “It’s my fault. If Hansel and I hadn’t run away from home, he wouldn’t be dead. And we never would have killed the baker woman, and the father never would have wished his sons into swallows, and—”
    The third raven interrupted her. “Do you remember why you ran away, Gretel?”
    She looked into his black eyes and nodded.
    He said, “Seems like a pretty good reason to me.”
    Gretel stared past the three ravens and out the window, at the red and orange leaves that balanced on the ends of branches like tears. After a while, the third raven said, “Well, we really should be going. More flying around to be done, letting people’s fates out of the bag.”
    â€œAnything else we can answer for you before we go?” said the second raven.
    â€œIt really isn’t my fault,” Gretel said.
    â€œWe are unable to lie,” the first raven replied. “So it must not be.” And with that, the three ravens beat their black wings against the air and flew out the open window.
    Gretel fell back on her