Charmed

  Alva examines her wickedly long, dark nails. “Rose, dear, if I’m being truthful for a change, I must admit being back here in Royal Manor where I cursed you as an infant makes me long for this kingdom too.” She waves a jeweled hand around. “I want them all, darling! And let’s be honest. Who are we kidding? You are in no shape to rule! You slept a hundred years! Your reign has been shorter than the others so you have no clue what’s going on in your own village!”

  “We need to move,” I whisper. “Before she knows I’m gone.” We begin to crawl over broken glass to get to the other end of the table. I can see the ballroom doors open a few feet away. Closer. Closer. We are going to make it.

  “I do too,” Rose whines, sounding like one of my little brothers. “We had a deal! I already gave you the girl like you wanted.” She points to our table and sees no sign of my body. Her mouth twists in anger. “Where did Gillian Cobbler go?”

  I stop short with a shiver. Alva’s laugh is so cold that I hear ice cracking in our water goblets. “I should have known you couldn’t even manage a task this simple! Boys!” Alva commands her screeching gargoyles. I see one land right at my feet. “Bring her to me!”

  CHAPTER 18

  Heroes Unite

  The gargoyle’s rancid breath makes me inhale sharply, and I shrink back as I see its gray claws reach under the table for us. Ollie bats at it with a broken goblet, and the gargoyle screeches and flies away.

  “Move! Move!” Ollie cries and we crawl faster and faster, ignoring the cracking sound and the bolts of lightning until they split our table in half. The sides collapse, leaving us out in the open.

  “Ah, there she is. Lovely!” Alva says.

  I jump up, dragging Maxine and the others with me toward the ballroom doors. They’re so close that I can almost touch them. I am not being cursed again. None of us will be.

  “Run all you want, child. You’ll never escape this room!” The doors to the ballroom seal shut. “Splendid!” Alva’s smile falters. She gestures to a gargoyle. “Seize them!”

  “Stop right there, you wicked fairy!”

  Holy gingerbread! Is that Jax and Rapunzel?

  The secret siblings rappel off the second-level balcony and race toward Alva’s army of gargoyles, cutting the beasties off from our path.

  “We’re saved!” Ollie marvels. “Jax is all princely and his sis is a good princess after all!”

  Maxine punches him in the arm.

  “Did I say ‘sister’? I mean, s…s…sassy friend!” Ollie corrects himself.

  We watch in awe as Rapunzel and Jax drop to the floor and pull gold swords out of their scabbards. Jax looks dashing as he begins slashing the air and pushing gargoyles back, while Rapunzel pulls radishes out of the pleats of her ball gown and hurls them at the beasties. She looks surprisingly fierce for a princess. I’ve never seen the royals act so royally! I’m amazed as gargoyles begin dropping like flies, and Jax and Rapunzel soon surround Alva.

  “Make a move toward Gilly and my friends, and you’ll regret it,” Jax tells Alva, holding his sword to her chin.

  “And what do we have here? A princess taking orders from a delinquent?” Alva laughs coldly. “Why, this evening just gets more and more interesting!” She zaps two of her sleeping gargoyles and they instantly awaken. “But we can’t let the merriment go on forever.” The gargoyles hiss and move closer to Rapunzel and Jax, who back into each other with their swords still raised.

  “Alva, if you leave now and promise not to touch the other princesses—including foolish Rose—or our guests, we will not harm you,” Rapunzel tells her, “but if not, I am afraid you have given us no choice but to fight.”

  Alva tsks. “Darling, fight all you want. Can’t you see I’ve already won?” She motions to her gargoyles, which are in motion once more. “Take Rose and Gillian away ’til I need them,” Alva orders.

  “You won’t get past us!” Jax tells her.

  I don’t hesitate. I take off toward the ropes Rapunzel and Jax have left behind and start climbing to the balcony. A gargoyle pulls at my dress, but I kick it off. Maxine, Ollie, and Kayla are right behind me, while Jax and Rapunzel try to fight off gargoyles below.

  “No!” Rose cries as a gargoyle swoops down to grab her. “I won’t allow you to get away with this! Alva, you owe me!” Rose screams as the gargoyle lifts her up. “You owe me!” She points to the RLWs. “Royal Ladies-in-Waiting. You have been charmed!”

  The word sounds strange on Princess Rose’s lips, but I soon know why. Maxine’s sash flashes and her eyes go slack. RLWs rise, marching toward Alva. The other RLWs fall in line around them, looking straight ahead and standing at attention.

  “What the gingerbread is going on?” I hear Ollie yell as Maxine drops from the rope and heads toward the RLWs.

  “Those sashes aren’t just trackers,” I realize. Kayla flies over to Maxine and jumps on her back, but Maxine throws her off. “They’ve got a spell to make the wearers do Rose’s bidding!” Now I understand why Rose wanted the princesses to wear honorary RLW sashes. I spot Ella and Snow joining the ranks of the others. Rapunzel is the only one not wearing a sash, and I’m sure that’s because Jax filled her in on our suspicions.

  Alva laughs as her gargoyles fly to her side. “So you have an army of pink princesses and wicked little girls, have you? Why would I be afraid of them when I can do this?” Alva begins to conjure a spell right in front of us.

  Rose holds up my bag of gingerroot triumphantly. “No dragon morphing for you today, Alva!” She dumps the contents of the bag into her hand and a single petal falls out. “What? No! It can’t be gone!”

  And that is why Wolfington told us to save it for a good use. Looks like Rose and I both failed tonight.

  “Darling, I’m way beyond dragons these days. See for yourself!” Alva’s body begins to stretch and spin, her laughter disintegrating into screeches. Fire engulfs her completely. Through the flames I see one leathery green wing, then another, and a spike-covered tail that whips around so fast that it knocks one gargoyle into a wall and squeezes another ’til it shrieks. Scales take over her growing body, and a long, scaly head with gnashing teeth and diamond-shaped yellow eyes pops out. From her mouth comes a plume of fire that toasts the table and several beasties. We drop down from our ropes and rush to a corner to get away.

  “She can turn into a wyvern?” Ollie moans. “I thought dragons were bad. Wyverns are even harder to kill. Watch the tail and, um, try not to get torched.” We dive out of the way as fire comes too close for comfort.

  Jax slides under a wall of fire to reach us. “How do we kill that thing?” Jax yells, grabbing a chair and holding it up like a shield. The embers from a nearby fire ignite his chair, and he drops it like a hot cross bun.

  Rapunzel comes running over, dragging Rose behind her like a rag doll. Rapunzel turns and begins to shake her fellow princess. “That wyvern will rip apart the whole castle while the princesses and the others are under her spell! You have to uncharm them so we can get everyone to safety!”

  Princess Rose holds her head in her hands. “I can’t with all this commotion. There is a dragon in the ballroom. What am I supposed to do? Walk through the flames and ask all the RLWs to hold hands with Ella and Snow and repeat after me the charm that reverses the spell? I’ll be a toasted marshmallow before I cross the dance floor!”

  “You selfish girl!” Rapunzel scolds. “Were you so desperate for glory that you had to curse your own sisters and your kingdom? How could you work with the fairy that destroyed your life?”

  “I thought I could trick her!” Rose cries as flames engulf half the ballroom. I can’t even see Maxine or the other RLWs anymore. I can only hope they’re okay. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ‘The enemy of your enemy is your friend’? Alva’s plan was so delicious. How could I not want to be part of taking you all down and getting the kingdom for myself? I should have known she’d never let Enchantasia be mine—even if I handed over Gillian.” Rose glares at me and her e
yes look yellow in the flames.

  The Evil Queen and Jocelyn weren’t lying. They were actually trying to protect me! “You are the poorest excuse for a princess I’ve ever seen!” I yell.

  At that moment, the wyvern’s tail curls around Rose’s body and lifts her off the ground and away before we can stop it. One of its massive legs knocks down a rear wall of the ballroom, and debris rains down on our heads.

  “Rose!” Rapunzel cries as Rose screams in horror. “She’s a pill, but I can’t let her die. How do we kill that thing?”

  For once, I’m completely stumped. “I don’t know!” I realize and that terrifies me. What kind of hero am I?

  “Houratiempo!” I hear someone yell, and I see Jocelyn and Harlow running toward us. Jocelyn has Jax’s pocket watch and is using it to zap the wyvern’s legs. The wyvern screeches in anger. The blast holds the creature hostage for a moment, but I know that moment won’t last long. Jocelyn hits me in the arm. “I told you we weren’t the villains!”

  “I see that now!” I shout. “I’m sorry!”

  Jocelyn’s eyes bulge out of her head. “That’s your apology?”

  “Jocelyn! Now is not the time to be petty!” Harlow has her back to us, and I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. The Evil Queen is commanding the flames away from Ella, Snow, Maxine, and the RLWs on the other side of the room. “You don’t have much time. This room is going to come down,” Harlow yells to us. “You must hit the wyvern in its mouth or the vents behind its legs. The impact should cause Alva to transform back to her natural state and then I may be able to contain her. Use this.” She produces a dagger from her skirt pocket. “It’s laced with gingerroot. Once she’s back in human form, this should hold her for a few minutes.”

  “Should hold?” Rapunzel and Jax ask at the same time. They look at each other.

  “Do you have a better idea, Princess?” Harlow snaps. Jocelyn and I duck as a table is thrown past our heads. I notice the wyvern’s legs are starting to move again.

  “Okay, we’ll try it,” Rapunzel says as flames shoot in our direction.

  Jax throws me out of the way as the fire comes dangerously close to us. “Lead it away with anything red,” Harlow adds. “It hates red.”

  I scan the room for something red. Of course, we’re in a room filled with pink. Then I spot a red velvet tapestry hanging on a wall. “Let’s use that!” I tell the others.

  Rapunzel freaks. “That tapestry has been in the kingdom for over a hundred years!” A breath of fire crumbles a section of the balcony, and pieces fall on us. “But I guess it’s worn out,” she says quickly. “I’ll go get it.”

  Jax holds Rapunzel back. “You stay here, Princess. It’s too dangerous.”

  “No!” Rapunzel insists. “This is my kingdom too. We’ll fight this beast together.”

  Jax looks sad, and quickly I realize why. He pulls Maxine’s gingerroot bag from his pocket and empties the contents in his hands, blowing them in Rapunzel’s face. She freezes on impact. “I’m sorry!” he tells her. “It’s for your own good.” He looks at Harlow. “Lead the wyvern your way, and we’ll grab the tapestry.”

  We wait ’til Harlow does, then make a break. Jax, Ollie, and Kayla run straight past the beast and begin to tug the tapestry off the wall. Jocelyn and I follow closely behind, but our timing is off. I hear the fire before I smell it. The scent is of rotting flesh and…my skirt! It’s on fire! Jocelyn dives on top of me, patting the flames out with her skirt.

  “Are you okay?” Jocelyn asks.

  “My left leg burns, but I think I’m fine,” I tell her. “Thanks.”

  “Now you owe me two times!” she declares. We look across the room and see that Jax and Ollie have the tapestry down. Part of it gets singed as they run back across the ballroom, but there is enough of the tapestry left to still be useful. Harlow continues to lead the flames in the other direction, while the rest of us gather behind her to discuss our next move.

  “Weapon!” I tell Jocelyn as Harlow leads the wyvern away from us again. “I’ll throw it. I’ve got good aim.”

  Jocelyn holds the dagger close to her chest.

  “You’re not even on the fencing team!” Jocelyn yells back as Ollie and Jax jump from a flame that Kayla flies above. “Stop trying to be the hero! I’m doing it!”

  We hear a screech and turn to see Harlow backed into a corner with the wyvern coming her way. But before anyone can help her, the beast sends a wall of flames in her direction. When the smoke clears, a rocky crater is all that remains in her place.

  “Harlow!” Jocelyn cries.

  The air is getting thicker and hotter by the second. We won’t be able to stand here much longer without Harlow’s protection. I think of Maxine on the other side of the room with the princesses that will stand there ’til the walls come down around them or their curse is lifted. Is Rapunzel okay where Jax placed her frozen in a deep corner of the ballroom? How are we going to get out of this crumbling room? Jocelyn is crying too hard to be of much use. Jax sits her down and pulls the dagger from her hands.

  “Throw it, thief,” he tells me.

  I shake my head. “No, Jocelyn’s right. I’m no hero. Look at all you guys have done tonight while I screwed everything up. I can’t do this!”

  Jax puts his hands on my shoulders. “Yes, you can. We’re a team, remember? We’ll finish this together.”

  Ollie and Kayla pick up the remains of the tapestry. “We’ll distract it,” Kayla says. “You throw that dagger with all you’ve got. Make it a good shot, roomie!”

  My hands shake as I hold the cold dagger in my hands. If I screw up, we’re finished, but if I do this right, we could save the entire kingdom this time.

  “When they get close enough, I’ll tell you to throw,” Jax says as we run closer to get the best shot. My eyes are on Kayla and Ollie, who are darting between the wyvern’s huge, scaly legs.

  “Hey, beastie! Over here!” Ollie shouts as Kayla flies above him, holding the tapestry in her hands. The wyvern turns its massive head and screeches so loud that I hear ringing in my ears. I watch as it opens its mouth, exposing its gnashing teeth in seemingly slow motion. It’s about to spray my friends with fire.

  “Now!” Jax yells as we race into the line of fire behind Kayla.

  I stare into the wyvern’s orange-and-yellow eyes and Jocelyn’s doubts echo in my head. I’m not even on the fencing team. Can I throw this far enough?

  I’ll have to try. With a feeling of fierce determination, I take aim and throw as hard as I can, sailing the dagger straight into the wyvern’s mouth.

  The creature screams, then begins to shimmer and freezes with one massive claw in midair before it starts to dissolve in a haze of smoke and flames, leaving behind a bruised and battered wicked fairy. There’s no time to grab her. We take cover as the ceiling of Royal Manor rains down in a spectacular display of fire, ashes, and golden embers around us.

  Happily Ever After Scrolls

  Brought to you by FairyWeb—magically appearing on scrolls throughout Enchantasia for the past ten years!

  BREAKING NEWS:

  Alva Captured! Princess Rose in Custody! Fairy Tale Reform School Students Save the Day (Again)!

  by Beatrice Beez

  Happily Ever After Scrolls is pleased to confirm that Alva has been captured! In an alarming twist, Princess Rose has been taken into custody for her involvement in the reign of terror that has befallen our kingdom. While details are sketchy, palace sources say Rose planned to take over Enchantasia from her fellow princesses with Alva’s help. Using charmed sashes, she cursed her RLWs and fellow princesses to do her bidding, but was thwarted by Rapunzel and FTRS student Jax Porter.

  “We are taking the matter of Princess Rose into our own hands,” says Rapunzel. “She will be dealt with by her fellow princesses and take a leave of absence while we discuss her behavior. We couldn’t have stopped her without help from the Fairy Tale Reform School students.” May we suggest Rose be sentenced
to a transformation at Fairy Tale Reform School?

  Meanwhile, in a fit of rage, Alva turned into a wyvern, a type of dragon that is impossible to kill. Thanks to the quick thinking of the FTRS students, she was struck by a dagger laced with gingerroot and returned to her fairy form where the Evil Queen contained her. It turns out Professor Harlow was working undercover with Headmistress Flora at FTRS to capture Alva the whole time! “After she transformed back to her wicked fairy form, Alva was turned into a statue by Professor Harlow and stored at an undisclosed location where she will be heavily guarded,” Headmistress Flora tells us. “We at FTRS will make sure she is never a threat to the kingdom of Enchantasia again.”

  With Harlow’s name cleared, she will likely take her position back at FTRS, which leaves Blackbeard in the lurch. “We’ll find room for everyone,” Miri, the school spokesmirror, says.

  Once again, Enchantasia residents have Gillian Cobbler to thank for their safety! Or do they?

  “I cannot take credit for the events at Royal Manor yesterday evening,” says Gillian, recovering in the school infirmary from burns from the wyvern. “Princess Rapunzel and my friends—Jax, Ollie, Kayla, Maxine, and Jocelyn—did far more than I ever could,” she says. “The only way to beat someone as fierce as Alva or as distressed as Princess Rose is to work together as a team. FTRS has taught me that, and I’m grateful to my friends for saving the day.”

  CHAPTER 19

  A New Path

  Gillian Cobbler—For your epic bravery in the war against Alva, we grant you early release from Fairy Tale Reform School.

  —Signed this day by Headmistress Flora

  I can’t believe it! I’m free! I’m going home! When the scroll arrived under our dorm room door this morning, I could barely contain my excitement. Even Kayla was jumping up and down. And that was before Maxine barged in.

  “Look what I got!” Maxine held up a piece of parchment with the new FTRS school emblem stamped on it. Now our school crest has five boxes—a full moon, a trident, a bitten apple, a glass slipper, and a skull and crossbones. With the truth about Harlow out, Blackbeard was given a much more suitable position. He’s now FTRS’s official head of athletics and safety.