We did it!
My eyes lock on Stiltskin, and a feeling of triumph comes over me. “Your plan failed.”
“Did it?” Rumpelstiltskin’s smile is pure evil as he reveals a mouth of gold teeth. He starts to laugh uncontrollably, showing off his hairy chin. The sound of his laughter is so high pitched and unnatural that it makes the hair on my arms stand up. Stiltskin Squad members join in on the laughter. “You foolish little girl. My plan didn’t fail.” His eyes narrow at me. “Yours did!”
I glance quickly at Alva’s statue and realize it’s no longer there.
I inhale sharply. In its place, a dark-haired woman is lying on the floor, her silky, black wings covering her like a cape. The Wicked Fairy is free.
I look at Rumpelstiltskin in horror and feel a spell hit me in the chest. The room around me swirls, then fades to black.
CHAPTER 17
The Battle between the Light and the Dark
The sound of my name brings me back to consciousness. “Gilly? Gilly, are you okay?” Someone is leaning over me—Anna? As the face comes into focus, I realize it’s AG. I try to sit up, but I don’t have the use of my hands. They’re bound by invisible restraints, the same ones that now burn into AG’s wrists. The fear on her face is easy to read. We’re trapped.
I glance around the room to get a handle on the situation. The kids we just rescued are being wrangled together and tied with magical restraints. Squad members are placing the broken pieces of the harp in a large tin box while others attend to Alva, who is still lying motionless on the floor. One girl leans down and presses her ear to her chest.
“She’s breathing!” says the girl.
“You may have reversed Alva’s curse, but the harp is broken,” I yell to Rump. “You’ll never be able to enact your curse now.”
“Oh, Gillian, you simple girl.” Rumpelstiltskin looks like an old man as he dusts himself off and fixes the collar of his gold shirt. His beady eyes are as dark as ever. “Who said the harp needed to be in one piece in order to work its magic?” I freeze.
“All we needed was for someone pure of heart to make it play, and that someone was you!” Rumpelstiltskin explains, laughing harder. “My love for Alva may be strong, but it’s tied up in our mutual desire to control Enchantasia. That’s way too evil for the harp. That’s where you came in!” He folds his hands across his wide belly. “We knew you wanted your poor, unfortunate sister back so you could save her from a life of villainy.” His voice is mocking. “We just needed someone on the inside at FTRS to plant the seed that she was unhappy. And you came running!” He dances around the room. “What fun it’s been watching you fall for every little trick we’ve planted!”
Someone on the inside? I don’t understand. And then it dawns on me. I look at Jack. “You tricked me.” He looks down. “I trusted you, defended you to my friends. I followed your lead.” I feel like such a fool. “And the whole time, you’ve been working with him?”
“Yes,” Jack says bluntly. “Look, I’m sorry, but I made a deal. Get you to come up here to play the harp in exchange for my mum and my cow back. I had no choice. It was just business.”
“Business? You betrayed Enchantasia!” I shout, struggling against my binds.
“You seem nice enough,” Jack tells me, and my mouth runs dry. “But it was your family or mine.” He looks at Stiltskin. “Now it’s time to uphold your end of the bargain.”
“Bring out Mr. Spriggins’s mum and cow,” Stiltskin tells Gretel.
Gretel opens the door to the atrium. Jack’s mum is in tears when she sees him. She runs to Jack, and they embrace.
“Now place them all together, like he wanted,” Rump says. “The dungeon will suffice.”
“The dungeon?” Jack spins around. “You said I’d get my mum and cow back!”
“And you have, haven’t you? It’s not my fault you never said where you wanted to end up with them. So the three of you will stay here and help me now.”
Jack struggles as Gretel ties them all together. “You lied! We had a deal.” Gretel pushes the three of them over to our hostage area. “We had a deal!”
“You should have made a smarter one!” Stiltskin sneers, then looks at me again. “I have the harp thanks to you too. And now we can finally start putting our plan into action.”
Rump thinks he’s won, but he hasn’t. “You won’t get away with this. I’ve stopped you once. I’ll do it again. I’ve already saved Anna. I can still save the harp too.”
“Have you really saved Anna?” Rumpelstiltskin thinks for a moment. “Or did she never need saving?”
He’s stumped me again. I turn and watch dumbfounded as Anna steps out of the hostage pool and walks over to Rumpelstiltskin. I feel like I’ve fallen fifty feet down the beanstalk.
“I’m sorry, Gilly.” Her voice is suddenly cold. The tears that stained her face only moments are gone. “There was no way to break Alva’s curse without your help, and we need Alva for what we have planned. Someday you’ll see it’s for the best.” Someone hands Anna a fresh jacket and she slips out of the dirty one, which was clearly for my benefit. A girl hands her a comb, and Anna quickly smooths her locks and adds a headband. The poor little Anna routine is over.
“It was all a lie?” I ask. I feel like I might throw up. My sweet little sister is really gone. “You tricked me too?”
“We knew your love for me was pure enough to get the harp to play,” Anna explains, her face brightening. “And it did. Now Rumpelstiltskin can cast the greatest curse Enchantasia has ever seen.” She turns back toward me and touches my arm. I recoil. “Don’t worry. Your life will be spared in the curse. I made sure he let me include you and our family when he remakes Enchantasia the way it was meant to be.”
Hot tears fall down my cheeks. My baby sister has truly turned evil. I thought I could change her, but Professor Sebastian is right. People can only change if they want to. Thanks to my foolishness, I’ve endangered not only my friends, but also the whole kingdom. I should have listened to Jax. How could I be so pigheaded?
I steel myself as I look at Anna and say, “I don’t want any part of your plan. I won’t turn evil, Anna. Not even for you.”
Anna rolls her eyes. “Oh, Gilly, always so concerned with being good. Well, guess what? Now I’m better than you ever were. I’m part of greatness! With Stiltskin and Alva’s curse, Enchantasia will be great again. No troll and ogre war, no school for royals or schools for children who might become villains. Stiltskin will unite the whole kingdom. Under his rule, we will all matter! Villains won’t dare attack us with him in charge. No one will be able to stop us.”
Anna is clearly committed to this cause, but I have to try one more time. “The past is in the past,” I say. “The only thing that can be changed is the future. Deep down, you must know how wrong this is.”
Anna’s face darkens. “What’s wrong is you not seeing how much good he can do for all of us. Forget FTRS and these people!” She motions to my friends. “They’re not your family. I am.”
“We’ve acted more like her family these last few months than you ever have,” Jocelyn snaps. “You’re just too jealous to admit that to yourself.”
“I have nothing to be jealous of!” Anna says, but her voice does sound shaky. “Gilly is the coward! She can’t see the future!” Anna turns to Hansel. “Put them with the others and then get them all back down to the dungeons. They’ll be out of our way down there.”
The candy thief drags me back over to my friends. I’m too broken to fight him.
I watch Anna talking to Stiltskin as the squad members continue to collect harp pieces. Alva is placed on a stretcher and removed from the room. Gretel rounds up the rest of us, zapping kids who don’t move fast enough with her wand. I see a shadow cross her face and look up. Erp is still watching us, but no one seems to notice. If only I could get a message to him. But would he even help u
s?
A boy pats me down, searching for weapons. He pulls my coal miner dagger off me, then lifts my bow and arrow. I reach for it out of force of habit, but the kid throws it on to the pile of weapons he’s already collected. The coal miner daggers we need to climb back down the beanstalk have all been taken. Ollie’s and Jax’s swords and Jocelyn’s bag of magic tricks are gone too.
I look from Jack to Jax. “I’m sorry. You tried to tell me that I was being played by this kid, and I didn’t listen. Now we’re trapped here.”
Jack cuts into our conversation and says, “Hey, I was played too. I had to put my family first. Didn’t you do the same?”
“On some level,” I admit. “But look at what it got me. I’m stuck in an atrium with a cow, a wicked fairy, and a sister who has turned evil.” I look at Jax again. “I’m a fool.”
Jax’s face is sad. “I’m sorry I was right. I really wanted to be wrong.”
I wish looking into his violet eyes would calm me like it has before. This time it doesn’t. “I know.”
Tears stream down AG’s cheeks. “He’s so evil,” she whispers. “Father said he was, but I thought he could be reasoned with. Now I see for myself he can’t. He’ll never reverse my curse. He’ll only try to strike another deal. What he did to you and your sister… I’m so sorry, Gilly.”
“What curse?” Jocelyn asks. “This one is cursed too? How so?”
AG doesn’t answer. She’s crying too hard. I doubt she’d tell Jocelyn what she is anyway.
I look at the rest of my friends. “I’m sorry I dragged you all into my mess. I wish I knew how to get us out of it.”
“Move!” Gretel barks, knocking me from behind. “Time for the dungeon! It’s nice and damp down there. I’m sure you’ll love the accommodations, pretty little princess.”
She pokes AG with her wand and laughs, and AG growls.
“What did you just say to me?” Gretel gets in AG’s face. “I said move! I’m not scared of any beast’s daughter.”
AG growls louder this time. Her chest is rising and falling heavily. She looks at me, a mixture of uncertainty and determination in her yellowing eyes. Maybe hope isn’t lost yet.
“AG, be proud of who you are,” I encourage her. “Own it!”
“Enough goody-goody talk.” Gretel pushes me again. “Get walking. You and the pretty little princess.”
“Don’t call me a pretty little princess,” AG says.
“Oh?” Gretel smiles slyly. “Why not?”
AG bares her teeth, which are starting to sharpen. “Because I am so much more.”
I step back as AG’s chest heaves harder and her body begins to twitch.
“Go, AG, go!” Maxine cries as the others look around in confusion.
“What’s wrong with her?” Gretel asks as AG falls to her hands and knees and her back contorts. She writhes in pain as hair sprouts from her arms and legs and covers her whole body. Then she lets out a roar so fierce as she breaks through her restraints that it makes even my knees shake. AG lifts her head and locks her yellowed eyes on Gretel.
“She’s a beast!” Gretel cries.
The pretty little princess is now full wolf. She pounces at Gretel, and Gretel screams. Squad members start running. Anna’s jaw drops at the sight of the chaos.
“This is our chance,” Jack tells us over the yelling. He opens his hand to reveal a magic bean. “It can get us out of here.”
I don’t ask where he got it or how long he’s had it, but I still hesitate. Jack places the bean in my hands. “You’re in charge, Gilly. I’m sorry about before. Tell the bean where you want to go, and we’re there.”
“No, I don’t want that responsibility,” I say and try to give the bean to Jax as AG continues to howl and charge through the room. “I don’t deserve it.”
“Just because you screwed up before doesn’t mean you’ll screw up now,” Jax shouts. “Trust yourself!”
But I don’t. Not around Anna. What if I think of the wrong place? What if we wind up stuck here?
“Gather everyone around,” Jax tell the others. “Someone grab AG.”
“AG!” Maxine whistles. “Here…um…girl!” AG comes running, and Maxine tackles her.
“What are they doing?” Hansel shouts, looking at the group of us, clinging to one another as other squad members, clearly terrified of AG, continue to hide.
Crash! Shards of glass begin to rain from the glass ceiling. Erp has punched his hand through the ceiling. The remaining Stiltskin Squad members guarding the kids run for cover.
Now’s our chance. I dive for the pile of weapons, grabbing my bow and arrow as Jax grabs Ollie’s sword and swings it straight for Stiltskin. He rolls out of the way before it can hit him, but Anna is coming after me.
The sight of her trying to stop me is almost more than I can bear. Her face is so full of anger it looks…evil. I fire a warning shot in her direction and she drops to the floor, but then she bounces right back up and keeps coming. That girl is a fighter.
Jocelyn yanks me back as I fire off arrow after arrow, trying to keep Anna and Stiltskin down.
“They have the harp pieces!” Gretel points at Kayla and Jocelyn, who now have the tin box.
“Don’t let them get away!” Anna cries. “Block the exits! They have nowhere to escape!”
“That’s what you think, traitor!” Jocelyn shouts.
Jax and Ollie gather Jack, his mum and cow, and the other kids around the tin box. Maxine holds tight to a thrashing AG. I hold the bean tightly in my now sweaty hand.
“Erp!” I hear Kayla shout as his hand reaches through the ceiling for our group. “Get us out of here!” Squad members begin wanding spells at him, but Erp’s hand keeps coming. Kids gather tight around the box, some climbing on top to make our group as compact as possible.
Rumpelstiltskin reaches for his wand. He aims at us, and this time I know he’s not hoping to stun. But before he can fire off a spell, Erp scoops us up and lifts us through the ceiling. I feel a pang of regret as I look down to see Anna’s face turn ghostly white. “No!” she screams. But as we clear the building, I know I have to leave Anna behind. Not because I want to, but because she has to figure this out on her own.
Erp sets us down on a cloud and crouches next to us. I can hear the commotion behind us. They’ll be out of the building and here any second.
“Now!” Jocelyn shouts, and I get ready to throw down the bean.
Take us home, I think.
The bean explodes, shattering into a thousand pieces, each one radiating a bright-white light. The break is followed by a loud gush of wind that threatens to pull us all apart. We hold on tight as a swirling vortex of clouds spins around us, tight like a funnel. Below them, I see the leaves of a beanstalk start to form. There is another bright flash of light, a screeching sound, and we’re gone.
CHAPTER 18
Unhappily After…for Now
When I open my eyes, all I see are blue sky and clouds. Am I still in Cloud City?
I sit up fast and feel dizzy.
“Oh, my head,” I hear Jax moan. Children all around me are coming to as well. I look around.
We are scattered on the ground like bread crumbs, each one of us lying near a twisting, turning root of a fresh, new beanstalk. Everyone looks as dazed and confused as I am, especially when they see Erp lying in a giant-sized crater on the ground.
I am not home in my cozy boot, but I am back at Fairy Tale Reform School, safely on the ground. I smile. My head won out over my heart.
A sound like thunder rumbles through the ground as the staff bursts from the school, trailed by dozens of students aiming weapons. They look from the new beanstalk to Erp, who is trying to stand, to the kids scattered across the ground.
Tessa lowers her wand in surprise. “It’s Gilly and the others!” she cries, and everyone lets up a loud
cheer. “They’re okay!”
Rapunzel lowers her crossbow and runs to Jax. “It is you!” He’s still just sitting up when Rapunzel tackles him in a hug.
It’s like a domino effect. Jack, his mum, and Milky Way have a reunion on a vine. Kayla flies to her mother’s and sisters’ sides, then drags them over to meet Erp as she starts telling everyone how he helped save us. Ollie and Blackbeard trade sword-fighting stories. Maxine and AG hug their fellow RLWs.
Students run over to the rescued kids, offering their mini magic mirrors so the kids can reach home and tell their parents they’ve been found. Even non-FTRS kids seem happy to have someone kind and forgiving wrap a blanket or cloak around them.
“No candy!” I hear a goblin boy beg. “All I’ve eaten for the past month is candy. It’s fun for the first week, but if I ever see a lavender gumdrop again, I think I’ll have the shakes.”
It should be a happy moment, but I can’t help thinking about the one person who didn’t come back with us.
“Jocelyn!” snaps Professor Harlow. She’s busy putting up some sort of shield that keeps sputtering out and dying every time she casts it. “Stop lollygagging and help me with this blocking charm! It takes two, and we don’t want to let anyone through!”
Jocelyn, who appears to have face-planted, attempts to stand and staggers over to Harlow to help her. Seconds later, the two of them manage to cross magic streams and send a glowing bubble up over the beanstalk, preventing anyone or anything from climbing it till it can be cut down.
“What about the giant?” someone cries as Erp finally stands and starts to stumble around. “Someone restrain him!”