“The better to maul you with, my dear,” Malumclaw said.
Red had never expected to die like this. She had always imagined it would be back in her castle with dozens of her and Jack’s children by her bedside.
“Oh my, what big teeth you have,” Red said.
“The better to bite you with, my dear,” Malumclaw said. He was just a few feet away. He arched his back, ready to pounce.
Suddenly, a quiet, whistling sound came from outside the castle. A cannonball crashed through the wall and directly into Malumclaw. The stairs collapsed, and the wolf was knocked into the next room. If he had survived it, he wouldn’t be in one piece.
“Oh my…” Red said. She grasped on to the banister of the stair landing as if her life depended on it. The steps on either side of her were gone; she was truly stuck now.
The landing started to teeter. The wood below it was slowly starting to crumble.
“Oh my… oh my… oh my!” Red screamed. The banister collapsed, and Red fell. She screamed the entire way down.
Just a few seconds before Red was about to hit the floor, Froggy jumped into the air and caught the young queen. They both landed safely, courtesy of his strong frog legs.
“You saved my life!” Red said with big, thankful eyes.
“I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced, Your Majesty,” Froggy said. “My name is—”
Froggy never got to finish. Red was repeatedly kissing his cheek. He turned dark green—who knew a frog could blush?
The castle began to shake as more cannons were fired.
“They’ve started the attack!” Froggy said. “We have to find Conner and Alex and get out of here!”
Alex and Conner didn’t know what was going on. All they could hear was the clanking of swords and the whimpering of wolves from outside the great hall, and the muffled announcements of the soldiers outside of the castle. They felt the castle shaking and falling apart around them.
Cannonballs began bursting through the walls of the great hall. Big stone chunks of the ceiling began to fall around them. They knew they had to get out of the castle as fast as possible.
“Your Majesty?” Alex asked the Evil Queen. “We have to get out of here! The castle is falling apart!”
The Evil Queen didn’t respond. All she could do was cry over the body of her former lover.
“If we don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to make Humpty Dumpty’s accident look like a scrape on the knee!” Conner said.
The Evil Queen wasn’t listening to them. She was so grief-stricken that she couldn’t hear. She didn’t even seem aware of what was happening to the castle.
“Evly! Please! You need to untie us!” Alex pleaded. “Just drop the stone and you won’t feel all this sadness!”
The doors into the great hall creaked open, and Froggy ran into the hall. Red watched from the doorway, panicked by all the destruction.
“Froggy!” Conner yelled. “Untie us before we’re crushed!”
“I’m coming, children!” Froggy said. He hopped across the room and quickly began untying them as fast as he could. It was difficult, though—the knots were tight. He untied Conner first, and then the two worked together to free Alex.
“Please hurry!” Red called out from the doorway. “My castle’s being remodeled, and I’d really like to see it before I die!”
Alex was finally freed. Conner and Froggy ran toward the door, but Alex went to the table and started putting all the Wishing Spell items back into her bag.
“What are you doing?” Conner yelled. “What part of imploding castle don’t you understand?”
“I’m not leaving without these!” Alex said. “We made promises to return and to destroy them, remember?”
The Wishing Spell was starting to wear off on the Magic Mirror; the glass was starting to grow back. A cannonball hit the wall closest to the mirrors. The golden mirror was knocked over by the blast and shattered across the ground. The Magic Mirror started rocking, about to fall at any moment.
“Evly!” Alex yelled. “Please, come with us!” But she was ignored.
The Magic Mirror fell on top of the Evil Queen and Mira and scattered into thousands of pieces on the ground. But the Evil Queen and Mira were nowhere to be found. The mirror had swallowed them just before it shattered.
Alex ran over and started searching for any trace of the Evil Queen or Mira, but there was nothing to find except bits of broken glass. The only thing Alex managed to find was the Evil Queen’s heart of stone.
Alex put the heart of stone in her bag. She turned to run toward the door with her brother and Froggy, but something else caught her eye on the floor: It was her reflection in a piece of the golden mirror. It was so bright and colorful, and she saw herself smiling in it—and there was something behind her, something moving like wings.
“Come on, Alex!” Conner yelled. “I don’t want to be an only child!”
“Coming!” Alex said. She ignored the glass and joined her brother, Froggy, and Red in the doorway of the crumbling great hall.
They found Jack in the corridor outside the great hall, still holding on to his wounded arm. Porridge was impatiently waiting here, too, not wanting to leave without her mistress.
“Jack!” Red said, and went to embrace him. “You came!”
“I didn’t come for you!” Jack said, and refused to let her touch him. “Where’s Goldilocks?”
Red put a hand on her chest and was short of breath. Pure heartbreak started to consume her like a delayed poison. He really was in love with Goldilocks.
“Let me get everyone to safety, and then I’ll go back for her!” Froggy said.
“I’ll go with you—ahhh!” Jack had begun to speak but screamed when he tried to move his arm.
“No, you won’t,” Froggy said.
One by one, Froggy took hold of Alex, Conner, Red, and Jack and leaped with them across the moat. Porridge took some convincing, but Jack coaxed her into hopping over the moat with them. They joined the soldiers, many of whom bowed upon seeing Queen Red Riding Hood.
“Forgive my hair, gentlemen,” Red said. “It’s been a rough day.”
“Where is the Evil Queen?” Sir Grant asked.
“She’s gone,” Alex said softly.
“Gone?” he asked.
“Yes,” Alex said sadly. “Trust me, you won’t have to worry about seeing her again.”
Sir Grant nodded. A huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders and the shoulders of his kingdom.
“Where was Goldilocks when you last saw her?” Froggy asked Jack.
“She was fighting that woman. I don’t know where they went,” Jack said.
“There she is!” Conner said, pointing upward.
Everyone raised their heads to look. Near the very top of the castle, Goldilocks and the Huntress were still dueling… on the roof.
No one could do or say anything. They all just watched the fight with their mouths and eyes wide open. Neither of the women seemed to have an advantage over the other. It was going to be a fight to the finish. The castle was disintegrating around them, but they kept fighting, each determined to kill the other.
Their fight had turned into a battle. They swung their weapons toward each other more violently than ever.
Part of the roof near where they stood caved in, and Goldilocks lost her balance. She dropped her sword while trying to regain her footing. The Huntress saw this as an opportunity to strike; she raised her dagger high above her head. It was aimed for Goldilocks, and there was nothing she could do to defend herself.
“No!” Jack yelled. He ran over to a cannon and lit it. He wrenched it toward the Huntress’s direction, and it fired. A cannonball soared toward the women and blasted away the section of roof the Huntress was standing on. She fell the entire height of the castle and into the moat, silently screaming the entire way. There was no way she could have survived the fall.
Goldilocks found her balance and lovingly looked down at Jack. They shared a moment of bli
ssful eye contact before disaster struck again. Dust rose as the castle began to collapse completely underneath Goldilocks.
“Goldilocks!” Jack yelled.
“I can’t watch!” Alex said, and buried her face in Conner’s shoulder.
It was hard to see anything through the dust. The sound was thunderous; thousands upon thousands of stones were falling on top of one another. Many rolled over into the moat. The dust eventually cleared out once the stones had settled. The castle was now just a massive pile of stone bricks. Goldilocks was nowhere to be found.
“Goldilocks?” Jack hollered, running along the edge of the moat, trying to find any trace of her.
The odds didn’t seem in her favor. Froggy jumped across the moat and disappeared into the debris. Everything was silent. The twins thought Jack was going to have a heart attack while waiting. Every second that they didn’t hear or see anything felt like an hour.
Slowly but surely, two figures made their way through the wreckage: It was Froggy, and he was helping Goldilocks through the rubble. She was limping, but she was alive.
The twins cheered, and Jack fell to his knees. They had never seen anyone so thankful in their lives. Froggy leaped over the moat with Goldilocks, and she and Jack collided into each other’s arms. They shared a kiss so passionate that a few of the soldiers blushed. It was love personified.
Red Riding Hood could feel her entire body ache with heartbreak while watching the scene. This may have been the only time she hadn’t gotten what she’d wanted, and Jack had always been what she’d wanted more than anything.
Porridge happily pranced over to Goldilocks, who petted her horse’s mane.
“I’m all right, girl,” Goldilocks said. “I’m just banged up a little.”
“Goldilocks,” Sir Grant called out officially. “You’re under arrest.”
“Wait a second! Hold on!” Jack said, standing in the way of the approaching guards. He turned and gave Red a scornful look. “Do something!”
At first, Red didn’t know what to say. She had never really done anything official and queen-like.
“The Red Riding Hood Kingdom would like to pardon Goldilocks for all the crimes she’s committed,” Red said. “And it’s a very long list.”
“That may be,” Sir Grant said. “But you can’t pardon all the crimes she committed in other kingdoms. She’s going to spend the rest of her life in prison. Seize her!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SNOW WHITE’S SECRET
The entire party traveled back to the Northern Kingdom in silence. The pattering of the horses’ hooves on the road was the only sound the group made. The whole world seemed to have sighed with relief now that the Evil Queen was gone.
Goldilocks was given permission to ride Porridge back into the kingdom, but her hands and feet were wrapped in chains. An annoyed expression was frozen on her face. Jack faithfully walked by her side the entire trip with his hand on top of the manacles around hers.
Red Riding Hood watched them from afar, looking away only when someone noticed her staring at the couple. She had never experienced so many emotions at once. She remained silent and still, praying that the hurt would go away.
The twins were especially quiet during the journey. After everything that they’d witnessed, it was hard to find words to express what they were thinking and feeling. Their thoughts were filled with the Evil Queen’s story. They were haunted by images of her holding the body of the man whom she had loved her entire life, before being consumed by the mirror. And while they were saddened by her tale, they were even more disappointed that the Wishing Spell was gone.
They feared how long it would take for them to discover another way home. What obstacles and dangers would they have to endure when and if they found an alternative? What would they do in the meantime? Where would they live?
“I’m so sorry, children,” Froggy said as they went. “I feel completely responsible. Had I just let you use the Wishing Spell instead of persuading you to come with me, none of this would have happened.”
“It isn’t your fault, Froggy,” Alex said. “The wolves would have gotten to us sooner or later.”
“Actually, this whole thing is your fault,” Conner said. “If you hadn’t told us about the Wishing Spell none of this would have happened in the first place. We would have never been chased by wolves, kidnapped by trolls, or targeted by the Evil Queen.”
Froggy lowered his head. The guilt was heavy and it weighed him down. Alex looked like she was about to punch Conner in the face.
“But,” Conner said with a big cheesy smile, “you did save our lives like three times, so I think that makes up for it.”
Froggy chuckled. “You are more than welcome to live with me,” he said. “I’ll help you find another way home. I promise.”
The twins nodded and smiled at him. It was comforting to know they had a place to live, even if it was just a hole in the ground.
They traveled for a day and a half before they finally reached Swan Lake and arrived at Snow White’s palace. Red Riding Hood seemed intimidated by a palace so regal and large.
“My castle is going to look just like this when it’s finished,” she told everyone around her, but no one seemed interested.
The soldiers immediately took hold of Goldilocks and escorted her to the dungeon.
“Wait a minute! You can’t just throw her into captivity without a trial!” Jack said.
“For her sake, I hope she never gets a trial!” a soldier said.
“Go home, Jack,” Goldilocks said. “With good behavior, they should let me out in a few decades.”
Jack followed them anyway, protesting the entire time, but even he knew there was nothing he could do.
“Come with me,” Sir Grant said to the twins. “We’ll find the queen.”
The twins, Red, and Froggy followed the soldier into the palace. They went up the staircase to the third floor and down the hall to the door of what must have been the real entrance into the storage chamber.
Grant knocked on the door. “Your Majesty, it’s Sir Grant. Are you in there?” he said.
“Yes, please come in,” Snow White said from inside.
They all followed Sir Grant inside. The room looked completely different. All the furniture had been uncovered, and the paintings had been placed on the walls. It looked like an actual room again.
“What are you two doing here?” Snow White asked. She was putting the portrait of the Huntsman back on the wall. For the past couple of days, she had been restoring the room by herself.
“Your Majesty,” Sir Grant said, lowering his helmet. “We found your stepmother hiding in a castle in the northeast Sleeping Kingdom.”
“And?” Snow White asked, bracing herself for the news.
“She’s dead,” Grant informed her.
Snow White’s face became paler, which the twins hadn’t thought was possible. She sat down on the platform in the back of the room. She didn’t cry, but anyone could tell it was difficult news to process.
“How did it happen?” Snow White asked.
Grant looked down at the twins. “I wasn’t there, but they saw it happen,” he said.
“She didn’t die, per se,” Alex said, trying to put it delicately. “The castle was falling apart, and her mirror, well, it—”
“It fell on top of her and swallowed her like a bug! Boom! And then she disappeared!” Conner said excitedly. “It was crazy! There was nothing left!”
Alex gave her brother a dirty look. “Well, not necessarily,” she said.
Alex reached into her bag and pulled out the heart of stone. Snow White gasped upon seeing it. Alex walked across the room and handed Snow White her stepmother’s heart.
“This was left behind,” Alex said. “I think you should have it.”
Snow White looked down at the stone and tears spilled out of her eyes.
“Sir Grant, I’d like to be alone with the children,” Snow White said. “Please arrange rooms for the other
s if they would like to stay,” she said, nodding to Red and Froggy.
“Why, thank you, Your Majesty,” Froggy said, and bowed.
“That’s very nice, thank you,” Red said. “Maybe just until my palace is done being rebuilt. I’m putting in a room just like this one—”
Sir Grant ushered them out of the chamber before Red could finish. The twins were left alone with Snow White. She was very quiet for the first few moments. All she could do was stare down at the stone.
“I guess you didn’t listen to my advice, then,” Snow White said.
“We listened,” Conner said. “We just ignored it.”
“Do you know what this is?” Snow White asked them, holding up the heart of stone.
“Yes,” Alex told her. “It’s her heart. She told us all about it and about her life before she was, well, the Evil Queen.”
“It was one heck of a story, too,” Conner said. “Did you know that guy in her Magic Mirror was actually her long-lost boyfriend?”
“Yes, I did,” Snow White said. “That’s why I helped her escape.”
Both of the twins gasped and shook their heads in disbelief. They couldn’t have heard her correctly.
“What?” Alex asked. “You helped her escape?”
“No way!” Conner said.
“Yes,” Snow White said. She showed no remorse with her confession. “I sat in her cell for hours and listened to her story. It broke my heart. So, in a final attempt to please her, I arranged for her and her mirror to be taken up the river and into the next kingdom so she could continue her work.”
The twins couldn’t believe it. They wanted to ask so many questions, but only grunts and light stutters came out of their mouths.
“All these years, I wondered why she didn’t love me, and then I finally understood it—it was because she couldn’t,” Snow White said. “I thought a heart as broken as hers was punishment enough for her crimes against me. Did she free him, then?”
“She did,” Alex said. “But unfortunately it was too late. He died in her arms.”
Snow White let out a distressed sigh. “I see,” she said.
“But they were together,” Conner said, “one last time.”