“Evil Queen?” their grandma asked. “It sounds like you two have had even more of an adventure here than I thought!”
“You can say that again,” Conner said.
“I look forward to hearing all about it,” their grandma said. “Your mother has been worried sick! She’s had to give your school every excuse known to man as to why you two have been gone. I think it’s time I took you home.”
Home. She was going to take them home. Never had a word sounded so beautiful.
“Can you do that?” Conner said.
“You’d be amazed at the things your grandma can do,” she laughed. But her look faded as she sadly looked down at the journal that had belonged to her late son. “Amazing, isn’t it? Even in death, your father managed to show you around this place. It had always been his dream.”
Alex and Conner had always thought that their father was amazing, but until now, they never knew just how amazing he actually was.
The twins and their grandmother left the clock tower and caught Sir Lampton leaning on the door, closely listening to their conversation. He escorted them back down the stairs to the ballroom.
“I knew your father,” Lampton whispered into the twins’ ears. “We grew up together. I knew you must have been his children the very second I saw you. That’s why I put the glass slipper in your bag.”
The twins couldn’t even acknowledge it with a smile. Their minds were already overloaded.
They walked into the ballroom, and everyone stood at the sight of the Fairy Godmother.
“Everyone, please have a seat. I’ve come to bless the baby princess with a gift, and then I’m going to take my grandchildren home,” she said, and put her arms around Alex and Conner.
“Grandchildren?” Cinderella asked. “I had no idea! Why, that practically makes us family!” she said, smiling at the twins.
“Did you hear that, Alex?” Conner said, leaning close to his sister. “Cinderella herself just said we’re practically her family!”
“I know,” Alex peeped. “And I’m trying not to cry.”
The Fairy Godmother took the newborn princess into her arms. The twins were excited to see their grandmother in action.
“She’s beautiful, dear,” she said to Cinderella. “My gift to the princess will be bravery. She may need it in the years to come.”
The Fairy Godmother kissed the newborn’s cheek. Her lips left a sparkly mark on the infant’s face, and it slowly faded away as the gift was absorbed.
“Before I go, I have one more gift to give,” the Fairy Godmother said, and took out her long crystal wand. “Will the gentleman known as Froggy please come to the front of the room?”
Froggy, who had been partially hiding behind the Charming kings, cautiously met the Fairy Godmother in the middle of the room.
“Thank you so much for looking out for my grandchildren,” the twins’ grandmother said. “I will never be able to thank you enough, but for now, I’d like to take away the curse put upon you.”
Froggy’s mouth opened extra wide. He kept looking back and forth between the twins and the Fairy Godmother.
“I… I… I…” he started, but couldn’t finish.
The Fairy Godmother waved her wand, and the curse cast upon him blew away like dandelion seeds in the wind. Froggy wasn’t froggy anymore, he was a man. He was a very attractive man, too, with dark hair and eyes that illuminated the entire room. It was shocking for the twins to see him as anything else.
“Charlie?” King Chance said. “Is that you?”
The Charming brothers all leaned closer to him. They stared at him as if they were looking at a ghost.
“Hello, brother,” Froggy said. “It’s been a long time.”
The Charmings’ amazement eventually wore off and turned into celebration. They ran over to their long-lost brother and vigorously embraced him. The room erupted with joy at the long-overdue reunion. Red Riding Hood was quietly blushing to herself. She was looking at Prince Charlie in a completely new way; he wasn’t the friendly frog man who’d saved her in the collapsing castle anymore: He was husband material.
“We thought you were dead!” Chandler said, rubbing his brother’s head.
“We searched every kingdom for you!” Chase said, patting him on the back.
“Now you know why you couldn’t find me,” Charlie said, and shrugged.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Chance asked.
“I was ashamed,” Charlie said. “I didn’t know any better. I thought I had to hide. Please forgive me.”
The twins couldn’t believe it. Now they knew why he had been acting so strange when they’d arrived.
“So you’re a prince?” Alex asked with a gigantic smile on her face. “You forgot to mention that part.”
“My apologies,” Charlie said. “I could have sworn I mentioned it over lily pad tea.”
They laughed together. Charlie ran over to the twins and hugged them almost as tightly as his brothers had just hugged him.
“Thank you,” Charlie said, “for inspiring me to come out of that hole in the ground!”
“Thank you,” Alex said.
“I’m still calling you Froggy,” Conner said.
The Fairy Godmother waved her crystal wand one last time, and a door appeared in the middle of the ballroom. She walked over to the twins and placed a hand on both of their shoulders.
“It’s time,” she said.
The twins recognized the door immediately; it was the front door of their rental house. They had never been so happy to see it. A light was shining through it; they knew their mother was waiting for them on the other side.
All the kings, queens, and fairies in the room looked at Alex and Conner sweetly. Although most of them had had their predicaments with the twins, they were sad to see them go.
“Say good-bye,” Grandma told the twins.
Conner couldn’t wait any longer and ran straight to the door.
“Bye!” Conner yelled at everyone in the room without looking at them. He ran through the door and disappeared, home at last.
Alex looked up at her grandmother. “Will we ever come back?” she asked, hoping with all her heart for the answer she wanted to hear.
“Someday,” her grandma said.
Alex took a step toward the men and women she had grown up reading about her entire life. She could have sworn she had had a dream just like this once. She had been meaning to say something and decided this might be her last chance to say it.
“I know this may not make any sense, but thank you for always being there for me,” Alex said. “You’re the best friends I’ve ever had.”
They didn’t quite understand what she meant, but they were all very touched by her words.
“Come along, dear,” her grandma said, and escorted her to the door.
Alex wiped away the tears that had been brought on by saying farewell. She couldn’t help but smile as she walked through the door with her grandmother, though, because she knew in her heart it wasn’t really good-bye.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Colfer is a Golden Globe-winning actor best known for his role as "Kurt Hummel" on Glee. He was recently honored as a member of the 2011 TIME 100, Time Magazine's annual list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. The Land of Stories is his first novel.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank my family, Rob Weisbach, Alvina Ling, Brandon Dorman, the Little, Brown team, Glenn Rigberg, Meredith Fine, Alla Plotkin, Erica Tarin, Ashley Fink, Pam Jackson, Jamie Greenberg, the cast and crew of Glee, and last but certainly not least, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.
Contents
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE: ONCE UPON A TIME
CHAPTER TWO: THE LONGER WALK HOME
CHAPTER THREE: A BIRTHDAY SURPRISE
CHAPTER FOUR: THE LAND OF STORIES
CHAPTER FIVE: FROM THE MOUTH
OF A FROG
CHAPTER SIX: THE DWARF FORESTS
CHAPTER SEVEN: RAPUNZEL’S TOWER
CHAPTER EIGHT: A HIDDEN PLACE
CHAPTER NINE: THE CHARMING KINGDOM
CHAPTER TEN: THE RED RIDING HOOD KINGDOM
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE TROLL AND GOBLIN TERRITORY
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE FAIRY KINGDOM
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A WOLF PACT
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE SLEEPING KINGDOM
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE NORTHERN KINGDOM
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THROUGH THE MINES
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: GOLDILOCKS, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE MERMAID’S MESSAGE
CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE THORNBUSH PIT
CHAPTER TWENTY: HEART OF STONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE MIRROR
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: SNOW WHITE’S SECRET
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: A ROYAL INVITATION
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: A FAIRY’S TALE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MAP
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Christopher Colfer
Jacket and interior art copyright © 2012 by Brandon Dorman
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at
[email protected] Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First e-book edition: July 2012
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ISBN 978-0-316-20491-0
Chris Colfer, The Wishing Spell
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