“The next time we crossed paths with Ezmia was at Sleeping Beauty’s christening. She was uninvited, but we knew she would come anyway. We discovered Rumpelstiltskin had been working for her when he tried kidnapping Sleeping Beauty and we confronted her about it. Ezmia lost control and went on a rampage, cursing the princess to die after pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel.
“However, I knew that the curse wasn’t only going to affect Sleeping Beauty; Ezmia’s powers were too strong for that amount of rage to be aimed at just an innocent child. Luckily, I was able to convert the curse into a harmless sleeping spell, and when she pricked her finger on a spinning wheel as planned the entire kingdom was affected, confirming my suspicions.
“Ezmia disappeared after the christening and we never saw her again. We searched everywhere but found no trace of her. Later, word reached us that she had been poisoned by the same toxins that left the upper Eastern Kingdom bare—we figured she must have died and stopped our search. Unfortunately, we were wrong.
“A year ago, my grandchildren accidentally found a way into this world and went missing. While I was searching for them I made a troubling discovery; small weeds started to grow in the Northeast where the flowers and grass had grown: The land had revived itself from the poison—except the poison had obliterated everything good that had come from the soil and the weeds had taken its place.
“I knew then it would only be a matter of time before Ezmia resurfaced. I alerted the Fairy Council at once and we spent the last year actively searching for her but found nothing to lead us in the right direction. It wasn’t until her recent attack on the Eastern Kingdom that we were positive she had returned.”
The crowd in the ballroom was even tenser after hearing Ezmia’s story.
“And why can’t we stop her now?” King Chance demanded. “If her spells could be converted back then, why can’t we get a grip on them anymore?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” the Fairy Godmother said. “We taught her everything she knows—we taught her how to use magic from her heart; we had trained her to channel it from a good source—that’s why every spell she ever cast could be altered. But when she was poisoned, anything good that was left in her soul was killed. Now Ezmia’s powers come from a place of darkness and anger, forces that we fairies don’t stand a chance against—and believe me, Ezmia has a lot of anger to feed off of.”
Alex and Conner couldn’t believe what she was saying. Was their grandmother insinuating that the Enchantress was unstoppable?
“So… what are we to do?” Snow White asked.
The Fairy Godmother lowered her eyes and looked down at the floor, hating to say it as much as they hated hearing it. “I don’t know,” she said softly.
And with that, whatever hope had survived was obliterated. It was if the Fairy Godmother had told them the world was over.
Suddenly, all the windows burst open and a monstrous wind blew inside the ballroom, knocking Sleeping Beauty to the ground. A gigantic bolt of lightning hit the floor so hard the entire palace buckled, and in its blinding flash the Enchantress appeared.
She was the most majestic person the twins had ever seen. Her hair and cape flowed through the ballroom, and although her mouth was still, her eyes smiled evilly through her long lashes.
“Hope I’m not late,” Ezmia said. “I do love a good story, especially when it’s mine.”
Alex and Conner clutched on to each other under Red’s dress. Everyone in the room was frozen in fear.
“Don’t tell me you’re having another party without inviting me,” Ezmia said, glaring at all the royals and fairies around her. “You’d think you’d have learned your lesson from the last time you didn’t include me.”
A smirk appeared on her face. Cinderella was the only person to move. She jumped out of her throne and ran straight toward the Enchantress with fists raised. King Chandler and Froggy were quick to grab hold of her, but she lunged with such determination Rapunzel’s husband had to join them in holding her back.
“You horrible witch!” Cinderella screamed, struggling against her brothers-in-law. “Magic or no magic, I’ll pull you apart limb from limb if you hurt my daughter!”
Ezmia just laughed at her.
“What have you done with our daughter, you monster?!” Chance yelled. Emerelda and Skylene placed their hands on his shoulders to keep him from charging toward her.
“She’s alive… for now,” Ezmia said and casually examined her nails. “I hope there are no hard feelings. I’ll give her back to you once I’m done with her… maybe.”
“What do you want with Princess Hope, Ezmia?” the Fairy Godmother demanded.
Ezmia squinted at the Fairy Godmother and walked in a circle around her, closely examining her former teacher. “Why, if it isn’t the big F.G. herself,” she said. “You’re looking rather old, Grams. Is something on your mind? Is something troubling you?”
“Don’t be cheeky, Ezmia, it’s a shade you never wore well,” the Fairy Godmother said.
Ezmia frowned at her playfully. “You’re good at putting on this noble façade, but I know better,” she said. “Have you told them what I took from you yet? Or have you left that part of your story out because you were afraid they would worry more knowing you’re just as terrified as the rest of them?”
The Fairy Godmother kept her silence, not giving in to Ezmia’s games.
“Fine, I’ll tell them,” Ezmia said and faced the rest of the room. “I have her granddaughter.”
Everyone in the room gasped, including the twins. What was she talking about? Alex wondered. The Fairy Godmother looked puzzled as well, wondering if the Enchantress had managed to get hold of Alex as well as Charlotte.
“My granddaughter?” the Fairy Godmother asked.
Ezmia rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t look surprised,” she said. “I took her weeks ago—you had to have known. I left you plenty of clues.”
The Fairy Godmother looked at Ezmia with the most neutral face she could muster. “How did you get to her?” she asked.
“It was simple, as most things are for me,” Ezmia said with a small shrug. “I stole that book of yours, the old one with all our history in it, the portal. I cast a tiny spell on it and was able to pluck her straight out of the Otherworld. I said, ‘Bring me the Bailey girl from the place where the Fairy Godmother’s precious Bailey family resides’ and that was all. Stupid woman, she didn’t even pretend to be someone else—she told me exactly who she was right from the beginning.”
Alex grabbed Conner’s hand and they locked eyes.
“She thinks Mom is me!” Alex whispered to her brother.
“And Mom must be going along with it!” Conner whispered back. “But why was she taken instead of you?”
Alex clutched Conner’s shoulder as the answer came to her. “Conner, I was in my honors class when Mom went missing. I was in the next town—I wasn’t in the place where we reside! That’s why she got Mom instead!”
The Fairy Godmother began nodding her head, coming to the same conclusion as the twins. She looked over to Red and stared down at her huge gown again. The twins could have sworn she was looking straight at them—did she know they were under there? Whatever she did or didn’t know, it made the Fairy Godmother stand a little taller knowing the Enchantress had made a grave mistake.
“I’ll admit you have our attention now,” the Fairy Godmother said, quickly looking back to Ezmia. “So what is it that you want from us? Why have you graced us with your presence tonight?”
A menacing smile grew on the Enchantress’s face; this was the part she had been waiting two centuries to tell them.
“As you may have guessed, I’ve decided to take over the world,” Ezmia said matter-of-factly with a small yawn. “But rather than continuing to show you examples of my powerful wrath, I’ve decided to give you an opportunity that will make all our lives easier. I want you all to renounce your thrones and hand over your kingdoms to me willingly.”
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The entire room erupted in outrage. The men had to restrain Cinderella once again.
“Never!” Chance shouted, speaking for everyone in the room.
“Even with an entire kingdom consumed and a young princess’s life at stake there is still some hesitation?” Ezmia said, shaking her head. “I’m going to take over—it’s unpreventable. I’m giving you a chance to accept your defeat with dignity; you’d be wise to take it.”
No one moved or made a sound under Ezmia’s heavy glare. She turned to Sleeping Beauty, who was still on the floor, trembling under the Enchantress’s gaze.
“Why don’t you do it first, Sleeping Beauty?” Ezmia said. “Show your fellow rulers how easy it is. Your kingdom has been through enough already, wouldn’t you agree? Ease their sufferings—do it for your people, for your husband. If you hand me over your kingdom, I’ll release it from my enchanted plants. Do we have a deal?”
All was quiet while Sleeping Beauty contemplated the impossible decision. Snow White and Rapunzel shook their heads, urging her not to give in. Finally, Sleeping Beauty stood up and slowly walked over to stand behind the Fairy Godmother.
“Any partnership I make will be made against you,” Sleeping Beauty said. “And my people would expect nothing less.”
All the monarchs and fairies looked to one another, inspired by Sleeping Beauty’s bravery. One by one, they walked across the ballroom and stood behind the Fairy Godmother, showing the Enchantress where their loyalties would remain.
Ezmia was beside herself with rage. The twins were positive they could see small flames flickering from her eyes. “You’re all making the greatest mistake of your reigns,” she said. “But don’t worry—they’ll be ending soon.”
The Fairy Godmother took a few confident steps toward Ezmia. “No one in this room may be able to stop you, Ezmia,” the Fairy Godmother said and then glanced in the twins’ direction. “But I have nothing but the highest confidence someone unrevealed will find a way.”
Alex and Conner looked to each other. Her words were so carefully chosen—was she talking about them?
Ezmia’s anger turned to amusement and she let out a long laugh. “I see,” she said. “You all think you’re safe standing behind your precious Fairy Godmother. Well, in case you think her promising words alone can save you… allow me to clarify!”
Ezmia reached an open hand toward the Fairy Godmother and a gigantic bolt of lightning erupted from it. It hit the Fairy Godmother and she disappeared. A turquoise jar appeared in the Enchantress’s hand and a ghostly version of the Fairy Godmother appeared inside of it.
“What will the rest of you do now that I have the Fairy Godmother’s soul?!” Ezmia asked the room.
Alex and Conner squirmed frantically around in Red’s gown. Alex had to hold her brother back as he tried running toward the Enchantress like Cinderella.
“She’s got Grandma!” Conner whispered, begging his sister to let him go. “She’s got Grandma!”
“She can’t know we’re here, Conner!” Alex whispered back to him.
“Consider this my final warning,” Ezmia declared to the crowd. “My attacks on your kingdoms will continue until you surrender to me. We’ll see where you stand when all your people are begging you to make the suffering end. Your days of happily-ever-after are over.”
Another gigantic bolt of lightning hit the palace and the Enchantress disappeared, taking the Fairy Godmother with her.
Everyone in the room was as pale as Snow White. The twins froze inside Red’s gown with their hearts broken. No one knew what to do. All the kings, queens, and fairies searched for some sign of optimism in one another’s eyes, but there was none to be found.
For the first time in history, the leaders of the fairy-tale world were helpless.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JARS OF SOULS
Deep in the heart of the Dwarf Forests, where the trees and shrubbery grew the thickest, was a small hut unseen by all who passed it. A witch named Hagatha had lived in the hut many years ago and strategically planted a wall of thornbushes around her home, making it virtually impossible to find. And although the witch was long dead, the hut had more residents now than ever before.
The Enchantress had turned the hut into her new home following the restoration of her powers. It still looked the same on the outside, with only two windows and a hay roof, but it had been charmed to become a spacious manor the moment someone walked through the door.
It had large rooms with high ceilings and black stone walls. A wide fireplace was made of amethyst stones, within which a fire of purple flames burned a collection of skulls like firewood. The furniture was made of exotic porcupine and salamander animal skins. A chandelier made of various species’ teeth hung from the ceiling but gave no light.
It was usually a quiet place, but tonight the piercing cries of a child echoed through its halls.
“Please be quiet, little Princess,” said Rumpelstiltskin. Princess Hope was more than half his size, but he still rocked the one-year-old back and forth, trying to soothe her.
“Mama,” the princess cried. “Mama!”
“You can’t have your mama, I’m afraid,” Rumpelstiltskin told the child, and she bawled harder than before.
“She’s been crying for more than a day,” said Charlotte Bailey from the back of the room. “Would you please just give her to me?” The twins’ mother was imprisoned in a large birdcage that swung a few feet above the ground.
“What makes you think you can get her to stop crying?” Rumpelstiltskin said. He was exhausted from having to care for the child the last day.
“I’m a nurse—it’s what I do,” she said.
Charlotte was still dressed in her nursing scrubs. She had just finished a shift at the children’s hospital when a mysterious blanket of light wrapped around her and transported her into the fairy-tale world. It didn’t take long for Charlotte to realize that the Enchantress who had summoned her there was after her daughter, and so for Alex’s protection, Charlotte had pretended to be her daughter.
It didn’t appear that Princess Hope would calm down anytime soon. Against his better judgment, Rumpelstiltskin handed the young princess to Charlotte through the bars of the cage. He didn’t care how angry Ezmia would be to find the child with the other prisoner; he just wanted the crying to stop. Rumpelstiltskin had never been good with kids.
“There, there, baby girl,” Charlotte said and stroked Hope’s auburn curls. “It’s all going to be okay, it’s all going to be okay.”
Slowly but surely, Princess Hope calmed down in Charlotte’s maternal embrace, sleeping for the first time since she had been taken. All the young princess needed was a mother’s touch.
Rumpelstiltskin was so relieved to have silence; he could have slept for three days if he were allowed. Charlotte studied the little man. Nothing about him was malicious like his master. He seemed like such a gentle and kind man.
“So you’re Rumpelstiltskin?” she asked him.
“Yes,” he said with a remorseful shrug, ashamed of the reputation that came with his name.
“Did you really spin hay into gold for the maiden, like the story says?” Charlotte asked.
“That I did,” Rumpelstiltskin admitted.
“And did you really try to take her firstborn child away from her?” Charlotte said, finding it hard to believe.
Rumpelstiltskin let out a heavy sigh. “That’s what Ezmia wanted me to do,” he said. “But I couldn’t go through with it. I told the maiden—well, she was a queen by that point—that I would dismiss her end of our bargain if she could guess my name.”
“And she did, if I recall,” Charlotte said. It had been a while since she’d heard the story.
“I made sure she did,” Rumpelstiltskin confessed. “I caught one of her soldiers following me. I danced around a fire, proclaiming my name to the whole forest as loud as I could.”
“So you intentionally made it easy for her,” she said. “That was very kind of y
ou.”
A tiny smile grew on Rumpelstiltskin’s face, but it quickly faded. “I thought so, too,” he said. “Unfortunately, no one will ever know that part of the story.”
“People are quick to judge,” Charlotte said. “And I’m no exception. I never wondered why you did all of those things; my mind was just made up that you were a… a—”
“Villain?” Rumpelstiltskin asked, unfazed. It was what he had been known as the majority of his life.
“Yes… a villain,” Charlotte admitted.
Rumpelstiltskin was growing very comfortable talking to Charlotte—too comfortable. Had he not been so tired, he might have kept his guard up, but he couldn’t deny there was something trustworthy about Charlotte. They were both good people stuck in a bad situation.
“How did someone like you get mixed up with someone like her?” Charlotte asked, shaking her head.
“Because I had the misfortune of being born a dreamer,” he said sadly. “A dwarf is born with one option: Become a miner. A life spent in dark tunnels under the ground was never what I wanted for myself. I always loved being outside with the plants and animals; I used to daydream about being a shepherd or a farmer. My brothers used to scold me day and night for it. They said being a miner was an honor and that I was lucky. Then one day Ezmia came to me with an offer to be her apprentice.”
Rumpelstiltskin rubbed his eyes and took a seat on a porcupine-skin chair, too fatigued to mind the needles poking him.
“It’s funny,” he said. “I didn’t think twice about saying yes, but I’ve regretted it every day of my life.”
Charlotte couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. She realized there were three prisoners under this roof.
“Anyone would have said yes if they were in your shoes,” she said.
“Back then, perhaps,” Rumpelstiltskin agreed. “But now no one would ever admit to it.”
A strong breeze blew through the room. “Why is the child with her?” said a booming voice that made Charlotte and Rumpelstiltskin jump. Ezmia had suddenly appeared.