Puck frowned at her. "What do you mean by that? I'm an Everafter. I don't get older!" he said, though his voice cracked on several of the words. He held his throat in shock.
The dragon buzzed the building, leaving a trail of sulfurous fumes in its wake. Sabrina had to dive to get out of the way of its sharp claws and long tail.
"Mr. Baxter, you have to stop this. You've already let something out that could kill us all," Uncle Jake shouted. "What's next?"
Tom shook his head. "It won't be long now," he said as his yellow eyes grew bright and clear. The dark spots on his skin faded and his stringy arms and legs grew lean and muscular.
Cindy rushed to him and stood as close as the energy swirling around him would allow. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I love you, Doc. I have always loved you, and I always will, but I am only a man and you are an Everafter. My body is withering away. I've grown too feeble to even take you on a picnic or dance to our wedding song. In no time at all I would have been gone. You will never die, Cindy. Now, neither will I."
Cindy cried out to him to stop, but her eyes were filled with wonder and possibility. "I love you."
"You better, Cinderella, 'cause now you're stuck with me forever," Tom said as he stepped down from the black portal. The blue energy that had once enveloped him was gone, as were his wrinkles. He was no longer old. Now he was young, strong, and handsome. He didn't look a day over twenty-five. He took Cindy in his arms and kissed her. "It's over, darling."
But Tom Baxter was wrong. The dragon flying overhead let out an angry roar and a series of flaming assaults. The first one hit the transmitting tower, and it fell over like a child's toy. Its steel girders melted into liquid and poured all over the roof. Everyone scrambled to get out of the way. The next blast from the dragon missed them and hit a parked car on the street below.
"Uh-oh," Daphne said as the magic detector began to shimmer again.
"What?" Sabrina asked. "Is something else coming through the hole?"
Before Daphne could answer, Tom was violently yanked backward to the edge of the black tear. He squirmed to break free but couldn't. Worse still, the hole began to grow at an alarming rate, along with its gravitational pull. The black tear was no longer satisfied with leaves or loose paper; it was pulling at everything.
"Boys, what's going on?" Tom called to his assistants.
Malcolm, Alexander, and Bradford stumbled back in fear. "We didn't do this!" Alexander shouted.
"Can you pull yourself free?" Cindy said as she rushed to her husband. He shook his head. She reached up and took his hand, desperately trying to pull him off the hole's edge, but she wasn't strong enough. She even lost a little gold bracelet as it sailed off her wrist and disappeared into the void.
"I guess it's not going to let me go," Tom said, forcing a little laugh. "Honey, you might be married to a teenager pretty soon."
Cindy turned to the family. "Do something!" she begged.
Uncle Jake was already fumbling through his pockets. He pulled out one trinket after another, examined them, and shoved them back into his jacket. "I don't think I've got anything that can stop this."
"Any suggestions?" Sabrina asked her grandmother. Granny's handbag was already swinging toward the hole.
"Perhaps the three of you should go down to the street where it is safe."
"Aww, I want to see what happens," Puck complained.
The fallen tower began to roll toward the time hole. Canis grabbed Granny and the girls and leaped over it as it rushed toward them like a stampeding rhino. Luckily, Uncle Jake was not in its path and Puck simply rose into the air to avoid it. A second later the entire transmitter was sucked into the tear.
Unfortunately, as Puck rose off the ground he found himself trapped in the black hole's gravitational pull. He flapped his wings hard in an effort to escape, but there was nothing for him to grab onto. He drifted closer and closer to the emptiness with nothing to stop him. "Uh, we've got a problem," he said.
Sabrina grabbed his foot as he passed, but she too was pulled up. "Help!" she yelled. Daphne latched on to her as well and soon the three of them were right below the massive hole in time.
"Children!" Granny cried as she held on for dear life to the side of the building.
But she was too far away to be of any help, as were Mr. Canis and Uncle Jake, and slowly Puck began to drift into the blackness. His face and upper torso were soon gone, then his waist and finally his knees. All that was left in this world of the boy fairy was his sneakers, which Sabrina clung to with all her strength.