He took her by the hand and taught her an elaborate dance that seemed to be part waltz, part square dance. It was more theatrical than what she thought of as dancing, and it drew way more attention than she wanted, but soon the entire gathering was mimicking their every step. She pushed her embarrassment aside and surrendered to the fun of it. She couldn’t even be mad at Puck for not noticing her dress.
As the night marched onward, the crowd began to thin. People drifted off to their cabins and crawled into bed. The new Mr. and Mrs. Seven thanked everyone profusely until they were practically pushed into their honeymoon suite— the only finished and furnished room in the castle. Veronica carried Basil and Henry carried Daphne, both asleep, back to their beds.
Soon the only people left were Gepetto, Pinocchio, Puck, and Sabrina. Sabrina was too excited from the night’s events to go to bed, so she offered to clean up the mess, and the other three joined her—even Pinocchio, though he did do quite a bit of grumbling. As they stacked chairs and picked up trash, Sabrina could still hear the music in her ears, beckoning her to spin in circles. Gepetto decided to leave the flowers where they were as a reminder to everyone of the happy time they had shared, then said good night, promising his son that tomorrow would be another busy day. Pinocchio groaned as he followed his father back to their cabin.
And then Sabrina was enveloped in a glowing light. When it was gone, she looked down and saw that her beautiful dress was no more. She was back to being filthy. Her hair was a mess and she smelled. Puck’s fancy suit was gone as well.
“It must be midnight,” Sabrina said.
“Thank goodness,” Puck said. “I don’t enjoy the feeling of being clean.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes but didn’t move. Instead, she looked up at the moon hanging over the yard.
“So . . . ,” Puck said.
“So . . .”
“Nice party,” he said. “It reminded me of Sven the Soul Eater’s thirteenth wedding. Or was that the fourteenth? It’s hard to say. He kept eating his wives. Still, I did think it was strange there wasn’t a forest fire. I’ve never been to a wedding that didn’t have some kind of uncontrollable devastation.”
Sabrina wished he would just stop talking. He was going to ruin the night with some snarky insult. She just knew it!
“By the way, when I said ‘wow,’ I was looking at you,” Puck said.
Sabrina’s face lit up in a grin. Who was this boy? He could drive her crazy with his pranks and taunts, but then, when she least expected, he could be the sweetest and most thoughtful person in the world. He was maddening and impossible to understand, but at that moment he was awfully cute. And she thought she might like to kiss him but couldn’t decide. The moment was all too perfect. Asking for more would be pressing her luck, but then again . . .
“Um . . . kind of late, isn’t it?” her father said, appearing from the shadows.
“DAD!” Sabrina cried. She could have died from embarrassment.
Puck rolled his eyes. “All right, smell you later,” he said. He was in the air instantly, flying off to wherever he slept.
“Get to bed, ’Brina,” Henry said as she turned back toward his cabin. “We’re going to put an end to this war tomorrow.”
Sabrina slipped into her room and found Daphne big-eyed and frantic.
“Have you seen it?” she asked.
“Seen what?”
“The Book of Everafter. It’s been stolen!”
he morning came all too soon. Sabrina woke her sister and they dressed sleepily. They agreed it was best to keep the missing book a secret. They were pretty sure it had to be somewhere in the castle or its grounds and it would be easier to find it themselves than start an uproar that would lead to a lot of questions about what the book was used for. They divided up the camp so that each of them would have a different section, then stepped out into the bright sunshine.
Before they took a single step, Snow White was marching toward them.
“Are you ready for your training?”
“Huh?”
“Billy thinks it might be wise, in light of the prophecy, that you learn to fight. He also thinks it might be good for everyone to see the two of you out here at the crack of dawn preparing for war. Who better to train you than me? Remember the self-defense class I taught at the community center?”
Sabrina shrugged and turned to her sister, who was still barely awake.
Daphne grumbled. “Without breakfast?”
“We can eat during our first break,” Snow said.
“First break implies that there will be more than one, which also implies there will be time between the breaks when we are not breaking,” Sabrina said.
“Don’t be lazy, girls,” Snow said as she handed each girl a long black pole, nearly four feet in length. They were polished and smooth and heavy.
“What’s this?”
“It’s called a bo-staff and it’s very useful in a fight,” Snow said.
“It weighs a ton,” Sabrina said, trying to swing it over her head only to drop it on the ground. “And it’s clumsy.”