"Who's hungry?" Daphne said. "I'm going to go do some domestic tasks for myself."
Sabrina was too hungry to fight any longer. Eating would clear her head. The three children raided the refrigerator and dug through the breadbox, grabbing anything and everything they thought they could eat. Puck seemed to share Daphne's big appetite; both of their plates were heaped with odd-colored food. The two also ate the same way—like hungry pigs, scarfing down anything that came close to their mouths. They were both working on seconds by the time Sabrina had made two Swiss cheese sandwiches and found what she hoped was just a weirdly colored apple.
"So, what's with the crown?" Daphne asked.
Puck's eyes grew wide. "I'm the Prince of Fairies. Emperor of Pixies, Brownies, Hobgoblins, Elves, and Gnomes. King of Tricksters and Prank-Players, spiritual leader to juvenile delinquents, layabouts, and bad apples."
The little girl stared at the boy with confusion in her face.
"I'm royalty!" Puck declared.
"So where's your kingdom?" Sabrina asked snidely.
"You're in it!" he snapped. "The forest and the trees are my kingdom. I sleep under the stars. The sky is my royal blanket."
"That explains the smell," Sabrina muttered.
The Trickster King ignored her comment and munched hungrily, tossing apple cores and whatever he couldn't eat onto the floor. A turkey bone soared from his hand and landed on a nearby windowsill.
"Puck, can I ask you a question?" Daphne said.
"You bet."
"If you knew Shakespeare, why do you look like you're only eleven years old?"
This was something Sabrina had been wondering about as well. Granny's explanation that magic kept the Everafters alive just wasn't making sense. Mayor Charming and Mr. Seven had to be hundreds of years old, yet they looked as if they hadn't aged at all.
"Ah, that's the upside of being an Everafter," Puck said. "You only get as old as you want to be. Some decided to age a little so that they could get jobs and junk like that."
"Then why didn't you?" Sabrina asked.
Puck shrugged. "Never crossed my mind. I plan on staying a boy until the sun burns out."
Sabrina thought that she'd like to see him running around in the dark as the earth froze over. She bit into her sandwich, only to discover that the Swiss cheese tasted more like hard applesauce.
"So, tell me what happened with the giant," said Puck.
While Sabrina ate, Daphne told the boy the whole sordid mess. She told him about the farmhouse that had been stepped on by the giant and how Mayor Charming had demanded that Granny Relda give up her detective work. How the farmer had spoken to a man named Mr. Englishman, and how a witch had erased the farmer's memory. She told about the gang of thugs that had attacked them outside of the hospital, and how, when they had followed the gang back to a cabin, they had spotted Charming again. Then she told him about the giant's attack, how he had killed the thugs, and how he had snatched up Granny and Mr. Canis.
Sabrina got up from her chair and went into the living room, where she stood in front of one of the many bookshelves.
"Books on giants . . . where would they be?" she said to herself. Puck and Daphne got up to join her, and together they scanned the bookcases.
"Look!" Daphne said.
Sabrina looked closely at the shelves Daphne was pointing to. They seemed to hold a collection of diaries. She took one down and read the title: Fairy-Tale Accounts 1942—1965, by Edwin Alvin Grimm.
"There's a book here for everyone in our family, I guess, including this one," said Daphne as she pulled one from the shelf and handed it to her sister. Sabrina almost dropped it when she eyed the title: Fairy-Tale Accounts by Henry Grimm. It was a book written by their father! She flipped through it, recognizing her dad's neat handwriting. She ran a finger along the short circles his words made, tracing his hand's movement from when he had put the words on paper. She turned more pages, feeling more of him in his words—not bothering to read, just taking comfort in knowing that he had once held the book.
"Let me see," Daphne said as she snatched the book from her sister's hands.
"You're wasting your time with these stupid books. I'm the smartest person I know and I've never read a book in my life. We should all be out looking," Puck said.
"If you want to go, there's nothing keeping you here," Sabrina said as she snatched her father's book back from Daphne. The two girls rushed to the dining room table and hovered over the slightly dusty journal. They flipped to the first page. A color photograph of Mayor Charming, dressed in royal gowns of purple-and-white silk, stared back at them. He wore a sapphire-and-diamond crown and a dazzling ruby ring on each finger. He smiled smugly, as if he thought very highly of himself.
Elvis sauntered into the room and licked Sabrina's hand. He spied Charming's picture and growled.
"Don't worry, Elvis! He can't get us now," Daphne said. Sabrina read aloud what her father had written.