“You better be right,” Sabrina said.
Sabrina watched as Pinocchio sprinted away. She tucked the head under her arm and started to chase after him, but only after a few steps she heard Puck’s voice shout “No!”
Sabrina turned to find the boy fairy had leaped onto the road with his sword in hand. His sudden appearance caused the horse to reel back. The Headless Horseman lost his balance and flew off, slamming to the ground with a thud.
“Should I give him the head?” Sabrina asked.
“Yes!”
Sabrina tossed the head to the demon, then watched as a door in the road materialized next to her. When Daphne opened it, a fierce gale exploded from the doorway—but a tornado couldn’t have held them back. Sabrina, Daphne, Puck, and Pinocchio darted through, the smell of jasmine tea and spices enveloping their senses.
When Sabrina’s vision cleared, she stood in an arid desert and blinked into the brutal sun. Even taking a breath seemed to burn her throat.
“At least it’s not a forest,” Pinocchio said. “All these woodland stories are doing a number on my allergies.”
“Where do you think we are?” Daphne asked.
“Not a clue,” Sabrina said as she rolled up her sleeves.
“I think we’ll find out in there,” Puck said, pointing behind the group. Sabrina turned and saw a slab of marble rising up from the sand. The slab had a golden ring on it and was leaning open, revealing a flight of stairs descending underground. She sighed.
“All right, then,” Sabrina said. “Let’s get this over with.”
The children climbed down the stairs and found themselves inside a huge subterranean garden. Sabrina had never seen anything like it. Despite the lack of sunlight, fruit trees and lush flowers grew. A stream fed the green lawn and little birds fluttered from one branch to the next. Four glass vases overflowing with golden coins sat on top of four earthen mounds.
At the end of the garden they found a flight of stairs that led even farther down into the earth. Since there was little light, the group clung to one another until they came to a set of double doors that seemed to be made from pure gold. Puck pushed them open to reveal a room overflowing with jewels and precious metals. Several torches illuminated the room and the light bounced off every sparking treasure, nearly blinding Sabrina. In the center of all the treasure she could make out two figures. The first was a short, balding man. The second was a toddler.
“So you found me,” Mirror said. The youngest member of the Grimm family sat at his feet, burbling happily.
Daphne moved to rush to the boy, but Mirror’s eyes ignited with magic and Sabrina pulled her back.
“And you’ve come to stop me?”
“Mirror, we could have found another way to get you what you want,” Sabrina said.
Mirror shook his head. “I’ve waited long enough.” He leaned down and snatched a golden lamp from a pile of treasure. It was nothing special compared to the treasures that surrounded it, but Mirror eyed it greedily. It was then that Sabrina realized they must be in the story of Aladdin—one of the many magical tales from A Thousand and One Nights. She knew what Mirror’s lamp could do.
“Don’t do this,” she begged.
Mirror eyed the lamp. “It’s my only chance. The place I need to go can’t be reached any other way but by magic, and this little lamp, if it is anything like the real McCoy, has even more power than the Blue Fairy, Baba Yaga, and the Wicked Queen combined. This thing can change the future, the past—it could make me a god. Sadly, all that won’t stick once I’m outside of this book and the Editor revises it away. What I need is in my story, which the Editor can’t touch once I’ve changed it.”
For a split second, Sabrina thought she saw remorse in the little man’s face, but then he polished the lamp against his jacket. There was a strange energy in the air—a building of pressure that pressed against Sabrina’s eardrums. A loud pounding rocked the cavern and then the energy formed itself into a single massive being standing nearly twenty feet tall. Its eyes were furious bonfires. Its skin was green and ghostly. Its arms and chest were thick with stringy muscles, though its lower body remained mist-like and filled with crackling light. The creature looked down at them and snarled, “Who summons me?”
Mirror raised his hand. “That would be me.”
“As my obligation, I must grant you three wishes, but I have been trapped in this lamp for eons. You would be most kind to use one of your wishes to grant me my freedom.”
“You’ll get no such satisfaction from me, genie,” Mirror said.
The genie roared with rage and the temple’s walls shook. Dust fell from the ceiling. Sabrina worried if it might cave in on her.
“Tantrums will not help,” Mirror said, seemingly unfazed. “I released you from the lamp. I am your Master.”