“You intend to change something,” the creature seethed.
“Indeed, and before the Editor arrives with his creatures, I suggest we get to work. From what I understand, the magic in this book is as powerful as the magic of the real world. You possess the same power as your real-life counterpart?”
“I do, until I am revised,” the genie snarled. “You have your wishes for a brief time, Master.”
“I only need a moment. I wish the child and I were in the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Mirror said.
“That story is off-limits,” the genie said. “There are barriers to entrance.”
“Did you not just say you are powerful? In the real world, a genie is beyond limits. It can raise the dead, change the course of rivers, and make the world bow at its master’s feet. Use your powers to remove the barrier,” Mirror commanded. “I want to go there. Do as I command.”
The genie bent over and peered at him with angry eyes. “Very well.” He clapped his hands. There was a mighty explosion and Mirror and the baby boy began to shimmer as if thousands of lightning bugs were crawling under their skin. Soon the light grew so bright that Sabrina could not look. She shielded her eyes until it faded. By then, Mirror and her brother were gone.
“Send us, too,” Daphne said.
The genie shook his proud head. “I cannot. Mirror is my master. He has two more wishes for me to grant. I cannot offer you any help, even though I would truly like to destroy him.”
“We have to get out of here,” Daphne said. “We need to find a door.”
Pinocchio shook his head. “We won’t. The story hasn’t ended. The door will never come.”
Sabrina felt like she had been slapped. “You mean we’re stuck here?”
Pinocchio nodded.
Sabrina leaned against a column and slid to the floor. They had failed. Mirror was changing history and getting whatever it was he set out to do. He would take her brother’s body and use his magic to conquer the world. She remembered the terrible and bleak future she had seen when she and her sister had fallen into a time tear—humans were hunted by dragons and the world was on fire. She had hoped that she and her sister had made enough changes in the present to prevent that future. Now it looked as if it were all in vain.
And then a blast of wind blew her hair back and there were three figures standing over her.
“Why the long face, liebling?” Granny Relda said. Sabrina’s mother, Veronica, and her father, Henry, were standing behind her.
Sabrina stood up and rushed into their arms. Daphne did the same. It wasn’t long before all four of the Grimm women were in tears.
“We’re going to have to have a very long talk, young ladies, about rushing headfirst into danger without your family,” Henry scolded. “But first . . .”
He swept the girls into his arms and lifted them off the ground for a huge embrace. Though her father was tall and thin, almost wiry, she had forgotten how strong he could be. “Are you OK? Have you been hurt? Are you hungry?” There were a million questions.
“How did you find us?” Sabrina asked instead of answering.
“After Pinocchio opened all the doors in the Hall of Wonders, the monsters tore through the house. We were worried about your safety and came looking,” Veronica said.
Granny nodded. “I’m afraid that much of our home is destroyed. All that we could salvage was the magic mirror, so we brought it out into the yard and started searching for you three inside the Hall of Wonders. Eventually we found the room with the Book of Everafter. We were examining it when the White Rabbit hopped out of the pages. Your father snatched him up and we took the magic yarn from him. I knew what it was instantly. We have the real one stored in the magical fabrics room—or at least we did. There was a lot of pillaging when the monsters were let out.”
“I had to threaten to turn his feet into key chains, but he eventually told us how he had deserted you,” Veronica said.
“He wasn’t too happy that we tossed him right back into the Book,” Granny said. “But the world does not need two White Rabbits.”
“The world doesn’t need one,” Sabrina added.
“Then we used the yarn to bring us here. Wherever ‘here’ is.”
“We’re in the story of Aladdin, Mom,” Henry said, waving toward the towering genie, who waited patiently. “My biggest question is,” he said, “why did you jump into this book?”
“Mirror is the Master,” Sabrina said. “We followed him in here.”
Granny Relda nearly fainted. “That can’t be possible. Our Mirror?”
“He’s been behind all the troubles in Ferryport Landing. He has helped plot out all the bad stuff that has happened to us. Jack worked for him—Rumpelstiltskin, the Mad Hatter, Mrs. Heart, Nottingham, they are all part of the Scarlet Hand—the group he created!”
Granny Relda looked on the verge of tears.