CHAPTER THIRTY
RETURNING TO MAGIC
A beautiful ceremony was held the following night in what was left of the fairy gardens. It celebrated the lives lost during the war and was attended by all the fairies in the Fairy Kingdom and all the citizens who wished to join from the neighboring kingdoms.
Special tributes were paid to Gator, Queen Little Bo Peep, and the Fairy Godmother. Plaques were placed in the gardens bearing Little Bo’s and Gator’s names and a giant statue of the Fairy Godmother was erected at the front steps of the Fairy Palace. Conner was pleased to see it was an exact likeness of his grandmother, and wasn’t made taller or more muscular like the memorial he had envisioned for himself.
The ceremony reminded the twins of their father’s funeral, but this time, thankfully, all the attention wasn’t on them. They shared this loss with the fairy-tale world and were able to mourn with everyone they knew. The incredible impact their grandmother had left on the Land of Stories could be seen in the eyes of all the people who attended the ceremony. Gratitude radiated from their faces as much as grief.
Everywhere Alex went, people bowed to her and referred to her as the Fairy Godmother. It was going to take her time to get used to it.
Alex asked the kings and queens to stay an extra day so she could hold her first official Happily Ever After Assembly meeting as Fairy Godmother the day after the ceremony. The war was over but there were still so many battles ahead—private and public.
Bree and Emmerich asked Conner and Alex if they could stay for the ceremony but agreed with the twins that they should go home as soon as it was over. They didn’t want their parents to worry any more than they already had.
“I am so going to be grounded when I get home.” Bree laughed. “Too bad my parents would never believe the truth—they might go easy on me.”
“What will you tell them?” Conner asked her.
Bree shrugged. “That I fell in love with a circus clown and followed him around Europe,” she said. “We know it can happen.”
“Would you mind letting my mom and stepdad know where I am?” Conner said. “They’ll probably know already—Alex and I aren’t strangers to going missing now and then.”
“Sure,” Bree said. “Maybe they can talk to my parents and soften the blow of my punishment. They can tell them what a horrible influence you are or something.”
A playful smile appeared on Emmerich’s face. “I bet all the kids in Füssen are so worried about me,” he said. “I’m going to tell them I was kidnapped by secret agents—which isn’t that far from the truth.”
“What will you tell your mom and dad?” Bree asked.
“It’s just my mom and me,” Emmerich said. “I never knew my dad. But when my mother was a little girl my grandfather used to tell her about strange things he had seen in Neuschwanstein Castle. She probably wouldn’t even be too surprised if I told her the truth. I’ll still have to do dishes for months regardless of where I was, but it was worth it! Even though my life was put in danger several times, I’ve never had so much fun!”
“I agree,” Bree said. “This has certainly been the adventure of my life.”
That night Conner, Bree, and Emmerich followed Mother Goose to one of the tallest towers of the Fairy Palace. The circular room was very dusty and cobwebs stretched between walls. Clearly no one had been up there in a very long time. An empty archway was the only thing standing in the tower.
“This was one of the original portals we used to travel into the Otherworld during the heyday of fairy tales,” Mother Goose told them. “Those were the good old days.”
Conner put his arms around Bree and Emmerich. “You know, now that you two have seen the fairy-tale world, it’s your responsibility to help us keep fairy tales alive in the Otherworld,” he said.
Both were excited about the task. Having this responsibility made them feel like they were taking a piece of the Land of Stories back with them.
“I think I’m up for that challenge,” Bree said.
“Me too!” Emmerich said.
Mother Goose pulled a lever on the wall and a transparent blue curtain appeared in the doorway. It was bright on the other side of the curtain and Conner recognized the zone of light between the two worlds.
“Looks like the old portal is back in action,” Mother Goose declared.
“Where does it lead to?” Emmerich asked.
“Somewhere in the Netherlands,” Mother Goose said but then second-guessed herself. “Or was it Nevada? Oh well, just ask someone once you get there. Let’s make this quick. I’m not getting any younger despite the potions I drink.”
Conner hugged his friends a bittersweet good-bye.
“Thank you both so much for helping me get here,” he said. “I promise to visit you once we get everything straightened out here.”
“I’ll miss you, Herr Bailey,” Emmerich said. He didn’t want to leave.
“Take care, bud,” Conner said.
Emmerich was first to step through the curtain and disappear into the Otherworld. Bree lingered by the archway before following him. Just saying good-bye didn’t seem good enough.
“I’ll see you around” was all she mustered.
“Yeah, definitely,” Conner said, and looked around the tower as he blushed.
Bree kissed his cheek and stepped toward the portal. Conner was feeling a little daring since he knew he wouldn’t be seeing her anytime soon, so he decided to send her off with a secret.
“Hey, Bree,” he said. “Before you go, there’s something I’ve wanted to tell you.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
Conner scrunched his whole face as he told her. “After a lot of thought and self-reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that I might—possibly—maybe—do have a crush on you,” he admitted.
Bree laughed. “I know you do,” she said. “And by the way, I have a crush on you, too.” She winked at him and quickly stepped through the curtain before either of them could say another word.
Conner’s mouth dropped open and his heart felt like it was going to flutter out of his chest. He was happy and confused at the same time. If they both liked each other, what happened next? It was an electrifying yet misery-inducing mystery and Conner didn’t know what to do with himself.
Mother Goose turned the lever and faced Conner with a very serious expression in her eyes. “C-Dog, I’ve got to talk to you.”
“I know,” Conner said bashfully. “I don’t know how to talk to girls—but in my defense, Bree is the first girl I ever met that I understood whatsoever!”
She stared at him peculiarly. “Puppy love has nothing to do with what I’m about to say,” she said. “It’s about the portal in Neuschwanstein Castle the three of you traveled through. There was a minor detail I forgot to mention when I was telling you about it.”
“What’s that?” he asked, trying to think of what she could be referring to. “We were stuck in it for a couple days but once the portal opened all the way we got here pretty smoothly.”
“That’s the thing—you weren’t meant to,” Mother Goose explained. “I told the Brothers Grimm to lead the Grande Armée into the Bavarian portal because I had bewitched it. I enchanted it so only someone of magic blood could travel through it easily. Any mortal traveling through it would be stuck inside for two hundred years; that’s how we trapped the Grande Armée. You would have traveled here without a hitch, but if Bree and Emmerich were mortal they would still be in it.”
Conner’s eyes blinked rapidly as he wrapped his head around what she was saying. “Are you telling me that Bree and Emmerich have magic in their blood?”
“That’s the only explanation,” she said. “Although I don’t know how it’s possible.”
Conner thought for a moment. An answer surfaced in his mind, based on all the information he had acquired during their journey.
“Wait, the lion statue told us you transferred some of your blood into Wilhelm Grimm’s so he could play the panpipe and access the portal,” he said.
“That’s right,” she said.
“Then is it possible Bree and Emmerich are descendants of Wilhelm Grimm?” he asked.
Mother Goose nodded as she pondered the conclusion. “Anything is possible,” she said.
It was mind-boggling. Magic always worked in mysterious ways but it was astonishing that Conner had somehow crossed paths with the two people out of billions in the Otherworld who had magic in their blood. Bree and Emmerich must have been destined from birth to find the Land of Stories, just as Alex and Conner were.
“But if they’re not related to Wilhelm Grimm, I wonder how else magic became a part of their DNA,” Mother Goose said. “Someone else may have slipped between dimensions undetected in the past… but who?”
Alex walked through the halls of the Fairy Palace alone. It had been a very long and sad day and she desperately wanted to find a place she could be by herself. Regardless of her quest, Alex was faced with unwanted company when someone popped out from behind a pillar and startled her.
“Hello, Alex,” Rook said.
He was the last person she wanted to see. “What are you doing here?”
“I snuck into the palace to see you,” he told her. He adjusted his right arm, which was in a sling. He had received an injury fighting the dragon with the unicorns.
“I heard about you and the unicorns,” Alex said. “How is Cornelius?”
“He’s fine,” Rook said. “He chipped his horn in the fall but you can’t really tell.”
“It was very brave of you and I’m thankful,” she said. “There’s a witch named Hagetta in the Dwarf Forests. Take your father to her. Tell her I sent you and she’ll heal both of your wounds—but I can’t help you anymore. I meant what I said in the gardens, I don’t want to see you again.”
She continued down the hall and Rook limped after her. Apparently he had sprained his ankle in the fall, too, but Alex didn’t trust him enough to believe his injuries were genuine.
“I know I broke your trust, but I did it to save my father and the other villagers,” Rook said. “You have to understand I had no choice.”
Alex quickly turned back to him. “I know someday I’ll understand that,” she said. “But there is always a choice, and as the Fairy Godmother I’ll always have to make the most difficult ones—who to help and who not to help, whose life to save and whose life not to save, which kingdom to protect and which kingdom not to protect. Those are the terrible decisions I have to make and it’s a burden I shouldn’t expect you to carry with me. I can’t blame you for making choices I wouldn’t. I can’t share that responsibility with you, and that responsibility is my life.”
“So that’s it, then,” Rook said sadly. “After all the wonderful talks and walks we’ve shared, one bump in the road comes along and we call it quits?”
“It’s not a bump, it’s a fork,” Alex said. “We’ll never be able to stay on the same path—it wouldn’t be fair to either of us. I’m sorry.”
She walked briskly down the hall from him so he couldn’t keep up. Rook called after her but she didn’t look back.
“I’ll change your mind one day, Alex!” he cried. “That’s a promise!”
Alex pushed through two heavy doors and walked into the Hall of Dreams. She knew she would find privacy there. She sat down on the invisible floor and looked out at all the bright orbs representing people’s hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, the endless room wasn’t as full as it had been when her grandmother showed it to her. Many people had been disheartened during the last few days, and their hopes and dreams were casualties of war.
A knock came from the other side of the doors.
“I said I didn’t want to see you anymore!” Alex shouted.
Conner poked his head inside. “Jeez, sorry!”
“No, wait, Conner! I’m so sorry!” she apologized. “I thought you were someone else.”
Conner had come to find his sister to tell her what he had learned about Bree and Emmerich, but he was so captivated by the Hall of Dreams he completely forgot what he was going to say. He shut the doors behind him and sat next to her.
“What is this place?” Conner asked.
“It’s called the Hall of Dreams,” Alex said. “It keeps a record of every hope and dream of every person and creature in the world.”
“Neat,” he said. “It’s like a big fairy database.”
“It used to be much fuller but I’m afraid the war discouraged a lot of people and they stopped believing,” she said. “It’s my job to restore that belief now that Grandma’s gone.”
“You mean it’s our job,” Conner said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Alex looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean you’re not going anywhere? What about the Otherworld?”
“It’ll still be there waiting for me,” Conner said. “But right now my job is being here with you. I know you’re worried about being the Fairy Godmother so I’m going to stay with you until you’re comfortable enough to be on your own. Besides, I don’t want to go home until Mom and Bob have forgotten about how much money I withdrew with my credit card.”
Alex smiled. It was the sweetest thing her brother could do for her.
“You mean it?” She wasn’t even going to pretend for a second she wasn’t pleased and relieved to hear this.
“Absolutely,” Conner said. “We’re sort of unstoppable when we’re together—and there’s still a lot of work to be done here.”
“All right,” she said. “But on one condition.”
He was afraid to ask. “What’s that?”
“You have to be my apprentice,” she said. “Every Fairy Godmother needs one.”
Conner grunted. “Oh come on, Alex! Let’s not get carried away,” he moaned.
“Just think about it, Conner,” she said excitedly. “I can teach you spells, how to make enchantments, and how to grant wishes! And if anything should ever happen to me, the Land of Stories would fall into your hands, just as it should.”
He rolled his eyes and made a face like it was the worst idea in the world. “Fine,” he said. “But I will not be called the next Fairy Godmother.”
“You can choose whatever title you want.” She was so excited by the idea she didn’t care what he wanted to be called.
Conner thought about it for a moment. “I want to be called the Head Fairy Dude.”
Alex smiled and nodded. “I can live with that,” she said. “Conner Bailey, Head Fairy Dude—it has a nice ring to it.”