Not only did Skylene’s wave defeat the witch, it also dissolved all the remaining gingerbread soldiers. Conner, his friends, and the knights from Camelot cheered in victory. With the soldiers gone, Rook and Cornelius were free to approach the hill where Alex stood. The lion statues from the New York Public Library growled down at them—there was no way they were getting past Patience and Fortitude.
“Cornelius, you stay here and distract the lions,” Rook said. “I’m going to sneak up the hill behind them.”
Meanwhile, Jack and Goldilocks raced to the end of the Great Lawn where Rat Mary was dueling with Coral. The witch repeatedly scratched and bit the young fairy, but Coral was afraid that if she fought back, she’d injure the infant strapped to the witch’s chest.
“Give us back our son, you miserable rodent!” Jack said.
“If you think I’m miserable, you should meet my friends,” Rat Mary said.
The witch placed both hands on the ground and summoned all the rats and mice in Central Park. The rodents came in droves until there were thousands and thousands at Rat Mary’s command. The witch pointed at Jack, Goldilocks, and Coral, and the rodents attacked. The rats and mice crawled over their bodies, scratched their faces, and chewed on their hair. Jack and Goldilocks tried to knock the vermin off with their weapons, but there were too many to keep up with.
“Hey, Buckteeth McRabies,” Mother Goose called out. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
Rat Mary roared with laughter. “What are you going to do, Granny?”
Mother Goose cringed at the insult. “You know, I’ve been called a lot of names in my day, but you want to hear what they used to call me in Hamelin?”
“Let me guess,” Rat Mary said. “Was it Mother Time? Rip Van Wrinkles? Old Woman River? Lady MacDeath?”
“Not even close,” Mother Goose said. “They called me the Pied Piper!”
Mother Goose removed a small pipe that was tucked into her bonnet. She pressed the instrument against her lips and played a charming melody. As soon as the first three notes rang out, all the rats and mice attacking Jack, Goldilocks, and Coral froze. They immediately formed a line and scurried across the Great Lawn toward the reservoir. The rodents dived into the water and never resurfaced.
Rat Mary’s eyes widened with fear. She scanned the Great Lawn and discovered that the only witches left were the ones hiding behind the ovens—it was the witches who were outnumbered now.
“Sisters, we must leave this foul place!” Rat Mary declared. “If the fairies want the Otherworld so much, they can have it! We’ll find another world to call home, but now it’s time to fly!”
Rat Mary held out a hand, and a broomstick flew into it. The witches cowering behind the ovens quickly retrieved their own brooms.
“Lower the shield, girl!” Rat Mary shouted at Alex.
Alex did as she was told, and the force field surrounding Central Park disappeared. The witches straddled their brooms and rose into the air like a flock of crows. Rat Mary led the witches toward the New York City skyline with Hero dangling from her chest.
“HERO!” Goldilocks shouted.
Jack whistled for Lester, and the gander hurried toward him.
“Lester, we need your help!” Jack said. “Follow those witches!”
Jack and Goldilocks hopped aboard Lester’s back, and the giant bird soared into the air and followed the witches toward the city.
Now that the shield was down, everyone was finally free to leave the park, but they were also vulnerable to the dangers outside it. A sniper stationed on the rooftop of a building just east of the park had been waiting all night and all morning for this moment to come.
“General, I’ve got a clear shot on the girl from the library,” he said into his radio. “She seems to be the one generating the shield over the park. Do I have your permission to shoot before it reappears?”
“We’re a little busy with monkeys and flying ships over here,” the general replied. “Fire at your own discretion!”
“Target is locked,” the sniper said. “Preparing to fire in three… two… one!”
The sniper pulled the trigger, and in a split second, a bullet traveled more than a thousand feet from the rooftop and pierced the beating heart of an unsuspecting misunderstood teenager. Conner and his friends heard the gunshot echo through the park and looked up at the hill in terror.
“NOOOOOO!” Conner screamed.
The sound of her brother’s panicked voice broke Alex’s curse for another brief moment. She looked down at the Great Lawn and saw Conner, Bree, Froggy, Red, Cornelius, Arthur, Mother Goose, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Fairy Council staring up with horrified expressions—but they weren’t looking at her. Alex turned to her left and saw Rook standing by her side with blood dripping from a small hole in his chest.
“Alex…” he gasped. “I hope… I hope… I hope this will make things right.”
Rook collapsed, rolled down the side of the hill, and never got up. He had gone to the hill hoping to save Alex. Tragically, his mission was even more of a success than he’d intended. Alex stared down at her friend’s body in shock.
“Rook?” she said softly. “Rook, please get up! Please get up!”
The farmer’s son didn’t move, and Alex realized that her worst nightmare had come true: Someone she loved had been hurt. A tsunami of emotion rushed through her body, and the witches’ curse returned. Her eyes glowed brighter than ever, her hair flickered above her head like the flames of a rocket, and power she had never possessed before surged through her veins.
Alex pointed at the sniper in the distance, and the building he stood on imploded underneath him. The man jumped and made it to a nearby rooftop only a moment before he would have plummeted to the ground.
“Alex, please, you need to calm down!” Conner yelled up at the hill. “You’ve got to control your emotions before they control you!”
His sister clapped her hands, and a bright spiral of light like the Milky Way Galaxy appeared above her. Alex and the lion statues disappeared inside the light, and the spiral whirled out of Central Park. With no witches to control her, the curse had transformed Alex into a destructive force without bounds—and she was loose in New York City.
“We need to find her at once!” Emerelda told the others. “If we can’t find a way to break the curse, Alex could destroy the city—and maybe herself in the process!”
Conner, Bree, Froggy, Red, Mother Goose, Merlin, and the Fairy Council ran out of Central Park and headed in the direction of Alex’s light. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table knelt beside Rook’s body to pay their respects. Cornelius nudged his friend with his snout and waited for him to wake up, but Rook never opened his eyes again.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WAR OF THE WORLDS