“Gilly’s quick thinking stopped the gargoyles from hurting us,” said Princess Rose, who was slightly injured in the attack. “Ella and I are grateful to this commoner for her heroic act.”
Sources tell us that Rose and Ella are none too pleased about FTRS’s lack of security. How were the gargoyles able to get on the school’s grounds? Who sent them? Were they responsible for all the incidents that occurred throughout the day? One of Madame Cleo’s tanks exploded during a dancing observation (no one was hurt, but they were quite wet), and a botany class turned ugly when a peony ant attacked.
We have to wonder: Could students be behind all these misdoings? “Is FTRS reforming students the way it claims to be?” asked a palace source privy to details inside the attack, “or are these dark doings happening because villains are running that place?”
It’s no wonder there is growing concern about security for the much-anticipated FTRS Ball that was officially announced on Royal Day. Plans were to hold the ball next week. “The dwarf squad and Snow White are going over everything that happened and will let us know whether it is safe for the royals—or the community, for that matter—to attend the anniversary ball,” said a palace source when asked for comment. “We’re also looking into whether FTRS is a safe place for Enchantasia’s troubled youth.”
Requests to speak to Headmistress Flora about this matter were denied.
CHAPTER 14
Rotten Apple
“Ah, Miss Gillian. Come in, come in!”
For a moment, I’m pretty sure I must be in the wrong place.
The Evil Queen is smiling—cheerily—and waving me into her office.
I clutch the note given to me when I was released from the infirmary this morning.
Miss Gillian Cobbler—Please be so kind as to join me for a meeting in my office this morning at ten sharp!
Sincerely, Professor Harlow
I was sure Jax had left me the note as a joke, but the nurse said it was legit. “He checked on you twice while you were out cold,” said the gnome in the bright blue nurse scrubs whose badge said Natasha, Gnome Nurse Level 1. “Aldo kept watch over you too when your friends weren’t here.”
That was creepy.
“I don’t see a Kayla on the visitor sheet.” Natasha said when I asked about my roommate. “I only see Jax, Ollie, and Maxine. You didn’t wake up for days! That was some nasty bump you got on your head.”
“Maybe Kayla was admitted,” I wondered aloud. She had been acting odd in the gym. Kayla could have been ill.
Natasha shook her head, and her pointy hat nearly fell off. “No Kayla on my list, but you got a lot of get-well flowers.” She grinned and I noticed she only had four teeth. “You’re like a celebrity in this school! Saving the royal court like you did.”
I was only trying to rescue Jax. I wasn’t sure how my honesty would go over with Natasha so I kept quiet and looked at my flowers. The bouquets next to my bed were so big they could have been trees. The elaborate topiary shaped like a crown could only have come from the princesses, and the note attached confirmed it.
For your epic bravery—speedy recovery!
—the Royal Court
There was a small bouquet from my family and a few other hand-picked arrangements, one with squished flowers that I assumed Maxine picked with her less-than-dainty troll hands. My head felt too heavy to read all the note cards. Natasha said I was hit with a bunch of the steel swords that rained down from the sky. My arms and legs were nicked up too. “You’re lucky one didn’t lop your head off!” Natasha said as she changed my bandages one last time. “Professor Harlow lost her pinkie in the mess and had to charm it back on.”
• • •
Professor Harlow beckons me to her desk with her bandaged hand. While I’m in hospital clothes (a tee and baggy pants), my professor is back to wearing one of her form-fitting velvet gowns. Aldo leaves the Evil Queen’s shoulder and swoops across the room, startling me when he takes a perch on my arm. I wince as he sinks his claws into one of my bandages.
Professor Harlow chuckles—chuckles! “Aldo, I know you’re happy to see Miss Cobbler, but leave her be. She’s still recovering. How do you feel, child?”
“Okay.” I feel like I’ve dropped into a different land with this conversation.
Maybe she’s happier in her office than in her classroom. This room is brighter with all the torches and mirrors of every size and shape along one lavender wall. There is an inviting purple velvet armchair near her fireplace, which has a mantel full of self-help books above it, and on the other wall is a vanity table with lots of bottles and beauty products. I notice the gold mirror she keeps in a glass case has been moved to her office, along with Aldo’s jeweled cage. The Evil Queen sits behind her desk, peering at me fondly.
So weird.
“I’m sorry I’ve asked you to come straight from the infirmary,” Harlow says, “but this matter could not wait.” She smiles, her deep purple lips curving up in the corners of her heavily made-up face. “I brought you here this morning so I could personally thank you.”
I almost fall out of my chair, which, I should add, is so low I have to look up at Harlow’s desk. I wonder if she has it set that way on purpose. “Come again?”
“Not only did you save the princesses, but you also saved me from once again becoming the Evil Queen.” Harlow gives me a rare smile. “My sister would be an orphan right now if you hadn’t stopped me from hurting anyone on Royal Day, and for that, I thank you.”
As with Natasha, now might not be the time to bring up how I was only trying to save Jax. Everyone else was just a happy coincidence. “You’re welcome?” I question. I’ve never heard the professor thank anyone for anything before.
“That’s why I brought you here right from recovery. I wanted to be the first to commend you for your selfless act of bravery. We’d be reading a very different type of scroll this week if you had not broken the bewitchment I was under.”
I lean forward intrigued. Natasha saved some of the old scrolls for me to read when I woke up. She said it would be easier for me to understand what had happened the last few days if I read it myself. “Do you know who cast the spell or sent the gargoyles? Why were so many events sabotaged on Royal Day? Do you think Gottie is behind this? Mr. Harding did go missing and so did his family…”
Harlow’s face darkens. “I see no point in playing guessing games, Miss Cobbler,” she snaps. “Rest assured, Headmistress Flora is working with the staff to figure out who is behind these acts and who could have bewitched someone as powerful as me.”
That’s another thing I didn’t think of. Who could put a spell on the Evil Queen?
Harlow twirls a long, gold amulet that hangs from her neck. “That is why Headmistress Flora is not at our meeting today. She, Cleo, and Wolfington have asked me to speak on their behalf.”
“Speak on their behalf?” I suddenly feel uneasy.
Squawk! Aldo seconds my confusion.
The Wicked Stepmother is the one who runs this school. She’s the one who sent my enrollment notice and escorted me to detention. If I have to deal with someone here, I want it to be her.
“You’re not in trouble, Miss Cobbler.” Harlow adjusts her tiara, which has been slightly tilted since I walked in. “On the contrary. I have good news to share. While you have only served two weeks—three if you count the almost week you’ve been in the infirmary—of your required stay here, your bravery shows you’re more reformed than any of us realized. Only someone who is truly thinking of others could have done what you did. Therefore, Flora and I would like to offer you an early release from the program.”
I feel like someone just pulled my chair out from under me. I jump up. “Seriously?”
“You get to go home,” my professor translates. “Immediately.”
This doesn’t make any sense. “But Headmistress Flora said—”
“I know what Flora said.” Harlow’s voice tightens. “You’ve flunked out of Fairy Tale Reform School, so to speak, and that’s a good thing!” She laughs, but it sounds fake. “I’ve already sent a scroll to your parents letting them know they can pick you up.”
My heart starts to speed up. I’m going home? Today?
“Unfortunately, your parents are out of town for a few days at a shoemakers’ convention, but they said they will come straight home and should be here by Friday afternoon.”
“The day of the FTRS Ball?” I question. Natasha filled me in on the ball’s will-they-or-won’t-they-let-the-school-have-it gossip.
Professor Harlow’s smile widens. “Why, yes. I didn’t think you’d care about something as silly as a ball when you could go home to Hamish, Han, Trixie, Felix, and Anna.”
I squirm. I don’t like that she knows their names, but I’m desperate to see them. “So you mean they’re still having the FTRS Ball even after everything that happened?” I ask. “But what about security? The Happily Ever After Scroll this morning said—”
“I know what the scroll said!” Harlow’s voice booms, and the torches in her room dim. Aldo rushes into his cage and I watch the look on my professor’s face twist into something sinister. But then just as quickly the room brightens and the Evil Queen is smiling her awkward smile. “I just mean, we are well aware of the scroll exaggerations. A ball is happening, and I will be releasing a statement later today telling all of Enchantasia they have nothing to fear in attending. Really, Miss Cobbler. You’ve done enough to help our school and me.” Harlow offers Aldo a small treat and he nips it out of her hand. “Go home to your family and enjoy your life.”
Madame Cleo’s prediction flashes in my mind, but I quickly push it away. Professor Harlow is right. I can’t worry about what’s happening at FTRS or Jax, Kayla, Ollie, or Maxine. They’ll survive. They’d ditch me if they had the chance to leave. My family is more important. Anna hasn’t written, which means she’s still mad or hungry or desperate. I think of Han crying out in hunger, and I want to race right out of the Evil Queen’s office. My loyalty is to them.
I’m a thief, plain and simple, and I belong at home. Not in Fairy Tale Reform School.
“Now if you’d just sign these forms.” Harlow slides a long, wordy scroll across the desk to me along with a black-feathered quill. I try to read the words, but they’re too tiny. “Just customary release paperwork, of course, saying you are never again permitted to cross school grounds or converse with students in our care.”
That’s a weird clause to have in reform school release papers. I sign them anyway.
“Good girl! Excellent!” Harlow folds her hands in her lap and flashes me a questionable smile. “You’ll forget all about this place in no time.”
CHAPTER 15
Right, Wrong, and In Between
“There she is!” Maxine cries as I walk into the cafeteria for what will be my second-to-last dinner there. “FTRS’s hero!”
Me? A hero?
I never thought someone would use that word to describe me, but here I am holding my dining tray and several hundred students of every kind are suddenly applauding and cheering for me. The sound echoes through the room with high ceilings and fish tanks. The left side of the room is less rowdy (Have you ever seen an ogre eat? Not only are they messy, but they break their plates at every meal!), and that’s where I find my friends cheering the loudest. Maxine, Ollie, and Jax wave me over to a round table piled high with food.
“We’re so happy you’re okay,” Maxine says, squeezing me a little too tightly and making one of my bandages pop off. “Oops! Sorry. Want me to get your dinner for you? You sit right here.” She practically throws me into my seat. “What do you want?” She waves her large, hairy hand away. “No matter. I’ll get you everything! You need your energy if you’re going to be ready for the FTRS Ball.”
For a split second, my heart sinks. Maxine and I were talking last week about what we were going to wear to the ball. Jax had offered to practice a few steps with me, and Ollie even said he’d escort Maxine and me personally. Now I won’t be here.
“Did you hear they got Gnome-More for the band?” Ollie asks us. “Goblins of Fire got spooked when they heard what’s been going on.” He waves a turkey leg around. “Can’t say I blame them. The way this place is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole party went up in flames. Good thing we have Gilly here to save us again.”
I feel my body stiffen. Ollie’s making a joke, like he always does, but Madame Cleo’s premonition hangs over my head. I look at my new friends’ smiling faces, and I don’t know how to tell them I’m bailing.
You’re overthinking things, Gilly, I tell myself. They’ll understand.
As Maxine heads off to get my dinner and Ollie goes back for seconds, Jax moves his chair closer to mine. I can smell the lavender hand soap he must have washed up with. I’ve never been so happy to see him. “You okay?” he asks. “Ollie was just joking.”
“I’m a little tired,” I lie. Now I’m lying to Jax too, and that makes me feel the worst of all. “Where’s Kayla, by the way?”
Jax’s face clouds over. “I’ve barely seen her since Royal Day. Maxine tried to get her to visit you, but Kayla said she was sick. Something is definitely going on with that girl. Have you talked to her?”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t in our room when I got back there this afternoon.” She didn’t even leave a “welcome back” message or a note on our magic chalkboard. I guess Kayla won’t miss me when I’m gone.
“So I owe you again, thief,” Jax says with a smile. “Thanks for keeping me from getting killed.”
“Well, I couldn’t leave you hanging out all day in a bubble, even if it looked like you were trying to save the royals,” I tease. Jax doesn’t say anything. I lean in so no one can hear me. “I feel kind of bad that I’m getting the rock star treatment though. Everyone is acting like I saved the school when really I was just trying to save you! Even Professor Harlow thanked me.” Jax’s eyebrows go up. “She gave me early dismissal for my bravery. I’m out of here on Friday.”
“You’ve been sprung?” he whispers, taking a bite of his fig pudding before he tucks in to the roast pheasant we’re having tonight. Fairy bus girls fly between tables bringing extra napkins and condiments and clearing dirty dishes. Everyone is smiling at me, except Jax. “How? You’ve only been here for three weeks.”
My chest tightens. “Professor Harlow says I’ve proven myself.”
“You don’t find anything strange about that?” Jax asks. “In my whole year here, the Evil Queen has never let anyone leave early for good behavior. Now she picks you, a girl who’s fought with her sister, to let go home before the ball? Why?”
I close my eyes to block out the laughter in the room and the sound of tinkling silverware hitting copper plates. “I don’t want to think about her reasons,” I snap. “I don’t care what happens here. I just want to go home. My family needs me.” I open my eyes and look at Jax’s serious face.
“Did you ever think this family needs you too?” Jax asks quietly.
“I don’t want to listen to this.” I push my chair back from the table and stride out of the room. I hear Jax calling me, but I don’t turn around. When I reach the hallway, he catches up and grabs my arm.
“You and me? We’ve got to talk,” he says gruffly and starts pulling me by the arm down a new hallway that appears in front of us.
“I don’t care what you have to say,” I protest, wincing as he touches one of my bandages by accident. “I’ve got to go pack!”
“You own three things. It won’t take long.” I’ve never heard him talk to me like this before. I’m so dumbfounded that I let him walk me straight to a bookcase, and I watch as he feels around for something among the self-help tomes. Witchy No More, The Only Spell You Need Is Love, A Warlock’s Guide to Bettering You
rself, and Anna’s favorite book, No One Keeps Me in a Tower, a guide to breaking out by Rapunzel herself. Jax pulls Life Lessons from the Bog forward slightly, and the whole bookcase moves back to reveal a garden courtyard in the middle of the castle.
“Whoa,” I say as Jax pulls me inside. This must be where the cafeteria grows fresh herbs and vegetables. I’m not surprised they’ve kept it hidden. Some of my classmates have an insatiable appetite. He closes the bookcase behind us. My nose smells basil and mint growing among the radishes, tomatoes, and cabbage.
Jax turns toward me. “I brought you here so we can talk without anyone overhearing.” He takes a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know before you bail, and I’m only telling you because I know I can trust you.” His violet eyes glow in the dimming light. “I tried to keep you out of this, but you’re too smart not to see what’s going on right in front of you. You’re a fighter, Gilly, and I could use someone like you on my side.”
“On your side? What are you talking about?” He sounds crazy.
“That day we met, when I was breaking out of here—didn’t you ever wonder why I didn’t succeed? Why I made such an obvious mistake with the alarm?”
My smile vanishes.
“I needed it to look like I was trying to escape, but the truth is, I have reasons to stick around.” Jax suddenly sounds much wiser. “I’m undercover.”
I laugh so hard my belly hurts. “No, you’re not.” Jax doesn’t crack a smile. I stop laughing. “You are?”
“For the royal family,” he says simply. “I’m one of them, actually.”
“What? You’re not royal,” I sputter. I can feel a lump forming in my throat. “You were raised on a farm. You said you ran away.”
Jax plucks a sprig of basil off its vine. “That was part of my cover. This is a reform school. I needed people to believe I hated the royals and this school as much as anyone did, but the truth is, I’m actually Rapunzel’s brother.”