Conner searched the cabin, but Red was nowhere to be found. The corner of her new purse caught his eye, and he saw that she’d seated herself in the first-class cabin. He tried waving to get her attention, but Red was already enjoying a moist towel and reading her copy of Glamorous Magazine.
“Ma’am, is this your seat?” a flight attendant asked her.
“No, but it’ll do just fine,” Red said, and went back to her magazine.
The flight attendant pulled the boarding pass out of Red’s hand and read her seat number.
“I’m sorry, this cabin is reserved for first class only. You need to sit in your assigned seat.”
“Assigned?” Red asked like she had never heard the word before. “Which seat is that?”
The flight attendant pointed to the back of the plane where Red’s friends were.
“I’m supposed to sit back there?” Red said in disbelief. “I thought those were for elves! No human being can feasibly fit in such a small space!”
“Welcome to commercial travel,” the flight attendant said. “Now, either move to your seat or I’ll have you escorted off the plane.”
Red gave the flight attendant an impressively dirty look. As the young queen walked through the economy cabin, she held her nose like she was walking through a field of manure. She squeezed into seat 40A behind Jack and Goldilocks. Luckily, no one was sitting in 40B beside her, because her dress took up both seats.
As the last passengers boarded the aircraft, the constant slamming of the overhead bins started to hurt Hero’s ears. The infant began to cry, and everyone in the cabin glared in Jack and Goldilocks’s direction.
“Everyone is looking at us like we’ve personally offended them,” Jack remarked.
“It’s because you brought a baby on a plane,” Bree said. “They’re worried he’s going to cry the whole way to New York.”
Goldilocks was not going to put up with this. She passed Hero to Jack and stood in the aisle where all the passengers could see her.
“Now, wait just one Hickory Dickory second,” she called out. “I don’t care if you have to listen to my baby cry! Eight days ago I experienced the worst pain humanly possible by pushing him out of my body! It’s something all mothers must endure for the survival of our species! It’s natural, it’s brave, it’s beautiful, and I will NOT be disrespected for it! Now, I suggest you all wipe those foul looks off your faces or YOU’LL be the ones crying all the way to New York!”
“I’d listen to my wife if I were you,” Jack added. “She’s on caffeine.”
All the passengers quickly diverted their gazes elsewhere. Bree tried to start a round of applause for Goldilocks, but no one joined her.
Once his friends had stopped causing problems and settled into their seats, Conner was able to take his first deep breath of the day. He looked around the plane and saw a Boy Scout sitting across the aisle. He was cute and chubby and obviously took the Boy Scouts very seriously, because his whole uniform was covered in pins and badges. The boy eagerly stared down at a map of New York City and was so giddy, he could barely sit still.
“Hi!” the Scout said when he noticed Conner. “My name’s Oliver. What’s yours?”
“I’m Conner. Are you excited about New York?”
“I’ve never been so excited in my whole life!” Oliver exclaimed. “This is actually my first time on a plane! New experiences don’t make me nervous, though. This badge is for bravery.”
“Are you doing anything special in New York?” Conner asked.
“I’m going for the big Boy and Girl Scouts of America Camp-Out!” Oliver said happily. “This year they’re having it tonight in Central Park! Normally the city doesn’t allow campers in the park, but they’re making an exception for us. My family doesn’t have much money, so I had to sell a thousand pounds of popcorn to pay for the trip. I sold more than any other Scout in the Western Region! That’s what this badge is for.”
“Congratulations,” Conner said. “That’s a lot of popcorn.”
“How about you? What are you going to New York for?”
“Um… visiting family. At least, I hope. It’s kind of a surprise trip.”
“Neat,” Oliver said. “Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but I’d better get back to my map. I’m trying to memorize it before we land. I’m really good at navigation, that’s what this badge is for.”
“Good luck,” Conner said. “Have fun camping.”
The Boy Scout smiled so hard, dimples appeared in his cheeks. He looked back down and became lost in his map of New York City again. Oliver’s excitement reminded Conner of Alex on their first trip to the fairy-tale world. He remembered how she’d hogged their map of the kingdoms and how they’d fought over directions. The memory made Conner smile for the first time all week, but it was odd to think of a time when the Land of Stories didn’t feel like home.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please lend us your eyes and ears as we go over our safety demonstration,” said a voice from the speakers.
The flight attendants stood in the aisles and gave instructions on how to buckle the seat belts and wear the safety vests, and pointed to the emergency exits. A cartoon showed the passengers how to properly put on the oxygen masks and evacuate the plane in the event of an emergency. By the time the safety demonstration was done, the plane had departed the gate and was cruising toward the runway.
Red reached over Jack’s and Goldilocks’s seats and tapped Bree and Conner on the shoulders.
“Sorry, those yellow vests were so ugly, I zoned out,” she said. “Could you repeat those bits about cabin pressure and water landings?”
“If the cabin loses oxygen, masks will drop down from the ceiling so we can breathe.” Bree filled her in. “And in the event of a water landing, the bottom of the plane will turn into a flotation device.”
“But that’s absurd,” Red said. “Why would we end up in water? Can’t the driver just steer around it?”
Suddenly, the plane rocketed down the runway. The force slammed Red into her seat and she screamed.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING?” she shouted.
“Relax, we’re just taking off,” Bree said.
“TAKING OFF WHAT?”
“Into the air.”
Bree thought it was obvious, but judging from the horrified look on Red’s face, it wasn’t.
“THIS THING GOES INTO THE AIR?” she asked in a panic.
“Yeah, that’s why it’s called a flight.”
“I WISH SOMEONE HAD SHARED THAT MINOR DETAIL BEFORE WE BOARDED! IS IT TOO LATE TO GET OFF?”
“Yes!” the whole cabin said in unison.
As the jet launched into the air, Conner closed his eyes. The subtle movements of the plane quickly rocked him to sleep. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a peaceful rest.
Conner saw flashes of his sister in his dreams…. He couldn’t understand her completely, but she was desperately trying to communicate with him…. She was trying to warn him that something terrible was going to happen…. He needed to stop it before all was lost…. He asked her to repeat herself, but it became harder and harder to hear her…. As if a dying strobe light were illuminating them, Conner could see less and less of her…. A dark, smoky cloud suddenly wrapped around Alex…. It pulled her away from him like a giant hand…. She was screaming, but there was nothing he could do to help….
“Alex!” Conner cried, and awoke with a jolt.
“Are you okay?” Bree asked him.
“Sorry, bad dream. How long was I out?”
“For about an hour. You’ve been twitching since takeoff but I didn’t have the heart to wake you up. I can’t imagine how exhausted you are.”
“I suppose shaky sleep is better than no sleep at all,” he said. “You’ve been up as long as I have. Did you manage to nap at all?”
“I tried but no bueno,” she said. “There’s just too much on my mind.”
Conner nodded. “I hear you,” he said. “Gosh, I would give anything to think about somethin
g besides my sister. I’m even starting to worry about her in my dreams. I just had a nightmare where she tried to warn me about something, but I couldn’t understand her. I’m sure it’s just the stress talking.”
He turned to Bree, hoping to find some reassurance in her eyes, but she had none to spare.
“Conner, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said. “I was trying to be considerate and didn’t want to overwhelm you, but I can’t keep it to myself anymore.”
Although he had no idea what she was talking about, Conner’s whole body went tense. Bree was always so calm and cool about everything; she wouldn’t be so worked up if it weren’t serious.
“You can tell me,” he said. “I doubt there’s much that’ll trouble me more than I already am troubled.”
“All right,” Bree said, and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t completely honest about my trip to Connecticut. I was visiting family, that part is true, but I lied about the reason I went.”
Conner gulped. “Was it another guy?”
This was the last question Bree expected to come out of his mouth.
“No, it’s nothing like that,” she said, and went straight to her point. “When Emmerich and I came back from the fairy-tale world, after the Grande Armée was defeated, I kept thinking about the portal in Neuschwanstein Castle. The more I thought about its history, the less sense it made.”
“It was a pretty complicated story,” Conner said, remembering. “In the early 1800s, the Grande Armée forced the Brothers Grimm to lead them to the fairy-tale world. The brothers took them to Neuschwanstein Castle and activated the portal with the magic panpipe, and the Grande Armée went inside it. What the Armée didn’t know was that Mother Goose had bewitched the portal so anyone without magic blood would be trapped inside it for two hundred years.”
“Exactly,” Bree said. “So what I couldn’t stop asking myself was how Emmerich and I got through the portal without being trapped.”
Conner’s life had been so complicated since the Grande Armée invaded the fairy-tale world, he’d never had a chance to think about the portal at Neuschwanstein Castle—but Bree was absolutely right! She and Emmerich should have been trapped for two centuries just like the Grande Armée. There was only one reason why they weren’t.
“You have magic in your blood!” Conner exclaimed. “Emmerich’s my cousin, so that’s where his magic came from, but what about yours?”
His heart skipped a beat as he thought of one possibility.
“Oh no—we aren’t related, too, are we?” he asked.
“Um… no,” Bree said. “You’re forgetting the grossest part about the story. In order for the Brothers Grimm to activate the portal at Neuschwanstein Castle, they also needed magic in their blood. Mother Goose transferred some of her blood into theirs so they could use the panpipe to trap the Armée. And that magic was passed down from generation to generation of the Grimm family.”
“Holy DNA test,” Conner said. “You’re a descendant of the Brothers Grimm!”
Bree nodded. “As you can imagine, I was really eager to prove it. That’s why I ran away to my cousin Cornelia’s house in Connecticut. I needed to confirm my family’s heritage.”
“So that’s why Cornelia was so calm about everything she saw at the hospital! Your family has known about magic and the fairy-tale world for longer than my sister and I have!”
“They know about a lot more than that,” Bree confessed. “Cornelia, Frenda, and Wanda are part of a secret group called the Sisters Grimm. My fifth-great-grandmother, Maria Grimm, founded the group in 1852. Knowing that the fairy-tale world existed, the women in my family began investigating some magical incidents happening around the world.”
“Magical incidents?” Conner asked. “Like what?”
“There have been hundreds of things they’ve covered up over the years! Mermaid skeletons washing ashore in North America, pixies being photographed in Europe, trolls found wandering the deserts of Australia—you name it! The Sisters Grimm realized creatures from the fairy-tale world were crossing into the Otherworld, but they didn’t understand how. Your grandmother and the fairies were in charge of all the portals, so how were the creatures getting through without their help?”
“Magic?”
“No—science!” Bree said. “The Sisters Grimm discovered that the fairy-tale world is just an alternative dimension of the Otherworld. They’re like race cars on the same track. However, the Otherworld used to move at a much faster speed than the fairy-tale world. So every so often, the worlds would briefly overlap—or rather, collide. Each time the worlds collided, unbeknownst to the fairies, a portal between worlds would briefly appear. Over the centuries, thousands of magical creatures have accidentally stumbled through a portal and wound up in the Otherworld. But about sixteen years ago, the worlds stopped colliding and the portals stopped appearing altogether.”
“Why? What happened?”
Bree laughed. “Do you really have to ask?”
“Wait—it’s because me and my sister were born!” Conner exclaimed. “We are children of both worlds, and our birth magically set the Otherworld and the fairy-tale world on similar speeds.”
“Right!” Bree said. “And race cars moving at similar speeds take a lot longer to overlap.”
“So, how long until the worlds collide again?”
“The Sisters Grimm predict it’s very soon. They’re also worried that when it happens again, the overlap may be permanent. It won’t be a portal that appears, but a bridge that connects the worlds forever.”
“Do they know where the bridge will appear?” Conner asked.
“They’ve scientifically mapped everything out,” Bree said. “Judging by all the locations of past portals, they’re expecting the bridge to appear in the middle of New York City.”
“New York City!” Conner said. “What are the chances?”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, Conner,” Bree said. “This is a huge interdimensional phenomenon! The Sisters Grimm can’t be the only ones who know about it. And if they were able to discover it using science, I imagine someone else has discovered it using magic. If your sister was kidnapped by a witch, there’s a reason she took her to New York City, and I’d bet serious money it has something to do with the worlds colliding.”
Conner was pushed back into his seat again, only this time it wasn’t from the force of the aircraft, but from fear. Apparently he was wrong—something could trouble him more than he already was troubled.
“Attention, ladies and gentlemen,” a flight attendant said over the speakers. “The captain has turned on the seat belt sign, as he expects turbulence ahead. We ask that you stay in your seats, because things are about to get very bumpy.”
Conner sighed. “She can say that again.”
CHAPTER SIX
PRISONERS OF THE MIRROR
Froggy frantically searched every mirror in the Northern Palace for someone who could help him contact Alex and Conner. He figured the twins were most likely in hiding with the royal families, so if he found a person who knew where they were hiding, he could send them a message and warn them about the Literary Army’s plans to invade the Otherworld.
The more he searched, the more doubtful his mission became. Each room in the palace was either empty or occupied by the Queen of Hearts’ card soldiers, the Wicked Witch’s flying monkeys, or one of Captain Hook’s pirates. Occasionally Froggy would spot a servant in the palace, but they were never far from the despicable emperors or their loathsome henchmen. When the servants weren’t forced to serve, they were locked away in the dungeon, where there were no mirrors for Froggy to communicate through.
Even if Froggy could find someone willing to help, it was very unlikely they’d know how to reach the twins. Still, he continued his exhausting pursuit regardless of its improbability. Soon he learned that help wasn’t as impossible as he’d thought—he was just searching the wrong side of the mirrors.
“Hello.”
A soft
voice made Froggy jump. His eyes darted back and forth between the palace mirrors as he searched for the source, but he couldn’t find where the voice was coming from.
“I’m not in the palace, silly,” it laughed. “I’m right behind you.”
Froggy looked over his shoulder and jumped when he discovered he wasn’t alone in the mirror dimension. Walking toward him out of the darkness was a young girl. She had long raven hair and pale white skin and didn’t look a day over eight years old. Froggy had become so used to isolation, it took him a moment to realize the girl wasn’t a hallucination.
“Oh my word,” he said in disbelief. “You’re a… a…person!”
The little girl giggled. “Of course I’m a person. What else would I be?”
“Forgive me for being overwhelmed,” Froggy apologized. “I’m just so relieved to see someone else. I didn’t realize there were others trapped in mirrors.”
“Oh, there are hundreds of people trapped in mirrors,” she said. “I find dozens of them each day.”
Froggy searched the darkness around him but didn’t find a single soul besides the young girl.
“But where are they?” he asked. “I’ve been in this world for weeks and I haven’t seen anyone but you.”
The little girl smiled at Froggy like he was an amusing cartoon.
“You don’t have to be trapped inside a mirror to be trapped in the mirror,” she said. “Think about all the people who stare at their reflections and dislike what they see. Think about all the people who base their happiness solely on what they look like. Think about all the people who don’t enjoy life because they don’t enjoy their appearance. If you ask me, the mirror imprisons us all.”
Froggy went silent for a few moments. He hadn’t expected such insight to come from someone so young.
“When you put it that way, I suppose this is the second time I’ve been trapped in a mirror,” he said.