Midnight Law

by Geanna Culbertson

  Frustration creased Blue’s forehead. “Hold on. Are you saying that the antagonists could have left Dreamland at any time in the last month based on some other realm’s full moon cycle?”

  “Why didn’t any of you mention this as an option before?” Pietro asked. Pain and irritation boiled beneath the level tone he tried to maintain. I had a feeling that wouldn’t last much longer.

  “We didn’t think of it,” Chance admitted regretfully. “But if the antagonists are in a different realm within the Wonderlands, that means—”

  “It means Lenore’s genie bottle can call Crisa back!” Girtha blurted.

  Everyone reached for their pockets to retrieve Mark Twos, but SJ pulled hers out first and flipped it open. “Godmother Supreme,” she said. She marched forward while reaching into her magic sack with her free hand. At the water bank, she flung a handful of glittery powder into the river. “Mark Three powder,” she explained quickly to our confused faces. SJ’s compact stopped buzzing and the Godmother Supreme’s face appeared in the reflection of the river.

  “SJ, it is late. Are you all right?”

  “Godmother Supreme, we believe Crisa is back in our dimension, but perhaps in another realm. Use the genie bottle to call her back to you. Please.”

  “I thought you said she was—”

  “I know what I said,” SJ replied sharply, interrupting Lenore. “We could have been wrong this whole time. She may not be in Dreamland.”

  “Very well,” Lenore said. In the reflection of the river, we watched her reach for the pendant dangling from her neck. In one hand, she held up the genie bottle. With her other hand, she gently rubbed the bottle. The pendant glowed brightly then flashed several times. I felt hope swelling my ribcage. Then, all of a sudden, the glow extinguished. As did that hope.

  Lenore glanced at the pendant and then met our expectant, uncertain, heartbroken eyes. “I am sorry, children. Crisanta is not in our dimension. I have no idea where she is.”

  he three worst rides I’d ever taken were as follows:

  1) My government vehicle transport to the police station after a fire burned down my house and killed my parents and younger sister.

  2) The ride to Lord Channing’s when I was chosen as a protagonist six or seven years later than normal main characters are selected.

  3) The magical carriage journey to Fairy Godmother Headquarters immediately after Knight failed to come home, with the intention of interrogating her incarcerated older brother.

  “Daniel?” SJ looked at me from across the carriage. The inside of the vehicle would have been dark if not for the full moon’s energy ruining the darkness by splurging through the windows. It highlighted my friend’s naturally pale skin in a way that made it look like she was actually partially made of snow.

  “Yeah?”

  “The Godmother Supreme is doing us a great favor by letting us visit Fairy Godmother Headquarters. This privilege is almost never extended to people. So can I ask that you maybe keep a lot of your less cordial comments to yourself when we are there?” SJ glanced at Blue beside her. “That goes for you too.”

  “Why are you just asking that of us?” Blue said. She gestured at Jason, Chance, Pietro, and Kai, all crammed in the carriage. “No one here is a big fan of Lenore. But Daniel and I have visited Headquarters before, so shouldn’t you be giving advice to those present who haven’t?”

  “We have not visited Headquarters before, Blue,” SJ corrected. “We broke in a year ago through deceitful measures.”

  Blue rolled her eyes. “You say potato, I say—”

  “Blue.” SJ narrowed her eyes.

  Our carriage slowed. I glanced out the window at the night sky as we began our final approach to the glittering building atop a giant, puffy cloud. Towers of purple steel shot up from pink metallic brick walls. Almost every balcony glistened with a lantern.

  The carriage came to a stop in front of the building and levitated a few feet above the cloud. The doors of the carriage popped open. I hopped out, followed by the rest of the group. The landing was soft; the cloud was solid like the universe’s biggest fluffy pillow. We found Debbie waiting for us beside the silver door at the front of the building. She waved her magic wand and red sparks shot from the tip, enveloping our vehicle. A moment later, it shrunk and transformed into a mushroom before zipping into Debbie’s hand. She slipped the fungus into her pocket and returned her wand to hairpin form before sticking it in her ponytail.

  “I’ve gotten a lot better at transportation magic since Crisa tricked me into bringing you here last fall,” she said. Her smile was sad. “I wish you could all experience it under better circumstances.”

  “Where’s the Godmother Supreme?” Pietro asked.

  “Waiting for you inside. Come on. I’ll escort you.”

  Kai took my hand and squeezed it supportively. I was startled for a second, then squeezed back, glad for its comforting and familiar warmth. We entered the silvery circular foyer of Fairy Godmother Headquarters. Every painting and decorative tchotchke in the reception area was where I remembered it. The only difference was the actual receptionist sitting at the translucent desk. This woman had tons of long, tight braids gathered together and tied to the side with a pink ribbon.

  “Where’s Coco?” Jason asked.

  “Fired,” Debbie replied.

  “Why?”

  “She allowed several children to break into our private file room.” Debbie gave us a pointed look.

  I didn’t know Coco, but I felt guilt kick me. SJ’s, Jason’s, and Blue’s expressions told me they were feeling it too.

  “Why weren’t you fired?” Blue asked. “Your magic let us get here in the first place.”

  “Blue,” SJ said as Debbie held open the door on the right side of the room.

  “No, it’s a valid question,” Debbie replied, guiding us down the hall. “I’d rather not get into the specifics, but I was punished too. Only I was given a second chance because I was a trainee who didn’t know any better. Coco had been here for fifteen years. She should have stopped you.”

  Debbie halted at an unmarked door and opened it. Inside, a set of glass partitions slid apart to reveal some kind of glass elevator. Through the transparent back wall, we could see a busy office with long rows of desks where women tended to their work. I assumed they were Fairy Godmothers. A black carpet that aligned with the elevator ran down the aisle between the left and right side of the office.

  We stepped inside the elevator. I expected us to go up; we were on the ground floor of the building. But as soon as the partitions sealed shut, the box jolted forward following the path of the black carpet—which was not a carpet, I realized, but a runway. With speed and roughness that made us bump against each other, the elevator shot through the office and then up and then left then right then down and then up again. Through the glass walls, and my disorientation, I caught quick glimpses of different parts of Fairy Godmother HQ. I saw a commissary, a training area where Godmothers shot magic rays at each other, a library, more offices, an area with strange pods, a hallway of rooms where Godmothers practiced magic individually, a lounge, and—

  We halted abruptly. Several of my friends face-planted against the side of the elevator. I caught myself on the handrail, though Kai tugged out of my hand as she fell to her knees with a gasp. I helped her up worriedly. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  She kept hold of my hand anew as the glass panels slid open and we uneasily stepped into a hallway marked with a chrome sign that read Floor Ten: Private Affairs. At the end of the hall, two burly guys with wands the size of brooms stood guard on either side of a large bronze door.

  “Why are there so few Fairy Godfathers?” Jason asked as we headed in their direction.

  “This is the Fairy Godmother Agency, Jason,” Debbie responded. “The Godmother Supreme hires a few men here and there to meet her diversity quota, but they’re used mainly as guards and are only trained in defensive spells. Men aren’t cu
t out to help people the way we women are; they’re not as nurturing.”

  “Right, because nurturing is one of the first words that comes to mind when I think of Lenore,” I said with an eye roll.

  “And that,” SJ said, glancing at me then Blue, “is why I was only cautioning you and Blue in the carriage.”

  Fair enough.

  We arrived at the door and forged into . . . a prison. A shinier, cleaner prison with more girly colors in the décor than probably any other incarceration center out there, but there it was. Lenore stood in front of a cell with sparkling white bars that contained the solid gold Alex statue.

  The Godmother Supreme turned when we entered. “SJ. Heroes.”

  I was still shocked that Lenore was acting this helpful—letting us into her otherwise top secret, forbidden-to-outsiders domain. It was surprising even considering the new mutual respect she seemed to have with SJ. When I had voiced these concerns to Jason while we waited for Debbie’s carriage, he suggested Lenore could be accommodating us because it was the right thing to do. I couldn’t find it in myself to believe that was her only motive. I’d seen how Lenore treated Knight over the past year. Benevolence wasn’t a trait in the woman’s nature.

  “I hope you understand the graciousness of my allowing you to be here,” Lenore said.

  “SJ already gave us the humility speech,” Blue responded. She noticed SJ’s glare and adjusted herself. “I mean, yes. Thank you for letting us come. Though you could have just transported Alex down to us; then everyone in our group could have been there for the interrogation vs. the handful you gave permission to visit.”

  “My decision is based on tact, Blue. I would prefer to keep Alex here now that I have him. He should be in my custody, and it would be unwise to keep moving him.”

  “And how does tact play into your motivations for helping us?” I asked. SJ started to open her mouth, but I held up a hand. “I’m not trying to be rude,” I glanced at Lenore, “but you don’t like Knight. We’re trying to get her back. You have to have mixed feelings about that.”

  Lenore didn’t blink. “You’re right, Mr. Daniels. I have never liked Crisanta and she has never liked me. However, we reached a good working relationship in recent months, and I would like her back here so we can continue to achieve great things together.”

  Understanding clicked.

  There’s the ulterior motive.

  “In other words, you like having her as your genie servant and can’t use her powerful magic to accomplish your agenda if she is not here.” I released Kai’s hand to fold my arms.

  “However you like it.” Lenore shrugged. “Now then, if you’ve gotten your teenage aggression out of the way, Prince Darling, please proceed.”

  Chance stepped forward and I forced myself to stay relaxed. I didn’t like the guy, but we needed him to unfreeze Alex.

  The prince snapped the fingers of his left hand, reached through the bars, and touched the tip of Alex’s lowered sword. Instantly the gold started to melt away—the effect going up Alex’s sword, then his arm, then spreading over the rest of his body. Seconds later, Alex returned to normal and he gasped for breath, eyes darting around wildly. Lenore waved her wand and the sword in Alex’s hand glowed red then vanished, much to his surprise.

  “Welcome back,” Pietro said.

  “Oh good, another reunion,” Alex replied, adjusting back to life. He stretched his neck and glanced around. “Let me guess—Fairy Godmother Headquarters?”

  “How did you know?” Kai asked.

  “What else would explain the two of them and all this glitter?” He gestured at Lenore and Debbie.

  “Crisa is missing,” Pietro said.

  This got Alex’s attention. “What do you mean?” The snark and resentment had melted from his face and tone completely.

  “It’s been over three weeks since we all came back,” Chance explained. “It’s another full moon tonight and Crisa didn’t exit Dreamland. We think the antagonists have her.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “It’s the only possibility,” I responded. “Nothing could’ve prevented her from leaving Dreamland if she were free. The only two things that would have stopped her were our enemies capturing her and taking her out of Dreamland another way, or her getting killed. Since the second option isn’t something any of us are entertaining, that only leaves one result.”

  Alex nodded. “Then we have something in common. I’m not entertaining that either.”

  “You know the antagonists,” SJ said, stepping forward. “You have spent a lot of time with them and have seen their inner workings. We were hoping that you may be able to shed some light on where they would take Crisa. We know for a fact she is not in this dimension. Perhaps if we knew which one she is in, the Godmother Supreme could go there and use the genie bottle Crisa is bonded to as a means to call her back. The magical connection between the bottle and Crisa’s genie cuffs is supposed to work as long as the two are in the same dimension.”

  “It’s nice you think it’d be so easy, SJ,” Alex said patronizingly. “The antagonists like to have strongholds wherever possible. They have bases in several dimensions and many Wonderland realms. I don’t know most of their locations—none in other dimensions, just a few in the Wonderlands. But I do know that every one of them has a Jacobee stone prison. From a villain perspective, you never know when you’re going to capture a magical prisoner that needs to be neutralized.” He pointed at Lenore’s pendant. “So it doesn’t matter how powerful that genie bottle is. Even if it somehow resisted the way other dimensions reject Book magic and it didn’t explode when you tried to use it, you’ll never be able to get Crisa back that way. Jacobee stone is designed to compromise and block magic, and if Crisa is the antagonists’ prisoner, she is undeniably in that kind of cell.”

  SJ leaned toward Lenore. “Could a Jacobee stone prison prevent the genie bottle from retrieving Crisa in this realm? Perhaps the antagonists exited Dreamland through another wormhole in our dimension, but did bring her back to Book in the end.”

  “No,” Lenore responded. “The bottle’s powers can be blocked by Jacobee stone, but it can sense if the magic creature tied to its genie servitude is within range or not. Crisa is definitely not in our dimension.”

  “What else can you tell us?” Pietro asked Alex.

  We pivoted back to the prisoner.

  “Honestly, nothing. I was only a villain for a few months. I didn’t exactly get a walk-through tour of their full operation. They told me what I needed to know.”

  “And you never thought to ask questions?” Blue asked.

  “Have you met the antagonist queen?” Alex scoffed. “Nadia is hardly the type to humor people with prying eyes or brown noses. She is ruthless and makes no apologies for it. I once saw her execute an entire household after its patriarch, who was on her war council, suggested that when they invade the realm they show mercy to protagonist children under a certain age.”

  “And yet you thought, ‘Hey, what a great employment opportunity’,” Blue replied.

  Alex glared at her.

  Chance shook his head as if trying to forget a disturbing thought. “No. You have to know more than that. The antagonists have been gunning for Crisa for a while. They must’ve had a plan for what they would do if they ever actually captured her. Surely they mentioned something.”

  “I can’t help you,” Alex said.

  “Can’t or won’t?” Pietro replied bitterly.

  “She’s my sister too, Pietro,” Alex said, moving close to the bars. “Obviously I want her to be okay. Don’t you think I would do anything to save her?”

  No one responded.

  I don’t think anyone was sure of the answer.

  I moved to stand directly in front of Alex so I could look into his eyes and get as clear a read on him as possible. I was good at a handful of things—sword fighting, sarcasm, and reading people were at the top of that list.

  “You want to save her?” I said
.

  He met my eyes. “Yes.”

  “Why? Because she saved you?”

  “Because of what she means to me. You get that. Don’t you, Daniel?”

  I didn’t like the inflection of his last comment, and my glare narrowed, but I asked my last question evenly. “Do you know anything else that could help us save her?”

  Nothing about his gaze or voice wavered. “No.”

  We stared at each other for another moment; then I broke our exchange and returned to the others. “We need a new plan.” I turned toward Lenore. “I don’t suppose you know any other leads to proceed with as a means to track Knight down?”

  “I’m afraid not, Mr. Daniels. I may be the pinnacle of our realm’s power, but I have not encountered this kind of situation before. However, I have the good grace and humility to admit that I am not versed in every main character journey that has ever taken place. Thousands of stories have unfolded over the years for the protagonists in our realm and others.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Chance asked.

  “I am suggesting that history is full of magical endeavors performed by heroes like you. So, I recommend searching through Book’s houses of heroic history—your schools’ libraries. Specifically the restricted sections if you can get your headmasters to agree to it. The schools are their jurisdiction, not mine.”

  “Your campuses have been home to hundreds of protagonists over the years,” Debbie added encouragingly. “Plenty of smart, courageous, creative people with all kinds of obstacles to face. There has to be records of ways to track people magically, and/or track them across other dimensions.”

  “What about him?” Pietro asked, pointing at Alex.

  “I can turn him back to gold,” Chance responded.

  “No,” Lenore said. She drifted forward. “Now that the prince is awake, I would like to have a private chat about those other antagonist bases in the Wonderlands he mentioned.” She met Alex’s eyes through the bars. “Debbie . . .” she waved at the Godmother without turning around. “Escort the children out.”