Be Careful What You Wish For

by Evangeline Anderson

  “What are you talking about?” Cass was beginning to get worried. “I’m telling you, Rory—Jake says you need to stay away from him.”

  Her little sister shook herself, as though coming out of a dream.

  “How can I ever see him again since he’s in the Realm and we’re here?” she asked. “And how come all of a sudden Counselor O’Shea is ‘Jake’ to you?”

  “It’s my second name for him—his nickname,” Cass said, feeling defensive.

  Rory shook her head. “Okay. Well, I hope going back to court worked out better the second time—it could hardly work out worse.”

  “It did turn out better…in a way,” Cass admitted. “I’ve got one piece of good news anyway—the FG is officially no longer our fairy godmother.”

  “She’s not?” Rory exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the stairs, her eyes shining with excitement. “So…we’ll never have to deal with her horrible wishes again? Does that mean all the bad stuff she did to us is cancelled?”

  Without waiting for an answer, she opened her mouth as though to sing. But instead of music, the warble of a nightingale came out.

  “Hey, what gives?” Rory looked disappointed. The FG’s gift of “a voice like songbirds in the spring” had landed very literally and heavily on her and she’d never been able to sing a note that didn’t sound like a bird call.

  “I never said all the FG’s magic was reversed,” Cass reminded her. “My last wish is still in effect too. Although we are supposed to be getting a new fairy godmother soon so—”

  Suddenly the Brandon clone came into view, running along the upstairs hallway.

  “Hungry! Want a cookie!” he exclaimed, seeing Rory and Cass.

  “Oh, no—not again!” Rory wailed. “Look, sweetie—look what Auntie Rory has for you.” She held up the bottle of Nyquil. “Yummy sweet syrup—don’t you want some?”

  “Cookie?” The Clone frowned suspiciously.

  “Better than a cookie,” Rory promised, waving the bottle with its ruby-red contents temptingly. “Sooooo yummy. But you have to go back to your room to get some.”

  The clone seemed to consider. At last he nodded his shaggy head.

  “Okay.”

  Turning, he shambled back to the spare room.

  Rory let out a breath.

  “Whew! I’m glad he went for the Nyquil—we are officially out of cookies, candy, ice cream, and any other sweet or carby food you can think of. So if you were thinking of going on that low-carb/no-sugar diet you’re always talking about, now is definitely the time.”

  “Phil is always the one talking about that—not me. And Jake froze the clone before we left because he was, uh, molesting my underwear,” Cass said. “How did he wake up?”

  Rory shook her head. “I don’t know—I walked into your room looking for you and was nearly scared to death when I saw him all hunched over and grabbing his junk. I went to poke him to see if he was all right and that’s when he, uh, came to life again.” She sighed. “I’ve been feeding him ever since—trying to keep him out of trouble while the biker gang took over the house. It’s been a real mess while you were gone!”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Cass murmured. She frowned. “But…why are you going to give him Nyquil? Was it really the only sweet thing we have left in the house?”

  “It’s not just that—I’m hoping to drug him up and keep him quiet for a while,” Rory said frankly. “At least until I can make another Publix run and stock up on more Oreos.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Cass said. “Although hopefully our new fairy godmother will appear soon and help us sort this mess out.”

  “You think she can reverse the FG’s magic and get rid of the clone?” Rory asked doubtfully. “But I thought it was nearly impossible for one fairy to undo the magic of another?”

  “That’s what Jake said too,” Cass said grimly. “But the judge who ruled on the case—don’t get me started about him, he was a real asshole—said he would personally be certain that we had a qualified fairy who could fix the whole mess.” She sighed. “I hope he sends a good one. I need to be able to paint again soon.”

  “So you can paint Counselor Hottie’s picture, right?” Rory nudged her and grinned.

  Cass felt another surge of guilt.

  “No, so I can get something done for my showing at the I.C.U. before Albert, the owner, calls the whole thing off.”

  “Sorry.” Rory looked chastened. “Look, I didn’t mean—”

  Suddenly the upstairs hallway was filled with a puff of pink smoke and sparkles.

  “Oh my goodness,” exclaimed a high, excited voice. “Here I am! But am I in the right place?” The smoke cleared some and a pair of anxious pink eyes appeared. “Are you the Swann sisters?”

  “Uh, yes—that’s us,” Cass said. “Who are you?”

  The pink eyes widened and then a pretty fairy face and a large pair of sparkly pink wings could be seen.

  “My dears, I am Breena, your new fairy godmother! And I’m so pleased to meet you.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Everything about Breena, their new fairy godmother was pink. Not just any shade of pink either, Cass thought wryly—hot pink. Barbie’s dream house pink. Electric, neon, screaming pink.

  Still, she seemed nice enough.

  “Oh, my dears!” she exclaimed, brushing a swatch of hot pink hair out of her brilliant pink eyes. “I have heard from Judge StoneThroat about the awful things you’ve all been through! I am so sorry about your previous fairy godmother and I promise you that she does not represent fairy godmothers as a whole.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear,” Cass said cautiously. “We, uh, haven’t exactly had the best experience with our previous fairy godmother…”

  “But you seem really nice,” Rory finished brightly for her.

  “Oh, thank you!” Breena beamed and fluttered her bright pink wings excitedly. “I want to get along with all my clients and let me promise you, the fact that you’re part human doesn’t matter a bit to me! I know a lot of people call part fairy-part humans ‘half-breeds’ but I don’t agree with that label at all!”

  “Thank you.” Cass nodded. It was nice to meet someone from the Realm of the Fae who didn’t look down on them for their mixed heritage.

  “The more politically correct term is ‘magically disadvantaged persons,’” Breena went on, beaming. “And after all, you can’t help your ancestry, can you? It’s my job to be certain you have the best quality of life possible, given your disabilities.”

  “Not having magic isn’t a disability,” Rory protested.

  “It’s very brave of you to look at it that way,” Breena said, smiling supportively. “Focus on the positive and what you can do rather than what you can’t—like magic and flying.” She gave a little sigh, as though she felt sorry for them. “Poor dears.”

  “We really don’t consider ourselves to be disadvantaged,” Cass said, frowning.

  “Except by what our other, original fairy godmother did to us,” Rory added. “Can you take back some of her gifts?”

  “And reverse my last birthday wish?” Cass added quickly. “I’m really having a hard time with it.”

  “Oh my yes, I’m sure I can,” Breena exclaimed. “I majored in Reversals at Magic University.”

  “You did?” Cass frowned—it was hard to judge the age of a fairy since they were basically immortal but Breena looked about Rory’s age, which meant she might be only 150 to 200—pretty young for a fairy. “Uh, did you just graduate?” she asked their new fairy godmother.

  “As a matter of fact, I did! Top of my class, which is why Judge StoneThroat picked me to take over your case!” Breena looked ready to burst with pride.

  “Wow, that’s great,” Cass said flatly. She couldn’t believe the stupid troll judge had given them a fairy godmother who was still wet behind the ears. The old FG had been middle aged and practicing magic for years—how was their new, flighty pink fairy godmother going to reverse her spells?

/>   “All right now…” Breena clapped her hands, which caused the wand she was holding to spray bright pink sparks everywhere. “Tell me what you need to have done. Judge StoneThroat said something about drawing or sketching…?” She looked at them expectantly.

  “It was painting, actually,” Cass corrected her. She supposed there was nothing they could do but give Breena a chance. After all, what other choice did they have?

  “The FG—our old fairy godmother—granted Cass’s birthday wish that all her paintings would come to life,” Rory put in helpfully.

  “Oh?” Breena frowned. “Well, I must say that is an odd wish—but I can see how it would interfere with your creativity.” She gave Cass a sad look. “And since you cannot fly or do magic, I imagine your creativity is all you have, my dear.”

  Cass clenched her jaw in irritation. She was getting tired of being treated like she had something wrong with her just because she wasn’t able to do fairy magic and didn’t have a pair of big, sparkly wings. Still, she tried to hold onto her temper—there was no point in agitating their new fairy godmother right from the start.

  “Actually, I only said ‘I wish I could get some life into my painting’ but I was talking to myself—not making my wish,” she said, frowning. “Only the FG took me literally and granted it. Ever since, everything I paint comes to life which is causing a lot of problems.”

  “Well, we should be able to fix that easily enough.” Breena pushed up the sleeves of her bright pink gown and made a few practice swishes in the air with her glowing pink wand. “Reversals aren’t really so hard, you know—you just have to multiply your magic in order to get a strong enough concentration to reverse the wish. Now let me see…”

  She frowned, clearly thinking hard. Then, pointing her wand at Cass she said,

  “By the power of my wand

  I grant all I have to give.

  You may paint what you shall choose

  And the painting will not live.

  By the power of my wand,

  By the power of three,

  Your paintings shall not live,

  It must not be!”

  * * *

  Cass felt the familiar pop-rocks dipped in Diet Coke tingling all over her body and knew that something magical had happened. Hopefully, her wish had been reversed.

  “There.” Breena nodded triumphantly. “Did you like that last stanza I added? I wanted to be extra certain your paintings wouldn’t come to life again.”

  “Thank you.” Cass cleared her throat. “Um, do you mind if I test it?”

  “Oh, of course not!” Obligingly, their new fairy godmother waved her wand and suddenly an artist’s easel complete with a paintbrush and pallet appeared in front of Cass.

  “Thank you.” She picked up the brush with some trepidation—what if the wish reversal hadn’t worked? Better paint something simple and non-dangerous to be sure, she thought.

  Dipping the brush in black, she drew a little stick figure on the white paper, completely with arms, legs, and eyes but nothing else. Then she waited.

  To her immense relief, absolutely nothing happened. The stick figure didn’t come to life and climb off the page—it didn’t do anything at all, in fact. It was completely flat and lifeless, as it was supposed to be.

  “Well that’s… nice, dear.” Breena was looking at the stick figure painting doubtfully. “I mean, that’s a really pretty picture. Good for you!”

  Cass felt another surge of annoyance.

  “I was just painting something simple to be sure your spell reversal worked.”

  “Of course you were. And it’s very good.” Breena patted her shoulder, as though congratulating a child who wasn’t very bright.

  This irritated Cass more than ever.

  “Look,” she began but just then the spare room door burst open and the Brandon clone came shambling out. He was nude again, having apparently shed his skin-tight blue jeans, and his package was plainly visible.

  “Cookies!” he demanded, marching up to Rory. Then he seemed to notice Breena. “Pretty!” His dull eyes lit up and he reached for her wand. “Pretty cookie!”

  “Oh!” gasped their new fairy godmother. Flapping her wings, she rose quickly to the level of the ceiling, out of the clone’s reach. “What is that?”

  “That is one of my paintings that came to life,” Cass informed her. “It’s not even the worst one, either,” she added, thinking of the soul-sucker.

  “Can you get rid of it, please?” Rory begged, looking up at the new FG. “It’s eating us out of house and home! Well, in the carb department, anyway.”

  Breena furrowed her pretty brow.

  “Well, I can try. Reversing an actual wish is easier than dealing with the effects of that wish.” Closing her eyes, she appeared to concentrate hard for a moment, the tip of her bright pink tongue protruding from the corner of her mouth. After a moment, she opened her eyes again and nodded. “Got it. Okay, here goes—

  “You must go

  Yes, go I say!

  By the power of my wand

  Now go away!”

  * * *

  Nothing happened.

  Well, except for the clone jumping clumsily up and down, trying to reach the trailing hem of the new FG’s gown.

  “Dragon droppings!” Breena swore, looking irritated. “This is a hard one! Have you been feeding it human food?”

  “Well, yes,” Rory admitted. “That’s pretty much the only way to keep him occupied. He loves to eat and…” She cleared her throat, her cheeks getting red and Cass was certain she was thinking of the pose she’d found the clone in after Jake had frozen him in the act of getting off. “And other things. But mostly eat,” she ended lamely.

  “Well, that accounts for it!” Breena exclaimed. “The more food he eats from the human realm, the more solid he grows and the harder it is to banish him! All right…” She rolled up both sleeves this time, a determined look in her brilliant pink eyes. “Let’s try this again.” Pointing her wand at the clone once more, she spoke loudly.

  “I see one

  Where there should be none.

  By the power of my wand,

  This must be undone.

  You must disappear,

  Exist no more.

  I conjure thee gone,

  By the power of four!”

  * * *

  This time the entire upstairs hallway was filled with pink smoke and the fizzy sensation of magic being done. Unfortunately, the new fairy godmother’s spell didn’t quite go as planned.

  Suddenly the hallway seemed a lot more crowded. As she waved away choking clouds of pink, glittery smoke, Cass’s elbow hit someone in the chest. Someone else shoved her from the other side. Then someone bumped her from behind and a low, hopeful voice asked,

  “Cookie?”

  Another voice answered, “Cookie! Cookie!”

  “Cookie! Want cookie!” came several more replies.

  Cass looked around, trying to see as the smoke cleared, wondering what the hell had happened.

  And then she heard Rory gasp,

  “Oh no, there are more of them now!”

  Four more, to be exact, Cass saw as the sparkly pink smoke finally dissipated. Added to the first one, that made five naked clones, all crying and begging for cookies and waving their junk in the breeze.

  “This is awful,” moaned Rory. “What are we going to do with all these clones? I’ve only got one bottle of Nyquil, you know!”

  “Be calm, my dears!” Breena trilled, although she looked considerably less than calm herself, still fluttering her wings madly to stay out of reach up by the ceiling. “I can make this right, I know I can!” Pointing her wand again, she began to chant.

  “Hear me now,

  You should not be alive.

  I conjure you gone,

  By the power of five!”

  * * *

  Again choking clouds of smoke filled the upper hallway and this time, even before it completely cleared, Cass knew the situa
tion had been made much, much worse. There was so much shoving and shouting for cookies it was like being in a mosh pit filled with toddlers—really big, muscular ones that could do serious damage if they got loose.

  “Now there are ten of them!” Rory wailed, looking around as the smoke dissipated. “I’m going to have to go clean out the Publix cookie aisle to keep them all happy.”

  “No, no!” Breena exclaimed. “Don’t give them any human food! Now, I know it looks bad, my dears, but I just need to multiply the magic a teensy bit more.” She pointed her wand at the crowd of clones who were milling around and calling for cookies.

  “This is a problem

  I know I can fix!

  I conjure thee gone

  By the power of s—”

  * * *

  “No, wait!” Cass shouted, interrupting her. She could easily see where this was headed and what they didn’t need was another six clones to add to the ten they already had.

  “Why did you interrupt my magic?” Breena demanded, glaring down at Cass. “I was about to fix it!”

  “Or you were about to add six more clones,” Cass snapped. “What if you just keep multiplying them? Clearly this isn’t working. You need to try something else!”

  “My dear, I know you’re human and not too bright but you really ought to leave magic to the professionals,” their new fairy godmother said through gritted teeth.

  Cass lost her temper.

  “All right,” she said, glaring up at the new FG, who was turning out to be as bad or worse as the old one, “I will!” Raising her voice to be heard among the babble of the naked clones, she shouted, “Jake, I need you!”

  There was a puff of navy blue smoke and the warm, spicy masculine scent that always accompanied it. Jake stepped out of the roiling cloud and a look of disbelief spread over his face.

  “What’s this?” he exclaimed. “What’s happening here, Cassandra? I’ve barely been gone a day—how did this mess occur?”

  “It’s our new fairy godmother,” Cass explained, fighting her way through the crowd of milling clones to get to him. Ugh, if she never saw this many naked men in one place again it would be too soon! “We asked her to get rid of the Brandon clone that crawled out of my painting and she multiplied it instead.”