"They treated me for a broken wrist and severe lacerations from the mirror,” Dylan said pointedly, showing him his gunshot graze.
“They believed that?” Fredrick asked.
Dylan shrugged. “No cops have shown up. All Quinn and Andi had were concussions. We got released ages ago, but we've been waiting for you to wake up."
"You're going to be here for another week. A punctured lung is no laughing matter." Andi wrinkled her nose at him.
"Didn't Klaus call you something odd, Ash-something?" Fredrick asked Andi, foggily remembering the events after crashing through the mirror.
"Aschenputtel? It's basically the German Cinderella,” Andi said.
Fredrick stole a glance at Max standing close to Quinn. None of this was news to him.
"Apparently," Andi's eyes creased at him laughingly, "that mirror has sat in his antique shop since his great-grandfather's time. And get this—it originally belonged to Jacob Grimm and was sold at auction when he died in 1863. Klaus’s father used to tell him the oddest version of Aschenputtel involving that mirror when he was a child. Instead of marrying the handsome prince, she escaped to another world, stepping through a looking glass dressed in a blue hooded cloak. She had gray eyes and blonde curls."
"His father must have seen your grandmother,” Fredrick said, catching on.
Andi nodded. "I assume so. No wonder he looked like he saw a ghost. For him, it was like watching a fairy tale come to life."
"No idea what that's like," Dylan muttered.
"So our parents…?” Fredrick let the question hang.
Quinn glanced at Max, who tugged her braid and moved quickly out of reach as she tried to swat him. "Well, those were interesting phone calls to make. They basically all jumped on a flight and came straight here."
"They knew!” Andi fumed “At least, my dad did. Can you believe he sat on something like this his entire life?”
“How did he find out?” Fredrick asked, intrigued and wondering what his own parents knew.
“He saw my grandmother disappear under the cloak once when he was about thirteen. Obviously, he wigged out and thought maybe he was going crazy, but after he confronted her about it, she told him the truth.”
“Not that he believed her,” Dylan reminded her.
“Of course not. Would you have? But when my mom went screaming out to the barn saying something about me disappearing under a cloak, well, Dad finally believed Grandma.”
“Even if he didn’t take her at her word, wouldn’t he have kept her cloak someplace safer?” Fredrick asked.
“He never saw it again after that day. He had no idea it was even in the attic.”
“What about the rest of our parents?” Fredrick asked, fiddling with the controls to make his hospital bed sit up more.
“They did not believe us,” Quinn said. “And the anger through the phone when I said I was in Germany was… intense, to say the least.”
“Andi’s dad did a lot of talking when they all got here.” Dylan shrugged. "But things didn’t really get better until Quinn’s dad got her grandma on the phone."
"I kept telling them I saw Quinn disappear before my eyes," Max said. "And had about as much luck with them as Quinn did. But Daadi …”
“We’re not positive what she said to him, but he just said, ‘We’ll talk about this more later’ and hung up. He’s been a lot calmer since.”
“What about your dad?” Fredrick asked Dylan.
"He was surprisingly reasonable,” Dylan said, trying to balance his wheelchair on its back wheels. “He listened to what everyone had to say and still seems to be mulling it over.”
"Now they’re all swapping stories about their parents," Andi said. "Like how tight-lipped they were about their childhoods, and these twisted tales they used to tell, about giants and evil princes..."
"He hasn’t said as much, but I suspect Dad caught Grandpa talking to fish more than once,” Dylan added. “Before, he might have chalked it up to senility setting in, but now—“
"So we’re not grounded for life?" Fredrick asked.
“I don’t know about that,” Andi said, “but mostly, they seem relived. And they’re all getting strangely buddy, buddy. It’s weird.”
Fredrick's mom slipped in quietly,."Time to go kids."
“All of us?” Dylan asked.
“Yes. Your dad offered everyone a ride back to the airport in his rental van. No one else has the guts to drive on the other side of the road.”
Andi raised her eyebrows at Fredrick, and he clearly understood her unspoken, ‘I-told-you-so.’
"You’re leaving?" Fredrick asked.
Dylan rolled his eyes. "Apparently, we have missed a lot of school and there are members of our family who didn't fly to Germany who need living proof that we are, in fact, alive."
"No worries, you're all coming to my house next school break. Mom offered to host and she's already working on convincing your parents it’s a good idea. I believe she said something along the lines of how people who have been through what we’ve been through together should not be kept apart."
Andi bent over and gave Fredrick a kiss on the cheek, laughing as he his face immediately turned red, before rolling Dylan out the door. He raised his good hand in farewell before saying something quietly to Andi that made her laugh. She attempted to muss his hair, but he ducked his head out of her reach and caught her hand in his.
Max slipped out unobtrusively and Quinn stood next to his bed, clasping her hands tightly.
"I'm sorry about Jack."
He nodded at his lap and then looked straight into her dark eyes. "Is the mirror completely smashed?"
“It's in a million pieces, but I don't know if we could have gotten back that way anyhow,” she said.
"Does my dad know?" he asked.
"No, we left that part out. I thought you should be the one to tell him,” she said. “If you want to tell him, that is.”
Quinn reached out and tentatively laced her fingers with his. Instinctively, Fredrick almost jerked it back, but—well—he didn’t really want to.
"Don't forget, my grandmother is still alive. Barely, but she is. I'm going to spend some time with her in India and she will be telling me everything she's kept secret for far too long, whether she likes it or not. We'll come up with an idea.” She gave his hand a final squeeze. “In the meantime, try not to worry. Jack has survived there for 200 years. He's not helpless.” She smiled at him softly before following her brother out the door.
His mom came back in and raised an eyebrow at Fredrick. He realized too late he had a stupid grin on his face and quickly rearranged his expression. She sighed happily as she sank in the chair next to him.
"What?" he asked warily, still unsure about her good mood.
"Nothing,” she said. “These past few days have been unbearable. But having you here, now, safe… It's like a nightmare turned into a dream. It hasn't really sunk in yet."
Fredrick stared at his lap and fidgeted with his sheets. He considered how much to tell her, wanting to enlist her help, but not sure she was strong enough for it.
She watched his nervous hands flutter for a minute. “Whatever it is, spit it out,” she said in a tone that brokered no arguments.
Fredrick rubbed the back of neck. He’d never been able to keep much from his mom.
"There's one more piece of the story the others haven't told. One they left for me,” he said. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know where Grandpa is.”
Epilogue
”At some point you’re going to have to stop following me around.”
“I’ll be quick,” Andi said, heading for the ladies’ restroom in the middle of the concourse.
“I’ll come with you,” Andi’s mom said, struggling to make her rolling suitcase face the right direction.
Andi rolled her eyes. “I’m going ten feet away. At some point you’re going to have to stop following me around like the secret service,” she said. “Come on Quin
n,” she pulled her through the door before her mom could launch an argument.
Andi quickly shoved Quinn into a stall.
“And… what are we doing?” she asked, bemused.
“Open your carry on,” Andi said, dragging her wedding dress out of her bag.
“That is never going to fit in my bag.”
“Give me the stuff from your bag then,” Andi said, muffled underneath the yards of satin.
“When are you going to explain why we’re doing this?” Quinn asked, making a face as she put her stuff on the bathroom floor.
“My parents can’t see it. I didn’t say anything about my… close call with matrimony, and they’d freak out if they knew.”
“And you think my parents won’t?”
Andi gave her a pleading look.
“Fine, maybe Max will help me hide it,” she sighed. “Why did you even keep it?” Quinn asked. “Hold the sides together so I can zip it,” she instructed.
“Andi?” her mom called.
“I need you to sell it, the diamonds too,” Andi whispered, quickly throwing Quinn’s things in her bag and opening the bathroom stall. “We’re going to need some serious funds. And soon.”
Acknowledgements
As this two-year odyssey comes to a close, it occurred to me it took more time for this book to become a reality than it did for me to grow my children. There were also more people to help.
Thanks to my family: Jen, Jared, Jessie, and especially Mom and Dad. You were my earliest readers and continue to be my staunchest supporters. Book two will be available for your perusal soon.
Thank you to Krystin Bane for taking on the arduous task of being my first beta reader, editor, finder of writing contests, and all around book enthusiast. You also get credit for the title. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Ravven deserves heaps of thanks. First, for pulling me out of obscurity with her NaNoWriMo writing contest. Second, for the cover design you all fell in love with if you’ve gotten this far into the book.
No one can spot a plot hole like Rabia Gale. Thanks for finding so many of mine.
This project would have never gotten this far without my fellow lovers-of-all-things-books at Patchwork Press. Kellie Sheridan—you continue to be my most ardent cheerleader. Your expertise and support were invaluable, and I’m still in awe at the sheer number of hours you dedicated to this project. Deepest thanks.
Erica Crouch, I know my work is in good hands with your sharp eye for missing commas, run on sentences, and stray homonyms. (Did you see I remembered the Oxford comma on that sentence? I can be taught.) That you chose to put your innumerable talents to work on my book makes me want to do a little happy dance.
Thanks to my kids: Joe, Ben, and Olivia. Things like clean laundry and home cooked meals were sometimes spotty, thanks for not holding it against me.
The biggest thanks goes to my husband, Ryan, who’s gentle and loving kick in the pants got me started. Through all the nights I buried my head in my computer, you never regretted the decision. I always felt your unwavering love and support, even if you were giving it with your eyes closed from the napping couch.
About the Author
Janna is a Colorado based YA author who loves a good fairy tale. She’s married to her own real life Prince Charming, and will usually admit to being mom of three, including her incorrigible middle child, Benny. Besides wrangling her kids she can be found doing some therapeutic baking, dreaming of the ocean, and of course, curling up with a good book.
Table of Contents
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Part II
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Part III
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Part IV
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
A Grimm Legacy Page 26