by James Riley
This was the worst nightmare yet!
She furiously dug her hands into her pockets, her dress morphing back into her regular jeans and T-shirt as she did, and pulled out a handful of sand. “I will make my own story, Sandman!” she yelled. “And no one else gets to write it for me!” Then she threw the sand in an arc in front of her, spraying it throughout the ballroom.
The dance disappeared, and May looked up from a movie camera, surveying the scene. “No, no,” she said, gesturing for the boy wearing the name tag SANDMAN to move left. “You’re too close. Back it up a little, I want to pull out a bit.”
The boy moved to the left. “Here?” he asked.
May looked back into the video camera. “Yeah, that works.” She looked back out. “You.” She pointed at the girl wearing the name tag FAIREST. “Get away from him. Actually, come over here.” She waved for Fairest to come back behind the camera. “Now, Sandman. I want to see you angry. You’ve just lost your prisoner to the amazing and wonderful heroine.” May pointed at the girl with a blue streak in her blond hair, wearing a name tag that said HEROINE.
“And can we get her some more weapons? I wouldn’t mind if she had, like, two swords, one for each hand.”
A man with a white circle on his chest popped out and handed Heroine two swords. Heroine took one in each hand, then aimed them both at Sandman. “Everyone ready?” May asked, looking back behind the camera. “Heroine, this is the scene where you defeat Sandman. And . . . ACTION!”
“You cannot win that way,” the glass man told her, and the actors disappeared as the Sandman advanced on her. “I will not allow you to use my world against me anymore.”
May threw sand again, and bottle after bottle of caffeine-filled soda rained down on them, threatening to keep the Sandman (and sleep) away forever, only to disappear immediately as the glass man waved a hand. “I will lock you in nightmares that you’ll never wake from,” he told her, taking another step closer.
More sand, and this time a thousand armed marines appeared between them and disappeared just as quickly. “I will hold you prisoner until your body withers away,” the glass man said, his voice rising in anger. “Your mind will be trapped here until the end of time. I will—”
“Hold up,” May said, noticing something for the first time. She hadn’t been close enough to see before, or hadn’t looked, but there it was. The man had sand everywhere in his body . . . everywhere except his eyes.
May’s mouth dropped. “Oh, gross.”
“What—” the man of glass said, but May concentrated, throwing the last of her sand, and suddenly the scene shifted so that she was behind him. She concentrated, and Heroine’s swords appeared in her hands.
Then she drove one of the sword’s hilt into the back of the Sandman’s head on the right side and heard a strange popping noise. She quickly dove forward, catching the Sandman’s right glass eye, then rolled out of his way as he began to scream.
“The Fairest is in the eye of the beholder?!” May shouted at him, showing him his own eye. “Are you kidding me?” That phrase didn’t sound exactly right, but she figured it was close enough. She held the eye up to hers, where she could clearly see . . . something inside. Maybe even something moving.
Again, gross.
“You will give that back or—”
“Nah,” May said, a swirling feeling pulling her away from here. She smiled at the glass man. “Looks like my ride’s here. I’m going to go wake up, but you have yourself some sweet dreams!”
And with that, the scene changed one last time.
Only, May didn’t find herself back in Malevolent’s castle.
Instead, she found herself back beneath an oak tree, in a field of grass with a warm wind blowing.
This time, there was no Charmed One.
There was, however, a Jack sitting beneath the tree.
CHAPTER 13
Penelope tipped forward, dragging Phillip to the ground as the flames burned through the air just above them. Stones from the demolished roof offered a bit of cover, but not enough.
“Staying down would probably be a good idea for a second,” the princess told him, but Phillip shook his head, even as Malevolent flapped her wings, coming around to get a more direct angle at them.
This was it. He had known it was coming ever since the Wicked Queen had promised that one would betray May, and one would die. And since he would never betray May, die it was.
But that was not the only prophecy at play here.
“Malevolent!” Phillip shouted, standing in the midst of blackened stone, his sword aimed at the dragon. “It is time!”
The dragon shrieked in rage and dove directly at him. Penelope tried to yank Phillip back down, but he pulled himself from her grasp, his sword ready for the dragon. He would die, of course. But he would take this demon with him.
Malevolent’s jaws opened wide, but Phillip swung out with his sword, cutting the dragon inside her mouth. The dragon screamed in pain and lost control, one of her wings slamming Phillip full in the chest, sending him flying across the castle’s roof. Malevolent hit the castle hard as well, coming to a halt only a few yards from the prince, who was having trouble seeing straight.
Phillip tried to stand, but the roof swayed dizzily, and he ended up on one knee. The dragon, meanwhile, had no such trouble and was quickly back up on her feet, her snakelike neck weaving in a way that the prince had trouble following.
“You are nothing,” Malevolent spat, then snapped at one of Phillip’s shoulders too fast for him to follow. Pain filled his arm, and he almost dropped his sword but managed to swing it, far too late to do any good, as the dragon’s head had snaked away.
“You think to fight me?! One of the thirteen?” Malevolent laughed, low and without any humor. Her head snapped out again, and pain filled his other shoulder. Both arms went numb, and the prince dropped to his knees, barely managing to keep ahold of the sword’s hilt as the blade hit the roof hard.
“I think . . . exactly that,” Phillip said, pushing himself to his feet, gritting his teeth and struggling to hold his sword up. A wing lashed out, sending him flying across the roof again, and this time he lost the sword completely. It fell away, but it was all Phillip could do to stay conscious.
“I need no magic to end you,” Malevolent said, almost slithering across the roof after him. “To think I feared you all this time! You, some simple human, some powerless boy! The Mirror could not have been more wrong!”
“You may . . . kill me,” Phillip said, breath coming a lot harder to him than it should have. “But the Mirror . . . did not lie. I will take you . . . with me.” How exactly he would do that, he was not certain, though. Standing at this moment did not seem possible, let alone holding a sword. Wherever it was.
Talons as sharp as his missing sword dug into him, and suddenly he was flying high above the castle. He struggled against the dragon’s claws, but he was far too weak, and the dragon was much too strong.
“Shall I drop you, little Prince?” Malevolent said, flying higher and higher. “Shall you plummet to your doom?” She let him go, and plummet he did, the wind whipping by so fast he could not breathe.
He glanced down and saw Penelope staring at him, something in her hand. Was it his sword? No . . . it was smaller, and the wrong color. She was screaming something, but the wind was too loud—he could not hear. Not that it would matter in a moment when he hit the castle.
But the moment passed, and again he felt the dragon’s claws digging into his sides. His fall slowed but did not stop as the dragon tossed him to the roof, which he hit hard, knocking what wind remained right out of his lungs. He rolled as he hit, struggling not to black out as the edge grew closer and closer, only to stop just inches from his face.
“Shall I rip you to shreds with my teeth?” the dragon said, and he felt hot breath on the back of his neck. Something impossibly sharp touched his skin, and he tried to roll to the side, away from her jaws, but he was far too slow. Malevolent toyed wit
h him, snapping just inches from his face, then his heart, then his face again.
“These deaths seem much too quick, little Prince,” she said, her eyes blacker than her shining skin. “No, I believe you and your princess should burn instead, knowing that this finally makes us even for what your fathers did.”
Phillip watched the dragon rise into the air, higher and higher, knowing he wouldn’t be able to move, and if he did, he would probably just end up falling off the side of the castle. Malevolent circled higher and higher, getting enough elevation to follow him and Penelope wherever they might hide, wherever they might run.
“What are you doing?!” the princess said, skidding to a stop at his side. “Why aren’t you letting me handle this?!”
“. . . I am sorry?” Phillip said, sincerely confused. What was she talking about? “Please, help me up. I will perish doing so, but I am destined to destroy her, so I must fight.”
Penelope just stared at him for a second, touching his face, with a tiny smile.
Then she slapped him.
“Not everything’s about you,” she told him, standing up. She pulled out the object Phillip had mistaken for his sword while falling a few moments ago and smiled at him again. “She’s mine, Your Highness. She’s always been mine. After what she’s done to me? Are you kidding?”
Above them both, Malevolent circled once more, rising as far as she meant to go, then turned and began her dive, flames spilling out of her mouth like water.
“You curse me?” Penelope shouted at the descending dragon, holding a wooden spindle to her hand. “Because you feel left out, you hurt people I love? You take my family away? You take my life?!”
She stabbed the spindle right into her palm. “Let me return the favor,” Penelope whispered, then collapsed to the roof, instantly asleep.
She’d voluntarily cursed herself again! Phillip was immune, given that the fairy queens who had protected the girl from the original curse had needed him to wake her up. So he stayed wide awake.
Malevolent and everyone else within the curse’s range were not so lucky.
The dragon shook, looking confused for a moment before the spell took over completely, sending the now-sleeping Malevolent into a dive. Phillip pushed himself to his feet, then picked Penelope up in his arms and dove out of the way of the plummeting dragon.
Malevolent hit the roof like a cannonball, taking Phillip, Penelope, and half the castle’s roof with her. The prince hit the floor below hard, cradling Penelope in his arms as the dragon continued on, crashing through floor after floor, rubble collapsing in after her as she went, finally coming to a stop at the very bottom of the castle, from the sound of it.
Phillip held Penelope close until the rumbling stopped, then looked up to find his sword embedded in some rubble just inches from his head.
Apparently he wasn’t meant to die just yet.
Though had it ever been close.
CHAPTER 14
May took a seat next to Jack as he absently pulled petal after petal out of a flower. A gentle, warm breeze flowed over both of them. May pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around them, and just looked at the grass, at the field, at the tree, and at Jack.
Neither of them spoke for the longest time.
“I hate that you’re here,” Jack said finally, still pulling petals off one by one. “I thought I stopped this.”
“By leaving?” May said, laying her head on her knees.
“I thought I had some sort of control here,” he said, shaking his head. “It took months, but I thought I finally had stopped dreaming about you.”
“You’ve . . . dreamt about me?”
“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” he said, not looking at her.
May just looked at him. “Why did you leave?”
He finally looked at her and shook his head. “You’re a dream. That means you’re me, and already know why I had to go.”
May bit her lip, then just went for it. “Yup, I’m a dream. So you can tell me anything, and it’s basically just telling yourself. So why did you leave?”
“How could I stay?!” Jack shouted. “Where is the Charmed One, anyway? I don’t have time for this; I’m supposed to be stealing from a giant. Turning into my father. Becoming everything I hate.” He stared at May. “You’re definitely a dream. The real May would be insulting me a lot more.”
“Sometimes she does that,” May said softly. “But sometimes she . . . just doesn’t know what to say.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure you’ll have plenty to say to your prince,” Jack said, turning his back to her. “Could you please leave? Like I said, I’ve got a busy day.”
“Prince? You mean Phillip, or . . .” She stopped. He didn’t mean Phillip. He meant Cinderella’s prince.
Unless her nightmares weren’t true, and those two princes were one and the same.
“Don’t say Phillip’s name—he might appear too,” Jack said. “Charmed One? Seriously, I could use some vague advice or something! Anything but more of this!”
May stood up too, then reached out and took Jack’s hand to turn him toward her. He pulled away and glared at her. “Just . . . go,” he said.
“Why did you leave?”
Jack laughed. “Are you serious? You’ve never stayed this long before. I went because I made a mistake, May. I made a lot of mistakes. And I couldn’t just stay, not like things were.”
“Mistakes?”
“Your grandmother?” Jack said, gritting his teeth. “The woman you wouldn’t talk about for the past six months? The woman who I told you was Snow White? The woman who I let out? The woman who’s currently about to start a second Great War? Her. For one. And she’s just one of many mistakes.”
May flinched, looking down at the ground. “That wasn’t . . . your fault. You don’t need to run away.”
His eyes widened, and he pointed out toward the field of grass. “GO.”
May groaned in frustration. “You can’t join her, Jack. You can’t! I don’t know what you think you’re doing—”
“I’m doing what needs to be done!” he shouted. “I’m not Phillip, I’m not you. I wasn’t born into a royal family, May. I was born with a mind, and that’s about it, and that’s what I’m going to use now. Whatever I need to do, I’ll do!”
“You need my help,” May said, her voice softening again. “You have to know that, Jack. Whatever’s going on, you can’t do it alone. You need your friends. You have to know that!”
“You’ve got the wrong guy,” Jack said, bitterness swimming behind his eyes. “I thought the same way once, but I was wrong. I know what I’m meant to do now. One of them will betray you, and one will die, right? I know what I have to do.”
May’s entire body went cold. “What do you mean, you know what you have to do? What are you planning?” She grabbed his arm, but he tore it away.
“LEAVE,” he said, his eyes closed tight, and May could feel a tug on herself, like a river current pulling her away.
“NO!” she screamed. “You can’t do this, whatever you’re planning! She’s not worth it! NONE of this is worth it!”
“LEAVE,” he said again, and this time the current almost swept her away.
“Jack, I’m not a dream!” she screamed. “The Charmed One can tell you! I’m here in the dream world! I’m stuck here, but I’ll find a way out. Don’t do anything . . . don’t do anything crazy!” She was practically begging him now. “PLEASE. Wait for me. I’ll come find you, I promise. Just don’t do anything! WAIT FOR ME!”
Jack started to say something, then stopped, just staring at her. Finally, he sighed. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, and it was like a whirlpool appeared directly beneath May. The force of it yanked her off her feet and into nothingness, but as she was pulled back into the waking world, expelled from the dream world by Jack, she could hear the Charmed One’s voice.
“Another dream about the girl?”
“The last one I’ll have, I promise.”
The Charmed One
’s head appeared, staring down the whirlpool at May. “Yes, I would imagine so,” the knight said. “But don’t worry. Just a dream.”
“She almost seemed . . . real.”
“Dreams always do.”
And with that, May slammed into the floor of Malevolent’s castle, almost crushing the glass eyeball clutched tightly in her hand. She gritted her teeth at the pain, then looked to her right to find a dragon tail sticking out of a heap of rubble, and Penelope helping Phillip climb down the stones.
“You are here!” the prince shouted. He and Penelope rushed to her side. “But how? Did you return when we killed Malevolent?”
May stared at him, wondering how much to say. “Not exactly.” She reached out a hand, and Phillip gently helped her to her feet. The prince noticed the glass ball in her hand, and she shook her head. “Long story.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to tell him in the Queen’s dungeons,” growled someone from the throne room door.
All three looked up to find an enormous man wearing a bulky black fur cloak, with more goblins than May could count lined up behind him.
“Any more cursed wood pieces?” Phillip said to Penelope.
“Not enough,” she said.
A man no bigger than May’s hand appeared out of nowhere on Penelope’s shoulder, then dropped off, striding away with several splinters of a spindle. “They’re safe to take, Wolf,” the little man said, and after getting over the oddness of him, she noticed the white eye on his chest.
Another one. Apparently, they came in all sizes.
As the Eye and the goblins led the other two away, May pushed the Fairest glass ball down deep into her pocket, then held out her arms for a goblin to chain together and lead her away with the others, prisoners of the Wicked Queen.
CHAPTER 15
Is she gone?” Jack asked, his back to the Charmed One.
“She is,” the knight said. “I did not realize you were still having this problem.”