by Jen Calonita
Swish! A magic carpet races over my head, carrying books to different shelves. I watch several more zoom past, swooping by a fairy librarian station where workers are reading magical scrolls and wanding books out of thin air.
“Isn’t that your sister?” I ask Kayla, pointing out a fairy with shimmery, blue wings on the second floor. The fairy stacks books on a rug that zooms over the atrium to a shelf on another floor.
“Yes, that’s Brooke Lynn. My mother and sisters are working in the library,” Kayla says proudly.
Kayla seems so much happier now that she has her family back. Her fairy wings have taken on a healthy, glittery appearance, and she’s always singing in the hallways. (Thankfully, she has a decent voice.)
“Professor Harlow felt we should all live on school property till we find out what Rumpelstiltskin is up to and what he wanted with my family in the first place.”
“They still don’t remember anything?” I ask.
Kayla frowns. “No, but they hope having access to the library will help. My mother is a big reader, and she’s hoping they’ll come across a book that will jog their memories. Mother says our new librarian is the best in all the lands. Not that they’d tell me who she is.”
“Greetings, Fairy Tale Reform School students!” a glowing, white mirror says to a group of kids standing in front of it. “Who can tell the difference between a book you can trust and a book you can’t?”
An ogre laughs. “Why wouldn’t you trust a book?”
“Well,” says the mirror, “it depends who wrote it. Would you trust advice from a villain? What if the villain wrote the book under another name, and you had no idea who the author really was? That’s what the librarians are here for. To guide you.”
“I don’t care what that mirror says. There has to be a section on villains,” I tell the others quietly so Flora can’t hear me. “We are a school run by former villains, so they must have books about them and where their stories started, don’t you think?”
Maxine frowns. “I see a lot of picture books and stories my mother used to tell me in the forest. All these books look safe. Nothing villainous.”
They can’t all be Mother Goose stories! I scan the spines on the shelf till I find something that looks dark and mysterious. Aha! The Siren Call of the Deep Sea. That sounds villainous! Rumpelstiltskin could be mentioned in there. “Look at this one.” I glance at the cover. It has gold lettering and a weathered spine that smells a bit like sea air. How can that be? “It has a skull and crossbones on it. Definitely evil!”
“Thief, you’re going to get us in trouble,” Jax says warily. “We were told not to touch the books till the librarian gets here.”
“Don’t be such a do-gooder, Prince.” Jocelyn takes the book from my hands and feels the raised detail on the cover. “What’s the harm in touching a book? I love how wicked this book looks.” Her eyes flash darkly. “It’s like you can feel the battle between good and evil seeping from the pages.” She hugs the book to her chest, and we all look at Jocelyn strangely. “What? Is it wrong to love a good power struggle?”
Ollie quickly takes the book from her. “No, but I think this is a pirate tale.”
“Because there is a skull on it?” Jocelyn frowns. “Skulls also stand for poison.”
“Or pirates,” Ollie counters. He turns the book over in his hands, which are covered with pirate skull and crossbones tattoos he’s conjured up.
I can’t stand waiting any longer. “Let’s take a sneak peek at the first chapter to be sure.”
“I think we should wait,” Jax says, but I reach over Ollie and crack the book’s spine before anyone can stop me. Immediately, I hear a whooshing sound like wind.
“Uh-oh,” Ollie says as Flora and Rapunzel come running from opposite directions.
“Don’t open that book any further!” Flora cries, her hands outstretched to snatch it.
Too late. The book jumps from Ollie’s hands and spins in the air. The pages blur before the motion stops on an open page. All is quiet.
Ollie sighs. “Oh good. For a minute, I thought—”
His voice is cut off as a pirate leaps out of the pages and points his sword at Maxine’s throat.
CHAPTER 2
Time to Duel
Maxine does not appear alarmed by this course of events. “The book came alive!” she says excitedly as the sword presses harder against her wide neck. “The pirate jumped right off the page. Hi, pirate!”
The pirate growls at her, and I yank on Maxine to get her to move. As the pirate charges toward us, water flies from his dirty, ripped clothing, and blood trickles from a fresh cut above his right eye. He looks ghostly, like you could walk right through him, and for a minute, I am sure I’m seeing a mirage, but then he keeps coming.
“Who dares disturb me slumber?” The pirate narrows his eyes at Flora as she finally makes it to our side. “Are ye trying to steal me treasure?”
“No one is stealing your treasure, sir.” Flora picks up the book on the floor. “If you would kindly step back inside your story, we can return you to your nap.”
The pirate looks around. “Where am I? Where is me ship? I smell sorcery at work.” He bares black teeth. “Prepare to duel, me mateys!” He smacks the book out of Flora’s hands and a half-dozen pirates spring from the book’s pages.
Students dive out of the way as the pirates fan out, slashing their way through the library, poking their swords at bookshelves, and knocking books to the floor. One book flutters open, and a horse pops out. Another book opens, and a flock of birds flies toward the atrium dome.
Rapunzel races toward a pirate who is trying to steal a gold Princess Snow statue off its pedestal. “Someone stop the vagrants!”
“Avast! Stop! Follow the pirate code!” Blackbeard is shouting, but the pirates don’t listen. Soon, one is hanging from a chandelier, another is climbing floor to floor, and the others are terrifying students and fairy library workers.
Fiddlesticks. This is all my fault.
I look around for something to stop the first pirate from hitting Flora or Maxine, but Ollie is way ahead of me. He has his sword out in seconds.
“If it’s a fight ye want, it’s a fight ye will get!” Ollie races after the pirate heading up the nearest staircase, breaking through the velvet rope that sections it off. The two clash swords, the pirate attempting to push Ollie back down the way he came.
There is a crash behind us. Harlow, Wolfington, and Blackbeard are trying to stop a pirate from pulling a cannon from the pages of a book.
Flora covers her mouth with her hands. “They’ll blow the library to bits before our librarian even gets here!” She runs off to help them, leaving Ollie on his own.
“We have to help Ollie,” I say to Jax.
“On it!” Jax says. He whistles for Blue, our favorite magic carpet.
The rug zooms over, and I use one of his tassels to pull myself up.
Jax hops on behind me. “Blue, get to Ollie!”
“Don’t forget the book!” yells Maxine, tossing it up to me before we fly away.
Kayla flutters alongside us. “Jocelyn and I will corral the other pirates while you get them back in the book and help Ollie.”
“Reform school teamwork,” Jax says. “I like it!”
“Hey, pirate? Where are you running?” Jocelyn conjures up a fireball for a pirate threatening a group of kids, sending the pirate running right toward Jax’s open book. I hop off Blue and block the pirate’s escape route. He’s stuck between me, Jocelyn, and Jax. I give him a little kick, and he falls headfirst into Jax’s open pages, which suck him back inside.
“Six, seven, eight more to go!” Maxine counts.
“Gillian!” Harlow yells from the floor below. She’s whisking several students out of the way of an approaching pirate. “The pirates cannot leave the library! If they get loose�
�”
Her expression is so dark that I know I don’t want to know the end of that sentence.
“Got it!” I shout.
Hearing this, the pirate heads toward the library exit. Jax and I swoop down on him, with Jocelyn aiming another fireball, but this pirate is too quick. Before the fire can singe his trousers, he jumps to a floor below us.
“I could use some help up here!” Ollie shouts.
I look up and spot him sword fighting on a ledge.
“He could fall!” Kayla shrieks. “I’ll go spot him!” She flutters up to help him.
“They’re going after the princesses!” I hear someone cry.
There are too many of them. Books are falling, kids are crying, and the sound of swords clanging grows louder. Rapunzel is kicking and spinning into pirates, knocking them away from Ella. She’s holding her own, but the pirates don’t stop. I hear Kayla cry and look up in time to see Ollie almost fall off the ledge.
“We have to get these pirates back in the book now,” Jax shouts.
“You don’t think I know that?” I ask. I whistle loudly. The closest scallywag turns and looks at me. I hold the book out in front of me. “Time to go home!”
The pirate laughs. “We’re never going home!”
I narrow my eyes at him. “That’s what you think!” I jump off the rug and throw the open book at him, hoping it will grab the pirate and suck him back inside. Instead, the pirate catches the book in one of his filthy hands.
Oops.
“Thanks, Gilly,” Jocelyn snaps.
The pirate laughs again. “Foolish lass! You can’t beat a pirate!”
He and his friends have the royal court surrounded. One is holding a sword to Ella’s neck. Another keeps Jocelyn at bay. Harlow, Kayla, and Ollie are still above us, but for how long? A third pirate has Blackbeard pinned to a wall, and Wolfington is trapped on a floor below. How did the tide turn so quickly?
I have no weapon and my friends are trapped, but I have always liked a challenge.
“Step away from my friends!” I demand.
The pirates all turn toward me. Gulp.
“Boys, we’ll finish this rug rat first,” a pirate says as I start to slowly back away.
Suddenly, there’s a roar so loud that it shakes the windows. It sends the birds from the open book into flight and makes fairies hold their pointy ears. But that sound is nothing compared to the sight of a beastly man dropping four stories and landing between me and a band of unruly pirates. The room collectively gasps.
The beast does not waste time. Within seconds, his hairy hands have snatched the pirates’ book and opened it to a random page. With another loud roar, he scares a pirate into jumping back inside to avoid his wrath. Then the beast quickly goes after the others, and the same thing happens over and over again.
Freed, we wordlessly move out of the way as the beast runs on all fours after the final pirate, who has escaped to the second level. The beast leaps so high and fast that he outruns the scallywag, cutting him off by a fairy librarian station. There is another ripple of gasps as the beast throws the book at the pirate. That move didn’t work for me, but the beast’s aim is much better. The book hits the pirate in the face, which sucks him back into his storybook world.
The room is eerily quiet as the beast walks over to the book, picks it up, and holds it securely closed.
“Stay in there!” he roars, his deep, throaty roar reverberating off the walls. His rounded back is rising and falling rapidly as he tries to catch his breath.
The pixie sitting on the shoulder of a goblin next to me topples off in fear.
No one moves. Neither Flora nor Wolfington approach him either, which is why I’m surprised to see a woman rush up to him. She’s petite and girlish but obviously older, with long, brown hair piled on her head and the rosiest cheeks I’ve ever seen. Her dress is golden in color and looks like a tapestry from the walls around us. It’s obviously very expensive and yet nothing like the princess dresses I’ve seen. She hands the beast a small, glittering, blue vial, and he snatches it from her, swallowing it in one gulp.
Maxine hits me so hard that I fall backward into Jax. “Do you know who that is?”
“It’s Princess Beauty!” Ollie supplies. “And that must mean that beast is her prince!”
Beauty and the Beast are our new professors at Fairy Tale Reform School?
Even Jocelyn looks stunned.
The beast burps. In the back of the room, I hear a pixie giggle.
The creature whips around to see where the noise came from, and I finally get a good look at him. Oh my Grimm, he’s scary! And yet not. He reminds me of Professor Wolfington, who has been known to revert to his wolf side when needed, but this metamorphosis is different. I watch in awe as his hairy face becomes smooth and his long fingernails and horns start to recede. As his body seems to shrink down to normal size, his hair changes to a long, dark mane that frames his pale skin. He blinks big, blue eyes that look more kind than frightening.
“Say hello, darling, or you’ll scare them,” the woman prompts.
Darling?
The beastly man grunts.
“Darling,” she tries again in a singsong voice.
He sighs and rolls his eyes. “Fine! Hello, students!”
His voice is still deep and menacing, but human. A murmur of hellos echoes in the room. Then his face darkens. “First things first: Who was the foolish child who opened that book?”
All eyes in the room are on me. Jax and I make eye contact.
For the love of gingerbread. No one can actually prove I was the one who took the book, can they? There are hundreds of people here, and the pirates caused a huge commotion and—
“Girl!” He points to me. “Come here now!” His voice makes the stained glass windows shake.
Beauty steps in front of me. She smells like rose petals.
“Darling, that’s no way to talk to a student,” she says in a wispy voice. “What did I tell you about first impressions?”
“But she could have destroyed the library before you ever got to use it!” he barks. “And we came all this way! What if Allison Grace had gotten hurt? I told you teaching here wasn’t a smart idea!”
Flora clears her throat.
“No offense,” he mumbles.
Flora steps forward. “Prince Sebastian, I can assure you, nothing like this will ever happen here again.”
Ollie nudges me. “She does remember what school she’s talking about, right? Things always happen here.”
“See?” Beauty rubs the prince’s arm. “This is going to be a wondrous adventure for us. Deep breaths in…and out. Try it with me, Seb,” she says soothingly.
We watch as he takes several breaths before he calms down. Slowly, his appearance starts to change. He’s all man now. A very cranky-looking man giving me the stink eye.
“My apologies for being gruff, but you did open the book without permission,” he says.
“Apology accepted, and just so you know, the book opening was an accident,” I tell all the adults. “I tripped, and the book popped open.”
Ollie coughs. Maxine squirms. Jax runs a hand through his glossy hair. Kayla’s wings flutter faster.
What do they want from me? To confess to the royal court, HEAS, my old and new professors, and the whole school that I almost destroyed the new library? No. Way.
Prince Sebastian narrows his eyes at me. “You tripped?”
He’s not buying it.
Beauty steps in. “What’s done is done. What’s important is that we follow the rules in the future, right?” She looks at me and I nod. “What is your name, child?”
“Gillian.” I attempt a curtsy. After all, Beauty is royalty.
“Gillian Cobbler is one of the students who first suggested the new program you will be teaching, Seb,” Rapunzel t
ells him and smiles at me. “She is a clever student.”
“Gillian Cobbler.” He begins waving his hands around wildly. “Why am I not surprised? Of course you opened the book! You’re the reason he’s on the run again! You couldn’t hold him off in the castle until he could be apprehended, could you? You let him get away!”
I blink rapidly. How does he know about that?
“She’s also the reason we got these wonderful new positions,” Beauty says graciously.
The prince snorts. “Rumpelstiltskin is out there doing who knows what, and we’ve had to uproot our lives and pull Allison Grace away from the safety of home all because of you.”
“I don’t think he likes you,” Jocelyn whispers in my ear. With glee, I might add.
“How are you so familiar with Stiltskin?” I ask curiously.
The prince growls and walks off muttering.
“Professor Wolfington?” Headmistress Flora appeals.
“I’m on it,” says my favorite teacher. Maybe they can have a beast-to-beast chat.
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Beauty tells us. “Stiltskin has also caused much trouble in our kingdom. He’s gotten many of our subjects to join his Stiltskin Squad. It’s a sore spot with Sebastian since he was unable to stop him. But hopefully now that we’re here…”
“Don’t worry, B. Our goal is to find him and bring him to justice.” Rapunzel puts a hand on Beauty’s shoulder. “In the meantime, we’re just glad you’re here.”