“Is that all?” Tinkerbell said, laughing. “No problem.”
“What? Really?”
“Sure,” she said. “Not a big deal. I’m happy to help.”
“Wow,” I said. “I’m so relieved. To be honest, I kind of thought you were going to laugh in my face.”
“I probably should have,” she said. “But what can I say? I’m a big softie.”
Tinkerbell grabbed a little jar from her bedroom and came back to the living room.
“Don’t tell anyone I did this,” she said.
I pretended to zip my lips and throw away the key. Then she let her wings come out. They expanded beautifully, spread wide, and then she started to bounce up and down. Instantly, I could see the dust floating from her wings. After a few seconds, she let her wings go back inside of her body and she walked around, scooped up the dust, and shoved it in the jar.
“I bet that’s enough,” she said.
“Thank you so much. I really can’t begin to thank you enough.”
“You can thank me by bringing me with you.”
“Really?”
“You think I’m going to miss this?”
“Well, no...”
I mean, I really couldn’t deny her, could I?
“Then let’s go.”
Chapter 12
Hook wasn’t exactly happy that I brought Tinkerbell with me, but she also wasn’t going to fight me. She had her fairy dust, and after reminding me that I would still owe her one additional favor after this, and that we weren’t squared up just yet, she came with us to the girl’s dormitory. We climbed the stairs in silence until we got to the top floor. Most of the students were in classes or afternoon activities, so the floor was totally empty.
“This is it?” She asked, looking at the little door.
It wasn’t much to look at, really. It was the kind of thing you really didn’t notice unless you were specifically looking for it. In fact, a few times, I’d walked by and not even seen it. Sometimes, even when I was looking for it, I couldn’t find it.
“This is it,” I said.
“It’s probably warded,” she said. “That’s how they keep people away.”
“Doesn’t warding make a place invisible?”
“Nah,” she shook her head. “In this case, it just makes it so the door isn’t noticeable.”
She ran her hands over the door and tried opening it, but then she nodded.
“Okay, let’s try.”
She produced a little fireball and held it up to the locking plate. The ball changed sizes and got larger and smaller. Finally, though, it settled on a size about two inches in diameter, and we all heard a little locking sound.
“Got it.”
The ball disappeared, and she opened the door.
“Ladies,” Hook motioned toward the open door.
I looked at Tinkerbell, but she just shook her head.
“This was your idea,” she said.
“I don’t really want to go first.”
“Too bad,” Hook pushed me, and I practically fell into the room. We all went inside and then Hook closed the door behind us. It was pitch black in there, though, until she produced another fireball. It floated just above her hand and it filled the space with light.
“There we go,” Tinkerbell said, motioning to a staircase that was just in front of us. “Stairs. That’s good, right? It means we’re in the right place.”
We’d found the entrance to the upper floors, for sure. Now it was just a matter of finding out what was up there. We made our way upstairs. Each step felt like it was going to fall out from under us. There was no railing to grip onto: only the wood-paneled walls. I reluctantly placed my hand on the wall as I walked up the narrow staircase. Hook was behind me with the light, and it cast different shadows that seemed to dance around and mock me.
“Don’t be scared,” she said from behind me.
“Easy for you to say.”
“Yep.”
She seemed unbothered at my obvious discomfort over what was happening. I kept moving, though, making my way up the stairs. When I reached the top, there was a door. Unlike the other one, this was unlocked. I turned the knob and pushed it open. Then I stepped inside.
“Woah,” Tinkerbell said as she stepped up beside me.
“What is this place?” Hook asked.
“It’s a treasure trove,” I said.
And it was.
The entire space was filled with different items that could only be described as magical, and it seemed crazy that they would be stored up in the attic of the girl’s dormitory. Shouldn’t these things have been in a museum somewhere? That would have made more sense. The entire floor contained boxes, trunks, and shelves. They were covered with things like golden apples, books, and crowns. I walked around, looking at things, but was careful not to touch anything. Hook’s light seemed to fill the entire space, so it was easy to see now.
But I didn’t see the rose, and that’s what I was looking for.
“There’s another floor,” Tinkerbell said.
“Maybe it’s up there,” Hook added.
“I thought for sure it would be here,” I looked around. Finally, I shrugged, and I went to one of the walls that had a ladder leading up.
“You’re going to have to go first,” I told Hook. “You’re the one with the light.”
“Whatever.”
She climbed up and when she reached the top of the ladder, she pushed against the ceiling. A panel popped open and she climbed up, disappearing from sight. The light vanished from the room, and Tinkerbell sighed.
“Creepy,” she muttered, and I started to climb up the ladder. When I reached the top, I moved to where Hook was. Tinkerbell appeared a moment later.
But the space was just...
Empty.
“Something used to be here,” Hook said. She pointed to the center of the room where there was a little table. There was nothing on it, though. The entire space was dusty and dirty, and aside from some footprints, it looked like no one had been up here in years.
“What?”
“The rose, maybe?”
I looked at the little table. Walking around it, I noticed a set of handprints. Someone had been here at least sort-of recently. There was a second set of handprints, though, that had sort of smudged the first. Had there been two people up here?
I knew that Belle had been looking for the rose. That much was obvious. Her room was totally filled with lore and stories and information about it, but had someone else been up here, too? Had they, too, been searching?
“Look at the ground,” I said, suddenly feeling like I had missed something. “How many sets of footprints do you see?”
“Aside from ours,” Hook said, looking down. “Uh, two?”
Two sets.
There had been two different people up here.
And they’d found whatever was on the little table.
And they’d taken it.
But who?
Who would have come up to this place?
We had struck out.
It was a dead end.
I had thought – no, I had hoped – that finding this place would reveal not only my roommate, but the place she had become trapped somehow. I thought that we’d be able to find her. I thought that we’d be able to locate her and save her and free her from whatever hell she’d gotten herself trapped in.
But I had been wrong.
I sighed and sat down on the wood floor. I pulled my knees up to my chest and breathed in and out. It reminded me of all the other times I’d failed as a person, as a girl. There had been so many other times when I’d screwed up, when I’d let people down.
I’d never been a particularly good student. That was one of the reasons my foster families hadn’t exactly loved me. I’d let them down repeatedly. I’d messed up. I’d been impatient and rude and a bad student.
Now I was at Enchanted Academy and I had a second chance to make a first impression on the world.
I had a second chance to totally redefine who I was.
And I was totally, absolutely, and completely blowing it.
I looked up to see Hook and Tinkerbell just staring at me curiously. They weren’t looking at me with anger or judgment. They were more...confused. But why?
“What is it?” I asked.
“What’s wrong with you?” Tinkerbell said.
“Are you hurt?” Hook asked. “Because I know some first aid magic.”
“I’m not hurt, and nothing’s wrong.”
“You’re a bad liar,” Hook pointed out. She sat down next to me and looked at me. “What’s the deal?”
“I...”
How could I put it into words?
I didn’t want my new friends to think less of me for what I’d done and how I’d messed up, but that was exactly what was going to happen. I didn’t want them to know what a screw-up I was.
“I failed,” I finally blurted out.
“What? How?” Tinkerbell seemed genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t find her. I didn’t find Belle. I didn’t save her.”
“Since when does the fate of someone’s life rest on your shoulders alone?” Hook asked. She shook her head. Then she patted my knee. “You have to calm down.”
“Calm down? How can I calm down at a time like this?”
“Easy,” Tinkerbell walked around, but didn’t join us on the ground. She looked at the dust and dirt and frowned just a little bit: just enough to let me know that there was no way she was sitting in it. “Just think about what it is that you want.”
“I want to find my friend.”
“Okay, well, we came up with a plan for that, and it didn’t work. Now we need a different plan.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I said.
“It kind of is,” she said. “I mean, she can’t get anymore missing than she already is, right?”
“Well, when you think of it that way,” I said. “I guess that makes sense.”
“So what do we know?” Hook said. She dropped her chin in her hands and looked at me like I was the leader of the group. She looked at me like I could guide her. She looked at me like I was the one who knew exactly what I was doing, but I didn’t feel that way at all. I felt out of place and like I was lost. I was floating.
But it had been my idea to go after Beauty.
And I was the one who knew the most about her.
I racked my brain, trying to think of everything I knew about the girl who lived in my room. There had to be something there. There had to be something that could tell us about where she’d been. I just had to think of it.
“She’s been studying flowers forever,” I said.
“Different kinds or just roses?”
“Just roses. She has pictures of them on her wall.”
“And in her journal,” Tinkerbell added.
“Yeah. She has a bunch of things written about them. She’s created story after story featuring them. She’s retold the story of the enchantress or sorceress and the enchanted rose. She’s done it all.”
“Then how did she find this place?” Hook motioned around the room.
“It’s her second year,” I said. “People talk.”
“Not like that, they don’t. Has she been hanging out with anyone else?”
“What do you mean?”
“Has there been someone else in her life that might have told her there were things stored up here? An upper-level student, maybe?”
“Not really. She mostly just studied alone in the bedroom.”
But there was something that had been bothering me.
There was something there, at the back of my mind, and it was just out of reach. A memory, maybe, or an idea. A snippet of a conversation overheard. Who else knew about Belle and the flowers? Who else knew she loved roses?
And then I remembered.
“On the night of the fire,” I said. “Snow White made a comment to me.”
“I remember that,” Tinkerbell snapped her fingers.
Hook just looked confused.
“What kind of comment?” She asked.
“She said that Beauty was chasing after flowers,” I said.
“And dreaming big,” Tinkerbell added.
“So she knew. It sounds like she knew what Belle was up to.”
“How would she know?” I asked. “They never hung out together.”
“There are two sets of handprints,” Tinkerbell said, once again pointing to the little table. “I say we go ask where she was that night and get some answers for ourselves.”
The last thing I wanted to do was go face off with Snow White. I wouldn’t label her a bully, necessarily. She was kind of mean and a little strange. She had groupies and she was popular, but nobody wanted to mess with her. She was a tough girl and she was very in control of herself at all times. I had the feeling that if you made her mad, you’d regret it forever, and I didn’t want to make her mad.
But Belle was still gone.
She was still missing.
And it was a little ridiculous that nobody could find her.
If Snow White was there that night, she would know what had happened to Belle. I couldn’t guarantee that she’d be willing to talk with me, but she knew what had happened. She must know. Maybe there was a way we could convince her to talk to us. If she had followed Belle, or if they’d been searching together, then she might know where my roommate was located.
Tinkerbell had explained this rose to me very carefully, and she’d made it clear that when you made a wish, it would definitely backfire. You’d get what you said you wanted, but in a way you couldn’t enjoy. You’d get what you wanted in a terrible way that was practically irreversible.
“Okay,” I said, looking at the two girls. “Let’s go find ourselves some answers.”
“Do you think she’ll help us?”
“Not really.”
“I don’t think she’s going to have a choice,” Hook said.
I looked over at the older girl, and I wondered what her story was. Hook didn’t really seem to have any friends. She was kind of always by herself. She was a true loner. She didn’t seem mean, though. She didn’t seem like a giant bully. She just seemed...misunderstood.
“Why not?” Tinkerbell asked. “Are you going to fight her if she misbehaves?”
“Trust me, little fairy. I’m not going to let her off easy.”
Together, the three of us made our way down the ladder, through the treasure room once more, and back down the stairs. By the time we reached the normal living quarters, we were all tired, dusty, and sweaty. What I really wanted, more than anything else, was to just go back to my room and take a shower. I didn’t want to spend another second looking for Snow White. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice because it seemed as though Snow White had found us.
We opened the door to the main living quarters, and she was standing there, waiting, with a frown on her face.
“I have something I think you should see,” she said.
Then she turned and walked away.
Hook, Tinkerbell, and I all exchanged glances. What the hell was she talking about? Without a word, we followed her, but I had a feeling we were getting ourselves into something that wouldn’t have an easy escape.
Chapter 13
We reached Snow White’s suite and went inside. Her three roommates were sitting in the living room chatting, but when we showed up, Snow shook her head at them.
“Leave,” she said, and though she was speaking magic, her roommates simply got up and left the suite.
“Really?” Tink asked. “That’s all it takes? One word, and they leave?”
Snow White shrugged.
“I’m the queen around here,” she said. “And they need to know their place.”
“Wow, you just sound like a total joy to live with,” said Hook.
Snow White shot her a look that silenced her instantly, and Hook clamped her mouth shut. There would be n
o more speaking from her, apparently. Okay.
“Not that I’m not grateful to have easily located you,” I said. “But why are we here? Do you know where Beauty is?”
“Yeah,” Snow White said. “I know. Sit down.”
“Your commands are no good here,” Tinkerbell said. “We aren’t going to listen to you just because you’re feeling bossy.”
“Oh, I’m sawwy,” Snow White said in a baby-ish voice. “Does the wittle fawwy feel offended?”
Tinkerbell just glared at her.
“Woah, let’s not make fun of each other,” I said. “Please? Kind words only, okay. It sounds like we have the same goal here, so let’s keep focused on that. I, for one, am totally tired, and I’d be happy to sit down in exchange for information,” I said. Then I very pointedly sat down on one of the very colorful pillows that filled the floors of the room.
Snow White’s living room was almost completely identical to the one I shared with my own roommates, which was nice. There was plenty of space for us to all spread out and sit down comfortably while we waited to find out exactly what Snow wanted to tell us.
Tinkerbell and Hook followed my lead and sat down, but Snow White stayed standing.
“Okay,” she said, wringing her hands. “It’s like this.”
Hook mumbled something under her breath, which Snow White pointedly ignored, and then she started speaking.
“I knew Beauty was up to something last week. We’re both in the witchmaster’s program, you know?”
“I didn’t know that,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s pretty exclusive,” Snow White said. “Only the top students are in the program, and it’s really hard to keep up with all of the homework.”
“How do you get in?” I asked.
“You have to be chosen,” Hook said. “And you have to be third-year or up. Usually.”
“Belle’s a second-year student,” Tinkerbell pointed out.
“She was hand-selected by the teachers,” Snow White explained. “And she was one of the best in the program. We had a big project coming up and we were all really worried about it.”
I thought back to my first few days at the academy. I hadn’t really had much of a chance to get to know Belle. She’d seemed sweet and all, but a little busy, and maybe that was why. Apparently, she was trying to prepare her project.
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