Was that what she’d wanted the rose for?
Was she going to use that as her presentation?
Somehow, I didn’t think the teachers would look lightly on that.
“I knew she was up to something,” Snow White said. “We all kept turning in proposals and project ideas, but she was really secretive about hers.”
“Maybe she was just being private.”
“It was more than that,” Snow White said. “It was like she didn’t want anyone to steal her idea.”
“Okay, so what happened?”
“One night, I followed her.”
“Stalker, much?” Tinkerbell muttered under her breath.
“Hey,” I jabbed her gently with my elbow. “Not helpful. Remember: kind words only, okay? I know that we’re all feeling tense, but let’s just figure out where to go from here, okay?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Snow White bit her lip and looked at us nervously again. She still seemed really scared and a little upset, like she didn’t know what to expect. She kind of seemed like she thought we were going to judge her, which was totally not the case.
“We aren’t going to be mad,” I finally said.
“Okay, Mom,” Hook rolled her eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s the kind of thing a mom says when you’re definitely going to be in huge trouble,” Tinkerbell pointed out.
“Yeah,” Snow White agreed. “It kind of is.”
“Sorry,” I said. I almost added, “I’ve never had a mom, so how would I know?” But I caught myself just in time. Nobody needed to know that about me. They didn’t need to know I was a total freak and kind of a loser. Not just yet, anyway. I was sure they’d find out later on their own.
“Anyway,” Snow White gave me a nasty look and kept talking. “I followed her because I knew she was getting into trouble.”
“She went to the attic, huh?”
“It’s not so much an attic as it is a forbidden floor,” Snow White said. “But yeah. I didn’t even notice that place before. She managed to get in easily, though.”
“How’d she do it?” Hook asked. I knew why. She was wondering what kind of charm or spell Beauty had used to make her way into the forbidden rooms.
“She had a charm.”
“What kind of charm?”
“Like this one?” I asked, holding out mine.
“No,” she shook her head. “It looked like one of the master keys the teachers carry. I think she swiped it off of one of them.”
“Wow,” Hook smiled. “Who knew Beauty could be a little bit of a troublemaker? I’m impressed.”
“I’m not,” I said. “We still don’t know where she is.”
“I’m getting to that,” Snow said. “But you keep interrupting me.”
She glared and finally, we all settled down and shut our mouths, anxious to hear what happened next.
“I followed her,” she said. “It wasn’t easy because I had to stay out of sight. I ducked into a doorway and then, when she opened the door, I ran across the hall and darted after her. I managed to sneak in before the door shut behind her. She was already halfway up the stairs and didn’t see me.”
Snow shook her head, and for just a second, I felt a little bad for her. I probably shouldn’t have. After all, I knew what Snow was. She was a mean girl. She was the kind of girl who made fun of other girls. She liked to tease and laugh and have fun with other people at their expense.
But she also seemed kind of anxious.
And kind of scared.
“I went up the stairs, and I saw her looking around. She was searching for something, but I didn’t know what, and I kind of thought it was going to be for her project, you know?”
Snow was sweating.
She started pacing the room and finally, she stopped and just blurted it out.
“She found the rose, and she made a wish. I heard her.”
“You heard her? So what happened? Where’s the rose?” I asked, jumping up. I looked around, as though it was going to appear out of nowhere, but she just shook her head.
“It took her.”
“What do you mean?” Hook asked. “It’s supposed to give you your wish.”
“Oh, it gave her the wish. It gave her a little more than that.”
Snow turned and walked into her bedroom. She came out a moment later holding a rose in a glass case. I knew instantly that it was the rose. It was the enchanted rose. It was the rose we’d been searching for.
They had found it.
I reached for it, but Snow took a step back.
“Wait,” she said. “And look.”
She set the glass down in the center of the floor and we all gathered around it. The rose was there. It was lying flat in the little glass box. The box itself wasn’t more than about seven or eight inches long. It was just long enough to hold the rose itself. I watched, looking at it, and then I saw it. Movement. I thought it was a bug at first, or an insect, but then I realized that the sealed glass enclosure wouldn’t allow anything to get inside.
And then I realized what I was looking at.
“She’s inside,” I said, looking up at Snow. Tinkerbell gasped and Hook looked like she was going to be sick.
“She wished that she had more time,” Snow said. “And she got it.” Snow looked down at the glass. Belle was now visibly standing beside the rose and she looked up at us. She was so small that I could barely see her, but I recognized her clothes, and her hair, and her beautiful bow that she always wore. “And now, trapped in glass, she has all the time in the world.”
Chapter 14
“Why do you have the rose here?” I asked. “Why didn’t you go get help?”
“First off, calm down,” Snow White said. “She told me not to tell anyone.”
“What do you mean?” Hook squinted, looking at Belle. “How can you communicate? Can you hear her? Looks like she’s too quiet to be understood properly.”
“I cast a fogging spell and she wrote on the glass,” Snow said. She shrugged and looked down at Belle. “I mean, I tried to get her out that first night, but we all know how well that ended up.”
“The fire,” Tinkerbell said. “That was you?”
“Yeah. I brought her down here and tried to blast her out, but uh,” she tapped the glass. “Apparently, it’s fireproof, and my bedroom is not.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “But I think the time for not asking for help has come and gone. It’s time to get help.”
“How can we get help?” Snow White asked. “Nobody knows how to break this spell.”
“That’s not quite true,” I turned to Tinkerbell.
“Me?” She pointed to herself. “I don’t know how to break it.”
“That’s not true at all. You told me that to break the spell, you need blood of ice and a heart of stone.”
“I still don’t know what that means.”
“When the fire happened, we found out that the headmistress is an ice dragon,” Hook said quietly. She looked up. “Do you think her blood can help?”
“I think that our friend is trapped, and it’s time for us to be brave,” I said. I stood up and picked up the glass case. “Belle, hang on tight. We’re going to get you out of there.”
“It’s a bad idea,” Snow White said. “We’re all going to be expelled.”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s more important.”
“You really are a beauty, aren’t you?” Tinkerbell said, looking at the tiny girl trapped in glass. “I always wondered why people called her that,” Tink said. “And to be honest, I was always a little jealous. Not now, though. Now I know why. Just look at her. She’s...”
“She’s perfect,” I said.
Belle was sitting beside the rose now, and she looked like a tiny little doll. I was careful as I lifted the box. I didn’t want to jostle it.
“Wait,” Hook said. “We can’t just carry that out of here.”
“Why not?”
“
No, she’s right,” Tinkerbell said. “If the wrong person sees, then we aren’t even going to get a chance to get to the headmistress.”
“Yeah,” Snow White said. “You can’t exactly walk into her office and demand a meeting, anyway.”
“I’m certain she’ll want to see us,” I said.
“And I’m certain that I’m not going to get kicked out of school because you’re impatient and brash,” Snow White glared at me.
I looked at the girls for just a minute, and I realized that despite the fact that I really, really wanted to be right in this situation, I knew that I wasn’t. And I knew that they had grown up around magic. They’d been a part of this world for as long as they could remember. Chances were that they might know something I didn’t.
“Cover it,” Snow White said.
“Okay.” I looked around for a minute and finally saw one of her roommate’s robes lying across a cushion. I grabbed it and wrapped the little glass case. Satisfied, I motioned to it, and the other girls nodded. Then we walked out.
“We need some sort of plan,” Hook whispered.
“Getting to the headmistress isn’t as simple as just walking to her office,” Tinkerbell said.
“What about a distraction?” I asked.
It could work, right?
“What kind of distraction?” Tinkerbell asked.
“Well, we’ve got Snow White and Hook,” I said. “You two think you can fight long enough for me and Tinkerbell to sneak into the office?”
“Oh, I’m coming in the office with you,” Snow White said.
“Okay,” Hook shrugged. “I’ll fight the fairy.”
Tinkerbell paled.
“What?”
“Don’t worry,” Hook slung an arm over her shoulder and smiled toothily. “I won’t hurt you. Much.”
Tinkerbell grimaced and looked over at me, as if to get some sort of reassurance, but I couldn’t offer her that. I just shrugged and mouthed “sorry.” We walked the rest of the way in silence and when we finally reached the area where the teachers’ offices were, it was time to go.
The main offices were on the first floor of the castle, and that was where the headmistress’ office was, too. Her space was behind the other teachers’ offices and down a long, narrow corridor. I knew because I’d spotted it on my first day, and the counselor I’d been speaking with told me to stay out of that corridor. Oh, I didn’t want to, though, and now I wouldn’t have to.
The four of us walked into the teachers’ area. There was a small lounge with attached rooms. All of the doors were closed. Snow White and I slinked over, close to the forbidden hallway, and waited patiently as Hook took a deep breath.
“Now listen here, you dumb fairy!” She yelled loudly.
We instantly heard rustling and movement coming from the teachers’ offices.
Good.
It was working.
“I’m not a dumb fairy!” Tinkerbell shrieked, and then she launched herself at Hook.
“Wow,” Snow White said. “I didn’t think they were actually going to fight.”
An alarm sounded, and teachers started pouring out of their offices.
“That’s our cue,” Snow said, and she grabbed my head. She yanked me through the entrance to the little hallway and we started moving quickly. “Usually, this hallway has its own alarm system, but they’ll be so distracted with the other one that they won’t notice this.”
“Good,” I said, but what I was really thinking was that the hallway was creepy and weird and I didn’t like it one bit. We walked down it slowly, carefully. We could hear yelling and shouting back in the distance, but the voices faded away as we kept walking. Luckily, the hallway was fairly well-lit, especially for a creepy place like this.
It turned and twisted, and seemed to go on for a very long time.
“I think we’re underground,” I said.
“No way.”
“Yeah, it’s colder, and we’ve been walking at a slightly downward angle.”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
I rolled my eyes, but then I stopped in my tracks because we were there. We’d done it. We’d found the office. The heavy wooden door in front of us was obviously the headmistress’ personal space. There was a large wooden knocker on the door. Snow gestured to it, letting me know that she fully expected me to be the one to open it, so I walked up, grabbed the knocker, and knocked.
Instantly, the door flew open and she was there.
I’d never seen anything like her.
Helena Hex looked even more intimidating up close.
“Ladies,” she said, looking at us.
Then she didn’t say anything else.
She didn’t ask us why we were there. Obviously, we weren’t supposed to be. It was quite apparent to all of us that we’d broken the rules in order to get into her private chambers. Whether she wanted to punish us for that or not was going to be her decision.
Instead of speaking, I held the box out. It was still wrapped in the robe, but Snow White quickly grabbed it and pulled it off, revealing the box with the rose to the headmistress.
“Oh dear,” she said, taking the rose. She looked at us both and raised an eyebrow. “Who else knows about this?”
“Hook and Tinkerbell,” Snow White instantly said.
“Seriously?” I shot daggers at her with my eyes. If I could have shot actual daggers at her, I would have. What was she thinking?
“Sorry,” she shrugged. “But, I mean, she asked.”
I rolled my eyes and slumped my shoulders. I didn’t want to get Hook or Tinkerbell into anymore trouble than they were already going to be. They’d likely get some sort of weird suspension or detention or other punishment, perhaps, for what they’d done. I didn’t want to be the cause of anything else.
“It’s okay,” the headmistress said. “They won’t be punished. Am I right in thinking that Miss Beauty, here, made the wish on her own?”
“Yes,” I said. “Apparently, she was studying for a project.”
“She wanted to use the rose,” Snow White added.
“Ah,” the headmistress said. “Well, then, come inside.” She stepped back to let us come further into the office and then she closed the door behind us. I looked around the office suspiciously. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. I’d just never been in a place like this before and couldn’t look away.
Helena Hex looked at me, amused.
“See something that interests you?” She asked.
“Everything,” I told her honestly.
The office was filled with books and potions. There were shelves on every single wall from the floor to the ceiling. Each set of bookshelves was stuffed with books and trinkets. It was beautiful. There were several small stone statues, a couple of glass ornaments, and even some flowers that seemed to practically glow.
At the back of the room was a large desk, of course, and that was obviously where Miss Hex ruled the school. I wondered what her job was like or how she’d managed to get it. Being headmistress of a magical school must be pretty much unforgettable.
“Come on,” she said, laughing. She went to the desk and placed the box on there.
“Is there anything we can do?” I asked.
“Of course. The spell is reversible,” she looked at me. “But all magic comes at a cost.”
“What’s the cost?” I asked quietly, not wanting to know. Not really.
Miss Hex looked at me, and she placed her hand on my shoulder.
“It’s not a cost you will have to bear,” she murmured gently. “But it’s important that you understand your friend’s choice has consequences. Even if they aren’t for her.”
She pulled a small knife from her robes. It looked almost like a twisted dagger. Snow White saw and paled instantly. She took a step back, but Miss Hex ignored her. She took a deep breath and then used the dagger to slice her own hand.
“Blood of ice,” she murmured, and she let the blood drip onto the box with the rose inside. Bell
e, inside the box, was running around now, obviously freaking out. I wondered if she could hear us from inside of there. Snow White had seemed to think that Belle could, but I wasn’t so sure. She seemed pretty scared.
“And heart of stone,” Snow White murmured.
Helena went to one of the stone statues that sat on her bookshelves. She picked it up and brought it back to the desk.
“This was given to me by a Darling Witch,” she said.
“Really?” Snow White’s eyes got big. The Darling Witches ruled the magical world, basically, and they were not a people you wanted to mess with.
“Truly,” she said. “It’s a pity.” Helena lifted the stone statue and brought it down on her desk. It shattered into pieces, revealing a tiny stone heart that had been hidden carefully inside the hollow statue. “This one was my favorite.”
She lifted the little heart. I’d never seen anything like it. It was probably about an inch high and was actually shaped like a person’s heart. I wanted to ask Miss Hex about it, but she seemed sad, and she sighed as she held it over the little box with the rose in it. Then she squeezed the heart, crushing it. Bits of the stone dropped and fell, mixing with her ice blood.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the mixture began to glow.
Helena watched as dark smoke began to rise from the mixture on the little box. Snow White stilled.
“Um,” I asked. “Is that supposed to happen?”
Nobody answered me, so I had to trust that they had it under control. If they didn’t, that was going to be just completely awful, so I waited patiently and the smoke filled the room. I heard a noise, and then another, and then I heard screaming. There was a rustling sound, and then something fell, and then the smoke cleared.
And she was there.
Belle was there.
The Beauty was standing in the center of the office, and she looked scared and tired and frightened.
Helena quickly grabbed a blanket from a drawer, went to Beauty, and wrapped it around her.
“T-T-Thank you,” Belle managed to say.
The Beauty Page 9