Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1)(45)

Kayla gasps. “Alva?”

Alva laughs. “Yes, my gullible pet. Gottie and Alva are one and the same.” She pulls Kayla toward her and whispers in her ear. “You were useful gathering the information that I needed, but now you’ve served your purpose.” She opens a gate to a dungeon, and Kayla is flung through the air and dropped inside. The door shuts behind her. Kayla grabs the bars.

“I did everything you asked,” Kayla stutters, her wings popping in and out. “You promised if I did, you’d help me, Gottie.”

“Gottie’s been dead for years, you fool!” Alva thunders. “I have allowed the world to think otherwise so I could plan my return without ever being spotted. I only needed a young fairy with thoughts as dark as yours to do my bidding, which you’ve done marvelously.” She looks our way and I cringe. “Not a soul is on to us, but these delinquents here.”

So Rapunzel’s captor has bit the dust and Sleeping Beauty’s dream-maker, who no one has seen in an eternity, is pulling all the strings? Talk about being duped.

“It was all so easy. When Rumpel told me of your wishes, I knew you were the one I was looking for. I suggested that Rumpel make your family forget you, and he did.” Her grin makes me feel cold. “I couldn’t risk them remembering you at some point. That’s why I eventually turned them all into hollow trees.”

“No!” Kayla crumples to the floor of her cell. Anger builds up inside me as I watch Kayla sob.

“Yes!” Alva sounds like a snake. “They had to be taken care of, just like you all will be. And then I will rule Enchantasia, and the royals will burn.” Within moments, Ollie, Maxine, Jax, and I are picked up and sent flying into the cell adjacent to Kayla. As soon as I drop, I make a run for the door and Alva zaps me with her mirror. I try to move, but it feels like I’m stuck in molasses. And that’s when Jocelyn is flung into the cell with us. She topples into Ollie and Maxine, knocking Maxine out cold.

“Alva, what are you doing?” Harlow’s voice is shrill. “My sister has done nothing to harm your plan.”

“She’s a liability, just like they are,” Alva says coolly.

“But—” Harlow moves toward her, and purple bolts shoot from Alva’s hand.

“No buts or I’ll dispose of you as well,” Alva says. “I can do this on my own, or have you forgotten how you let me down the last time?”

Harlow hangs her head.

“Harlow!” Jocelyn races to the bars and rattles them, but Harlow does not look up. I see Jocelyn’s lips start to move, and she begins to chant. I wonder if she’ll be able to break through the bars that hold us. Alva notices and flings bolts toward the bars. Jocelyn goes flying back, falling into me.

“Stop bumping into me,” I grumble, flinging her off me.

“It’s no use,” Jax says as Ollie cradles Maxine’s head. Kayla rocks back and forth, seemingly oblivious to what’s going on around her. “We can’t break these bars.”

We all watch as Alva gives her gargoyles instructions. She glances in her mirror, and I can just make out the tiny figures in the frame. They must be the royal court, which is being held upstairs with Flora. “Go! Check on them and make sure the magic is holding. After that we can begin the spell,” she tells one of the gargoyles and he flies off only to return moments later. “Grrr…that’s true. You can’t be seen. I’ll do it myself. Harlow, watch them!” She points to Jocelyn. “All of them. If I return and she’s not here…”

“Yes, Alva,” Harlow says, but her voice sounds hollow.

Once Alva’s gone, Harlow walks toward our cell, her eyes on Jocelyn. “I’m so sorry, sister.” The remaining gargoyle paces in front of our cages.

Seconds later, I see a radish roll past me. Harlow peers at it curiously as the gargoyle snatches it. He gobbles it down and drops in a heap.

“That’s one problem solved,” Ollie says cheerily, opening his coat to reveal more radishes.

“Harlow, you know she can’t complete the spell without both mirrors,” Jocelyn says, shaking. There are purple bruises on her hands from where she’s been hit by Alva’s rays. “Give us yours.”

“Your only shot would be to aim my mirror at hers and take both out, but she’ll kill you before you can even raise your arm,” Harlow says. “Besides, the minute she notices my mirror is missing…” Her face crumbles.

“Is there anything else we can use?” I ask.

“No, you fool!” Harlow snaps, whirling toward me. Any sympathy she has for her sister, she doesn’t have for me. Her voice is full of rage, and the deafening sound sends rocks falling from the cracked ceiling. We shrink back. “If there was something I could use to get my sister out of here, don’t you think I would have?”

Jax clings to the bars. “She’s betrayed you the way she’s betrayed everyone else. If you want to save your sister, you have to help us.”

Ollie looks up from where Maxine lies. Her chest rises and falls so I know she’s still breathing, but the bruise on her head looks ugly. “Maybe we could trick her. Give her a phony mirror.”

“How are we supposed to do that, genius?” Jocelyn snaps.

“You could create one,” I say, thinking aloud. “If you can create a dance partner in detention, then you can make a lousy little gold mirror.”