A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(110)
“Thank you for everything, Hagetta!” Conner called behind them.
“Best of luck, children!” she said, and waved them off.
They flew so high into the night sky Hagetta’s cottage disappeared from view. All they could see was a sea of trees that stretched into the distance for miles around. Lester tirelessly flapped his wings until the air became too thin and he couldn’t fly any higher.
“This is good, boy,” Alex said, and raised her wand over her head. “Conner, hold my wand with me—you’re helping me do this.”
“Me? I don’t know how to do magic!”
“Yes you do,” Alex assured him. “You’re just as capable as me—you just have to believe it! No matter how much you deny it, there is just as much magic in your blood as there is in mine. Grandma taught me that the key to magic is having confidence—and with your help, I know we can make this spell work.”
Conner was hesitant. “Okay, but if this doesn’t work, it’s not my fault.”
“I know it will!” Alex said. “Just believe you can do this! And hold on, we’re about to go very fast!”
Conner reluctantly grabbed the end of his sister’s wand and they raised it together.
The world appeared to go in slow motion as they raised the wand above their heads. The twins could feel magic rush through their bodies and into the wand in their hands. Not only did they feel it surging from inside of them, but they also felt it traveling through the air around them. It was as if they were summoning all the magic in the world to help them cast this spell.
The twins pointed the wand into the sky directly ahead of them and a gigantic blast of white light erupted from the tip and surrounded them. Like a cannonball, they shot through the air and headed toward the Fairy Kingdom. Alex and Conner had turned themselves and Lester into a shooting star that bolted across the sky faster than anything had ever traveled before.
It was so bright everyone and everything in all the kingdoms below stared up at it in bewilderment. Upon seeing it, every soldier of the Happily Ever After Assembly armies, on duty or in hiding, turned into his or her own sphere of light and instantly shot through the sky to join the twins. The more kingdoms they traveled across, the more soldiers were attached, and the larger the star became. It was as if thousands and thousands of shooting stars had been launched from the ground and then came together to form a massive comet.
With one flick of a wand, Alex and Conner had performed the greatest act of magic ever achieved. They united all the armies in the world so they could finish off the Armée who had threatened their home. Together they flew across the night sky, heading to the Fairy Palace with enough light to re-start the sun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE BATTLE FOR THE FAIRY KINGDOM
Emerelda and Mother Goose paced on the grand balcony of the Fairy Palace. One by one, the other fairies of the Fairy Council appeared beside them. Xanthous was the last fairy to arrive after retrieving the others and immediately ran to the railing and searched the gardens below.
“Have Alex and Conner arrived with the other armies yet?” he asked the others.
“What do you mean ‘with the other armies’?” Emerelda asked.
“Xanny, calm down for a second and tell us what’s going on,” Mother Goose said.
Xanthous turned back to the other fairies and his flames flickered as he grew anxious. “Alex and Conner were going to collect the armies of the other kingdoms and bring them here before the Grande Armée arrived.”
“But it would take days for all those soldiers to travel here,” Violetta said.
“Alex was going to cast a spell so they would all arrive at the same time,” Xanthous explained.
“What kind of spell could do that?” Skylene asked.
“That would take more magic than all our powers put together,” Tangerina added.
Xanthous was frustrated by their lack of faith and his flames rose. “Ladies, we’ve trusted her since the beginning; we can’t start doubting her now.”
Mother Goose went to the railing and became fixated on something moving in the trees beyond the gardens. “Well, I sure hope whatever spell she tried works, because the Grande Armée is here!” she said.
The fairies joined her at the railing and looked into the distance. Two thousand of the remaining Grande Armée soldiers appeared through the trees. They came from all directions and completely surrounded the gardens and the Fairy Palace. Soldiers positioned themselves in rows and raised their rifles. They wheeled cannons and directed them toward the palace.
At the edge of the gardens, a dozen or so soldiers planted seven tall poles into the ground and stacked piles of hay and dried twigs around the base of the poles.
“What on earth are they doing?” Rosette asked.
Three carriages appeared and were steered to the poles. Only the first carriage had horses while the other two followed behind it magically. The fairies on the balcony screamed and covered their mouths as soon as they realized they were the same carriages that had been sent on the secret path. They could see the kings, queens, and others trapped inside them.
The kings and queens were yanked out of the carriages and taken to the poles. Princess Hope and Princess Ash were forced out of their mothers’ arms and thrown into a carriage with Emmerich and Bree.