A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(113)

Conner jumped back onto Lester, and with one large flap of his wings, Lester flew the twins to Emerelda’s side. Alex pointed her wand at the soldiers shooting at them and their rifles turned into large snakes that wrapped around their hands.

Emerelda was so exhausted she could barely stand. The twins helped her to her feet and placed her on Lester’s back.

“Lester, take Emerelda to the Fairy Palace,” Alex said.

The gander squawked and took off with the green fairy draped across his back. Conner looked around the gardens and saw that most of the armies had made it to their assigned posts.

“Now what do we do?” Alex asked her brother.

“We’ll get the royals and our friends to safety,” Conner said.

The twins ran toward the front of the gardens where the carriages and poles had been placed.

“Kill them!” the general demanded as the twins charged toward them.

“But sir, they’re children,” Colonel Rembert said.

“If they want to fight like men, then they can die like men,” General Marquis said. “Now fire!”

The Grande Armée soldiers around him guarding the captive royals pointed their rifles directly at the twins. Alex raised her wand and waved it toward their feet. Vines like leafy nets shot out of the ground and pulled the general and his men to the earth. They struggled against the vines but Alex knew they wouldn’t hold them down for long.

“Good job, Alex!” Froggy said.

“Nice one!” Jack said.

“Untie me first!” Red cried.

Alex pointed her wand at her brother’s palm and a long, shiny, silver sword appeared in his hand. He used the sword to slice open the ropes binding Froggy’s and Red’s hands together first. As Conner cut the ropes, Alex stood guard.

Several Grande Armée soldiers ran to their general’s aid and Alex swished her wand through the air at them. Their rifles were transformed into long-stemmed roses that pricked their fingers before they could shoot.

“Jack,” Goldilocks whispered to her husband, who was tied next to her.

“Yes, my love?”

“I have something I need to tell you, and now might be the only chance I get.”

“This may be the worst predicament we’ve been in yet, but there’s no need for good-bye,” he said.

“No, that’s not it,” Goldilocks said. “It’s what I kept from you on the secret path. Jack, I’m pregnant.”

As if the world had suddenly been paused, Jack lost all sense of sound and thought. All he could see was his beautiful wife beside him and all he could think about was the beautiful news she had shared with him.

“What?” Jack said with an enormous smile. “You mean it?”

Goldilocks smiled and happily nodded. “Yes—does it make you happy?”

Jack laughed and tears filled his eyes. “Even though we just barely survived an execution and war is all around us, you’ve made me the happiest man in the world,” he said.

Conner ran to Jack and Goldilocks next and sliced open the ropes around their hands and feet. “You two look way too happy to be in the middle of a war right now,” he said, and stared at them oddly.

“Alex, do you mind supplying us with hardware?” Goldilocks asked, and she and Jack held out their empty hands. Alex flicked her wand at each of them and supplied them with a sword and an axe.

“We’ll finish untying the royals; you two get the kids to safety,” Jack told the twins. He gestured to the carriage behind them, where Bree and Emmerich were trapped inside. The carriage door had been locked but Conner sliced it open with his sword in one strike—he was impressing himself with this sword business.

“Conner! It’s so good to see you!” Bree threw her arms around his neck.

“Are you guys all right?” Conner asked his friends.

“Besides jumping out of our skin with fear, we’re fine,” Emmerich said with large eyes.

He was holding Princess Ash in his arms and Bree helped Princess Hope out of the carriage after her. Conner whistled for Lester and the goose returned from the palace in a matter of seconds. “Lester, take these four to the palace, too! Make sure they get inside safely—they mean a lot to me.”

Lester saluted him with the tip of his wing and crouched down so Bree and Emmerich could climb aboard his back.

“Are you coming?” Bree asked Conner.

“I’ll be there soon.” He winked at her. “But don’t worry.”

“Impossible,” she said.

It made Conner feel like a million bucks but he knew this was no time to be sentimental. He nodded at Lester and the goose took off toward the palace with his friends before Bree could see him blush again. Bree and Emmerich held on to the little princesses tightly as they flew. Conner watched them go until he saw them land safely on the grand balcony in the distance.

Sounds of gunfire and cannons came less and less as the Grande Armée began running out of bullets and cannonballs. Most of the French soldiers tossed their firearms aside and charged toward the gardens with their swords. The Happily Ever After Assembly armies ran out from the trees and boulders shielding them and fought them. The echoes of gunfire were replaced with the clashing of swords—the real fight had begun.

Jack and Goldilocks sliced through all the ropes binding the kings and queens to the poles. Little Bo was the last one freed, but being saved seemed like the last thing on her mind. She searched the rows of Grande Armée soldiers surrounding the gardens as if she had lost someone in a crowd. Once Jack cut through the ropes around her wrists, she ran straight into the gardens with no explanation of where she was going.