A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(122)

“I know,” Conner said bashfully. “I don’t know how to talk to girls—but in my defense, Bree is the first girl I ever met that I understood whatsoever!”

She stared at him peculiarly. “Puppy love has nothing to do with what I’m about to say,” she said. “It’s about the portal in Neuschwanstein Castle the three of you traveled through. There was a minor detail I forgot to mention when I was telling you about it.”

“What’s that?” he asked, trying to think of what she could be referring to. “We were stuck in it for a couple days but once the portal opened all the way we got here pretty smoothly.”

“That’s the thing—you weren’t meant to,” Mother Goose explained. “I told the Brothers Grimm to lead the Grande Armée into the Bavarian portal because I had bewitched it. I enchanted it so only someone of magic blood could travel through it easily. Any mortal traveling through it would be stuck inside for two hundred years; that’s how we trapped the Grande Armée. You would have traveled here without a hitch, but if Bree and Emmerich were mortal they would still be in it.”

Conner’s eyes blinked rapidly as he wrapped his head around what she was saying. “Are you telling me that Bree and Emmerich have magic in their blood?”

“That’s the only explanation,” she said. “Although I don’t know how it’s possible.”

Conner thought for a moment. An answer surfaced in his mind, based on all the information he had acquired during their journey.

“Wait, the lion statue told us you transferred some of your blood into Wilhelm Grimm’s so he could play the panpipe and access the portal,” he said.

“That’s right,” she said.

“Then is it possible Bree and Emmerich are descendants of Wilhelm Grimm?” he asked.

Mother Goose nodded as she pondered the conclusion. “Anything is possible,” she said.

It was mind-boggling. Magic always worked in mysterious ways but it was astonishing that Conner had somehow crossed paths with the two people out of billions in the Otherworld who had magic in their blood. Bree and Emmerich must have been destined from birth to find the Land of Stories, just as Alex and Conner were.

“But if they’re not related to Wilhelm Grimm, I wonder how else magic became a part of their DNA,” Mother Goose said. “Someone else may have slipped between dimensions undetected in the past… but who?”



Alex walked through the halls of the Fairy Palace alone. It had been a very long and sad day and she desperately wanted to find a place she could be by herself. Regardless of her quest, Alex was faced with unwanted company when someone popped out from behind a pillar and startled her.

“Hello, Alex,” Rook said.

He was the last person she wanted to see. “What are you doing here?”

“I snuck into the palace to see you,” he told her. He adjusted his right arm, which was in a sling. He had received an injury fighting the dragon with the unicorns.

“I heard about you and the unicorns,” Alex said. “How is Cornelius?”

“He’s fine,” Rook said. “He chipped his horn in the fall but you can’t really tell.”

“It was very brave of you and I’m thankful,” she said. “There’s a witch named Hagetta in the Dwarf Forests. Take your father to her. Tell her I sent you and she’ll heal both of your wounds—but I can’t help you anymore. I meant what I said in the gardens, I don’t want to see you again.”

She continued down the hall and Rook limped after her. Apparently he had sprained his ankle in the fall, too, but Alex didn’t trust him enough to believe his injuries were genuine.

“I know I broke your trust, but I did it to save my father and the other villagers,” Rook said. “You have to understand I had no choice.”

Alex quickly turned back to him. “I know someday I’ll understand that,” she said. “But there is always a choice, and as the Fairy Godmother I’ll always have to make the most difficult ones—who to help and who not to help, whose life to save and whose life not to save, which kingdom to protect and which kingdom not to protect. Those are the terrible decisions I have to make and it’s a burden I shouldn’t expect you to carry with me. I can’t blame you for making choices I wouldn’t. I can’t share that responsibility with you, and that responsibility is my life.”

“So that’s it, then,” Rook said sadly. “After all the wonderful talks and walks we’ve shared, one bump in the road comes along and we call it quits?”

“It’s not a bump, it’s a fork,” Alex said. “We’ll never be able to stay on the same path—it wouldn’t be fair to either of us. I’m sorry.”

She walked briskly down the hall from him so he couldn’t keep up. Rook called after her but she didn’t look back.

“I’ll change your mind one day, Alex!” he cried. “That’s a promise!”

Alex pushed through two heavy doors and walked into the Hall of Dreams. She knew she would find privacy there. She sat down on the invisible floor and looked out at all the bright orbs representing people’s hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, the endless room wasn’t as full as it had been when her grandmother showed it to her. Many people had been disheartened during the last few days, and their hopes and dreams were casualties of war.