A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(125)

Mother Goose shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know, but it was enough to have him put behind bars for life.”

“We’ll get together a team at once and track him down,” Goldilocks said.

Unfortunately, the Masked Man was much closer than they all realized.

With nothing further to discuss, Alex concluded the first Happily Forever After Assembly meeting. She waved her wand and several more large swans appeared and took the kings and queens home to their own kingdoms.

Alex was completely drained after the meeting and desperately needed some time to rest and decompress. Rather than going back to her own chambers, she decided to go to her grandmother’s instead. Soon her grandmother’s old room would become hers and Alex wanted to spend a little time in it before it was changed.

The door was already ajar when Alex got there.

“That’s odd,” she said to herself. She hoped her things hadn’t been moved to the chambers already.

Alex went inside and her grandmother’s scent greeted her at the door. She was happy to see all of her grandmother’s belongings were still there. Alex gazed around the chambers at her grandmother’s things. She looked forward to going through them with her brother, and wondered what they would learn about her as they searched through her spell books and organized her cabinet of potions.

When Alex’s eyes landed on the cabinet of potions she was confronted with an alarming sight. All the drawers were open and had been rummaged through. Broken glass bottles covered the floor around it—someone had searched it in a hurry. The cabinet door was still swinging—whoever it was was still here.

Alex raised her wand and cautiously moved about the chambers. “Who’s in here?” she demanded.

She scanned the room though it appeared empty. But Alex’s gut told her she wasn’t alone.

Alex searched every corner of the room but didn’t find a soul. The only place she hadn’t looked was behind her grandmother’s desk on top of the platform in the back. Her heart beat faster and faster as she approached it.

“Show yourself!” she ordered. “This is a private room and you don’t belong in here!”

A tall and menacing figure suddenly jumped up from behind the desk. Before Alex could identify the Masked Man, he roared at her and shoved the desk in her direction. It toppled down the platform steps toward her and shattered on the floor—she barely avoided it crashing on her. He ran toward the door but Alex pointed her wand at it and it slammed shut.

“Freeze!” she yelled. “Don’t move or I’ll blast you into next week!”

The Masked Man raised his arms with his back to her. She noticed a small blue bottle dangling from one of his hands.

“So you’re the new Fairy Godmother,” he said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“What did you steal?” Alex asked.

“I didn’t steal anything.”

“Then what’s in your hand?”

“Something that was owed me a long time ago,” the Masked Man snarled.

“Turn around!” Alex ordered.

The Masked Man slowly turned to face her. There was something very familiar about the pale blue eyes behind his mask—she could have sworn she had seen those eyes before.

“Take off that ridiculous disguise,” Alex said, and gripped her wand even tighter.

“You don’t want me to do that,” the Masked Man said in a playful tone.

“Now!” she yelled.

The Masked Man reluctantly pulled off the sack over his head and exposed his face for the first time in over a decade. Alex gasped and dropped her wand. She was right—they had met before.



Conner, Froggy, and Red stood on the grand balcony watching the sun set over the gardens. The fairies across the lawns cleaned and restored the damage their homes had received during the battle.

“Even though more than half of the gardens were destroyed, the gardens are still beautiful,” Red said dreamily. “I would love to plant my own garden just below the balcony of my bedroom at the castle—” She suddenly grew very sad and stopped herself from finishing the thought. “Oh silly me, I keep forgetting I’m homeless now.”

“Have you thought about what you want to do now that you aren’t queen anymore?” Conner asked.

“Besides becoming a recluse like the Snow Queen as I wait for someone to restore my throne?” Red said. “No, I’m afraid not. Although I hear Queen Sleeping Beauty is in the market for a nanny.”

Froggy put his arm around her. “You’ll come home with me to the Charming Kingdom,” he said. “I can’t offer you a kingdom, but I’m sure I can arrange for you to have a private garden all to yourself.”

Red sighed at the idea. “I suppose that will have to do. It could be a lot worse—I’d rather be an evicted queen than a dead one. Poor Little Bo Peep, I almost feel guilty for saying all those horrible things about her.”

A carriage traveled through the gardens toward the palace. They didn’t pay any special attention to it until it got closer and they saw the passenger riding inside of it.

“That’s the third Little Pig!” Conner said and pointed to the carriage.

“What’s that brick-obsessed runt doing here?” Red asked.

“Let’s find out,” Froggy said. He led Red and Conner through the Fairy Palace and they met the third Little Pig on the front steps.