A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(37)

Rook nodded. “I’m very sorry to hear that. He must have been a very smart man to raise a daughter like you.”

“Thank you,” Alex said. She quickly straightened her headband to distract him from her blushing face.

“Is your brother a fairy, too?” Rook asked.

Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “Conner? A fairy? Oh, heavens no. Being a fairy was the last thing he ever wanted to be. He still lives back home with our mom and stepdad. I think he’d be really good at magic if he ever tried, though.”

“What about your grandmother? Does she live in the Fairy Kingdom with you?” Rook asked.

It took Alex a moment to respond. She hadn’t realized how little he knew about her; it was really refreshing. He must have genuinely liked Alex for her and not who she was going to be.

“She does,” Alex said. She wasn’t sure how he would react to hearing who her grandmother was and she wasn’t sure she was ready for him to know. “Now it’s my turn to ask you a question. How old are you?”

Rook had to think about his answer. “I’m fifteen, but technically I’m one hundred and fifteen.”

At first Alex thought he was joking and gave a small laugh, but when he didn’t laugh with her she realized he was being serious. “Oh my goodness, because of the one-hundred-year sleeping curse!” She figured it out. “You must have been a toddler when it was cast.”

“I was very young,” he said. “I don’t remember much about it. I was playing outside when suddenly for no reason I went to sleep. Then my dad and I woke up one hundred years later.”

“What about your mother?” Alex asked. “What happened to her?”

Rook paused for a second before explaining. “It was my birthday and my mother and brother were in a field collecting berries for a special dessert they were making that night. The field was just outside the border of the Eastern Kingdom, so when the sleeping spell was cast it didn’t reach them. By the time my father and I woke up… they were gone.”

Alex placed a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Rook,” she said. “It never occurred to me that families were separated because of the curse.”

“Many people don’t realize that,” Rook said. “They just assume everyone went to sleep and awoke to their normal lives a hundred years later, but our whole lives changed when we awoke. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was happy to hear Ezmia had been killed. It brought a lot of closure for me. I don’t think my father will ever be the same, though. That’s why he hates fairies so much; he blames them for not being able to stop the curse.”

Alex nodded. “I understand him a little better now.” She wondered how Rook and Farmer Robins would take knowing she was the one who had defeated the Enchantress. Would it make them like her any more? Or would she just become a living reminder of what they had lost?

“My mother and brother took care of us for as long as they could while we slept,” Rook went on. “They wrote us letters every day and left them for us to read when the curse was eventually broken. I’ll read one or two when I find myself missing them the most. It makes it feel like they’re still around.”

Alex understood this more than he knew. One of the reasons she felt so comfortable in the Land of Stories was because everything there reminded Alex of her dad and made missing him less painful.

“My turn to ask you another question,” Rook said, changing the subject. “How was your day? Tell me everything you did.”

Alex didn’t know where to begin. “Well, it started out very nice,” she said. “I went to the Red Riding Hood Kingdom to visit Queen Red—we’re old friends, believe it or not—but then the day took a very bizarre turn.”

“What happened?”

“Her throne was challenged by Little Bo Peep,” Alex told him. “She managed to convince everyone they should have an election for a new leader.”

Rook was so intrigued his whole face lit up. “That’s unbelievable,” he said. “What would make her do that? I always thought Queen Red was loved by her people.”

“Not by everyone, it seems,” Alex said. “Apparently Little Bo has been unhappy for a long time with the way the kingdom has been managed and thinks she would be a much better queen. I would never want Red to lose her throne but I honestly think Little Bo had some valid things to say.”

Rook scrunched his forehead and thought more about it. “What would you say possessed Little Bo to challenge the throne today of all days? If she’s been unhappy for so long you’d think she would have done something about it sooner.”

Alex thought back to the scene Little Bo had caused earlier that day in the House of Progress but couldn’t come up with an answer. “That’s a really good point,” she said. “She didn’t mention anything in particular. But something must have provoked her into demanding an election.”

“Seems fishy, if you ask me,” Rook said. He abruptly stopped walking and a sly smile crept over his face.

“What is it?” Alex asked, looking back at him.

“I just thought of something really adventurous we could do,” he said, but then quickly said, “Never mind, it might not be your cup of tea.”

Alex laughed—if he only knew the mischief she and her brother had gotten into over the years. “I’ll have you know I happen to be very adventurous,” she teased. “Don’t let the wand and sparkly dress fool you.”