Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(33)

“It’s stuck,” he called down.

“It’s been nearly a century since it was opened,” Rusty said. “It may need a good push.”

Taking his advice, Jack pressed his back against the hatch and pushed against it with all his might. The door opened with a loud crunch, and pieces of wood fell from the ceiling. Opening the hatch punched a large hole through the floorboards and carpet above it. Jack climbed through the hole and then helped the others through the floor of the library’s lower level.

The gang emerged inside a long room with colorful walls. It was filled with tiny bookshelves and miniature tables and chairs. Paintings and stuffed animals of classic literary characters smiled down at them from every corner.

“Oh my,” Red said. “I didn’t realize this was a library for dwarfs.”

“This is the children’s center,” Bree said. “There’s a lot more than this.”

“How big is the library?” Goldilocks asked.

“It’s 646,680 square feet, to be exact,” Bree said. “There are four levels with over forty rooms open to the public.”

Her friends were surprised she had the information so readily available.

“How do you know all that?” Red asked.

“The plane had Wi-Fi,” Bree said with a shrug.

Any knowledge about the structure was useful to them, but Conner’s stomach filled with knots once he heard how big the library was. Whoever had taken his sister had plenty of corners to lurk in.

“Should we split up and look for her?” Jack asked.

“No, let’s stay together,” Conner said. “I don’t want to give Alex’s kidnapper the chance to knock us off one by one—sorry, I’ve seen too many horror movies. We’ll search each level, one room at a time, until we find her.”

Conner’s friends nodded and followed him out of the children’s center. If they had any doubts about Alex’s whereabouts, they quickly subsided as they stepped into the hallway. All the walls and floors of the library were covered in thick vines and ivy. The plants were covered in vibrant flowers that bloomed as Conner and his friends passed them. Exotic butterflies fluttered through the air from blossom to blossom. In just a matter of hours, Alex had enchanted the national landmark so that it resembled an ancient temple in the middle of a jungle.

“Strange,” Jack observed. “It reminds me of when the Enchantress attacked the Eastern Kingdom and covered it in plants just like this.”

“Let’s pray that’s where the similarities end,” Goldilocks said.

They walked in a tight group as they explored the lower level of the library. Jack gripped his axe, Goldilocks drew her sword, and Red clung to her can of Febreze as they went. With all their eyes put together, there wasn’t an inch of the lower level they didn’t scan.

Once the lower level had been searched, they slowly moved up the stone staircase to the first floor. They searched behind every pillar and beneath each archway of the entrance hall. They looked through the aisles of merchandise in the gift shop and under all the desks in the state-of-the-art education center but found nothing out of the ordinary besides vines and ivy.

They journeyed to the next floor of the spacious structure and searched all the galleries, corridors, and research rooms. Once that level had been inspected, they climbed the stairs to the top level. They found portraits and murals, candelabras and statues, but not a trace of Alex anywhere. Soon there was only one room left to search. Conner and his friends gathered at the doors, and each took a deep breath before going inside—this was it.

The Rose Main Reading Room was the largest and most recognizable room in the New York Public Library. Although Conner and Bree had never seen it in person, they instantly remembered seeing it in movies and television. The room was filled with dozens of hanging chandeliers and two rows of wide tables. The high ceiling was made of beautiful wood carvings that framed painted murals of cloudy skies. The walls were lined with arched windows and two levels of bookshelves. However, all the shelves were empty because the books were floating magically through the air like a thousand balloons.

At the far end of the long room, between the rows of tables, they found Alex asleep on the floor. As soon as he laid eyes on her, Conner ran to his sister’s side and scooped her up in his arms. Her face was paler than he had ever seen it and her skin felt cold as ice.

“Alex, it’s me—it’s Conner!” he said. “We’ve found you and we’ve come to take you home!”

Conner brushed the hair out of her face, but Alex didn’t open her eyes.

“Alex, can you hear me?” he asked.

He gave her a gentle nudge, but his sister didn’t open her eyes or move a muscle. Conner listened to her chest to make sure she was breathing and then checked her pulse.

“She’s alive,” he said. “But barely.”

“Why isn’t she responding?” Bree asked.

“She must be under some sort of spell,” Conner said, and tapped the side of her face. “Alex, you have to fight this off so we can help you! Who’s doing this to you? Who’s making you enchant things and attack people?”

“She won’t wake up unless I tell her to wake up.”

Conner, Bree, Jack, Goldilocks, and Red turned to the other side of the room and discovered they weren’t alone. A woman in a long black cloak, with red lips and horns like a ram, appeared out of thin air.