Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(47)
“CONNER!” Alex screamed.
For just a brief moment, her concern for her brother overpowered the curse. Her eyes stopped glowing, her hair stopped floating, and the shield around Central Park disappeared. The Snow Queen and the Sea Witch looked at each other in panic—they hadn’t thought anything could break the curse.
“Keep the shield up, you stupid girl!” the Snow Queen screeched.
Alex immediately returned to her bewitched state, and the shield reappeared over Central Park. Rat Mary and Serpentina dragged Conner to the cage and threw him inside it with his friends.
“Conner, are you hurt?” Goldilocks asked him.
“I’ll be okay,” he groaned.
“That was so stupid of you!” Bree berated him. “What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!”
“I knew exactly what I was doing,” Conner said. “Now we know Morina was wrong—Alex hasn’t been cursed past the point of no return! She’s still in there—we can still save her!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE CURSED AND THE COURTEOUS
A powerful rainstorm traveled down the western coast of the fairy-tale world and drenched the Dwarf Forests. Luckily, most of the residents and animals were already in hiding from the Literary Army, so the woods were virtually empty when the storm hit. But there was still one creature that got caught in the rain and scuttled through the forest in search of shelter.
The creature was shivering, soaked to the bone, and a complete stranger to the woods. After traveling in circles all night, it spotted a cottage by the side of a stream. The cottage appeared to be empty, as there was no light shining through the windows or smoke rising from the chimney. The creature hoped the cottage’s looks weren’t deceiving—not for the creature’s own sake, but for the sake of any poor soul who might be inside. The creature had a reputation for leaving an impression on whomever it crossed paths with.
The creature broke down the front door and stepped out of the storm. The cottage was unlike any place it had ever seen. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, and the furniture were all painted white. The front room was lined with shelves of tiny glass bottles filled with colorful liquids.
The creature was parched from its trek through the vicious storm. It took a bottle from a shelf, twisted off the small golden cap, and smelled the red liquid inside. The fluid smelled like a fruity juice, so the creature threw its head back and downed the bottle in one gulp. Not only did the liquid instantly quench the creature’s thirst, but it also reenergized the creature and made it feel warm inside. The creature inspected the bottle and saw that the word REJUVENATION was engraved on the glass. It checked the other bottles on the shelves and discovered similar engravings. The blue liquids were labeled YOUTH, the pink liquids were labeled BEAUTY, the purple bottles were labeled VIBRANCY, and the turquoise bottles were labeled STAMINA.
The strange engravings aroused the creature’s curiosity. It searched the cottage for more clues about what kind of establishment it had stumbled into.
In the back of the room the creature found a wall covered by a curtain. It pulled a tassel and the curtain separated, revealing a large mirror with a golden frame. As soon as the creature realized it was a mirror, it quickly shielded its eyes to avoid its reflection. Looking into the creature’s eyes instantly turned any observer into stone—and the creature itself was no exception.
If someone managed to get a glimpse of it before being turned into stone, they would see she was a woman with glowing red eyes, fangs, and a long, scaly body. Instead of hair, the woman had a head full of hissing snakes that constantly fought one another for dominance. The monster’s name was Medusa, and she was from a world far beyond the realm of fairy tales.
Strangely, as Medusa shielded herself from her reflection, she noticed that something was very different about her appearance. The powerful glow that was usually emitted by her eye sockets had disappeared. She peeked through her fingers at the mirror, and her gaze drifted up her body and landed on her face—but miraculously, Medusa wasn’t turned to stone. Instead of the bright red pupils that infamously turned people into statues, Medusa saw a pair of brown eyes she hadn’t seen in a very long time. She glanced down at the empty bottle in her hand and realized that the liquid inside wasn’t juice, but a potion.
As Medusa gazed into her new eyes, her reflection started to transform, too. She watched in amazement as the hideous creature in the mirror slowly turned into a beautiful woman. Her head of snakes became a head of thick, sandy hair, her scaly skin became smooth and tanned, and her long coiled body became a voluptuous figure under a crimson toga. The Mirror of Truth had only changed Medusa’s reflection, but for the first time in decades, Medusa saw the woman she was before she was turned into a monster.
Medusa wondered what other kinds of sorcery the cottage might contain. A door caught her eye on the other side of the room, and she went to it. Although it had several locks and bolts, the door was wide open and led to a steep staircase descending into a basement. Medusa slithered down the steps and discovered the twenty sleeping children under Morina’s dark spell.
“Hello!” said a polite voice behind her.
Medusa looked over her shoulder and found another mirror leaning against the basement wall. A cheerful frog man wearing a three-piece suit waved at her from inside it. For a brief second, Medusa instinctively covered her eyes to spare the frog man from being turned into stone, forgetting that the potion had transformed her eyes. It had been so long since Medusa had communicated with another living thing, she’d almost forgotten how.