The Wishing Spell

The twins wait until the dwarves leave for the day before entering the mines. As they search for the coffin, they argue about the curvy tree. Conner doesn’t want to believe it means anything, but Alex is sure their dad and grandmother are from the fairy-tale world, which means they belong there, too. They conclude there must be a way between worlds other than the Wishing Spell, but they keep looking for the ingredients because the spell is all they’ve got “if we ever want to see Mom again” (318). When they find the coffin, Conner pries a few jewels loose, and the twins turn to leave but find themselves surrounded by the Big Bad Wolf Pack.

Alex kicks a lantern at one of the wolves, setting it on fire, and the twins make a run for it, jumping into a cart that speeds off down the tracks and leaves the wolves behind. They plow through a wall of rocks and find themselves outside, where the troll and goblin who captured them before tie them up and throw them in their cart. Connor’s arm is bleeding, and he holds it over the side of the cart to leave a trail of blood to attract the wolves. Sure enough, the pack approaches, and the twins’ captors go to meet the threat. Alex manages to pull Cinderella’s slipper from her bag and break it, using the sharp ends to cut through their bonds. The wolves pursue them to the edge of a cliff overlooking Mermaid Bay. With no other choice, Conner pushes Alex and jumps “seconds before they would have been tackled by the wolves” (329).

In the Corner Kingdom, Goldilocks runs from a group of soldiers in hot pursuit. After crossing into the Dwarf Forest, Goldilocks takes shelter in an abandoned barn, where she finds a dress buried under a haystack. She tries on the dress and admires herself in a mirror, something she hasn’t done in years. A voice speaks from somewhere. Goldilocks scans the room, finding no one, and turns back to the mirror to find the Evil Queen in her reflection’s place.

The Evil Queen knows all about how Goldilocks became a fugitive. Years ago, Goldilocks received a letter from Jack, telling her to meet him at a house outside of town. Goldilocks waited for hours and got tired. She took a nap in the house and woke to find three bears staring down at her. The bears pressed charges for breaking and entering, and Goldilocks ran. Being illiterate at the time, Jack couldn’t have written the letter, and the Evil Queen tells Goldilocks that Red Riding Hood wrote it to get Goldilocks out of the way.

The Evil Queen overheard Red Riding Hood mumble the story in her sleep. Though Red Riding Hood didn’t mean to get Goldilocks in trouble with the law, Goldilocks is enraged that Red Riding Hood hasn’t done anything to fix the situation in the last ten years. Goldilocks changes back into her clothes and leaves the cabin. In her anger, she doesn’t realize she’s playing into the Evil Queen’s plans. All she knows is she’s “about to get her long-overdue revenge” (336).

Conner and Alex wake in an air bubble at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by the friendly mermaids who rescued them. They take the twins to speak with the Sea Foam Spirit, who’s also known as the Little Mermaid. When the prince didn’t marry her, she was returned to the sea as a spirit, and the dagger her sisters got from the sea witch is the final item the twins need to collect. It rests in the Thornbush Pit, a pit full of the thornbushes that surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom during the curse that drags anything put it in to the bottom. The Little Mermaid offers the twins necklaces with golden shells that will allow them to enter the pit without being dragged down but only if they “promise to destroy the knife as soon as you’re done with it” (343). The twins agree, and the mermaid warns them that if one shell breaks, the other will, too.