My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending (4 page)

When the elevator opened onto the very top floor of the palace, Karfum and the other guards stepped back, leaving me standing alone in the entryway. I'd barely even heard them screaming on the trip up. I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I was going to say to the Queen Fairy, including how much I hated her for tearing my family apart.

A loud
Bing!
rang out in the elevator. Another fake-chipper announcement.

“
Just
a
reminder
!” the voice said. “
It
is
now
the
end
of
the
workday. All workers are required to go home, relax, and put their feet up
!”

Hmm. Nothing like forced relaxation to make you feel totally stressed out.

“Gold ahead,” Karfum told me after the announcement had ended.

“Aren't you going to collect a ticket or something?” Okay, maybe I was stalling a little bit. The truth was, after all this time of desperately trying to see the queen, I wasn't sure I was ready to face her. After all, she was my last hope of getting my parents back.

“Gold,” Karfum said again. “The Queen Fairy is waiting for you.”

I took a deep breath and stepped out into the hallway as the elevator door shut behind me. Then I wound through a maze of candlelit stone corridors. I had to kick my dress out of the way as I walked so it wouldn't trip me. Maybe the queen liked everyone to dress this way so they'd have a hard time running away.

Stationed throughout the corridor were beefy fairies dressed in military-style uniforms and armed with everything from spears to bows to swords. This had to be the Queen's Guard that Luken had told me about. I guess the queen only trusted fellow fairies to be her personal bodyguards. The fairies didn't even look at me as I passed, but I had a feeling that if I were an intruder, they'd slice and dice me in less than a second.

Finally, the hallway opened onto a huge room with a domed ceiling that reminded me of a planetarium. Maybe back when this land had been a futuristic theme park, this room had been used for viewing stars. Now it reminded me of the throne room from the cartoon version of
Cinderella
.

As I moved farther into the room, the pale stone walls started to flicker with colors. I couldn't believe it. They were actually
showing
the cartoon version of
Cinderella
.

Seriously. What was wrong with this place?

I jumped as a high-pitched voice piped in from my left: “Welcome, Jenny the Adventurer.” Then a figure emerged from behind a hanging tapestry.

My breath stuck in my throat.

Before me stood a fairy and yet not a fairy. She was more like a glowing fairy-shaped creature in a huge, silvery-blue gown. Sure enough, the dress was straight out of
Cinderella
. Clearly, someone was a fan.

Strangely, the Queen Fairy's skin wasn't pale like that of the other fairies. Instead, it gleamed golden as if sunlight were oozing out of her pores. I actually had to squint to look at her.

I couldn't help thinking of an old movie that Aunt Evie and I had watched about glowing aliens that could float through the air. The fact that the fairies matched so many alien clichés couldn't be a coincidence, right? They could get rid of their UFO theme park, but I certainly wasn't fooled.

“Please curtsy,” said the Queen Fairy.

I obeyed without even thinking about it, grabbing the edges of my dress and bobbing up and down. The queen's presence was just that powerful.

“Now, my dear adventurer,” she said in an almost perfect imitation of Cinderella's singsongy voice, “come forward.”

“Actually, I don't think I'm technically an adventurer anymore,” I said as I came closer. A pang went through me at the words. Disobeying the Committee had been the only way to get my parents back, I reminded myself, even if it meant getting fired. Besides, maybe the fact that I wasn't actually an adventurer would prevent the queen from doing whatever creepy thing she had planned for me.

“No matter,” the queen said. “You are still an adventurer in your heart.”

Or maybe not.

She climbed a couple of stone steps and sat on top of a throne, her dress spreading out around her like a silvery cupcake. I couldn't believe I was standing face-to-face with the fairy who could very well have taken my parents. I didn't know whether I should scream at her for ruining my life or flatter her to get as much information as possible. Neither approach felt right.

“How are you enjoying my kingdom? Is it not beautiful?” she asked. Unlike the rest of her golden body, her eyes were dark and dull.

“Straight out of a fairy tale,” I said.

That seemed to make her glow even more brightly. “After my father died, I made this land into what I always knew it could be.” The queen motioned to the film that was still playing silently on the walls.

“A movie?” I said.

“Perfect,” she corrected. “When my father ruled here, the fairies wasted their lives trying to please visitors.” Her smile dimmed. “He made me go with him when I was a girl and shake hands with everyone who walked through those gates. It was disgraceful. I was a princess, and yet he made me act like a commoner. Can you imagine?”

I certainly
could
imagine what it was like to be a commoner.

“Then, one day, I saw this tale,” she went on, pointing to the movie screen again. “For the first time in my life, I realized what a real princess could be.”

“Couldn't you be a real princess and still keep the theme park open?” I said.

“Closing the park
proved
that I was a real princess. More than that: a true queen. Fairies are meant to be magical, beautiful creatures. By getting rid of that foul park, I gave our beauty back to us.”

“Sorry to break it to you,” I said, “but this place is still a theme park. I mean, you have characters wandering around in costumes and everyone treating the elevators like they're rides. It might not be full of roller coasters, but it's still an amusement park.”

“Nonsense!” she said. “I will never continue my father's foolish ways.”

I shrugged. “You already have.”

Bing!
“
The next mermaid water show is starting in ten minutes
,” the announcement chirped.

“See?” I said smugly.

The queen looked ready to explode. Oops. I hadn't meant to get her all riled up, but I couldn't just stand there and let her go on kidding herself.

Then she sucked in a long breath and said, “No matter. When my prince finally comes, everything will be perfect.” She closed her eyes and hummed a few notes from none other than “Someday My Prince Will Come.”

I nearly choked. The queen really
was
crazy. “You know that song is from
Snow
White
and
the
Seven
Dwarfs
, don't you?” If you were going to have an unhealthy obsession with a movie, you should at least get the details right.

The queen acted like she hadn't heard me, though she finally stopped humming. Instead, she gazed at a glass display case in the middle of the room that I hadn't noticed before. Inside was a purple, velvet pillow. And on that pillow was a glass shoe. Instead of the usual glass slipper, this was a glass loafer that had clearly been made for a man.

“Um, is that for your prince?” I said.

The queen nodded. “I have searched through the entire kingdom for the one who fits that shoe, but I have not found him. One day, he will come, and I will finally have a prince to rule at my side.”

I wasn't sure a future prince would want to put on a shoe that a thousand other guys had tried on. Besides, hadn't the queen ever heard of online dating?

“Or,” she went on, “if I do not find my prince, then I will conjure him myself. Once I have him by my side, everything will truly be perfect.” The queen's eyes swung toward me, and I saw the same hungry look on her face that I'd seen on Mahlia's. “And you will help me make that dream come true, Jenny the Adventurer.”

“What are you talking about?” There was no way I was helping this glowing nutcase.

The queen stood and took a few steps toward me. I could practically feel the light drifting off her glowing skin. It sparkled like magic. Was that why she was all lit up? Was her body literally oozing with power?

“I have a proposal for you,” she said. “It is simple, really. You give me what I want, and I give you what you want.”

My heart clenched. Did she mean…? Were my parents…? I could barely even think the words. “What do you want?” I whispered.

“Oh, nothing much. Only how to find the Committee.”

I laughed. She had to be kidding. “Have you
met
the Committee? Those old women are insane. Why would you want to be anywhere near them?”

The last trace of the queen's singsongy voice disappeared. “You have seen them,” she hissed. “You know where they are. And you will tell me.”

“I don't know anything. Their location is kept a secret. I can't even get there on my own. And even if I did know, why would I tell you?”

The queen smiled. “Because once you lead me to the Committee, I will return your parents to you.”

They were here! They were really here! My parents were in Fairy Land!

I wanted to cartwheel around the room, but I had to keep calm. The queen obviously wanted to negotiate. I couldn't look too eager or she'd think she'd already won.

“Where are they?” I said. “Why have you been keeping them here all these years?”

The Queen Fairy didn't answer my question. Instead, she studied me for a long moment. “Will you bring me to the Committee's location or not?” she finally said.

“I already told you, I don't know where it is!”

“You know how to get there.”

She was right. I did know how. Anthony could take me. Or Dr. Bradley—if he wasn't with the Committee already. Why wasn't she asking Anthony to bring her there? Why was she asking me? Then I realized: Anthony didn't have a gaping hole in his life like I did. The Queen Fairy knew I was willing to do anything to get my family back together.

“How do I know you're telling the truth?” I said, my excitement dimming. Maybe this was just a trick. “For all I know, you have no clue where my parents are.”

The queen flashed another smile. Then she waved her hand, and the walls displaying
Cinderella
flickered and went dark. After a second, they began showing something completely different. A dimly lit room, two narrow beds, and on those beds, two sleeping people. A man and a woman.

All I could do was stare. They were older than I remembered, but it was them. My mom and dad.

“Where is that?” I whispered as sudden tears rolled down my cheeks. “Where are you keeping them?”

The fairy shook her head. “Remember, in order to get what you want, first you must give me what I want.” She waved her hand again, and the screens went dark. My parents vanished.

I wiped my face with my fingers, trying to keep down the sobs that were threatening to burst out of me. My parents were alive. They were here. I'd finally found them. But to get them back, I would have to…

“Why do you want to see the Committee so badly?” I said. “I'm not agreeing to anything until you tell me.”

She turned and went to sit back on her throne. Then she studied me, her dark eyes like two black holes in her glowing face. “I want to take their power, and I want them gone.”

I stood totally frozen. This was crazy. I couldn't lead the Queen Fairy to the Committee members, not if she was going to suck up their magic like she'd done with the Land of Tales. I wasn't the Committee's biggest fan, but without those cranky old women around, things could get pretty chaotic. They were the ones responsible for keeping the magical worlds safe and organized.

But my parents…if I did this one thing, I would have my parents back. Then it would all be over and we could go home and have our lives back, just like I'd been dreaming about for seven years. Whatever the Queen Fairy was doing with my parents, she wasn't going to let them go without a fight, not after all this time. Maybe agreeing to this was the only way.

“What is your answer?” said the Queen Fairy.

I knew I should say no, that I should laugh in her face at the idea of betraying the Committee. But I couldn't say a word.

“Perhaps you need a few moments to consider my offer.” The queen snapped her fingers, and two golden cages appeared out of thin air. One cage was filled with dozens of mice of various sizes and colors. The other housed tons of small birds. All of them were dressed in tiny clothes.

What was going on?

“It is time to sing!” the queen announced to the animals.

I was probably imagining things, but it sounded like the mice and birds let out a collective sigh, as if singing was the last thing they wanted to do.

The Queen Fairy started belting out “Someday My Prince Will Come” again, and this time the birds twittered along while the mice chimed in with voices that reminded me of miniature kazoos.

Did the queen think this was going to help me make up my mind about her proposal? If anything, it was just making me even more confused (and giving me a headache). When she started dancing around the room with an imaginary partner, things had gone far enough.

“Stop it!” I yelled. “This isn't helping!”

The queen let out an impatient sigh and waved her hand. The woodland creatures and their cages instantly disappeared. “Very well. I will give you more time to decide.”

“What if I won't do it?” I said, my voice cracking.

“Then I will keep you in my kingdom, just as I have kept your parents. None of you will ever see your home again. And I will find some other way to get to the Committee, so your refusal to help me will have been for nothing.”

I thought of Trish, Melissa, and Aunt Evie. What would they do if I never came back? No. It wouldn't come to that. I'd find a way. I'd get my family and myself home.

But
at
what
price
? a small voice in my head asked.

“Go now,” said the Queen Fairy. “You have three days to decide.”

She turned away from me, and I drifted back toward the elevator like my legs were being controlled by someone else.

I had three days.