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BOOK TWO: M IS FOR MAMA’S BOY
BOOK ONE: THE FAIRY-TALE DETECTIVES
BOOK TWO: THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS
BOOK THREE: THE PROBLEM CHILD
BOOK FOUR: ONCE UPON A CRIME
BOOK FIVE: MAGIC AND OTHER MISDEMEANORS
BOOK SIX: TALES FROM THE HOOD
BOOK SEVEN: THE EVERAFTER WAR
BOOK EIGHT: THE INSIDE STORY
In the NERDS series:
BOOK ONE: NATIONAL ESPIONAGE, RESCUE,
AND DEFENSE SOCIETY
BOOK TWO: M IS FOR MAMA’S BOY
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales
is entirely coincidental.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the harcover edition of this book as follows:
Buckley, Michael.
The Everafter War / by Michael Buckley ; pictures by Peter Ferguson.
p. cm.— (The Sisters Grimm ; bk. 7)
Summary: After their parents awake from a sleeping spell, Daphne and Sabrina become
caught in the middle of a war between the Scarlet Hand and Prince Charming’s Everafter
army and learn a shocking secret about a deadly enemy.
ISBN 978-0-8109-8355-7
[1. Characters in literature—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction. 4. War—
Fiction. 5. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Ferguson, Peter, 1968– ill. II. Title.
PZ7.B882323Ev 2009
[Fic]—dc22
Paperback ISBN 978-0-8109-8429-5
Originally published in hardcover by Amulet Books in 2009
Text copyright © 2009 Michael Buckley
Illustrations copyright © 2009 Peter Ferguson
Paperback edition published in 2010 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All
rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Amulet Books
and Amulet Paperbacks are registered trademarks of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums
and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be
created to specification. For details, contact specialmarkets@abramsbooks.com or the
address below.
www.abramsbooks.com
For my brother, Edwin
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
These books benefit from the amazing editing of Susan Van Metre and Maggie Lehrman, who not only correct my bad grammar but encourage me to navigate down roads I would never have known to take. The books also owe greatly to the tireless efforts of Jason Wells, who sings their praises near and far (even on weekends). Thanks to everyone at Amulet/Abrams who works so hard to make such beautiful books.
I owe a great deal of thanks to my literary agent, Alison Fargis, as well as her team at Stonesong Press, and, as always, my good friend Joe Deasy, who eagerly reads and rereads each manuscript.
Much thanks to Lucie Plaisimon, Caroline Hochberg, Ayshia Levy, and Zakiya Casey for their friendly smiles. But mostly thanks to Alison, who gave me Finn, who gives my aimless life an explanation.
SABRINA STOOD AGHAST, shocked from the discovery she had just made and the wave of emotions that accompanied it. Terror, betrayal, and disgust filled her head, sending mixed signals to every part of her body. One moment she wanted to run—to put as much distance between her and the figure standing before her as possible. The next she wanted to snatch him by the collar and shake him in anger until he explained himself.
“You? You’re the Master? You’re the leader of the Scarlet Hand?”
“Yes,” he said calmly.
“But you—” Daphne said, trembling.
“But I was your friend? Is that what you were going to say?”
“Yes! I trusted you. We all trusted you!” Sabrina cried.
“Then I’m afraid you’ve made a terrible mistake.”
abrina Grimm’s life was a collection of odd events. But sitting in her grandmother’s living room with three massive brown bears might have been the oddest of them all.
The bears had arrived in the company of a curly-haired blond woman with dazzling eyes. Her face was round and tanned, with dimples in her cheeks and a dainty nose sprinkled with golden freckles. Her name was Goldilocks. Yes, the Goldilocks, only twenty years older and overflowing with a nervous energy that kept her rushing around the living room rearranging furniture to her liking. She moved lamps and rugs, switched chairs with tables, and even took down family portraits and rehung them on different walls. When she moved something, she would step back and look at it, mutter something incomprehensible to herself, stick her tongue out, and then move it again. If she liked where it landed she would beam with pride and say, “Just right.”
Sabrina sat uncomfortably in a loveseat across from the group. Her sister, Daphne, sat next to her, chewing on her palm—a quirky habit she had when she was very excited or happy. The only other witness to Sabrina’s strange company was the family’s two-hundred-pound Great Dane, Elvis. He seemed just as nervous as Sabrina; the dog’s head swung back and forth from Goldilocks to the bears and then to Sabrina. He let out a soft, confused whine.
Sabrina shrugged at him. “Welcome to Ferryport Landing, Elvis.” The dog let out a soft bark.
“How long are we going to wait?” Sabrina whispered to her sister.
“Granny said she’d come and get us,” Daphne whispered back. “Maybe we should offer them something to drink, to be polite.”
Sabrina nodded. “Would anyone like anything to drink?”
The bears grunted and huffed and the blond woman responded in a series of short grunts. When they had finished chatting, Goldilocks turned to Sabrina and informed her that the biggest of the bears liked Earl Grey tea, very hot. The second biggest would prefer hers iced. The littlest of the bears would love some chocolate milk if it wasn’t too much trouble. Being from New York City, Sabrina had seen many crazy people talking to animals: She’d once seen a man discuss Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo with a one-eyed mutt and its filthy rubber chew toy. In this case, however, the woman talking to the animals wasn’t crazy. Animals really did talk to her.
The girls excused themselves and went into the kitchen with Elvis in tow. There they found a little girl in red pajamas huddling in the corner. She had a sad face framed by amber curls that fell across her shoulders. Her name was Red Riding Hood. Sabrina immediately wished she had stayed in the living room with the bears. Red had been a homicidal lunatic the day before, but when she was cured Granny had invited the child to live with the Grimms.
“Are they gone yet?” Red asked. She was extremely shy.
“No,” Daphne said. “But they’re friends. You don’t have to hide in the kitchen.”
Red didn’t look convinced.
Daphne went to work preparing the drinks while Sabrina spied on Goldilocks through a crack in the kitchen door. Goldilocks was still rushing around the room reorganizing the Grimms’ possessions.
“She’s giving me a headache,” Sabrina said.
“Don’t spy,” Daphne scolded. “It’s rude.”
“I can’t help myself. Aren’t you curious about her? I mean, what did Dad see in her?” She studied the woman’s features. Goldilocks was pretty and she seemed nice in a ditzy kind of way, but she was no Veronica Grimm. Sabrina’s mother was a knockout.
“Love is weird,” Daphne said. “We can’t know why Dad was in love with her.”
Sabrina laughed. “What do you know? You’re only—” She stopped herself when her sister flashed her an angry look. She was already treading on thin ice with Daphne. She didn’t need to make their relationship any worse. “Yeah, that’s true. We can’t know.”
“Red, are you going to join us?” Daphne asked the little girl.
Red shook her head vigorously and sank back into her hiding space.
The girls left her there and returned to the living room with the drinks. Sabrina found the three bears sitting on the couch, shaking the last few gumdrops out of a jar Granny Relda kept on a coffee table for guests. The biggest bear gestured toward the jar as if to say “MORE!” It made Sabrina uncomfortable. She hated when she saw animals behaving like people. Animals shouldn’t eat gumdrops! They shouldn’t drink tea or chocolate milk, either.
“This is a bad idea,” Goldilocks fretted, sitting on an ottoman, then jumping back up to move a vase. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“No, you did the right thing. We’ve tried everything to wake them up. You’re our last hope,” Sabrina said, nearly panicked that the woman might turn and walk out of their lives. They had been searching for her for so long.
“Have some tea,” Daphne said.
Goldilocks ignored the offer and went to work rearranging the books in the family’s huge bookshelf. “Your dad told me he didn’t want to see me anymore and I tried to respect that. I moved to New York City and lived there for a long time. I had a nice little apartment in the East Village close to where CBGB’s used to be. Then I heard he and Veronica had moved to Manhattan. I never went to see him. It was the only way I could say I was sorry, and now, here I am. I know you need me to help him now, but when he opens his eyes and sees me standing over him I don’t think he’s going to be happy. And your mother! She’s going to think I’m … I’m a harlot.”
“What’s harlot mean?” Daphne asked.
Sabrina knew and thought Goldilocks might be right. “A harlot is—”
“I asked Goldilocks, not you,” Daphne snapped.
Sabrina frowned. Daphne always turned to her whenever she didn’t understand a word.
“A harlot is a woman with a bad reputation,” the woman explained. “A harlot is a woman who kisses another woman’s husband.”
“My mom will get over it,” Daphne said matter-of-factly.
Goldi turned to the three musky-smelling bears. “What do you think I should do?”
They stared into the woman’s eyes and shrugged at the same time.
“A lot of help the three of you are!” Goldi scolded then turned back to Daphne. “What is keeping your grandmother?”
“Same old Goldi,” a voice said from across the room. Everyone turned to find a tall, handsome man with a mop of blond hair and a nose that had seen the knuckles of one too many fists. He wore a trench coat with hundreds of extra pockets sewn into it. Uncle Jake smiled at everyone. “Just as impatient as ever.”
Goldilocks frowned. “Jake Grimm!”
“You ready to get this show on the road?” he asked her.
The blond beauty bit her lower lip. “Just a second,” she said, then snatched a paperweight from the coffee table and set it on the bureau. She stood back and admired it, then smiled with satisfaction. “OK, let’s do this.”
She followed Jake up the stairs with the bears lumbering behind her. Sabrina and Daphne followed them, unfortunately downwind of the bears’ special brand of funk. Elvis followed reluctantly.
“Are you coming?” Daphne said to Red, who had crept back to the couch now that everyone was leaving.
Red shook her head. “This is your family. I don’t belong.”
Daphne rushed back down the stairs and took the little girl’s hand in her own, then pulled her to her feet. “C’mon.”
At the top of the stairs, they met Granny Relda, a chubby, stout little woman with wrinkles lining most of her face. She had white hair streaked with faint traces of her old fire-engine red. These days she rolled it all into a bun on the top of her head, though wisps of it escaped through the course of a day. She had changed from her nightgown into a bright white dress and a matching hat with a sunflower appliqué in its center. She smiled and hugged Goldilocks as if she were one of her own children.
“It’s good to see you, Goldi,” she said in her light German accent. Granny had grown up in Berlin and moved to America when she married the girls’ late grandfather, Basil.
Goldilocks smiled. “It’s been a long time.”
Granny led everyone into a spare bedroom furnished with a full-length mirror and a queen-size bed. Lying comfortably on the mattress were Sabrina and Daphne’s parents, Henry and Veronica Grimm. Both were deeply asleep. Granny Relda sat down next to her slumbering son and took his hand in hers. For the first time since Sabrina had met her grandmother the old woman’s shoulders didn’t look as if they were carrying the weight of the world.
Goldi stepped over to the bed and looked down at Sabrina’s parents. “Relda, I—”
Granny Relda stopped her. “I know what you’re going to say and it’s nonsense. There was never a need for an apology. What happened to Basil was not your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”
Sabrina watched Uncle Jake’s eyes drift to the ground.
“I’m not sure Henry feels the same way,” Goldi said. Sabrina saw the expression the odd woman gave her father. It was clear that even after all the years they had been apart Goldilocks still loved him. “How long have they been like this?”
“They disappeared two years ago,” Daphne explained. “They were like this when we found them about three months ago.”
“We’ve tried everything to wake them up,” Sabrina added.
“What about Prince Charming?” Goldilocks said. “He seems to have a knack for this kind of thing.”
“He also has a habit of marrying the women he wakes up,” Granny said. “Might be coincidence, but his kiss seems to have a power all its own. I’d rather not chance it.”
“I don’t want William Charming for a stepfather,” Sabrina grumbled.
Uncle Jake crossed the room and patted Poppa Bear on his furry arm. “Good to see you again, old man,” he said. “And the boy. He’s getting big.”
“You know the bears?” Goldilocks asked.
“Oh yes, Poppa and Baby Bear helped me retrieve a phantom scroll from a Romanian constable a few years back,” Uncle Jake explained.
Poppa Bear let out a low grunt.
“Retrieve or steal, Jacob?” Goldilocks asked disapprovingly.
“To-may-to, to-mah-to,” he replied with a sly grin. “Goldi, you and the bears have given up a lot to come here. You do realize you’re trapped in Ferryport Landing? The barrier won’t let you out.”
Poppa Bear gave a long bark.
“He says it was time to reunite his family,” Goldilocks explained. “Momma Bear was here, and Poppa and Baby Bear were not. They had all hoped the magical barrier would eventually fall down and they would be reunited, but no such luck. He says it’s better to be trapped together than apart for another day.”
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Sabrina interrupted. “But we’ve been waiting a long time for this. Could we get started?”
Goldilocks nodded and turned to Uncle Jake. “So, Jake, you’re the expert on magic as far as I can tell. I just plant a kiss on Henry and he’ll wake up?”
“That’s the word on the street,” Uncle Jake said. “Snow White and Briar Rose both explained what happened with them. Briar said there’s no special trick to it. Just pucker up and lay one on him.”
“Briar Rose said ‘pucker up and lay one on him’?” Sabrina asked. She couldn’t imagine such a demure woman being so … vulgar.
“I’m paraphrasing,” Uncle Jake said sheepishly, then turned back to Goldilocks. “Just kiss him.”
“What about Veronica?” Goldilocks said. “She needs a kiss from someone who loves her. I can’t wake her up.”
Daphne took her by the hand. “Your kiss will wake up Dad and then he’ll kiss Mom.”
“And all of this will be over,” Sabrina added.
Just then, the full-length mirror leaning against the far wall began to shimmer and shake. Its reflective surface rippled like a bubbling brook and when it calmed, a big, bulbous head materialized in the reflection. He had deep-set eyes, thick lips, and a heavy brow. A crackling thunderstorm ignited the sky behind him.
“WHO INVADES MY SANCTUARY?” he bellowed. Red Riding Hood jumped and tried to run from the room, but Daphne held her hand tight.
“It’s us, Mirror,” Granny said. “No enemies here.”
The lightning faded and the face brightened. “Oh, am I missing something?”
“Sorry, Mirror,” Daphne said. “We were just about to call for you. Goldilocks is here. She’s going to smooch my dad. We think it will wake him up!”
Mirror glanced around the room at the many guests and smiled. “Hello, Ms. G. It’s nice to see you again.”
Goldilocks returned the smile. “Still looking great, Mirror.”
Mirror smiled. “Thanks. I owe it all to Botox and my trainer.”
“Again, folks, can we do this?” Sabrina said.
“OK, here goes,” Goldilocks said. She tucked her blond curls back behind her ear and leaned in close. Sabrina held her breath in all the excitement and realized everyone else was doing the same. They had all waited so long for this moment. There had been many nights when Sabrina was convinced it would never happen. But, now, finally, her family would be reunited. Things might go back to normal.
And then someone farted. Everyone turned in the direction of the horrible noise. There, standing in the doorway, was Puck, a shaggy-haired boy who, like Red Riding Hood, had been adopted by Granny Relda. He was somewhere in the range of four thousand years old, though he looked like he might be twelve. He was wearing pajamas with robots fighting monkeys all over them and had on a sleeping cap so long that the end dragged a herd of dust bunnies behind him. He scratched his backside with a wooden sword and scowled.
“You people have woken me up. I was going to come out here and complain that it sounded like there was a pack of bears running through the house and look what I find! A pack of bears!” Puck turned to Granny Relda. “I suppose you have invited them to move in, as well. You’ve never met anyone you didn’t hand a set of keys to. I mean, after all, you’ve invited a murderous lunatic who only wears one color.”
“I’m sorry,” Red Riding Hood squeaked.
Then Puck turned to Daphne. “A chunky little monkey who eats us out of house and home.”
“Hey! I’m not chunky. I’m big-boned.”
“Yeah, like a brontosaurus!” Puck snorted and turned to Sabrina. “And then there’s this one. A girl so ugly burn victims stare and point at her. So let’s have some bears move in, too. Why not? Maybe we could invite a couple of giants while we’re at it, or maybe a bunch of those idiot Munchkins from across town. We’ve got plenty of room! Why not turn this place into a bed-and-breakfast for every second-rate Everafter with a hard-luck story?”
“Puck, that’s not very nice,” Granny said. “We’re sorry we woke you but Goldilocks is here. She’s going to kiss Henry and wake him up.”
“Who? What?” the boy said.
“Goldilocks, my father’s former girlfriend,” Sabrina said. “She’s going to kiss him and break the magic spell that’s kept him and my mother asleep for two years.”
“There’s a magic spell on them?” the boy said. “I thought they were just really lazy.”
Sabrina growled.
“We’re glad you’re here, Puck,” Granny Relda said.
“I’m sure you are,” the boy said, letting out another fart. This one was so loud it made Elvis jump in fear. “Is there any food at this shindig?” Granny shook her head. “You people throw the lamest parties.”
“Goldi, please, just kiss my dad,” Sabrina cried.
Goldilocks nodded, leaned in, and nervously touched her lips to Henry’s. The kiss was gentle and a little longer than Sabrina would have liked. It was clear to Sabrina that it had a big impact on Goldilocks. Her face was bright red and she looked as if she had just been caught doing something illegal. But her expression was nothing compared to the looks on the faces of Sabrina’s uncle and grandmother. Both of them looked defeated.
“What? What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked.
“It should have worked already,” the old woman said.
“Try again,” Uncle Jake urged.
Goldilocks bit her lip but did as she was told. She took a deep breath, as if it might be her last, and bent over to kiss Henry once more. When she was finished she hovered there, inches from his face, and whispered something Sabrina couldn’t hear.
“Perhaps Goldilocks has fallen out of love with Henry,” Mirror said. “It has been more than fifteen years since they were a couple.”
Goldilocks shook her head but said nothing.
“Then what’s wrong?” Sabrina cried, fighting a bubble of panic and despair rising up into her throat.
“Let’s try one more time,” Daphne said hopefully.
“It won’t help,” Uncle Jake said. “Briar said the result would be immediate.”
Granny nodded sadly. “I’ve read accounts of these spells being broken. The moment her lips touched your father’s he should have woken up. This must be some unique version of the spell. We’ll just have to go back to the drawing board and find another solution.”
Daphne flashed Sabrina a look that said “don’t freak out,” but it was too late.
“This has been a stupid wild-goose chase!” Sabrina exclaimed. “The Master and the Scarlet Hand are probably getting a big laugh out of this right now!”
“Don’t give up hope, Starfish,” Mirror said.
“Give up hope! I haven’t had any hope in two years.”
“Bummer!” Puck said. “Well, maybe whoever is pounding on the door downstairs can wake him up.”
“Puck, could you answer it for me?” Granny asked.
“What am I? The butler?”
“I’ll get it,” Sabrina said. She needed to get out of the room. The disappointment was hanging in the air, threatening to suffocate her.
“Whoever it is, don’t forget to invite them to move in with us,” Puck said sarcastically. “Don’t forget to show them where the towels are!”
“Freaking out isn’t helping Mom and Dad,” Daphne said as she raced down the stairs after Sabrina. “Everyone wanted Goldilocks to wake up Dad. So it didn’t work. Exploding in frustration every time we have a setback is, well, annoying.”
Sabrina marched to the door, then turned to face her sister. “First of all, you don’t even know the meaning of most of the words in that last sentence. I’ll be angry and upset if I want. I have a right to be angry. My life is horrible.”
Sabrina threw the door open and there, standing on the porch, was a rail-thin woman with a hooked beak of a nose and eyes like tiny black holes. She was dressed entirely in gray. Her handbag was gray. Her hair was gray. When she smiled, her teeth were gray.
“I think it’s about to get a lot worse,” Daphne groaned.
“Hello, girls,” the woman said.
“Ms. Smirt!” Sabrina cried.
“Oh, you remember me. How it warms the heart,” she said as she snatched them by the wrists and dragged them out of the house and across the lawn where a taxicab was waiting in the driveway.
“Where are you taking us?” Daphne cried, trying and failing to break free from the woman’s iron talons.
“Back to the orphanage,” Smirt snapped. “You don’t belong here. Your grandmother is unfit. She kidnapped you from your foster father.”
Sabrina remembered the last foster father Smirt had sent them to live with. Mr. Greeley was a certifiable lunatic. “He was a serial killer. He attacked us with a crowbar.”
“The father-child bond needs time to develop,” Smirt said as she pushed the girls into the backseat of the taxi.
“You can’t send us back to him,” Daphne shouted.
“Sadly, you are correct. Mr. Greeley is unavailable to take you back due to an unfortunate incarceration. But don’t worry. I’ve already found you a new foster family. The father is an amateur knife thrower. He’s eager for some new targets … I mean, daughters.”
Smirt slammed the cab’s door shut and tossed a twenty-dollar bill at the driver. “You got automatic locks in this thing?”
Suddenly, the locks on the doors were set.
“To the train station, please,” Smirt said. “And there’s another twenty in it if you can make the 8:14 to Grand Central.”
The taxi charged out of the driveway and tires squealed as it made a beeline toward the Ferryport Landing train station.
“You can’t take us back to the orphanage,” Sabrina said. “We’re not orphans anymore. We found our mother and father.”
“Such an imagination you have, Sophie,” Smirt said. “There’s really nothing as unattractive in a child as an imagination.”
“My name is Sabrina!”
In no time, the taxi was pulling into the train station. Ms. Smirt pinched the girls on the shoulders and hustled them onto the waiting train. The doors closed before Sabrina and Daphne could make a run for it.
“Find a seat, girls,” the caseworker said as the train rolled out of the station.
“Daphne, don’t worry,” Sabrina whispered as she took her sister’s hand and helped her into a seat. Sabrina had many talents but her greatest was the ability to devise effective escape plans. While she comforted her sister, she studied the exit doors, windows, and even the emergency brake. A daring escape was already coming together when she noticed the complete lack of worry on her little sister’s face.
“I’ve got this one covered,” Daphne said.
“You what?” Sabrina asked.
The little girl put her palm into her mouth and bit down on it.
“What’s going on, Daphne?” Sabrina continued, eyeing the girl suspiciously. Daphne had never plotted an escape. Escaping had been the exclusive domain of Sabrina Grimm for almost two years. What did her little sister have in mind?
“Zip it!” Ms. Smirt snapped before Daphne could explain. “I don’t want to have to sit on this train for two hours with a couple of chatterboxes.” The caseworker snatched a book out of her handbag and flipped it open. Sabrina peered at the title: The Secret.
“Ms. Smirt, have you ever heard of the Brothers Grimm?” Daphne said.
The caseworker scowled and set her book on her lap. “What do you want?”
“I was wondering if you have ever heard of the Brothers Grimm.”
“They wrote the fairy tales,” Ms. Smirt said.
Daphne shook her head. “That’s what most people believe, but it’s not true. The Brothers Grimm didn’t write stories, they wrote down things that really happened. The fairy tales aren’t made-up stories, they’re warnings to the world about Everafters.”
Sabrina was stunned. Daphne was spilling the family’s secret to the worst possible person. They couldn’t trust Smirt any further than they could throw her.
“What’s an Everafter?” the caseworker snapped.
“It’s what fairy-tale characters like to be called,” the little girl explained. “‘Fairy-tale character’ is kind of a rude term. Like I was saying, the Brothers Grimm wrote about Everafters because they are real. Take Snow White. She’s a real person and the story really happened—poisoned apple and all. Cinderella, Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood—they’re all real people. They actually live here in Ferryport Landing. The Queen of Hearts is our mayor. Sleeping Beauty is dating our uncle.”
“Debbie, you are going to look so adorable in your straitjacket,” Ms. Smirt said.
“It’s Daphne,” the little girl said.
“Please be quiet,” Sabrina whispered into her sister’s ear.
“OK, kid, I’ll bite. So, if fairy-tale characters are real, how come I haven’t met any?” the caseworker said with a cackle.
“Because there’s a magical barrier that surrounds this town that keeps the Everafters inside. Our great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Wilhelm Grimm and a witch named Baba Yaga built it to stop some evil Everafters from invading nearby towns.”
“Oh, of course,” Smirt said sarcastically. She slapped her knee and let out a ghastly laugh that sounded like a wounded moose. Sabrina had never seen the nasty woman laugh before and hoped she never would again. Daphne ignored Smirt. “The barrier has made people in the town angry, and a lot of the Everafters don’t like us much,” Daphne said. “But—”
“Daphne, stop. You’ve told her too much,” Sabrina begged.
“Let me finish, Sabrina,” Daphne said calmly. “Like I was saying, we have a lot of enemies in Ferryport Landing but we’ve managed to make a few friends.”
Suddenly there was a tap on the window. Sabrina gazed out, expecting to see the Hudson River rushing past. Instead, what she saw nearly caused her to fall out of her seat. In the window was a familiar ragged-haired boy in robots-fighting-monkeys pajamas. Held aloft by two giant pink insect wings, he soared alongside the speeding train, grinning and sticking his tongue out at her. Sabrina had never been so happy to get a raspberry in her life.
Ms. Smirt, however, was horrified. She screamed like she had just found her name on Santa’s naughty list. She tumbled onto the floor and scampered underneath her seat like a cockroach. When she mustered the bravery to take another peek, Puck had already zipped ahead and out of sight.
“Did you see that?” Ms. Smirt stammered, slowly creeping back into the aisle and then dashing to the window for a closer look. “I must be tired. I thought I saw a boy out there. Flying! Outside the window!”
Just then, there was a horrible, eardrum-blasting clunk, followed by the screaming of metal on metal. Something sailed past the window and Sabrina watched as it disappeared. It was part of a door, much like the one the girls had stepped through to board the train. Sabrina looked back at her sister, who was grinning from ear to ear. “Did the two of you plan this?”
“Someone’s got to do the thinking in this family,” Daphne replied matter-of-factly.
A moment later Puck came strolling down the aisle with his beautiful wings extended proudly. “Well, well, well. Look at me. Here I am saving you two again. You know, you’re really quite helpless and pathetic. It amazes me that you can even dress yourselves in the morning.”
Ms. Smirt cried out and once again fell to the floor and scooted back under the seat.
Puck turned to Sabrina. “What is she doing down there?”
“Hiding, I guess.”
Puck leaned down and poked his head under the seat. “I found you.”
Ms. Smirt shrieked.
Puck lifted himself to his full height and laughed. “She’s fun.” He leaned back down and she screamed again. “I could do this all day. Can I keep her?”
Daphne shook her head. “You know the plan.”
Puck frowned. “Fine!” he snapped, then dragged the caseworker out from under the seat and to her feet.
Daphne stepped up to the trembling woman. “Ms. Smirt, I have something to say to you.”
Smirt said nothing and seemed unable to take her eyes off Puck and his wings.
“We are not going back to the orphanage. Not now, not ever. We are not going back to any foster parent, either. Our family is in Ferryport Landing and we’re staying. You are never going to come back to this town. You are never going to bother us again. This is good-bye, Ms. Smirt.”
“Right after the merciless kicking, right?” Puck said. “We talked about the kicking.”
“I vetoed the kicking, remember?” Daphne said.
Puck scowled.
Just then, the train’s conductor came over the speaker system. “Next stop is Poughkeepsie, folks. Next stop, Poughkeepsie.”
Suddenly, Puck’s face fell and his ever-present mischievous grin melted. “Uh-oh.”
“What’s uh-oh?” Sabrina cried, looking around. Every time she heard “uh-oh” something bad happened. It usually involved running from monsters or giants.
“The barrier,” Puck shouted as he spun around and ran in the opposite direction of the train’s rolling. “I forgot about the barrier!”
“Uh-oh,” the girls said in unison. No Everafters could pass through the barrier, and so when the train passed through it Puck was sent sailing down the aisle. He flailed helplessly.
“How do you stop this thing?” Puck cried as he was pushed by the invisible force.
Sabrina remembered the emergency brake cord hanging on the wall. She ran to it and yanked the handle as hard as she could. Brakes screamed, and the train whiplashed as it decelerated rapidly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t slowing down quickly enough, and Puck was fast approaching the steel door at the end of the train car. There was no way the train would stop before he slammed into it.
Puck flopped about like a fish in the bottom of a boat. Sabrina knew what he was trying to do. If he could spin around he could trigger a metamorphosis. Besides flying, he had the ability to change his body into animals and a number of inanimate objects. Usually he changed into things that would annoy Sabrina, like a three-legged chair or a skunk, but from time to time he could transform into something useful. Sabrina could do nothing but watch his awkward effort and cheer when he finally succeeded. His arms and legs shrank to thick, treelike stumps. His body plumped up hundreds of pounds and his skin hardened into a gray armor. A hairy horn erupted from the top of his head. In a matter of moments, Puck was no longer an annoying boy in desperate need of a soapy bath, but a full-size rhinoceros. He lowered his head and his diamond-hard horn plowed into the train door, blasting it off its hinges and causing a great commotion in Sabrina’s eardrums.
“He turned into a rhinoceros,” Ms. Smirt said.
“He does that,” Sabrina said.
While she and Smirt stood gaping at Puck, Daphne grabbed Sabrina’s arm and dragged her in the direction of the blasted door. Never once had the little girl led an escape, but Sabrina was too bewildered to argue.
They saw Puck plow through the next car’s door, and he was about to do the same to the one after that. Unfortunately, the train was packed tight with commuters. They cowered in their seats and hid behind their copies of the New York Times. No one was injured, but Sabrina suspected that many had wet their pants. She couldn’t blame them. No one expects to see a charging rhino on their way to work. She and Daphne did their best to assure them that everything was under control as they ran past.
The girls reached the last car just in time to see Puck plow through its door and tumble out onto the tracks. The girls held hands and leaped to the ground below just as the train came to a stop. Once she had regained her bearings, Sabrina found that she and her sister were not alone. Uncle Jake, Granny Relda, and Elvis were waiting for them. Goldilocks hovered in the background, as did Red Riding Hood. The three bears stood at the back of the crowd with hairy arms crossed in disgust, and Puck was busy morphing back into his true form. But there were two people in the crowd that made Sabrina wonder if her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. Her parents, Henry and Veronica Grimm, stood right in front of her with arms outstretched.
“Mom? Dad?” she cried.
Henry and Veronica smiled and scooped her and Daphne into their arms. Tears fell from every eye, streamed down cheeks, and fell to the ground below. Veronica peppered them with kisses while Henry wrapped them up and squeezed.
“But Goldilocks’s kiss. It didn’t work,” Daphne said.
“It worked,” Veronica said. “But you know your father. He was always a late sleeper.”
Henry stepped back and studied his daughters. “Girls, you look so different.” He held Daphne’s face in his hand. “You’re so … big.”
“You’ve been asleep a long time,” Daphne said.
Henry turned to Granny Relda with questioning eyes.
“It’s true. Nearly two years,” the old woman said.
“Two years!” Veronica cried.
Henry looked as if someone had punched him in the belly. He stumbled back a little before righting himself. “That can’t be true.”
Daphne nodded. “It’s true.”
“But we’re together now,” Sabrina said, trying to shift the mood back to the happy reunion. All her worries over the last two years seemed to evaporate like dew in the summer sun. The incredible weight of being responsible for herself and Daphne lifted from her shoulders and for the first time in a long time she felt like what she was—a twelve-year-old kid.
Ms. Smirt scurried through the open train door. She pressed her bony hands across her gray suit to flatten wrinkles and struggled with a broken heel on one of her shoes. She straightened, as if mustering all of her courage. “These children are wards of the state, and they’re coming with me, flying boy or no flying boy.”
“Who is this woman?” Henry asked.
“She’s our caseworker,” Sabrina explained. “When you vanished we were sent to live in an orphanage. She placed us with foster parents.”
“Horrible, evil foster parents,” Daphne said. “She sent us to live with a man who was terrified of soap!”
“Don’t forget the family that had a Bengal tiger living in their house!” Sabrina said.
“And the guy who rented us out as dogcatchers for his Korean restaurant.”
Veronica stepped forward and snatched Smirt by the collar. “Have you been mistreating my children?”
“I did what I thought was best,” Smirt sputtered as she tried to break free from Veronica’s grip. Sabrina remembered how much her mother enjoyed rock climbing—she was crazy strong. Smirt squirmed like a worm on a hook.
“If I ever see you within twenty miles of my children again you’ll wish you were never born,” Veronica said.
“Are you threatening me?” the caseworker said.
“No,” Veronica replied. “But my fist is.”
Smirt squeaked and scampered back onto the train.
“We have to throw some forgetful dust on her,” Sabrina said to Uncle Jake. “She knows too much. In fact, you should do the whole train.”
“Do everyone but Smirt,” Daphne said. Jake smiled and hopped onto the train with a handful of pink powder.
“Why not Smirt?” Sabrina demanded. “You told her everything. She’ll go back to New York City and tell everyone what she knows.”
“Exactly,” Daphne said with a grin. “She’s going to go back to the orphanage with this crazy story and they’ll think she’s a nutcase. They’ll fire her.”
Sabrina was astounded with the little girl’s plan. It was almost like something she would have concocted herself. In fact, it was better.
“Henry, Veronica, we have a lot of catching up to do,” Granny Relda said.
“I’ll say,” Veronica agreed.
“Forget it, Mom. We’re leaving as soon as the girls are packed,” Henry said.
“Leaving?” Granny cried.
Sabrina and Daphne eyed one another in astonishment.
Henry nodded. “We’re getting out of Ferryport Landing as fast as we can.”
ig brother, this is not one of your best ideas. You’re forgetting you’ve been off the radar for two years,” Uncle Jake said when he returned from the train. “Most people think you and Veronica are dead. Your apartment was sold. You don’t have a job. You’ve got a mountain of paperwork to go through before you can get at any of your money, and if you were smart you’d steer clear of that caseworker and the board of child welfare until you can prove that you and Veronica are really the girls’ parents. All of this will take weeks to sort out. Come back to the house—we can help.”
“He makes a good point, Henry,” Veronica said. “Maybe we should stay put until we get everything settled.”
Henry shook his head stubbornly. “Getting out of Ferryport Landing is more important than all those details. We’ll manage.”
Granny Relda’s face fell. She looked on the verge of tears. Sabrina had never seen her so upset. “But, Henry—”
“It’s not open for discussion, Mom,” he said sharply.
Sabrina’s mom frowned but kept her tongue. Everyone else looked uncomfortable.
The group trudged up the embankment quietly and found the family’s ancient car parked nearby. A quart of oil had leaked onto the sidewalk beneath its engine and a mysterious green fluid was seeping from the muffler. The old jalopy was a collection of illfitting parts from dozens of different car models and maybe a tank. Its best days were behind it—if it ever had best days. Now it looked like a wounded animal waiting for the Grim Reaper to come and put it out of its misery.
“Did you all come in this car?” Sabrina asked, looking around for another vehicle. “This old rust bucket is big, but you couldn’t fit everyone and the bears inside even if you squeezed.”
“That was my doing,” Uncle Jake said with a grin. He reached into one of his many jacket pockets and took out a small wooden box. Inside was a green dust that spun like a tiny hurricane.
Daphne’s eyes lit up with wonder. “What’s that?”
“It’s called stretching powder. Sprinkle a little of this on anything and you can make it as big or as small as you want. I blew a handful into the inside of the car. It’s big enough for a whole forest of bears now.”
“Gravy!” Daphne said, eyeing the green particles.
“Gravy?” Sabrina asked.
“It’s my new word. It means something is cooler than cool,” Daphne said, turning her attention back to Uncle Jake. “Where did you get it?”
“This is one of the first magical items I ever collected. Picked it up from the little old woman who lived in a shoe. She used this to get all seventy of her rug rats inside an old penny loafer.”
Henry snatched the box from his brother, shut the lid, and stuffed it into one of Jake’s pockets. “I’d prefer you kept your magic away from the girls. It’s dangerous and I don’t want them anywhere near it.”
“Dad, we’re old pros with the magic stuff,” Daphne said. “We use it all the time.”
Henry glared at his mother.
“I’m getting pretty good, too,” Daphne continued, completely oblivious to Henry’s rising temper. “In fact, I have my own little collection of wands and rings, just like Uncle Jake.”
Henry’s face turned as red as lava exploding out of a volcano. “You are five years old. You shouldn’t be anywhere near magic. You’ll hand it all over to me when we get back to the house. None of this nonsense is going back to New York City with us.”
“Dad, I’ll be eight in two weeks,” Daphne said.
Henry looked at his daughter as if she were speaking ancient Greek.
And Daphne looked like she had just been slapped. Sabrina knew firsthand how insulted her sister could be when she was treated like a baby. She herself had created a deep emotional chasm between them by not respecting Daphne. Only a few days before, she had betrayed her sister, stealing a magical item she felt Daphne was too young to possess. Now, they were barely speaking.
“Maybe we should go,” Goldilocks said with a forced smile. She opened one of the rusty car doors.
Sabrina and Daphne climbed inside as an orchestra of springs and joints cried out for mercy. The stretching powder had done just what Uncle Jake claimed it would do: The interior was enormous, even bigger than Granny Relda’s living room. They could have shared the car with a football team and would still have had plenty of room for everyone. Red, Goldilocks, the bears, Elvis, Puck, Granny Relda, Uncle Jake, Henry, and Veronica piled inside.
Veronica took a seat between her daughters and hugged them both. “So, what have we missed?”
Granny shifted uncomfortably. “Oh, where do we begin? Well, I’ve been training the girls in the art of detection and—”
“You knew I didn’t want them in this town,” Henry interrupted.
“I couldn’t leave them in the orphanage. They’ve been perfectly safe,” Granny said.
Sabrina laughed and the entire family turned to face her.
“You disagree?” Henry asked her.
Sabrina felt Granny’s betrayed eyes on her. “No.”
“Sabrina, if you have something to say I’d like to hear it,” Henry demanded.
She tried to stay quiet but the truth spilled out anyway. “Well, we were attacked by Jack the Giant Killer, then nearly stomped to death by an army of giants. Rumpelstiltskin heightened my emotions then fed off the anger like I was an all-you-can-eat buffet, then he nearly blew us up in some underground tunnels but not before he sent a bunch of half-monster children to kill us. We were nearly devoured by the Little Mermaid’s mutant hermit crab, almost killed by Little Red Riding Hood—”
Red seemed to sink into her seat.
“We killed the Jabberwocky—”
“It’s dead?” Henry asked, bewildered.
Granny Relda nodded.
“What else, oh, I was turned into a frog and was almost eaten by Baba Yaga, we were attacked by a six-story giant robot in Times Square, nearly killed by Titania, Queen of the Fairies, sucked into a time vortex, nearly barbecued by dragons from the future, almost sliced and diced by the Sheriff of Nottingham, and just about had our heads chopped off by the Queen of Hearts and Bluebeard. I’m sure there’s more but that’s right off the top of my head. Oh, I was taken over by the insane rabid spirit of the Big Bad Wolf, too.”
“That about covers it,” Uncle Jake said sheepishly.
“Go ahead, Jake. Make a joke out of it like you always do,” Henry said.
“Mom protected them every step of the way. I’ve been here for most of it, too,” Jake said.
Elvis let out a low growl.
“The dog wants to remind everyone of his contributions,” Goldilocks said.
Daphne hugged the big dog. “We all know you’re our real hero.”
Elvis barked.
“He says heroes deserve sausages.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Sabrina said to the hound. Elvis plus sausages equaled a noxious smell.
“Let’s not forget me,” Puck said. “I’ve been pulling this family from the jaws of death on a daily basis and haven’t seen a dime for my troubles.”
Henry scowled. “If you don’t mind we’re having a family discussion. Who are you, anyway? Peter Pan?”
“Henry!” Granny cried. “No!”
“I AM NOT PETER PAN!” Puck bellowed as smoke blasted out of his nostrils. A moment later the top of the family car rocketed into the atmosphere, turning the old jalopy into a very crude convertible.
No one was hurt, but the outburst launched a massive, manysided argument. Granny argued with Veronica. Henry shouted at Puck. The three bears roared and snapped at one another. Puck bellowed at everyone. The air was heavy with angry words bouncing around violently from one person to the next. All Sabrina could do was watch quietly and hope everyone didn’t turn on her. When a hand slipped into hers and gave it a quick squeeze, Sabrina was elated. Finally, she and her sister were getting back to normal. But when she looked down she realized she was actually holding Red Riding Hood’s hand. The little girl was trembling in fright from all the shouting. Sabrina quickly pulled her hand away. Red seemed hurt but didn’t say a word.
As the argument hit a fever pitch, Granny Relda inserted two fingers into her mouth and blasted a high-pitched whistle that rattled Sabrina’s brain. When everyone was quiet she turned her attention to Uncle Jake.
“Jacob, why in heavens are you driving so fast?”
Sabrina eyed the car’s ancient speedometer. The red needle was pushing one hundred and ten and the engine was rattling and screeching worse than usual.
“Because we have a major problem!” Jake cried.
“What are you talking about?” Henry asked.
“Well, big brother, before you insulted the boy fairy everything was fine, but you had to go and make him angry and he blew the roof off the car. So the integrity of the interior has been compromised,” he shouted over the wind.
“In English, please,” Veronica said.
“The inside of the car was enchanted to fit all of you in it. Now the inside is also the outside,” Jake said as he reached into his pocket and took out the little wooden box that held the powder he had used to cast the spell on the car.
“So?” Granny asked.
“So, the universe now has two choices. The exterior, which is the whole world, gets bigger to match the spell, which would be very, very bad. I’m talking earthquakes, tsunamis, insane weather. Real. Bad. Stuff.”
“Then what’s the other choice?” Goldilocks asked.
“The interior of the car is going to shrink back to normal, which means it’s going to get cramped in here fast.”
Sabrina looked around at all the people and animals in the car. There were almost a dozen passengers in the car, three of them weighing in the area of eight hundred pounds. “How fast?”
Suddenly, there was a pop followed by a loud hissing sound, as if someone had just stuck a balloon and let the air out. Before Sabrina knew what was happening she was pushed roughly to the center of her seat. She was practically sitting in her mother’s lap.
“Very fast!” Uncle Jake floored the gas and tore down the narrow country road. The car shook and quaked, pistons screamed and gears screeched. With every mile added to the car’s odometer, the interior got smaller. The passengers were squeezed closer and closer to one another. Worse, Sabrina realized she was sitting next to Puck, who was now hip to hip with her. She noticed he had mud and several plump, slippery earthworms in his hair.
“You need to go faster,” Henry shouted over the wind that beat against everyone’s faces. Veronica had moved onto his lap and Granny seemed destined for it, too.
“Don’t tell me how to drive,” Uncle Jake said.
“I’ll tell you how to drive if you’re driving like an old woman,” Henry snapped.
“You want to drive? ’Cause I can pull over and you can show me how it’s done,” Uncle Jake replied.
“They sound like you two,” Puck said to Sabrina and Daphne.
Both of the girls glared at him.
The shrinking increased dramatically and Sabrina found Puck’s nose just an inch from her own. The car door was pushing him closer while Red and Daphne were shoving her from the other side. If the interior shrank again they would most certainly be pushed even closer together. Accidents could happen! Accidents with lips!
“I hope you brushed this morning, piggie,” Puck said with a smile. He closed his eyes and puckered up for a kiss.
“Uncle Jake, drive faster!” Sabrina begged.
Looking offended, Puck scampered to his feet, using Sabrina’s head as a crutch. “Fine. I’m out of here,” Puck snarled as his pink fairy wings popped out of his back. He leaped into the air and allowed it to sweep him high above the car. Sabrina was relieved, but not for long. When the inside of the car shrank again she found her face buried in Poppa Bear’s hairy armpit.
Uncle Jake didn’t wait for the driveway. He pulled up right into the front yard, barreling through shrubbery and slamming on the brakes inches from Granny Relda’s front porch. It couldn’t have happened a moment too soon, as people started literally spilling out of the top of the car. Baby Bear toppled out and fell onto the ground with Goldilocks. Elvis jumped out and scurried under a bush. When Uncle Jake opened his door, he fell out with Veronica and Granny Relda. Sabrina glanced around and was startled to see Daphne was nowhere to be found.
“Daphne!” she cried. “She must have fallen out.”
Momma Bear grunted and got out of her seat. There, beneath her, was Daphne, safe but a little mashed.
“I have never needed a bath so much in my entire life,” the little girl groaned.
“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Henry said. “We all could have been hurt because of magic.”
Uncle Jake rolled his eyes and helped everyone onto the porch. Once there, Granny went to work on unlocking the door. There were a dozen locks of all shapes and sizes keeping the house safe. When they were all open she knocked on the front door and said, “We’re home!” The words deactivated a magical lock that few knew was there. It was only then that the front door could be opened.
“Veronica, take the girls upstairs and help them pack. Don’t let them bring anything that can cast a spell. You know what to look for,” Henry said as he picked up the phone. “I’m going to call everyone we know in New York City and let them know we’re on our way.”
“Henry, don’t you think this is something we should discuss?” Veronica asked. Sabrina watched her father shoot her mother an angry look. She threw up her hands in frustration. “Come on, girls.”
They climbed the stairs to the girls’ bedroom and went inside. Veronica closed the door behind them and sat down on the bed as if she was exhausted. A moment later she snatched the girls and hugged them. Sabrina felt one of her mother’s tears drip down onto her hand.
“Don’t cry,” Sabrina said.
“I can’t help it. I can’t believe how long we’ve been apart. You must have been so frightened.”
Veronica cupped Sabrina’s face in her hands. “You did a good job looking after your sister.”
The words fell into Sabrina’s belly and opened up into a million happy butterflies. She had tried so hard. Hearing her mother’s words was like a lifetime of birthday presents rolled into one.
Veronica looked at them both closely. “And you’ve both gotten so pretty. My little girls—where did they go?”
“We’re still here,” Daphne said. “We’re just bigger versions.”
Veronica laughed.
“Mom, you have to talk to Dad. We can’t go back to the city,” Daphne said, her tone suddenly serious. “We’re needed here in Ferryport Landing.”
“Needed?” Veronica replied.
“Absolutely!” the little girl cried. “There’s a lot of crazy shenanigans going on in this town and Granny needs help keeping the peace. There’s a bunch of bad guys called the Scarlet Hand running around tormenting everyone and it seems like every time we turn around someone is on the verge of destroying the world. We can’t go.”
“Daphne, you don’t understand. Your father has a lot of bad memories about Ferryport Landing. We should start packing.”
Sabrina pulled two tiny suitcases out from under the bed. They were the same suitcases she and her sister had brought when they arrived in Ferryport Landing, though back then all they had in them were a couple of T-shirts and a pair of socks they took turns wearing. She turned to the dresser where they kept their clothes, and she noticed her sister’s angry expression.
“Happy?” Daphne asked.
“Daphne, I—”
“I’m not surprised. Sabrina has hated living here since the first day. If she wants to go back, fine, but I want to stay here with Granny Relda. I want to take on the family business. I want to be a fairy-tale detective. Besides, who would look after Elvis and Puck? And Red Riding Hood is going to need help getting adjusted.”
Veronica shook her head. “Your father and I have argued on many things, from the color of paint in the bathroom to where we would send you to school, but this is one issue he won’t bend on. I don’t like it, and I’ll do what I can, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Daphne, if you are so eager to work with Everafters I wouldn’t worry too much. You might be surprised by what you’ll uncover in the Big Apple.”
“Mom, we know about the Faerie,” Daphne said.
“You do?”
“And about what you do for them,” Sabrina said. “We went back to the city with Granny. We met Oberon and Titania. We’ve been to the Golden Egg and talked to Scrooge. We know all about you and the Everafter community there.”
“Girls, I’d appreciate if you kept my secret life a secret,” Veronica said. “Your dad doesn’t know about any of it.”
Henry appeared in the doorway. “There’s a train in half an hour. I want to be on it.”
Veronica nodded.
“Get those suitcases packed, girls,” he ordered.
Sabrina was a bit surprised by her father’s tone. She remembered him being so easygoing and happy. Still, the girls did as they were told, even Daphne, and with their mother’s help they brought everything they owned downstairs and left it near the front door. Granny Relda and Uncle Jake were waiting for them. Henry was looking over a series of phone numbers he had scrawled on a piece of paper. Puck was lounging on the couch using his belly as a conga drum. Red Riding Hood was sitting in a dark corner. The three bears were sitting at the dining room table munching on a huge watermelon. Goldilocks was busy rearranging the rest of the