Chapter 34

34

I had no idea a frog’s face could turn so red. Or look so guilty. I took that as my answer. “So you’re the reason we’re all stuck here?”

I must have looked more menacing than I felt, because Annabelle-Harp curled her hand over the little green rascal and pulled him close to her chest in a protective stance. “He was a little boy,” she countered. “I’m sure he didn’t know what he was doing.”

The frog huffed, and I couldn’t help but crack a tiny smile at his indignation. He looked just how Lyall used to get when I told him he was too small for something. “Regardless of his intentions, at least we know where the curse came from. Which means, we have a decent chance of reversing it.”

“That’s wonderful news,” Annabelle-Harp exclaimed. She gave Jack a glowing look. “You’ll finally get to go home!”

“We’ll all go home,” Jack replied. “Breaking the curse should turn Danny back into a boy, and I’m sure we can find a way to undo your enchantment, as well. What do you think, Mari?”

I grimaced. “If the giants return and we can convince them to revert you back to your original form, then yes. Absolutely. If not…”

“Then we’ll find another way,” Jack stated firmly. “I’m not leaving her to be used as entertainment.”

He wouldn’t, either. No matter what happened after we broke this curse, he’d stand by his friends until his dying breath. Same as me and the boys. For better or worse, we were all in this together. I hoped like hell it was the former. “Our best bet, then, might be to head straight for Mondue rather than take our chances arguing with giants who’ve been under a curse for the past sixty years. Once we’re safely down the beanstalk, we can work on undoing your enchantment ourselves.”

“Thank you, Mariana,” Annabelle-Harp breathed, snuggling the little frog against her cheek. “So, when do we start?”

I cracked the door open, peeking out to where a cluster of winged figures was slowly gathering in the night sky. Their screeches pierced the air as they flew toward the shelter, and I quickly pulled it closed. “We’ll wait for first light, in case things go sideways. For now, let’s all try to get some rest.”

Who knew what tomorrow would bring.

“Potion?”

“Check.”

“Brushes?”

“Laid out in order of size, smallest on the left, biggest on the right.”

“Binding dust?”

“Glittering away next to the brushes.”

“Golden egg?”

“Opened and waiting.”

“Disgusting skin I tore from Gregar’s ankle?”

“Placed in the egg.”

“A tear from our little frog buddy?”

“Already soaking the gross skin, courtesy of a particularly sad ballad performed by our resident harp.”

“Anything you want to take with you?”

“Packed and on my back.”

I cracked my neck from side-to-side and rolled my shoulders before shaking out my arms and legs. “Let’s do this thing.” I held out my hand. “Brush me.”

Jack handed me my favorite spell brush, and I looked up in surprise. “You remembered.”

He reached forward, wrapping a curl around his finger. “As if I could forget anything about you.”

I fucking melted. It took every ounce of wherewithal not to throw everything to the side and pounce on him right there in the grass. Of course, having Annabelle-Harp and her brother-frog standing by helped keep my libido in check, as well.

I tore my gaze from Jack’s hooded, green eyes and dipped the brush into my newly made potion. “Here’s hoping that well wasn’t just a well,” I murmured, painting the spell onto the egg’s gleaming surface. A pinch of binding dust, and I blew a shimmering wish over the wet ink. We all held our collective breath while the glittery words turned to gold, searing straight through the egg’s walls—and then crickets.

I leaned forward, peering inside the egg. “Shit. Did I forget some?—”

A burst of blinding light smacked me in the face, hurtling me backwards as the entire room blinked away into a wall of pure white.

Jack!

I threw my arms out, searching the void for those strong arms and calloused hands but finding nothing but empty space. Shit. What have I done? What am I ? —

A swirl of mixed colors interrupted my panic-spiral, and I lurched toward it, scrambling to a halt at the last second when it solidified into the shape of a young boy. His brown hair was a snarled mess and his freckled face was twisted in a scowl as he spoke to another emerging figure—this one an old man with a long white beard. The old man gestured behind the boy and held out his hand. On his palm was a shiny bean reminiscent of the ones Abuela had sent me. They argued back and forth, but their voices were nothing more than indistinguishable murmurs. Finally, the old man pulled out a golden egg and presented it to the boy with a flourish. The boy’s eyes flared round before narrowing into calculating slits. He spit in his palm, and the two shook hands before ghosting away.

Too late, I called after them. “Wait! Come back!” My shoulders slumped, and I turned in a slow circle, taking in the endless void. “Where am I?”

A splash of yellow and green appeared in the distance, and I sprinted toward it as the same boy from earlier reappeared, this time with a wrapped gift tucked under his arm. He stood in the woods beside an old well, his fist hovering over the edge. He squeezed his eyes closed and dropped the bean he’d gotten from the old man.

I staggered forward. “Hey, kid, can you help me? One minute I was in the castle with my friends, and then next I’m here in this freaky dreamscape.”

The boy ignored me, and I gasped when he threw a scrawny leg over the edge of the well.

“Hey! What are you doing? That’s dangerous.”

He didn’t even blink as he clung to the rope and shimmied out of sight. I ran to peer over the edge, but when I reached it, all I could see was a rope ending in a pool of shimmering blue light.

“Well, this is crazy,” I muttered, jumping up onto the well’s ledge and bending down to pick up the rope. “Bomb’s away, I guess.” And with that, I swung down into the well’s depths…

…and found myself hanging upside down inside another.

Twisting around, I scurried up the thick rope and pulled myself over the edge. A familiar stream greeted me, its blue and purple stones shining beneath the clear surface. “Wait—I’m back?” I looked around. This was definitely the little copse of trees behind Jack’s cabin. Bonus, it didn’t look like it’d fallen in on itself the way Veloria's Blessing had after my first attempt at breaking the curse. Which must mean…

“We did it?” Excitement bubbled up in my chest. “Did we really fucking do it?”

Distant shouts drifted through the trees, and I ran in their direction to find Jack tearing at his hair, his fangs bared and a string of obscenities flowing from his mouth. Annabelle-Harp’s hands fluttered nervously about while she attempted to calm him, and a boy with messy brown hair, a dirty white shirt, and patched trousers stood with his arms crossed by her side. When I got closer, I recognized him as the boy from the well. He was the first to see me streaking across the grass, and he tugged at Harp’s arm to get her attention.

Worry turned to shock and then rapidly into delight when she saw me. “Jack, look! She’s there.”

His head whipped up, eyes round with disbelief.

I called his name, and for one brief moment, I would swear that time stopped. It was just him and me, and this overwhelming feeling of happiness swelling deep inside my soul. And then he was crashing into me, arms wrapping around me as he buried his face in my neck.

“Gods, I thought I’d lost you, Mari. There was a strange light, and then you were just… gone. Blinked away like magic.” His voice grew husky with emotion. “I thought you’d been taken away from me, and I… I don’t think I could survive if that happened again.”

“That’s never going to happen, do you hear me?” I clutched the side of his face, forcing him to look at me so that he could see the truth burning in my eyes. “I’m not losing you again. From now on, we share our adventures side-by-side. You wanna climb a beanstalk in the middle of the night? Wake me up, ’cause I’m coming with you.”

“Easy enough, since I plan on spending every night lying right beside you.” He lowered his head, and I parted my lips to meet him, hands gripping his hair as if he might disappear at any moment. His arms tightened, that same urgency fueling our kiss with need.

“Ahem.”

With matching sighs, we turned to find Annabelle-Harp and the young boy watching us with both amusement (her) and disgust (him).

Her mouth twisted in a sympathetic grimace. “As much as I hate to break up such a sweet moment, there’s the little matter of getting out of here we discussed earlier?” She pulled the boy into her side. “And given Danny’s involvement in the curse, I’m thinking sooner is better than later should the giants actually return.”

“She’s right.” I reluctantly stepped out of Jack’s arms, immediately mourning their loss. “You and Danny need to carry Annabelle out of the castle. Hopefully, Tenebris and Calum will have noticed the change when the curse broke and will meet us, but if not, I’ll need to find them before I go.”

“Didn’t we just promise not to separate?” Jack exclaimed.

“If there was another way, I’d jump on it in a heartbeat, but you have to get these two out, and there’s no way I’m leaving without my boys. I can’t do that to them.”

Jack swore under his breath. “Fine. I’ll take them to the top of the beanstalk, and if you’re not out by then, I’m coming back in to find you.”

I nodded. “Deal. Now, let’s move.” Jack and Danny moved to lift Annabelle-Harp, but I gently brushed Danny aside. “I’ll help carry her down the stairs, and then you can trade out when we get to the bottom, all right?”

“I can manage down the stairs,” the boy protested.

“I’ve no doubt about that, but I need your sharp, young eyes checking to make sure the coast is clear before we slip out the door. Last time we went into the foyer, there was quite the hulking monster guarding it. Who knows what might be there now?”

Danny’s face lit with understanding. “Scouting ahead, gotcha.” He fired off a sharp salute before running off to the large, freestanding door nestled among the grass. Several yellow dandelion heads had sprouted around it since the curse broke, and a vine of green ivy trailed up and around its arched frame. Danny had to stretch up on tiptoes to reach the handle, but before he could manage to turn it, the door swung open on its own. He fell on his bottom with a startled shout, and Jack and I dropped into fighting positions with daggers drawn when four mountainous men and women in pressed, red uniforms marched into the room.

The giants had arrived.