Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.29 Gem warning

After being away for a while, Elena and Olivia stepped into their house with stacks of books in their arms as they placed them on their dining table along with Brooke's storybook and the book of Shadow High.

"Okay," Elena said as they took their seats "We've gathered every book of magic we could get from Mira, now let's just hope we can find something that can give us an idea on how to get Brooke back."

"And find Destiny" Olivia added.

"Right."

They began to flip through Mira's books in hopes they could find some leads. But while doing so, Olivia looked up and spotted their unfinished scrapbook on the shelf near the window.

"Hey Elena" she spoke, "I know we need to focus on getting Brooke back and everything, but when do you think we can finish our scrapbook?"

"Oh" Elena replied a bit surprised "I almost forgot about that. I don't know, it depends on how long until all of this is over so we can finally break this curse. And let's just hope it won't take too long."

"Yeah but, I at least wanna try to finish it during our breaks and everything."

"Me too" Elena sighed "But at the same time I don't wanna stop searching for Brooke and Destiny."

"Neither do I" Olivia sighed back "All of this is making my head hurt."

"You have no idea" Elena agreed while rubbing her temples.

All of a sudden there was a loud knock at the door.

"Elena! Olivia!" they heard Terrence call "I need to talk to you guys!"

"What's going on?" Olivia wondered as Elena got up to answer the door.

"Hey Terrence" she greeted as she let him in.

"What's wrong?" Olivia asked, "You sound urgent."

"Because it is urgent" he replied, "Elena you were right, we can't trust Lydia and her crew."

"What do you mean?"

"I overheard Lydia talking to Noah about trying to steal the items we need to break the curse."

"What?" they gasped.

"Why?" Elena asked dismayed.

"I don't know why exactly, but all I heard them say was that they don't want us to break this curse, and it's because they're planning something."

"Planning what?"

"No idea, but not only that, I heard them talking about trying to find this gem called the Trigger."

"The Trigger?" Olivia remarked perplexed.

"I don't know what that is, but whatever it is, it doesn't sound good."

"Wait a minute" Elena suddenly spoke, "Why does the Trigger sound familiar? Hold on a sec."

She pulled out her phone and began to call Mira.

"Hey Elena" Mira answered while working in her vault.

"Hey Mira. Just a quick question, have you ever heard of a gem called the Trigger?"

"The Trigger? Yeah I have, why?"

"What is it exactly?"

"It's a powerful gem that can destroy any realm."

"What?" she gasped.

"Yeah, it's that powerful, but why are you asking me about this?"

"You might wanna come over to my place to hear this, it's not good."

After hanging up, Elena stood there in fright until Olivia spoke up.

"What did she say?" she asked.

"That the Trigger is a powerful gem that can destroy any realm" Elena replied dismayed.

"What?" they gasped in shock.

"Hold on" Terrence spoke, "If Lydia is looking for this Trigger, then what realm is she planning on destroying? This one?"

"What if it's Ever After?" Olivia put in.

"I don't know what the hell she's planning on doing with it" Elena muttered, "But whatever it is, we gotta find that gem before she does."

"Another search now?" Terrence grumbled, "That makes 3."

"You know what Terrence? Maybe you and your siblings could try to locate the gem while Olivia, Mira and I will try to find Brooke and Destiny."

"Fine" he sighed "But um, how are we gonna find this gem? We don't know anything about it besides its ability to demolish an entire realm."

"Why don't you try talking to Natalie and Danielle? Fairies know a lot about crystals and gems."

"Thanks for the tip, I'll get on it."

"One more thing, if you know anything else about Lydia and her crew, tell us as soon as you can."

"Got it" he assured before heading out.

After that, Elena and Olivia turned to each other and let out big sighs.

"You wanna use a break now and work on the scrapbook?" Olivia asked calmly.

"I'll get the glitter."

__________

With no sign of Nathan waking up, Nicole was beginning to lose hope as she sat near his wooden body.

"He's still not waking up?" Danielle stepped in.

"I don't know what's going on," she said sadly "Your magic should have worked on him."

"I thought so too. If he's not gonna wake up, then that must mean my magic was not made to wake him up."

"Well I don't know what to do now" Nicole mumbled.

"I think you should go home" Danielle suggested calmly "You've been here too long."

"But what if he wakes up?"

"I'll stay here a bit and try to use more of my magic on him, I'll let you know if I got anything."

Nicole gave a deep sigh before turning back to Nathan.

"I'm sorry Nathan" she murmured while taking his wooden hand "I'll find a way to wake you up, no matter how long it takes."

She gave another sigh before getting up from her seat and leaving the back room as Danielle followed her.

"I'll do everything I can" she assured.

"I know" Nicole nodded before walking out the shop.

Now that she was alone, Danielle went back into the back room where she took a seat next to Nathan and pulled out her wand.

"There has to be something I can do" she stated.

After a moment of thinking, she turned to Nathan and spotted the ribbon still tied on his belt loop, and that got her thinking. Wanting to try it out, she untied the ribbon off the belt loop and using the wand's magic, she gently touched the ribbon with her magic. Hoping it would work, she then tied it back onto the belt loop and watched as the magic ran through his wooden body.

She waited with anticipating, and that's when the eyes of the Nutcracker flashed open.