Ingredients for a Magical Book:
A quill made from a feather plucked from a pegasus wing.
Ink tapped from a magical squid.
Paper made from the pulp of a rowen tree.
Fill the book with your deepest, darkest, most dastardly secrets.
But take care to protect your story from those who seek to do you harm.
Lock the book with a spell of confusion.
Hide it in a parallel realm.
Ward it with an arcane sigil.
For once your story is known, you've lost a piece of your soul.
I know what you all are thinking—
How did you, a brilliant, devious, teenage hacker/yoga-hating evil queen in waiting, fall for Olivia's lies?
Oh, sure. Now that you know the truth about her, I look pretty dumb.
But when you've fantasized about your birth family your whole life, and you finally meet them, you want it to be like the last piece of a puzzle. At last, your life makes sense.
What I'm saying is that when you have a desire that's taken root in your soul, you don't want to accept that it might be unattainable, no matter how many signs there are to the contrary.
But now I knew Olivia did not care one bit about me. She used me to make her own desires come true.
Okay, you're right. I'm a fool.
A fool with magic! My logical brain cut in.
Right! Magic. All I had to do was blast myself out of this place and warn Petronella about Olivia's dastardly plan to become queen by stealing my magic. Unless Petronella already knew. Who could I trust?
Less thinking, more blasting! my brain suggested as suddenly Olivia's fairy dust rained down on me, and I found myself magicked onto one of the metal tables in the next room, straps closing in on my wrists and ankles, the cold metal seeping through my flimsy gown, my heart pounding with the shock of being suddenly uprooted.
If you ever find yourself in a fairy tale environment, never get used to remaining in one spot. With the flick of a hand or a toss of fairy dust, you're somewhere else entirely, and there's often pain waiting for you on the other end.
Why are you taking so long? My brain shrieked. Hurry before—!
Okay, okay. No need to yell! I'm right here! Geez! I gathered my magic, feeling the buzzing flow into my fingertips, when suddenly the straps tightened, and the words of a spell died on my tongue. The buzzing also died.
I tried again, concentrating with all my might. Squeezing my eyes closed. Ignoring the pain where the straps bit into my flesh. The magic was in there, but dampened and sluggish, as if it had drunk a gallon of prescription cough medicine.
"What did you do to me?" I yelled.
Olivia gently pushed a lock of hair away from my forehead. A lump grew in my throat. Here was my "sister" performing such a tender act, yet she loathed me. I felt her loss even more profoundly. "They're another invention of mine—magic suppressing ropes. Came across the idea quite by accident. But so handy when you're a non-magical person trying to perform scientific studies on the magically inclined."
I tried brute force to escape the straps, but all that resulted in was the leather digging more deeply into my skin.
"They're very strong. I once had a troll on that table in my early testing phase. She couldn't escape either. So don't feel too bad about being such a weakling."
"I am not weak!" I said.
She tweaked my nose. "Whatever you say, sis."
"Don't call me that. I am not your sister."
"Oh, but you are. For a little while longer."
"What does that mean?"
She glanced at the neighboring room with the glass coffins. The broken one must've been meant for me. I gulped.
"I don't think you'll be in a talking mood after this. But we'll see. As I've never used the machine on someone who is my perfect match, the results are unknown." She giggled. "Isn't this exciting, Tyra?"
Tyra's golden eyes gleamed, and a wicked smile played on her lips. "Quite."
"Olivia... How could you?" I said, my voice tinged with an ugly whine I wished I could suppress. "I thought you said, no matter what, we'll always be sisters."
Olivia's laughter sliced through the air, sending shivers down my spine. "Look at it this way. Once I have your magic, you'll always be a part of me." She looked crazed, eyes wide, the pupils bouncing around, her cackle of a laugh echoing through the lab. Just add a hairless cat and a pair of space lasers aimed at the White House and you'd have the quintessential mad scientist.
"Tyra, could you please summon the Mirror of Reflection and the Monster's Egg?"
"That's Nellie's child!" I said.
"Which you stole," Olivia said.
"But I had no choice," I said.
"Uh, huh," Olivia said, rolling her eyes. "Tyra! Egg. Mirror. Now!"
"Sure thing, boss." Tyra flicked a delicate hand, casting fairy dust, some of which went up my nose, making me sneeze, and seconds later both objects shimmered into existence, hovering in the air at the foot of the table. I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid an accidental mirror interaction.
It was strange. If Tyra could wave her hand and make things appear out of nowhere, why did they make me go on all those stupid quests? It didn't matter, though. The most important thing was saving my dads and, of course, my familiar. And not dying would be a terrific bonus!
"Thank you, Tyra. Let us begin the process." Olivia clapped her hands in delight.
"Wait!" I said. "If I cooperate, could you please turn Vermeil back into his rat form and my dads back to humans and send them home? As you promised."
"I don't actually need your cooperation," Olivia said. "Everything is in place. We distracted you with those silly tasks to occupy you while we made the final adjustments. All you have to do now is sit back, get your magic sucked out, and then gaze into the mirror. I promise to give you a prized location in my new statue garden. I had a glass coffin set aside for you, but sadly, you destroyed it. So, the statue garden it is."
"Statue garden?"
"Yes, running a dungeon like this is too much work and expense. I'll be turning the inmates into statues. You'll be in good company."
My sister was a monster. No, that comparison was too cruel to monsters. She was even worse than Petronella. And now, because of me, she was going to make Brittlebane even more horrible. All the creatures I'd come to care about—Lubris, Frekvic, Ash, Doryu, and the others whose names I couldn't think of at the moment because I was about to die, would suffer under her rule. "I won't look into the mirror."
"Alas, then I will be forced to serve toad legs at my coronation dinner. Please don't make me do that. Jacques will be furious about a last-minute menu change. Well, my coronation awaits! Time to make myself magical and be off! Let's warm up the Extractomatic."
"Witch and Switch," Tyra grumbled, stomping over to the gleaming machine with its hundreds of tubes and wires, and flipping a lever. It whirred to life.
Olivia began spinning dials, cranking cranks, and pushing buttons with a practiced hand. The table vibrated as tentacles burst out from the top of the machine and lowered themselves toward my fingertips, stomach, and heart. Each tentacle had a long needle attached to the tip. I squirmed and hyperventilated.
The inevitable was descending onto upon me, yet I needed time to make it evitable (yeah, I know it's not a word, but remember the whole 'about to die' part?) I had to at least try to stop Olivia. Which meant no more hyperventilating and buying time instead. I'd seen enough Bond and Austin Powers movies to know that mad scientists loved to brag about their brilliant schemes and ultimate triumphs. All I had to do was get Olivia monologuing, and I'd have at least fifteen minutes to do my own scheming. If I was lucky, she'd leave me dangling over a pool of sharks and or leave me alone in the room with an obvious escape route.
I took a calming breath. "Uh, this machine looks very complex. How ever did you come up with the design?" I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering as the needles pierced my skin.
Olivia looked at me side-eyed. "Are you trying to get me to monologue?"
The tips of my ears heated. "What? Me, no way. I'm just interested."
"Liar," she said, unable to contain a smile. "But since we must wait for the Extractomatic to warm up, I'd be happy for you to listen to my brilliant plot!" She checked the attachment points of the tentacles, then looked up. "Let's see. Where should we start? I know! The Cauldron of our Creation."
Everything had to have an overblown name! "I know that part," I said.
"No interruptions," Olivia said, eyes glazed as if savoring each memory of a plot well executed.
"Gotcha. No interrupting."
"As you already know, I was a terrible disappointment to Queen Petronella. An heir with no magic. And oh, how she made me suffer! There was no punishment too severe. As if all I needed to become magical was to have it beaten out of me. As the years passed, I learned to stay out of Petronella's way as much as possible. Seeing my face was a reminder to her of the end of her reign looming without a viable heir, so my best chance was to stay as far from her as I could.
"I came here, to this lab, and began tinkering with another form of magic—science. And science didn't care who or what I was. It had its own laws to obey, and I learned them well. I found books in the castle library about all the sciences, and I devoured them. And then I came upon a particularly helpful, slim little volume.
"It was handwritten with brief entries on each page. Like a secret diary. And over the years, the book kept growing as it wrote itself. Each time I visited the library, I'd find more pages. The thing was suffused with magic. I tried to steal it, but it wouldn't stay in my possession. As soon as I walked out the library door, the book would disappear and end up back on the shelf. This made it almost an obsession for me. I returned as often as I could, barely breathing, as I checked to see if another page was there ready for me to read.
"In the entries there was a recurring theme—secrets. And a place that stirred something in my memories—a grove of rowen trees. One day I decided to find this grove and see if I could learn its secrets, so I packed a luncheon of fig jam sandwiches and apple slices and headed into the forbidden forest."
My stomach growled. Fig jam sandwiches! I could use one of those right now.
"No interrupting," Olivia screamed.
"I didn't! It was my stomach; I couldn't help it." Also, I wasn't supposed to be listening to her monologue. I was supposed to be plotting. But I was fascinated. And perhaps she'd reveal something in her evil scientist ranting that would provide an important clue for escape.
"Well, stop!"
"I will if you don't mention food again," I said.
She sighed and shook her pretty blonde head. "I found the grove, and it was exactly as described in the diary. I was so excited, I tripped over a fallen log and bled into the ground at the foot of the largest tree. Suddenly, sparkly gold letters hovered in the air, spelling out the words, The Vessel and the Heir, followed by a brilliant poem about how there were two girls created that night."
Sadly, my twin sister had no taste in poetry. The Vessel and the Heir was terrible. Wisely, I didn't contradict Olivia's rant.
"That was how I learned I must've had a sister who took all the magic. All I had to do now was find you and devise a way to transfer your powers to me once I found you. But I needed an assistant. One with magic. Also, a person who was as desperate as I was not to see Petronella reign for another 500 years."
Tyra sidled up beside Olivia. "That's where I came in," she said, her delicate chin in the air.
"Yes, you did," Olivia said. "Tyra despised the queen, and I agreed that when I ascended the throne with her help, I would return Tyra's fairy prince from the dungeon where he'd been held for almost five centuries. I sent Tyra to the earthly realm to search for you. She looked far and wide in every city, town, village, and hamlet where she detected magical inhabitants. When she found your parents, she suspected you were the One. But you exhibited no magic. It was as if someone had put a spell on you to keep it constrained. Before we told Petronella, we had to be sure. Which meant forcing you to access your powers."
"I came up with the idea to make you jealous about Miles, and I kidnapped your cat and sent you the candygram," Tyra said.
"You did," Olivia agreed. "Truly inspired. Once we knew for sure we'd found you, I informed Petronella, who was thrilled. She went to earth to claim you as her heir, just as I planned. Of course, I had to up the frequency of testing the Extractomatic on subjects once we knew we'd located the Chosen One."
"So, you were behind the witchnappings?"
"Yes. I was!" Olivia crowed. "Not bad for a squib! Don't look at me like that. We must make sacrifices in the advancement of science and magic. Think of all the guinea pigs that died so humans could have safe cosmetics. And I chose carefully. Only witches who were cruel to me when I was growing up. They deserved their fate, as do you."
"I did nothing to you, Olivia," I growled. "Petronella made the mistake by using too many ingredients to create us."
"Perhaps, but if not for you, I would be powerful, and Petronella would have loved me. For this, you will sacrifice your magic and your life."
"Why does Petronella want to abdicate the throne so badly? Don't evil overlords like the gig where people do their bidding, scraping, and bowing and 'yes, your majestying'?"
She put her hands on her hips and her eyebrows curved into twin question marks. "You don't know?"
"Know what?"
She blew out a long breath. "Petronella had a lover she had to give up to take the job. She wants to return to him."
I gasped. "Petronella did this all for love?"
"I know! Such weakness," Olivia said. The Extractomatic dinged. "All warmed up!" She climbed onto the second gurney and tentacles just like mine pierced Olivia's skin. "Tyra, begin the extraction," she ordered.
Tyra pulled a giant lever, and the machine whirred. "It's ready," Tyra breathed.
My stomach flip-flopped. I hadn't come up with an escape plan! But I still had one option left to keep Olivia from becoming queen, only it meant my dads would remain toads. I was pretty sure that would happen either way, because Olivia would never keep her promise. I'm so sorry Dad and Papa, was my final thought before I lifted my head and braced myself, gazing straight into The Mirror of Reflection.
There ya go! A lot is revealed here! I couldn't wait for you to know about Olivia's devious plan. What do you think will happen now? Will Rowen be turned to stone? Will Olivia succeed? Until next time!!! Don't forget to vote and comment!
Love you guys!