I didn’t need the prompting. The words had already started tumbling out of my mouth. “I traded Clover some gold for a change enchantment. So now the fairy tale doesn’t have to end like the real story did. I can’t have my own baby here. Rumpelstiltskin will take him.” Chrissy’s lips tightened and her wings spanned open sharply.
“You changed the fairy tale?” 260/356
“It seemed like the easiest way to get home.” Chrissy tapped her wand in exasperation. “Well, that’s mortal logic for you. Complicate things in the name of simplification.” She put one hand on her hip and held the other out, palm up. “Let me see The Change Enchantment.”
I was still holding the baby, so Hudson got the book and handed it to her. Chrissy opened it, barely glancing through the illustration and text. “Writers,” she muttered, then put her wand to the book. “Give me the nonfiction version, please.”
At once the paintings changed to actual pictures, moving ones, like paper-thin computer screens. She put her wand back into her purse and flipped through pages, pausing at the one where Clover and I made our bargain. She scowled, then turned the next page and the next, watching the important events of the last two days, until she reached the final page and saw herself peering at the book in the forest beside Hudson and me.
Chrissy let out a dramatic sigh and slammed the book shut. “How am I ever supposed to finish an assignment to the UMA’s approval when they keep sending me an assistant who purposely sabotages my efforts?” She gripped the book hard, as though she’d like to throw it.
“I’ll tell you why he did this. He’s ticked off that I’m using the gold enchantment that he lost to Rumpelstiltskin to complete my assignment.
He just can’t bear the fact that he doesn’t own it anymore.”
“It used to be Clover’s enchantment?” I asked. The shabby clothes and second job as a party entertainer suddenly made sense. He had lost his ability to make gold. But had Clover really given me The Change Enchantment to sabotage me? Would he do that? The thought settled into my stomach like I’d swallowed lead. Weren’t there any magical creatures out there that actually helped people? What was going to happen next? Would a unicorn come along and try to impale us?
261/356
I glanced down at my baby. I hadn’t ever thought much about having children before, but seeing him, holding him, was doing something to me. Emotions gripped me so strongly I couldn’t even identify what they were. He was beautiful. Perfect. I didn’t want to let him go, and yet the desire I had to protect him outweighed everything else.
I held him out to Chrissy. “You understand why he can’t be here.
Anything can happen now.”
“Yes,” she said, clutching the book as proof. “You decided to leave the safety of a plotted story and plunge into the unknown. You might as well have stayed in your old life if you were going to do that. Are you so fond of uncertainty that you had to bring it into your wish too?” Her wings fluttered in agitation, and a wind rushed through the forest as if nature had no choice but to match her mood. The fire blew out.
Strands of her hair flailed around her shoulders and bits of leaves swirled at my feet. “I brought your son here because I thought he would be safe within the confines of the fairy tale. You only had to do two simple things when Rumpelstiltskin came for the baby: cry so he offered you a second chance, and then answer his question. His name is Rumpelstiltskin. How hard is that? But now anything can happen.
You put your son in danger by choosing this.” I held my baby protectively to my chest, shaking with both fear and anger. “I didn’t choose to have a baby in the Middle Ages. It’s your fault he’s in danger. You’ve got to take him back to the right time.”
“My fault?” She blinked in indignation. “I granted you three wishes and in return you made a deal with a leprechaun that could lead to magical calamity.” She gestured to the baby. “Your son is the key Rumpelstiltskin needs to regain his old powers. It won’t matter where I take the baby now. He was here and yours within a year from your agreement. That means Rumpelstiltskin can claim him.” 262/356
Around us, tree branches shuddered in the wind. The sound of their swishing leaves created a dull, chastising roar. “Do you realize what Rumpelstiltskin will do if he gets his fairy magic back?” Chrissy asked. “He won’t be a friend to mortals, I can tell you that. Expect a lot of frozen crops, plagues, and men to mysteriously change into frogs.
Meanwhile, the fairies will have to join forces to fight him all over again. As if I don’t already have enough to do.” She let out a disgruntled huff and crossed her arms so forcefully she nearly dropped the magic book. The wind ended at the same time as her outburst, and the billowing leaves settled limply back down.