Page 35 of Switched

“Impossible!” Angelina’s face is racked with pain. “Where did you get it? I haven’t seen it since before he cursed me. How did you open it?”

“Open it? It’s a book,” I remind her as she yanks harder, leaving nail marks on my skin.

“That book can only be opened by fairies! It would never be in a reform school library, unless”—her face softens slightly—“someone brought it here to be opened. Who gave it to you?”

“It just appeared!” I insist.

She lets go of my wrists. “And it let you see what I had written, like it once did for Alva?” I nod, and her face darkens again. “Alva was evil. Are you?”

“No! I’m not!” My voice is sure and clear. “I’m on the good side.” I move backward to avoid her grasp.

She studies me closely. “I see. Then how…” She looks upward. “Why would the book trust you? It’s never trusted anyone but me and Alva before. And him. He took it from me with her help.” Her breathing comes faster now again. “Maybe he knows he needs me to finish his story and tell him how it ends.”

She’s not making any sense. I grab a cloth from the stove handle and dab her sweaty forehead. “You say you wrote his villain story?” I’m afraid to say his name in her presence.

“Don’t you understand, child?” Angelina closes her eyes as if the memory is too much to bear. “Villain stories are written by fairies that foresee potential futures. The future is a hard thing to predict, but my family has been blessed—or cursed—with the gift to view glimpses.” She opens her eyes. “He knew I had that gift, so he nurtured it, and I fell for his promises, like many had before. I could see his future, and I foolishly told him what I saw. I wrote it all down in that book!” Her voice grows angry again.

“And then when something I wrote down made him upset, he trapped me in the same wood as those book pages, deep in the fairy forest. He wanted no one to see that book or its theories, so he hid me away, kidnapping Kayla and making her work with Gottie for my girls’ and my freedom. But now I’m back, and so is that book.” Her lower lip trembles. “If he knows the book is here, he may already be too. He wants to know the ending. And if he doesn’t like it, he’ll expect me to change it.” She closes her eyes. “He never understood it doesn’t work that way.”

If he were here, we’d know, wouldn’t we? I need to keep her calm till help arrives.

“The book must have sensed Kayla’s presence, which is why it opened,” I realize. “It only read us one paragraph, and we didn’t understand a word of it. Something about him and Alva?” Angelina’s eyes flutter closed again. “It said they make music together, which seems pretty far-fetched. His speaking voice is dreadful. There is no way he can carry a tune.”

A look of recognition comes over Angelina’s face just as Professor Harlow bursts through the door with her wand illuminated. Kayla, Jocelyn, Emma Rose, and Brooke Lynn are right behind her. Headmistress Flora is last, her ears pointy and bright green. A mass shrinking spell seems to have many ramifications.

“I remember,” Angelina tells the room. “I remember everything.” The room is silent, giving her room to process what she’s actually saying. “I was the one tasked with writing Rumpelstiltskin’s villain book. When he liked my predictions, he was happy. But when he wasn’t pleased with the direction of things, he got angry. I came to a part in the book that was frightening, and I didn’t want to keep going.”

Kayla reaches for her mother’s hand.

“He didn’t want me to stop writing, but I feared if I kept going, he’d learn the ingredients he needed for something… What was it?” Angelina thinks for a moment, and her eyes widen. “It was for a spell! A dark spell that would allow him to go back to the beginning of our kingdom, before Enchantasia or our royal courts ever took power.” Her eyes slowly return to their eerie amber shade. “I couldn’t allow that to happen, so I didn’t want to know his ending. I refused to write anymore.”

“Oh, Mother,” Kayla says, near tears.

“Impossible.” Harlow touches her right ear, which is pointy and twice its normal size. “I don’t mean to contradict you, but are you sure your memory isn’t muddy? Villains can’t read their own books, and they certainly never know what fairy is in charge of their stories. Believe me, I’ve tried to find out who wrote mine, and no amount of threatening ever revealed the source.”

“Rumpelstiltskin was too vain to allow his book to be written without him knowing the fairy who was doing the writing,” Angelina explains. “I have no clue what deal he must have made to find out it was me, but once he knew, he visited me daily to see how my writing was going. I didn’t trust him at first, but he finally wore me down with his generosity. He was always bringing us what we needed! Food, clothes, presents.”

“Bribery works wonders,” Harlow acknowledges.

Angelina’s face flushes. “I am ashamed to say I liked the attention. Then, he became friendly with my girls, including Kayla, who was so little at the time.” Her eyes grow teary as she turns to her daughter. “He was so fond of you. He made me believe I was his family. He told me he wanted what was best for me—to see me become Fairy Queen and rule the forest—and I foolishly believed his trickery.”

“Just like Anna did,” I say aloud.

“Until you stopped telling him his story.” Flora fills in the details. “Do you remember what happened then?”

“Yes.” Angelina covers her face with her hands, pulling her hand away from Kayla. “Once I wrote about the spell he was after, I became worried he would use it. His curse would destroy Enchantasia! So I stopped writing, and he became furious.”

“Are you sure you have the spell right?” Harlow asks. “There is no magic that can rewind time. If there were, every villain would use it.”

“There is such magic, but it is well hidden,” Angelina explains. “I didn’t want him to know the ingredients he needed to complete his spell, so I stalled. I told him I felt uncomfortable going further with the story because I had been breaking the fairy code of honor by letting him know his story. He became infuriated and vindictive. Soon, I barely recognized the man who used to feed Kayla her evening bottle.”

“Gross,” Kayla says.

Angelina looks up at us wearily. “He disappeared for a while, so I thought maybe he’d given up. Then he showed up and gave me an ultimatum. If I didn’t finish the book, he would tell everyone that I had broken my fairy vow by sharing his story with him. I’d be banished from the fairy kingdom, and so would the girls. I knew I had no choice. I remember giving him the book with a false list of ingredients, and when he realized his spell wouldn’t work, he made sure I was no longer a threat to him.” She closed her eyes again. “Obviously he wants me to have the book back so I can finish the story.”

“And you must,” Harlow insists. “It’s your fairy duty. But now, more than ever, we have to protect you and the book to make sure he doesn’t ever see it.”

“I can’t.” Angelina starts to shake again. “I don’t want to know how it all ends.”