Page 40 of Switched

I stare at the beanstalk again and wonder whether Jack has left me behind to try to rescue his family. I hear a piercing scream and look down. One of the giants has just crushed what remained of the welcome tea tent. I can’t think about that right now.

“No clue! Everyone, let’s go!” I watch until they make it past the giants, then turn my focus back to Maximus.

“Hey, boy.” I know he can understand me. “Dorms, then the dungeon. In that order.”

Maximus’s wings flap fast to get us above the giants, the school, and the destruction. You can see everything from up here. Magic carpets whiz over and under giants’ noses and through their legs as kids riding Pegasi throw anything they can find to slow the giants down. We’re high enough now that I can see my teachers, as tiny as ants, still trying to blast the beanstalk, which continues to shimmer and glow and grow.

I urge Maximus to go faster, leading him straight toward the roof of the girls’ dormitories. We set down on the smoky roof, and Jax and I dismount. A fire is blazing in the woods in the distance. “I’m going to send Peaches and Wilson up to you,” I tell Maximus. “Fly them to Kayla’s mom’s fairy hut, then come back for us here. We’re going to get the others out of the dungeon. Then we’ll return to the roof.” I hesitate. “But take off again if it gets dangerous.”

I will wait for you, Maximus somehow tells me.

THUMP. THUMP. The giants’ movements seem to be getting closer.

“We don’t have much time,” Jax says as we descend the stairs from the roof toward my dorm room. “The giants could slam a fist through one of these walls at any moment.”

Rushing down the winding steps, we make it to my dorm room quickly. Peaches and Wilson start honking and squeaking the minute they see me.

“Guys, we need to get you out of here,” I tell them. “Jax will carry you up to Maximus, and he’ll get you to safety.”

For the first time ever, Peaches doesn’t try to nip me. Wilson nuzzles my fingers, then hops onto Peaches’s back. Jax holds open a sack and places the pair inside so that Maximus can hold the bag in his teeth. As Jax carries the pair up to the roof, I feel a slight wave of relief.

I run back to my room and grab my bow and arrow. Now I’m ready for action.

Finding our way into the dungeon is the harder part of the mission. With the warning sirens going off and all the explosions outside school, the hallways are going haywire. The destruction sounds far away inside the cool, darkened castle, but the trembles continue. Hallways glitch open and shut at lightning speed, making it tricky to get through them. Suddenly, I hear yelling.

“Girls in pink sashes being held against their will! Help!”

Awesome sauce! We’ve found the dungeons! A rumbling crash from somewhere inside the castle makes us move faster. My hand is on my bow and arrow as I run down the steps and find Tessa and Raza crying and clinging to the bars. I can’t believe they’re really behind bars!

“Madame Cleo let Blackbeard take over detention, and this is where he placed us,” Tessa sobs. “Now rescue me.” She sees Jax and stops crying. “On second thought, let Prince Jaxon.” I roll my eyes.

Jax grabs the keys from the wall and starts unlocking the cell doors while I keep watch. The ground rumbles, and tiny pieces of cement rain down on our heads. Tessa and Raza run out of the cell and collapse tearfully into Jax’s arms.

“It was terrible! We’ve been locked in there for an hour, and no one came to get us out!” Raza cries.

“That’s because the school is under attack by giants, and a huge beanstalk just sprouted on the grounds,” I tell them. I glance around the dungeon. This place always spooks me—too many things have gone wrong down here. It doesn’t help that Alva’s statue is down here now too.

“Giants? A beanstalk?” Tessa gasps. “I thought it was a thunderstorm!”

“We need to get out of here,” Raza adds, clinging to Jax’s arm tightly. “I can’t have my last moments be in a dungeon!”

I’m about to lead the way back to the roof when the hallway disappears. Before I can find a new way out, the room begins to shake and debris begins flying in our direction. Both girls scream. Jax grabs them and pulls them into a doorway. I join them just as the wall to the next chamber comes crumbling down as if it’s been blasted to smithereens. The gaping hole gives me a clear view of Alva’s statue, as a meaty arm pounds its way through what remains of the ceiling, narrowly missing her.

“A giant!” Raza shouts.

I smack my hand over her mouth, but my arm is visibly shaking as I try to keep her quiet. The giant may come after us if it knows we’re here, but my fear is short lived. Seconds later, I watch in horror as Princess Rose’s former captor is lifted off her stone podium, clenched in the grip of the giant’s hand.

I know immediately who sent these giants. There’s only one person who needs Alva to complete his spell. She may still be stone, but I can’t let her fall into Rumpelstiltskin’s hands. I have an arrow out of my quiver before I even realize it. I take aim at the giant’s fingers and fire again and again. I see the giant’s grip on the statue loosen slightly, then tighten again as it lifts Alva through the crater of a ceiling.

“No!” I run from the doorway as the ceiling continues to give way.

“Gilly!” Jax shouts, but I keep running till I reach the giant’s hand and Alva’s statue. I jump for the statue’s pointy shoes, my fingers grazing the soles as the giant lifts the statue completely out of reach and it is carried into the darkened sky.

I scream out in frustration.

Maximus must hear me because seconds later he’s landing in the remains of the dungeon.

I calmly turn to my best friend. “Jax, you have to listen to me. Stiltskin is up in Cloud City. I saw Anna there in Jack’s mirror, and he saw his mum there too. I know you don’t trust him, but this isn’t just about trying to get to Anna anymore. I would bet my bow and arrow that Stiltskin sent that giant to retrieve Alva for him, and Grimm only knows how long it will take him to bring her back to life again. Then it’s game over for Enchantasia.”