Page 45 of Switched

Anna wipes her eyes as if she can’t believe what she’s seeing. Then her face breaks into a smile. “Gilly?” She runs toward me.

When we reach each other, we hang on to each other, both dissolving in tears. I’m not sure what makes me happier—that I found her, or that she seems happy to see me. I don’t ever want to let her go again.

“How did you find me? How did you even get up here?” Anna clings to me. “I thought I’d never see you again! I was afraid I’d be stuck here forever.”

My words come out rushed, tumbling over one another as I say all the things I should have when she was at FTRS. “I never stopped looking for you. I’m so sorry, Anna. I’m so sorry that I didn’t see how much you were hurting about Father and the shop. It’s my fault you’re here now—I pushed you toward him!”

“No, it’s not your fault,” Anna insists, her eyes brimming with tears. “He made me so many promises, and I was foolish to believe him. By the time I realized the truth, it was too late to get away.” Her face is full of anguish. “I’d already made a deal with him.”

“That deal is broken,” I say feverishly, even though I have no clue if I can do that. “You’re coming home with me…that is, if you want to.” My voice catches in my throat.

She starts to laugh through her tears. “Of course I want to!” The two of us are still crying and hugging when Jocelyn pokes me in the shoulder.

“Sorry to break up the happy reunion, but we’ve got to get going.” Jocelyn looks closely at Anna. “You’d better be worth this rescue.”

“Jocelyn!” I reprimand her.

“It’s true!” Jocelyn scoffs. “Did you ask her where the harp is?”

Jack steps forward. “Or my mum or cow?” He holds out his hand to Anna. “I’m Jack. You might have heard of me. I was the first kid to climb a beanstalk and reach Cloud City.”

Anna interrupts him. “Did you say harp? Stiltskin has it at his headquarters up here.” The others walk over, but there is no time for reunions or introductions. “He’s planning to use it so he can—”

“Rewind time, take over the kingdom, doom us all. We already know all that.” Jax is hasty. “What we need to do now is stop him.”

“And rescue other kids like you who want to leave his squad,” Maxine adds.

“There are some,” Anna tells us. “Jack’s mum might be there too. Those of us who don’t do as we’re told usually wind up in the dungeon, which is at the headquarters.” Her lip quivers. “I’m on my last warning.”

“Then we need to move fast and get you, those kids, and the harp out of here,” I say. “What else do you know?”

“He needs more ingredients for his spell, but he’s frustrated because they’re in some book and we haven’t found it yet,” Anna explains. A look passes between me and Kayla. “He has the harp, but it is tricky to control. It can’t be moved unless it’s playing, and it won’t play unless it, um, likes the person singing to it.”

“Told you,” Jack sings. “Or I said something like that. I think.”

“Come again?” asks Jax.

Anna’s cheeks color. “When the harp is playing music, it’s said to be as light as a feather. When it’s not, it weighs more than a thousand giants. It’s why no man has been able to steal it.”

“Nothing can weigh that much,” Ollie says. “Can it?”

“The harp does,” Jack says. “I should know. I tried to steal it once but couldn’t get it to play.” He scratches his chin. “Guess my intentions weren’t exactly on the up-and-up.”

“You probably wanted to sell it to buy more cows,” Jax grumbles.

“There’s only one cow for me,” Jack tells him. “Besides, I wasn’t sure how I’d get that thing down the beanstalk.”

“Rumpelstiltskin has tried everything to trick the harp into playing—making deals, casting spells, offering sacrifices. He keeps making people sing to the harp, but they all wind up getting zapped. The harp doesn’t like to be tricked.” Anna shows off a scar on her right arm. “I know it sounds silly, but the harp will only play for someone completely pure of heart. Someone who wants to use its music for good. I guess he thought the harp would play if he was able to save Alva, since they were together a long time ago, but he hasn’t figured out how to reverse her curse.”

“Maybe you and your sister can sing to it,” Jack suggests, and we all look at him. “Okay, so maybe your sister is a Stiltskin Squad member so she isn’t one hundred percent pure, but you are.” He looks at me. “You’re here to rescue her, and you want to save the harp, not sell it. The harp will sense that.”

“That might be the first thing you’ve said that makes sense,” Jocelyn agrees.

“It’s still risky,” Maxine worries. “What if Gilly gets hurt?”

“I’m with Jack.” Anna grasps my hands. “I think you can make it happen. Then we can all go home.”

Home. I can almost see Anna sitting in our boot, around the table with Mother and Father, Han, Hamish, Trixie, Felix, and me home on break (for getting an A on Prince Sebastian’s family tree paper). I want that to happen so badly I can taste it. “Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”