y parents and the Weatheralls needed a safe way to get to their temporary castles in Clevaunt and Yazkavore. Since Fairy Godmothers could only teleport so far—unlike Liza, who had an all-powerful mastery of teleportation—and no one could guarantee their safety if they travelled by carriage or the magic train, I’d offered them Lucky as a means of transport.

My mother was not a fan of the idea of dragon travel. She had quite a few things to say on the matter. Alas, it was the only way. Her protests did not change that.

Pietro was going to fly my parents and the Weatheralls to their respective safe havens straight away. It was a good thing that I’d taught him how to fly Lucky earlier in the month. After I bid farewell to my mother and father, he was the last person I had to say goodbye to.

“So you’re coming back here after you drop off Mom and Dad in Clevaunt and the Weatheralls in Yazkavore?” I clarified.

“Yeah,” Pietro said. “I’m going to supervise the reconstruction of the castle and security clearance of all our remaining guards and staff.”

“You’ll be here alone?”

“Evette is going to stay with me. I asked Mom and Dad for permission. I think it’ll be good for us to have each other to talk to, what with everything that’s happened.”

Pietro’s eyes had a glaze of sadness over them, and I could tell he was tired. But there was nothing short of strength and determination in his expression. Our father had laid a huge responsibility upon his shoulders, and while Pietro may not have ever trained to be king like Alex, he knew what it meant to be a leader, take charge, and defend others. He was ready for this. I had no doubt he would perform under pressure. Having Evette there to give him support was an added bonus.

“Good,” I said. “I’m glad you have someone.”

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You have someone, right? To talk to I mean, and help you deal with all of this?”

“I’ll deal with it just fine on my own, Pietro. Don’t worry about me.”

He gave me a tight hug and then patted my head, mustering a smile. “I’ll always worry about you, baby sister. Since you refuse to do it, someone else has to.”

My brother started back toward Lucky where my parents and the king of Tunderly were preparing to go. I headed for the tower that housed my bedroom to get myself ready. Suddenly Mauvrey’s mother came around the corner. She paused when she saw me.

“Crisanta,” she said.

“Your majesty,” I responded, bowing a bit. “I . . . I wish you safe travels.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I cannot say I have ever flown on a dragon before.”

“Don’t worry. Lucky is a friendly dragon. You’ll be fine.” I gave her a warm smile and a small curtsy, intending to keep going, but she moved in front of me.

“Forgive me,” the queen said, “but all afternoon I have found myself in dire need to speak with you, but with just as much fatigue over not knowing the proper thing to say.”

“People we love broke our hearts today, your majesty,” I replied softly. “I’m not sure there is a proper thing to say.”

The queen made a small motion between a nod and a head shake. Her expression was empty. The only thing I was able to ascertain for certain was that she’d been crying.

“I should probably get going,” I said, trying to escape the awkward lapse. “I have a couple of things to prepare before we depart.”

“Crisanta,” the queen repeated, preventing me from taking another step. “If you catch up with your brother, what do you plan on doing with him?”

The question caught me off guard. I had to think for a moment before answering. “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I hate him, but part of me wants to believe that the person I’ve always known is still in there, that—Shadow Guardian or not—somehow he can be saved.”

“And what about Mauvrey?” the queen asked. “I know my daughter has done terrible things, not just to us today, but to you personally. Do you believe she can be saved?”

This inquiry threw me even more. Mauvrey was evil. She was an antagonist-supporting witch who—in a few short months—had poisoned me, tried to kill me, and locked me in a coffin. Even before any of that stuff went down she’d been a toxic presence in my life for years. But she hadn’t always been that way. Just like Alex, she had changed. So theoretically, did that mean she could change back?

“I don’t know, your majesty,” I responded. “I suppose that’s up to her.”

“Do me one favor then?” the queen said. “If there is ever a time that your path crosses hers and you see a chance to help her break free of whatever darkness has hold of her, please promise me that you will take it.”

I thought about the request. The odds seemed impossible. Mauvrey hadn’t simply been possessed by darkness, after all; she’d chosen and embraced it. Still, this was her mother, and she needed a glimmer of hope that her only child might not be lost forever. Who was I to deny her of that?

“I promise,” I said.

And I meant it.

I watched Lucky zoom into the sky from the balcony of my bedroom. His scales flickered in the afternoon sunlight and he was out of sight in less than a minute.

Since my room was on a higher floor of the castle, it had not been damaged by the ground level explosions. I’d asked one of the Godmothers to teleport me up here so I could change. My friends had gotten back to their guest rooms in the same way.

My dragon gone, I headed for the closet. There was a garment bag in there—sandwiched among the dresses—that Minnie had delivered to my room earlier in the week. It was the sturdy dress that I’d requested be made for my journey to the Wonderlands.

I don’t know exactly what I’d been expecting, but the outfit was significantly more beautiful and colorful than anything I thought I’d get when I requested something durable and lightweight. I guess comfort, function, and fashion really could coexist.

I slipped the dress on over my black leggings. It was a lavender- and-orange masterpiece. The neckline and waist were highlighted in royal purple with elegant, curled embroidery running up the bodice. The bottom seam of the dress was finished with jagged black fabric that matched the off-the-shoulder sleeves, and the royal purple collar was popped high.

It felt a bit strange to be wearing something so bright and colorful when my mood was dark and the situation was bleak, but I didn’t fight it.

“That’ll do,” I mused as I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I threw on the black military jacket I’d arrived in a month ago, secured my wandpin to my bra strap, grabbed my backpack from under the bed, and went over to my desk.

I took my Mark Two out of the top drawer and shoved it inside the bag with my dream journal, which I’d brought with me from Lady Agnue’s. There was a secret compartment at the back of the drawer where I kept a small sack of gold that I’d earned from allowances and odd jobs over the years. I packed it as an emergency fund for our trip. Next, I pulled out a couple of items that were already inside the bag.

The first was my SRB. SRB stood for Soap on a Rope-Like Bracelet. SJ had invented it last semester and given one to each member of our group. The bracelets were laced with a special potion that kept the wearer clean and fresh. If we got dirty or wet in any way while wearing them, the SRBs instantly cleaned and dried us off with a flurry of silver sparks. Needless to say they were the ideal accessory for a long quest.

The other item I removed from my backpack was my Hole Tracker. This fantastical watch-like device showed its wearer when and where the nearest wormholes were going to open up, creating portals to other realms. It had been generously gifted to me by a White Rabbit named Harry (the son of the famous White Rabbit from the Alice in Wonderland stories). White Rabbits were charged with guarding wormhole portals from unauthorized access, using their Hole Trackers to find and get to the openings whenever they could.

I thought that Harry’s gift would give us an advantage over the antagonists. Now I knew better. My enemies had Hole Trackers too.

I secured the Tracker around my left wrist beside the SRB and the gold wristband that I used to share with Alex. For a moment, I studied the wristband and considered removing it. Then I decided to leave it alone. Keeping it was like keeping hope alive that Alex wasn’t entirely lost.

Plus, the wristband had an adverse effect on him that might come in handy. I opened the bottom left drawer and picked up my Shadow Guardians book, flipping to a page I’d read long ago when circumstances were so much different. I scanned the passage then my original translation right beside it.

“As Shadows draw their power from darkness . . . they can be weakened by light in the same sense . . . Shadow Guardians stay away from items that embody human symbols of light, such as selflessness, kindness, hope, and faith. Some examples include family mementos and items of deep sentimental value to the human host.”

I sighed and closed the book.

It all made sense now. The reason Alex hadn’t wanted to throw coins into the wishing well. The reason he had stopped wearing all his sentimental wristbands. The reason his hand had burned so drastically when his skin made contact with our shared gold bracelet. It was because the objects were toxic to him, or at least to the Shadow inside of him.

I shut the book, much like I was shutting the portion of my story that involved this place. Once I’d stored the text back in my drawer, I marched to the balcony. For one last time I glanced back at the space. My room looked like a foreign world now, even more than it had upon my arrival a month ago. It was like a museum dedicated to a girl who used to live there and the innocent world she once existed in.

I leaned out over the balcony and gave a signal to the Fairy Godmother who was waiting for me on the grass below. On seeing my wave, she used her magic wand to teleport me back to ground level. A cloud of red smoke consumed my form; when it dissipated, I was standing beside her.

I thanked the Godmother, whose name was Elsie, and went to meet my friends. Sooz had made arrangements for five Pegasi from Midveil’s Twenty-Three Skidd arena to be brought over to the castle. They were on loan to us for getting to our next destination. It was time to find the nearest wormhole and begin our hunt for Paige Tomkins.

I approached my friends and the steeds. Blue was petting the mane of a pretty hazel Pegasus. “So where’s the nearest wormhole supposed to open?” she asked when she saw me coming, gesturing to the Hole Tracker on my wrist.

“Century City,” I responded, having already checked. I pushed a button on the device and a holographic map projected in front of me. A small, glowing silver circle appeared in the Century City portion of the map with holographic coordinates and a time stamp next to it.

“Aren’t the holes usually marked in black?” Daniel commented

“Yeah,” I said. “But all those times we used the Hole Tracker before, the holes connected to Earth. Maybe the color changes depending on the realm the hole leads to?”

“So where does that one lead?” SJ asked.

“I don’t know,” I responded. “This thing shows the coordinates and times of the next holes, but not details about their destinations.”

“Well, that is not terribly useful,” SJ replied.

“What can I say, I don’t really know how to work this Hole Tracker properly. Harry didn’t give me instructions. From messing around with it, I discovered that it flashes brighter when we get closer to a hole. There is a more specific proximity sensor I can turn on as well that tells me how far we are in terms of feet and miles. I can also flip through time settings to see when future holes are opening up. But I can’t see where the holes are going, and it only displays vague maps of the realm we are currently in, not any others. Just look.” I tilted my chin at the holographic projection. “I probably wouldn’t even know this was Century City, let alone somewhere in Book, if it wasn’t for the coordinates and the big labels at the top. That’s why it was so important for us to make those Wonderland maps in the first place. The maps on the Hole Tracker are barely better than wandering around blind.”

“All right then.” SJ sighed. “What time is this Century City wormhole opening up?”

“Six o’clock tonight,” I said.

“Which means we better get going,” Blue said, giving her hazel steed a final pat. “It’s a long flight from here to Century City. Come on, people, we’re burning daylight.”

Jason rubbed his hands together. “Century City: Round Two. Any chance this will go smoother than our last visit?”

I huffed in amusement. “With our track record, I wouldn’t count on it.”