CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
The next night is like a groundhog day. Are there groundhog days in Never After? Filomena wonders. Or maybe it would be a chippermunk day. The point is, it feels like the same day all over again. Come twilight, Rosie leads Filomena, Alistair, and Gretel to the river with leftovers from dinner. But this time, Rosie insists that everyone come. So Beatrice and Byron, as well as a very reluctant Jack, are along for the walk, too. Each carries a shirt for one brother.
But it’s when they arrive at the river that this night starts to be quite unlike the previous.
Seven magnificent swans with wingspans as wide as Byron’s swoop down from the sky. They land gracefully in front of Rosie. She gives the one nearest her a pat on the head.
“Where were you delinquents last night?! We waited practically all night for you!” she says.
The swan she just petted only squawks in return.
“They can’t even talk? Are you sure these are your brothers, Rosie?” Jack grumbles.
Filomena rolls her eyes. He’s still being a jerk today, sulking and hardly speaking to anyone.
Rosie ignores Jack. “It’s showtime!” she says. “Fairies, I really hope this works. Winter Witch, please know what you’re talking about.”
Rosie instructs everyone to pick a swan and stand in front of it. On her count, they each carefully pull a star flower shirt over their swan and then quickly step back.
At first there’s nothing. But then something happens that Filomena’s never seen before. Feathers are flying around, and human limbs jut out of the swans’ bodies. Then all at once—poof. She can hardly believe her eyes. There they are: seven boys. Wait, seven naked boys?
“Don’t look at us! Don’t look at me!” a teenage boy yells out, covering himself.
Huh, now that’s something you don’t think of when it comes to curses, Filomena thinks to herself, laughing quietly. She guesses that during the process of transforming into a swan, clothes become sort of nonessential.
But apparently the fashion expert of the group did think of this.
“Don’t worry, boys, I’ve got clothes for you,” Gretel says, opening her bag and tossing garments at the shivering brothers. Rosie gives her a very appreciative look.
“Blimey, it’s much colder having human skin than feathers, I’ll tell you that right now,” one brother says.
As soon as they’re dressed, Rosie throws herself into their arms.
“Rosie, you genius girl!” says a brother, hugging her and giving her a noogie.
“Can’t believe you figured it out, Rose!” says another.
“Star flower shirts? How in all the worlds did you come up with that one?”
“I don’t even want to know,” another says. “We’re back, boys! We’re back!”
The energy has certainly shifted with their transformation. Rosie’s brothers are all slapping one another on the backs, doing little jigs, stretching out their arms and fingers, remembering what it feels like to have limbs and opposable thumbs again. And they all keep hugging Rosie over and over. Having older brothers seems pretty nice, Filomena thinks.
Swiftly, two of the brothers lift Rosie up onto their shoulders so she’s laughing wildly in the air. The more Filomena sees of the brothers—the goofy, cute, wholesome, rambling crew—the more she begins to wonder if Rosie has a point about the League of Seven thing.
“Let’s have a party!” one brother shouts, and the rest cheer. A party?
“Rosie, take us back to the cottage,” another brother says. “Let’s throw a big bash to celebrate! It’s been far too long since we’ve had a good old-fashioned rager!”
It’s become very clear to Filomena that Rosie’s seven brothers care a lot more about having a good time than they do about saving Never After. As they walk back to the cottage, Filomena’s head is spinning. They have so much to do, so much to figure out. This rowdy group of fraternity bros is not how she imagined the League of Seven, the heroes who will save Never After from doom. Plus they have to rescue Zera, find Colette, transform Charlie, retrieve Princess Jeanne’s crown … Not to mention two of her best friends aren’t speaking. It all piles up in Filomena’s chest. And now these boys want to throw a party? It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
At the front of the group, Rosie’s brothers still have her hoisted on their shoulders as they walk, cheering and yelling and joking, back to the cottage. Behind them, Filomena, Jack, Gretel, Alistair, Byron, and Beatrice walk silently, a depressing weight hanging over their heads.
When Filomena enters the cottage, it appears the brothers have already invited the giants and their girlfriends over. Seven giants, seven giantesses, seven brothers fill the cottage, dancing, laughing.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the cottage this full!” Rosie says. She looks a little overwhelmed.
“Come on, Rosie,” one brother says. “We were just swans for goodness’ sake, don’t we deserve to have a little fun?”
Rosie shrugs and joins in. Though Filomena is happy for Rosie and her brothers, she’s having a hard time pretending to enjoy the merriment. Her heart’s not in it. It feels like too many people, too crowded. She needs some air.
Filomena steps outside, putting on her Gretel-made outerwear. She dusts some snow off a bench in the garden and sits down, taking a big breath of cold Snow Country air. The sounds of partying are muffled out here. Through the golden glow of the windows she sees Beatrice and Byron dancing, the brothers laughing, the giants standing on the kitchen table and toasting one another. It’s one of those moments when she really feels so far away from home. Her heart aches a tiny bit with the loneliness that comes from being in a crowd.
Suddenly someone is sitting next to her: Jack.
“Hey,” he says quietly, hands in his pockets.
“Oh, you’re talking to us again, are you?” she replies sharply.
“Just to you,” he says.
She softens and her pulse quickens. No matter how big of a jerk he’s been, when Filomena looks at him, she just sees Jack and his golden heart. Just to her? It feels like the party doesn’t exist anymore, like they’re in a snow globe, only the two of them. Still, she wishes he hadn’t acted so rudely earlier.
They sit in the quiet snowy night for a moment, looking at the stars. Then Filomena can’t take it anymore. “What’s going on with you, Jack? Why were you so sharp with Alistair? This isn’t you.”
He sighs. “I know.”
“You know? That’s it?”
“It’s all my fault, Filomena.”
She turns her head away from the stars to look at him. His cheeks are damp from crying, she realizes. “What is?”
“Zera. My oldest friend in all of Never After, the closest thing I had to a mother after my mother died. My guardian, my friend. She asked for my help, and I let her down. In her greatest time of need, I let her down.”
Filomena says nothing. She can feel how much he’s been holding in. He needs to vent.
The floodgates open.
“It’s all my fault for getting hurt! I slowed us down.” Jack smacks himself on the forehead, and Filomena grabs his hand to stop him doing it again. Then, somehow, they’re holding hands. They keep holding hands.
She’s holding hands with Jack the Giant Stalker.
“I’ve always been the one to make all the decisions. Why does it feel like when I make one wrong move, someone I love dies? Why is this my life?”
“I hear you. But it’s not your fault that Zera got captured.”
“But it is my fault, though!” he yells. “She was desperate and sent for help—”
“And so was Princess Jeanne. Everyone needs you,” says Filomena.
“And I let them all down,” says Jack. He closes his eyes. “Sometimes it’s hard to imagine who I even am without all these missions. Saving people and fighting and plotting … That’s who I am. I’m nothing else.”
“That’s not true,” she says. But he just shakes his head, disbelieving. “I don’t know how much I’ve told you about this, Jack,” Filomena continues, “but before I met you and Alistair, I was really lonely. I was bullied at school. My only friend ditched me. The only thing that made my life feel okay was reading about you and your adventures. And then when I met you in real life, you were so much more than just a hero. You’re funny. You’re kind. You’re my favorite person to be around.” She blushes slightly, grateful her cheeks are already rosy from the cold.
“Now you’re just buttering me up so I’ll stop being upset.” Jack chuckles lightly.
“A laugh! That’s a victory.” Filomena bumps his shoulder with hers. She realizes they’re still holding hands. Her heart catches in her throat. “But besides all that, a hero is a pretty amazing thing to be, Jack.”
“I hate that word. Hero. I’m not a hero, I’m just a kid with no other choice but to do this. You heard Sabine when we were in Vineland: ‘Blood of my blood has been shed for millennia to keep you safe.’ Do you think I want that? I don’t want that!”
“I get it. Both my birth parents died for me. I never even got to know them. Sometimes I wish I was still just reading about your adventures instead of living them alongside you. Being brave is a lot harder than thinking about being brave. How are you so brave all the time? You never seem afraid.”
“Of course I’m afraid. I’m afraid all the time. But I can’t let anyone see that; I can’t show it. This is the destiny given to me by the fairies.”
“You know, I was given this destiny, too, Jack. We’re both gifts from the fairies to Never After, remember? We have the same destiny. I just joined in a little later.” She smiles. “We can help each other,” she says. “If you just talk to me for real, tell me what you’re feeling, I promise it won’t make me afraid. I won’t freak out or think something’s really wrong. You’re allowed to have feelings.”
Jack looks at her for a long time, saying nothing.
“I’m really happy you came to Never After, Filomena. Thank you.”
They hug. This hug feels different than their past hugs. There’s something deep here, something that feels like two hearts colliding.
When they pull away, smiling, she removes the Seeing Eye from around her neck and tries to give it back to him.
“Keep it,” he says.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I gave it to you.”
Suddenly they hear a crash come from inside the cottage.
“I’m okay! I’m okay!” they hear Alistair yell. They watch through the window as he stands up off the floor.
Filomena laughs. “Did he just fall off the kitchen table?”
“It’s getting rowdy in there.” Jack chuckles. “I guess I should apologize to him, huh?”
In an act of real bravery, Filomena touches Jack’s cheek. “Yeah, you should. Hate to break it to you, hero, but you’ve been kind of a jerk.”
They both laugh and go back to the party.