DANNY REMEMBERED THE TIME he’d fallen off the rooftop trying to fly, and now it was finally happening. Except he wasn’t falling this time. He was soaring. He was unstoppable. But the best part was that he wasn’t alone. The stars moved so quickly, Danny held on tighter. As he flew across the great ocean, he shut his eyes and thought of Giant’s Causeway, of Pili, of the next part of his adventure. He could barely hear Glory’s thrilled whoops, like she was a cowgirl lassoing a bull. Or Llewelyn’s terrified yowls.

When they landed, the first thing he could hear was the sea. Danny opened his eyes. His hair was a new level of windblown, and it took him a few steps to stop himself from wobbling. But finally, he could see the bright green earth and the blue-gray crashing waves that lay ahead of them. There weren’t even any houses this far out, only slick black rocks that looked like pillars leading out to the sea. He thanked the stars for their safe passage, but as his struggled in his grip, he had an idea.

“Don’t let them go yet,” Danny said.

“Whyever not?” Llewelyn asked.

“Can you hold on to the stars the way you did to the shadows?” Danny asked.

Llewelyn tapped his chin the way he’d seen Glory do so many times. “I believe so. Why?”

“Because right now, you’re our only hope,” Danny said.

“Danny’s right,” Glory said. “We need all the weapons we can get against the Shadow Queen.”

Llewelyn bowed his head. They placed their stars on the prongs of three antlers.

“It’s kind of like decorating a Christmas tree,” Glory said.

“What’s a Christmas tree?” Llewelyn asked. Then he looked at Danny and Glory. “I mean, of course I know what a Christmas tree is. But we have another problem.”

When they took a couple of steps, the stars threatened to make Llewelyn take off. It was like he was a great balloon floating away. Danny and Glory were forced to hold his paws.

Danny called on the magic within him. He wasn’t sure what to expect this time. The surprise was the best part. In the palm of his hand was a compass made of light. The arrow pointing north.

“This way,” he said, and led the way. It felt like his whole body was wired with an internal map, and his heart knew exactly where to go.

They were surrounded by the blue-gray ocean on one side and rocky cliffs on the other. In the distance, there were columns of stone that looked like steps. Danny thought that the green countryside reminded him of Ecuador. How could places that were so apart have things that made them feel similar? Here the wind was sharp, slapping their cheeks pink. When he felt the compass dissolve into a shimmer, they stopped.

“I don’t see the Shadow Queen or her shadows yet,” Glory said, fear in her voice.

“I hate to suggest this,” Llewelyn said. “But we need her. We might have the door but that wretched would-be queen has the keys. She’ll be furious that she was wrong.”

“You’re right,” Danny said. By now he’d learned to trust his gut. Danny looked for signs that the dark was moving around them, but as they reached the pillars of stone that led out to sea, nothing seemed amiss. “When she appears, Glory, you’ll have to distract her.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“You lived with her for months, I’m sure you can think of something. Who does she hate more than anyone?”

“Ella St. Clay,” Glory said at the same time Llewelyn said, “The Moon Witch.”

“I’ll get working on the door.” Danny flipped to the very end of the book.

The last story was called “Ella and the Sea Giants.” In it she tricked the giants into giving her a special quill and ink to write stories. She escaped to the Forever Gardens, and then made her way back to the human world so that every kid could have their own adventure.

“Wait a minute. There is no missing page,” Danny said.

They stood within feet of the crashing waves. They shivered. The icy salt wind was freezing compared to the rich humidity of Rio.

“I don’t understand,” Glory said. She stared out to sea. “I saw it gone.”

“Maybe it was part of the safety protocol Ollie mentioned,” Danny suggested.

“I remember a different story about this place,” Glory said, raising her voice over the loud crashing waves. “Auntie—she—told it to me once. A legend that a giant built this causeway to get across the sea to fight another giant. Only when he got there, the giant was way bigger than he’d expected.”

“What did the small giant do?” Llewelyn asked, biting his nail as they glanced up at the sky.

“He pretended to be a baby and the other giant believed him,” Glory snorted.

“A baby?” Llewelyn shouted. “That’s preposterous.”

“That’s one of the legends around here. Stories change everywhere, the way magic changes.” She looked at the book in Danny’s hand. “Ella changed ink and words into magic. She turned that into something. Remember what Ollie said? There’s a fail-safe. We already have the door. It’s in the words from the missing pages.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but how will we get the keys back from her?” Llewelyn asked.

Danny thought about how close they were to getting the thing they all wanted—to get to Rio Luna. They had to be faster, together. That was the only way they would win.

“She has to think she’s won,” Danny said. “We have to reveal the door. That’s the only way she’ll show herself.”

The three of them lined up on the pillars of Giant’s Causeway close to the waves, ready to face what was to come. Danny flipped through the book. In his mind he could hear the chime of the magic, like bells in his ears. He looked up at his friends, both of them radiating with the sparks of light. He might have started his journey alone, but he wasn’t anymore. They shared their hope and strength and sadness.

“We should each say a line from the enchantment,” Danny said. “Glory was right: We wouldn’t have made it here without each other. This is our quest. Follow my lead.”

“Deal,” Glory and Llewelyn said.

Danny shut his eyes and thought of Glory, of Llewelyn, of the real Leanna North who’d tried to protect the world she’d once called home. Ella St. Clay herself. He thought of Mrs. Contreras, who had tried to shield him from the cruel world. Of Mrs. Garner’s pancakes. He thought of the good things. The guinea pigs across the hilltops, the fairies in the grove, and flying on a real shooting star. He thought of Pili and returned her words to her. I’ll find you.

He spoke loudly. “ ‘The road to the Red Woods is paved with starlight—’ ”

Llewelyn followed, “ ‘Beware the place where shadows rise—’ ”

Glory said, “ ‘Among the greenest grove at night.’ ”

Danny took a deep breath and recited the final sentence from Ella’s story. “ ‘You’ll find love is yet the greatest prize.’ ”

The ground shook beneath them, and Danny quickly shoved the book into the safety of his backpack. Stones sank into the ground and revealed a single pillar bathed in light. It was no ordinary light, of course. On the surface were three divots in the shape of arrows.

Danny wasn’t sure if it was the way the temperature dropped or if it was the wailing sound of the shadows, but he could hear them before he saw them. As the waves crashed, they froze in midair. Shadows spooled from the breaking surf, and it reminded Danny of the basket of yarn that Mrs. Garner kept in the living room out of reach from the twins. Until one day, Freddy and Teddy grabbed it and unraveled it. The shadows went from ribbons unspooled in the air and gathered into the shapes of people.

At the center was the Shadow Queen.

“What clever younglings. You made it just in time to find that pesky door,” she said. Her eyes were full shadows now and her voice was all wrong, like broken glass and whispers. Her skin sagged off her bones, as if the magic was leaving her and she was falling apart. The only consolation was that she was no longer wearing Leanna North’s likeness. This was a woman with salt-blonde hair and eyes as black as the sky they’d sailed across. Her skin was pale with dark circles beneath her eyes. When she smiled, she revealed sharp black teeth. “I keep underestimating you.”

“Glory,” Danny said nervously, waiting for her distraction. But none of them were moving. They were truly frozen in place by an invisible force.

The Shadow Queen twisted her hands and commanded magic. It was different than when Ollie had done it. Instead of the flower petals on his skin, the would-be queen had her shadows traveling across her skin. She was using their power as her own.

With a wave of her hand, the ground beneath Llewelyn disappeared into a deep depression. The waves crashed and wrapped around him like arms. Llewelyn floundered as water licked at his face and closed over his eyes and nose.

“You’ll never get away with this,” Glory shouted. “My real auntie will stop you. Your story will always be left unfinished because Ella St. Clay will never give you a happily ever after.”

“Ella can’t do anything from her prison,” the Shadow Queen snarled. Then she went rigid. “Or should I call it my old prison.”

“You will lose,” Danny said. “We will always keep fighting.”

“Then I’ll just have to remove you,” the Shadow Queen said. Her face turned to Llewelyn trying to keep his head above the water. “By the looks of it, your friend won’t last much longer.”

Three of the Queen’s shadows flew down, and each grabbed an arrow key. Danny’s hands were trembling as each dark figure placed the keys into their divots one at a time. There was a loud, reverberating click. The lid of the pillar opened and revealed a shimmering, crystal-clear bean. Now was his moment.

The Shadow Queen flew to pick up the bean but the magic repelled her. She went flying into the waves. Danny felt her magic loosen. They were free of her spell. It was the break he needed.

“Come on!” he shouted.

Glory and Danny dove for Llewelyn and pulled him up to safety. Shadows writhed all around them. Some tried to grab the magic bean and exploded into shower sparks of light. Others dove for Danny and Glory.

“The stars,” Llewelyn said, choking on salt water. “Any minute now. It’s not like I’m drowning or anything.”

Danny yanked two stars from the antlers and handed one to Glory. The skin of his palms burned from their radiance, but he only had to hold on for a little bit longer. The Shadow Queen was swimming back toward them.

“Hurry!” cried the jackalope prince.

“Remember when Leigh the Bard defeated her with her power of light?” Danny felt a smile creep up his face. “Stars always shine bright when it’s darkest, and her heart is the darkest of them all.”

Together, they pitched their stars right into the Shadow Queen and her remaining shadows. They screamed like the roll of thunder up and away into the sky until they were nothing but a speck among the clouds.

“It worked!” Glory said.

Danny hollered his excitement into the sea breeze. Beside him, Llewelyn shook out his gray fur and left Danny and Glory drenched. But there was no time to celebrate. Danny remembered the warning that the Shadow Queen could never truly be banished.

“We have to hurry. She might come back.”

Danny held the magic bean between his fingers. It was light as air, but when he pressed it, hard as glass. Everything he’d fought for was wrapped in this moment. From the day he chose to run away and follow a magic spark to the promise of being reunited with Pili. Danny Monteverde made a wish, kissed the magic bean, and flicked it into the waves.

The sea burst with bubbling water and a thick snakelike green root broke through. They were all soaked, but at least they weren’t hurt. Glory watched in awe as the beanstalk kept on growing.

“I’m sorry, Danny!” the jackalope prince shouted over the waves.

“Why?”

“Because when we met, I accused you of trying to drown me. She definitely tried to drown me. Now, for the love of me, climb!”

Danny held on to the first branch and hoisted himself onto the beanstalk. He grabbed on to the next leaf and the next. He remembered the first time he tried to climb a tree because he thought it would take him to another world. He remembered when he thought he was sprinkling fairy dust onto his head and then jumped off the roof and broke his arm. He remembered every time he tried to find magic and couldn’t.

But there he was, climbing the biggest beanstalk he’d ever seen, just like the one etched onto his left hand. True, it was also the only beanstalk he’d ever seen. That didn’t matter.

Danny held on tighter because the salty wind pushed against them. He looked up. The beanstalk shot right through the clouds, where they swirled like the eye of a hurricane.

“Danny!” he heard Glory shout.

Below him, there was Glory, gripping the branch for dear life, and behind her Llewelyn.

“You can do it,” the jackalope prince told her. “If I can get over my fear of water, you can do this!”

“I can’t! I’m afraid of falling.” Glory shut her eyes and refused to look. “This is a very inconvenient time to discover a fear!”

“You just flew across the sea on a ball of gas!” Llewelyn shouted.

“It’s okay if you’re afraid,” Danny told her. “I’m afraid, too. But do you know what got me through this week?”

The wind tugged at the ends of her scarf. Her frown was more pronounced than ever as she shook her head. “No!”

“You did, Glory,” Danny told her. “You and Llewelyn make me braver and stronger because you’re my friends and you believe in me. I believe in you, too, Glory. There is so much we have to discover and it’s right up there. You have to climb.”

Glory opened one eye first. She saw Danny’s face so full of hope. They had lost so many things together, but they had also found each other. She opened her second eye and took a deep breath and clasped the hand he held out to her.

Glory climbed.

Danny helped pull her up for a couple of steps, but as they went higher and higher, she was able to do it on her own.

“Uh—is that supposed to happen?” Glory asked.

Up top the beanstalk vanished into gray storm clouds. In fact, the clap of thunder was so loud no one could hear the Shadow Queen and her ribbons of dark trailing behind them.

Then Danny looked down. A slithering black shape was gaining on them from the bottom. “Guys, we have company!”

He climbed higher and higher until he reached a shelf of clouds. There, at the very top of the sky was a golden archway made of ivy. A door within the clouds.

But Danny couldn’t go through until he was sure his friends were safe.

“Glory! Give me your hand!”

“Go!” she told him. She was mere feet away from him.

“I won’t leave you!” Danny assured her. Their fingertips touched until finally, he could grasp her hand. He helped pull her up and then she was on solid ground.

Llewelyn was next.

“Get back here!” the Shadow Queen screeched. Her skin was nearly completely melted off. The dark light within her pulsed rapidly. It must have taken great energy to try to get back to them.

“She’s got my foot! She’s got my foot!” the jackalope shouted over the storm.

“Maybe it’s a lucky bunny’s foot,” Danny said.

He knew it was the push Llewelyn needed to keep moving because the jackalope put all his strength into reaching Danny up top. The prince of the Red Woods glared at his friend and said, “I AM NOT A BUNNY!”

Llewelyn sank low and then jumped higher than he ever had before.

For a moment, Danny lost his balance. He felt the great drop of the sky beneath him. He could see the entire length of the sea, the ridges of Northern Ireland on the other half. As he began to fall, he was weightless. This time he didn’t have the help of a star to keep him afloat. All the air left his lungs as he screamed. It was going to be a long, long way down.

But he didn’t fall. The next moment, he was staring at Glory and Llewelyn. They’d pulled him back onto the cloud shelf. They could hear the Shadow Queen screaming, a terrible wail getting closer.

Together, hand in hand, the three of them ran through the portal and inside Rio Luna.