Spelled by Betsy Schow Read Free Book Online Page A

with you. My problem is you. You and all your high-and-mighty storybook buddies. You think you’re so special, that you can do or have anything you want. You don’t care who wakes up at two when you want a snack, or how many elves it took to make those shoes you only wear once then throw away.”
    I knocked her hand away. “That’s not true. I would never throw away shoes—”
    â€œAhhhh!” she interrupted and spun away from me. “That is exactly my point. How self-absorbed can one ditz be? It’s all about you . Everything you’ve lost. What about everybody you just royally hexed? Not that I care, but fuzz ball here doesn’t seem too happy with the new look you gave him.”
    My defenses immediately went up. This wasn’t my fault. “But I didn’t mean—”
    Rexi threw her hands up. “Of course you didn’t. Well, the road to hell is paved with the golden bricks of good intentions. And while I’m here yelling at you, we’re sitting swans for the Gray Witch. So stop thinking about you and help me figure out where we are.”
    In my opinion, Rexi was being unnecessarily harsh, but she was right about one thing—if we didn’t get moving, Griz would wipe us out.
    While I had never been traveling, I considered myself something of an expert on precious metals and gems. “Midas is the only place where gold literally grows on trees,” I said. The land of Midas was named after its mad king, who ran around turning everything into gold with his touch. For obvious reasons, it was scarcely inhabited. I didn’t want to risk becoming a 24-karat statue either.
    Rexi shook her head and reached into her pockets, then growled as she turned them out. They were empty. Stomping over to a tree, she snapped off a glittery branch and drew a makeshift map that looked an awful lot like a doughnut. But then again, maybe I was just hungry. Running around, she collected broken bits of the vacuum to symbolize different kingdoms.
    â€œThis is where we started.” She put Emerald in the doughnut center, using the Dust Devil’s handle for the tower—then stomped on it a few times just to drive the point home. “Midas is on the very eastern edge of the Realm of Fairy Tales.” She chucked the shiny engine fob on the outer doughnut rim.
    â€œYeah, I get Fable Channels on the telemirror. So what’s your point?”
    She drew a line from busted Emerald to chromed Midas. “It’s too far. That would mean we moved through a dozen storybook settings in the space of a five-minute cyclone. Plus, Midas has huge golden forests because it rains there, like eleven out of twelve chapters.”
    Our landing spot had a few withered gold trees with rotting figs sprinkled across tons of faintly glittered dirt. It hadn’t seen any water in ages, like someone had sucked the moisture out of the ground with a straw. The mud pit probably used to be a lake.
    Hopefully this wasn’t Midas, because if it was, I was a loooong way from home and the damage caused by Griz’s cursed star stretched out much farther than I imagined. But no need to panic. I was the heroine in this story, so everything would get fixed somehow. I’d been good—mostly. I’d done my part and followed all the rules the Storymakers had laid out. The Emerald Sorceress would come to the rescue with my happy ending in tow.
    I just needed to tolerate these circumstances until then.
    â€œAll right, Rexi. You’re supposed to be my guide, so take me to this spring on the other side of the rainbow. Where is it?” I waved my hand toward her makeshift map, waiting for her to mark it out.
    She snorted. “Like I’m supposed to know what that old bat was talking about? But when I see a rainbow, I’ll be sure to toss you over it.”
    â€œSo what exactly are we supposed do until we find it?”
    â€œ Mrow Mgrow ,” Kato replied and