Jade Blossom took the paper from his fingers. With a smile that verged on flirting, she tucked the boarding pass into his pocket. “Your pass isn’t activated yet. It will become magical as soon as you give me Queen Orlaith’s goblet.” She pulled another paper from thin air, it seemed, and handed it Donovan. “Here’s a picture of the goblet. You’ll see it later when you go to her court. When you’re out of Queen Orlaith’s lands . . .” She lifted her hand to the side of her face, mimicking a phone. “Call me.”

This kept getting worse. Donovan was after the same goblet I was supposed to get. Every contest—every game in PE I’d played and lost—flashed into my mind. I was horrible at competitions. I was even horrible at singing competitions, and singing was something I was good at. What chance did I have to win?

Chrissy planted her hands on her hips, her lace cuffs draping over her fingers. “I already gave Sadie instructions to take the goblet, and we were here first.”

Jade Blossom cast us an unconcerned look. “Then it’s too bad Sadie doesn’t have an invisibility cloak. It gives my client a distinct advantage.”

My stomach sank. With an invisibility cloak, Donovan could steal the goblet before I even got close to it. Besides, I suddenly remembered that the story said the soldier took a goblet from the ball. It was already decreed, and if I tried to take the goblet instead, I would most likely be considering that mistake from a cereal box.

I stepped toward Chrissy. “Isn’t there another way I can go home?”

She didn’t answer. Jade Blossom was speaking with a smile of cat-like smugness. “Think how grateful Queen Titania will be when she gets the goblet—oh, sorry, I bet you were thinking about that. You’re still trying to find a way to get into Fairy Godmother University.”

Chrissy’s lips pressed into a tight line of pink lipstick. “The only reason they haven’t already accepted me is because I dumped Master Goldengill’s son. He blacklisted me.”

Jade Blossom reached into her bag again, this time producing a thin, green wand. She fingered the end absentmindedly. “You know, maybe you should try for a less exclusive job. One more suited to your talents. A snail guardian, maybe.”

Chrissy raised her chin. “Don’t count your snails before they’ve hatched. My client has a few advantages over yours.”

“Like what?”

“For one, she’s . . .” Chrissy gazed at me, searching for a redeeming quality, “. . . very smart.” Chrissy was obviously bluffing.

“Really,” I said. “If there’s another way to—”

Chrissy didn’t even acknowledge I’d spoken. She was still proving her point to the other fairy. “And Sadie knows the story. That gives her the advantage of foresight.”

Jade didn’t blink. “Donovan’s a professional thief.”

Chrissy let out a gasp, not of revulsion but of pure jealousy. My gaze flew back to him, seeing his mussed hair and confident swagger in a new light.

He wasn’t the trendy type, the effortlessly cool guy who spent his time mocking everyone else. He was a rebel who skipped school altogether unless he was casing out whose car to steal. He was the type who fought dirty, a thief with an enchanted cloak. And I was up against him.

Chrissy recovered as best she could from the news, striking a pose or airy confidence. “Sadie may not be skilled in the criminal arts, but she has other abilities.”

Of all the things I ever expected anyone would say about me, never once had ‘Sadie may not be skilled in the criminal arts, but she has other abilities’ crossed my mind.

“Sadie has . . .” Chrissy struggled for a moment to come up with a quality that might help me knick a goblet. “. . . hidden talents.”

Jade Blossom smirked. “Hidden extremely well, apparently.”

Chrissy turned her back on the other fairy with a sharp air of dismissal. She gave me a smile like cheerleaders wear during pep assemblies. “We’ll win this. Call me when you have the goblet.” She flicked her wand, and without any other sort of goodbye, she vanished. A trail of falling pink glitter wafted to the floor where she’d been.

I was stuck here until I got the goblet. That is, if I could get the goblet.

Chapter 8

I stood in the entryway. Just stood there. I didn’t know what to do now, where to go. Was I supposed to join the royal family for dinner? Pretending things were normal seemed too overwhelming of a task. I needed time to pull myself together, to think. I needed to stay here in case Jade Blossom gave Donovan any sorts of clues about how to get the goblet.

I was still grasping the tickets Chrissy had given me. I folded them and slipped them into my pocket.

Neither Jade Blossom nor Donovan paid any attention to me. The fairy launched into an explanation about the magic prohibitions surrounding Queen Orlaith’s island that Chrissy had already told me. He regarded her, arms folded, his blue eyes cold with frustration. “Hold up a sec. Where exactly is Queen Orlaith’s court? And what is this princess story you mentioned earlier?”

Jade Blossom let out a sigh, her shoulders dipping dramatically with the effort. “Haven’t you ever heard the fairy tale about the dancing princesses?”

“Sorry. I’m not the Barbie-doll type.”

“Your parents must have read you fairy tales when you were young.”

He let out a grunt. “What can I say? It’s just one more way my mother failed me.”

Jade Blossom’s lips twitched unhappily at this piece of news. “I can only tell you what the story allows. The king of this land has eleven—” she glanced over her shoulder at me. “I mean twelve daughters. Don’t ask why he had that many. There isn’t a good answer.”

Jade Blossom went on to explain about the worn slippers and the king’s proclamation, then said, “Once you figure out the mystery, you’ll become the king’s son-in-law and inherit the kingdom.” She smiled, self-satisfied. “That will give you power, wealth, and your choice of a beautiful princess thrown in at no extra charge, because that’s the sort of amazing fairy godmother I am.”

Donovan rubbed at his forehead and looked at her skeptically. “Wait—the dude is offering up his kingdom just because he can’t figure out how his kids keep sneaking out? My dad would have been kingdomless when I was ten years old.”

Jade Blossom brushed flecks of dirt off the front of Donovan’s coat in a fruitless attempt to make him more presentable. “The king is bothered that his daughters keep sneaking out, although that’s not why he offered the reward. He knows magic must be involved, and nothing makes a mortal edgier than knowing magic is drifting through his home every night.”

Donovan peered around the room, taking in the stairs, balconies, and chandeliers. “Ten to one it’s the windows. Mine were on the fourth floor and that didn’t stop me from leaving.”

I wondered, but didn’t ask how he’d managed to climb out a fourth floor window without plunging to his death.

Jade Blossom kept brushing Donovan’s coat. She was either pointlessly optimistic about the dirt’s grasp on the coat or she liked touching hot guys. “You’ll have a chance to tell the king your theories. However, if after three nights, you haven’t brought him proof your explanation is the right one, the king will order your execution.”

“What?” Donovan took a step backward and swore several times. “You never mentioned this stuff when you offered me wishes.”

He held up a hand, waving it for emphasis. “All I wanted was a decent ride and a home where the landlord wasn’t breathing down our necks. You not only sent me back in time, you dropped me in a place with some homicidal king? What—was it too hard to conjure up a Toyota?”

Jade batted her eyes innocently. “The test is part of the story. Now calm down and listen up. This is what’s happened so far: You’re a Capenzian soldier returning from a war against Briardrake. The good news is your country won. The bad news is you’re poor.”