She nodded again. “But you’ll have no need of magic then to change your future. It isn’t set in stone or book or by any spell. You can make whatever you want of your own future.” Part of me knew this had always been the case. I’d been told the same thing by adults for years, but I’d always been concentrating on the past so intently that I’d never noticed my future, wide and endless in front of me. Now the kaleidoscope of possibilities hit me. I could do anything I wanted. Fate had unchained me.

I glanced back at the Merry Men. Robin Hood was shaking his head. “You can’t stick ‘gorgeous’ at the end of a stanza. Nothing rhymes with it.”

Friar Tuck frowned. “Poor us.”

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Will added, “More fuss.”

Little John grumbled. “Boar pus.”

Robin Hood waved their words away. “Do you want to be turned into something filthy like mushrooms?” I leaned toward Chrissy. “Can I give The Change Enchantment to Robin Hood when I’m done with it? He didn’t like how his story ended.”

Chrissy smiled at the idea. “If that’s what you want to do with it.”

“Good,” I said. “Can you send my family home first, and I’ll stay for a few minutes and explain things to Robin Hood?”

“Sure,” she said, even though neither my father nor Hudson looked pleased about my staying behind for a few minutes.

I turned back to the book and held it up a bit, suddenly too shy to let anyone see the moral I had chosen for the story. I wrote the words, wishing I could have thought up some really elegant phrase to say what I was feeling, but everyone was waiting and I’d never been very poetic or profound.

I placed a period at the end of the sentence and watched to see if the words disappeared. They didn’t. They glowed as though I had written them with fire, blazing so brightly that I had to shut my eyes.

When I opened them, my family was gone and Robin Hood stood in front of me. He looked at Chrissy in surprise and frustration. “I have not yet finished composing your sonnet.”

“Relax,” she said. “I brought you over because Tansy wants to give you something.”

I shut the book. The spinning wheel on the cover still spun in a way that shouldn’t have been possible for an embossed illustration.

“This is The Change Enchantment. If you accept it, then you’ll be able to change your story. Your ending won’t have to be like the one in the 324/356

novel I gave you. I don’t know if it will be better or worse, but it will be yours.” I held the book out to him. “Do you want it?” He hesitated, then slowly took the book from my hand. “I’m not sure whether it is wisdom or folly, but yes, I want it.” The spinning wheel vanished from the cover, and a green feathered hat appeared. He flipped open the first page. It showed a painting of Robin Hood, rugged and handsome, surveying the forest.

He read the text under the picture. “Robin Hood was wise and generous.” He nodded. “Quite true. And …” He peered at the picture more closely. “I cut a dashing figure in that tunic. I will have to procure one like it.”

“You’re quite wealthy now,” I told him. “You could help the villagers around Sherwood Forest if you wanted. You could be the Robin Hood so many generations will love—or now that we’ve changed things, your story could disappear from my culture altogether.

Someone has to love you enough to record your good deeds for posterity.”

Robin Hood flipped to the next page of the book. It was another picture of him. “It does seem a pity to disappoint future generations, doesn’t it?”

“And just think, somewhere along the line you’ll probably get to meet a very pretty woman named Maid Marian.” He chuckled, then swept a hand toward Chrissy and me. “If she is half as fetching as either of you, my dear ladies, I shall deem myself a fortunate man.”

Chrissy let out a tinkling laugh. “That is quite enough poetry from you. You may return to your men.” He smiled, bowed, and walked back to the Merry Men with the book tucked under his arm.

“Now to get you back home—” Chrissy raised her wand.

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I held up a hand to stop her. “Wait, there’s something else I want to talk to you about.” I had been thinking about this since I walked in-to the forest. I would only have one chance to ask.

Chrissy paused, her wand still lifted. “What?”

“This gold enchantment I have is valuable, even to the magical community, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Like I said, the leprechaun union has a monopoly on them.”

“I propose a trade. I’ll give you the gold enchantment if you let me make a detour through time on the way home.” Chrissy lowered her wand, tapping it against the palm of her hand as she considered my proposal. “And what sort of thing would you be doing while you made your detour?”

“I want to save Hudson’s mother.”

She let out a patient sigh. “You realize that if you alter the outcome of that event, it will have a ripple effect on the events around it.

Anything and everything could change when you get home. Hudson will still have his old memories, but his alternate self—the self he would have been if his mother hadn’t died—will have lived a completely different life during the last year. He’ll have no memory of that life. And he’ll most likely have another girlfriend. Nothing will have stopped his alternate self from being social over the last year. Do you really want that?”

I had to think about this for several moments. She was right. If I changed that one event, Hudson’s life would be completely different.

What if he liked his alternate life and alternate girlfriend better?

Would that still be worth it?

“Will it change Stetson’s future?” I asked. “Will he still be born?” Chrissy’s wings opened, shimmering with a light all their own.

“Maybe. Right now, the baby is at your house with your family. I was 326/356

going to let you say good-bye to him before I sent him back to the future. But if you change things too drastically, he might have no future to return to.”

I pondered this, already missing his dimpled cheeks and toothless grin. “Then I’ll keep Stetson with me in the present day. Can I do that?”

Chrissy put her fingers to her temple and let out a small groan.

“Do you have any idea of the paperwork involved in permanently transferring a mortal to—”

I didn’t let her finish. “I got rid of an evil ex-fairy—one who didn’t like you or the Alliance. Just think what he might have done if—”

“Oh, all right.” She let out a begrudging huff. “But only because fairies don’t like being indebted to mortals. It’s unnatural. And embarrassing.” She held a hand out to me in a conciliatory gesture. “If Stetson wouldn’t exist in the future, he can stay with you in your present.

That’s the only consequence I’ll be able to adjust for you, though. If things are worse off because of your efforts—if Hudson doesn’t care about you anymore, you’ll have to live with it. The only thing I can guarantee that won’t have changed are your wishes and their consequences. Magic is beyond the grasp of time.” I hesitated then, doubts chipping away my resolve. Who was I to play with time?

Then I thought of the pain in Hudson’s eyes when he talked about that night, the guilt and responsibility that weighed on him. What was the point of having the enchantment, I had asked earlier, if I didn’t use it to help people? Hudson had told me some things were worth the risk. This was one of those things.

“I have to try to save her,” I said. It meant saving a part of Hudson. “I just need to do one more thing first.” I knelt down beside the diaper bag and used the enchantment for a last time to turn the things 327/356

inside to gold. Dad and Sandra would need it to buy new furniture, cars, and everything else my wish had ruined.

As I thought about how my wishes had gone, more doubts filled my mind. What if Chrissy somehow messed this up?