“Well … we don’t want to mess up the story, so we have to be careful. But maybe talking to a real live fairy tale character will bring your memories back,” I say excitedly. “And then we can use the magic mirror in his castle to go home. I bet we’ll just knock and it will slurp us right up.”

“You’re not afraid to talk to him?” Jonah asks me.

“Not really,” I say. “Look how sweet he’s being with Prince! He might look like a monster, but he’s got a good heart under that thick, gnarled fur.”

I take a deep breath and step out from my hiding place. “Excuse me?” I say, my voice a bit shaky. “You must be Beast?”

“Beast probably isn’t his real name, Abby,” Jonah whispers.

“Oh. Um …” My stomach clenches. “What’s your real name, sir?”

The beast stands up and makes himself tall. Very tall. He takes five huge steps closer and towers over us.

“You will call me Mr. Beast,” he bellows. “Who are you?”

“I’m Abby, and this is my brother, Jonah. That’s our dog you’re playing with. Isn’t he cute?” I squeak.

“Hi,” Jonah murmurs.

Mr. Beast keeps glowering at us.

“We’re so sorry to have bothered you,” I continue, feeling more and more nervous. “You have really nice castle grounds. We didn’t mean to interrupt your day. We’ll be — we’ll be going home soon. If we could just use your magic mi —”

Mr. Beast’s lips are pressed together. Hard. His hands are fists. He looks pretty angry. “You’re not going anywhere!” he finally yells. “You’re a thief!”

My arms start to tremble. “Excuse me? We didn’t steal anything!”

“You didn’t, but he did!” The beast is pointing right at Jonah. “He stole a rose!”

I turn to Jonah. What is he talking about? And then I look down and notice that on the ground beside Jonah is a single red rose.

Huh? Why is there a plucked rose next to my brother? “Jonah! Did you pick a rose?”

Jonah’s cheeks are bright red. Redder than the rose. “I … um … Yeah. For Mom,” he admits. “For her birthday tomorrow. We didn’t get her a present!”

He did WHAT? “Jonah! I painted her a picture in art class! I told you it could be from both of us!”

He looks down at the ground. “I saw that. Abby, you’re, um, not a very good painter.”

Humph.

“Jonah!” I whisper-yell. “You can’t come into a fairy tale and steal things! This is exactly what I warned you about!”

Mr. Beast raises an extra-hairy eyebrow.

“But there are so many roses,” Jonah says. “I didn’t think anyone would notice!”