“You were so much fun that Mr. Beast doesn’t want you to go. He wants you to be his little brother,” I say. My voice sounds a bit bitter. Jonah is my little brother. Mine. My head hurts and I rub my temples with my fingers.

“Oops,” Jonah says. “It’s not my fault I’m so much fun to be around. And it’s not my fault you kept knocking on the mirror night after night!”

“I did that because going into fairy tales is fun! And because I wanted your memories to come back. Not because I wanted you to move in with Mr. Beast and mess up the story.”

“But you said we mess the stories up all the time, right? Can’t we just fix it?”

“Yes, Jonah, but it’s not so easy. We have no control over what’s going to happen. We could get hurt.”

BANG!

Jonah and I jump.

“Sorry!” we hear Mr. Butler yell from the kitchen. “Just putting dishes away!”

“It’s okay!” I call back. Then I look back at Jonah. “Come on,” I say to him. “You know we can’t stay.”

“All right,” he says with a sigh, putting his hands in his pockets. “What should we do, then?”

“We have to get Beauty and Mr. Beast to fall in love. That’s why I wanted them to be alone. Peek inside and see if they’re in love yet, will ya?”

Jonah peeks inside.

“I don’t think they’re in love yet,” he says.

“How can you tell?”

“Look for yourself.”

I look in.

Mr. Beast and Beauty are sitting on opposite ends of the couch.

They are not talking. At all. She is looking at the window and he is looking in the opposite direction at a potted plant.

Clearly, they will need some more help falling in love. Lots of help.

Chapter Ten: Mirror, Mirror

I watch forlornly as Mr. Beast stands up from the couch and excuses himself. “I will see you all at nine o’clock for dinner,” he says before leaving.

Beauty sighs.

Jonah and I exchange a defeated look.

Mrs. Butler appears and shows the three of us up a grand staircase and down a long hallway. “This is the guest wing,” she says.

“A wing?” Jonah exclaims. “We get a whole wing?”

“Yes, Jonah,” I say. “A whole wing.” It’s not the first time we’ve gotten a wing in a fairy tale. I’m excited to get to the room, though. I want to get settled so we can focus on making a plan. A plan that involves a list. I like lists.

Our wing consists of a pretty sitting area that leads into three huge square bedrooms and one large marble bathroom with an extra-large soaking tub.