“I’ll meet you there in a moment,” Mr. Beast says. “There’s something I have to do.”

Beauty, Freckles, Jonah, and I climb the stairs and walk into the sitting room.

“I’ll miss you,” I say to Beauty. “Please take care of yourself. Not just everyone else.”

She nods. “I’ll try.”

Mr. Beast bursts into the room. “These are for your mom,” he says to me and Jonah. “For her birthday.” He hands me the biggest, most beautiful bouquet of roses I’ve ever seen.

Aw. “Wow. Thank you,” I say.

“I’ll miss you, Mr. B!” Jonah cries, and throws his arms around him.

“You too, little man. You too.”

“And thanks for the books,” Jonah tells Beauty. “I can’t wait to read the rest.”

“Enjoy,” she says.

The clock in my parents’ bedroom says 6:43. We have two minutes, home time, until their alarm goes off. Ten minutes in fairy tale time. Perfect.

“So how does this work?” Jonah asks me. “We just knock and step through?”

“Yep,” I say. “Follow me.” I take Jonah’s hand and pick up Prince. “Good-bye, everyone!”

“Good-bye!” Beauty, Mr. Beast, and Freckles call out.

I knock once. Twice. Three times.

We wait.

Nothing happens.

Uh-oh. I try again. Once. Twice. Three times.

“How long does it usually take?” Beauty asks.

“Not this long,” I admit.

“Let me try,” Jonah says.

He knocks once. Twice. Three times.

Nothing.

“Abby,” Jonah says. “I don’t think the mirror is the way home.”

The time on my parents’ alarm clock changes to 6:44.

Now we’re in trouble.

Chapter Twenty: Is There Another Way?

This isn’t working,” I finally admit. “The mirror isn’t going to take us home.” I feel like kicking myself. Why didn’t I test the mirror? Why did I just assume it would work? Ahhhh!

“Then what will?” Mr. Beast asks.

“I don’t know!” I feel panicked. “It’s usually something magical. What else is magical? We have to knock on everything magical! Everyone knock on everything!”

We knock on the walls. We knock on the doors. We knock on the closets. We even knock on the teapots just in case. Nothing works.

The clock changes to 6:45.

BEEEEEEE —

A loud BEEEEEEP rings through the room. And continues to ring. And ring.

“What is that?” Mr. Beast asks, blocking his ears. “It’s horrible!”

“It’s my parents’ alarm clock,” I say. “Which means we are out of time!”

“There has to be another way home,” Jonah says. “What else around here is magical?”

I think hard. “The yo-yo!” I exclaim. “The yo-yo is magical! Where is it?”

“In my pocket!” Jonah says.

“Jonah,” I say. “You were going to bring the yo-yo home? Are you crazy? Do you know how much damage that could have done? You can’t bring things home from fairy tales!”

“But I’m bringing home the books! And the roses! And you said Prince came from a fairy tale!”