Raina pushes her way up front. “Red? I’m Raina White, Heath’s sister. We met at the formerly wicked stepmother’s daughters’ sweet sixteen party? I appreciate your view, but the truth is, I just want to go home.”

“I know you do,” Red says kindly. “We want you to be able to go home too, and hopefully you will, but…” She hesitates. “Olivina shouldn’t be allowed to dictate how you live your life. We can’t continue to stay quiet and live in fear of her wrath. We have to fight back. That’s why Pierce and I agreed you should find Tara and her friends. You need to work together.”

“You sent them here?” Tara asks at the same time I say, “You know who I am?”

“Yes,” Red says in answer to both of us as she pulls her cloak up again. “Pierce and I are doing all we can on the outside, but our names are too well-known to do much on the ground yet. It’s up to you all to figure out a way to expose Olivina so we can change the public opinion about her.”

“But—” Tara and I protest.

“Trust one another. Play to your strengths. You have a lot of them,” Red adds.

“But…” Tara and I say again.

“It’s time we take our power back, but we can only do that if we work together.” Red looks behind her. “Coming!” She turns back to us. “Customers,” she whispers. “I’ve got to go. Good luck. I’ll have my associate touch base with you soon.”

Associate?

The map returns to its original state. We’re all quiet.

“So let me get this straight: Red Riding Hood and Professor Pierce went to Royal Academy? Who knew” Sasha shakes her head. “This would make a great blog post. I write the Enchantasia Insider,” she says proudly.

“No way!” Corden says. “I love that scroll. We read it on the mirror Prue hacked into.” He pulls the curtain off the mirror Raina found earlier. She goes running over.

“I knew it was magic!” she says.

“Don’t show them all our toys!” Tara protests. She seems as unhappy with this unholy alliance Red is asking for as I am.

Prue walks to the mirror. “It’s simple really. A few enchantments, an elixir for cracking the magical codes and hacking into the feed, and voilà! We can watch Olivina and Royal Academy live twenty-four hours a day. I may have sensed your arrival, but this was how we truly knew where you were going to land.”

Raina walks to the mirror and caresses it. “Look! They’re in the Royal Underground doing a dress fitting with Marta.” Her shoulders slump. “I was supposed to have one of those today.”

“You can do one here instead,” Corden suggests. “I’ve got loads of material I’m dying to try out for costumes. I’d be happy to whip you up something.”

“Really?” Raina looks pleased. “Do you think we could work up here by the mirror? I want to watch Clarissa’s fitting to see if she’s trying to copy my dress for the masquerade ball.” Her face darkens. “I bet she tries to get Marta to give her my design now that I’m not there.” She looks thoughtful. “Can this mirror see other places in the castle?”