“Blend in and follow me. We are getting back to the forest now.” She wraps the purple cloak around her shoulders.

Sasha, Heath, Logan, and I stick close together and walk swiftly.

“You’ve got this,” Kira coaches me. “A few blocks over is a path that leads to the forest. Just keep your head down… Ooh! Strawberry-rhubarb cookies!”

A group of kids in Mother Goose Nursery School shirts have just set up a stand to sell cookies. In seconds, a crowd of kids is swarming us, begging for us to buy cookies.

“You need to keep moving,” Kira says as I almost get poked in the eye by a piece of cookie a kid is holding over his head. Strawberry sauce oozes down his arm, and he licks it. Gross.

“I’m trying!” I say, and the kid looks at me strangely.

“I swear, kobolds do not get paid enough for this type of stress,” Kira mutters.

Heath grabs my arm, and with one sharp tug, I’m loose.

“You’re not going to buy any cookies?” one of the kids yells.

“Sorry!” I say sheepishly. We rush to keep up, but Tara and Logan disappear around a corner, and we lose track of them.

“Three more blocks,” Kira says. “Keep your eyes down and—What?” She shouts in my ear. “Prue? Prue? She just cut back in and vanished again!”

“What’s going on?” I ask as Sasha and Heath put their hand to their ears. Two mothers standing on their porch stare at us. My heart stops when I realize they’re holding mini magical scrolls.

“It’s them!” one of the mothers cries. “Police! Help!”

Whistles sound all around us. One woman runs past us to grab her child from the cookie stand. She drops her mini magical scroll running away. The day’s news from Happily Ever After Scrolls has disappeared, replaced with portraits of me and my friends. The photos were taken our first day at Royal Academy, but I could swear my awkward smile has been magically replaced with a scowl. Above our portraits it says: WANTED: ROYAL ACADEMY OUTLAWS! Reward for their capture by direct order of Olivina!

Chapter 10

Rose-Colored Glasses

Within moments of reading the warning, a small man with a flashing Dwarf Police Squad badge appears on horseback. His badge says CHIEF PETE. His eyes narrow. “There they are! Get them!”

“Run!” Sasha shouts.

We almost knock down the nursery-school kids in our haste to get away, but I keep running. We’re rounding the corner when we’re cut off by a magic carpet ridden by two boys.

“It’s them!” shouts one of the boys. “Grab them!”

“This way!” Heath shouts, ducking into a very narrow opening between a boot home and a teakettle. Four trolls greet us halfway down the alley.

“Nice reward for you lot,” slurs one.

“Keeps us in good standing with Olivina,” says another, drool dripping from his mouth. He advances on us.

I turn around to run and find the entrance we just came down blocked by a mob of people. One way is trolls, the other an angry mob. Who knows what’s happened to Tara and Logan. We need another way out. I look down, up, sideways, for dumbwaiter knobs and find nothing. Then I spot an open door to a boot a few feet away.