Page 63 of A Castle of Broken Memories

“This is Danny, Harp’s little brother.” I gently bumped the boy’s side. “He brought the curse into the castle after the giants turned his sister into an enchanted instrument.”

“Like you do,” Tenebris murmured.

“Speaking of which,” Jack interjected. “Shouldn’t we be formulating a plan to rescue her and get the fuck out of this place?”

“A hundred percent,” I confirmed. “Tenebris, can you teleport us back to the beanstalk? And pick up Harp and bring her too.”

“I could.” Tenebris grimaced. “Only one little problem—the beanstalk’s gone.”

My stomach took a deep dive down to my toes. “What?”

“Yeeeah,” Tenebris drawled. “I took Calum there first, thinking I’d leave him and come back for you all one at a time. We overheard some of the giants saying you’d been brought down here—they’re crazy mad, by the way. Like, foaming at the mouth level mad. Anyway, when we got to the place where the beanstalk had been, it was gone. I might be able to teleport through the clouds, but I doubt I could make it all the way to the ground safely. And if I didn’t break all my bones, it’d be a one-way trip for two, at best.”

“So, you’re saying we’re stuck up here?” Jack groaned.

Tenebris shrugged. “Unless you know another way back down to the forest?”

His question was met with silence, and I stared bleakly at the cell bars. The beanstalk was gone. The only way in or out of the Sky Castle…

I frowned.

Or was it?

“Danny.” I turned, looking down at the little boy. “When you brought the cursed egg into the castle, how did you manage to get past the guards outside? Or climb the beanstalk unnoticed, for that matter?”

He cocked his head. “I didn’t.”

“What do you mean, you didn’t?” I pressed. “How did you get inside the castle?”

“I used the magic bean that old man gave me. He traded me the egg and a bean for my mother’s cow and told me to throw the bean down the wishing well just south of Cursed Creek. Said it would open a portal to the one here in the castle, and all I’d have to do was climb through.”

“That was you I saw,” I murmured, thinking of the strange vision I’d been pulled into after breaking the curse. “The well outside Jack’s shelter—it must be the other end of the portal. All we need is to teleport there, throw in a magic bean, and voila! We’ll be on our way home.”

“Ah yes, easy peasy,” Tenebris said. “One teensy problem, Mari.”

I gave him a knowing smile. “We need a magic bean?”

“Exactly. And where are we suppose—ooooh, shit! Abuela’s bean! You’re a genius,” he cackled, grabbing my arm. The world folded in on itself as a whirlwind of purple and gold swirled around us before spitting us back out onto the grass. Birds twittered excitedly in the trees as I grasped the edge of the moss-covered well, my head reeling from the sudden change.

“A little warning next time would be nice,” I moaned, but Tenebris only grinned as he snapped his fingers and disappeared. He returned a moment later with a pale-faced Danny, who doubled over in the grass and hurled while Tenebris blinked out of sight. Jack appeared next, stumbling drunkenly towards me on wobbly legs.

“Nope,” he grunted. “Not a fan of that.”

Tenebris appeared again with Calum in tow, and I noticed this time they breezed in with far more grace. Calum grinned from ear-to-ear. “Amazing.”

Tenebris clapped his hands together. “All right! Why don’t you open the portal while I pop up and grab Danny’s sister. I’m assuming she’s the only talking harp? Shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the world to stop tilting around me. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, Ten-Ten, but Jack’s and my hands are bound. Kind of hard to do much of anything at the moment. Secondly, the giants took all of our belongings when they apprehended us. Including the bag with Abuela’s bean.”

“He could still get Annabelle and bring her here, couldn’t he?” Danny pleaded, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve as he staggered to his feet. “She’s been stuck here as long as anyone. Please.”

“If he grabs her now, we risk bringing the entire castle down on our heads before we’re ready,” Jack explained, giving Danny a sympathetic look. “They’ll be sure to notice her disappearance, no matter how stealthily done.”

I bent down until we were eye-to-eye, forcing the remaining dizziness away. “We won’t leave her behind, Danny. I promise.”

He nodded, lip quivering, and I cursed the binding on my wrists holding me back from giving him a proper hug. Which, in itself, was a strange feeling. Wanting to hug someone? For comfort? As hard as I’d tried to be better these past two years since Tenebris’s influence disappeared, even I wouldn’t have believed myself capable of these kind of feelings. And yet, here I was, getting all teary-eyed and maternal. I blamed Jack.

And loved him for it.