Be Careful What You Wish For Read online

  “What are you talking about?” Cass was beginning to get worried. “I’m telling you, Rory—Jake says you need to stay away from him.”

  Her little sister shook herself, as though coming out of a dream.

  “How can I ever see him again since he’s in the Realm and we’re here?” she asked. “And how come all of a sudden Counselor O’Shea is ‘Jake’ to you?”

  “It’s my second name for him—his nickname,” Cass said, feeling defensive.

  Rory shook her head. “Okay. Well, I hope going back to court worked out better the second time—it could hardly work out worse.”

  “It did turn out better…in a way,” Cass admitted. “I’ve got one piece of good news anyway—the FG is officially no longer our fairy godmother.”

  “She’s not?” Rory exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the stairs, her eyes shining with excitement. “So…we’ll never have to deal with her horrible wishes again? Does that mean all the bad stuff she did to us is cancelled?”

  Without waiting for an answer, she opened her mouth as though to sing. But instead of music, the warble of a nightingale came out.

  “Hey, what gives?” Rory looked disappointed. The FG’s gift of “a voice like songbirds in the spring” had landed very literally and heavily on her and she’d never been able to sing a note that didn’t sound like a bird call.

  “I never said all the FG’s magic was reversed,” Cass reminded her. “My last wish is still in effect too. Although we are supposed to be getting a new fairy godmother soon so—”

  Suddenly the Brandon clone came into view, running along the upstairs hallway.

  “Hungry! Want a cookie!” he exclaimed, seeing Rory and Cass.

  “Oh, no—not again!” Rory wailed. “Look, sweetie—look what Auntie Rory has for you.” She held up the bottle of Nyquil. “Yummy sweet syrup—don’t you want some?”

  “Cookie?” The Clone frowned suspiciously.

  “Better than a cookie,” Rory promised, waving the bottle with its ruby-red contents temptingly. “Sooooo yummy. But you have to go back to your room to get some.”

  The clone seemed to consider. At last he nodded his shaggy head.

  “Okay.”

  Turning, he shambled back to the spare room.

  Rory let out a breath.

  “Whew! I’m glad he went for the Nyquil—we are officially out of cookies, candy, ice cream, and any other sweet or carby food you can think of. So if you were thinking of going on that low-carb/no-sugar diet you’re always talking about, now is definitely the time.”

  “Phil is always the one talking about that—not me. And Jake froze the clone before we left because he was, uh, molesting my underwear,” Cass said. “How did he wake up?”

  Rory shook her head. “I don’t know—I walked into your room looking for you and was nearly scared to death when I saw him all hunched over and grabbing his junk. I went to poke him to see if he was all right and that’s when he, uh, came to life again.” She sighed. “I’ve been feeding him ever since—trying to keep him out of trouble while the biker gang took over the house. It’s been a real mess while you were gone!”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Cass murmured. She frowned. “But…why are you going to give him Nyquil? Was it really the only sweet thing we have left in the house?”

  “It’s not just that—I’m hoping to drug him up and keep him quiet for a while,” Rory said frankly. “At least until I can make another Publix run and stock up on more Oreos.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Cass said. “Although hopefully our new fairy godmother will appear soon and help us sort this mess out.”

  “You think she can reverse the FG’s magic and get rid of the clone?” Rory asked doubtfully. “But I thought it was nearly impossible for one fairy to undo the magic of another?”

  “That’s what Jake said too,” Cass said grimly. “But the judge who ruled on the case—don’t get me started about him, he was a real asshole—said he would personally be certain that we had a qualified fairy who could fix the whole mess.” She sighed. “I hope he sends a good one. I need to be able to paint again soon.”

  “So you can paint Counselor Hottie’s picture, right?” Rory nudged her and grinned.

  Cass felt another surge of guilt.

  “No, so I can get something done for my showing at the I.C.U. before Albert, the owner, calls the whole thing off.”

  “Sorry.” Rory looked chastened. “Look, I didn’t mean—”

  Suddenly the upstairs hallway was filled with a puff of pink smoke and sparkles.

  “Oh my goodness,” exclaimed a high, excited voice. “Here I am! But am I in the right place?” The smoke cleared some and a pair of anxious pink eyes appeared. “Are you the Swann sisters?”

  “Uh, yes—that’s us,” Cass said. “Who are you?”

  The pink eyes widened and then a pretty fairy face and a large pair of sparkly pink wings could be seen.

  “My dears, I am Breena, your new fairy godmother! And I’m so pleased to meet you.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Everything about Breena, their new fairy godmother was pink. Not just any shade of pink either, Cass thought wryly—hot pink. Barbie’s dream house pink. Electric, neon, screaming pink.

  Still, she seemed nice enough.

  “Oh, my dears!” she exclaimed, brushing a swatch of hot pink hair out of her brilliant pink eyes. “I have heard from Judge StoneThroat about the awful things you’ve all been through! I am so sorry about your previous fairy godmother and I promise you that she does not represent fairy godmothers as a whole.”

  “Well, that’s good to hear,” Cass said cautiously. “We, uh, haven’t exactly had the best experience with our previous fairy godmother…”

  “But you seem really nice,” Rory finished brightly for her.

  “Oh, thank you!” Breena beamed and fluttered her bright pink wings excitedly. “I want to get along with all my clients and let me promise you, the fact that you’re part human doesn’t matter a bit to me! I know a lot of people call part fairy-part humans ‘half-breeds’ but I don’t agree with that label at all!”

  “Thank you.” Cass nodded. It was nice to meet someone from the Realm of the Fae who didn’t look down on them for their mixed heritage.

  “The more politically correct term is ‘magically disadvantaged persons,’” Breena went on, beaming. “And after all, you can’t help your ancestry, can you? It’s my job to be certain you have the best quality of life possible, given your disabilities.”

  “Not having magic isn’t a disability,” Rory protested.

  “It’s very brave of you to look at it that way,” Breena said, smiling supportively. “Focus on the positive and what you can do rather than what you can’t—like magic and flying.” She gave a little sigh, as though she felt sorry for them. “Poor dears.”

  “We really don’t consider ourselves to be disadvantaged,” Cass said, frowning.

  “Except by what our other, original fairy godmother did to us,” Rory added. “Can you take back some of her gifts?”

  “And reverse my last birthday wish?” Cass added quickly. “I’m really having a hard time with it.”

  “Oh my yes, I’m sure I can,” Breena exclaimed. “I majored in Reversals at Magic University.”

  “You did?” Cass frowned—it was hard to judge the age of a fairy since they were basically immortal but Breena looked about Rory’s age, which meant she might be only 150 to 200—pretty young for a fairy. “Uh, did you just graduate?” she asked their new fairy godmother.

  “As a matter of fact, I did! Top of my class, which is why Judge StoneThroat picked me to take over your case!” Breena looked ready to burst with pride.

  “Wow, that’s great,” Cass said flatly. She couldn’t believe the stupid troll judge had given them a fairy godmother who was still wet behind the ears. The old FG had been middle aged and practicing magic for years—how was their new, flighty pink fairy godmother going to reverse her spells?