“Yes, but Ms. Cobbler can be so needy!” Harlow argues. “Every two seconds she seems to command me to come to this mirror, and you know I don’t do well with commands, especially when Angelina and I are so busy trying to decipher clues about when Stiltskin will launch this curse.”

  “I believe Ms. Cobbler has only called for you once,” Professor Wolfington’s voice is as calm as ever as he strokes his long beard. “And if all we’ve read about Shipwreck Cove is true, this is the time when the crew will need us. The cove is clouded—literally—in mystery so it will take all of our minds to find it and make sure you have safe passage.”

  “Safe passage?” AG repeats, looking as green as Jocelyn. “Why wouldn’t they let us enter? We’re friends, not foes!”

  “Allison Grace, are you feeling all right?” Beauty slides into the frame with a concerned smile. “You look green, dear. How are all of you holding up? So brave! I’m very proud of you.”

  “She should have stayed home,” Professor Sebastian growls.

  “Father!” AG groans.

  “You are hundreds of nautical miles away!” our sometimes Beast-of-a-professor reminds her. “How can we protect any of you if you encounter Rumpelstiltskin on the high seas?”

  “We’re going to beat him to the lamp,” I say, willing it to be true. “We have to because if we don’t, he’ll use that lamp to get the final ingredients for his curse.” There’ll be no stopping him from erasing the Enchantasia we know—and all of us in it—so that he can take the kingdom over. I can’t let that happen.

  “Madame Cleo says Shipwreck Cove is only a few nautical miles ahead,” Kayla tells Professor Sebastian.

  “And we haven’t seen anyone out here but us, so maybe those other ships Hayley mentioned didn’t find anything and left!” Maxine says excitedly.

  Jocelyn jostles for position in front of the mirror. “But I don’t see land anywhere, sister! I think they’re all wrong!”

  “We’re not! Me smell a storm coming!” Ollie is jumping up and down behind Maxine and Jocelyn to be seen. I struggle to hold the mirror steady. The choppy waves have only gotten worse, and the wind has definitely picked up.

  “Maybe Ollie is right,” I start to say just as I see something jut out of the water off the bow of the ship. “What’s that in the water?”

  “Rocks!” Ollie shouts. He rushes over to the pirate wheel and grabs it out of Blackbeard’s hands.

  Blackbeard looks through his spyglass. “Boulders! Be right ahead!”

  We make a hard right that sends Maxine tumbling sideways, and I stick the mirror back in my sheath so it doesn’t fall. Kayla tries to fly, but the wind holds her down. The rest of us grab on to a mast.

  “We’re going to crash!” AG cries.

  Ollie keeps turning, but the jagged, black rocks seem to be growing right in front of my eyes, spreading like wildflowers and forming a barricade in the middle of the ocean. How can that be? They weren’t there two minutes ago!

  “What do we do?” Maxine cries.

  “Steer steady, matey!” Blackbeard instructs Ollie as we all brace for impact. “Get more wind in your sails, Jax! We must stay the course!”

  “Stay the course?” I question, but Blackbeard isn’t listening. He’s too busy using his spyglass to view the path ahead. I look over the side for Madame Cleo, but she’s disappeared.

  “Aye, aye, Captain!” Jax jumps off the top deck and begins raising and lowering sails.

  “Captain? He doesn’t call me ‘captain,’” I hear Ollie grumble as he struggles against the wind to hold the wheel steady.

  “We’re doomed! If only I were in charge we wouldn’t be sailing straight into a rock,” Jocelyn rails against the sudden clouds in the sky.

  But her voice fades away as a gust of wind nearly knocks us all off the top deck. The ship veers right, then left, swinging side to side like a bottle about to fall off a table. The sun disappears behind a group of clouds, and a shadow falls across the ship. The hair on the back of my neck stands up.

  “What is going on? We can’t see!” I hear Professor Harlow’s muffled voice coming from the mirror hung at my side.

  I pull the mirror out, look into it, and smile. Harlow’s nose is practically pressed against the glass. “Sorry! Don’t want to bother you unless it’s necessary. We’ll let you know when there is something to see.” I put the mirror back into my sheath.

  “Miss Cobbler! Miss Cobbler!” I hear her yelling.

  “Captain, we be about to crash!” Ollie shouts to Blackbeard.

  “Steady!” Blackbeard insists.

  “I’m not the best swimmer,” Maxine cries as she clings to both me and the mast. “What are we going to do?”

  “Steady!” Blackbeard shouts again.

  I can see there is no arguing with him. “We stick together,” I tell Maxine, looping my arm through hers. “Friends for life.”

  She gives me a toothy grin. “Friends for life!”

  We hold tight to the pole as the ship bounces along, the mermaid figurehead of Madame Cleo on the bow inching closer to our rocky demise.

  “Steady!” Blackbeard continues to shout as the wind begins to howl.

  Ollie does as he’s told, even if he closes his eye that isn’t covered by a patch. I clutch Maxine’s meaty arm tighter as the ship hits the first rock…and rolls right through it.

  “Ha-ha!” Blackbeard shouts triumphantly. “It be a mirage! I be right!”

  “Well done, Captain!” Ollie says as we sail through the rocks without incident.

  We’re so busy cheering and hugging one another that no one notices fog as thick as the cafeteria’s pea soup rolling in around us. There is no wind, no sound, just the boat gliding as if it’s flying. It’s the perfect kind of weather for a sneak attack, which makes me nervous. I’m on guard, waiting for something to jump out of the ocean at us. Still, I trust Blackbeard. He knew the rocks were phony. Soon the fog begins to lift, the sky is blue once more, and in the distance, I see the green landscape of a small island. Turquoise-blue water surrounds a beach with tons of palm trees.

  “Shipwreck Cove straight ahead, Captain!” Ollie shouts and we cheer again.

  “There it be, my fair lass!” Blackbeard tells us as he waves to Madame Cleo, who is on a rock not far from shore.

  She must have swam ahead. And she’s not alone! Several mermaids are sunning themselves on the rock with her. I wish I had a spyglass like Blackbeard so I could see if one of the mermaids is Hayley.

  I guess they call this place Shipwreck Cove to scare sailors away because, to be honest, the place looks like paradise. No wonder Hayley missed home. It’s beautiful! The sun feels warm on my face, the water is so clear you can see the fish swimming beneath it, and the island looks peaceful.

  “Darlene must love it here!” Maxine gushes. “If she’s left her magic lamp long enough to see it.”

  “I can’t wait to go swimming!” AG says as if we’re on a vacation, which in a way, I guess we are. Hanging out with mermaids for a few days in their secret cove does sound fun.

  Jocelyn frowns. “I hope I made enough of my homemade sunscreen. I tend to burn.”

  Jax appears at my side. “Yeah, we wouldn’t want her bursting into flames,” he whispers, and we both giggle quietly.

  “Full speed ahead to Shipwreck Cove!” Ollie says happily.

  I breathe in the sea air and feel my body start to relax.

  Suddenly, the deck pitches so far to the right, I’m sure we’re going to capsize. Maxine and Kayla scream as the ship comes to a crashing halt in the middle of the water.

  Jax lets go of my arm and looks at Ollie. “What happened? Did we hit a rock?”

  Ollie’s face darkens. “No. It’s almost as if…”

  “As if what?” I shout, but my voice is drowned out by my own scream as a giant tentacle slams across the deck and tries to pull the ship under.

  Chapter 2

  Kraken Up

  “Kraken!” Ollie shouts as Blackbeard raises a sword from his sheath and begins running at one of the giant tentacles slithering across the deck.

  “Everybody move!” Jax shouts as more tentacles begin climbing up onto the deck. The fleshy limbs are covered in slimy suction cups with rows of teeth.

  “Defend yer ship before it pulls us under, mateys!” Blackbeard stabs a tentacle and it recoils. There is lots of shouting out commands as the crew swipes at the tentacles with their swords. Ollie, meanwhile, is desperately trying to get the ship to move and not succeeding.

  “But you said they were just a myth!” Maxine shouts as a tentacle comes dangerously close to hitting her in the back.

  “Because that’s what Hayley said in her letter!” I pull Maxine out of the way and look for something to defend ourselves with. Doesn’t Blackbeard have a cannon on this thing? Yes! I pull Maxine up the steps to the higher end of the deck where the cannon is. “None of this is real.”

  A tentacle hits one of the ship’s masts, and it crashes to the deck with a loud thud.

  “Looks pretty real to me,” Kayla says, using her wand to send a spray of sparks at the nearest tentacle. We hear a withering shriek, and the tentacle disappears over the side of the ship.

  “It’s working!” AG says happily. But seconds later, the tentacle shoots out of the water again and comes right for us. Maxine, Kayla, and I dive out of the way.

  “Get to the cannon,” I tell them and we spring up, running as fast as we can past Jocelyn.

  “Take that, you giant, smelly squid!” she cries as she tosses fireball after fireball at the creature with little effect. “Not enough? Well, how do you like this?” She begins to mouth something I can’t hear and raises her hand to the tentacle nearest her. The tentacle begins to shimmer and glow and then bursts into hundreds of butterflies. “Ha!”

  The rest of us cheer. Maybe Jocelyn can turn the whole Kraken into a giant butterfly. That wouldn’t be too tough to fight, would it?

  The butterflies suddenly fall to the floor and transform into hundreds of tiny tentacles that start to grow.

  “Move back! Move back!” Blackbeard tells us, using his sword to send the tiny tentacles flying off the side of the ship. “Ollie, me matey! Get ye ship moving, or we are going to wind up in Davy Jones’s locker!”

  “Ah-whoo!” I hear a wolf growl and look over. Allison Grace has transformed into her beastly form. She leaps high into the air in her pink party dress and clings to the tentacle, biting into it with her sharp, daggerlike teeth. The tentacle swings back and forth, trying to shake her off, then disappears over the side of the ship.

  “AG!” I scream as Kayla flies past me.

  “I’ve got her!” Kayla shouts, nimbly dodging the beast as she flies right, left, then dives low. She pulls AG up out of the water and starts flying toward the island. At least the two of them are—

  “Gilly!” Jax plows into me, knocking me to the deck. I slide across the wet surface and crash into the bow, looking up in time to see Jax get plucked by a tentacle that apparently was about to snatch me. It twists itself around him and pulls him into the air.

  “Jax!” I scramble to get up, slipping and sliding across the deck as I race toward the beast before it disappears in the water with Jax in its clutches. “Jax!” My heart is pounding as I try to reach him.

  Jocelyn sees what’s happening and starts firing orbs at the tentacle, almost striking Jax in the thigh.

  “Watch where you’re aiming!” Jax shouts.

  “Sorry! Just trying to help you live!” Jocelyn fires back.

  “Hang on!” I shout to Jax.

  “I’m trying!” Jax pounds at the tentacle, willing it to unwind its tight grasp.

  The ship lists again, tossing us all across the deck.

  “I think I got the anchor free!” Ollie shouts. “Or someone did!”

  “It be me lady!” Blackbeard runs past me, slicing two tentacles in half with his sword. “She has the mermaids helping her. I can hear her siren song!”

  I can’t hear anything in all this commotion, but I’m almost to the top of the deck where I can reach Jax. The tentacle is swinging wildly, trying to avoid Jocelyn’s flaming orbs. I dive under one and can almost reach Jax’s leg. He sees me and his eyes widen.

  “Gilly, stay back!” he says, struggling against the tentacle’s hold.

  “And watch you become fish food?” I grab one of the pulleys on the deck and race to the mast. I hoist myself to the top. “I don’t think so!”

  “I just saved you! You getting caught right now would kind of defeat the whole purpose!” Jax shouts, trying to kick out from the squid’s suction-cup tentacles.

  “That’s what you’re worried about?” I slide across the mast’s horizontal yard, trying to hang on as the ship veers to its side again.

  “I don’t need saving!” Jax goes flying back in the grasp of the tentacles.

  “Looks like you do!” I yell as I pull myself up and stand on the yard.

  BOOM!

  I see the cannonball fly through the air at the kraken and hit one of the tentacles. I cheer as the kraken screeches, and the tentacles begin to writhe. The one holding Jax releases him, and he starts to free-fall to the water below. But at the last second, another tentacle grabs him and begins to pull him under the choppy water.

  “No!” I grab the rope and start to slide down the mast, but by the time I hit the deck, Jax is gone. The others race to the side of the ship.

  “I don’t see him!” Maxine cries.

  “Jax! Jax!” I shout, but I know he can’t hear me underwater. “We have to do something!”

  “We’ll get pulled under if we stay here!” Ollie tells me. “We’ll send the mermaids to find him.”

  “But it will be too late!” I argue.

  As the ship starts to move away, I see the tentacles emerge from the water again. I climb onto the ship’s railing and prepare to jump, but someone pulls me back.

  “What are you doing?” Jocelyn shouts. “You’ll get pulled under!”

  “But Jax is down there!” I cry, starting to feel panicked. I’ve already lost Anna. I can’t lose Jax too. He was my first true friend at FTRS. I pull my uniform skirt out of Jocelyn’s grasp, and she grabs it again. We are yanking and pulling at each other when we hear Maxine scream.

  “Look! It’s Jax!”

  Jocelyn and I lean over the railing. Jax’s head is bobbing up and down in the water. He appears unconscious, but someone is keeping him afloat. It’s Hayley! She sees me and motions toward shore. I’m so relieved, I could cry, but then I spy the kraken moving like a giant wave just below the surface.

  “The sea beast be headed back! Get to yer positions!” Blackbeard shouts.

  “Hayley and Jax are going to be swallowed up,” Maxine yells.

  And that’s when I hear the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. It sounds like bells tinkling, a waterfall rushing, and children laughing all rolled into one. But it’s none of those things. It’s actually a single voice. Madame Cleo’s!

  “Me lady! You be all right!” Blackbeard cries, looking at Madame Cleo bobbing in the water a few yards away. She isn’t alone. There is a wall of merfolk with her, and they’re all singing the same lullaby. I feel my eyes drifting closed as Maxine snores next to me. She sounds like a wall about to crumble. As my eyes start to close, I see the kraken’s tentacles slowly drifting below the surface before everything goes black.

  When I awake, someone is standing over me, their face blocked out by the sun.

  “Hey there, thief.”

  “Jax!” I sit up, feeling sand slip through my fingers. Somehow I’m lying on a beach. We’ve somehow made it to Shipwreck Cove’s shore. And Jax is all right. “I thought…” I’m so overcome with emotion, I don’t know what to say as he pulls me to standing.

  “You were worried, I know.” He flashes me a charming smile, and I feel my cheeks start to burn. “I told you I had it covered.”

  Someone behind us clears their throat. “Actually, I had it covered.”

  “Hayley!” I throw my arms around my half-mermaid friend, thrilled for the distraction. Hayley’s in human form again, looking tan with almost white-blond hair from all her time in the sun. “There was a kraken! You saved Jax!” I turn and look at Jax. “And I wasn’t worried about you.”

  He flicks a patch of sand off his wet uniform shirt. “You were worried.”

  “It’s all right,” Hayley tells me, sounding calm. “Everyone is okay. Kayla and AG made it to shore, the kraken has been charmed back to sleep, and the ship only has minor damage.”

  I look around. Blackbeard’s ship is anchored behind me, and Ollie and Blackbeard are making repairs while Madame Cleo suns herself on a nearby rock, playing hostess to a group of mermaids. Jocelyn, Kayla, and AG are putting up a pop-up castle on the beach, and there are lots of people milling about. Everyone seems unusually calm.

  “You said in your letter the kraken was just a myth,” I accuse her.

  “Well,” Hayley shrugs. “I couldn’t be completely honest with you over Snail Mail. Snails aren’t known for being brave, and if my note was compromised, I’d be giving away Shipwreck Cove’s biggest secret.”

  “But we almost got destroyed,” I point out.

  “You wouldn’t have been if Kirk was behaving,” Hayley tells me.

  “Kirk?”

  “That’s the name of the kraken,” Jax supplies. “Apparently he’s the mermaids’ pet.”

  “Some pet,” I grumble.

  “He’s great. He keeps all the ships away when they slip through the fog barrier, but today…” Her face clouds over. “He was under a spell we couldn’t control.”

  I inhale sharply. “Rumpelstiltskin?”

  Hayley nods, and I notice her eyes are teary. “He was here. Just a few hours before you. We couldn’t hold him off. Kirk was under a spell and…” Her voice fades away.