Fairest of All (Whatever After #1) Read Free

scared.
    “Hold on!” I try to tighten my grip on his hand, but our palms are clammy. Pain shoots right from my fingers to my shoulders. I ignore it. I need to hold on. I have to hold on.
    “Abby!”
    “No!” I say, holding on even tighter. He flutters in the air. His eyes are wide and glowing purple.
    “Jonah!” I scream. NO, NO, NO. I will NOT let the crazy mirror slurp up my brother. I’m in charge here! I will keep my brother safe!
    I let go of the leg of the desk and grab him with both hands. With a satisfied grumble, the mirror sucks us both inside.

t hump.
    I land facedown on dirt. Dirt and leaves and grass. There’s a twig in my mouth. Blah. I pick it out and wipe my hand on my pajama bottoms.
    “I think I just broke my head,” Jonah mumbles.
    “Seriously?” I ask.
    “No,” Jonah says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m okay.”
    Good. I’m glad he’s okay. Now I don’t have to feel bad when I yell at him. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”
    “What do you mean?” he asks innocently.
    I leap to my feet and tick off the answers on my fingers. “Exhibit A: You drag us to the basement. Exhibit B: You knock on the creepy mirror. And exhibits C, D, and E: You then proceed to knock two more times on the creepy mirror, and when it tries to suck us in? You. Said. ‘COOL!’ ”
    “ ’Cause it was!” he exclaims. “Come on, Abby! That was so awesome! That was the most awesomest thing to ever happen to us.”
    I shake my head. I’m not sure what even happened. Where are we?
    I sniff. It smells like nature. I push myself up onto my elbows and look around. I see:
Large trees.
More large trees.
Even MORE large trees.
    Um, why are there thousands of large trees in my basement?
    Wait. My basement does not have trees.
    I turn to Jonah. “We’re not in the basement!”
    “I know,” Jonah says, nodding. “Sweet.”
    “So where are we?”
    “Somewhere awesome.”
    “The backyard,” I say. “We have to be in the backyard. Right?” Except we have a tiny backyard. And our backyard has only two trees. Two scrawny trees. Not thousands of large trees.
    “No way, we’re not in the backyard,” Jonah says, shaking his head.
    “Maybe it looks different at night?”
    “Nope. I think we’re in a forest.”
    “Jonah, we can’t be in a forest! That’s impossible!”
    “Well, maybe impossible things are possible?”
    He is impossible. I rub my eyes. “This makes no sense. Wait. What if we’re dreaming?”
    “Both of us?” he asks, raising one eyebrow.
    “Fine, me. What if I’m dreaming?”
    He pinches me.
    “Ow!”
    “Not dreaming,” he proclaims. He bounces on his toes. “You are one hundred percent awake, and so am I, and we are in a forest. Hey, I’m hungry. Do you have any Cheetos?”
    “Cheetos?” I screech. “We’ve somehow been transported from our basement to a forest in the middle of the night, and you’re thinking about Cheetos ?”
    He scratches his belly. “The mirror was hungry, so it ate us. Now I’m hungry, and I would really like some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. And maybe some ketchup.”
    “That is disgusting,” I say. Jonah dips everything in ketchup. Even French toast.
    “And it’s not the middle of the night,” he continues. “Look.”
    I tilt my head. Blue sky peeks through the tops of the trees.
    Before, it was night. Now it’s day.
    I don’t understand what’s going on! I stomp my foot like a two-year-old. Ouch. A twig scratches my heel, because — ohhhh , that’s right — before the mirror ate me, the mirror ate my slippers. But here I am, so where are my fuzzy striped slippers?
    First I will find my slippers. Then I will figure out how to get back to our basement.
    That is my plan. Plans make me happy.
    Step One: Find footwear.
    I crane my neck and check out the scene. In addition to me and my brother, our basement chair is lying on its side a few feet from us. Some of the books from the bookshelf are also in the grass. And there are my