Froggy hadn’t seen sunlight in weeks. All he had to look at, day and night, was the macabre sight of Morina’s basement. The missing children from the Corner Kingdom and Charming Kingdom still lay peacefully in their beds as the witch’s horrible spell drained them of their life force. The children’s youth and their vitality were magically transferred into potion bottles at the foot of their beds, which Morina usually sold to customers in her shop upstairs. Luckily, the witch hadn’t returned in days to switch out the bottles, giving her captives more time before they were drained completely.

The longer Froggy was forced to witness the dark magic, the more it angered him. He desperately wanted to free the children from the witch’s cruel spell, but he couldn’t even free himself. No matter how hard he hit or kicked the plate of glass between them, it never budged. Unfortunately, neither he nor the children could be saved without magic powerful enough to counteract the witch’s enchantments—and Froggy wasn’t convinced such magic existed anymore.

If there had been any passing observers, Froggy would have appeared as a reflection without a source. Inside the mirror, he was completely alone in a pitch-black world, and the view of Morina’s basement hovered in the air like a window without walls.

Regardless of how far he traveled in each direction, there was absolutely nothing but darkness for miles around. As he searched the strange world, he’d often wander so far from the basement that it would shrink to just a speck of light behind him. As much as it pained him to watch the cursed children, Froggy was afraid to lose sight of it completely. Morina’s basement was his only source of stimulation, and he worried he might go mad without it.

Life inside the mirror was affecting his mind enough already. The longer he was imprisoned, the faster time went. A simple daydream could cost him a few hours if he wasn’t careful, and if he fell asleep, a day or two would pass by before he’d wake up. It also became increasingly difficult for him to remember where he was, how he had gotten there, and most concerning, who he was. Each passing moment felt less and less like reality and more like a bad dream.

“Get a grip on yourself!” he said. “Your name is Charles Carlton Charming. You were born twenty-five years ago in the Charming Kingdom. You were the fourth son of King Chester and Queen Clarice. Your brothers’ names are Chance, Chase, and Chandler. Your mother passed away when you were a boy and your father died shortly after Chance married Cinderella. You have two nieces named Hope and Ash and have always wanted a big family of your own.”

Froggy held his head and paced in a circle as he recalled the information. Whenever he felt his sanity start to slip, he found that reciting facts was the quickest way to restore it, but it became harder each day.

“When you were a teenager, you made the mistake of courting a witch named Morina. You discovered she practiced dark magic, so you called off the engagement. It enraged her so that she cursed you and made you look like a frog. It made you ashamed of your appearance, and you lived in seclusion for years. You built a home underground, where you read thousands of books and drank lily pad tea. Then one day, you found twelve-year-old twins in the forest and they changed your life forever!”

The memory of meeting Alex and Conner in the Dwarf Forests made him laugh. Had he known then about all the trouble they’d get him into, he probably would have run screaming in the opposite direction. But now, he was thankful for every second of life he had to claim.

“The twins are the ones who nicknamed you Froggy. Thanks to them, you’re friends with Jack and Goldilocks, you’re engaged to Red Riding Hood, and you were recently elected King of the Center Kingdom! You managed to create a wonderful life despite Morina’s spell! She couldn’t stand how happy you became, so she cursed you into this blasted mirror! But you can’t let her magic get the best of you—you can’t let yourself fade away!”

This wasn’t Froggy’s first exposure to mirror entrapment, so he knew what to expect. A few years earlier, he’d witnessed the Evil Queen using the legendary Wishing Spell to free the man trapped in her magic mirror. Tragically, by the time the man was rescued, all his memories, his personality traits, and his physical features had melted away. Without a doubt, Froggy knew the same effects had begun creeping over him.

“You can’t let the darkness consume you,” Froggy told himself. “There is too much you’ll miss out on if you give in to it! You have to find a way out of this prison so you can have a future with the people you love! You must hold on to your identity so you don’t suffer the same fate as the man from the Evil Queen’s magic mirror! You must fight off this horrible curse so Morina doesn’t win!”

Froggy had no idea how to free himself from the mirror, but he knew he’d never find an answer by lingering around Morina’s basement for eternity. So, putting one webbed foot in front of the other, Froggy journeyed into the great shadowy world surrounding him until Morina’s basement disappeared from sight.

He wandered aimlessly through the darkness for what felt like hours, but he never found anything. It was so dark, he couldn’t see his hands or feet, let alone something he might collide with. With every step, he worried he had made a grave mistake by leaving the basement and feared the oblivion would drive him insane.

“Please, let me find something that proves I’m not alone,” he prayed aloud. “I just need something—anything—that can guide me to help!”

Suddenly, a speck of light appeared in the distance ahead. It was only the size of a pinhole but seemed as bright as the sun against the darkness. The discovery filled Froggy’s stomach with butterflies—maybe he wasn’t alone after all! He ran toward the light as fast as he could, and it grew into the shape of a tall rectangle—perhaps it was a door! As Froggy neared the anomaly, he realized it was another plate of glass, and his spirits sank. Had he walked through the darkness in a giant circle? Was the view of Morina’s basement the only thing that existed in the dark world?

Froggy’s heart skipped a beat when he noticed that the glass plate was much taller and wider than the plate he was used to. Perhaps he had found something new! He peered into the glass and found, not the missing children as expected, but a massive great hall with pale brick walls, green curtains, and silver chandeliers.

“My word—it’s a palace!” Froggy exclaimed happily. “Wait a moment, I recognize this place! I’ve been here many times before—it’s the entrance hall of the Northern Palace! This must be the view from another mirror! The darkness must somehow connect the two mirrors.”

Suddenly, hundreds of other square and rectangular plates of glass appeared all around him like floating windows. The bizarre phenomenon startled Froggy so much, he croaked—it’d been a while since he’d been excited by anything. He looked through the glass plates and saw into sitting rooms, drawing rooms, bedchambers, and hallways—all locations he recognized as well.

“I can see through all the mirrors in the Northern Palace!” Froggy said. “This must be how the man in the Evil Queen’s magic mirror was such a capable spy! He was using the darkness as a path between mirrors!”

The discovery made Froggy’s heart flutter. Perhaps the more he learned about the strange dark world, the closer he was to finding a way out of it. He desperately searched all the mirrors for someone to communicate with, but oddly, he couldn’t find a single soul in the palace.

“That’s peculiar,” he said. “I’ve visited Chandler and Snow White a number of times and their home has never been this empty.”

Finally, Froggy peered through a small circular mirror and found a cook in the palace’s kitchen. She looked exhausted and was placing a bottle of wine and three glasses on a serving tray. The cook must have felt Froggy’s eyes, because she stopped what she was doing and looked up before he could say anything.

“Hello!” he said happily.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” the cook screamed.

She dropped the tray and glass shattered across the kitchen floor. Her reaction was so dramatic it scared Froggy, and he impulsively ducked out of sight. He wasn’t really surprised by the cook’s response, though—his appearance usually gave people a fright. He couldn’t imagine how alarming it’d be to see an enormous frog in a mirror when they weren’t expecting it.

“WHAT’S GOING ON IN THERE?” yelled a gruff voice.

Froggy peeked through the mirror again and saw a soldier storm into the kitchen, but he was unlike any man Froggy had ever seen. The soldier was seven feet tall and had an unusually flat, square body. The number three was displayed on the upper right and lower left corners of his armor, and three symbols shaped like clovers were set in a line down the middle.

“Forgive me, sir!” the cook pleaded. “I was fetching wine for the emperors and thought I saw something in the mirror!”

The soldier glanced at the mirror, but Froggy ducked out of sight before he could be spotted again.

“Stupid woman,” the soldier said. “Quit this foolishness and get back to work! Any more nonsense and you’ll be thrown in the dungeon!”

“Yes, sir,” the cook said with a bow. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

The cook quickly swept up the mess, placed three new glasses and a new bottle of wine on her tray, and hurried out of the kitchen.

“I don’t understand,” Froggy thought aloud. “Who are these emperors? What happened to Chandler and Snow White? And where are all the servants and guards who used to work here?”

Froggy followed the cook from mirror to mirror as she traveled through the palace. She entered the spacious dining hall, and Froggy appeared in the mirror above a large fireplace. He had been inside the Northern Palace’s dining hall many times before, but he barely recognized it anymore.

All the portraits of the White Dynasty had been removed and replaced with paintings of a red-faced queen, an old hag wearing an eye patch, and a pirate with a hook. The three people pictured in the paintings sat around the table, enjoying a feast that could have fed hundreds. Froggy thought they were unattractive in their portraits, but they were even more hideous in the flesh. The barbaric way they scarfed down their food was equally unpleasant to witness.

“Your wine, my emperors,” the cook said, and bowed to the table.

“IT’S ABOUT TIME!” the queen yelled, and hit the table with a clenched fist. “How dare you keep your emperors waiting! Do it again and you’ll lose your head!”

“My deepest apologies,” the cook said.

The cook trembled in the emperors’ presence and could barely keep her hands still enough to pour wine into their glasses. When she was finished pouring, she bowed and rushed out of the room. The pirate and the queen raised their glasses before taking the first sip, but the hag didn’t join them.

“None for me,” she growled. “I’m not much of a drinker.”

“To us,” the pirate toasted. “May the three great emperors continue their mighty reign as the conquerors of the new world!”

“Hear, hear,” the queen said. “And may our upcoming invasion go as smoothly as the last!”

The pirate and the queen clinked their glasses together and drank the wine in one gulp. The hag wasn’t in the mood to celebrate and angrily threw a half-eaten lamb shank across the room.

“How much longer will we have to wait?” she moaned. “It’s been weeks since we heard from the witch! How cruel of her to tease us with such a conquest, then force us to stay put! Our army is ready—why can’t we invade the new world now?”

“The new world?” Froggy whispered to himself. “What are they talking about?”

“I agree with Westie!” the queen said. “It’s impossible to enjoy the luxuries of this world when we know there are far greater pleasures in the other. What is taking the witch so long to contact us? I’m starting to doubt her competence!”

The pirate chuckled at their annoyance and twirled his moustache with his hook.

“Ladies, your eagerness is sabotaging your judgment,” he said. “Remember what the witch said: As soon as the portal opens, she will lead the other witches into the new world first. Once they’ve weakened the new world’s defenses, and the new world’s defenses have weakened them, she’ll send for us. We’ll charge through the portal and claim the new world for ourselves! It’s a guaranteed victory if we stick to the plan. Patience is a virtue—”

“PATIENCE IS FOR PEASANTS!” the queen yelled. “Instant gratification is the only gratification for the powerful!”

“Allow me to finish my sentence,” the pirate said. “Patience is a virtue we’ll never need again! The final days leading up to the invasion will be the last time we wait or want for anything. As soon as we conquer the new world, we’ll have a whole planet to ourselves and billions of slaves to serve us!”

“I will rule the land!” the queen declared.

“I will rule the skies!” the hag announced.

“I shall rule the seas!” the pirate professed. “And that silly witch is in for a rude awakening if she actually believes we plan on sharing any of it with her!”

The emperors roared with devilish laughter like a pack of evil hyenas. Once the amusement wore off, the queen yawned so wide, a watermelon could have fit inside her massive mouth.

“Universal domination is exhausting,” she said. “We’d better start conserving our energy before the invasion.”

“Oh what sweet dreams await us tonight!” the pirate said with a sinister grin.

The emperors stood up from the table and left the dining hall for bed. Once the room was empty, Froggy started pacing behind the mirror, and a thousand questions raced through his mind.

Suddenly, Froggy spotted something moving out of the corner of his eye. Until this moment, he’d thought the object in the middle of the dining table was a flickering candle. After taking a closer look, he realized it was a small and shimmering pixie stuck inside a tiny jar. The emperors had been using her as a centerpiece.

“Excuse me, young lady in the jar?” Froggy asked. “Can you hear me?”

The pixie looked around the dining room in a daze. Obviously, she could hear just fine, but she couldn’t see who was speaking to her.

“I’m over here! In the mirror above the fireplace!”

The pixie looked up and stared at Froggy like he was the most unusual thing she had ever seen.

“How did you get in there?” she asked.

“I could ask you the same question,” Froggy replied.

The pixie lowered her head sadly. “I’ve been trapped in here for weeks,” she said. “At first the captain was using me as a hostage, but now he’s using me as decoration—it’s so degrading! No matter how hard I try, I can’t escape! The jar is shut too tight!”

“Then you and I are kindred spirits,” Froggy said. “What’s your name?”

“Tinker Bell,” the pixie said.

The name sounded familiar, but Froggy couldn’t remember where he had heard it before.

“Forgive me, but I’m rather confused,” he said. “Who were those awful people eating dinner? And where did they come from?”

“Well, they’re all from different places,” Tinker Bell said. “The Queen of Hearts is from a place called Wonderland, the Wicked Witch of the West is from the Land of Oz, and Captain Hook and I are from Neverland.”

It suddenly clicked where Froggy had heard the names before. With every piece of knowledge he obtained, reality became much more difficult to comprehend.

“Wait a moment,” he said in shock. “I know those names—you’re characters from the books in my library! The late Fairy Godmother gave me those stories as a gift! How on earth did you get into this world?”

“I’m still trying to figure out where I am!” Tinker Bell said. “One night I was flying through London with my friend Peter, and the next thing I knew, some guy called the Masked Man was kidnapping me!”

“The Masked Man? But how did he get into your story?”

“He was using some kind of potion to travel into a bunch of stories,” the pixie said. “He was recruiting characters into something called a literary army. The Masked Man used me to enlist Captain Hook and the pirates from the Jolly Roger. Once he had the Wicked Witch, the Queen of Hearts, and their armies of card soldiers, Winkies, and flying monkeys, they invaded this world! All the kings and queens were dethroned and sentenced to be beheaded!”

Froggy gulped, fearing the worst for his family.

“And what happened to the royal families? Did they lose their heads?”

“No, luckily they all got away!” Tinker Bell said. “The queen, the captain, and the Wicked Witch blamed the Masked Man for their escape—they were so angry, they had him dropped from the sky!”

“Do you know where the royal families went?”

“Nobody does,” Tinker Bell said. “After the Masked Man was killed, a witch approached the emperors with an offer to conquer a new world—one much bigger than this one. They’ve been so excited about it, they stopped looking for the royal families. The witch and the new world are all they can talk about!”

“Did this witch or this world have a name?”

“I think they mentioned it once or twice,” the pixie said, and struggled to recall it. “I believe the witch’s name was Morgana—no, it was Morina! And the world she was planning to invade didn’t have a name, but she called it the Otherworld.”

Froggy went pale green and felt sick to his stomach. His escape from the mirrors would have to wait—clearly, there were much bigger problems at stake.

“Oh dear,” he gasped. “The witches and the Literary Army are going to invade the twins’ world! I have to find Alex and Conner—I have to warn them!”