[Half/Time 01] Half Upon a Time

Author:James Riley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: YA
ISBN: 9781416995944
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2010-09-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Jack didn’t plan on falling asleep; too much was happening, and happening much too fast when it did. Still, he hadn’t slept in a while, what with finding the Black Forest, riding on the wolf’s back, and breaking the Mirror. After all that, the quiet comfort of the cottage was just too hard to resist.

Jack propped himself up against the wall with some bed pillows, then leaned back to settle in. On his right, May was doing the same, only she’d already closed her eyes. Jack smiled slightly as he marveled for the hundredth time that her hair could really be blue like that. How had she done that? Was there magic involved?

And then Jack opened his eyes, not exactly sure when he’d closed them. When he fell asleep, his mind always seemed to wander to the oddest places. Places where magic didn’t work, and there wasn’t any royalty … places where everyone was equal, no one was better than anyone else just because of who their parents were. That’d be nice, a place like that. That’d be some kind of dream world….

And maybe it’d look something like the place Jack saw when he opened his eyes. Somehow, surrounding him on all sides was a wide field with tall, golden grasses blowing gently in multiple directions from the slightly chilly wind. The meadow seemed empty, at least from where he was sitting. As he turned to take it all in, though, he noticed an oak tree behind him. In fact, he was leaning against it. How odd … Had that been there a minute ago? Hadn’t he just been in sunlight, whereas now he sat in the tree’s shade? Jack thought so, but didn’t really put too much effort into worrying about it. The tree was here now—that was the important thing.

He snuggled against the tree’s trunk, sighing with contentment as his back fit into the wood just right. The gentle breeze still managed to find him under the tree’s canopy, and the air blew his hair almost playfully. Jack smiled. This was actually really nice!

“It is quite nice,” said a man at his side, a man who Jack could have sworn wasn’t there a minute ago, a man whose voice was familiar.

A man who was also dressed entirely in black armor, covered by a blue cloak.

Somewhere deep in Jack’s head, a small voice cried out that this was the Wicked Queen’s Eye, that Jack was in danger, but the voice was too small to listen to, so Jack just ignored it and smiled. “I agree, it is nice,” he said. For some reason, his voice sounded dazed, even to him, but Jack didn’t let that bother him.

The knight returned Jack’s smile. “Sometimes I sit here for days, you know,” the man said, leaning his head back against the tree. “It’s very peaceful. Also, I must admit, it’s quite pleasant to think, to hear your breath moving in and out without the distractions of the outside world.”

Jack nodded in agreement.

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