This, Peter thinks, looking around the waiting room at an apologetic doctor, an empty-eyed Nadia, an expressionless Sister Chantelle, is the problem with fairy tales. They end too soon, before you can see how it all falls apart.

Sister Chantelle's calling the McConnells, Nadia's past the point of tears, and Peter's got his knees drawn up to his chest, staring into nothing. If you told him two months ago that he and Jason would get a happily ever after, ride off into the sunset sort of ending, he'd have believed it.

And the queen and his handsome prince lived happily ever after.

Now, Peter decides, he never wants to hear the words "once upon a time" again.