“With you?”
“Yes.”
“How? All the doors are guarded.”
“Who said anything about doors? Sometimes, Princess,” Aladdin said, “you just need to take a risk.”
He walked toward the balcony. This was it. His moment to make up for all the mistakes from this evening. If this didn’t work, nothing would. He leapt up to the balcony railing and stepped off the edge—out of sight.
“What are you doing?” Jasmine gasped and rushed toward the balcony. “What just happened?”
Slowly, Aladdin floated back up. Jasmine’s mouth fell open as she took in the sight of him upon the magic carpet.
“What is that?” she asked, her voice hushed.
“My magic carpet. I told you.” He held out his hand toward her. “Do you trust me?”
“What did you say?” Jasmine looked at him now in the most peculiar way.
“Do you trust me?”
She studied the carpet. Had he said the wrong thing? he wondered. A million questions played upon her lips. She reached her hand toward him, but then she hesitated. Aladdin tried to stay calm. She had to take his hand. She had to. If she didn’t…
But she did.
She took his hand.
She nimbly climbed upon the magic carpet, sitting next to him.
Before either of them could say another word, it whisked them into the air.
Aladdin looked up at the stars. The night sky was dark and lovely.
It was filled with possibilities.
JASMINE COULDN’T believe it. More surprising than the magic carpet flying straight into the sky was the fact that she’d taken Ali’s outstretched hand. She was not the sort to get swept away—to trust a complete stranger this easily—but there was just something about him. Maybe it was the way he looked at her, the sweet boyish look of hope in his eyes. Or maybe it was what he had said: Do you trust me? Those four words. The same words Aladdin had said to her on the streets of Agrabah. And she had trusted Aladdin, just as she now trusted Prince Ali. What was happening to her? After a lifetime of cynicism, was she going…soft? She wasn’t sure. She did know that against all odds, right this minute, she was soaring into the sky, the clouds around her, sitting next to a prince she’d just met earlier that afternoon.
“You okay?” Prince Ali nudged her gently. “Not carpet-sick, are you? That’s actually a thing, you know.”
“No,” she said. “I mean, I—whoa!” A gust of wind rushed against them. Ali placed an arm around her; Jasmine gripped the rug tightly as it swayed. The magic carpet fluttered, then readjusted, rising farther into the sky.
“Sorry,” Ali apologized as the rug straightened out and the air returned to a gentle breeze. “The wind can get unpredictable when we’re still climbing up, but it should settle now. And don’t worry about falling—the magic carpet is really sturdy.” She glanced at his arm, still around her shoulder. “Oh!” His eyes widened. He pulled away. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just…the rug slipped, and…”
“No, it’s fine. I appreciated the reassurance.” Jasmine looked down at the rug beneath them. “You’re right about this carpet, though. I never thought one could actually fly, much less be this sturdy.”
“There is definitely more to it than meets the eye,” he told her. “Now tell me, Princess, where would you like to go?”
“Where can we go?”
“Anywhere you’d like.”
“Anywhere? There’s a whole world out there to see.”
“Whole world? You got it!”
Jasmine laughed. “We don’t have time for that.”
“You’d be surprised. Magic carpets make good time.” Ali’s eyes twinkled. “Hold on tight!”
The clear sky above and the deep dark ocean below blurred into one another as the magic carpet geared up. Before Jasmine could ask any more questions, they zipped further into the night sky. Trepidation filled Jasmine’s mind. Where were they going? Sure, Ali seemed comfortable on this rug, but was this honestly safe? She braced herself and shut her eyes. In a matter of seconds, the magic carpet stopped. Opening her eyes, Jasmine blinked.
“Is that…is that snow?” she asked in disbelief.
Indeed, far below them was a wide-open meadow, dotted with yellow flowers and snowy patches of ice, overlooking a crystal-clear lake. She was about to ask him just how far from home the magic carpet had taken them when her gaze shifted upward. Red, green, and purple lights streaked across the night sky.
“That’s the aurora borealis,” she whispered, scarcely believing it. “I’ve only read about it in books.”
“Nicer in person?”
“There’s no comparison…” she said with awe. “But how did we get here so fast? How can this be real?”
“Magic,” Ali said simply.
They lingered for a bit, watching the sky light up in all its brilliant spectacle before the magic carpet blurred the landscape once more and whisked them over thundering waterfalls, misty jungles, and wide-open savannahs. They watched monkeys swing from branch to branch through shady canopies and listened to the howl of hyenas as they galloped below. And then the magic carpet rumbled again, and within seconds Jasmine and Ali stood atop a pristine mountain peak. Their feet sank into the cool snow. The world was dark and silent below them.
“There are no other footsteps here.” Jasmine glanced at the ground. “Not even animal tracks.”
