Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (9 page)

“
Lest you not know what
you have done. You’ve made a deal that cannot be undone.” He patted
his jacket happily.

“
Who are you?” she asked
in dread, knowing deep down who she’d just made a bargain with, but
needing to know if she was right.

“
I told you my name is
Temple.”

“
No, what’s your full
name?”

“
Ah, that. Well, I’m not
as famous as the rest of my family, and I’ve sort of inherited the
family gift. But I would think you know all about that, taking on
the family business and all. So I think you know what I
am.”

She knew—his words confirmed it. Taking of a
child, items of gold, bargains. “You’re a Stiltskin, aren’t
you?”

Temple smiled widely, revealing gold molars,
removed his hat, and bowed. “Templestiltskin at your service, and
by the way…I would figure out a way to cross over sooner than
later. Your kind aren’t meant to survive on the Fae plane.
Something happens to them. They change, and not for the better. So
I would get crackin’, because according to my watch, you’re already
two weeks behind. And I want the dark prince’s book.”

Temple laughed, and disappeared as abruptly
as he’d materialized.

Mina stared at the single drop of blood
still on her finger, a painful reminder of the bargain she’d just
made with a Stiltskin.

In seconds, the room was back to normal, the
haze gone as the double doors leading outside burst open and girls
filed in, grumbling and complaining. Mina took the gold sandal on
the floor, and kicked it into the locker and slammed the door while
moving over to her own locker. Hurriedly she changed, not even
bothering to fix her hair or get out of her shoes. Tears of relief
poured out of the corners of her eyes, and she turned to rush out
of the locker room, but not before she heard a loud shriek from
Savannah White.

“
What in the blazes
happened to my Louis Vuitton sandal?”

Chapter 9

Her mind was numb, her heart beating
uncontrollably, but somehow she made it out of the locker room and
stumbled in a stupor into the hallway. She let her panic rise to
the surface, and she called Jared. He appeared within seconds, took
one look at her face, and grasped her arms as she almost
collapsed.

“
He’s alive!” Mina rushed
out after the shock had worn off.

“
Who is?”

“
My brother. That man, the
one who’s been following me, came here to the school. He told me he
kidnapped my brother, and he’s alive—on the Fae plane. All I have
to do is cross over to the Fae plane and trade an item for him.
Jared, I have to get him back.” Her hands gripped Jared’s jacket,
and he very carefully separated her fingers from the
jacket.

“
Are you sure? I mean, how
can you know that he’s telling the truth? And what happened to your
hand?”

“
Because I know. I heard a
strange sound the day of the fire. I heard it again today. It’s his
weird golden bird.” She held up the back of her hand, showing Jared
the scratches. “I know it’s them. They took Charlie to the Fae
plane. I have to get him back. You have to help me cross over so I
can save my brother.”

Jared’s face paled, and he whispered his
brother’s name. “Mina, I can’t let you do that.”

“
No! You have to help me,
help my brother.” Her words rushed out and slurred together in
panic.

“
Whoa, back up there,
Mina. You can’t go to the Fae plane.” He carefully helped her stand
up and took two steps away from her. The distance he was physically
creating between them felt as if it was miles.

“
You have to,” she
whispered, confused by his behavior.

“
No, you can’t. You don’t
know what’s over there. It’s not like your plane. It’s not safe,”
Jared replied, and began walking away down the hall.

Mina shook herself out of her reverie and
chased after him, trying to keep her voice down. “So, what? Are you
saying that I should just abandon Charlie?

“
No…yes…I don’t know. I’m
saying, think things through before you try to jump into something
you know nothing about. Into a country where you don’t know the
rules or the lay of the land. You can’t go. I won’t allow it.” He
barely turned to answer, his hands waving in finality.

She was losing him, and they both knew it.
“Just help me get over there. I can save Charlie and come
back.”

Jared opened his mouth to answer, but the
second bell rang, announcing their tardiness. “Jeez, Mina. Let him
go—he’s just a human. There’s a million more just like him. ” He
turned and walked toward his next class.

***

Jared avoided her for two days, refusing to
come when she used the Grimoire. She had tried begging, calling,
and even faked being attacked by a Fae wolf, but nothing. Jared
didn’t budge or show his face. Finally, on the third day, he
reappeared at their cafeteria table, purposely trying to make lunch
conversation awkward. Mina kept staring at Jared, who pretended to
be extremely interested in his spaghetti, spinning the noodles on
his fork at least a hundred times before taking a bite. She
couldn’t help herself—she was a bundle of excited energy and
couldn’t help but fumble with her straw, drop her fork on the floor
twice, and even accidentally step on Brody’s foot under the table.
Ever giggled at Mina’s obvious lack of grace and kept elbowing
Jared to watch her, but he refused to budge or look.

Mina sighed and watched the clock, waiting
for school to be over so she could go back to cornering Jared into
helping her. Maybe she could blackmail him? Hmm, the idea had
merit. Maybe even Ever would help her do it?

Nan Taylor’s voice cut through their table’s
quiet melancholy. “Okay, someone’s gonna have to scoot, ’cause
you’re both in my seat.”

Mina jumped up from the table, her chair
making a loud screech as she hugged her friend and almost knocked
over Nan’s tray. Brody stood up, too, and moved down so his
girlfriend could sit between him and Mina.

“
You’re back!”

Nan turned to face Mina and completely
ignored Brody. “Yeah, I’m so glad to be back and not grounded. But
I don’t regret it for one minute. I have to tell you that my mom
was furious and wanted to write a letter to the school, but I told
her that the time fits the crime and to let it drop. Savannah might
have started the fight verbally, but I took it physically where it
didn’t need to go. My mom still grumbles about writing a letter to
the school board, though.”

Nan sat down between Brody
and Mina, and began to move the food items around on her plate. “I
was completely bored out of my mind at home this whole week. I
can’t tell you all the things I concocted to keep myself busy. I
had a
Glee
marathon, a Hello Kitty party for one, and I even attempted
a
Project Runway
dress out of the things in our kitchen.” Nan switched to a
Tim Gunn impression. “I looked fabulous…and believe it or not, I
made it work.”

Mina started laughing…hard. Even Brody and
Ever were chuckling. Jared continued to swirl his spaghetti.

Nan looked great in her jean skirt, white
leggings, blue tank top, and sparkly pink nail polish, right down
to her expertly fishtailed braid. Mina couldn’t help but feel
slightly disheveled in her discount jeans and cute rainbow tank
top, blue hoodie, and Converse shoes. At least today she’d
attempted to wear blush and a light pink lip gloss. She never used
to compare her appearance to Nan, but now that Brody was so near
both of them again, she couldn’t help but let the comparisons ride
out. She was definitely the ugly duckling.

“
Mina,” Nan interrupted
her thoughts, “you look so cute today. Tell me, is it because of a
guy? It is, isn’t it? Who is it?”

Brody’s head snapped in Mina’s direction; he
was obviously interested in hearing her answer, but he carefully
pretended indifference as he took a swig of cola.

“
NO, there’s no guy.
There’s no one.”

“
Well, there should be a
guy. There should be a hundred boys lined up to date my best
friend. Right, Brody?” Nan cornered him with a look.

Brody almost choked on his drink, and after
wiping his mouth on his jacket, he gave Nan a sheepish look. “Um,
yeah, hundreds.” He swallowed and stared directly into Mina’s
eyes.

“
Well, you should set her
up on a date with one of your friends, then,” Nan said.

“
NO!” Mina and Brody cried
out in unison, while Ever pumped her fist and yelled,
“YES!”

Nan started laughing, and picked up her
water bottle and twisted the lid. “It’s official, Bro.
Tonight…double date.”

“
Make that a triple,” Ever
interrupted, looking at Jared across the table
hopefully.

Jared’s head snapped up, and he stared at
the four of them in horror…once he realized what they were
saying.

Brody groaned. Mina turned beet red, Nan
laughed, and Ever glared at Jared, who finally quit playing with
his food and buried his head in his hands.

Chapter 10

“
Mina, I don’t think I can
go through with this,” Nan cried out, pacing back and forth in
Mina’s bedroom, her long skirt swishing back and forth, her
gold-toned sandals flopping on the hardwood floor.

“
Go through with what—the
date?” Mina asked. She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed.
This was the best she was going to look. She had pulled her long
wavy brown hair into a side ponytail and let it trail down her left
shoulder. She wore shorts, a sapphire-blue tank top, sandals, and a
short tan jacket with an inside pocket, into which she’d tucked the
smallest version of the Grimoire. She was no Nan or Savannah; she
could never compete with them. But she thought she looked pretty
good.

“
I’m scared to go on a
date with Brody,” Nan admitted before crashing onto Mina’s bed and
staring around the room as if she was seeing it for the first time.
Well, she was, but opulence or poverty never mattered to Nan. Even
when Mina lived in a run- down flat above a Chinese restaurant, Nan
never cared.

“
But you two have been
dating for four months. How could you be nervous?” Mina
answered.

“
It’s not like you think.
Our dates have consisted of mostly sitting at the lunch table the
last few weeks of the school year, and a few movies. Then we went
our separate ways the whole summer, and we barely talked, Mina.
This whole thing moved really fast. I’m not really sure what to
think of it.”

“
Why didn’t you talk to
him about it?”

“
I don’t know. I mean, he
woke me out of a coma with a kiss, so that means he must like me.
And of course it was all really sweet the way Brody looked after me
when I got out of the hospital. He pulled the chair out for me,
carried my books. But we’ve only ever kissed one time after that,
and I was the one who instigated it—and that was before we left for
the summer. It’s been really awkward since. It’s like we’re better
friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. We used to call each other
every day, then it became every other day, and now once a week. I
mean, it’s Friday night! Our first Friday night back together for
the whole summer, so of course it means a date. But please, oh,
please, Mina. I can’t go on this date alone. What if my fears are
correct—what if we’re only friends?”

Nan’s words made Mina’s spirit soar and then
come crashing down in a mash-up of confusion and hurt for her
friend’s plight. It was what she secretly wanted to hear, but at
the same time, she would never wish for this to happen to her best
friend. Oh, the mixed feelings it created, and right in the middle
of her own nightmarish plot of trying to save her brother. She was
so torn, but she needed to get Jared on her good side and help her
cross over.

“
It will be fine,” Mina
said, encouraging her. “If you need a quick escape, I’ll just dump
my pop on myself, and we’ll have to go home early. How’s
that?”

Nan’s blue eyes widened in disbelief. “You
would do that for me?”

“
Well, it’s a fifty-fifty
shot it’s going to happen anyway tonight, so yeah, I would do that
for you.”

“
Mina, you are the best
friend ever!” Nan hugged Mina before they headed downstairs to wait
for the rest of their troupe.

Sara was sitting quietly in a rocking chair
in the library, staring at a blank spot on the wall where a very
obvious picture had previously hung. Mina knew from the size of the
spot that it was where her father’s picture had been. Did Sara
somehow know?

As Nan chatted and led the way to the foyer,
Mina couldn’t help but slow down to stare at her mom. Was there a
difference in her? For once she wasn’t sad; she was rocking in a
chair, humming to herself. Her mom was behaving strangely, and not
just since Charlie had disappeared, but over the last few months.
She wasn’t jumping at every noise, threatening to pick up and move
across the country. She was becoming normal. The hairs on the backs
of Mina’s arms rose in trepidation. What was happening to her mom?
There was nothing obviously wrong, but nothing obviously right,
either.

“
Mom,” Mina called,
walking softly to stand by her chair. Sara was wearing an oversized
gray knit sweater wrapped around her. Her brown hair had started to
fall out of its bun. Something sparkled around her wrist, and Mina
saw a simple charm bracelet, probably some gift they had given
their mom years before and didn’t remember.