Forever (10 page)

Brody studied her, his eyes
filled with sadness. He reached out with his other hand and covered hers.
“Mina, what happened the night of the ball when you kept disappearing?
Something changed that night, and I can’t figure it out.”

“I fell in love with someone
else that night,” she admitted… to him and to herself.

“But you were only gone from
my sight for a couple of moments.”

“And each of those moments
felt like a lifetime on the Fae plane.”

“So he’s Fae? This person you
fell in love with.” Brody didn’t seem angry. He seemed curious. Her heart
swelled with relief that they could talk about this like friends.

She released a long drawn out
breath, “Oh, yeah. Fae alright.”

“Does he love you back?”
Brody asked.

“No.”

“Then he’s blind.”

“No, love is blind.”

“Love is Grim” Brody
whispered as he gently touched her face. “Why do I feel like you’re saying
goodbye? What are you not telling me?”

Mina reached into her pocket
and pulled out his class ring. “You offered me something that, two years ago, I
would have given anything for.” She couldn’t keep the tears of regret from
creeping into her eyes or her voice. “But I can’t give you what you want,
because really? I lost my heart a long time ago, to a prince in a story.”

“I may never get my happily-ever-after
ending,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean you can’t have yours.” Mina placed
the ring in his open palm. “You’ve given up so much for me, and I can never
thank you enough. You promised to protect me, but I’m asking you to do
something even greater. Protect Nan.”

Brody was about to protest
when Mina put her hand on his lips, stopping him. Her hand grew warm with
power, and she pushed her will toward him and commanded,
Find your true love.

Brody froze for a second, and
Mina watched as her compulsion settled inside him. Why had she never noticed
what she could do before? She was the one who couldn’t control her own desire
and kept compelling him to fall for her. And if her direction worked, she’d
quickly find out if her instincts were correct.

He blinked a few times and
looked at her, but there wasn’t any strong emotion behind his eyes. Just trust
and true friendship. Mina stood up and shivered, deeply thankful for this
moment of resolution. Brody may have been able to ignore the chill of the
evening, but she couldn’t. The monster trees had wasted enough of her precious
time.

“Let’s go back.”

Brody got up, and
hand-in-hand, they walked the last mile to her house in silence. They took
comfort from one another’s touch, but it wasn’t anything romantic. Mina was
extra careful now to keep her feelings and desires locked up in her heart. She
didn’t want any stray thoughts to influence Brody.

When they finally made it up
the hill and stood in front of her front door, it opened as if someone had been
watching from inside.

Nan stood there. Her gaze
dropped to their clasped hands, and her face fell.

Mina groaned inwardly. That
wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t mean to hurt her friend’s feelings. How
would she explain this to Nan?

She didn’t have to. Brody
took two steps forward, picked Nan up, even though he was injured and bruised,
and kissed her.

Nan squealed in surprise but
sure didn’t stop him from kissing her.

Ever and Charlie happened to
walk by, and Charlie stuck his finger down his throat and made barfing actions.
Mina carefully squeezed past Nan and Brody as they continued to kiss. She
silently closed the door and let them have privacy on the porch.

“Well, I think that was the
fastest breakup and get-together in history.” Ever leaned over to pull the curtain
aside so she could spy.

Mina swatted her hand away.
“No, he was always meant to be her prince charming. I just got in the way, and
she was too good a friend to tell me her true feelings.”

“So she lied to you,” Ever
said.

Mina thought about it, about
all the jokes Nan made about not liking Brody Carmichael, even though their
families were great friends. How she hadn’t wanted to be the one to bring the
folder to his house that fateful day when he ran over Mina’s bike. Nan had
liked him just as much as she did and was probably even more nervous than she
was. Plus, Nan would never let herself admit to liking the same guy Mina did.

“Yeah, she lied. Not just to
me, though—she lied to herself.”

Ever nodded.

“Hey, you said you had a way
for us to talk without being listened to?”

“Yeah. We need to get all the
mirrors.” She peeked back out the window again.

Nix walked in and noticed
Ever looking outside. He pulled the curtain back and whistled at them.

Something loud slapped at the
window, and Nix backed off.

“Leave them be,” Mina
commanded. “We have work to do.”

Chapter 11

When the front door opened,
and a red-faced Nan and a smiling Brody tried to sneak in, Ever pounced. She
handed Brody a screwdriver.

“I need all of the bathroom
mirrors taken down. You.” She pointed to Nan. “Tackle the hall mirror. Nix,
bring every other mirror in the house to the kitchen.”

“Why?” Nan asked.

“Why must you ask why? Just
trust me.” Ever made a face and rolled her eyes.

Nan started unhooking the
hall mirror, and Brody headed to the downstairs bathroom.

Mina went to the upstairs
storage room. It had been a while since she’d entered this room. As she flipped
on the light, a tremor ran up her arms. She’d been sitting on that very settee
with Jared when he almost kissed her. A blush ran up her cheeks at the memory.

The large portrait of her
father no longer sat on the easel, but on the floor. Now a new canvas and
portrait sat in its place. The subject was a young girl, sitting in the same
high back chair that was in the front living room. The girl had a slightly
heart-shaped face, dark brown eyes, a hint of rosy cheeks, and long brown hair.
Even though the painting stopped just past her shoulders, and only the pencil
outline showed the rest, it was obvious that some magic was creating her
portrait, and her fear was slowly coming to realization. Yes, that image would
one day hang in this house after
she
passed.

Somehow, the house knew her
time was almost up and was painting her death portrait.

Mina yelled in frustration
and knocked the canvas from the easel. She picked it up and kicked right
through the center of the fabric, tearing it from the staples. She stepped
through it, venting her anger on it until nothing was left but a broken frame,
and she was spent, sitting on the floor, staring at the mess she had made.

“Sorry, house sprite, or
whoever is doing this, but I’m not ready. So no more memorial portraits until
after I’m dead, got that? At least wait another eight hours.” She spoke to the
air, but she had a feeling that the magic house heard. “Now if you want to help
me, you can show me where there are some mirrors.”

Nothing happened.

“Fine, be that way.” Mina
began moving pictures and uncovering sheets from piles of boxes.

The curtain by the window
moved. It could have been the air vents kicking on, but a sliver of moonlight
fell through and pointed across the room to some boxes.

Mina checked that corner.
Behind the boxes stood a large square mirror in an antique frame. She used part
of the sheet to dust it off and then lifted it up carefully and carried it out.
But not before saying a parting thanks.

Mina struggled under the
weight of the mirror. Brody noticed and ran up the stairs to take it from her.

“Here, I got it.” He gently
took the mirror from her hands.

“Thanks.” Mina smiled at him,
surprised at how there was no awkwardness between them. Once she’d compelled
him, it took only minutes to find his true love. How could Mina not feel good
about that?

She walked by the front room
and noticed Charlie passed out on the couch again. She stopped and brushed his
hair back from his forehead. He wasn’t warm anymore, just exhausted and
sleeping.

Ever called her into the
kitchen. Nix followed, carrying another mirror that Mina recognized from her
mom’s bedroom.

Ever directed the positioning
of the mirrors around the kitchen, so they reflected across the island and back
at each other.

“We know Teague has Mina’s
Godmother mirror,” she said. “So he can watch her whenever he wants. But I
remembered something from my gran about how to block the mirror from seeing
true. We dilute her reflection by reflecting the images back at each other,
within each mirror. He’ll see a kaleidoscope of images, but they will be
reflecting so much it will be hard for him to see or hear her.” Her grin grew wide
in self-appreciation.

“Like a really bad cellphone
connection,” Nan realized out loud.

“Exactly. Hard to make a
connection if the call keeps getting dropped.” Ever winked. “All plotting must
be done within the safety of this mirror prism.”

They sat around the kitchen
island, and Mina crossed her arms and hugged herself. She took a deep steadying
breath and looked over her group of friends. All of them in this together, to
help her. She had to do what she could to save them, but that meant she mustn’t
tell them what she sacrificed to do so.

“Teague stopped his attack at
the fairgrounds very suddenly. I’m not sure why. It could be that he saw the
police arrive, and he wasn’t ready to reveal himself yet.”

“That’s dumb, since hundreds
of people saw his monsters attacking the school. There must be another reason,”
Nan spoke up as she slapped a large grayish poultice from Nix on her bruised
cheek.

Nix went back to the kitchen
stove to put together another poultice for Brody. She’d seen him do this
before—make a mess in her kitchen, going through her cupboards mixing
healing herbs.

“Teague won’t stop here. He
will destroy everyone unless he gets what he wants,” Ever spoke firmly.

“Well, what does he want?”
Nan mumbled. “Obviously it’s not world peace.”

“Turtle peas?” Nix asked
loudly from behind his boiling pot of water. He dropped the lid, and it
rattled.

“Not turtle peas—world
peace,” Ever snapped. “If you could keep it down a bit, maybe you could hear.”
She sighed dramatically and continued. “No one is safe. I believe the only
reason he hasn’t done more damage is that he’s fixated on Mina. Maybe we can
use that to our advantage.”

Brody didn’t look pleased at
Ever’s suggestion. His fists closed angrily. “No.”

Ever just laughed. “You don’t
get it, do you? She’s the best chance we have, and she’ll probably have to face
him in the end anyway.”

“Find another way,” he said.

“Okay, sheesh,” Ever replied.
“But you’re kind of tying my hands. So our other option is that we can bring in
Ferah to help us.”

“Anyone except for Ferah,”
Mina added.

Ever made a sour face. “Yeah,
well, I don’t really want her on my team. I’d rather eat nails than partner up
with her, but you do have a point. We’ve only got one shot at this, and I think
I have an idea.”

“What do you need us to do?”
Nan jumped in. “We can help. I can—”

“No,” Mina interrupted
harshly. “I need you to do something else for me.”

Brody’s posture stiffened,
and it mirrored Mina’s defensive one. Would he interfere if he knew what she
wanted, or would he help?

She sent Ever to gather the
things she bought and asked Brody to pick up the sleeping bags from the living
room. Nix was so preoccupied with banging around in the kitchen, he couldn’t
possibly hear Mina.

Mina pulled Nan closer while
they were still within the mirrors.

“You’re my best friend,
right?”

“Duh, of course.”

“And you love Charlie, like
he was your own brother.” It wasn’t a question. Mina knew the answer. No one
doted on Charlie more than her best friend. Nan was the only person who truly
got him and his unique personality and language. She’d even punched Savannah
White for calling him a name and faced out-of-school suspension.

“I’d kill anyone who touched
a hair on his quirky little head,” she said fiercely.

“Good, then I need you to
take him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Take my brother and run.
Hide him from the Fae. I can’t focus on what’s coming next if I’m looking over
my shoulder for Charlie. Is there somewhere you can go, somewhere your family
owns that you can hide him?”

“Well, yeah maybe the—”

“Don’t tell me. I don’t want
to know.” Mina gripped Nan’s arms. “No one can find him. No one can know, not
even your parents.”

“But I can’t kidnap him,
Mina. I’m not his legal guardian.”

“Nan,” Mina shot out. “Our
mother’s gone. He’s going to end up in the system. They’re going to take him.
But that’s the least of my worries. What if the Fae come after him? When this
all dies down, you can bring him back. But remember, if something happens to
me, Charlie becomes the next Grimm. He trusts you, Nan. You’re the one he’d want
on his side. And he’ll need protection—help. He’ll need you.”

Nan’s eyes turned glassy with
tears. She left the circle of mirrors, paced the hall, rubbed her hands across
her face in worry. She cried. Then she got angry. Every emotion crossed her
face as she battled with what she was about to do.

Mina knew the minute Nan had
made the decision to take and hide Charlie. Her posture straightened, she held
her head high, and she looked Mina dead in the eye.

“No one will harm Charlie on
my watch. I swear it.”

“Good.” Mina hugged her
friend and cried.

She was asking a lot of Nan.
It was illegal, and she would have to hide from her family. But Nan was used to
living on her own. Her mom and stepdad were hardly ever home. When this was all
over, Mina knew that he’d be taken care of, she’d see to that. If they won this
battle.

“Mina. What are you going to
do while I’m gone?”

“Try and survive.”

There was more strategizing
and planning schedules as they figured out what they were going to do about
Teague. Ever had a plan that honestly might work, so Mina got Nix and Brody to
agree to carry the mirrors upstairs and arrange them in her room.