Forever (8 page)

Mina took a deep breath and
shuddered. She held out her hand.

“Deal.”

Chapter
8

She knew the deal had to be
made, but she pulled her hand back at the last second.

“Changing your mind already?”
He sneered.

“No, I uh, I’d just like to
add a few conditions.”

He crossed his arms and
snorted. “Of course you would.”

“I’d like twenty-four hours
before you collect on your debt.”

“Two hours.”

“Twelve. Take it or leave
it.” Mina panicked inwardly, thinking she wasn’t even going to get that.

“Twelve measly hours isn’t
going to save you from my wrath any more than two. The ending will be the
same.”

Mina sighed. “I know. I just
want to say my goodbyes.”

“Your human emotions are so
typical.”

“They’re not just human
emotions. They’re Fae as well.”

“Emotions make you weak,” he
said, as if his own jealously and rage weren’t emotions.

Apparently he only considered
sentimental emotions weak. How interesting. “Twelve hours,” Mina repeated and
held out her hand.

Teague looked at her offered
hand with a raised eyebrow. He wasn’t sure what to do with it. “So Mina, twelve
hours I grant you. Then I will come for you. You better have my dagger. And no
funny business. He pulled her delicate hand mirror out of the air. “Remember,
I’m watching your every move.”

He disappeared right before
her eyes—and with him, the bubble holding her thousands of feet above the
ground.

Mina screamed as she fell out
of the sky. Her hands clawed at the air as if, somehow, she could slow her
freefall.

She couldn’t inhale, she was
falling so fast. Her destroyed school appeared, and what looked like ants all
around it. But they weren’t ants. They were people—people getting bigger.

As the ground rushed toward
her face, she placed her hands in front of her, closed her eyes, and prayed.
She imagined two large hands catching her and stopping her fall, saving her
moments before she hit the ground. She pushed every ounce of willpower she had
into her imagination.

She could hear someone else
scream when they noticed her falling, or maybe she was screaming herself. Then
she slammed into something warm and soft.

She grunted at the impact and
looked up, but she was surrounded by darkness. Except that it wasn’t completely
dark. A crevice of light opened up, and Mina could see what was left of the day
peering in through the crack in rock. Although it couldn’t be rock. The walls
shifted, opening up, and she realized she was sitting in the palm of the
giant’s hand.

She looked up into his eyes,
and they looked straight into hers, glowing golden. When Mina turned her head,
the giant turned his head too. She looked up, and the giant looked up.

Put
me down.
She mentally
commanded the giant. Then added,
Gently,
for good measure.

The giant bent down and
placed his hand on the ground. Mina scrambled out and gave herself plenty of
space for safety. The giant just stood there blinking at her, awaiting orders.
She wasn’t sure how, but she had taken control of him. His will was hers.

Very cool, but very scary.

Teague appeared next to her.
“So you think you can control my army? A giant is the weakest minded creature
here. But tell me, what are you going to do with him now?”

Mina thought about using him
to destroy Teague, but then she saw all of her friends still at the mercy of
the rest of his army: Brody held captive by Claire, Ever pinned down in the
hands of an ogre, Nix and Charlie surrounded by his griffins, and she still
hadn’t seen Nan. She couldn’t save them all.

Go
home, Giant.
Mina
commanded.
Go back to the Fae plane, and
live a happy joyful life. Let no man, woman, beast, or Fae control you again.
You are your own mind.

He stared at her, and his
eyes still glowed. He turned to walk away, probably to try and find a gate
still open between the planes.

Oh,
and one more thing.
She
mentally called out after the giant. He paused in his step and turned.

Thank
you for saving me.

She wasn’t sure, because she
was still controlling him, but she thought she saw the barest hint of a smile
cross his large face.

Teague stood before her. He
looked irritated as he signaled his horde to fall back.

Chapter
9

They weren’t happy at
Teague’s orders, but Claire released Brody and backed away to be quickly
surrounded by Grey Tail and Lone Tree. Ever yelped as the ogre dropped her on
her bottom. One by one, members of his army moved away and scattered among the
wreckage of the fairgrounds.

As soon as the giant
disappeared, fire and rescue teams swarmed the area. Men in uniforms ran to
those injured on the ground, and the GMs quickly phased and tried to hide their
true selves again. Those that couldn’t hide their Fae side quickly made
themselves scarce.

Nix got up from the ground
and helped Charlie to his feet. His red hair stood out against his pale skin.
“That was too close.” He reached out and ruffled Charlie’s hair. “And what
about you, Mr. Siren? I’ve got a distant cousin.”

Mina ran over and hugged
Charlie, fresh tears of relief pouring down her face. “Oh, Charlie.”

She ran her fingers up his
face. He was still warm to the touch, and his fever seemed to be out of
control, but he looked fine. In fact, he glowed with power.

Ever waddled
over to Mina as she rubbed her backside. “How are your wings?” Mina asked.

“Could be better. I thought
they were goners for a sec there. But it’s going to take more than an ogre to
ground Ever Farindale.” She turned and slowly flapped her deep purple and blue
tinted pixie wings, wincing in pain.

Mina turned and scanned their
group for Brody, but he’d disappeared. She couldn’t see his blond head
anywhere. She was about to turn and go look for him when Constance called her.

“Mina.” The muse spoke
softly.

She turned to her high school
music teacher, with her short gray spiky hair and wing-tipped glasses. Her
skirt and top were torn and dirty, but she didn’t look injured.

“You came?” Mina said
incredulously.

“We got our injured safely
hidden with another inactive sect of Godmothers down in San Francisco. This one
wasn’t going to let us abandon you.” She pointed to Nix, who blushed until his
skin matched his hair and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“But how did you know where
to find me?”

Constance sang a few notes
and held out her wrist. A small dragon landed there and immediately began to
dance around in excitement.

“Of course. Anders. How could
we have forgot about him?” Mina exclaimed.

“You were meant to. He was
supposed to follow you, and—when you were in trouble—come find us.
There was a small group of us already on our way back to the Guild to try and
salvage some of our archives when he found us. Sorry, this is all we had.” She
gestured to those standing behind her.

Mina couldn’t help but zero
in on Ferah, with her untamed red hair, standing among the GMs. She spoke
wildly to the others.

Ken Wong separated himself
and came over to them, whispering hurriedly to Constance. “Ferah says we have
to leave. The police are asking questions, and we are a very large group
standing in the open. We’re sure to draw speculation.”

Constance nodded her head.
“She’s right. We must leave. But first I need to ask you, Mina, what happened?
Why did he leave?”

That was one question she
wasn’t ready to answer, especially not in front of her friends and brother.

She turned away. “He’s toying
with us, trying to intimidate me by showing he can strike any time and
anywhere.” She turned back to Constance. “What I want to know is what about
Charlie? Did you know he’s Fae?”

“Part-Fae,” Constance
answered. “And yes. So are you.” She grabbed Mina’s arm and walked closely
beside her as their troop made a hasty exit, not out the front fair exit, but
by the back bus-barns.

“Your mother was a powerful
siren. When we learned what our future held, and how it depended on the Grimm
family defeating Teague, we tried to strengthen your bloodline with Fae blood.”

“How dare you meddle where
you have no business meddling? These are my family’s lives—not your
genetic cauldron for creating weapons.”

“Do you think your mother
didn’t love your father? Do you think we cast some sort of spell to make him
fall in love with her? No, Sara and James fell in love all on their own.” They
squeezed through a fence behind the school, skirting the worst of the damage.
“Your mother was so in love with your human father that she went to a sea witch
to bind her Fae powers so she could be human. We didn’t know at first that it
was James Grimm that she was in love with.”

“So she lied to my father?”

“Do you honestly not
recognize your mother’s own tale? Where a girl was so in love with a human that
she was willing to give up her tail, forget her previous life, and live as a
human forever so she could be with him?”

“You mean
The Little Mermaid
?” Mina scoffed. She
followed Constance carefully past a sheer drop-off in the ground, actually the
giant’s foot print.

“What do you think a siren
is, dear?” Constance smiled sadly. “A mermaid is the human term for them. Once
a month, on the full moon, sirens gain their legs and walk on land, usually to
cause mayhem. After all, they aren’t the noblest of creatures and are
tricksters. It was during your mother’s moon spell when she met your father.”

Mina couldn’t help but think
back to the stone siren that guarded the waterways under the Fates’ castle. Nix
had said sirens were like sea witches but worse.

“Am I going to sprout a
tail?”

In the distance, the fire and
rescue crews were still parked around the perimeter of the fairgrounds.

Constance laughed. “No, you
and your brother won’t, because that is what your mother sacrificed to become
human. So it wasn’t passed down to you. It does seem that Charlie picked up the
siren’s call, and you picked up the lure, though.”

“Lure? Don’t you have to sing
to be able to do that? You’ve heard me in class. I can’t sing a note.”

“Lure is of the mind. It’s
the most powerful of curses, dear. I’m sure you’ve seen it firsthand. You lure
others to do your bidding. You’ve been luring the Fae power and controlling it
for years. You did it again with the giant, and you’ve done it with your
friends.”

Mina let the knowledge wash
over her as they headed toward the parking area. She wasn’t human, never had
been. Her whole life was a lie—all because her mother was basically the
little mermaid on steroids.

“And you just let it happen?”

“We didn’t think it would
hurt anyone if the Grimm line inherited some of her Fae powers. In fact, it
would only help. Your mother was one of the strongest sirens in the sea. How
else do you think you made the crystal bowl sing if you weren’t already Fae,
hmm? A siren doesn’t have to sing to still be a siren.”

“This is all too much,” Mina
confessed as they hustled around the block. They’d made a huge circle to get
back to their cars and not be stopped by the police.

“Or is it not enough, I
wonder.” Constance muttered.

“Why couldn’t you tell me
this earlier?”

“Too much too soon. Your
mother didn’t want to remember her old life. And she never wanted you to know,
because she was afraid you’d hate her.”

“That’s why all of her
forgetting charms,” Mina muttered as she came to the parking lot.

“But she remembered whenever
you needed her to. Don’t forget that, dear. Whenever she needed to remember the
old ways, she could.”

The GMs hurried away, and
Constance needed to go with them.

“What are we going to do
about that?” Mina pointed back to the destroyed school and fairgrounds. “We’ve
left quite a lot of Fae evidence.”

“We can only hide from the
world for so long. It looks like our time is up. We’re prepared for the human
world. The only question is whether they are ready for us.” She slowed down so
that they fell to the back of the group. “I’m not sure why Teague backed off
the way he did, but whatever you promised him, it’s not worth it.” Constance
turned to follow her group.

Mina looked at her friends in
the lot. Nix stayed close to Charlie, Ever waited by Nan’s car, and they all
looked to her for direction. Brody and Nan hadn’t shown up.

“I thought they’d be here,”
Mina mumbled to herself. She felt foolish thinking somehow Brody would be
waiting for them by the car. She hoped he’d only stayed behind to help, rather
than gotten in danger somehow. But where was Nan? “He promised… That he’d let
them all go.” She kept waiting for Nan to pop out from behind a bush and say
boo
.

“Should I go back and look
for them?” Nix moved Charlie closer to Ever and pointed back into the fray, at
all the people who ran toward the school grounds to get pictures of what was
happening.

“No!” Ever shouted and
grabbed her side in pain. “We need to get far away from here as fast as
possible.”

Mina was torn. Ever was
right—she needed to get Charlie out of here. But she couldn’t abandon her
friends. Finally, she understood the decision the Godmothers faced, trying to
protect those who were injured or unable to protect themselves.

But she could make a
different choice. Her path could be different. “Ever, stay here with Charlie,”
Mina commanded and then nodded to Nix.

Within moments, they were
picking through the mob of bystanders trying to get to the main street.

“This is chaos!” Nix shouted
over the crowd. “Hey, I see something!” He pointed to a side alley, but Mina
wasn’t as tall as Nix, so she couldn’t see what he saw. She broke through the
edge of the crowd and breathed a sigh of relief. Brody was making his way
toward them, carrying someone. Long blonde hair spilled over his right arm.
Mina recognized the blue shirt as belonging to her best friend.

“Nan!” Mina ran to them both.

Brody gave them an
accomplished grin. “She’s heavier than she looks.” He sounded out of breath.

Nan’s hand came up and
slapped Brody upside the head. “Am not, jerk. Now put me down.”

“You’re wounded.” Brody
shifted her body so he could hold on to her better. His eyes were filled with
joy as he looked down at Nan’s frowning face. There was something else there
too, some emotion he was trying to hold back.

“Only my pride, Brody
Carmichael.” Nan laughed and tried to squirm out of his grip.

Brody leaned forward and
gently placed her feet on the ground, holding Nan’s arm as he tried to steady
her. She had a large bruise on the side of her face and a few scratches had
torn through her shirt.

The minute Nan tried to move
on her own, she started to fall, and she instantly turned back to Brody for
support. His strong arm wrapped around her waist, and he didn’t let her go.

“He saved me, Mina.” Nan
touched the bruise on her cheek.

“Not really,” Brody
confessed. “Right before those wolves attacked me, I saw some sort of beast
dragging Nan into the school. I wasn’t sure if she’d still be there,
but—when we were freed—I needed to be sure.”

“That horrible bear took me
into the school, but then the building started to come down around us.”

“I found her in the hallway
outside the cafeteria. The bear was dead, killed in the collapse. Nan was
trapped under a steel beam.”

“I thought I was going to
die, but once Brody found me, he wouldn’t even leave to get help. He just
started lifting the debris off until he could pull me out from under the
beam—a regular knight in shining armor.” Nan beamed at Brody.

Mina knew that look. She’d
seen it plenty of times on her best friend’s face. Smitten. And for some
reason, Mina didn’t feel a pang of jealousy. Her best friend would never
intentionally try and fall for Brody. In fact, Nan tried to stay as far away
from him as she could, but they were friends. It seemed like, if Mina let it,
and without the Story pushing them, they might become more on their own.
Without Brody being lured to fall for her.

Brody blushed at Nan’s
comments and met Mina’s eyes, swallowing nervously. Mina just smiled and gave a
slight nod in understanding.

Who was she to try and stand
in the way of love, especially when it could happen between the two people she
cared about most? Besides, she’d just agreed to sacrifice her happily ever
after, so theirs might be possible.

The dark cloud of her
soon-coming demise loomed over her, and she couldn’t help but feel sad.

Ever noticed and came over.
“Do you want me to dump him in the nearest lake?”

Mina chuckled. “No, I think
this is their happy ending that I’ve been too selfish to see. They deserve each
other. I think they could be happy, if I just stepped out of the way.”

“You can’t really be
serious.” Ever groaned.

“No, I think I am,” Mina
admitted. “I think I’ve been taking away his choice and making him like me, and
I’ve done terrible things to them on accident. I see that now. I’m not a nice
person, Ever.”

“That’s bull. You are about
the sappiest and nicest person I know. You can be a bit lame at times, but
you’re always nice. It’s why I love hating you.” Ever turned and gave her a
goofy grin.