Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #5)

The laser threw off the glamour. The griffin began to stir. A wing unfolded, and its head turned, revealing a black beady eye. It blinked right at her.

“Griffin!” Mina squealed and grabbed Ever’s hand. Ever snatched the laser pointer and shone it at the closest wolf, who didn’t take too kindly to her laser attack. It lost the glamour fast, shook out its fur, and howled into the sky.

People backed away in terror, not understanding how the wolf had appeared in the middle of the stopped carousel. A child stood right in front of the wolf, waiting to get on it, when it changed shape. Now the little girl was screaming.

The wolf lunged for her.

Right before it snapped its jaws around the girl, Mina saw a flash of red hair. Someone grabbed the wolf from behind and flung it back into the slowly shifting griffin. Nix handed the girl back to her mom and told her to run.

“Nix!” Ever shouted and jumped up and down.

“Run!” He pushed Nan and Charlie toward the exit as mass hysteria ensued. Everyone entering the ride tried to jump the security fence or run out the exit. The carousel creaked and groaned under the weight of all the Fae beasts as they slowly revealed themselves.

Someone in green appeared next to Nix. Ferah, knives drawn, fended off a griffin as it tried to snatch a young girl and haul her into the air.

Nan couldn’t get out the exit, so she went to the fence and lifted Charlie over it and into Mina’s arms. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know.”

She tried to swing her leg over the fence, but a bear in half-human form yanked her back. She screamed, and Mina saw her blonde head only for a second before it disappeared back toward the carousel full of monsters.

“Nan!” Mina yelled with Charlie in her arms. She tried to hand her brother to Ever, but Charlie screamed and lashed out until Mina dropped him. He wasted no time running toward the entrance to go in after Nan.

Ever was already flying over the fence to find Nan as Mina ran after her brother. Most of the Fae had scattered into the fairgrounds, and the griffins took to the air screeching a hunter’s cry. Mina jumped onto the almost empty platform and saw the mangled gold bars and posts. The carousel was lopsided now, broken into two. She ran to the back and saw the bear running away, Nan tossed over its shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Charlie was right on their tail and didn’t slow down as the bear ran into the house of mirrors.

“No!” Mina cried.

Charlie disappeared inside after them.

Chapter 7

Mina slowed just before entering the building. Inside, cheesy calliope music blared, but over it she could just hear Nan’s angry voice telling the bear off.

There was a loud roar, and then Nan’s voice cut out mid-sentence.

Mina’s heart clenched. She darted around and entered the maze through the exit, hoping to cut them off. Mina slipped into the back hall and came face to face with her own reflection. She almost cried out but held in her scream. With her back to the wall, she pressed on, trying to make her way through the maze.

Wasn’t this how it always was in horror movies? Hero and bad guy duke it out in a mirror maze. She could have rolled her eyes at the irony of what was happening, but she couldn’t even blame the Fates, because she doubted the Fae bear had seen those movies.

A noise to her left made her freeze. It came from another mirror, behind it maybe. Mina wanted to call out for Nan or Charlie, but again, movie self-preservation told her to hold her tongue.

She made it past two more turns and didn’t see or hear anything else. The floor squeaked beneath her foot, and she froze. Had she given away her position? She should have made it to the middle of the maze by now. Where had the bear gone?

A noise came from ahead, and Mina ducked behind a self-standing wave mirror and listened. She heard footsteps—light and close together. Mina moved from behind the mirror.

Charlie stood in front of her, wooden popgun hefted over his shoulder like a weapon.

“Did you find her?”

He shook his head no.

“Where did they go? I came in the exit.” Mina didn’t think she missed anything, so she continued toward the front where Charlie had come in. It would’ve been easy with all the twists and turns to have missed them. Maybe the bear was hiding, and she or Charlie had walked right past them.

But then Mina thought she heard scuffling, and this time it didn’t sound like it was behind the mirrors. It sounded like it was under them.

She dropped to her hands and knees and pressed her ear to the floor. The sound was clearer. Something large was crawling under the floor.

“Charlie, can you go find Ever?”

He shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Please! We need help.”

He didn’t look happy, but he went running out the front entrance. After she was sure Charlie had gone, Mina backtracked to the spot where she’d made the floor squeak and searched for a trapdoor. She didn’t want her brother to know she knew where the door was. She didn’t want him anywhere near that angry Fae bear.

Mina felt along the floor until she found the edge and the metal clasp. She slowly lifted the trapdoor, expecting something large to spring out at her. When nothing terrifying immediately attacked, she opened the door and rested it back on the floor. The darkness under the house of mirrors almost caused her to chicken out.

She swung her legs over the edge and dropped down to the ground. There wasn’t a lot of room below, but she immediately saw a large wheel. The fair was mobile, so the whole house was on wheels. As she let her eyes adjust, she could see a lot of light leaking in through the shabby tarp wrapped around the wheel bed.

She crawled over to the next section. Her heart sank when she noticed a large tear in the tarp where the bear had made a hasty escape. She backtracked and climbed back into the house of mirrors and called out for Charlie. When she pulled herself up out of the floor, she saw Teague—not just one Teague, many Teagues.

His reflection appeared over and over among the mirrors, each one smirking at her in unison.

Mina stood tall and tried to stare down the reflection closest to her.

“She’s gone.”

“No, she’s not,” Mina argued.

“You’ve lost.”

“The game is only beginning.”

“I’m taking each of your friends one by one, Mina. Like I promised I would. Even your Godmother friends are no match for me.”

“Let Nan go!”

“Why do you demand? Don’t you realize I’m not that unreasonable?”

A loud crashing noise sounded outside, and the floor rumbled below them.

“What was that?” she asked, terror filling her soul.

“Why don’t we go see.” He waved his hand, and the building exploded outward. Pieces of mirror shards plumed up, sparkling in the air like glitter, but none touched her because Teague placed a protective shield around them.

Mina looked out and saw people lying on the ground around her, hurt from the blast—men, women, and children. Farther up, she saw the giant troll, the same one that had been captured deep underground in the Godmothers’ Guild. It was now destroying her school. Before, half-encased in the wall, his size had been impossible to tell. The troll’s back had beams and pipe from the Green Mill Recycling Center melded into it, which gave him a dinosaur-like appearance.

Someone screamed, “Godzilla!”