Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #5)

She closed her eyes and tried to turn away as the troll’s large club rose in the air and came down right over the cafeteria. The ceiling groaned as it caved in.

“Stop! There could be people inside.”

“Why do you care about this place or these people, Mina? I know for a fact that you don’t like school, and most—if not all—of these students have called you names. I know the resentment you have for them. I’m doing you a favor.”

“It doesn’t matter how bad people treat you. It’s not worth hurting them.”

Teague stared at her, and she didn’t back down. “Interesting choice of words. Are you saying that to save your own skin?”

The glowing bubble Teague placed around them grew brighter, and Mina gasped as her feet left the ground. He hovered over the school, bringing her closer, so she could see the devastation. The troll had moved on to the gym.

The higher they flew, the more destruction she could see. The Ferris wheel had people on it, and one of the giants was spinning the wheel. People screamed inside the cars as they swung precariously.

“Make it stop!”

Constance appeared out of the crowd and ran toward the giant. She started to sing, and a few seconds later, the giant stopped shaking and spinning the Ferris wheel. His eyes got droopy, and he tottered back and forth. He let go of the wheel and fell backward, crashing into the already destroyed and abandoned dunk tank. Teague frowned at the Godmother and shrugged his shoulder. “She can’t sing forever. As soon as she stops, he’ll wake up again.”

Other Fae from the Guild were running toward the Ferris wheel. Ken Wong stood at the operating board, trying to get the wheel to work. The operator had run away, and they couldn’t get the cages open. He signaled to one of the larger Fae who looked like he was part lion. With a loud roar, he ripped the door off the hinge of the first car and helped four terrified teens out. The lion sprung on top of the empty cage and jumped onto the cart above. He pulled the door off, grabbed the first girl, and jumped down thirty feet to land on his hind paws. As soon as he deposited her next to Mr. Wong, the lion went back for the next student.

Screams came from the car, but the lion was able to get the kids in the car after that to come willingly with him as he jumped again. Another human wearing a carnival uniform came out of the crowd and shifted into a cat. He scaled the other side of the Ferris wheel and mimicked the first rescuer. She couldn’t be certain, but Mina had a feeling that this Fae who had jumped in to help wasn’t part of the Guild, but a good Samaritan.

“Cats always land on their feet. Well, we’ll see about that.” He made a motion as if to stop them, but Mina put herself in front of them.

“Please, no more.”

He stopped and smiled. “Do that again. I like it when you beg.”

She would have too—except that, as her gaze drifted down through their floating bubble, Mina caught sight of Charlie. He stared up at them from the ground, the only one not running away in the mass hysteria.

But her hesitation and downward glance made Teague notice her brother as well.

“Ah, the little Grimm,” he said. “We really don’t need two of you trying to kill me. I think one is enough.” Teague signaled a red-brown griffin, and it dove toward her brother.

“No!” Mina gasped as the griffin screeched, his claws extended for the kill.

But the griffin didn’t make contact. Charlie opened his mouth and screamed in anger. A loud, shrieking, piercing noise—so painful that Mina clapped her hands over her ears. The griffin was hit with a force so powerful, it knocked the beast over, and it crashed into the school.

“A siren? And he’s quite powerful for one so young. No wonder he’s been so quiet. That takes lots of control. I see you’re shocked as well. Somebody’s been keeping secrets,” he taunted in a sing song voice.

“Hurts doesn’t it, when those closest to you lie to you?” Teague leaned close to speak over her shoulder. “You can’t trust those Godmothers.”

Charlie was shaking and trembling. His little body couldn’t handle the power that he’d just unleashed, and he fell to his knees on the ground and started to convulse.

“Please help him,” she cried out. “Let me go to him.”

Teague didn’t respond. He simply stared around him, taking in the destruction. “He’ll recover, Mina. He just needs time. See? He’s already trying to get back up and keep fighting. You’ve got to admire that in one so young.”

Sure enough, Charlie had made it back to his feet. He wiped white foam from his mouth with the back of his hand and turned his gaze up to them, furious. His eyes glowed with anger. Charlie turned his rage toward Teague and let forth another ear piercing shriek. The protective bubble around them cracked but didn’t break.

“Too bad, I think the first attack wore him out. Now I wonder what spurred on his rage? Oh, I know. The death of his mother, perhaps?”

This time, Charlie just fell to the ground—with no convulsion. He slumped his head and appeared to be crying.

A large ogre with a bulbous nose came walking by with Ever in his hand. She kept trying to fly away, but he pinched her wings between two of his meaty fingers. When he gave a tug on them, Ever cried out in fury and pain. Mina remembered what Ever said about ogres and how they liked to eat pixie wings. He tugged again, and she screamed.

Mina cringed.

Claire strode into the middle of the fairgrounds with Grey Tail dragging Brody forcefully behind. She already looked ten years younger, and she kept touching Brody’s face longingly. She had already taken a few years of his life and she was begging for more. So much was happening so fast, and Mina felt absolutely powerless.

Reid and Temple overpowered Constance. Temple put a golden gloved hand over the muse’s mouth to stop her singing. The giant slowly started to wake up, and the Fae hadn’t gotten all of the passengers out of the Ferris wheel.

Mina watched, helpless, as Nix ran and threw himself on Charlie just as Claire and her wolves circled him. There was little Nix could do to save him. He was fully human now. Mina turned in a circle, tears falling freely from her face as she watched her school continue to crumble beneath the onslaught of the troll.

Police were arriving, and ambulances lined the outskirts of the fairground, but they were hesitant to move in because of the giant that stomped toward their cars.

Mina had lost the war.

Utterly lost.

She wasn’t a general or a fighter or a leader. She was a clumsy seventeen-year-old girl. She couldn’t be responsible for all of these people dying. She didn’t want to be the reason for so much tragedy.

“You said you weren’t unreasonable,” Mina choked out softly.

“I’m not.”

“Then let’s reason. What would it take for you to stop this massacre and leave my friends alone?”

Teague looked around, his hands held wide open. “You want me to stop destroying this… and the people who hurt you?”

“Yes, yes I do. And I want you to release my friends, all of them, even the Godmothers. What would it take for you to do that and to never bother them again?”

“I think you know the answer to that, Mina.” Teague made their bubble fly higher and higher into the sky until they were way up in the air surrounded by clouds. “There are only two things I want. If you give them to me, I’ll stop everything and let your friends live.”