Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #5)

Nix scowled. “There could have been another way.” He reached for Mina’s arm, but she wrenched it free and took a step back.

“I just lost my mother,” Mina hissed between clenched teeth. “I almost lost all of you. I’m not about to lose my brother. He’s the only family I have left. Don’t judge me. You would have done the same thing, if you were in my position.”

Nix stared at her, his eyes filled with pity. “No, I wouldn’t have.”

“I guess that makes you better than me.” She didn’t really mean it, but it was easy to lash out when she was in so much pain. She stormed inside, away from Nix’s pity and Ever’s shock.

Mina stormed up the stairs to her room. Locking the door, she pressed her back to it and tried to hold in the sobs that threatened to tear her chest apart.

She moved toward her bed, trying to ignore the plethora of mirrors that now surrounded her room. She pulled back the covers, and something soft slid to the floor, landing with a thunk. Mina picked up the petal dress she had worn to the ball the other night and felt along the side for the hidden pocket. Her hand reached in and pulled out the dagger.

She dropped it to the floor and stared at it. She’d forgotten that she slipped it in there. It wasn’t the sight of the dagger that startled her. It was the rust colored spots of Teague’s dried blood on it.

She wiped it off as best as she could, placed the dagger in her bedside table, and shut the drawer. Mina crawled under the comforter and rolled over to stare across the room and into the mirror that faced her bed.

He was winning. The Story was winning, and she was losing the will to fight. She heard knocking on her bedroom door but ignored it. She needed to mourn, to sink into her feelings and feel the pain, the betrayal, and the anger. Anger at her mother, anger at herself. When she had thought through every scenario, it always came down to what was best for her brother.

She was down to two hours when a crazy idea came to her. She climbed out of bed and got dressed. This time, she was going over-prepared. She changed into jeans, boots, a white t-shirt, and her olive green jacket. In her backpack, she loaded food, water, and a flashlight. She looked at her nightstand, debating on whether to bring the dagger. She needed a weapon, but having one on her might make her life forfeit sooner than she had planned. When she was as packed as she could be, she grabbed the seam ripper from the top of her dresser.

There was more to using the seam ripper than just opening up a gate between the planes. With enough willpower, maybe she could direct where it opened a gate. How else could she explain her fall from the tower to land in Wilhelm Grimm’s hospital room? Or how Queen Maeve was able to zone in on her and show up wherever Mina was with the seam ripper.

Now, it was Mina’s turn to do some popping-in-uninvited of her own.

She held the silver lipstick-sized tube and clicked the small gem. The Fates. Take me to the Fates.

The seam ripper glowed, and she drew a large oval, creating a gate between her world and the Fae one outside of the mirror-circle. The portal glowed, and she tried to look through to the other side.

Worry and doubt wedged themselves in the bottom of her stomach, but Mina pushed those feelings aside. She needed help, and she wasn’t going to sit back and let her friends do all the work.

Taking a deep breath, Mina closed her eyes and stepped through the gate.

Chapter 13

It was night, and Mina was not surrounded by the normal sweet aroma of the Fae plane, but by an odorous sulfur-like smell that burned her nose and made her gag.

“Ugh.” Mina covered her nose with her shirt. Had she ended up in the wrong place? Was she even on the Fae plane? She would have doubted it, but she looked up at the night sky and saw continually moving stars above. The Fae plane could be as fantastic as stories made it out to be, but it was also as deadly—with sea witches, giants, trolls, ogres and more. She couldn’t let her guard down for one second.

She pulled her small flashlight out of her backpack and began walking. Mina didn’t get far before she slipped and sunk into mud. She struggled to regain her footing on the path, but then the very next step, she was knee deep in the mud again.

She flashed the light around in an arc to see that she was surrounded by swamp and curly green grass. Maybe it hadn’t worked? Maybe trying to direct the seam ripper had failed. She wasn’t anywhere near the Fates’ palace. She was in the middle of a stinking swamp.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. The odd chirping and grunting noises of the swamp creatures suddenly stopped. All was silent, except the slushing and sucking noises she made as she tried to free herself from the mud and get onto the path. Once in the grass, she froze and crouched low, listening in fear as she tried to silence her frantic breathing.

After a minute of silence, Mina stood up and carefully continued her trek through the swamp grass. A squelch and popping sound followed each of her steps, but something warned her to move, to run. Mina tried, but suddenly slid waist-deep into water. She tried to wade through it, but she was too late.

Lights exploded around her, blinding her. She was unable to blink or even cover her eyes from the onslaught of the bright light. But that was their way of keeping her from seeing them.

She could hear voices, see shadows move beyond the light, but she couldn’t identify her captors.

“So you have returned, have you?” A woman’s voice echoed with authority through the swamp. “Do you see the mess you have caused, child?”

Mina couldn’t see her, but she recognized the voice of Queen Maeve. The balls of light dimmed, and she could see the queen standing in front of her. Her dark brown dress lacked the finer adornments and was a sharp contrast to the shimmering silver colors she preferred. Her hair was plaited in a long simple braid down her back. King Lucian came up next to her in similar clothes in earth tones.

Mina suspected it was to help camouflage them in the swamps. She wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling that they weren’t here by choice. They were hiding.

The hold on Mina’s body lessened, and without the support of the power holding her in place, she slipped and fell into the muddy water, barely catching herself before her head went under. She stood up to face the Fates and tried to keep her body from shaking with the cold.

“I came to ask for help.”

Queen Maeve barked a derisive laugh. “Help! I blame you for this.” She waved her hand to the swamp around her. “This is our home now, thanks to you. All you had to do was stay on the human plane, never let him cross back over. But now we’re doomed.” Her regal face crumpled, and Lucian slipped his arms around his wife.

“Now, now, darling. Everything will be alright,” he whispered softly to her.

“What happened?” Mina asked. “Why are you in the swamp?”

“Because of our son,” Lucian answered. “He’s too powerful. Even our armies. He controls them all now, the giants, griffins, ogres, trolls. We dare not go up against him and what’s left of our royal guard alone. This is all that is still loyal to us.”

The Fae light around her dimmed. Beyond the Fates, about twenty or so soldiers from the palace stood in the nearby reeds. Their uniforms and armor were covered with mud and starting to rust. They looked tired and worn out. Not fit to storm the palace and fight Teague. Among them, she recognized Captain Plaith. But their numbers were dismal.