Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #4)
Chapter 1
She was drowning. Her fingers were numb with cold. An eerie green light surrounded her while her lungs burned in agony. Something dark and ominous swam toward her through the murky water. Mina kicked, swimming to the surface to evade the approaching being, but no matter how many times she tried, she never got any closer to the surface.
And she knew that tonight in this dream, like all the other nights before, she wouldn’t make it.
It was a memory being played out over and over in her head. A reenactment of her memory on the Fae plane fighting for her life against the sea witch. Every night it plagued her subconscious as she fought against the nightmare, but there was no eluding what was coming next.
She hated this part of the dream. The monster’s strong hand grasped her ankle. Inwardly, she screamed, using all of her strength to kick against the thing grabbing her leg. She kept her eyes pinched closed and refused to look at the beast. She could feel its strong hands pull her down as its touch moved up her legs, to her waist, and then to her shoulders. The sea witch stroked her cheek, trying to convince her to open her eyes and gaze upon its hideous form.
But Mina refused. One thing she had learned was that sometimes she could control things in a dream… like holding her breath for near eternity.
“Come to me, Mina,” the familiar dream voice coaxed as slithery hands reached under her chin and pulled her face to mere inches from the monster’s. Mina shivered in revulsion and fear.
“Why do you fight me when you can join me?” The male voice, though underwater, rang clear as day in her mind. “Accept me.”
She couldn’t help it. Her eyes started to open and she met the gray eyes of Jared. Her heart soared for a split second before she realized her mistake once again. The eyes weren’t gray—they never stayed gray for long. Just a trick of her imagination before they shifted and changed into the deep blue eyes of… Teague.
“Have it your way,” Teague sneered. Then he dragged her down into the never-ending depths of her dream, to her death. As always.
Every scenario and every sequence Mina tried to play out always ended with this scene, and just when she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she would wake gasping for breath and crying.
She had fallen for Jared, and—because of her stupidity—he was gone. Or the Jared she knew was gone. He was now her mortal enemy, and these dreams were just a reminder of what she had done and what she would have to face.
Tears trickled down Mina’s cheeks like rain, and she wiped her face on her blue sleep shirt, letting herself mourn her loss. She spent many hours crying in the night, scared to fall back to sleep only to return to the same dream. Instead, she would lie in bed, stare out the window, and wait for the sun to rise signaling a new day.
Her seventeenth birthday came and went with nothing more than a cake and a present from her mom and brother. They tried to cheer her up, but they knew what she was going through. For her mom had gone through the same thing when her father died. She was mourning the loss of someone she loved. That pain took time to heal. And it couldn’t be rushed.
Each day, it became harder to drag herself out of bed. The alarm clock would go off at seven o’clock on the dot, and she’d listen to the weather and traffic report on some nameless AM channel. She’d stare at the ceiling and wish for her limbs to move, but wishing on anything other than a falling star, was merely that—wishing.
Her mourning turned to terror as the dreams persisted week after week. She knew it was better to pretend they didn’t occur each night, so she wouldn’t worry her mom.
The door opened and her mom, Sara, walked into her room wearing khaki pants and a navy polo, her signature Happy Maids uniform. She stopped in front of Mina’s nightstand and gently pushed the snooze button.
“Kill me now.” Mina groaned and pulled the comforter back over her head.
“Mina, it can’t be that bad.” Her mom yanked on the coverlet and pulled it completely off the bed.
Her mom couldn’t understand. It was the dreaded English presentation where she had to give an oral report on a famous author. All the students in her class had to pull a name out of a glass fishbowl. Nan had been ecstatic when she drew J.K. Rowling, and of course—because Mina’s epic unfortunate luck would have it—she pulled out the Brothers Grimm.
“Yes, it is. It’s worse than bad. It’s horrible. I have to talk about my… however many greats it is, because I can’t remember grandfather and uncle. Not to mention I have to lie about their whole lives. They weren’t traveling the world collecting stories for their book. What a crock! They were saving mankind from evil Fae and trying to permanently close the gates to the Fae plane. But if I said that, I’d get an F and a trip to the school’s counselor.” Mina rolled over to her stomach to hide her head beneath the pillow. “Can’t you call in and say that I’m sick or something? Or how about dead? Yeah, dead would be good,” she mumbled.
“Now, Mina, stop it,” her mom said softly. The mattress dipped as she sat on the edge. “I know this hasn’t been easy for you. It’s a lot for a girl your age, but you’ve handled it with such strength and determination. I know you can go in there and give a simple presentation…while leaving out all of the important details.”
“What if I just sneak in a few juicy tidbits?” Mina rolled over and forced a smile at her mother. “Can I tell them how they had to cross-dress to complete Hansel and Gretel?”
“Absolutely not, Wilhelmina Grimm. You are just asking for more trouble.”
“Okay, what about my name? Can I finally tell someone I’m a Grimm?”
“What’s the point of hiding when every Fae in the world knows we’re here? I mean, we are in a magic house.” Mina sat up, crossed her legs, and gave her mom the dreaded teenager stare, the—you know I’m right—stare.
Her mom tucked her hair behind her ear. A small golden bracelet dangled from her wrist, and two charms now hung on the bracelet. The first, a small gold elephant, was a charm of forgetting. Her Fae Godmothers had put it on last year to help her mom forget about her brother when he’d been kidnapped by a Stiltskin. The second charm was new. A small golden bell dangled next to the forgetting charm, and Mina knew she would have to ask Mrs. Wong about it when she saw her next.
“No, Mina, you can’t tell anyone about your last name. I know we’re no longer hidden from the Fae, but we can’t risk bringing more trouble down on us.”
“Fine, I’ll go to school and give the report, but don’t expect me to get an A on it or anything,” Mina said. “I hate standing in front of people and giving speeches.”
Her mom leaned over kissed her head. “Okay, but you better at least pull a B minus. After all… you don’t want to disappoint your ancestors.”
Mina scrunched up her face. “Sure, whatever.”
Her mom left the room and the door closed with a soft click. Mina got out of the huge four-poster bed and made her way over to the dresser. It still took some getting used to, the large house, which had apparently belonged to all of the Grimms before her and changed according to the new owner’s needs.