Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #4)

“That doesn’t make us friends,” Ever snapped. “I’ll have to agree with Mina on this one. It’s all your fault.”

“What do you two not understand? I was just following orders.” The elf girl flung out her hands and pointed back to the burning building. “I was trying to prevent this. This is what the Guild does. Help Fae.”

“I want to know whose orders.” Nix spoke up. “If everyone is going to start throwing blame on the powers that be, they’d better have a name.”

Ferah’s lips pressed closed and she avoided eye contact. Not willing to share that information.

“Oh don’t get all secretive on us now,” Ever lashed out. “There’s no time like the middle of a life or death situation to hash things out.”

“She was following my orders.” Constance came up from down by the waterfront. Her white hair was filled with soot, and her dress was burned along the side. She looked like she’d been in a battle.

“We knew this day would come, and this is not the first or final battle. Teague attacked the Guild first because we are the strongest of the Fae. We’re a collective, a mini army, whereas the rest of the Fae are scattered across the world. We were the only ones that could stand in his way of destroying your world. It’s why he attacked all of the other Guilds twenty years ago. But then, he wasn’t strong enough to destroy ours.” Constance looked toward the river.

“This time, he was. He ripped right through our wards, and the giants and trolls made quick work of bringing the building down on us. Knocking out the gas lines. A lot of Fae gave their lives to help create a protective shield to hold them back while others escaped. But they couldn’t hold it back, and when the shield fell, the gas line blew.”

“What now?” Ever asked, wiping her eyes with the corner of her black jacket.

“We get the injured to safety. We have to hide all evidence of us ever being here. A few will stay behind to keep this area cloaked as well as trying to keep us hidden from the police. Also, someone will have to fix this.” She gestured to Brody, and Mina gasped.

“No. You can’t.”

“I’m sorry, Mina. But we have too. He’s seen too much.”

“He helped. He was saving lives.” She tried to champion Brody’s cause, but he just gave her arm a squeeze.

“We told you, you could have one.” Constance answered.

“Yeah, well, your rules suck. And I don’t think I’m going to follow them anymore.” Mina grabbed Brody’s arm and tried to lead him away as fast as she could.

But Ferah walked up to Brody and, in a split second, placed her hand on his forehead. A slight glow appeared around him, then dissipated.

“No!” Mina swatted her hand away and looked to Brody. He eyes weren’t focusing. “Brody! Brody, answer me. It’s me. Mina.”

He didn’t say a word.

Constance motioned to someone down by the waterfront, and a woman started softly singing. She must have been another muse, like Constance, for when she sang, fire sprang up. In seconds, the dead were engulfed in flames, and Mina cried out.

Her Godmother was no more. It hurt. To not be able to say good-bye. Mei had done so much for her and her family. Protecting her, watching out for her, and causing a bit of mischief at the same time. How was she going to tell her mom about this?

Constance turned to Ferah and Nix. “Get the last of the Fae loaded up. We need to get to our backup location before the dark prince comes back for us.”

Nix nodded and ran over to one of the Fae loading trucks. He jumped up onto the back of the truck bed and began getting the people settled in as comfortably as he could.

“Where are you going? Where are you taking Nix?” Mina asked, feeling like she was being abandoned.

“We have to get to a safe house. I have to protect our people. I’m sorry, Mina. But right now, they are my first priority.”

“You’re abandoning me? You are the one to start all of this and now you’re walking away.”

“Look at the truck and tell me what you see.”

She scanned the back and saw Nix sitting down, pulling a small child into his lap. “Children. I see a lot of women and children.”

Constance nodded her head. “They ran while the men fought off Teague’s army and tried to keep the building from collapsing. I have to get them to safety. I can’t let Teague hurt them.”

“I understand,” Mina whispered. Her heart ached for all of the children that lost a loved one or a parent.

Constance was about to head up to the trucks but turned to give her a warning. “Mina, there’s something else you should know.”

She was exhausted and hurting, and she didn’t really want to hear any more news from the GM’s.

“Teague’s goal wasn’t just to attack us. He took something.”

“What was it?” Mina began to chew on her lip in worry. She didn’t need her most dangerous ally to have another huge weapon.

“He stole one of the mirrors from the hall.”

“You mean one of the Grimm mirrors? Whose mirror?”

Constance pushed her glasses up on her nose and gave her a worried look. “Yours.”

Chapter 33

“What?” It was worse than she thought. If Teague had her mirror, there was no way for her to ever surprise him. He could watch her every second of every day. Her stomach rolled, and she turned and slipped her hand into Brody’s unresponsive one. He was still in a memory funk.

In a matter of minutes, the rest of the Fae had cleared the site and were pulling away in the loaded the trucks. Ever, Mina, and Brody watched as five trucks filed in line and drove down an old service road. On their way to who knows where. Nix’s truck was the last to pull out, and he watched them solemnly. When they were about to turn a corner and pass out of sight, Nix stood up and waved goodbye.

Brody snapped out of his coma to raise his arm and salute his best friend. Mina turned and gave him an odd stare. Ever just grinned and rolled her eyes.

“Do you know who I am?” Mina asked, waving her hand in front of Brody’s face.

“Of course I do.” Brody made an amused face and gently pushed her hand down.

“What do you remember?” She tested him.

“Everything.”

“Everything, everything or just—”

“Mina.” Brody reached into his pocket and pulled out a little charm. It was identical to the one Nan had. “I remember everything.”

“How?” She almost started crying in relief.

“Nix slipped it into my pocket in the tunnel and told me to not lose it. And if anything weird happened to just play dumb.”

“But where did Nix get this charm?” Mina asked.

“Why, he stole it.” Ever chimed in. “I watched him swipe it right out of Pandora’s box. You know Nixies have a thing for pretty little baubles. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stole a whole bunch of other stuff from the GMs while he was here.”

“I’m so thankful he did,” Mina cried and gave Brody a hug. Then she turned to Ever. “So what are you going to do now? Why didn’t you go with them, and go into hiding?”

Ever snorted. “Hiding’s not really my thing. And we can’t let Teague get away with this.”