Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (11 page)

“You don’t know that.” Nan tried to
soothe Ever.

Ever sniffed loudly. “It doesn’t matter.
I don’t matter. I see that now.”

“What an awful thing to say about
yourself,” Mina said.

“Naw, it’s the truth. I can’t compete
with you. Never have been able to, never will,” Ever mumbled.

Mina’s mouth dropped open at the
melancholy compliment.

“Unless you die in a horrible accident.
Then I may have a chance,” Ever quipped.

“Ever, what a horrible thing to say!” Nan
turned to face the girl, her hands in balled fists on her hips. “Y-you…you are
not a nice pixie,” she stuttered out.

“Who said pixies are nice? You have a lot
to learn about our kind. Pixies are never nice.”

Mina, used to Ever’s barbs, intervened.
“Nan, it’s okay. She doesn’t really mean it.”

“Oh, stick up for yourself, Mina. How can
you let her talk to you that way?” Nan shook with anger.

Mina had to pull her aside and whisper to
her. “Because deep down, beneath all of that angst is actually a sweet girl who
saved our lives…if you remember. She came here following love, and I destroyed
that. She has a right to be angry.” Ever watched them with distrustful eyes. It
was easy to see how much she wanted to hear what was being said.

“Fine,” Nan agreed grudgingly, but she
confronted Ever, pointing her finger at the pixie’s chest. “You’ve been dealt a
low blow with losing Jared. But remember, you’re not the only one to lose
someone they were close to. Mina is my best friend. So you better hold your
tongue around me, or I’ll knock your pretty striped socks off. Got it?”

Ever looked taken aback and, for a
moment, both Nan and Mina thought they were in for a pixie tantrum. Instead,
she smiled and her eyes scrunched up in laughter. “Deal.” Ever thrust out her
hand to shake.

Nan’s raised an eyebrow and rubbed her
fingers over her chin as if she were debating. “Pinky promise?”

Ever rolled her eyes. “That’s so dumb.”
Nan looked a little hurt at her words, but Ever saw and changed her tune. “How
about Pixie promise?” The wind kicked up as her invisible wings started to beat
in excitement.

***

They finally ended up at Lacey’s, a small
boutique with prom and wedding dresses. The consultant assigned to Mina kept
giving her disgusted looks.

“What’s her problem?” Mina asked when the
lady hurried away quickly.

Nan grimaced and made an apologetic face,
but didn’t say anything.

Mina looked to Ever, and the girl
shrugged her shoulders before answering. “You kinda stink.”

Horrified, she looked down at her filthy shoes
and then checked her reflection in the full-length mirror. There was a smear of
who-knows-what across her t-shirt. Her hair was a complete mess, her face had a
scratch on it, and her neck was rubbed raw and discolored.

“I’m so sorry. I should have listened and
let you go home,” Nan said sadly.

Mina stared at her reflection and started
laughing. She laughed so long and hard that eventually Ever and Nan joined in.
She truly looked like a rag tag dirty mouse.

“It doesn’t matter. I hate dress shopping
anyway. Let’s get out of here.” Mina turned to leave and her friends joined
her, leaving the stack of dresses untouched in the dressing room. As they
passed the consultant, Mina swore the woman held her hand over her nose.

***

The summons from the Godmother’s Guild
came by raven later that afternoon at Nan’s apartment. Nan suggested that Mina
just borrow one of her dresses for the ball, but of course Mina insisted on a
shower first before trying any on.

Mina stood under the hot water letting
the heat steam up the mirrors, not caring if she turned Nan’s bedroom into a
sauna. Nan and her mom lived in the penthouse apartment with all of the fixings
and trimmings that could land them in one of those high style magazines. And
unlike Mina’s own mom, Mrs. Taylor didn’t care how long a hot shower she took.

Water cascaded down her face as she stood
under the pounding water and hoped it would soothe her nerves and muscles. Safe
and far away from the scene of the confrontation, the reality that she could’ve
died in the sewer that afternoon was hitting hard. Nan seemed to be still running
on pure adrenaline after the accident. Mina, on the other hand, was falling
apart now that she had a minute to herself. She couldn’t even turn the shower
off her, hands were trembling so badly. She wrapped herself in the terrycloth guest
bathrobe and stood in front of the large bathroom mirror. The mirrors were so thoroughly
steamed up, there was hardly a reflection.

Mina brushed her hand across the mirror
to clear a spot to see herself. She picked up a borrowed comb and began to run
it through her long brown hair, taking extra care with the snarls. Until she
saw something that made her drop the comb in the sink. The clatter echoed in
the steamy room.

Mina grasped the collar of her robe and took
a few deep breaths. Maybe it had just been her imagination. But she could swear
her reflection had started to fade out.

“Get a grip,” she told herself.

A rapping at the door pulled her
attention away—at least for the moment. Nan popped her head into the
bathroom. “So, um, you have a visitor.”

“Here?”

Nan was beaming and having a hard time
keeping her excitement in. “This is the coolest thing ever to happen to me. I
mean you. I mean—oh, just get out here.”

Mina walked out of the bathroom, pulling
the robe tighter around herself. After what she thought she saw in the mirror,
she really didn’t want any more surprises. Nan had run back to her sliding
glass door and opened it up to reveal a very large black raven sitting on the
patio railing. In its mouth was a gold envelope.

“That has your name on it,” Nan said,
entirely too eager and excited about all this.

Seeing the bird and the note sent shivers
of trepidation down her spine. Mina had no desire to go anywhere near the bird.
But neither Ever nor Nan seemed to be scared of the fowl, so she approached
with caution. Sure enough, her name was scrawled across the front in cursive
script. Mina had no idea how to actually retrieve the letter. But just when she
was about to reach for it, the raven opened up its mouth and dropped the letter
on the ground. Then it started to flap its wings and lift into the air.

Mina stepped back in fright,
instinctively holding her hands over her head to protect herself as the bird
flew towards her. One minute it was flying, the next it had transformed midair
into an impossibly small Yorkie and landed on her shoulder. It gently began to
butt its head against her cheek, demanding attention.

She laughed in relief as the shape
shifter began to lick her face profusely. This was the Baldander that lived at
the Godmother’s Guild! He hopped a few times and then jumped into the air again,
transforming into a dragon.

Nan gasped behind her.

“Hello, Anders,” Mina laughed.

“What is it?” Nan asked, coming outside
to pet the dragon.

“It’s a shape shifter,” Ever explained.
“Normally, they don’t show themselves to people. This one must be defective.”

“Or he’s got good taste in friends,” Mina
answered with a mischievous grin.

Nan scooped up the temporarily forgotten
letter and handed it to Mina. “Who do you think it’s from? Is it from your
Godmother? I still think that is the coolest thing to have a fairy Godmother.
You deserve it so much. I’m actually a little jealous.”

Mina knew it would be from Constance
since Anders was the one to deliver the message. She was, after all, the only
teenager in history without a phone. The summons made sense…sorta. As long as
the Baldander could keep a news crew or passerby from noticing his shape shifting
from a raven to a dragon, blowing puffs of fire and lying around near the top
of the building.

She opened the envelope and read the
simple message.

Come
quick to GMRC. We have answers.

The
Baldander will lead you through the waterways.

~
Constance

It wasn’t the news she wanted, but it
couldn’t be ignored. Mina headed back inside to get dressed. Ander voiced his
opinion at being abandoned outside with a tiny roar.

“What does it say?” Ever asked, crossing
her arms with evident worry.

She tossed the letter on Nan’s pink
bedspread. It wasn’t like it was a secret. Ever read the note and looked up at
her. “Do you want backup?”

Nan was just now reading over the same
note. She turned and placed her hands on her hips. “Of course she wants backup.
We’re not giving her a choice.” She linked her arm through Ever’s and gave Mina
her try-and-talk-me-out-of-it stare.

“Fine,” Mina muttered. She grabbed a pair
of Nan’s pants and a blue top that was set out, throwing Anders a stern look. “I
sure hope you know your way in.”

Anders flew in happy circles as they
headed downstairs to get a cab. It took some time and a lot of bribing but they
finally convinced him to turn invisible and get into the vehicle. But once in,
he scampered around the back of the cab. The girls kept squealing when he ran
across their laps or legs and—of course—they received odd looks
from the driver.

Mina hadn’t had time to dry her hair, but
by the time the taxi dropped them off at the old Green Mill Recycling Center,
it was dry. The taxi driver wouldn’t let them go off by themselves without some
significant warnings about being out alone when it was getting dark.

“
I’m
the reason you don’t go out at night,” Ever snapped.

The elderly taxi driver took one look at
her heavy eye makeup and black clothes and promptly closed his mouth, took the
money, and drove off.

The last time Mina had been here, Jared
had led her around the back of the building to a cellar door and broken in. She
felt the memory in the pit of her stomach. But Anders led them
away
from the building and toward the
water’s edge where a large caution sign stood. Something about unstable
terrain. The girls held onto each other as they made their way down the rocky
embankment.

Anders, visible again, shifted into an
otter, dove under the water, and disappeared.

“I really hope he doesn’t expect us to
follow him,” Nan asked. “Do you know how to get in?”

Ever shook her head. “Do I look like
Godmother material? Ha, no. I brought Nix here, but I prefer to stay away from
them.”

“What about the front door? What would
happen if we knocked?” Nan asked.

“I’m not sure. There was another way in
that Jared knew about, but they closed it off once he became—you
know—evil. I’d say follow the Baldander,” Mina answered.

Ever looked around. “Something’s not
right. There are more wards in place than last time. She pointed up at the
branches of the nearest copse of trees. Mina noticed how still this grouping
was compared to the others.

“That means there’s a ward, like a
warning system in place. Like motion detectors. If they get disturbed, the
Godmothers will know,” Ever explained.

The ground suddenly rumbled underneath
their feet, and the water began to recede, away from the embankment.

Five
feet—ten—fifteen—twenty—thirty. The water continued to
move and part, as if two invisible hands were pushing it back to reveal a hatch
in the middle of the lake floor. Anders popped out of the wall of water on the
left and danced excitedly by the door.

“I guess that’s our cue,” Mina said,
taking off toward the entrance. Nan and Ever followed closely behind. The
closer they came to the metal hatch, the higher the wall of water looked. It
was eerily similar to a biblical story, and Mina slowed down to study the river
carefully. If it was released back, it could literally crush them beneath the
water and they’d most certainly drown. But she couldn’t focus on that. She
needed to reach the door and make it down the hatch before whatever magic was
working stopped.

Nan slipped on the riverbed and fell on
her rear. Anders’s movements became more frantic, but she promptly got up and
ran for the door.

Mina made it first and turned the hatch wheel,
but it wouldn’t budge. “Ever help!”

Both girls tried to turn it together.
Nothing happened.

Water started to spill slowly back into
the lakebed, soaking their shoes.

Nan, muddy and covered in sand, reached
the wheel and tried as well. Anders looked confused and upset. “It’s stuck!”
Nan yelled out. Fear was all over her face as she gauged the distance back to
shore. The water wall clearly wouldn’t hold much longer. “We need to run for
it!”

Ever shook her head, her face red from
exertion with all the straining. “We won’t make it.”

“What are you talking about? You can
fly!” Nan choked out.

“I’m not leaving either of you!” Ever
screamed. “Back up now!”