Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (14 page)

It dropped suddenly to clatter on the
blue plate.

The reason it never reached its
destination?

The Grimm in question ceased to exist.

Chapter 14

“He’s gone!” Nix exclaimed. “Where’d he
go?”

Mina couldn’t believe what she’d just seen.
One minute he was there—eating—and the next…he was gone. He’d just
blinked and faded out.

“Did a Reaper get him?” Mina asked,
scared of the reply. She knew personally how dangerous it was when a hunter
from the Fae plane had a Grimm in their sights.

“Negative.” Baynard turned to the other
mouse by the mirror. “Rewind it, please, Thistle.” The little brown mouse
reached up and ran her hands across the glass. The Grimm was once again back in
the frame. Thistle paused the glass by placing both paws over the mirror. They
were able to get a closer look at Leonard, and in his paused state they could
actually see him starting to appear translucent—thinner? Thistle lifted
one paw, and we watched the horrendous scene all over in slow motion. He raised
the fork to his mouth, and this time Mina watched Leonard’s face. He didn’t
look scared; in fact, he didn’t even seem to notice what was happening to him.
He was so focused on the food in front of him, he never saw his own doom.

“What does this mean?” Mina asked. Her
voice sounded anxious even to herself. “This has happened before? How often?”

“Constance, do you mind?” Baynard asked. Mrs.
Colbert held out her arm, and he scampered down onto her hand toward Mina.
“Mina, I know you don’t know me. I’m one of the Guild, and we take our job very
seriously. We are the ones who assign the Godmothers to their Grimms. And
lately, like you just witnessed, they are disappearing.”

“How can you let this happen?” Mina accused
Constance.

“We didn’t know what was happening at
first. Our Godmothers were simply reporting that they couldn’t find their
charges. But when you informed me about seeing Charlie flicker out, I knew it
had to be more. We checked the looking glasses, but they can only hold a few
minutes’ worth of history. All we saw were empty mirrors, frozen in time in the
last place the Grimm was.”

“Do they reappear somewhere else?” Nix
asked.

The mouse shook his head sadly. “All of
our research shows that they’ve just ceased.”

“What do you mean ‘they’ve just ceased’?”
Mina cried out, fearing she already knew the answer.

“They no longer exist. It’s like they are
being erased from time. All we know for sure is that something seems to be following
the Grimms’ line and wiping each of them out,” Thistle explained softly.

“So you’re saying that because Mina is a
Grimm, her branch of the family could be next? That Charlie, her mom, and she
could be in danger of disappearing like that?” Nan pointed to the empty mirror.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Thistle hung her
head.

“But you’re not certain it will target
her family? It’s just a hunch? It could skip over her family entirely?” Nan’s
voice rose in pitch with each question.

“It won’t,” Mina spoke up.

Ever turned to Mina. “It could be a fluke.
Maybe it will stop. There’s no guarantee that the rats are right.”

“They’re not rats. Baynard is part of the
trusted Guild of Fae Godmothers, like me,” Constance spoke up sternly. “We are
doing the best that we can.”

“Well, maybe your best isn’t good enough.
Maybe she needs a new Godmother,” Ever hissed.

“Ever!” Mina warned.

“No, she’s right,” Mei agreed solemnly. “I
don’t know if I’m capable of protecting her. That’s why I pushed for allowing
her friends to be a part of this. She needs help.”

“It’s too late. I’m already starting to
fade. It’s happened to my brother and now me. Tell me you know what’s causing
this!” Mina spun toward Constance and Baynard.

Constance sighed and looked to Mei. “I
was afraid of that. Something has altered the course of the tale.”

“Which tale? This doesn’t sound like any
I know of,” Mina said.

“Your whole life is one long tale,
starting back to the very beginning with the Grimm Brothers. That is the
beginning of your tale; you are in the middle of writing it.”

It wasn’t the news she wanted to hear.
“And you’re saying that someone has altered
my
tale? How can that be?”

Baynard spoke up. “From what we’ve
gathered, something big happened and altered the course of the Story. It may
have to do with your ancestors. Do you see those mirrors that are yellowing and
are covered with dust?”

“Yes, what about them?”

“They were not like that a week ago.

“What?” Nix, Nan, and Mina said at once.

“Something or someone has altered your
history. It’s only a matter of time before this occurrence catches up to our
current timeline.

“How do I stop it?” Mina asked. “How do I
stop something that I can’t see?”

It was little Thistle that spoke up. She
scurried down the wall and ran up Nix’s arm. “You can’t. Not at this time.”

“Then she’s a sitting duck. Not any
duck—probably a Peking duck.” Nan ran to her friend and wrapped her arms
around her. “Don’t worry. I will hold onto you. I’ll never let you go.”

“No, she has to go,” Thistle piped up
again.

“You just said there was nothing she
could do,” Nix intervened. “Make up your mind.”

Thistle tapped her foot impatiently.
“You’re not listening. I said there’s nothing she can do at this time. She can
still stop this.”

“How?” Mina and Nan chimed together.

“There’s nothing you can do in the
present. You have to go back in time.”

Chapter 15

“That’s outrageous,” Mina whispered.

“That’s impossible,” Ever gasped.

“That’s awesome!” Nan cheered.

Ever looked the most startled at the
prospect of time travel. Her face had paled. “It can’t be. I don’t believe it.”
She kept casting Mina sideways glances and frowning, but Mina was quite used to
the odd looks from Ever.

The thought of going back into the past
terrified her. What if she messed up—stepped on a butterfly and the
following chain of events destroyed the world? Wasn’t there a movie about that?
There was no way she could do it.

“What does she need to do?” Nan jumped up
and down in excitement.

“Well, it’s going to take some preparation,”
Constance said. “Baynard, how long would it take to get Schumacher in here to
disassemble one of the looking glasses?”

“I believe it would take two days to
craft at least. But there’s no guarantee we could land her in the right spot or
time.” Baynard turned and whispered to Thistle who took off running up a pipe
that went into a wall and into the next room.

The Guild had clearly decided on a course
of action without her. They were going to send her back in time. Constance, Mei,
and Baynard began to walk among the mirrors and study each of them. It seemed
they were looking for a certain one.

“I think we should use one of the oldest.
They are the strongest and have garnered the most magic over the years,” Mei
said.

Constance nodded her head. “Yes, but we
also need to make sure that we don’t destroy its powers in the making. This
could get tricky.”

Mina was temporarily forgotten by the
Guild as they plotted their next move. Nan, however, was thrilled at the idea
of Mina going back in time. She immediately started to pressure her with all kinds
of demands. “Okay, make sure that you bring me back souvenirs, and if you see
one of my family members, you should leave them with a set of winning lottery
numbers. No, that won’t work. Lottery wasn’t invented back then. Wait, what
time are you going back to?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Mina said heatedly.
“I’m not going.”

“What do you mean you’re not going? If
you don’t, you’ll disappear!”

“We don’t know that for sure.” She knew
it was a stupid thing to say—but at that moment she was feeling very
overwhelmed. This was
not
a task for
a seventeen-year-old girl. There had to be someone else who could go back and
fix whatever was wrong with the timeline. Some other Grimm.

She was about to ask Mei who else could
go when she turned and met Nix’s angry emerald eyes.

“Don’t even think about backing out. You
have to do this!” he demanded. “It’s not just your own life that you have to
save.”

“Nix, I don’t know if I can.”

“So what? At least you try. Mina, if it
wasn’t for you, I would have given in to the darkness and become a Sea Witch…or
I would have faded and died. If something in the past keeps you from coming
into my life, I’m a dead man. Please do this! Please try and save—not
only your family—but me as well.”

“You have to! You have to try and save
Charlie and your mom!” Nan jumped in, cheering her on.

“No, send someone else! I’m not strong
enough to do this.”

When Ever met Mina’s eyes, she looked
resigned. “You have to.”

“I can’t, Ever. I don’t think I can.”

Nix dropped to his knees and grabbed her
hand. “Mina, I beg you please!”

“I’m sorry Nix. Please don’t ask me again.”

Mina ran from the hall of mirrors with no
clear direction in mind. All that mattered was getting away.

Chapter 16

Loud footsteps followed Mina, and she
turned expecting to have to dissuade Nix from pressuring her to go back in
time.

Instead she was confronted with Ever. Her
eyes narrowed and her lips pinched in stubbornness. A flicker of agitation flew
across her face. She was far past upset.

Mina stood there with her hands on her
hips. “Spit it out.”

“Nix,” Ever said. “He helped you. He
saved you.”

Mina gave her a scorching look, but Ever
ignored her. “I owe him nothing. My debt was paid before he ever came to the
human plane.” Mina glanced around, still confused that he hadn’t followed her.
“Where is Nix?”

“I told him to not interfere and that I
would try and reason with you,” Ever said defensively. “I won’t let you hurt
him.”

Mina was taken aback by her venomous tone.
Ever’s invisible pixie wings fluttered behind her, stirring up her dark hair.
Another sign of her heightened emotion.

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Mina
replied. “He’ll be fine. He’ll be better off if he never meets me. He’ll still
be a Nixie. There’s no proof he would have turned into a Sea Witch. At least
he’d still be alive.”

Ever snorted. “He would have made a terrible
sea witch. He’s too kindhearted.”

“You should be worrying about me.”

“Mina,” Ever said, trying to keep her
voice calm and even. “Nix is human now thanks to you. He’s defenseless against
the dark prince’s power.”

“Yeah, defenseless like me.” Mina rushed
out angrily.

“Ugh, there’s so much I could—” Ever
shook her head. “It’s your own fault. You returned the Grimoire to the Fae
plane, you gimp. And destroyed…Jared.”

“I didn’t know that would happen, because
no one ever told me anything.”

“Listen to me, Mina. Nix is good. Saving
him is the one good thing you’ve done since I’ve met you. You betrayed Jared,
and now he’s gone. I won’t let that happen to Nix. Someone has to protect him
from you.”

“What do you mean? By not going back, I’m
not going to hurt Nix.”

Ever sighed and rubbed her forehead. Her
shoulders slouched forward in defeat. “Look you don’t understand. You have no
choice. I see that now—so clearly.” Her eyes grew misty with tears. “And
I’m going to hate myself forever for saying this…but if you don’t go back, I’ll
never forgive you.”

“Ever, what are you not telling me?”

Ever rubbed her arms as if to ward off an
invisible chill. “You’re a Grimm. You can’t help that. Even if you don’t mean
it, you will eventually betray us all. But I care about Nix, and I…I want
what’s best for him.”

“I do too. You have to believe that.”

Ever dropped her head, refusing to make
eye contact. “I wish I could. All I can tell you, Mina, is if you do what the
Godmothers tell you, you’ll save your family.”

“How can you be certain?”

She lifted her head and tears ran freely
down her face. “I just have a feeling. Call it Pixie intuition if you must.”

“Ever, that’s not enough.”

“Why can’t it be enough?” She turned to
kick the wall. “Gah, you were just as infuriating back then.”

“What do you mean ‘back then’?”

Ever blew out a deep breath and ignored the
question. “Don’t try and argue with me. Get your tush turned around and go back
to the hall of mirrors. You have a quest to finish and a family line to save.
More than you can possibly know is riding on this. If you don’t mess this up, you
have a chance of righting more than a few wrongs.”