Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (18 page)

She faltered for an answer. “No one of
importance. Someone you would be better off forgetting.”

“Oh, it’s a game. I see. I’ll play along.
You can tell me when you’re ready.” He reached across the space between them
and found she wasn’t afraid. He ran the back of his finger down her cheek, then
turned his hand over and cupped her face.

She leaned into him, lost as he gazed
upon her with utter and pure longing. Underneath that stare, she trembled,
knees weak.

Mina shook her head and shivered again,
this time from being cold. The night air was quickly leaving goose bumps across
her flesh.

“Please tell me I’m awake,” he whispered
softly and closed his eyes.

Mina stepped closer, wondering if he
meant for her to overhear his plea. “You’re awake, I think. I don’t know if the
same goes for me.”

“There’s one way to find out.”

“What? Are you going to pinch me?” Mina
teased, feeling safe.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a
kiss.” He smiled again, and her heart fluttered. “But I know that wouldn’t be
proper of me, given the current situation.” Only then did he frown and turn to
look off in the distance. “In three days’ time, I’ll be betrothed.”

“Oh. Then, congratulations on the
betrothal—although you don’t seem too excited.” Mina answered, doing some
quick mental calculations. If the stories were true, then Teague’s betrothal happened
before the Grimm Brothers ever crossed onto the Fae plane. She groaned when she
realized she’d been sent too far back in time. Maybe even by years.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Happily ever
after with a complete stranger. Yes, I’m ecstatic. Please excuse me if I’m not
dancing for joy.”

Mina was confused. “You’ve never met her
before?”

He eyed her sadly. “I’ve met a few of
them at formal dinners and such, but most of the eleven I’ve only heard about
in stories. Over the last few days, I’ve been flooded with details about
them—their attributes, beauty, and family lineage—but they’re still
just names on parchment to me.”

“Eleven? You’re going to marry eleven
girls?”

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his
neck awkwardly. “Will you walk with me?” He offered a hand, and she placed her hand
in his, letting him lead her down a path, toward a downed tree. As he reached
out, the tree began to glow, shifting and changing into a beautifully carved
bench. Mina sat on it and he sat next to her, his hand still wrapped around
hers. Part of her wanted to pull it away, and another was curious at the weight
of his hand in hers. It was a reassuring feeling, yet confusing at the same
time.

The warmth of him seeped through the
fabric of their clothes to her shoulder. He looked at their hands intertwined,
and he smiled.

“Would you like to hear a story?”

The word “story” made her gasp inadvertently.

He released her hand from his and she
felt the immediate loss of both his trust and his warmth.

She bit her lip and pulled herself
together. “Yes, I would.”

Teague dropped his gaze to the ground and
let out a slow breath. “I have no desire to marry any of the girls my parents
have tried to parade in front of me. But they’ve given me an
ultimatum—pick one or they’ll strip me of my title.”

He looked so hopeful and young. Of course
he was. He was a few Fae-hundred-years younger than the person she knew. Teague
was sitting next to her, before he’d been corrupted, when he was still good and
full of innocence. Her heart filled with sympathy because she knew what his future
held. His soul was destined to grow cold with hate until he was pure evil.
Unless she could stop it…but how? There was no way she could kill him when he
was so uncorrupted.

“So what are you going to do?”

His smile fell. “Do? I can do nothing. I
waited too long. The choice has been taken from me. The Fates have arranged a
betrothal ceremony. The girls arrive tomorrow. They’ll be the most powerful,
the most beautiful, and the most intelligent girls in the land. And one of them
will be my future bride.” The word “bride” was filled with such distaste. He
leaned forward, placed his head in his hands, and groaned.

Mina gently set her hand on his back,
offering what little comfort she could.

He turned to look at her, an apologetic
expression on his face. “I’m sorry. I was rude. You are not much more than a
stranger either, but here I am pouring out my troubles on you.”

“No, not rude. You’re stressed and
worried. I understand. Sometimes when the choice is taken from us, we feel like
a victim. I get that.” It was easy to utter those words which mirrored her own
feelings toward her curse.

“What would you do in my situation?” he
asked. He leaned in closely, and she felt herself swallow.

What could she tell him? She couldn’t
encourage him to do the wrong thing and alter more of history than she was
supposed to. Repercussions could be endless. She had to be careful to only
affect her own timeline. Still, it seemed like he was asking her permission for
something.

“Hope for the best. Maybe you’ll find
your true love over the next few days. And if not true love, then true
friendship. But I do have to ask—why haven’t you married before now?”

He gave her a slow smile that rocked her
to her core. “Because I never met the girl of my dreams…until now. Tell me,
though I can already see it in your eyes. You know me like I know you. You’ve
dreamt of me also, haven’t you?”

Heat flooded her cheeks and her heart
skipped a beat. How could he know just from a look? The Prince of Fae may have
been dreaming of her, but how could she explain that when he appeared in her
dreams they were her worst nightmares? She shivered at his words and her
stomach sank. He saw her shudder and mistook it.

“You’re cold? I’m so sorry. It’s late. I
should be getting you back to your escorts.” He paused and looked around in
confusion. “Where are they?”

“I seem to have lost them,” Mina lied.

“Well, that will be no problem. I’ll find
them. And if not, I’ll send a coach for you, and you can come to the palace.
I’ll tell my parents there’s one last addition to list.” He grinned and stood
back a few feet.

“No, you can’t. I’m not here for—”

But he didn’t hear her. “Have you ever
seen a Royal shift? Because only the Fae with royal blood can do it.”

Mina pursed her lips at him and laughed.
“Of course.”

“No, I don’t mean earlier. That doesn’t
count.” His smile lit up his face. “Name anything that flies, and I will find
your entourage.”

She had no desire to ruin his fun by
telling him she had seen him shift numerous times in the future. And he looked
so earnest, she couldn’t help but laugh at his attempt to impress her. “Okay,
how about a bald eagle?”

“What is that?” he asked, confused. She
realized her mistake. He wouldn’t know all of the creatures from the human
plane. Yet.

“It’s a bird.”

“Well how can a bird be bald?” he
laughed. “That’s absurd.”

“Uh, never mind. Why don’t you pick?”

“All right. Stay here and I’ll be back
with your escorts shortly.” Teague stepped back and took off running.”

“No wait!” Mina called after him.

He just waved at her and kept running. He
spread his arms and leapt up into the air, shifting into a fiery phoenix. His
feathers left a trail of flames in his wake and she watched as his path lit up
the sky. She tried to keep him in her line of sight and wave him down, but she was
quickly distracted. The shoes that she had left discarded on the ground began
to glimmer and flash.

Already? She hadn’t finished what she
came here to do, but she couldn’t be stuck in the past. Mina ran to the
slippers as their flashing picked up speed, like a timer counting down to
activation. She wouldn’t get to say goodbye to Teague. He wouldn’t know where
she’d gone.

Mina got one foot in the slipper and
dropped the other. She cried out and slipped her foot back in just as another
ball of light enveloped her.

She shot down a bright luminescent tunnel.

Chapter 20

This time she was burning hot, and her
muscles felt like rubber. She opened her eyes to find herself collapsed in the
driveway of the country club—only a few feet away from where she had left
Brody.

In fact, he was still there.

“What just happened? You disappeared, and
now you’re here again. Where’d you go?” Mina reached for Brody and he helped
her up, although she immediately felt like falling again. “You’re burning up.
Are you okay?”

Mina nodded. “It’ll pass. Just give me a
second.” Odd. It seemed going into the past made her body cold, and shooting
into the future made her core temperature a raging inferno. This couldn’t be
good for her. And she’d blown it. She hadn’t saved anyone. Her family was still
doomed.

It was all because of the stupid shoes. They
were broken. They didn’t work. Not to mention she’d been sidetracked by Teague
and his problems. Brody helped her back inside the country club and to a
private sitting room. Once she sat down on the chair, her defeat set in, and
she started to cry. She’d failed.

Brody wrapped his strong arms around her
and let her cry on him. His hand rubbed her back as he tried to comfort her.
When Mina had settled down, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I went back in time. The shoes did it. I
was supposed to help my ancestors and save myself and my family from
disappearing.”

It took Brody all of one minute to let
the news sink in. “And you knew the shoes did this? That they would take you
back in time. When were you going to tell me?” That reaction was not what she
expected.

“Soon. After tonight. I don’t know. I was
just given them today, and no one told me when they would work—only that
they needed to charge. Then—” she waved her hands in the air, “—poof
I would go. But they sent me to the wrong time. I was nowhere near where I
should have been. In fact I was on the wrong plane entirely.”

“Where’d you end up?”

“On the Fae plane. I was attacked by a
griffin.”

Brody didn’t look pleased. “Take them
off,” he demanded.

“I can’t. I need to be ready in case they
work again. In fact, give me your phone. I have to call Mei.”

His lips thinned in frustration, but he
let her have his cell phone. She quick dialed in Mei’s number.

Mei answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Mei, it’s me. It didn’t work. I didn’t fix
anything,” she rushed out. “I doomed everyone.”

“Mina, Mina. Calm down, okay?” There was muffled
whispering, and then she heard static. “You’re on speaker.” Mei’s voice sounded
far away. “Constance is here.”

Mina put them on speaker phone too, so
Brody could hear. “I ended up on the Fae plane. Not the human plane. The shoes
are defective.”

There was a moment of silence, and then
Constance said, “They’re not defective. How long were you gone?”

“I think only a few seconds,” Mina
answered. Brody nodded his head in agreement.

“Then they took you exactly where you
needed to be for the right amount of time. I’ve talked with Schumacher, and he
explained that they can only hold you in time for a certain amount total before
their powers are depleted for good. Look at the heel.”

Mina slid one shoe off and turned it
over. Sure enough, within the heel was a small hourglass. The top half was
filled with hundreds of tiny diamonds that looked like sand. Some had started
to fall, but the top was still filled.

“Do you have time left?”

“Yes, there are still diamonds within the
heel.” Mina swallowed and felt herself start to relax.

“Then you still have time. Trust the
shoes; trust Schumacher. Just don’t lose them—don’t even take them off,”
Constance said.

“You’ll do it, Mina. You will fix this.”
Mei jumped in, trying to calm her down.

“What do I do now?” Mina asked. A knock
came on the door. “Wait,” she whispered. Mr. Carmichael popped his head into
the room and motioned for Brody. When he was out of earshot, she whispered
softly. “I met Teague on the Fae plane, and he didn’t know who I was.” She
turned the volume down slightly so Brody and his dad wouldn’t hear.

“Then keep it that way. Don’t let him
figure out who you are. Lie. Mina, I’ve told you before what you need to do to
break the curse. If you go back again, I think you must seize your moment,”
Constance said.

“And do what?” she said louder than she
meant to. Brody glanced over at her, his brows lifting in concern before he
turned back to speak to his dad. It seemed like things were getting heated over
there too.

“I’ll be right back. I’m just stepping
into the hall,” Brody said. He stepped out and closed the door softly.

“Mina you know what you have to do to
save your family, your mother, and even your father.” Constance’s voice became
sterner. “I know you know. Now I want to hear you say it.”