Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (23 page)

“Oh hush up, you nymph. I’m just teaching
her a lesson.”

Mina didn’t have time for games. She
slipped off her other shoe, gathered it in the folds of her dress and snuck up
behind Annalora. She tapped her on the shoulder just after she caught another
toss from Tawny. The gnome turned to look over her shoulder, and her cocky
expression fell mere seconds before Mina’s fist made contact with her face.

“Sorry, but school’s out,” Mina sneered.

Annalora fell backward into a cushioned
footstool and slid to the ground in an ungainly heap. She was too shocked to
say anything but put a hand over her eye.

Mina picked up the slipper from the floor
and hurried away from the now-recovering drama queen. Any minute she would either
wreak havoc here or call for the guards.

Mina quickly checked the slipper for
damage, inwardly chewing herself out when she saw a small crack along the heel.
Did the timer still work? She wasn’t sure.

Part of her wanted to break down and cry,
the other part wanted to get back up and give Annalora a second black eye.

Annalora had gotten up and was red in the
face with fury. Tawny ran forward, her sympathy making her sound like an
injured bird.

The others whispered quietly and gave
Mina a wide berth.

But Ever started laughing and came over
to sit by her. “That was phenomenal. I’ve wanted to do that to her forever.
Only now, I don’t know if I want to be in your shoes. She’s going to have it
out for you. There’s no way you’ll make it to the end. She’ll make sure of that
now.”

“It doesn’t matter. I won’t be chosen
anyway. It’s not in my cards.”

“Why do you say that? Is that one of your
gifts? Can you see the future?”

“Sort of,” Mina grumbled. She slipped the
un-cracked slipper on her foot.

“Did it break?” Ever asked, pointing to
the shoe. “They’re beautiful. I would love to have a pair like that. If I owned
those I’d never take them off. These ones I’m wearing are killing me.”

Mina had to stifle a laugh, because in
the future, Ever preferred black army boots. It seemed she would eventually
choose comfort over fashion.

“You’re laughing at
me
? You’re the one who was hobbling around on one shoe while you
took on Annalora. You looked like a gimp, by the way.”

“What did you say?” Mina snapped. “Why
would you say that?’

“Relax, I’m a pixie. I call it like I see
it. And speaking of ‘see it,’ will you tell me my future?”

“No.”

“Oh please, puh-lease,” she begged. “At
least tell me if I’m going to end up with Teague or not. I know it’s a silly
request, but play along with me.” Ever leaned forward with a huge, eager smile
on her face.

She didn’t want to break her heart, but
the last thing she wanted to do was lie to Ever. Mina took a deep breath. “Ever,
you will grow closer to the prince and spend more time with him in future than
any of us ever will.”

She sat as still as a statue and then her
wings went crazy, blowing Mina’s hair all over the place. “Oh, that’s a good
one.” She laughed and then settled down a bit. “But wait, you didn’t say marry
him. If you’re going to make up a lie, you could have at least made it a good
one.”

Mina didn’t laugh or continue the banter,
which only made Ever more suspicious. Her brows furrowed and she gave Mina a
curious glare. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you? You’re not joking.”

Mina felt horrible. She just shrugged her
shoulders and didn’t make eye contact.

Ever cleared her throat and pretended to
straighten her dress, but she was really moving farther away from Mina. As if
she were already severing the physical and emotional connection with her.

Mina sighed and rubbed her forehead. It
was probably for the best.

Someone, she wasn’t sure who, felt bad
enough for Annalora that they got a wet cloth for her eye. But the way Annalora
kept glaring at her out of her one good eye made Mina very uncomfortable.

***

Only one more girl was sent
home—leaving a total of eight girls out of the original twelve. Even
though it had only been a few hours ago, it felt like Mina had been here days.
And much to her dismay, two more days remained before Teague’s betrothal would
be announced. She was no closer to finding the reason she’d been sent back to
this time. She had yet to find or hear of any clue with which she could save
her family.

The remaining girls were each given their
own room, and a meal was sent to them. Mina received a plate of mixed greens,
berry, and a spiced fruit drink. A porter came to her room and apologized
profusely, because someone seemed to have misplaced her trunks. Mina didn’t
have the heart to tell him that she hadn’t brought any. She simply said it
would be fine. She’d survive.

That seemed to take him aback. He stared
at her, clearly perplexed.

Mina looked around the room and realized
she’d been here room before. It was a sitting room not far from the bathing
room. It had barely changed in a few hundred years, but nevertheless, she’d
been here. Teague had presented her with a dress that day, and she’d used Fae
magic to change what she was wearing. There was the screen in the corner with
the same large mirror. She had never opened the doors to see what was beyond
the sitting room.

She did now. A large, impossibly inviting
four-poster bed graced a bedroom with a wardrobe and window. Mina went back to
the mirror and studied her dress. It had seen better days. The feathers were
scattered every which way after being torn loose from her scuffle with Ferah,
which saddened her. She really did love this dress.

Taking a deep breath, Mina closed her
eyes and tried to concentrate on the electric hum of Fae magic in the air. The
air was so thick with it, she could almost taste it. The tough part was
gathering it into large enough forms that Mina could harness and direct it.
Like when she unintentionally sic’d it on Nan and Brody, causing them to end up
in the car accident. And when she’d changed her dress into pants. And every
time the Grimoire would shift and change at will for her. Maybe she’d always
been the one doing it.

“Sleep clothes.” Mina spoke aloud but was
unsure what to do. Her white dress softened and became a long-sleeved high neck
chemise. “Oh, um, no. How about pajamas?” she whispered, picturing her favorite
set from home. Her dress shrank, slowly shrinking into a pair of pink shorts
with hearts and a matching tank with the words
heartbreaker
on them. Mina was giddy with excitement. She looked
down at her glass slippers. Dare she take them off to sleep? It seemed
irresponsible to even consider it, but what would happen if they took her back
to the present in her sleep? She’d reappear wearing glass slippers and her
pajamas. That’s what. But then she might not get back again.

She decided to take the slippers off and
crawled into the large four-poster bed, sliding under the covers. She put the
slippers on the wooden table with a pitcher of water and a cup. Hopefully she’d
see their flashing if they were about to head to the future again, and she’d
have time to magic herself into some appropriate clothes before she went with
them.

She curled up in the blankets and buried
her head in the soft pillow, but realized she’d failed to extinguish the candle
on the nightstand. Instead of sitting up and blowing it out, she decided to
practice. She waved her hand at the candle in an attempt to extinguish it.

Nothing happened.
Really?
She fumed.

“Okay, why can’t I blow out a candle?”
She wiggled her fingers, but still nothing happened. Frustrated, she crawled
from underneath the covers and kneeled in front of the candle. Bringing her
hand within centimeters of the burning flame, she felt the heat run along the
pads of her fingers. The barest hint of pain ran along the underside, matching
the tingling of power from Fae magic. Again, she concentrated and tried to put
out the flame.

“Fine. If I can’t stop it, I’ll change
it.” This time she imagined the wick dark, cold, extinguished. She thought she
saw the flame flicker as if it was going out, but it continued just as before.

She sighed.

A window in the room blew open,
extinguishing the candle, leaving her in complete darkness. Goose bumps rose
along her arms. She didn’t need light to know Teague was in the room.

“Do you sneak into all the girls’ rooms?”

“No. Only those who try and protect me
one minute, and punch a princess in the face the next. From what I heard, it
was over a…shoe.” He saw the slippers on the table and reached for them. Mina
dove for them and grabbed them before he could.

“Well, if you already know, then you
should know better than to mess with a girl’s footwear.” She tucked them behind
her, which drew his attention to the odd clothes she was wearing.

The candle reignited, and Teague stood
next to her bed, dressed in dark colors. She would have called them black, but
it seemed that he had changed and was wearing dark shades of gray. He frowned
at her. “What are you wearing? I’ve never seen such clothes. Is this what you
wear in your kingdom? Do you wear your title proudly upon your chest? I didn’t
know that there was such a thing as a breaker of hearts.”

He looked so confused that she couldn’t
help but laugh at him, which irritated him. He backed away from her.

“Yes, everyone dresses like me where I
come from.”

“And where is that exactly? Because no
one really seems to know.”

“Very far away.”

“Yes, I gather that.”

“It doesn’t matter, because where I come
from doesn’t concern you,” she snapped, a bit more harshly than she intended.

Teague’s blue eyes darkened with
righteous fury. “How can your origins not concern me, when there may be a
chance you will rule beside me?”

She let out a snort, which he didn’t find
funny in the least. “That’s not going to happen,” she sighed.

“You think not?” He moved forward to sit
on the edge of her bed and look at her. “You are one of the oddest girls I’ve
ever met. Your dress is funny, the way you talk—even your attitude
towards me, your prince.”

“You’re not my prince.” Mina said,
instantly wishing the words back.

“You see what I mean? You’re odd—”

“I’m not odd. I’m normal.”

“—and you’re intriguing. You’ve
been sent here along with the others, in the hopes of being chosen to be my
wife, yet you scoff at the idea.”

Scoff at the idea? Mina was scoffing at
herself
. She had Teague this close to
her—in her room even—and she had put the knife in a drawer across
the room.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No, it’s not. No one’s heard of you. You
make the crystal bowl sing—no one has ever done that. You can’t control
your powers, and you act like you don’t want to be here. Have I done something
to offend you?”

“Not in this lifetime,” she mumbled.

“See? There you go again.”

Mina couldn’t help but laugh in the glow
of the candlelight; it was so easy to believe she was sitting having a teasing
conversation with Jared. And she knew exactly what buttons to push. They seemed
to work on Teague as well.

He froze at her laughter, swallowing
slowly. He continued to observe her intently.

“What? Do I have something in my teeth?”
She grinned widely, displaying her pearly whites for his inspection.

He leaned over and gently grabbed her
chin, pretending to inspect them. “No, I don’t see anything.”

She busted out laughing at the
seriousness with which he took her retort. He sat back and cocked his head to
the side.

“What?”

“I’m just surprised at you. Your laughter
is genuine. You’re not hiding behind fake smiles and phony compliments or
memorized answers. You really don’t seem to care about impressing me, do you?”

This time Mina swallowed nervously. Was
she being too casual? Was she going to be sent home because she’d hurt his
feelings or teased him?

And why did that possibility bother her
so much?

She thought again about why she was here,
and how many members of her family would die if she didn’t fix what was going
to happen. Being here laughing with her enemy wasn’t going to solve her
problems. Instead, it was making everything more complicated.

“No, I guess I don’t see the point of
pretending and putting on airs. I’m not ashamed of who I am. At one point, yes,
I was embarrassed about who I was, and the clothes that I wore, and where I
lived. But I learned that those things weren’t important. What’s most important
to me is family and being proud of the person I am. I’m not going to pretend
I’m someone I’m not.”

Teague studied her intently and leaned
forward. She stiffened as he moved closer, bringing his lips within inches of
her ear. “That’s good. Because I despise liars and imposters.” His voice
dripped with hidden meaning.