Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (25 page)

And
yet I know that to rule is to be alone...forever.

The pages on the book began to flip as
cold breeze blew over her skin. Somewhere, a door had opened in the
half-darkened library. She was no longer by herself. She looked up in alarm,
but couldn’t make out the large shape lumbering toward her until it passed into
the beam of light.

It was just as Teague had warned—an
ogre. Its gray bald head and bulbous nose came into view as it leaned down,
swinging a meaty hand toward her. Without thinking, she jumped back just in
time. The ogre’s gigantic fist crashed into the table, inches from the book.
She should have run when she had the chance, but instead she leaned forward and
grabbed the book from beside the ogre’s hand and rolled under the table.

He roared and smashed his fist into the
tabletop again, cracking it.

Desperate, Mina looked around the room
considering her options.

She muffled a cry as the ogre slammed the
table once more, and dust rained down on her. She was so scared, the edges of
the book’s cover dug into her fingers. Her grip had only become stronger with
her terror. The ogre’s feet were inches from her, and she tried to use Fae
magic to protect herself by pushing him away or knocking him over. But her
limited knowledge of how it worked made it useless.

“Oh, Jared,” Mina cried out. “What would
you do?”

The assault on the table ceased, and the
enormous feet moved to her left, continuing in a circle around the area. Pacing
her, taunting her, stalking her. Her nerves were getting the better of her, but
she could also feel the power.

She could feel the Story that she’d
always been so tuned into. Something stirred deep in her soul and she knew what
she had to do. She’d never been good at outright controlling Fae magic.
Manipulation, on the other hand, was something that she could do—and had
been doing subconsciously ever since she’d learned she was a Grimm. The power
had been following her family for generations, and the longer she resided in
the Fae plane, the more of the overall plan she understood.

And the more she recognized her part in
it.

She may not like or agree with it, but it
was becoming clear that she was the center.

Mina flung the heavy leather bound book
onto the floor, pressed her hands to the pages, and commanded it to change. She
began to push her will and all of the Fae magic that gathered around her into
the book. Her hands grew tingly with warmth, and she watched in awe as golden
veins of magic rushed through her fingers into the pages. The book glowed with
power and gradually lifted off the ground to float inches above the floor.

She understood now. Granted, it was like
trying to see the future by looking through the small crack in a window blind,
but she could see her purpose and part. She would worry about the consequences
later. When her hands stopped glowing and she felt herself weaken and tire, she
pulled the book out of the air and felt it hum in happiness.

“Hello, my friend,” Mina whispered. “I’ve
missed you. Do you think you are ready for a great adventure?” The book almost
quivered with excitement, and Mina grinned.

She braced herself on one knee with the
book tucked under her arm and waited for the ogre to come around.

Suddenly, he lifted the table and tossed
it to the side. It crashed against a far wall, breaking the shelves and sending
a mass of leather bound books to the ground.

“Rawrgh!” He advanced.

Mina smiled wryly and held the book
before her where it elongated into a golden sword of fire. The blazing weapon
gave him pause, but he shook it off and tried to circle her. And then another ogre
appeared from behind the first.

“Oh, come on.” Mina decided to attack.
She rushed the first ogre and swung upward with the fiery blade, slicing him
across the chest. He roared in pain but it only infuriated him as he charged at
her.

Mina ran and climbed up the nearest book
ladder, and then clambered up on top of the shelves. From there, she could see
both ogres as they stalked her below. The shelves were at least twenty feet in
the air, and the ogres were at least ten feet tall. She kicked the ladder away
from the wall and calmed the Grimoire flame. The second ogre had come close and
was staring up at her with a strange, almost human expression. In appearances
they were almost identical, but the first one was bit larger.

The first ogre shook the bookshelf and
tried to climb it to get up to her, but the shelves easily broke beneath his
weight. The main bookshelf, anchored into the wall, held. Thank goodness.

Mina kept her back to the wall and
quickly sidestepped along the top until she rounded a corner and was briefly
out of sight. Mina gauged the distance between herself and the next stand-alone
bookshelf. It appeared to be about three feet wide and spanned a quarter of the
room, but it was at least a five foot jump.

She took the chance and leapt.

Almost! Her left foot slipped, and she
found herself dangling from the side. Mina scrambled to pull herself up,
because she could hear the approaching footsteps of the second ogre. She rolled
onto her back, pulled up her skirt, pressed the Grimoire to her side, and
waited.

Not only could she hear the heavy
breathing of the ogre, but the smell of onions wafted up to her from down
below.
Onions?
Why was she only
smelling onions now, and not before? The ogre paused briefly right below her,
and she waited for him to knock her down from her hiding place. Instead, it
moved on, making an odd grumbling noise in its throat. Was that laughter?

The first ogre wasn’t as amused. He now
made inhuman noises and thrashed about in fury as he tried to climb up the wall
of shelves.

The onion smell grew stronger. She
carefully turned her head to the left to see the second large ogre sitting on
the next row over, watching her. How had he made it to the top without knocking
it over? She grabbed the Grimoire, and jumped up in alarm. The book lit up in a
fiery blaze and morphed into a sword again, revealing her hiding spot.

The first ogre cried out in triumph and
ran straight toward her. The floor vibrated beneath her.

The second one still sat precariously on
the bookshelf—unmoving.

One ogre attacking in front, one watching
her from behind. She had to choose her course of action.

She turned to face the one from below as
he crashed into the bookshelf, clearly intending to knock it over with her on
it. His beefy arms strained as he pushed and roared. Mina jumped onto the
ogre’s wide gray speckled shoulders. She started to slide down, but turned and
used the sword to gouge his back.

He fell into the bookshelf, howling, and
it took a moment for him to regain his stance and face her. But by this time,
Mina was ready for him. He was wounded and struggling. The flaming sword
diminished, shifting into the Grimoire. A golden light poured out from within
as she opened the pages and turned the book upon the ogre.

He flung his arms up to block the
blinding light coming from the book. A strange but wonderfully familiar wind
picked up. Books and loose pages flew around the room as the ogre roared again,
desperate to keep from being drawn into the book.

But no one could fight the Grimoire. Like
the other evil Fae before him, he was sucked into the prison-like pages. And
once the Grimoire had entrapped him, the book closed and fell to the ground
with a thud. The wind ceased, and the room seemed darker once the book had
closed.

Mina picked up the Grimoire and placed it
on her lap, her fingers touching it gently. To once again have it within her
hands! She felt whole.

Until the ground rumbled as the second
ogre loomed over her, its oniony breath wafting down on her from above.

“Hello, Teague.” Mina exhaled, not even
bothering looking at him. “Did you enjoy the show?”

The ogre made that odd snorting noise
again, and light illuminated him as he shrank and shifted until only Teague was
standing in front of her. He was indeed laughing. “That was incredible. I’ve
never seen anyone do what you just did. The others didn’t even have the brains
to run and hide, much less fight back. One girl sang him to sleep and another
went invisible, but I had to intervene each time to save them. To entomb it
within a book! Ingenious. Now there will be a delay as the guards must bring in
another ogre for the next test. But really, what gave you the idea? I would
like to look at this book of yours more closely.” He gestured at the Grimoire
with a question in his eyes.

She didn’t see a reason to deny him, so
she shrugged her shoulders and handed him the leather bound book. His face was
full of awe until he recognized the journal. The smile quickly fell. “Why this
one?”

“It was a matter of convenience. I didn’t
have much time to choose, and it was lying open on the table.”

“Did you read it?” he accused.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Really, how
much time do you think I had while running for my life?”

When he continued to look at her, she
finally relented. “Only the words on the last page.”

He turned from her and tucked the book
back under his arm. Then, he looked around the room and whistled. “Well, you
are the also the one to cause the greatest destruction.” He waved his hand in
the air. The books flew back onto their shelves, the table righted itself, and
the chairs slid back into their spots.

When he was finished, the library looked
as immaculate as when she first entered. All evidence of her fight was erased.

Teague turned back to her and tilted his
head to the side. “How did you know?” The Grimoire still remain tucked at his
side.

“Know? Know what?”

“That I was the other ogre. That one was
real and one was fake.”

“I’ll tell you if you give me the
Grimoire back.” She held out her hand.

“Grimoire? This is my personal journal,
and you are not getting it back. Not even if you give it pretty nicknames.”

She shot him an un-amused look. She
should have known he wouldn’t give it back to her, and now she was peeved that
she’d been dumb enough to give it to him in the first place.

“You haven’t answered my question.”

“What?” She seethed, feeling like she’d
lost something precious to her once again. She was ready to cry.

Teague saw that she was distressed and
moved closer, gently placing a hand under her chin. He brought her eyes up so
they’d lock onto his. “How did you know it was me? Why did you not try to
entrap me within the book?”

Why hadn’t she? Tears pooled in her eyes,
and she wanted to pull away from him. Thankfully, she got them under control
before a waterfall appeared on her face.

“It’s just something about you…I mean
that I remember…” And she halted. How could she explain that she recognized his
ogre shape? It was the same one she’d seen Jared shift into, and he’d smelled
of onions in that form. “I had seen you shift before.”

“Oh that’s right. In the forest. But you
saw me shift into a griffin, not an ogre. So there’s no reason to believe that
I’d be the ogre as well. Only Baldanders can willingly shift into multiple
forms, but they’re rare. You can go a whole lifetime without seeing one.
They’re extremely shy.”

Mina wanted to laugh. That wasn’t how
she’d describe Anders. “You’re a Royal. All Royals can shift to any form at
will.”

“Who told you that?” His voice dropped an
octave and glared at her. “No one knows about that gift
but
Royals.” His eyes darkened and his breathing quickened. “Who
are you working for? Why are you here?” The accusations shot out of him, and he
stormed toward her, making her retreat until she was backed against a
bookshelf.

She racked her brain to remember how she
knew, and once again it was Jared that had told her. There was no easy way out
of this.

“I don’t know. I must have heard it from
a tale when I was a child.”

“I don’t believe you. No one else has
been able to tell it was me. They either failed altogether or assumed I was
also an ogre.”

He didn’t seem convinced, but at least he
didn’t seem like he was ready to murder her. She watched him warily, and she
could see an inner battle as he tried to convince himself of her words.

“Well, now all of the girls here know you
shift. Don’t they?” She spoke up softly.

“What?” he frowned and placed the
Grimoire within his coat. Now both hands were free. She assumed it was so he
could kill her easier.

“Well, you’ve shifted in front of me
twice now. So don’t the other girls know that you can shift?”

His lips pinched together. “No,” he
grunted. “They don’t. I didn’t reveal myself to the others. Most were too
scared to defend themselves, so I held back the other ogre while they were
removed. If they were smart enough to defeat or incapacitate the first ogre,
they turned to attack me. Only you paused, only you knew. How?”

“You didn’t attack me. Scared me, yeah,
by climbing up the bookcase next to me. But not once during this test did you
actually try to hurt me. I can’t assume, no matter how scared I am, that
everyone is my enemy,” she reasoned.