Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (31 page)

“I do everything for you. I kept the
others at bay with the hedge maze so you could get here first. But you couldn’t
get past a simple hedge glamour. I even ignored the fact that you stole from
me, ran away, and killed one of my Reapers. The mercy I’ve shown you has been
astounding. I thought perhaps we were destined for each other because of the
dreams. I could even have believed we had a chance at love.”

“Wait, I didn’t mean to say his name,”
Mina called out, but Teague shrugged her off, hurt.

“There’ve been so many questions you’ve
avoided since the beginning. Everyone warned me from you. But you are unlike
anyone I’ve ever met. Your attitude, the way you talk. It was all so
refreshing, so different.”

He kept blinking his eyes. Mina realized
that there was something in the air still clouding her thoughts. Was it
affecting Teague too? She moved to the window and pushed it open. A rush of
cold air flowed in, making it easier to breathe.

“But it was all an act, wasn’t it? You’ve
been lying to me from the beginning. Haven’t you? We’ve asked and no one has
heard of you. Who are you? Is Elle Cinder even your name?”

A shadow sprang from darkened stairwell
and Ferah emerged, running up to Teague from behind. He turned to her in
surprise, but his reaction was slowed by the drugged mist she had released into
the room.

Mina cried out as Ferah stabbed Teague in
the heart with a knife.

“
Noooo
!”
Mina wailed, rushing at Ferah. “What are you doing?” She gripped Ferah by the
shoulders and yanked her off of the prince. It was happening all over again.
Just as she was helpless to save Jared, she was helpless to save Teague.

His face was filled with pain and he
looked between the two girls. “Betrayed. From the beginning.” He reached
forward and pulled the knife out of his chest, letting it clatter to the floor.
Seconds later, he fell to the ground.

What was she supposed to do? Mina pressed
her hands into his wounds and tried to stop the blood. Her hands were shaking,
but she continued to apply pressure until she felt heat penetrating through her
hands. A bright light formed from the center of his chest and grew brighter and
brighter until the whole room was a ball of intense light, and it shot out of
the tower into the night.

In the distance, trumpets sounded, as the
Fae mistook the light and celebrated the choosing of their new princess.
Explosive balls of light she assumed to be fireworks exploded in the sky,
casting a sadly beautiful array of colors over the dying Teague.

Except whatever she was doing was
working.

The bleeding stopped, and the wound
slowly reknitted itself, leaving only a small pink scar dangerously close to
his heart. But it beat beneath her hands.

“Teague?” She cupped the side of his
face. His deep blue eyes flickered open in pain, and he started to scream.

Chapter 29

It was a soul-shattering scream that
wouldn’t end.

“What did you do?” Snatching the knife
from the floor, Mina cast an accusing glare at Ferah. She brandished the knife,
threatening at the elf.

The blade wasn’t whole. A piece was
missing from the tip.

Ferah’s blue eyes widened when she saw
the piece missing. She fearfully turned to watch Teague as his screams
subsided. He grasped his stomach in pain.

“What? What have you done? You’d better
explain quick.” Mina snarled, moving closer to the girl.

Ferah shrugged. “I was sent here to kill
him because of the prophecy. He will be the destruction of the Fae. But the
Royals are so strong that only a weapon made from dark magic would work. Or so
we thought.”

Mina glanced at the knife in her hand.

“It didn’t work.” Ferah stared at Mina
with awe. “You healed him somehow, though the tip of Erjad blade is still in
him.”

“What’s happening to him?”

“This is bad. This is very bad. The blade
is made of pure hate. I can only assume it nicked his heart and a piece is
still there. It’s changing him.”

“Stop it.” Mina screamed at her.

Ferah shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t
know how.” She pulled another blade from her belt. “Accept that now I
have
to finish the job. Otherwise he
will kill us all.”

Mina pulled the Grimoire from her skirt
and stood in front of Teague. “I will not let that happen.”

Ferah smiled ruefully. “Have it your way,
human.”

Mina was only slightly taken aback. “You
know who I am?”

“Of course I know. I told you there’s a
prophecy, and I’m here to stop it from ever taking root.”

“And I’m here to tell you that I’ve seen
the future. I’m a Grimm, and the dark prince, Teague—he is my problem
now,” Mina snapped. She held the book in front of her as it changed into a long
bow. The knife in her hand shifted into a deadly golden arrow. Mina pulled back
the string with the arrow nocked and ready to release. “I dare you. Dodge this
if you can.”

Ferah backed away. “Okay. But don’t say I
didn’t warn you.” She nodded toward Teague, who had rolled over and was
gripping his stomach and moaning uncontrollably. “We will be expecting you to
handle the dark prince. If you do need help, you can call on us.” Ferah
continued to move away from Mina.

“Who are you?” Mina kept her sight set on
the girl.

“We are a collection of Fae, dedicated to
the preservat—”

“Stop!” Mina cut her off, her mind
seriously spinning. “I know who you are. You’re the Godmothers.”

Ferah smiled wryly. “So you’ve heard of
us? As a farewell gift, and to show you I bear you no ill will, I’ll see to
your friend the pixie.”

“You’ll get no thanks from me.”

“I wouldn’t expect it. Not when you are
the one who will suffer more than any for your choice you made today.” She
turned and disappeared down the stairwell.

Mina waited and watched. When Ferah
didn’t return, she released the bow. It shifted back into the Grimoire. She picked
up the knife and ran over to Teague to try to figure out what to do. Maybe she
could use the knife to cut the wound back open and extract the tip. She looked
at the tip that was missing. There couldn’t be more than a quarter inch still
inside of him.

Could she use Fae magic to wish it out?
She closed her eyes. With everything in her, she focused on the words. “Please.
Come out of Teague.”

Nothing. Her own heart clenched in pain.

She tried to hold Teague still as he
continued to thrash and scream. Desperate, she lifted the knife above his chest
and prepared to re-open the scar. Teague chose that moment to open his eyes.

What she saw in them terrified her to her
very core.

His eyes flashed from blue to gray to
blue again. Dark veins ran across his face and chest. Hate radiated out from
him. His hand shot up and gripped her wrist, squeezing hard. He pushed her
away, and she fell backwards onto the floor.

Teague pushed himself up from the floor
and stood over her. He exuded power from every pore. She could feel it flowing
from him, and it made her shake in her glass slippers. She tried to crawl
backwards, away from him, but he stretched out one hand toward her. By magic,
she was lifted into the air. She panicked as he moved her in front of the glass
windows.

“You are a liar and a deceiver. Every
last one of your kind will be punished for trying to kill me.”

“No, I didn’t. I saved you!” Mina
explained, but Teague was having none of it.

“You saved the elf. I saw you in the
forest. You did it so she could come and kill me. You were the bait. Very
effective and pretty bait, I do have to admit.”

The tower lit up as another crackle of
fireworks lit the sky, creating a mirror ball effect of colors in the room.

“Teague, listen to me. You’ve been
poisoned. Ferah stabbed you with an enchanted knife and a piece is still inside
you. Its dark magic is turning you evil.”

“Evil? I’ve never felt better or more
powerful! Watch!” Still holding her suspended in the air, Teague blinked. Every
window in the towers shattered, blasting outward and raining shards of glass on
the maze below.

“And now you will pay for your betrayal.
An assassination attempt on me is considered treason. But I’ve seen how you
handle our Reapers. So how about the rest of your family? Hmm? I will hunt them
down, toy with them like play things, and make them pay for your sins.”

“No!” she gasped out. “Please, they’ve
done nothing wrong. I was only trying to save you. To help you, because I care
about you.” She continued to struggle. Through the broken window, she could see
guards racing from the palace to the tower. The King and Queen followed closely
behind them. It seemed the exploding windows were evidence enough that
something was not right.

“Then who’s Jared?” he snarled.

“It’s you!” she cried out. Tears poured
out of her eyes as she realized she wasn’t getting through to him. “You’re
right. I’m not who you think I am. Elle is not my name. It’s just the name of a
girl in a story, a fairy tale. But I did come here to save my family.”

His eyes bored into hers searching for
the truth, but he must’ve believed all he saw were lies. His face came within
inches of hers, and he reached up to touch a strand of her hair. “Instead,
you’ve doomed them.”

She was running out of time. Mina reached
into her pocket for the Grimoire but her hand wrapped around something
different. Something cold and cylindrical in shape.

“I will stop you,” Mina threatened, as
the cold air brushed against her neck. Teague was slowly turning her in
mid-air. He stood in the middle of the tower, and she glanced back over her
shoulder to see that he had moved her through a jagged opening where a window
had been.

It was a very long drop down. She
wouldn’t survive.

“I can’t wait to see you try.” He laughed
cruelly and, with a flick of his wrist, sent her flying out of the tower.

She gasped and tried to claw at the
windowsill as she flew past, but she sliced her hands on glass. As she fell,
she gripped the seam ripper within her bleeding hands and prayed. She stared
into the night sky, alit with fireworks for her betrothal to Teague, and her
heart broke. As much as she tried, she couldn’t change the past.

It always had to come to this.

She wasn’t scared, because she knew she’d
done this before and lived. Calmly, she pushed the gem on the seam ripper. A
great beam of light engulfed her, making an arc as she fell. Teague leaned over
the ledge, an expression of utter disbelief on his face, as she fell through
the portal—mere inches before the ground.

As she passed through he screamed in
rage—swearing that he would find her.

Chapter 30

Mina landed with a painful thud on a cold
stone floor. Her eyes were blinded with specks of light and she had to blink a
few times before she could see. She rolled over and saw that the gate to the
Fae plane was still open. It seemed to be closing…although very slowly. She
looked around the room—a crucifix hung above a small cot beside a chamber
pot and a simple table. She heard a rattling cough nearby.

“
Were
ist da?
” a fearful voice called out from above her. She’d learned that much
in German class her freshman year.
Who’s
there?

“Me,” Mina groaned and pushed herself
slowly off of the floor to address the man lying in the cot.

He looked pale and sickly. His hair was
slightly curly and damp from sweat. “
Sind
Sie ein Engel?
”

“Huh?” Mina had to pause and listen to
his thick German accent. Was she an Angel?

“
Nicht
,”
she said, slightly proud that she remembered.

The man sat up. “
Wie heißen Sie?
” What is your name?

“Wilhelmina Grimm.”

His pale face went even paler. Rubbing
his hand against his chest, he stated excitedly, “Wilhelm. Wilhelm Grimm.”

This time it was Mina’s turn to be
shocked. She was in the room meeting her great-great-great-grandfather.

Wilhelm started to laugh, but his laugh
quickly turned into a coughing fit. The door opened and she immediately
recognized Jacob from sketches of the brothers she’d seen from history books.

He rushed in and quickly tried to calm
his brother to stop the coughing. Lifting a wooden cup to Wilhelm’s lips, he
gave him something to drink and then had Wilhelm lie back down. Jacob adjusted
the covers around his brother and pulled the wooden chair up beside his cot.

Wilhelm gestured to her and began to
whisper excitedly to Jacob, who turned and apparently noticed her for the first
time.

He looked angry, and his tone of voice
conveyed it well. “
Warum sind Sie in das
Zimmer meines Bruders? Sie gehören nicht hierher. Zu verlassen!
”

Mina couldn’t catch all of it, and she
kept stumbling in her reply. Finally, she just gave up. “I’m sorry. I’m not
good at German.”