Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (36 page)

“Naw,
Scooby Doo!” Mark laughed.

“More
like Velma, with braids.” Adam flicked Lucy’s braid when he said it and Jared
had to bite back his tongue. This wasn’t the time to get into a confrontation
with boys, when he needed the information that Lucy had.

“Maybe we
should test your theory,” Mark straightened his shirt and cleared his throat.
“I’d volunteer to start dating her.”

Lucy eyed
them both with disbelief. “No she only goes out with hot guys…like him.” She
pointed to Jared and then clapped her hand over her mouth. blushing.

Both Mark
and Adam started to snicker, but then it quickly died down. Apparently, it had
dawned on them that she didn’t think they were hot.

She
sighed loudly and plopped her head in her hand. “Never mind. It was a stupid
idea. So how many sacks did Oliver get?” Lucy’s shoulders slumped, and Jared
could feel her dejection across the table. He was surprised at how astute she
was. She would probably make a phenomenal reporter someday.

None
of her information had solved his problem, though. He still had
 
to get Kathleen to notice him.

When the
bell rang, Jared reached out and tapped Lucy’s shoulder. She spun around and
looked up at him in surprise. “I know, not a good first impression,” she said.
“You probably think I’m nuts like Mark and Adam.”

“No, I
wanted to say that I believe you.”

“You do?”
Lucy’s mouth dropped open and hung there.

Jared
shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, and I’m willing to test your theory.”

Lucy wrinkled
up her nose and shook her head. “I don’t think you should. I mean, I would hate
for the new guy to go missing too. And what if I’m wrong? You’ll probably just
tell everyone, and then I’ll be the biggest laughingstock.” She turned to walk
away, but Jared called out after her.

“But what
if you’re right?”

Lucy
stopped in her tracks but didn’t turn around. She was obviously contemplating
the repercussions of being right. She spun around, her eyes bright with
excitement. “If I’m right, you promise that I get first dibs on the story?”

Jared thought
about it. “Sure. Why not?” he answered, knowing full well she probably wouldn’t
remember it after the tale was over.

“Done.”
Lucy stuck her hand out and Jared awkwardly grabbed it and gave it a shake.

“So
what’s the plan?” Jared asked.

Lucy
looked a little embarrassed. “Um, you need to get a girlfriend and act like the
world revolves around her. Like a Romeo and Juliet—soap opera type love.”

Jared
stepped back and stared at her. This posed a problem. Mina was the first girl
who popped into his head to play the role, but she hated him at the moment. And
he didn’t want her involved in this anyway. He cocked his head to the side and
hoped he was pulling off a winsome smile, but she shook her head and backed up.

“Nope, not
gonna happen. The girls were all hot as well. Even if I had an extreme makeover,
I’m pretty sure no one would believe us.” Lucy took off her glasses in a
pretense to clean the lenses, but Jared saw it as a ploy not to look at him.

He
sighed. Maybe he should just back out now and let Mina take over the quest. He
knew she could handle the frog girl, but that was the problem. It wasn’t the
Fae that was the tricky part of this quest. It was the rules of this particular
tale that needed to be satisfied. The Frog Prince tale was about a spellbound frog
prince who is kissed by a girl. Well, in this version it looked like the girl
needed to find her prince for her curse to be lifted—and until that
happened, a whole crew of teenage boys were suffering under it as well!. But if
Jared told Mina what he knew, she would demand to know
how
he knew, who told him, and why the Story wanted
him
to be the prince.

He
didn’t know her well enough to tell her
all
his secrets. No, it was better to satisfy the quest first, and then let Mina
finish it with the Grimoire.

Jared had
to think of another option. One person who could probably pull it off did come
to mind, if she could keep her sarcasm at bay. “Okay, I think I can find a fake
girlfriend. Did you find anything else, oh Wise One, that would help me seal
the deal?”

Lucy
hesitated before answering. “Are you sure you’re doing this to expose her, and
not just date the girl?”

Jared was
disgusted. “Positive.”

“Then if
she tries to talk to you, or comes in contact with you, spurn her. Make fun of
her. Make her ripe with jealousy. It will make her go after you more. I’ve seen
it with a few others.” Lucy sucked on the inside of her cheek in thought and
leaned against the doorframe. “You really think you can do this?”

Jared
flashed his dangerous smile at her. He watched as her eyes widened and her hand
unconsciously moved to her heart.

“Lucy,
when I want something. I get it.”

Chapter 4

Jared
knocked on the motel door and put his hands in his pockets, waiting. He hoped
she hadn’t moved somewhere new. Was this the smart thing to do? Was getting
another Fae involved in this quest worth keeping Mina in the dark?

What
would Mina think? After all, it was her quest. She was already mad at him. He’d
been hearing her spout off all kinds of rotten things about him in the back of
his mind. It didn’t matter if she wasn’t with him. If she was anywhere near the
Grimoire, he would always be able to hear her thoughts.

He should
probably just trust her. After all, she had defeated Claire on her own using
the Grimoire. However, just the memory of his allowing her to get kidnapped by
the Fae wolves infuriated him. He’d failed them both, really. He hadn’t been
able to protect her, and he’d been seriously injured in the process. What had
the Story been thinking picking such a young girl?

Jared
knocked again, but this time he pounded so hard the wood splintered. He
grimaced and tried to rein in his anger, which was starting to seize control
again. But once he’d seen what Kathleen Donovan was, he’d known it was never a
quest set up for Mina. This was a trap especially laid out for him, because
Kathleen was a girl and the quest needed a boy, a prince.

The hotel
door opened, and a short girl with black spiky hair stepped out. She was
wearing all black, except the violet glittery skull barrette in her hair and
the purple gloves on her hands.

“Jared?
Holy periwinkle! It is you!” She jumped up and flung her arms around his neck,
pressing her face close to his. “I’ve missed you! You haven’t been by in such a
long time.” When he didn’t immediately return her embrace, she slowly slid down
and looked at him. “Wait, what’s wrong? Someone found the book didn’t they?”

It had
been a very long time since he’d allowed himself to see Ever. When he’d been
banished from the Fae plane, she’d followed him and had been here as his
guardian ever since. But he hadn’t spoken to her in a while.

He
swallowed, “Yes, someone found the book.”

Ever
looked at him, her big dark eyes round with worry. “Well, it will be fine.
After a few quests they’ll lose, just like all the others, and the book will go
back into hiding. No biggie.”

“No, it’s
not that simple. I don’t think…I don’t want them to fail. Not this time.” He
knew the words would hurt her, and they did. At one time, Jared had thought he
was in love with Ever. It was obvious that she loved him, but he could never be
sure of his true feelings. They weren’t always his own.

“Jared,
of course we want them to fail. Then you will be safe.” Ever grabbed his hand,
closed the door, and started to walk with him away from the motel.

He
savored holding her small and familiar hand in his large one, and he could
sense the flutter of her invisible pixie wings. She made him feel stabilized,
grounded.

“Ever,
it’s about a certain quest that the Grimm was given. I don’t think it was meant
for her.”

Ever
stopped walking and jerked her hand out of his. “Her? The Grimm’s a girl! Why
in the world would the Story choose a girl?” And then she surprised him. She
went from being angry about it to laughing hysterically. “Oh this is priceless.
We have nothing to worry about. We’ll be safe in no time.” She latched onto his
right arm and squeezed possessively.

Jared let
her hang on to his arm. It was the least he could do for ignoring her for so
long. He looked down at her dark head and felt a pang of sadness. She’d given
up so much for him, and he hadn’t been kind to her.

“It’s not
that simple, like I said. This quest isn’t for her. It’s for me.”

She
pulled away only slightly and looked up at him. “Why do you think so? That’s
not how it works.”

“Do you
really think the Story cares about following rules? He’s sending a message to
me. There’s a Fae that is turning human boys into frogs.”

Ever
threw her head back and giggled. “So what? I always thought boys were toads anyway.”

Jared
thought back to how many names had been on the paper and how many frogs were
swimming in the creek. “We’re talking dozens of boys missing.”

“Wow…that
many, huh?”

“Ever, we’re
talking about a Croanoak here,” Jared stopped walking and turned to face her.

“What?”
She stopped and turned her face up to his. “Oh, yeah. They can be a pain.” Her
mouth quirked. “So what do you want me to do? I left my toad stomping boots
back at my place.” She pointed back to the parking lot and motel they’d just
left.

“No, I
want you to pretend to be my girlfriend and enroll at Lincoln Heights with me,”
Jared answered casually.

“And what
about the Grimm?
S
he
can’t help you with this?” Ever simpered and batted her
lashes, taunting him.

He
closed his eyes and slowly breathed out. “I would like to try and leave her out
of this as much as possible. The less she knows about me the better. We will
try to bring her in at the last possible moment, okay? To close the deal.”

Ever
brightened, “Yeah, the gimp would probably slow us down anyway.”

They
slowly walked back to the motel talking about the old days, the Fae plane, both
being careful not to talk about their families. He walked up to her motel door and
waited for her to open it. “So make sure that you dress the part tomorrow,” he
gently reminded her.

Ever
stuck her tongue out at him. “Jared, I will make the best girlfriend you’ve
ever had.”

He nodded
and smiled. “I bet you will.”

She
closed the door and he walked to his car. He was about to put the key in the
ignition, when a feeling of urgency overcame him. His heartbeat picked up, and
he could feel the tension building—signs that told him to check in on
Mina. She must be up to something. He closed his eyes and leaned his head
against the leather headrest. It took a minute to find an available reflective
surface in her room. It usually took a few tries, because the objects didn’t
always face her, or they weren’t large enough to do any reflection viewing.

Ah,
he found one. It was just dark enough that the light in her room caused a
reflection on her window. There she was. She was furious and storming around
her messy bedroom, yelling his name. He watched her as she began to throw items
into a backpack. She pulled out black clothes again and laid them on her bed.
He frowned. She was preparing to go back to Kathleen’s house tonight, but he
couldn’t let that happen. Not yet…he needed more time.

Carefully,
Jared used a bit of stray magic and made her window stick shut. He knew she was
going to sneak out and go down the fire escape. Mina went to her bedroom window
and tried to open it. He watched her scream silently and throw her fists in the
air. She turned and tiptoed to her bedroom door, hoping to escape out the
front. It didn’t take much to make the old-fashioned porcelain doorknob fall
off leaving her trapped in her room. That should protect her until he had time
to work.

Jared
needed to confront the Kathleen first and see if he could get her to release
the spellbound bullfrogs. He knew that if Mina trapped Kathleen in the Grimoire,
the boys wouldn’t return to normal. They would be frogs forever, trapped.

How
did he know? Because when he’d watched Kathleen toss Tom into the water, and
she’d cried on the creek bank, he’d heard the Story’s voice loud and clear. The
Story told him that they would be lost forever.

For
once, Jared was going to prove the Story wrong.

Chapter 5

“Jared!
Ohmygosh!” A high-pitched voice rang out loudly through the hallway.

Jared
turned from his locker and saw Ever running down the hall toward him.
 
She jumped on him, flinging her arms
around his neck. “I thought I’d die,” she said loud enough for the crowd of
students to hear.

Whoa!
What a transformation! Jared set her down but kept his arms around her, as he
looked her over. Ever had used a glamour, so now instead of a short and spiky
hairstyle, her hair fell in big waves down to her mid-back. She wore white
shorts with a light teal off the shoulder top. Colorful bangles decorated her
arms. Even her makeup was rosy in color, compared to the paler shades she
preferred. Her eyes looked twice as big, and with her new hairstyle, she didn’t
look so harsh. She appeared soft and approachable. Jared couldn’t help but look
down to see if the Goth pixie had gotten rid of the black army boots. She had.
Instead, she wore delicate leather and gold sandals.