Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (7 page)

It was after midnight when they explained
it enough for him to understand. Nix even came clean about his own past and the
horrors of possibly turning into a Sea Witch.

Mina told him about the Fates and how it
was their deal with the Grimm Brothers to break the curse and close the gates.
She left out how the royal Fae were able to shape shift, and that she believed
it was Teague himself that attacked Brody. She wasn’t positive, after all. The
dark prince could have sent any one of his followers to do the dirty work.

They did warned Brody to watch out,
because there were bad Fae intent on harming Mina and all who were associated
with her. But there was something different about the wolf. She’d seen the
wolf. It was intent on killing
Brody
.

Brody grew quiet again, and she thought
for sure he would drive off right then—out of her life forever. But he
surprised everyone, even her mother, when he asked, “What can I do to help?”

Nix shrugged his shoulders and pointed to
Mina. “You’d have to ask the Grimm.” He looked at her with such confidence,
such devotion and admiration. What had she done to earn this kind of loyalty?
She only hoped she was worthy of it in the end.

After the hours-long conversation wrapped
up, Mina was still concerned with one thing. “Can you keep my secret, Brody?” He
looked like he was about to argue with her, so she added, “For now. And I swear
I will try and find a way to secure your memories from being manipulated
again.”

Brody hesitated but nodded his head.
“Okay. Since you’re coming with me Friday.”

“Why? What’s Friday?”

“The masquerade ball at my parents’
country club, of course.”

“A ball?” That one word made her skin
crawl and her mouth go dry. Balls were full of fairy-tale possibility. It would
be a sure opportunity for the Story.

“It’s that
thing
that you promised to attend.”

“I really need to ask more questions in
the future.” Mina said, inwardly panicking but doing her best to appear
excited.

“That would probably be a good thing.”

***

Scarves can be a great fashion accessory
if utilized right. Incorrectly used, they’re a torture device for
fashion-challenged teens. In Mina’s case, they were more the second. After her
shower the next morning, she looked at three items Nan lent her the last time
she’d been over—wedged heels, scarf, and lipstick—and decided to
pick one. She chose the scarf, thinking it was the least dangerous of her
choices. Mina felt like the simple silk scarf was choking her, but Nan always
swore by them as “the perfect accessory to any outfit.”

She should have chosen the heels.

“Blech!” She glared at the chevron-patterned
offensive material.
This is as good as
it’s going to get.

This morning Mina wouldn’t even give the
ball a second thought. Her heart was soaring. Because someone knew. Brody knew.

Whether he would continue to believe her remained
to be seen. He might change his mind and end up calling the psycho ward on her.
But for the moment, she wasn’t alone. Which gave her a whole new outlook.

For the first night in months, she’d had
a dreamless sleep.

She headed toward the kitchen to make a
sandwich for lunch and made a face at her reflection every time she passed a
mirror. Her bedroom mirror received a pig face; the bathroom she shot a
bucktoothed expression. She’d just passed the hallway mirror with her jaw
jutted out, when she caught something strange.

Had her skin seemed a bit translucent?
She leaned closer to the hall mirror, within inches of the glass, and touched
her face.

A polite cough spun her around. Brody
stood by her front door. “Don’t worry. You look lovely.” He chuckled.

Her cheeks burned red with embarrassment.
He stood there in his jeans and white V-neck shirt looking relaxed and
confident.

Mina’s hair was wet from her shower, and
she didn’t have a touch of makeup on. “Don’t you knock?” Mina frowned.

“Yes, and I even wait to be let in,” he
nodded over to Charlie. Her brother was once again hauling a chair to the
hallway, appearing ready for Operation Open Suitcase again. “He opened the
door.”

“Well,” she said. “I guess that means you
can come in.”

“I assumed as much.”

“So why are you here?” Mina asked,
feeling dumb for having to ask why his tall handsome self graced her foyer in
the middle of the afternoon.

Brody looked uncomfortable and glanced at
Charlie. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “To protect you from any stray…
um… Fae.”

“Oh!” Mina said, surprised. She wouldn’t
have thought it possible, but her cheeks burned even hotter.

“That is, unless your problems have all
gone away?”

“Uh, no.” Mina thwarted Charlie’s
curiosity by pushing the door closed as soon as he opened it. She locked the
door and tucked the iron skeleton key into her pocket.

He grabbed the doorknob and shook it
angrily.

Brody continued, “But also to see if
you’d like to come over and keep me company during a planning committee for the
ball. My mom’s in charge of planning the event, and I know girls really get
into this kind of thing.”

“Um, that would be most girls. Not me.”

His face fell. “Oh, if you don’t think
you’d like it, you don’t have to come.”

“No,” she replied hastily. “I’d love to
come. Let me just grab a jacket.” Mina stepped over Charlie’s mess, grabbed a
light sweater, and turned to face Brody. Maybe she should tell him that party
planning terrified her.

But the way Brody looked at her helped
her make up her mind and had her smiling politely and going to the passenger
door of his car. Underneath his worried expression, she thought she saw a bit
of hope. He wanted her to come.

She slid into the seat, snapped the
seatbelt, and looked over at him. He cranked the engine and pulled out of the
driveway. Pop music and the hum of the vehicle soothed her frayed nerves. Were
the nerves from butterflies or terror?

The car slowed and they passed through
the gates, heading up the Carmichaels’ driveway. Mina noted the large statues
of horses and neatly trimmed hedges.

“My mom has invited a few of her friends’
daughters over to help with the last minute details,” Brody said softly.

“Ah,” she exclaimed as they passed the
garage. “That explains…nothing.”

“The Ziesters and Steppes happen to be
longtime friends, and our families go way back,” Brody chuckled, reaching over
to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Especially their daughters. There are
two of them here tonight who can be a bit zealous in their pursuit. They can’t
take a hint, but I thought—”

“You brought me here to run interference.”
Mina pinched her lips trying to hide the smile. “You want me to tackle them.”

Brody laughed. “That’s why I like you.
You get it.” He pulled up to the front of the large three-story house with its
terra cotta roof. As soon as the engine died, the double mahogany doors opened,
and Mrs. Carmichael rushed out, phone in hand, followed by two young women.
Both of the girls looked to be in their late teens, one a stunning brunette
with laughing blue eyes and suntanned skin, the other a striking redhead with
full, pouty lips and pale skin. They stayed on the steps, and when Mina exited
the car, their faces flickered annoyance.

“Brody, you kept our guests waiting.”
Mrs. Carmichael turned and noticed Mina for the first time. “Oh, I’m sorry. You
must forgive me. Please call me Melody. And you are?” she chimed.

“Mina,” Brody cut in, standing behind her.
“She’s a friend from school.”

The words “friend from school” cut her a
little deeper than expected. Granted, he’d never verbally stated they were more
than that, but hearing it still hurt.

“Mina. Let’s go to the sitting room and
get started.” Melody didn’t miss a beat.

Mina didn’t even know new houses still
had
sitting rooms. Her own house did of
course, because it was hundreds of years old. But apparently the wealthy still
liked to follow tradition. The sitting room was lovely with a large family
portrait on a taupe-colored wall above the marble fireplace. Two Victorian white
sofas faced each other across a white coffee table. An antique grandfather
clock towered next to the bay window. Two high back chairs brought the room
together in a perfect little circle, made for intimate conversation over tea.
She could very well envision Melody sitting here with her friends talking about
the latest news and gossip.

Once Mina was seated, Melody left to call
the caterer for the event. Mina sat in a high back chair, and Brody sat on the
sofa across from her. The redhead and brunette joined their party. The redhead slid
onto the sofa, closer than necessary to Brody. She gave a slight tug on her
white shorts before crossing her legs to dangle them in his line of sight. Her
foot bobbed up and down, the tinkling of her charm anklet acting as a lure.

“So what happened?” she asked. “You’re
late, and you kept us waiting.”

Brody sat a little straighter and shot
Mina a worried look. She mentally kicked herself for sitting so far from Brody.

Brody answered, “I needed to pick up
Mina.”

“Oh! So you’re going to help us with the
planning?” the brunette asked. Mina heard a slight southern accent.

“No, I’m here for moral support.”

The redhead’s leg froze, and her eyes
narrowed. “Like one of those twelve-step programs?” she whispered.

“
No
!”
Brody and Mina answered at once.

The conversation was a bit awkward and stilted
after that. Brody politely introduced the two guests. The tall brunette was
Lara, and the spicy redhead, Daphne. Mina couldn’t help but picture Lara and
Daphne as the video game heroine and the cartoon detective, although the girls
in front of her were nothing like the fake ones.

Lara opened up a magazine from the coffee
table in front of them and pointed to the full color spread from last year’s
ball. “See, it frequently makes the headlines in
Glitz & Glam Magazine
.”

Anxiety filled Mina as she scoped the page—photo
after photo filled with ruffles, flounces, and feathers. Not to mention a few
close up photos of Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael. Mina’s gaze was instantly drawn to
the photo of a very dapper Brody in a tux, with none other than Daphne on his
arm. Her dress was a sweet peach that brought out the color of her hair and added
a warmth to her cheeks.

Lara smiled, showing even white teeth.
“It’s one of the biggest events of the season, and Melody is the planning
committee chair. We’re on the junior planning committee.” Her eyes dropped to
the floor coyly when Brody glanced her way.

It didn’t take a genius to see that both
girls liked Brody. Who didn’t?

“I think all that’s left for
us
is to finish our playlist for the
party.” Lara looked only at Brody as she spoke. “I’ve made a list of fast,
medium, and slow songs, and we need to put them in order.”

“Isn’t that what a DJ is for? To put the
sets together and play according to the crowd’s taste?” Mina asked.

Her question received two blank looks
from Daphne and Lara followed by a snort from Lara. “This isn’t some cheesy
homecoming. This is the biggest event of the year. We leave nothing to chance.”
She handed out the song sheets to Brody and Daphne but ignored Mina’s open
hand.

Not to be outmaneuvered, Mina got up and
sat next to Brody to share his song list. This only encouraged another dour
look from the girls.

Mina scanned the names of the songs
briefly and felt a bit lost. She knew many of the popular songs from the radio,
but she was stunned by the number of waltzes being played by the live band. Not
once had she thought it was going to be
that
kind of a ball. She didn’t know how to waltz. Mina chewed her thumbnail, pretending
to be interested in the discussion, while secretly thinking of a hundred excuses
to get out of the date.

“So the ones marked with hearts are our
must-haves,” Lara said. “We’ll intermix our live music with songs from the DJ.
If we run out of songs, then we move on to the ones with stars on them. What do
you think, Brody?” Her voice dripped with honey.

“Sounds all right,” he answered. It was
obvious he didn’t want to be a part of this.

Daphne frowned. “Brody, really. You have
to give us some input. After all, you’re as much a part of this as we are.”

“Okay then.” He picked up the sheet again
and gave it more thought. “I think it needs something else. What do you think
Mina?” Brody turned to look at her.

Mina dropped her hands to her lap and
clasped them together. She really didn’t have an opinion and had stopped
reading the list soon after she saw the word “waltz.” But she lied. “I think
you need to add in some Dead Prince Society.”

Brody’s face broke into a huge grin.
“That’s perfect! It’s exactly what we need to bring it into the twenty-first
century.” He nudged her with his elbow and she blushed. “I’m so glad you agreed
to come.”