UnEnchanted (25 page)

Nan's skin was still glowing, and she was
slowly turning back to her normal self. Mina felt her skin start to
prickle, the same buildup of power she felt whenever the Story
interacted on their plane. She looked around in apprehension and
couldn't find a source. Then she felt it coming from the Grimoire.
Mina walked over to the book and could feel a buildup of power
before it snapped closed with finality, knocking her and Brody off
their feet with its power.

Mina looked over at Brody, who was now lying
prostrate on the floor next to Nan; he looked to be out cold.

“
Brody!” Mina screamed,
running to him. Mina ran her fingers over his tanned skin and
around his head, looking for large bumps or bruises. He seemed to
be fine.

“
Gosh! Stop pawing over
him already and help me up,” Nan mumbled sleepily as she tried to
pull herself up. She looked around the room. “What are we doing
here?”

“
Don't you remember?” Mina
asked. “Claire from Babushka's showed up at the dance and brought
us here.”

“
Babushka's what? I have
no idea what you’re talking about. And wait – are we missing out on
the dance?! And what is
he
doing here?”

Mina was dumbfounded. Nan didn't remember
anything. Was this a joke or a side effect of being healed too
quickly? “Don't you remember? He was my date.”

“
Um, yeah right. I
distinctly remember we both had decided to go stag. He was
Savannah's date, not yours.” Nan stood up and began to limp around
the room.

“
But I saved his life at
this bakery, three weeks ago. There was a big rally and we started
dating, and he even gave me a cell phone, see.” Mina looked around
on the floor for her phone, but couldn't remember where she had
lost it.

“
You? Owning a cell phone?
Ha! That will be the day. Are you sure you’re feeling okay? I don't
know how to tell you this, but there’s no way we went on a field
trip here. Look at this place—it hasn't been open in
years.”

Nan was right. Mina looked around, and what
once was a working factory with whitewashed walls and
stainless-steel equipment was now a dank, dirty, broken-down
warehouse. Broken crates and spray paint littered the inside, and
Mina could have sworn she saw a rat.

It was like the Bakery had never existed.
The Story had created it all, set it all up. Once the tale was
completed, it had erased everything, leaving no lasting impact on
the human world. Mina started to feel her chest heave with pain.
Her hand went to her heart as she turned to look at Brody. It
wasn't real, none of it. Had the Story created his feelings for
her? Maybe it hadn’t, but would he remember?

Nan was still talking. “If something that
cool had happened, don't you think I would be the first to know
about it? I would have, like, a million followers on Twitter!” She
had moved over to the red notebook and nudged it with her foot
before picking it up.

“
Don't touch that!” Mina
cried. Rushing over, she snatched it from her best friend’s hands.
Nan backed away, hurt by Mina's harsh tone. “Sorry. But don't you
think we should get out of here before we get in
trouble?”

“
And we had better get
Brody. I don't want to be the one to explain to Savannah White that
we took off with her date.”

Nan was right. Brody began to stir.

Mina took two steps back from Brody as he
leaned forward and looked around at his surroundings. He looked
dazed, especially when he saw the two girls he was with. Mina held
her breath as his gaze finally came to rest on her. She was waiting
for a spark, a glimmer of recognition, and for his eyes to crinkle
up in happiness when he saw her. There was nothing. He looked at
her like a stranger before resting his cool blue eyes on Nan.

“
Um, I know you, right?”
He stood up and dusted off his pants.

“
Yep,” Nan answered
crisply.

“
Nan Taylor?” he
asked.

“
Right again…ding, ding,
ding. Give the boy a prize,” Nan snorted out as she continued
looking for clues as to why they were here.

“
What are we doing here?”
Brody asked. He sounded helplessly lost.

“
I think we've been
punked. And this had better not be one of your ideas, Brody. Now,
if you don't mind, I would like to get back to the dance.” She
walked over to Mina and looped her hand through Mina’s arms. “Let's
get out of here, prom date. This place gives me the
creeps.”

Mina nodded and followed in step with Nan,
grateful for her best friend’s support. She was doing everything
she could to hold back her tears, but she couldn't even see where
she was walking. She let Nan lead her out the back and toward a
waiting limo, the means by which Brody had mysteriously appeared.
Without caring whose car it was, she marched forward, opened up the
door, and climbed inside. Brody walked behind them slowly and slid
in after closing the limo door. He knocked on the window for the
driver to pull away.

Mina scooted as far away from him as she
could, hoping the darkness would hide her tears. She wiped her chin
and came away with blood. Sighing, she tried wiping it on her dirty
and stained dress, which was ruined anyway. She didn’t remember
that from the fairy tale.

Mina looked up when she felt someone
staring, and caught Brody's gaze before he quickly looked away, as
if embarrassed. Mina tried to stare out the window and compose
herself. But fresh new tears began to fall as she realized Jared
was gone forever, too.

Brody cleared his throat. “Uh, I'm sorry.
Here.” He slid down the bench and handed her a handkerchief out of
his pocket. She almost laughed at the gesture. Who uses
handkerchiefs anymore?

Mina shook her head, scared to look at him
for fear of crying harder.

“
Your name’s Mina,
right?”

Mina bobbed her head.

“
Well, Mina, you've got a
cut on your chin, and I think it needs to be looked at.” He leaned
forward and gently pressed the cloth to Mina's wound. “I'm sorry. I
don't know what happened tonight, but obviously it was some sort of
prank. Rest assured I will find out how we ended up here. And I’m
sorry you got hurt.”

He was talking to her as if he barely knew
her. Were all of those kisses and feelings they had for each other
gone? They couldn't be, could they? Mina was too scared to ask, too
scared to get turned down and made into a fool. But she was used to
being the fool, right? Just when Mina opened her mouth to tell
Brody the truth, Nan shouted from the seat down by the minibar.

“
Look, sparkling cider!
And it's open.”

Chapter 24

“
Ugh, the water polo
team!” Nan fumed on Monday during lunch. “I hate those guys.” It
had turned out that the Story seemed to like Nan's suggestion that
they’d been pranked, and had used it to explain their appearance at
the factory. Supposedly, the polo team, on a dare, had kidnapped
Brody and two random girls to rile up Savannah, who was furious
when her boyfriend was stolen during the dance. It was meant to
look like a seamy affair, and got a big laugh for most of the
students, except for Mina. She was mortified.

Nan couldn't stay mad long, as her tweets
about the encounter nearly doubled her followers on Twitter. “I
must admit, seeing Savannah's face as we stepped out of the limo
was priceless. I gained major points among the Savannah haters.”
Nan smiled and waved cattily at Savannah, who was nuzzling with
Brody three tables away. Savannah fumed at Nan, who just
laughed.

Mina hung her head and refused to look. She
had been getting odd looks from Brody, but they weren't reassuring.
If anything, they made her more nervous. He looked uncomfortable,
like he was forgetting something but couldn't put his finger on it.
And probably never would.

Mina had returned home that night to find
her family asleep in bed. She changed out of her dress and threw it
in the closet, at least glad that her clothes now encompassed more
of the color spectrum besides red. She went to her dresser and
pulled out her notebook of Unaccomplishments and Epic Disasters,
searching for her previous entry about Brody. It was still there,
so she knew it hadn't been a dream. The Story had at least left her
that.

Now her mother's conversation regarding
Brody forgetting all about her made sense. Her mother had known
this would happen, but instead of telling her that their
relationship would end, she had given Mina a few days of happiness.
She wished now that her mother had told her. It would have saved
her some of the heartache, though not all of it.

She’d sneaked out the fire escape and waited
on her rooftop retreat all night, praying that Jared would
magically appear to annoy her. He would be so proud that she had
completed three tales. He never showed. Mina even looked over the
Grimoire. There were no words, just pictures that depicted the
three completed tales. But they were faded, barely discernible, as
if Mina had used up the book's power in the battle against Claire
and the Fae wolves. All of the power that used to hum in the
Grimoire had disappeared. Scared, Mina carried the book everywhere
with her. She even started sleeping with it under her pillow. Even
now it was inside her hoodie, close to her body.

Mina looked over at Nan, who had pulled out
a compact and was staring at her forehead with a frown. She hadn’t
spoken in at least five minutes, acting completely out of character
for Mina’s happy-go-lucky, carefree friend. “What's wrong?” Mina
asked.

Nan made a face into her mirror. “Oh,
nothing. It's just that I can't get over the feeling that I have
more wrinkles than normal. Look at me—does this look like an age
spot to you?” Nan opened her eyes wide and leaned forward comically
toward Mina.

“
No.” Mina
laughed.

“
How about wrinkles?” Nan
scrunched up her face and created too many wrinkles to
count.

“
Well, now that you
mention it, I think you should enroll for the senior citizen
discount. I'm sure you could pass,” Mina replied.

“
I knew it!” Nan gasped,
pushing her favorite cupcake away and pulling out some age-defying
lotion from her purse. She began to lather her skin with
urgency.

Mina started laughing, but gasped out loud
when an intense heat flared up in her midsection from the Grimoire.
She put her fingers to her belly, and felt the Grimoire begin to
pulse with life. The hair on the back of Mina's neck began to move,
and her body began to tingle. She frantically looked around the
room in preparation for an attack. She even stood up and put her
back to the wall, ready to defend Nan.

Nan's phone beeped. She pulled it out and
let out a slow whistle of appreciation. “Well, look at that! Seems
we have a new student, and he's a hot one. Want to see his
picture?” Nan held the phone so Mina could look, but she didn't.
She could feel power building behind her.

Mina turned in dread and then froze, her
heart beating loudly in her ears. He was right there, standing mere
feet from her.

Jared.

End of Book 1

Chanda Hahn takes her experience as a
children's pastor, children's librarian and bookseller to write
compelling and popular fiction for teens.
She was born in Seattle, WA, grew up in Nebraska and currently
resides in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their twin
children; Aiden and Ashley.

Visit Chanda Hahn’s website to learn more
about her other forthcoming books.

www.chandahahn.com

UnFortunate Fairy Tale Series

UnEnchanted
:
An Unfortunate Fairy Tale

Fairest:
An Unfortunate Fairy Tale

The Iron Butterfly Series

The Iron Butterfly

The Steele Wolf

The Silver Siren

Connect with Me Online at:

Blog:
www.chandahahn.blogspot.com

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/chandahahn