Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (14 page)

Hurt. Anger. Betrayal. All of those emotions
ran through her, causing a disjointed symphony of pain. Mina
unconsciously took a step back when the woman’s hand reached out to
touch her shoulder.

“
Don’t!” Mina whirled to
confront Jared. “And you, you knew, didn’t you? You’ve known all
along that they were Fae.”

Jared had crossed to stand by the window,
letting the light filter through across his skin, giving him an
otherworldly appearance. He tilted his head and studied her
thoughtfully. “Are you saying you didn’t?”

“
I…uh. I don’t
know.”

“
You can’t be that naïve.
Didn’t you know you would have one? They’re the ones responsible
for bringing the house to you. All Grimms have a babysitter.” He
shrugged and pointed to the prim and proper Mrs. Colbert. “They’re
not much good for anything else.”

Mrs. Colbert’s pink lips pinched together,
and her eyes narrowed in anger. “Young prince, we are not
babysitters. We are a collective Guild of Fae dedicated to the
peaceful co-existence between Fae and non-Fae. We strive to keep
the balance by protecting the Grimms.”

Jared flashed his white teeth at Mrs.
Colbert in challenge and bowed. “Oh, pardon me,” he announced
slowly, “your Orderliness.”

“
Now, hear me—” she
began.

“
Stop!” Mina yelled, her
world once again crumbling beneath her. “What do you mean, you
protect the Grimms?” She turned on Mrs. Wong, her words like
daggers. “You’ve never protected me. Not from Claire, not from the
wolves or the Reaper. If you are my protector, then why didn’t you
tell me about my father, about the curse, about the Story? You
could have warned me.”

“
We watch, we guide, but
we never ever interfere. But we broke that promise when your
brother was born, and we’ve been trying to fix it ever
since.”

“
Charlie! What does this
have to do with Charlie? What did you do?” Mina began to pace
frantically, keeping as much distance as she could between herself
and the Fae. She should have known, should have seen the signs.
They were there. Like the magic tea Mrs. Wong gave her that healed
her injuries, everything pointed to the obvious, but she refused to
believe it. Chose not to believe it.

“
We will explain
everything, but I think we need to have a seat. This could take a
while. Come.” She opened the white double doors and motioned down
the hallway. “Follow me.”

Mina hesitated at first, chewing on her
bottom lip in indecision. She needed answers, and they had them.
She dutifully walked after the female Fae, and Jared fell in line
behind her. Mrs. Colbert…or as Mei called her, Constance…turned and
in short, clipped words told him off.

“
No, Jared. You may be our
prince, but you do not rule over us. Where we go, you cannot
follow.”

He glared at her. “Don’t you think I deserve
some answers, too?”

She shook her head. “When you haven’t earned
those answers? I think not.”

His mouth thinned into an irritated grimace,
and he looked toward Mina before shrugging and walking over to the
vacated chair. He made a big show of moving it loudly across the
room and sitting in it while plopping his shoes on a white coffee
table. He had a smug look on his face, and called out in a
commanding tone. “Well, if you are to keep me waiting, at least
fetch me something to drink.”

Constance closed the door with a firm click.
Mina highly doubted that Jared would be receiving that drink
anytime soon.

She followed the woman who was her teacher
and wondered at all of the things that had led up to this moment.
Mei Wong followed a few steps behind them as they traveled the
plush carpeted hallway. Her head was lowered and her steps slow, as
if the Fae woman was trying to keep out of sight.

Feeling sorry, and somewhat responsible,
Mina slowed to walk by her long-time friend. “So is your name even
Mei? What about Ken? Are you two even married?”

She shook her head, her voice soft and
melodic, unlike the clipped accent she favored. Upon closer
inspection, her Fae protector didn’t look that much older than
Mina’s own mother.

“
It’s Meira, or Mei for
short, and yes, we’re married.” Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes
twinkled mischievously. They stepped into a golden elevator and
pushed the one-gemmed button. The doors closed, and instead of the
elevator going up or down, it stayed in one place. The air crackled
around them.

Mina kept stealing glances at the smiling
Mei when it hit her like a ton of bricks.

“
It was you, wasn’t it?
You wanted the Story to find me! You posted the pictures of me on
your restaurant. You gave me magic tea. And your accent was
terrible, by the way.”

Mei looked around in panic.

Constance turned to Mei with her hands on
her hips. “Mei, you didn’t? You know better than to get involved
too soon. You wait until we know for sure.”

“
Constance, forgive me,
but the Story was bound to find her. No matter how many times we
moved and I changed forms, and Sara changed schools,
he
always found her. The
Story has always been particularly attracted to
my
Grimm. I knew despite her being a
young girl that she would be the next one chosen. My Mina will be
the one to break the curse. Just you watch and see.” Mei grinned
widely and winked in Mina’s direction.

“
This conversation is not
over with, Mei. That was a serious breach of protocol.”

The doors opened again, and they were in a
large, circular white room filled with mirrors of all kinds: small
mirrors, ornate mirrors, and mirrors larger than a pickup
truck.

“
Here we are.” She smiled
proudly and waved her hands around. “I know it’s not much to look
at and we run a small operation, but I think the Guild is something
any Grimm would be proud of—well, I at least hope so, since you are
the first one who has ever been here.”

Mina walked around the room of mirrors and
could catch a faint glimpse, or shadow, of activity in each of
them.

“
What are
they?”

Mei walked up and gently stroked the silver
edge around the closest mirror. “It’s our looking glass. We can
keep tabs on all of the Grimms. See, here’s yours—uh, I mean mine.”
She pulled the small handheld mirror off the hook on a wall and
handed it to Mina.

At first it was filled with fog, and then
the fog thinned to reveal a picture of Mina holding a mirror in a
room surrounded by mirrors. She looked up and looked around her for
a camera or to find whatever magical object was recording her and
projecting her image onto the handheld mirror. The Mina in the
mirror looked around the room at the same time.

“
So there’s a mirror for
every Grimm.” There couldn’t be this many Grimms out there…or could
there?

“
Well, yes, there are more
than you think. There is a mirror for every Grimm and a GM assigned
to them…see. But the Story only chooses one at a time, so we keep
track of all of them just in case. Even the distant cousins and the
in-laws.” She turned the mirror in her hands so Mina could see the
name engraved on the back of the mirror. Her small handheld mirror
had Meira’s name etched in beautiful cursive letters. Mina put her
handheld mirror back on the stand, and something in the next mirror
over caught her attention. She snatched it off the shelf and walked
away from Meira and Constance. It only took a few seconds for the
image to clear up, and a perfect view of her mother vacuuming a
house filled the glass. Without thinking, Mina flipped the mirror
over to read the name on the back.

Terrylin
.

“
Terrylin.” She whispered
the name out loud. It sounded familiar, and then it clicked.
“Terry! Terry is my mom’s,” she announced confidently.

“
Yes.” Constance frowned
slightly. “She’s your mom’s GM. Although she didn’t pick the most
original alias.”

“
GM. You keep saying
that,” Mina said.

“
Yes, Terry and Meira are
your Fae Godmothers.”

“
You mean she’s my fairy
godmother, like in the movies.”

“
No, we are not all
fairies, although there are a few fairies who have joined our
Guild. We’re a group of free Fae. Meira is a brownie, Terry is a
house elf, which is why she prefers the cleaning business, and I’m
a muse. We are many races united under one cause, and that is to
help and guide the Grimms.”

“
Where’s Charlie’s?” Mina
demanded. “I want to see Charlie’s mirror.”

Constance and Mei looked uncomfortable, and
neither one spoke. “You can’t see the dead, Mina.”

“
Oh, come on. I know that
he’s not dead.”

Mei rushed forward to lay a comforting hand
on Mina. “Sweetie, the mirrors can’t see into the spiritual
realm.”

She brushed off Mei’s hand and turned on
them. “But he’s not dead. A Stiltskin told me so.”

“
A Stiltskin!” both women
said in unison.

“
When did you meet a
Stiltskin?” Mei asked.

“
Not one, two.” Mina
tossed the Grimoire on a white marble table, and Mei opened up the
book and looked at the last page thoughtfully. “I took care of this
one. The other one has my brother.”

“
Well, that explains the
mirrors not being able to find him. They can’t see beyond this
plane.” Mei looked to Constance with a hint of relief in her
voice.

But Constance was more concerned with
something else. “Please tell me you didn’t make a bargain with the
other one. Please, Mina, no.”

“
I—I did, and I would do
it a hundred times over if it meant I could save my
brother.”

Constance looked to Mei with worry in her
eyes. “Well, this changes things, doesn’t it?”

“
Changes what?” Mina
asked.

“
Well, Sara is already
wearing a Forget-Me-Not charm. We gave it to your mother to help
her forget Charlie…permanently.”

“
Why would you do that?
Why would you make my mother forget my brother?” Mina choked
out.

Constance turned and gently took Sara’s
mirror out of Mina’s hand and placed it back on the wall. “Child,
listen to me, and listen to me well. Your mother has endured more
than most. She’s protected you as much as she could, and she’s
already lost your father. And after your brother, we didn’t think
she would pull through. We decided it was best to construct the
charm so she could survive and be there for you. Right now you are
more important than Charlie.”

“
You sound just like
Jared,” Mina said accusingly.

Constance frowned at Mina. “There are times
when the wisdom of our banished prince surprises even us. But in
this case, he’s wrong. You made a deal with a Stiltskin, a deal
sealed in blood, that only blood can break.”

“
So you’ll help me? You’ll
help me save Charlie?”

“
There’s only so much we
can do to help you, child. But know this—we are not doing this to
save Charlie. We are doing this to save you. Because if you cannot
obtain what the Stiltskin wants, you will become his
slave…forever.”

Chapter 15

Mina thought time had stopped. As the world
around her continued to move forward, her mind raced a mile a
minute as the gravity of what the Godmothers had told her sank in.
Her heart slowed, her vision became blurry, and she realized she
was going to faint. But Mei grasped her arm and helped calmed her
down. Mei and Constance decided to get Mina walking, and they gave
her a tour of the facility. They took her out of the room of
mirrors and passed down a flight of stairs into a garage of sorts.
It was a shop filled with male Fae working on all kinds of
different projects. She could see some building an elevator like
the one they had previously come down. One corner was alight with
sparks, and Mina could see a centaur holding an arc welder.

“
It’s unbelievable what
they are able to create when they have access to this world’s
machines and tools. The Fae have been dying to come over here just
to have access to the Internet.” Constance stopped in front of the
workroom and let Mina watch a dwarf sit down before a computer and
print out a schematic for a design that a faun was working
on.

“
It has elevated all of
their own projects and inventions. Technology on the Fae plane
doesn’t exist. It can’t exist. Only magic or charmed items. So our
facility also is a home to inventors, machinists, and Fae
scientists. Who knows what one of them will discover when they
combine their magic with your technology? The possibilities are
endless.”

Constance beckoned to Mina, and continued
the tour down another hallway and pointed out a large indoor
greenhouse. It was Mei who pointed excitedly and waved at a short
man in the middle of a row of tomatoes. It was her husband, Ken
Wong. He, too, looked different without the glamour. His skin was
darker than Mei’s, and his eyes had a gold tint to them. He looked
quite happy and at home working in the gardens.

Mina knew then she wouldn’t have to worry
about her family friends. It was obvious they had people to help
take care of them.

They passed through another set of double
doors, and Mei pointed out the living quarters, the school, the
watcher stations, the training stations, and finally the
cafeteria.

“
We are much more than
just an organization. We help not only the Grimms but all of the
Fae who have lost their way in this human world and can’t adjust.
We teach them about this world, help them study it, and have them
learn a trade so they can survive peacefully.”