Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (28 page)

Mina lunged sideways and hugged Nan around
the neck. “You are awesome as always.”

“
I know. I know. And one
day, you will grow up and become awesome, too. Maybe even as
awesome as me,” Nan teased, before getting up and putting her
backpack on her shoulder. “So, see you at seven, then?”

“
Is Brody going?” Mina
asked.

“
Brody Carmichael? Uh, why
would he?” Nan asked, confused.

“
Well, aren’t he and
you…?” Mina gestured with her fingers back and forth between them,
and Nan’s smile dropped. “Uh, ew. He’s your hot boy obsession, not
mine. Besides, he’s probably at water polo tryouts. But I’ve got to
go run an errand before tonight.” Nan waved and headed for the
exit, but then turned around and yelled, “If you decide to go watch
the practice, bring a napkin to catch your drool.”

Mina stood up and laughed at Nan. Could it
be that the world had been put back to rights? It sounded like it
was. Charlie was home safe and sound, Nan and Brody weren’t a
fairy-tale item anymore, but where did that leave her and her
curse?

She walked slowly to the aquatics building
and sneaked into the top row of the bleachers. Sure enough, there
was Brody Carmichael, getting ready to do a dive into the water.
The tryouts hadn’t officially started yet, so the boys, being boys,
were roughhousing and trying to dunk each other.

She felt the aluminum bleacher dip as
someone sat on the seat next to her. Mina didn’t take her eyes off
the water for fear that this reality would fade away. Besides, she
could tell from the scent of the perfume that it was Mrs.
Colbert.

“
That was a brave thing
you did.” She leaned forward and put her folded her hands on her
knees.

Mina sighed loudly. “I only made everything
worse.”

“
Did you, now? I thought
that this was one of the better outcomes. Of course, it’s not the
ideal one, but we can live with these consequences.”

Mina looked at Mrs. Colbert, and her voice
quavered with unshed tears. “I saved my brother, but at what cost?
Jared’s gone, Nix is gone, and the curse has messed with my
friend’s memories again. Is there a side effect to all of this
tampering? I mean, they’re not going to go crazy or anything,
right?”

“
No, as long as you can
hold your reality together and truly believe in it, then they will
accept it as well.” Mrs. Colbert rocked back and forth on her
heels, and seemed really interested in the start of the water polo
tryouts. The coach had come in and started giving the men a pep
talk.

“
Here, you fixed it—I
think you should keep it safe.” Mina pulled out the seam ripper,
which had somehow made it back into her pocket, and handed it to
Mrs. Colbert, who fidgeted with the seam ripper.

“
Hmm, you should have seen
how worried Jared was when he saw you go over to the Fae plane. He
found every single piece of the seam ripper and begged us to fix
it. It was Ken Wong who finally figured out how it went together.
That boy was determined to go after you.”

Mina could feel herself getting angry with
her teacher, and she couldn’t hold back the bitterness in her
voice. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew why Jared couldn’t go back.
That his brother wanted to destroy him. You knew all of these
reasons, yet you helped him come after me and now he’s…he’s no
longer…”

“
Yes, I knew. It’s why we
kept the young prince in the dark, because one day they might be
reunited, and then none of our secrets would longer be safe. Teague
is stronger now, and more dangerous. Even the King and Queen can no
longer hold him in check.”

“
Why did they allow it to
happen? Why couldn’t they control their own son?” Mina felt herself
start to tear up again, but she bit the inside of her cheek. She
wouldn’t be weak anymore.

“
Mina, there’s something
you need to understand about Jared and Teague. This was shortly
after, mind you, the Grimm Brothers began their quests to close the
gates between the worlds. Teague was engaged to the princess of a
neighboring kingdom and almost caused a war when he called it off.
It seemed that was his intention all along: to cause a war of mass
destruction. To save their son, the Queen and King had the
strongest Fae in the land come and try to drive the dark side of
Teague out. They did it. They separated his dark personality from
his good, but it didn’t necessarily split down the middle
evenly.”

“
I’ll say,” Mina grumbled,
remembering how surly Jared could be at times.

“
But now that they had
split Teague’s two halves, they needed to imprison them and keep
them far apart from each other so they would never become whole
again. So one of the Queen’s own handmaidens, a sprite, split the
Grimm book that Teague was ever so obsessed with in two and
attached each of the two personalities to it, and then sent them to
separate planes.”

“
So are you saying there
was never a Jared?” Mina didn’t think she could handle this
news.

“
Oh, no, there was always
a Jared. There still is a Jared. He’s just one side of
Teague.”

Mina made a face in disgust. “I don’t think
I like any part of Teague.”

Mrs. Colbert gave Mina a scorching look.
“Don’t discredit him. After all, there is a small part of Teague
that you love and will always love—the Jared side. And if you love
him, there’s always hope.”

“
So everything was a trap
all along. Teague was just trying to get his other half back over
to the Fae plane so he could combine himself again and become even
more powerful. All of the quests, everything was just a big fat
lie.” She yelled out the final word, and it echoed inside the
building. A few people stopped to stare at them before they kept on
working.

“
It’s always been his
plan, but for it to work, he needed a Grimm to use the Fae book to
combine them.”

“
And I was the only Grimm
stupid enough to do it.” Mina began to twirl her brown hair around
her finger in distraction.

“
No, you were the only one
brave enough to do it.”

“
What about my father?”
Mina forced the words out and stared at her hands clenched into
fists, preparing herself for the worst.

“
He, like you, made a deal
with the Stiltskin, only his deal was different. He didn’t know the
real side of Teague and Jared. Your father sought out Temple on
this plane and made his own deal. If he died during a quest, he
wanted Sara to have a son to replace himself. So, during one of
Teague’s more deadly attempts at a quest, your father was mortally
wounded, and the Stiltskin came to collect. Your father’s life for
Sara’s yet unborn son. He gave the rest of his life willingly,
Mina.”

Mina’s eyes squeezed shut, and her heart
filled with pain. “So what did I see on the Fae plane? Who was it I
saw released after the Stiltskin died? A ghost?”

Mrs. Colbert reached over and squeezed her
hands. “He died in this world, Mina, on the physical plane. I don’t
think he can come back.” She handed her a tissue.

Mina sniffed and crumpled up the tissue to
wipe at her eyes. “Soooo,” she stuttered out between crying
breaths, “as long as he stays on the Fae plane, he’ll live.”

Mrs. Colbert picked up the seam ripper and
handed it back to her, gently placing it between her hands. “You’re
not done with this yet, my dear.” She smiled softly. “Whether you
know it or not. You are one step closer to breaking the curse on
your family.” She pulled her bag onto her lap and opened it up to
pull out a familiar small book. It was the Grimoire.

Mina had been so worried when it didn’t
travel across to the Fae plane with her, and worried about who
would find it. It turned out she didn’t have to worry at all. Mina
gingerly picked up the notebook and ran her fingers over it. It
didn’t feel the same. It felt lacking, like it was missing
something—Jared.

She opened up the book and found that it was
just a book. The cover was still the same, but all of the pages
were blank. Her pulse started to quicken, and her hands became
clammy.

“
What happened? Did I
break the curse?”

Mrs. Colbert shook her head. “No.”

“
Then what—what’s going
on?”

“
You’ve come farther than
any other, and yet you are so young.” Her teacher’s eyes were sad,
and Mina could feel dread creeping over her.

“
What’s wrong?” Mina
asked.

“
The Grimoire is just a
book, nothing more. It will mimic the Fae book for you, but that is
it. It’s lost its guardian, and so have you. You’ve weakened the
curse, and now there is only one more thing for you to do to be
completely free,” Mrs. Colbert whispered sadly.

“
Don’t. Don’t say it.” She
knew—she could tell just from the way her teacher pitied her that
it was going to be bad. And she knew from the intuitive way her
heart was breaking that she couldn’t do it.

“
You said it yourself,
Mina. All you have to do to break the curse is kill
Teague.”

“
No…you’re wrong,” Mina
said, trying to convince herself.

“
Teague is now more
vulnerable than ever. Before he didn’t have a weakness. If Jared
loves you, then Teague will be feeling those emotions as well. So
you have to ask yourself, Wilhelmina Grimm, can you use that to
your advantage? You’re Jared’s greatest weakness, and now you’re
Teague’s. Are you willing to kill Jared to break the curse
forever?”

Chapter 29

Mrs. Colbert stood up and used her hands to
smooth her skirt down and put her bag over her shoulder.

“
I don’t think I can do
it,” Mina whispered, and felt her throat start to catch. She had
just started to love again, just to lose it. Well, actually, kill
it.

Mrs. Colbert leaned down and gently touched
Mina’s shoulder. “I believe you will do what you have to do. Just
trust your instincts and your friends, and maybe, maybe you will
survive this tale.”

“
Why did you have to tell
me this? You could have waited, till, like, next week, or next
year,” she cried out.

Mrs. Colbert scanned the pool and smiled
wryly. “There is no time like the present, since the Fae time and
your time don’t always see eye to eye. Plus, I don’t think it will
be long before Teague comes for you. After all, he’s going to be
pretty upset you got away.”

Mina sighed and started to pick at a spot on
her jeans. This was too much. She hadn’t even seen Ever yet. How in
the world was she going to tell the pixie that she’d ruined
everything? Brought Teague and Jared together, and now she had to
kill them both. Was there no bright spot in her future? It seemed
like everyone she came in contact with was either hurt, doomed, or
dead.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she
failed to see what Mrs. Colbert thought was so amusing, since she
kept chuckling and laughing.

“
Well, that sure is a
mighty fine water polo team we have this year, isn’t it?” She
nudged Mina and pointed.

Mina groaned and felt her cheeks turn red.
Her teacher had caught her ogling the guys.

“
Especially that new kid,
what’s his name, Nix, uh, no, that’s not right. It’s Nick now. I’ve
never seen anyone more acclimated to the water. He may even give
Brody a run for his money.” She smiled and moved away from the
bleachers, her heels making soft clicking noises as she left Mina
to her thoughts.

Mina didn’t need any other urging. She found
herself scanning the water, looking for a green-skinned boy. Oh,
what was she thinking? He couldn’t possibly have Fae-colored skin
here. It only took a moment to see the one young man who was
swimming laps around the other athletes. He seemed to be born in
the water. His strokes were long and powerful, and he had great
stamina and could tread water without breaking a sweat. He actually
acted like he had a new lease on life. Well, he did.

It wasn’t until he turned around and made
eye contact with her that she did actually truly know it was Nix.
He was alive and well, and apparently human. His hair was a
shocking red color, and his skin was pale white. But his eyes—his
eyes were still that brilliant shade of Fae green.

The coach was busy discussing the tryouts
with his assistant, and Nix smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up.
Brody used that moment to hit Nix on the back of the head with the
ball. Nix’s head bounced with the impact, and he turned and dove
after Brody, attacking him from beneath and pulling him underwater.
Brody’s smile dropped from his face as he sucked in a mouth full of
water. Brody resurfaced with an impish look on his face and lunged
at Nix, pushing his head under the water.

Mina laughed at the boys,
who were bonding as only brothers with a love for water could. It
looks like Nix had found another family. She couldn’t help but
think back on what the phoenix had said to her.
Even if I heal him, he will still die on this plane.
It was his Fae self that was dying. By bringing
him here, he got a chance to live as a human. A teenager with a
future that was much more stable than hers.

Maybe Mina Grimm didn’t mess up too badly
after all.

End of Book 3

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