Forever (2 page)

“This way.” He ran to the
left, making sure to keep pace with her. “What’s wrong, Mina?”

“Reaper,” she huffed.

Her heart thudded loudly in
relief when she saw the car. She ran to the passenger side and lifted the
handle, but the door was still locked.
Come
on
.

She held on until she heard
the automatic click and then jumped into the seat. Brody pulled out his keys
and fumbled with the ignition. “Go, go, go! Start it up.”

“I’m trying,” he said between
clenched teeth.

The keys fell on the floor,
and Brody bent down, feeling for them on the floor mat.

Another howl filled the air.

He stilled. “What in the
world is that?”

He slowly straightened to look
over the dashboard. “That dog is huge! But where’s the Reaper?”

Mina glanced back. Nothing.
“I think the dog
is
the Reaper. Can
you still see it?”

Her hand snaked forward along
the arm rest until her fingers found the switch. A soft click sounded in the
car as the doors locked. Childish, but she was out of options.

Crash!

“Whoa!” Brody shouted.

Mina heard claws scraping and
digging at the glass. But she couldn’t see anything out there. “Is it heavy
enough to break through the windshield?”

Brody shifted the car into
reverse and sped backwards, spinning the wheel and executing a turnaround
worthy of a stunt driver. The black beast’s claws clicked and screeched across
the hood as it tried to stay on, but Brody’s driving threw him off. They heard
a thud as it slammed against the side of the car. Brody hit the gas, flying up
the road.

Thirty, forty, fifty, on up
to eighty miles per hour Brody sped. Mina couldn’t make herself open her eyes
until about thirty seconds had passed. She tried to look at her passenger
mirror, but all she saw were trees whizzing by.

Brody slowed only enough to
turn onto the on ramp. When they were safely speeding down the highway among
other cars, he looked over to her. “That’s a Reaper… as in death?”

“I think so,” Mina craned her
head to look between the seats. “They’re the hunters and assassins, but they’ve
been known to go rogue.”

“And that beast dog
is one
?” Brody continued driving and
cast a quick look over to her. “I’ve never seen anything that big.”

Mina studied his profile. He
didn’t look scared at the prospect of being hunted—he looked angry. His
sun-kissed blond hair accented the deep blue of his eyes, and his strong hands
gripped the steering wheel with determination.

“I’m not sure what that was.”
She shrugged, turning in her seat to face him. “What were
you
doing there? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you showed up when
you did, because I couldn’t have outridden that thing on my bike.”

“Following you.” He glanced
at her quickly.

“What?”

Now it was Brody’s turn to
shrug. “Well, Ever, Nan, and I kind of promised to never let you be without a
guard. And since Ever left to try and track Teague, it was between Nan and me,
and I drew the short straw for today.” He sighed, trying to make it sound like
a huge inconvenience.

“I’m not a straw,” Mina said.

“No, but you are short.” He
tried to hide the smile, but Mina smacked him in the arm with the back of her
hand. “I followed you this morning when you took off on your bike. I almost
lost you a few times, but I figured out where you were heading. You wanted to
say your goodbyes.”

Her gaze dropped to her
folded hands. Her heart swelled with the pain of her loss. “It’s not fair,” she
mumbled, not expecting an answer.

“No, it’s not. I know you
cared a lot for her.”

“She was like a second mom to
me.”

Mina looked over her shoulder
and noticed the white handle and red metal frame in the backseat this time.
“You grabbed my bike.”

“Yeah, it took a bit of
finagling, but I got it in.” Brody reached out with his right hand to hold hers
and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Mina looked at their clasped
hands on the seat between them, and she was filled with mixed emotions. This
was everything she wanted, but she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with
guilt. She had been forced to face her true feelings about Teague in the tower,
and—given the choice—she had chosen to stay.

But she wasn’t quite herself
then. Right?

“What are we going to do if
that thing shows up again?” Brody’s mood got serious as he faced the fact that
the encounter with the Reaper would not be their last.

“We have to be prepared,
’cause what you saw is only one of many Reapers. And I don’t know how many are
coming.”

“What do you need me to do?”
He pulled up her driveway and turned the car off.

Mina studied her house. It
looked as if it had been pieced together from various eras, because, in fact,
it had. This was the house that had traveled across an ocean with magic, the
sanctuary of the Grimms. It was the safest place for her now.

But for how long? Teague’s
army destroyed the Godmothers’ Guild, and that had been warded and guarded.
Inside were her mute brother Charlie and her mom. Was the house strong enough
to protect them? She felt sick to her stomach. Even Brody’s question made her
reel.

“You shouldn’t have to do
anything. It’s not your fight. I’m so sorry you got dragged into this.” She
touched his shoulder.

Teague’s warning about taking
each of her friends away one by one was making her question the wisdom of
getting Brody and the others involved.

He looked taken aback. “No one
forced me. And this isn’t just about you. I mean it is, but if there’s a threat
to you, my friends, and our world, then you can be sure I’m going to fight it.”

Chapter
2

She inwardly breathed a sigh
of relief, but it didn’t relieve the immense feeling of pressure that built
around her. Instinctively, Mina looked around the car and outside. The back of
her neck prickled.

“Go, get inside. Now!” She
pushed Brody toward the driver’s door, and she leapt from her side and ran
toward the front door, as the dog howled somewhere—not far
enough—behind them.

Brody raced to her front
door, opened it, and beckoned her to get inside. As soon as her feet crossed
the threshold, he slammed the door.

The house shook as something
large slammed against it.

“I didn’t even see it.” Brody
pressed himself against the door. “How did it get here so fast?”

“It’s Fae,” Mina yelled over
her shoulder. She ran to the back of the house and locked the back kitchen
door. She peered out the curtains and didn’t see anything, but she could hear
it—the terrifying howl of the beast. There was a Reaper here. On their
property. All she could do was hope the wards held better than the Godmothers’.

Charlie came around from the
side room and stood in the kitchen, his face a mask of fear.

“Get Mom!” she yelled.

He nodded and took off
running up the stairs, but their mom was already on her way down.

“Mina, what’s going on?” She
had a laundry basket full of clothes, and her hair was pulled back and secured
with a clip. She wore jeans with an oversize men’s flannel shirt—Mina’s
father’s.

“It’s a Reaper who’s also a
giant black dog.”

“A what?” she pressed her
hand to her forehead with a confused look on her face.

Her gold charm bracelet
dangled from her small wrist. A new charm from Pandora’s box was attached to
it. When and how this new charm appeared on her mom’s arm was something Mina
would have to worry about later.

“Charlie,” she called to her
brother. “The bracelet.”

Her younger brother didn’t
need any more direction. He ran to his mom, grasped the charm bracelet, and
pulled with all of his might. Her mother yelled out as the chain broke, and
small golden charms scattered across the floor. Mina recognized the memory
charm and the forgetting charm, and she kicked the new one that looked like an apple
under the stove. It rattled as it rolled around.

In only a few seconds, the
haze in her mother’s eyes cleared up. The beast howled again, and her gaze
snapped to the window.

She froze, her breath caught
in her throat as her eyes darted between her kids and Brody and back outside,
where another long howl pierced the air. The sound spurred her into action. She
rushed to the cupboards and began to dig through the spices.

“Have you seen it?” Her mom
rushed about her hands shaking as she pulled out pepper, flour, and sugar and
slammed them down onto the counter.

“Yeah, it’s a Reaper.

“No,” Sara turned and gave
Mina a stern look. “Did you see the dog? What’s it look like?”

“Uh, it’s large black beast.”

“Mina. The eyes. Tell me
about the Reaper’s eyes.”

The fear combined with
resignation in her mother’s voice—that tone—scared her more than
the horrifying howl.

“White as death.”

Her mother gripped the
countertop, and her head dropped. “An omen,” she exhaled.

This time, it was Mina’s turn
to be confused. “What?”

“An omen, a Death Reaper.”
Her mother’s eyes lit with anger, and she reached into the back of the
cupboards and grabbed a large container of salt, which she pushed into Brody’s
hands. “Sprinkle it in a circle. A big one.”

“Charlie,” she said, “get me
the hand mirror from the bathroom.”

His feet pounded up the
stairs.

“But it can’t cross the
wards, right?” Mina asked, looking out the window.

“Don’t count on it. Nothing
can stop Death,” Sara said firmly.

The howling stopped, replaced
by low growling. First it sounded far away, then by the front door, and then
the beast started to ram itself against the door.
Thump. Thump. Thump.

Mina hurried to the front of
the house but saw nothing. Something invisible was ramming against the door.

“Why can’t I see it anymore?”

“You won’t, honey. You only
see a death omen once, unless he wants you to see him. But you see where he’s
been in hindsight.”

The beast stopped its attack
on the front door, so Mina jogged back to the kitchen. Brody handed her mother
the rest of the salt. Charlie ran in with a small black cosmetic mirror and
handed it to his mother.

Her mom picked the largest
chef’s knife out of the cutting block and tested the sharpness against the edge
of her thumb. She looked pleased with the results.

“How do you know this?” Mina
asked accusingly. “You’ve met him before. Haven’t you?”

Her mother stilled. Her hand
wiped a loose strand of hair out of her face, and she turned to face her
daughter. “You’re right. This is not the first time Death has come to my door. But
this is the first time I can fight back. This isn’t just any Grimm Reaper. He’s
not just hunting Grimms. This is Death himself, and he won’t leave until he’s
collected.”

“What do you mean?”

Sara looked out the kitchen
window and across the yard. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you better. I did the
best I could, but without your father, I just wasn’t strong enough. I gave up
so much to be with him. I could have done something back then, but I didn’t. I
promised him. I had to stay for you… and for Charlie. Mina, listen to me. Find
my parents. They’ll help you.” She paused and looked at Charlie and then Mina.
“I love you both…very much.”

This was the first she had
ever in her life heard her mother mention her own parents. She had grown up
thinking they were dead.

Mina watched in alarm as her
mother’s deft hands poured the salt into her right hand, picked up the knife,
and cast a furtive look over her shoulder. She added a little salt to the
knife-hand too.

“Whatever happens, don’t let
her follow me out that door. Do you hear me?” The command was directed to
Brody, who nodded solemnly. “For any reason.” She stepped out onto the back
porch and turned to face them through the window.

“Mom!” Mina yelled and rushed
for the door, but

soft hands pulled at her.
Mina looked down to see her brother’s head against her midsection as he held
onto her in a bear hug. “Charlie, let me go.”

His small head shook back and
forth violently, and his shoulders shook with fear. His emotions affected Mina
as if they were her own.

The howl sounded again, and
Mina watched her mother, whose face was grim. Sara held the mirror up and used
it to see behind her. Left and right, she swayed the mirror, staring into it
intently. What was she doing? She kept her back to the yard.

Mina pulled out of Charlie’s
grip and headed for the door, but Brody intercepted her. He picked her up
around the waist and refused to let her down.

“No. Stop it, Brody. Let me
help her.”

“You can’t. You need to stay
here for Charlie.” His voice was firm.

“Please, Brody, let me go.”
Mina cried. “I can help.”

She looked back through the
upper glass of the kitchen door and saw her mother’s shoulders stiffen. She
must have seen the beast in her mirror. She shifted her posture, and Mina knew
that the beast was close. It had stopped howling and was stalking her mother.

A loud snarl ripped through
the air, and her mother dropped the mirror and spun. She tossed a fist full of
salt into what Mina assumed were the beast’s eyes and slashed at the air.

The beast howled in pain, temporarily
blinded from the salt.

Brody’s arms were like a vise
on her, and Mina screamed, trying to pull from his embrace. She couldn’t see
the beast, but she heard a loud yelp as her mother’s knife struck true. A slash
of red appeared midair, and her mother followed her attack with another
desperate swing. Another yelp followed, and a deep voice bellowed, shaking the
windows in the house.

“Enough!”

The whole world seemed to
still. Then, the Reaper appeared on the sidewalk fifteen feet from the house.
Close up, he was even larger than before. His white, dead eyes were the stuff
of nightmares.

“I’ll kill you,” Sara
threatened. “Then you won’t be able to collect.”

“Silly mortal. You can only
wound me—even as an omen. Nothing can stop me from collecting.” The
dark-haired Reaper laughed like crackling fire.

Her mother gripped the
bloodied knife in front of her. “You can’t have my daughter.”

The Reaper hissed his
displeasure. “The girl has seen my omen. I am here to collect,” he answered. “I
cannot leave without a soul.”

Though her mother’s shoulders
shook, she stood even taller. Her voice didn’t quake as she called out loudly,
“I know you don’t care whose life you take, as long as it’s a soul. Your omen
will not hunt her again.”

“I cannot guarantee that I
won’t be sent here again.”

“You will not take her,” her
mother repeated. She tossed a handful of salt into the Reaper’s eyes this time.
He reeled back in pain, and pressed his hands against his eyes. “Yesss.”

For just a moment, Mina felt
like her mother had won. But then her mother tossed the chef’s knife into the
grass and stepped off the porch. She walked confidently toward the Reaper.

“Then take your soul.” She
held up her hands as if she were walking into her lover’s arms. Her head fell
back, and her eyes closed.

The air around the Reaper
blurred until the omen stood only feet away from her mother. It snarled and
growled and let out a one last long howl.

And then it lunged and
disappeared.

“
Nooooo
!” A young, high-pitched voice wailed.

Mina turned. That wail was
her brother’s very first word. “Charlie!”

Brody released her. She
wrapped her arms around her brother as he sobbed and cried out in pain.

“No, M-M-Mom.” His eyes were
red and filled with tears.

When Mina glanced out the
door, the yard was empty.