“Nan, I don’t think they attend our school,” Mina whispered. She was right; there was a completely different group of students that couldn’t or wouldn’t take their eyes off of her. To test a theory, Mina looped her arm through Nan’s and walked over to a food table. They followed at a distance, trying to not draw attention.
“They ARE following you!” Nan mouthed.
“Where’s Brody?” Mina walked back to where she had last seen him, but he was gone. “I have to find Jared!” Mina called out, feeling herself panic. If she couldn’t have Brody by her side, at least she wanted to know where Jared was.
“I don’t know. He danced with me for a few songs, but then he disappeared. Mina, those guys are coming over her.”” Nan nodded with her chin to the group of guys again. They had stopped trying to blend in with the crowd and now moved menacingly toward Mina and Nan.
The tingling sensation began in Mina’s body and she knew it was time. But instead of rising to the occasion, she lost her nerve. “Nan, I have to get out of here.” She began to pull on Nan’s arm, and together they turned and headed for an exit.
The first door was blocked by Rapunzel’s tower and the second was right between the group of unknown guys. No way was she heading there.
“The stage. There’s another exit behind the D.J. on the stage,” Nan yelled over the music. They ducked under a column of streamers and balloons and headed up the steps to the stage. Once onstage, Mina looked out over the dance floor and saw two groups of people making their way toward the stage. Who were they? What did they want? When they passed through the foggy dance floor and the lasers hit them, Mina noticed a slight blurring of their human form. What she saw for that split second chilled her to the bone. One of them looked up to the stage and saw Mina’s terrified face. He ditched the mask and practically drooled with pleasure at seeing her so scared.
“Here!” Nan shouted, having pulled a curtain aside and found the exit door that led backstage. They ran toward the stairs that led down to the side doors, but were blocked by a large man.
“Eeep!” Nan squealed as someone grabbed her from behind and clamped a fist over her mouth.
Another figure loomed out of the dark. Mina screamed in fright, but it couldn’t be heard over the thumping of the bass.
“Ah, Little Red, Little Red, you strayed from the path.” The one Jared had called Grey Tail moved in quickly. Mina tried to run, but he lunged for her and slammed her against the wall, spinning her so that her head crashed into the brick. Spots flecked across Mina’s vision.
Grey Tail leaned forward and pressed his face into her neck, inhaling her scent. He brushed his teeth against a vein in her throat, following the pulse from her clavicle to chin. “Where’s the book?” he whispered, growling into her ear.
“I told you before, I don’t have it,” Mina whimpered. The way he was leaning on her she feared he might feel it in her bodice.
“She’s lying” a woman said, her gravelly voice echoing out of the darkness.
“Does it look like I have a book on me?” Mina shouted at the figure in the dark. Her vision was swimming, and she heard a slow click, click in her head.
“She may have left it at home,” Grey Tail said hesitantly to the dark figure, while still pressing himself close to his prey.
“You searched her home once and didn’t find it. What makes you think you think she would have left it there now? Use your brain, you worthless dog.”
Mina’s vision began to clear and she could make out the wood flooring of the stage. The clicking sound drew nearer, and slowly a pair of red high heeled shoes came into view. She knew those heels and was about to comment on them when a hand grabbed Mina’s hair roughly, digging the bobby pins deeply into her scalp, and forcing her to look at the speaker.
It was Claire.
Chapter 22
Or what used to be Claire. She had aged considerably within a few weeks. She no longer looked to be in her thirties but now eighties. Her hair had turned grey, her skin wrinkled and covered in sun spots. She had lost weight, too much of it, till there was barely a trace of the beautiful woman Mina had met once before
“This is your fault,” she spat at Mina, gripping Mina’s head and slammed it again against the wall again, proving that her body had aged but her strength had not diminished. “I was perfect, timeless, until you showed up at my bakery. Who would have thought that an actual Grimm would walk through my doors? I’m honored, really, to be included in the infamous tales, and maybe if I had fed on an earlier school tour, I would have noticed you. Believe me, if I had, you wouldn’t have survived long.”
Mina shrank away from Claire’s touch. Jared had said that she would eventually age and die, but Mina had thought it would take years, not days. It made her wonder even more at the depth and power of the tales.
“I’m sorry; I had no idea about the power of the tale until days later. You have to believe me.”
Claire studied Mina closely. “I believe you, sweet child. But you see, we still have a problem. I don’t want to age. I want to stay young forever. I want it to go back to the way it was before you showed up at my bakery.”
“I can’t. I don’t know how to reverse what was done.” Mina trembled with fear. The men that surrounded Claire stepped forward, flexing their fingers, eager for the violence to begin.
“Nonsense, you can. I’ve been told you’re the chosen one, and you have the Grimoire. You have the power to change the tale.”
“I don’t,” Mina cried out.
“You do!” Claire grinned evilly. “And all I think you need is some proper motivation. Bring them in, Lonetree.”