Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 4)

Chapter 2

Mina tried to strike the suitcase from her mind, but it kept haunting her all through her English Lit. She barely paid attention as student after student went up and gave their five-minute oral report. Brody stood up and spoke for minutes on something. Even his tanned figure, sun bleached blond hair, and blue eyes didn’t distract her from her inner turmoil for more than a moment.

What was it that caused Charlie to flicker out like that? Was it something in the suitcase? Was it a sickness? Oh goodness, she really hoped not. Maybe it was all a figment of her imagination. Yeah, that was easier to believe. She’d just chalk it up to the extra stress she’d been under.

Nix sauntered from the back of the room and paused for a second by her desk to gently place a small rounded piece of sea glass on her book. It wasn’t Nix’s first token of thanks. Every few days he’d discover something different, unique, and wonderful about the human plane, and he’d leave little gifts for her to find on her desk or in her locker.

Mina smiled and picked up the smooth bit of glass. It was dark green and probably at one time part of a beer bottle, but Nix didn’t need to know that. She remembered his home on the Fae plane and how there were tons of crystals placed in the wall. She had a feeling that here, in her world, Nix might become a bit of a hoarder if not properly immersed in the culture.

But it seemed that Ever had taken care of that, or was at least trying. She’d become his sponsor, like a guardian to Nix, helping him to adapt and fit in with the social norms of a teenager. Currently though, he was living with the other Fae at the Godmother’s Guild.

Ever wasn’t a fan of the place and didn’t really like being near the Godmothers’ home, but she did what she could when it came to Nix.

Nix went to the front of the class, running his hands through his tumbled red hair in nervousness. He took a deep breath and smiled, making those Fae green eyes twinkle mischievously and the female classmates sigh. He seemed to take everything that was new to him in stride and with enthusiasm. He had never been to school before and didn’t quite understand the logistics of homework, or the need for it, but his personality and contagious enthusiasm helped him get out of loads of trouble. That or there could have been a little of the Nixie charm still in his blood.

“Ahem,” Nix cleared his throat, looked over at Mina, and winked. “Dr. Seuss was a man passionate about animals and clothes. He put hats on cats and socks on foxes. He was always losing his Things so he took to numbering them. I think he may at one point have lived on a mountain as a hermit who didn’t have a heart. And the people in the village didn’t know Who they were…uh…the end!” Nix said with enthusiasm.

The students had giggled throughout his presentation, but as soon as he was done, the room erupted. T.J. and Steven started hooting loudly and gave him a standing ovation. Nix’s face turned red, but he bowed and jogged through a gauntlet of high fives, receiving numerous pats on the back as well.

The teacher just stared after Nix with a look of utter confusion on his face. Luckily, Ever and Mina were able to convince the school that Nix, or Nick—his new human name—was a foreign exchange student from some far off land. Ever had to pick a country so small no one would even know about in the hopes that it would explain his lack of knowledge in modern culture. Up to this point it had worked, because the teachers had been extremely helpful and lenient toward him.

Nix’s survival of the trip to the human plane had been a godsend, because it was the one thing that brought Ever and Mina back together. Ever had been five shades of furious over Mina’s error in being tricked with the Grimoire and losing Jared to Teague. She had actually still refused to talk to her until she learned Charlie and Mina saved Nix’s life by bringing him over. Ever had a few choice words about how dangerous and stupid it was, but she understood. And as Mina was trying to explain the school bus to Nix—how it wasn’t a giant yellow beast devouring a sacrifice of young children—Ever finally took pity on her.

T.J. returned to his seat amid laughter and a few claps. Mina had missed the entire thing, remembering. She’d need to pay better attention.

“Nan Taylor?” Mr. Morris called from his desk.

Mina craned her neck, surprised when her best friend popped up from the back corner of the classroom. She had thought, since the desk next to her was empty, that Nan hadn’t come to school today. Quite possibly though, she wouldn’t have recognized Nan with her bottleneck glasses, crazy ratted hair, and dark robe even if she were beside her.

It was apparent from her dress, Nan was trying to make a grand entrance. Her normally beautiful blonde hair was disguised beneath a very large witch hat. Her mischievous blue eyes were hidden behind thick glasses, which Mina could only assume were impossible to see out of. Mina’s assumption was proven correct when Nan banged her knee against a desk.

Once she reached the whiteboard, Nan turned up her iPhone, and familiar mystical music floated through the air. She always did prefer the dramatic approach to… well, everything. Nan decided to take a simple oral presentation and dress up as a character from the Harry Potter series.

Nan’s presentation was highly entertaining and informative, and she received bonus points from their teacher for taking the presentation one step forward with such creativity.

Mina’s heart sank when her name was called to do her presentation. Her hands clutched her paper, which was only slightly wrinkled from being folded and unfolded a hundred or more times in the last thirty minutes.

She desperately wished she had her best friend’s confidence in front of a crowd. Mina’s feet felt like they were encased in cement, and her heart pounded so loud and fast, she could hear it in her head. Why did she have to be so nervous? She happened to look out the window and saw that the clear sky had turned a dismal gray—which mirrored her feelings of distress.

She trudged up to the front of the room, desperately wishing for a giant crater to open up in the ground in front of her and swallow her whole. Or a meteor to come crashing into the school’s football field and cause a big huge distracting thing, so she could duck out the back of the room. But luck wasn’t on her side. Luck was never on her side. In fact she was pretty sure it avoided her at all costs.

She was standing in front of the class and she was now out of time. A small cylindrical object weighed heavily in Mina’s pocket, and she felt her hand gently brush against the seam ripper, its magic powerful enough to rip through the physical plane to the Fae plane by creating a door between the worlds. Oh, how she wanted to use it.

Her teacher Mr. Morris gave her a small smile of encouragement, and she felt her gumption leave. It was a bit ridiculous, if she thought about it. She could fight off bears, wolves, sea witches, Stiltskins, giants, ogres, and snakes, but she couldn’t handle standing in front of her peers and giving a dumb speech.

Her stomach dropped and a bitter acidic taste rose up in her mouth. Oh, Heaven Almighty, help her! She was going to puke. Was her face turning green? Isn’t that what happened right before an epic expulsion of bodily fluids? Or maybe her face would turn white.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she turned her head to try and see if she could tell from her reflection in the window. In the middle of the afternoon, she shouldn’t have seen anything, but the sky’s dimming its own sickly green made a reflection possible. A few seconds’ glance told her that her face was white.

She didn’t look well at all.

“My report is on Joseph and Wilhelm Grimm, otherwise known as the Brothers Grimm. Joseph and W-Wilhelm traveled the world collecting all of the various Fae—ry tales for their own records.”

Her hands began to shake. She saw that Nix had caught her blunder and quick recovery. Nan was smiling at her like a goon, trying to encourage her to keep going.

Mina smiled back and continued with her report. When her eyes flickered to Brody Carmichael, she started to stumble over her words again. Brody was leaning back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest with his head cocked ever so slightly to the side. He gave the impression that he was studying something of interest, and that something of interest happened to be Mina.