Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 4)

“Well, technically you did, but I want to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind.” Brody raised one eyebrow at her and waited.

Nix watched the exchange, holding a long wooden spoon filled with the green paste up in the air. Any minute now, he would start tapping his foot.

“This has nothing to do with the date. You’re just trying to delay the inevitable. Just let him treat your arm before you get rabies and die, you big baby.”

“Okay,” Brody said sheepishly. He held out his arm.

Nix looked relieved and started to smear the goo up and down, covering the large bite marks. Mina didn’t want to draw any more unnecessary attention to it, but those wounds were made by something bigger than any dog she’d ever seen. Way bigger.

“It feels weird.” Brody kept flexing his fingers. “It’s getting hot.”

“That means it’s working.” Nix grinned and went to pick up the glass jar he had found earlier. “At home in my cave, I used to keep a jar of this stuff. I never expected to find it here in your world.”

Mina’s eyes went wide, and Brody’s head snapped to look at Nix.

“Cave? World? What in—”

“Heaven’s name is going on in here!” her mother screeched as she came to a halt in her kitchen. Her face flushed red as she surveyed the mess in the kitchen, the half-naked boy sitting at the table with her daughter, and the other boy wearing her apron.

Charlie peeked around his mother and took one look at Nix in his apron and ran to him. Nix bent down and scooped the boy into his arms in a big hug. Charlie began to pull on Nix’s red hair and touch his face as if he couldn’t believe the difference. It took a second for Mina to realize that this was the first time her brother had seen Nix’s new human body. He’d seen Nix on the Fae plane with green hair and skin. Charlie had been the one to insist that she drag him into their world. She hadn’t been sure Charlie would remember.

“Hey, Li’l man.” Nix chuckled, placing Charlie’s feet back on the floor.

Charlie smiled and yanked on Nix’s arm, pulling him out of the kitchen and pointing toward his room.

“What are you doing, Charlie?” her mom asked, evidently confused at her son’s reception to a complete stranger.

“It’s okay. They’ll be fine,” Mina spoke up. She jumped up and moved as far as she could across the room from Brody and began to clean up. “I’ll have this cleaned in no time, Mom.”

“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing and why he’s”—she pointed to Brody’s chest but wouldn’t look at him—“not wearing a shirt. And what is that awful smell?” Brody was smart enough to move to the restroom to try and clean up.

“Mom,” Mina rushed over to her and pulled her closer to the sink. “Let me explain. Look at his—”

“Mina, I don’t know that I want to hear an explanation.”

“He was bitten by a wolf.”

“That’s ridiculous. There are no wolves around here.”

“No, I think it was a different kind of wolf. You know. Of the Fae variety. Although I’m not certain.”

Her mom stopped talking and froze. Mina gave her credit for not immediately breaking down into hysterics. She looked over at Brody’s empty chair and asked, “Is he going to be okay?”

“I think so. Nix made something, and it seems to be making it better.” She gestured to the messy kitchen.

“Nix?”

“The boy with red hair, the one that’s with Charlie.” Her mother walked over and gingerly picked up each bottle reading the label. She looked into the cauldron and over to the teapot. “This smells familiar, this smells…Fae. Mina, what do you know about this boy?”

For starters, Mina didn’t know her mother could tell just by smell what things were Fae and what weren’t. Was that even possible?

“Charlie saved Nix’s life when Nix was about to die on the Fae plane.”

“Charlie was on the Fae plane? When? What happened?”

“I think it’s best if you ask your Fae godmother Terry for those answers. Right now, I need you to trust me. We are doing what we can for Brody.”

Brody stuck his head in the kitchen and held out his arm. “You won’t believe this.” He pulled up one end of the dry paste to reveal a bright pink patch of skin. There wasn’t a single wound left. “That putrid smelling garbage works.”