Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 4)

Finally, Brody came to claim her for their first dance. His hair was messed up and there was a smear of lipstick across his cheek. The sight made her uncomfortable, except that she knew he hadn’t left the dance floor the whole time. He’d just been the victim of Daphne’s parting gift.

Brody gripped Mina around the waist and pulled her to the middle of the floor. “How are you surviving?”

“I’m actually quite enjoying myself,” Mina laughed.

Brody frowned. “That’s unfortunate. You should be just as miserable as me, since we haven’t been able to dance together.”

“What do you call what we’re doing now?” she teased.

He had to stop and look down. “Uh, dancing.”

“And are you miserable?”

“No, I’m not,” he admitted.

“Then quit complaining.” They continued to dance, Brody leading, Mina attempting to follow. He joked and she laughed, but something felt off. Maybe it was the building tension she felt—a tremble of trepidation that sent shivers down her arms.

The song was almost over when a mirror ball was turned on and the room alit with dancing lights. A woman and her partner stopped dancing to comment on the display.

“Hey, those shoes are amazing! How much did it cost to get them to light up?” the lady in the blue dress asked.

“Light up?” Confused, Mina looked around at the faces as the crowd slowed to watch her. Lifting the hem of her dress slightly, she gasped aloud. Her glass slippers pulsed with a light that grew brighter and brighter.

“Mina, what’s happening?” Brody asked.

“No, not here! Not now!” Mina turned to run off the floor.

Brody called out after her, but she didn’t stop, didn’t slow down. She just kept running. Tears started to fall as she realized the implications of what she was doing. She ran through the foyer, toward the exit, aiming to get out of the building and onto the golf course behind the club. Somewhere where there were less people.

She never made it. Her shoes sparkled and the lights flickered faster. She picked up the hem of her dress and barely made it down the first few steps when Brody burst through the doors in a panic, as if he too realized what the Cinderella story really entailed. He would lose her.

And—with the Story in charge—he might not find her.

“Mina!” Brody yelled from the top of the stairs.

She stopped running. “Stay back, Brody.” Mina stood on the bottom step, holding her hands up warning him away.

“Don’t go,” he said. “Please.” He looked heartbroken.

“I have to. I have no choice.” The tinkling sound grew more intense, and a piercing white light surrounded her, cutting off her view of Brody. One minute, she saw him mouthing her name and reaching for her. The next—he was gone.

Chapter 19

Mina refused to move until her eyes adjusted from the flash of light.

Right before she’d transported, she heard a loud sucking noise followed by a small pop. She could only imagine what being pulled through time would do to her nervous system. Her limbs tingled from the rush of returning blood as if her whole body had fallen asleep. Tall spindly forms began to come into focus around her.

Trees.

Where had she ended up? When? Teeth chattering uncontrollably, Mina wondered how the whole time travel thing actually worked. Had she gone into a hyper sleep? Broken down into energy particles, beamed somewhere else, and rematerialized like on Star Trek? The sheer thought of it all scared her. She was just grateful to be alive and in one piece.

She tried to take a step, but her body seized up in pain and she had to grab onto a nearby tree for stability. Her hands were cold as ice, but she tried to continue moving. She didn’t know how much time she had, but she figured she needed to find Jacob and Wilhelm. This whole curse had started with them, so maybe if she could find them and warn them about the Fae plane, she could convince them never to set foot there. Maybe, just maybe, she could end the curse before it ever began. Then the brothers would never catch the eye of the Fae or the Reapers. And her family would be safe.

But what if Schumacher’s shoes didn’t take her to the right time? What if she didn’t land in Germany—or anywhere in the vicinity of where she needed to be to save the Grimm Brothers? She tried to keep herself together and not fall into hysterics. She really should start thinking things through before she agreed to these plans.

Wait, she had thought them through. She said no! Look how well that didn’t work.

She blinked and studied the mossy pine forest around her. Her eyes had adjusted enough that she could try and make it out of the woods to look for a road. If she could find a highway, it might lead to a town where she could get more information.