Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 4)

“No. You can’t.”

“I’m sorry, Mina. But we have too. He’s seen too much.”

“He helped. He was saving lives.” She tried to champion Brody’s cause, but he just gave her arm a squeeze.

“We told you, you could have one.” Constance answered.

“Yeah, well, your rules suck. And I don’t think I’m going to follow them anymore.” Mina grabbed Brody’s arm and tried to lead him away as fast as she could.

But Ferah walked up to Brody and, in a split second, placed her hand on his forehead. A slight glow appeared around him, then dissipated.

“No!” Mina swatted her hand away and looked to Brody. He eyes weren’t focusing. “Brody! Brody, answer me. It’s me. Mina.”

He didn’t say a word.

Constance motioned to someone down by the waterfront, and a woman started softly singing. She must have been another muse, like Constance, for when she sang, fire sprang up. In seconds, the dead were engulfed in flames, and Mina cried out.

Her Godmother was no more. It hurt. To not be able to say good-bye. Mei had done so much for her and her family. Protecting her, watching out for her, and causing a bit of mischief at the same time. How was she going to tell her mom about this?

Constance turned to Ferah and Nix. “Get the last of the Fae loaded up. We need to get to our backup location before the dark prince comes back for us.”

Nix nodded and ran over to one of the Fae loading trucks. He jumped up onto the back of the truck bed and began getting the people settled in as comfortably as he could.

“Where are you going? Where are you taking Nix?” Mina asked, feeling like she was being abandoned.

“We have to get to a safe house. I have to protect our people. I’m sorry, Mina. But right now, they are my first priority.”

“You’re abandoning me? You are the one to start all of this and now you’re walking away.”

“Look at the truck and tell me what you see.”

She scanned the back and saw Nix sitting down, pulling a small child into his lap. “Children. I see a lot of women and children.”

Constance nodded her head. “They ran while the men fought off Teague’s army and tried to keep the building from collapsing. I have to get them to safety. I can’t let Teague hurt them.”

“I understand,” Mina whispered. Her heart ached for all of the children that lost a loved one or a parent.

Constance was about to head up to the trucks but turned to give her a warning. “Mina, there’s something else you should know.”

She was exhausted and hurting, and she didn’t really want to hear any more news from the GM’s.

“Teague’s goal wasn’t just to attack us. He took something.”

“What was it?” Mina began to chew on her lip in worry. She didn’t need her most dangerous ally to have another huge weapon.

“He stole one of the mirrors from the hall.”

“You mean one of the Grimm mirrors? Whose mirror?”

Constance pushed her glasses up on her nose and gave her a worried look. “Yours.”

Chapter 33

“What?” It was worse than she thought. If Teague had her mirror, there was no way for her to ever surprise him. He could watch her every second of every day. Her stomach rolled, and she turned and slipped her hand into Brody’s unresponsive one. He was still in a memory funk.

In a matter of minutes, the rest of the Fae had cleared the site and were pulling away in the loaded the trucks. Ever, Mina, and Brody watched as five trucks filed in line and drove down an old service road. On their way to who knows where. Nix’s truck was the last to pull out, and he watched them solemnly. When they were about to turn a corner and pass out of sight, Nix stood up and waved goodbye.

Brody snapped out of his coma to raise his arm and salute his best friend. Mina turned and gave him an odd stare. Ever just grinned and rolled her eyes.