Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 5)

“Take my brother and run. Hide him from the Fae. I can’t focus on what’s coming next if I’m looking over my shoulder for Charlie. Is there somewhere you can go, somewhere your family owns that you can hide him?”

“Well, yeah maybe the—”

“Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” Mina gripped Nan’s arms. “No one can find him. No one can know, not even your parents.”

“But I can’t kidnap him, Mina. I’m not his legal guardian.”

“Nan,” Mina shot out. “Our mother’s gone. He’s going to end up in the system. They’re going to take him. But that’s the least of my worries. What if the Fae come after him? When this all dies down, you can bring him back. But remember, if something happens to me, Charlie becomes the next Grimm. He trusts you, Nan. You’re the one he’d want on his side. And he’ll need protection—help. He’ll need you.”

Nan’s eyes turned glassy with tears. She left the circle of mirrors, paced the hall, rubbed her hands across her face in worry. She cried. Then she got angry. Every emotion crossed her face as she battled with what she was about to do.

Mina knew the minute Nan had made the decision to take and hide Charlie. Her posture straightened, she held her head high, and she looked Mina dead in the eye.

“No one will harm Charlie on my watch. I swear it.”

“Good.” Mina hugged her friend and cried.

She was asking a lot of Nan. It was illegal, and she would have to hide from her family. But Nan was used to living on her own. Her mom and stepdad were hardly ever home. When this was all over, Mina knew that he’d be taken care of, she’d see to that. If they won this battle.

“Mina. What are you going to do while I’m gone?”

“Try and survive.”

There was more strategizing and planning schedules as they figured out what they were going to do about Teague. Ever had a plan that honestly might work, so Mina got Nix and Brody to agree to carry the mirrors upstairs and arrange them in her room.

Chapter 12

While Ever and Nix positioned the mirrors in her bedroom, Mina and Nan threw things into suitcases as quickly and quietly as they could. Charlie only woke up once, and that was when they were shuffling him out to Nan’s Volkswagen beetle. When he saw Mina, he immediately closed his eyes and started crying.

He was mentally exhausted, and she felt terrible about it. She stopped in the middle of the yard and wrapped her arms around him. “Listen up, bud. Nan is going to take care of you. You’re going off on an adventure together. You like adventures, don’t you?”

Charlie’s head bobbed yes.

“Well, she’s got the best one planned, and when you get back, we will have this all figured out. Okay? Can you do this for me? Can you listen to Nan and be a good kid?”

Charlie sniffed and looked over to Nan, who sat back watching them. Hands shoved in her coat pockets, her head dipping down. Nan was crying as well.

Charlie let go of Mina and walked over to Nan, sliding his smaller hand into hers. He smiled wanly up at her and said. “I’ll protect Nan.”

Nan looked at their clasped hands, and the tears flowed freely.

“Ah, little buddy.” She met Mina’s eyes, her voice filled with promise. “You know I’d give my life for him. You know that right?”

“That’s why it has to be you.”

“You give the word, and we’ll be back,” Brody said as he packed their sleeping bags into the back of the car. She never had any doubt that once he knew what Nan was doing, he’d go with and watch over her. That was why Mina needed to get Nan to agree before she told Brody.

“You have to go quickly.” Mina tried not to look at her watch in front of them.

They had spent hours packing and getting ready for this trip. She had only a few hours left. She wanted her friends far away. She didn’t want Teague to stop her—or to find them if he changed his mind.

Nan opened the car door, and Mina buckled Charlie into the backseat and ran her hand over his hair. He’d need a haircut soon, and his birthday was coming up. She hoped she’d be alive to celebrate with him. She had packed his suitcase with clothes, jackets, and his favorite toys—even his Star Wars light saber.

“I love you, Charlie,” Mina whispered as she gave him one last hug and kissed his forehead.

“Love you back,” he whispered with a bear hug.

She wouldn’t have let him go ever, except that he was the one who let go of her first. She wrapped the blanket from the sofa around him, and his head started to droop. Exhaustion was catching up with all of them.