Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 5)

Teague stood there, furious, his shirt and pants soaking wet and covered with bubbles.

“What are you doing in here?” Mina yelled at him. “Get out!”

“Not until I’m sure you’re not drowning yourself in the bathtub!” He flicked the bubbles off of his arms and tried to roll up his wet sleeves. Water dripped from him and puddled all around him on the stone floor. A moment later, his face paled and then turned bright red. He spun his back to her.

“Of course I’m not drowning myself! I was only under for a few seconds.”

“Few seconds! A few seconds. More like a few minutes.”

“That’s impossible,” Mina answered.

“No, it’s not!” he pointed up at the Fae light that bobbed up and down. “You had been under for five minutes. “I’m not sure if a Siren can even stay under that long. The Fae light wouldn’t have alerted me if it didn’t believe you were in danger.”

It was certainly clear she’d upset him. She wanted to get out, but she couldn’t with him in the room. “Can you hand me a towel?”

Teague’s shoulders hunched as he tried to look to the side to find a towel for her, but he realized how undignified it was. In a fit of temper, he blasted through the wall and left her in her warm tub of bubbles alone.

The Fae light bobbed up and down, visibly distressed.

“You’ve been spying on me?” Mina accused it in an annoyed tone, even though she had assumed it was. The light bobbed sadly in affirmation. “Shame on you.”

The light softly dimmed.

Mina couldn’t hold a grudge against her silent light protector, so she quickly added, “It’s fine, just… is there no one else for you to go to for help but him?”

The light dimmed again, and she assumed that meant no.

>Teague appeared and caught the ball midair.

“You know that almost hit me.” He looked at the crumpled straw in his hand.

“Oh no, you were almost impaled by a piece of straw and died,” Mina said. “Too bad.”

“It wouldn’t have killed me.” Teague frowned and discarded the homemade ball.

“Oh, bad sportsmanship, minus two points.” She picked up another straw ball and took aim at the target. She flicked it, and it hit low on the target.

Teague stood off to the side, watching her as she played her game. She didn’t ask him to join in, even though she kinda thought he wanted to. He seemed really interested in just watching her. He even made a chair materialize, so he could sit comfortably. He didn’t speak.

After an hour, he disappeared again.

He appeared again the next afternoon when she was scratching another target on the wall. She turned around, and he was next to her with his own pile of straw balls—his were green. He picked one up and flicked it at her. It bounced off her forehead, and she flinched.

“Two points.” Teague grinned and reached for another ball.

“I’m not the target.” Mina pointed at the second one, higher up the wall. “That is.”

“Could have fooled me. I’m winning, two to zero,” he crowed.

“My game, my rules.” She kneeled in front of her stack. She’d had a feeling he would appear today just as she was setting up the game. “Zero-zero.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. But she could see the challenge light up his eyes.

She didn’t want to admit it, but she was excited at the prospect of beating him.

“And no cheating,” Mina remembered to add at the last minute.

Teague’s shoulders wilted a little at the reminder.