Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 5)

Nan covered Brody’s hand against her face and threaded her fingers through his, bringing it down to her lap. “Positive. That was Mina. She even spoke in code. Not very good code, but there were enough clues that only she would have known. We’re going to San Francisco.”

“That’s hours away!”

>She pulled it out and saw her father’s likeness carefully drawn in coal. He’d been very young at the time—before he grew out his mustache—possibly in his early twenties. Studying her mother’s love for her father, forbidden but blooming all the same, felt like an invasion of privacy. Mina carefully tucked the picture back into the book and placed it in the bottom of the trunk.

“Tell me about her, before, when she was a siren,” she said.

“Oh, she was a handful—stubborn and one of the strongest in her gifts. I can see that her bloodline passed on to each of you. So it’s not just your father’s curse you were born with, but your mother’s gifts as well.”

“But why would she hide it—from my father, from me?”

“Your father, James, hated the Fae, because they killed his brother. When your mother saved his life, he didn’t know she was a siren. But they fell in love so deeply, he willingly shared his secret, his curse. When Sara learned how much he hated the Fae, she chose to keep her identity a secret. But Ternan told you all of that already—about her deal with the sprite and all.”

“Wait. A sprite, you say?”

“Yes. One of the most powerful nixies of all. She was once employed at the castle as one of the Queen’s own handmaidens, before she was banished.”

“I bet you I know what she was banished for,” Mina breathed out excitedly. Her heart was racing. She’d once asked the Godmothers, and no one knew where this sprite had disappeared to. “You don’t happen to know where I can find her, do you?”

Ternan’s expression soured. “Now why would you  want to stir up trouble with her?”

“Because I think she can help me.”

“Nay, she can’t help anyone but herself. She’s a conniving, deceitful—”

“Ternan,” Winona gently warned. “You cannot let what happened with our daughter cloud your judgment.”

“Wait…what bargain did they make? I thought Ternan said my mom got help from a sea witch.”

Winona closed her eyes and whispered softly to herself. When she opened her eyes, there were tears in the corners. “Ternan spoke the truth when he called her a sea witch earlier. Sprites are entities of water like us, and they go by many names—depending on their choices. Water sprites, nixies—or the deplorable one—sea witch.”

“It’s true, they can’t be trusted,” Winona said.

“And now both of our daughters are dead,” Ternan growled angrily.

“I’ll soon be dead, if I don’t find another way to stop what’s about to happen,” Mina said.

“We could protect you. We could help you,” her grandmother said.

She shook her head. “I need to find this sprite, this sea witch. Please, if you know anything… Help me.”

Both of her grandparents looked pained at the prospect. Winona spoke up first. “She’s here on the human plane. This is where she was banished after the Fates were unhappy with the deal they had made.”

“Where?”

“We do not know. We know only the name which she goes by here.”

“Which is?”

“Taz Clara.”

“That’s it? That’s all you can tell me?”

“That’s all anyone knows. Truly, if you don’t find her, that may be for the better.”

Mina felt frustrated. No plan she came up with worked. She couldn’t find Charlie, and now—when the possibility of finding the one who’d split Teague rallied her spirits—she had only a name. Taz Clara.

She left Ternan and Winona’s room and made her way below deck to the sleeping quarters. It was pretty empty except for a few sirens who looked to be taking an afternoon nap. Ever and Nix were chatting while they swung in their hammocks.