Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 2)

Jared threw Mina to the ground covering her with his body as burning furniture whisked by overhead almost hitting them. She tried to look up, but Jared kept her head buried in the ground. She could feel flames lick her feet as it passed by her and into the book. Mina and Jared began to be pulled toward the book. Loud rushing wind, howling and screaming could be heard, until Mina realized that she was the one screaming. She had never seen the book pull this hard before, and she feared that both of them would be entrapped as well.

One moment it felt like the hospital was about to fall down on them; the next, silence. Jared waited a few seconds before moving over and letting Mina up. But he kept his arm protectively around her. Mina barely noticed. Her attention was on the damage before them; the whole wing was destroyed. The fire had been smothered by the windy vortex. A half burned piece of paper fluttered down from the air to land on Mina’s head. Pulling it off she barely glanced at it but saw that it had Nan Taylor’s name on it.

>“Hey! Don’t go down there, there’s a fire. I managed to get them out, but I need you to take them.”

The nurse, whose name tag read ‘Mandy’, looked down the hall to where Mina pointed. Her eyes widened in fright and her training kicked in; she grabbed the bed and began to push toward the emergency exit. Mina could see patients that were strong enough to walk, being escorted toward the stairs. Others were lifted and carried.

Looking down the hall, Mina saw the nurse wave to a young man who did a fireman lift on the doctor and head down the stairs. Mandy scooped up Nan and carried her down herself. They were the last to exit the floor. Satisfied that they would be safe, Mina ran back toward the room.

The floor rumbled under her feet, and then a wall crashed outward as Diedre and Karl fell into the hallway. Karl stabbed the dragon again, but Diedre used her large claws to rake down his stomach. Unbelievably, he wasn’t sustaining as much damage as the dragon. The dragon bit his arm, and a loud metallic crunch was heard.

Mina grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and ran back into the burning room. She used the extinguisher to clear a path to look through the fiery rubble. Somewhere in this wreckage was the Grimoire. Smoke burned her eyes, and she dropped to the ground to stay below the rising smoke.

There it was. The Grimoire was in a pile of debris by the wall. She used the extinguisher on the wood that was burning right above the book, hoping it wouldn’t catch fire. She grabbed the book and hurriedly made her way out into the hall. She saw that the fire had now spread down to the other rooms and that Diedre and Karl were now fighting in the waiting room.

Mina held the Grimoire in her hands and could almost feel the book take an audible sigh. “You ready?” she asked the book.

“It’s about time,” Jared spoke loudly next to her. “I thought you were going to forget about me.”

She looked over her shoulder and saw Jared in head to toe black. “I should have abandoned you. You deserve it.” He was about to say something else when a painful roar filled the air.

Mina began running toward the sound and saw that the dragon had Karl’s blade embedded deep in her belly, but she had pinned him to the ground with her sheer weight. If she moved to remove the knife, Karl would escape. If she stayed where she was, slowly but surely the knife would bury deeper into her abdomen. The dragon roared in pain, and began to bite at the Reaper’s arms, making very little progress.

“Why isn’t he dying?” Mina cried out.

“The Reaper is an iron giant. Her dragon claws, teeth, and fire won’t be enough to kill him.”

“What can kill him?” Mina wailed.

“No one knows, but she will kill herself trying to protect us,” Jared said sadly. He looked upon the old dragon, and his eyes had a glassy look to them, like he was crying.

“Do it!” the dragon roared out in a high gravelly voice. Mina looked over to Diedre whose mouth formed very distinct words. “Do it now! Use the book!” She commanded.

Karl began to panic when it heard the dragon speak and tried to fight. He bellowed and shifted into a man larger than an Ogre but with thinner arms and legs. His skin became translucent and silver. He yelled, screamed, and punched the dragon, trying to get away. The Reaper was fearful of being imprisoned in the book.

“Why is she doing this? Tell her to stop and move away.” Mina opened the book, but Jared shook his head.

“She won’t. He is too strong for either of us, and we can’t weaken him. If she released him, we would never catch him to entrap him in the book. It’s the only way.” Jared stared at the dragon regretfully and walked over to her. He touched the scales of her side, and Mina heard the dragon sigh with happiness.

“I won’t do it,” Mina decided, tears running down her cheeks, feeling intense loyalty to the dragon, who only moments ago she thought was the reaper. She had assumed the dragon was trying to hurt her, but in reality, she was trying to scare her away from the hospital. Now, she was protecting them.

Jared turned on her angrily. “You will. If you don’t, you dishonor her death and it will be for nothing.” He continued to rub the dragon’s scales and even went so far as to touch her bleeding silver snout.

Karl reached down and grabbed ahold of the handle of the jagged knife and began to push it further into the dragon. The dragon roared out in pain. Jared tried to grab the knife from Karl, but the dragon swung her wide head and knocked Jared across the room, out of the reach of the giant.

Mina screamed as he hit the wall, but he rolled quickly to his feet and he glared at her. “Do it now! Use the book and entrap them! She is dying.”

“I can’t!” Mina cried, tears falling freely. She crumpled to the ground and watched the dragon and giant fight. Minutes ago, she had thought Diedre was her enemy. Now she knew that wasn’t true. How could she possibly entrap the dragon for eternity in a book?

Jared kneeled down next to Mina and grasped her upper arms, looking deep into her eyes. His grey eyes were red with tears. He shook her firmly but gently. “Listen to me. She is dying; she knows it. I know it. The Reaper knows it. If you don’t entrap them now, then once she dies, the Reaper will be free and he will kill you.”

Dark smoke filled the hallways, and she could feel heat begin to warm her back. Jared shook her again. “If you don’t do it soon, we will all die anyway.”

Mina looked over at Diedre and saw that her movements were slower, her bite not as aggressive, as if she was fighting just to stay on the giant. The dragon’s deep blue eyes made contact with Mina’s, and she saw the dragon nod in agreement.

Mina reached for the book and opened it, surprised at how many pages were now filled with trapped Fae. She found a blank page and whispered to it. The book began to glow, and light sprang forth. She turned the book towards the dragon, and the giant began to panic. He roared, kicked, clawed, and fought. The dragon watched the book expectantly, hopefully, lovingly.

The room began to spin, chairs flew, papers ruffled and both the dragon and giant began to slowly move toward the open pages. Diedre used her last ounce of strength to bite down hard on the iron giant as he fought against the pull of the book. A giant vortex formed out of the book, pulling them toward its pages. A chair entered the book, followed by a coffee table. The dragon and giant were much larger than a few pieces of furniture and so moved slower.