Fable (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 3)

Mina stared at her mom before giving a cursory glance at Jared, being careful to keep her face neutral.

“Oh,” she responded.

“Now, I know this is sudden, but Terry assured me that he’s a good worker, and if she trusts him, then so do I.”

“How nice.” Her mouth felt dry, her words forced.

Jared’s eyes narrowed in thought as he leaned on the back legs of the kitchen chair, teetering on the brink of teenage rebellion. It was obvious that he knew something was up, even if her mother didn’t. But Jared replied in a formal tone, “Nice to meet you…uh?”

“Mina,” she answered irritably, knowing that he was only playing a part.

“What an odd name. Is it short for something?” he taunted her, knowing full well what it stood for.

“Yeah, a fat lip.”

Wrong answer, because she heard a gasp from her mother, and Sara stood up.

“Now, Mina, apologize at once to our guest.”

“Mom, look at him. Doesn’t he even look remotely familiar?” Mina hinted.

Sara turned to stare at Jared with bewildered eyes and shook her head. “No, sorry, honey. Is he supposed to be familiar? I don’t know—lately my mind has been pretty muddled. Can you show him the house…please?”

Mina rolled her eyes and held the door open for Jared to precede her into the hall, but not before she snatched an apple out of the fruit dish on the counter. When they had walked out of earshot, she snapped at him,

“Great, just great! Now you’re brainwashing my mom.”

He looked at her, confused. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Riiiight. What in the blazes are you doing here?”

“I started thinking about last night and what you said, and I realized that I may have acted—what happened to your hair?”

“Huh?” Her hand went to pat it, and it was still there.

Jared motioned with his fingers to her forehead, and she ran to the large hall mirror and gasped in shock. There was a whole lock of hair starting from her forehead that ran past her shoulders, and it was gold.

>She smiled and nodded pathetically. “It’s not fair to you and Ever that I ruined your night, too.”

“Hey, I may be old, but the night’s young.” He tilted his head, and the moonlight illuminated his swollen and bruised cheek. He noticed where she was staring and shook his head. “He sucker-punched me with a fist made of iron.”

“Copper,” she corrected.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, I think he was a Stiltskin, too. How many of them are there?”

“More than you probably want to know.”

“Then help me get to the Fae plane and rescue my brother.” It was probably the wrong time to bring it up, but she was done wasting time. Tonight proved it. And she wasn’t going to mention what she needed to do once she was over there. If Jared learned of her plan to steal the Fae book, he would definitely refuse to help her.

“Are you daft and dumb? No way.” He grabbed Mina’s arm, threatening her. “I won’t let you throw your life away on something that is impossible.”

“Every quest I attempt is a life-or-death situation. So why is it that when I want to do something it’s dumb, but if it’s a fairy-tale quest or creature it’s different. It’s because finding Charlie doesn’t help break the curse, isn’t it?” She pulled her arm out of his grasp.

“No, it’s because finding Charlie is a lost cause that will surely end in your death.”

“What’s the big deal? The curse will pass on to another Grimm, and you can be free of me and go on to choose to help or not help the next Grimm.”