Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 5)

“An omen is the form the Death Reaper takes before he strikes and takes your soul. They are a different breed of Reapers, unlike the ones that guard the Fates. Because they are already dead.”

“So can it be killed?” Mina asked.

“No. Only the dead can challenge Death to become the next omen. Then they must spend their half-life collecting souls.”

“How horrible.” Mina shuddered.

“It is,” Winona agreed.

“Who’d want to become a Death Reaper?”

“Someone desperate enough to want a second chance at life, even if it’s only a half-life.”

“Then is there a way to stop it?” she asked.

“There’s lore of a bone whistle that can control the Reaper, but I think that’s all it is—a tale. Because nothing can stop Death when he strikes.”

“It’s how I lost Mom,” Mina whispered. “The omen stole her soul.”

“I know, but I also know that she loved you and would have traded her life for yours in a heartbeat, love. Don’t ever mistake her sacrifice for weakness.”

Mina stared at her hands and saw the half-moon fingernail indents she had left on her palms. She made herself relax and looked up as Winona moved to Ternan’s side.

While they’d talked about the omen, Ternan had his siren crew unfurl every sail—crimson, copper, aquamarine. They were trying to beat the sunset and make it to specific coordinates. Ternan and his first mate were hunched over a sea map calculating distance and wind speed.

Nix asked Winona if she thought they’d make it.

“Of course, dear boy. This is the fastest siren ship ever built. The sirens were the first to discover the sea gate to the human plane, although the humans were the first to discover its sister—the Bermuda Triangle. This one is closest to us, and we’ve risked many of our lives keeping the Fae from using it to cross the planes.”

“Luring them to their death, you mean,” Nix said.

Winona’s chin lifted in challenge, but she laughed good-naturedly. “Aye. The only ones that come sailing here for the gate are up to no good. They’re the low down, dirtiest scum that walks the Fae world. So yes, we call them to their doom, and no one has cared or stopped us. In fact, we do the world a favor.”

“And that’s how my mother met my father.” Mina spoke up.

“Somehow the young man sailed through the gate into our world while he was chasing the Loch Ness beast across the planes.”

“You mean the Loch Ness Monster is real?” Mina asked in disbelief.

“Well, they’re certainly not all from your Loch Ness, but the beasts like deep lakes on both planes,” Winona said. “James followed it through the gate, and, when he did, it attacked and capsized his vessel. It was our youngest daughter, your mother, who saved him. We told her to let him drown since he wasn’t one of us, but she couldn’t. She cried for days when we made a raft and sent him back through the gate to his own plane. There was nothing we could do to help her. She was young and in love, and she begged us to let her go after him.”

“And you let her?” Mina asked. Then she saw Ternan’s face of disgust. “…right?”

“Of course not. We’d never tell her to expose her Fae side to a human. But when we forbade it, she went to a sea witch for help and had her powers bound. That wasn’t enough for her though. She wanted to forget all about us and went to a guild of rogue Fae for help.”

“I believe they call themselves the Godmothers,” Winona corrected.

Ternan growled out, “Whatever, but they helped her. Before they altered her memories, she contacted us and told us never to try to reach her again. It wasn’t until years later that we realized she’d fallen for a Grimm. It kind of changed some things since he already knew about the Fae, but it hurt that she wanted nothing to do with us. Wanted to be human, to raise human children.”

“So we watched you, in our dreams,” Winona said, “and waited, hoping one day, you would need us. And that day is today.” Winona came over and put her arm around Mina in a side hug.

Winona’s eyes locked on the iron cuffs around Mina’s wrists. “How dare he?” Winona gripped the band harder, fuming. “How dare someone shackle the power of a siren!” Her hair crackled with static electricity as her anger rose to the surface.

Mina watched in awe.

Winona held out her hand and power raced to her, her hair whipping about from the abundance of energy. “No one lays a hand on my granddaughter.”

Winona touched the cuffs, and Mina felt the current of power blast through them, turning them black. Whatever magic had blocked her was killed. Her bonds clicked open and fell to the deck with a thud.