Fable (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #3)(2)

But that was weeks ago, and Mina knew the Faes’ sense of time on the Fae plane was different than on the human one, so it could be any day a gate would open up and a whole army of Reapers could come across, gunning for her—or it could stay closed for years, and she would grow old. Then what? The curse still existed and would pass on to her mute brother or her own children.

No, it would have to end with her. She would eventually have to find a way to destroy the Story. But every time she said those words, she would have to remind herself that the Story was a living, breathing person, and could she bring herself to kill him?

There had to be another answer, another way. She was going to have to stop the Fae and close the gates to their world, and if there wasn’t a way to do that, she would have to kill Teague. But what would Jared say? What would he do if she killed his brother?

Music drifted up from the Italian restaurant down the street, and Mina sighed loudly. She would have to make a decision, and soon. Time was running out; summer was almost over, and she felt it in her bones that Teague was going to strike, and strike soon. But when?

She lay back in the lawn chair and closed her eyes, wishing for a sign, for a cool breeze or even rain. The humidity in the air was killing her. She began praying for rain, a hailstorm, even a blizzard, because every second she was getting hotter and hotter.

Maybe she should go back inside. The intense heat on the roof was creating a weird burning-tar smell that made her nose sting. Mina sat up and looked around frantically, sniffing the air and looking at the steam vents across the roof. Black smoke billowed out of them. It wasn’t just getting hotter. The building was on fire!

She rushed toward the ledge and looked down at the street below. Their apartment was above the Golden Palace Chinese restaurant, and sure enough, there down below, the Wongs were evacuating guests from their restaurant and out into the street. People began to gather and point up in the air…until Mina realized they were pointing at her on the roof.

Mom! Mina mentally screamed, then recalled she was at work before she remembered Charlie.

“Oh, heaven help me!” Mina cried out to no one in particular as she ran across the rooftop to the fire escape to climb down. Why didn’t she hear a fire alarm? She knew the building had one; even her room had one, because she often stared at the red light in the dark when she couldn’t sleep.

Black smoke billowed out of Mina’s open bedroom window and rose in plumes into the sky. Grabbing the collar of her shirt, she pulled it over her mouth and nose, and ducked into her bedroom. Her door was shut, and Mina carefully felt the door for heat before opening it and rushing into the hall.

“Charlie!” Mina screamed as she raced into the living room. Flames were running up the walls and creeping along the ceiling. His board game was still lying on the floor, the Candy Land pieces scattered everywhere. Tears stung her eyes as she scanned the area for his small form in case he was hiding. She went to his room and found his bed empty. His room didn’t have a closet, since it was considered a closet on its own, and she quickly checked under his bed. Nothing!

“Charlie, where are you? Make a noise, hit something if you can hear me!” She was crying now as her heart began to race in fear. Mina ran into her mother’s room and cried out when she saw it was as empty as the rest of the house. They didn’t own much furniture; there weren’t that many places to hide in their small apartment.

Please, oh, please let him have gotten out, she thought. Her only hope now would be that he had run out the door at the first signs of fire. Now the smoke was thicker, and Mina had to crawl along the floor. She tried to head out the front door, but when she opened it, fire filled the landing. Slamming the door, Mina rushed back to her bedroom. The fire hadn’t yet reached there yet, but it would soon.

Her hands shook as she flung items off her desk, looking for the key. It had been weeks since she’d locked up the Grimoire, and now she couldn’t remember where she had put the key. A loud, piercing shriek erupted close by, making her jump. The shriek came again, this time closer. It sounded like a siren, so she assumed it had to be the fire department.

If Mina was someone who swore, she would have been swearing up a storm at the moment, but instead she tried to think level-headedly for a sixteen-year-old. But in the face of being burned alive, that didn’t happen.

She gave up searching for the key and took an aluminum baseball bat that she kept in her room for protection against surprise fairy-tale attacks and began to swing at her desk. It wasn’t a sturdy desk, and now that she thought about it, it probably wasn’t the best place to store the Grimoire, since after a few hits to the underside of the drawer it came loose. She grabbed the small book and headed for the fire escape.

Normally, she would take the ladder up to the roof, but now she had to get the ladder to release and go down. It was stuck. She tried kicking it and jumping on it, but it only slid down a few feet. It would have to do. She turned and had started to climb down the rungs when she thought she heard someone call her name.

“Charlie?” She looked up and could have sworn she saw someone walking around up on the roof. The heat was getting intense, and the smoke made her cough. Even knowing it was highly impossible, she felt she had to check. Could she have missed him, and he’d gone onto the roof?

But there it was again, the sound of someone calling. She’d just begun to climb back up the rung when the unthinkable happened. With her added weight, the ladder finally became unstuck and slid down toward the alley. She lost her grip on the rung and fell backward. In a rare moment of d??jà vu, she thought she was flying. No—falling. She tried to scream for help, but her words were lost in a rush of air. She saw the sky grow distant as she fell. Arms wrapped around her, and then her world went black.