Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #2)(34)

He looked relieved when she was able to speak. “Hey, you’re not cursed. You’re alive, right? I would say that makes you extremely lucky, not cursed.” He became eerily quiet.

Brody pulled over a hospital chair so that it was next to her bed, and he relaxed into the seat. He grabbed a magazine that Nan had left and began to thumb through it, without really looking at it.

“Why are you here?” Mina asked him, confused by his casual demeanor and willingness to sit in someone’s hospital room.

Brody’s finger caught in a page, and he closed the magazine and locked eyes with her. “I don’t know? I was hoping you could tell me.”

Mina shook her head in confusion. “You’re the one who drove to the hospital, got in past security and the nurses, which I’m still not sure how you did it, and walked into my room, not the other way around. You should know your reason for being here, not me?”

Brody smirked in the familiar way that made Mina’s heart melt. “But here I am.” He held up his arms in a casual way. “You are someone I barely know, and yet, when I heard you had gone missing, I felt as if my whole world turned upside down. It has been haunting me for two nights straight. I can barely eat, sleep, think and finally I came to the conclusion that you would know why? Do you have a spell on me?”

“I think you must have read one too many fairy tales,” Mina answered quickly, blushing. Immediately, she regretted her choice of words.

Brody shook his head. “This girl from my school, who obviously is strong enough to survive on her own out in the wilderness, miraculously gets saved and the one name she calls out to in her time of need, happens to be the only guy in school that, for some crazy reason, I absolutely hate!”

Brody’s body tensed up, and he slowly frowned at her. “I don’t consider myself a jealous person, but I barely know Jared, and I really, really don’t like him. And the thought of you and him together makes me want to punch something. Especially when I have no right to feel that way about Jared, or you. It’s as if we met somewhere…” he trailed off.

“No, it’s not what you think,” Mina rushed out in defense.

“How do you know what I’m thinking?” Brody stood up, walked over to Mina, and leaned down, placing both hands on either side of her body, he pinned her between his muscled arms. He was so close Mina could smell his familiar aftershave.

She looked up at his jaw line and swallowed before turning her head away from him and playing with the seam on the blanket, trying anything to appear more interested in the hospital blanket, than his closeness, his jaw, his lips.

“Tell me why do I have this sudden urge to hold you, to kiss you, when I barely know you?” Brody pulled away in disgust. “What’s wrong with me? You must think I’m some kind of crazed psychopath talking like this. I come into your room unasked and start to demand answers to some crazy questions that I’d hoped you would have answers too. I can’t help but think something is wrong with me, that I really am going crazy.” He turned his back on her and ran his hands through his hair again in frustration.

Mina licked her lips nervously. “Maybe you’re cursed too?”

Brody sighed heavily and looked over his shoulder at her. “I must be, why else would I be here?”

Those words drove straight to Mina’s heart like a wooden stake. They hurt, but there was truth in those words. Brody could be being manipulated by the Story once again. It made Mina angry. Angry at the world, at the Fae, at how unfair everything was for a sixteen-year-old girl in love. He began to move toward to door.

“Brody, wait!” she called out.

Brody froze, his hand on the door, his back stiff, waiting for the ball to drop.

“I wish it was your name,” she blurted out. “I wish it was your name that I had called out.” She waited in anticipation, hoping that he would turn around, run to her and kiss her like he said he wanted. He didn’t turn around

His broad shoulders relaxed, and his head bent forward to look at the ground. “I wish you did too,” he choked out. “Can you tell me why I feel this way? Can you tell me what’s wrong with me?”

Mina’s heart soared with the prospect of telling Brody EVERYTHING! She opened her mouth to explain, when a mirror image startled her. In the reflection of the window, she saw Jared, and he looked scared. She looked over her shoulder, but he wasn’t there in the room with her. She glanced back toward the window and his reflection was faint, far off. It looked like Jared was speaking to her; his mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear anything. He was trying to warn her about something.

She turned to Brody to see if he noticed, but he still had his back to the window. Mina looked toward the window again, but Jared was gone. And with him went the message, he was trying to get to her. But it gave her just enough pause. What she did was dangerous, and because she cared for Brody, she shouldn’t involve him. But it was because she thought she might love Brody that she wouldn’t involve him.

Reluctantly, she dropped her chin to her chest and sighed out loud. He was still patiently waiting for an answer. When one didn’t immediately come forth, his posture stiffened again.

“I see,” he said.

No other words were spoken by either one of them because Brody left the room.

Chapter 14
Having to stay off of her sprained ankle made it impossible for Mina to make it up the fire escape to her garden refuge on top of her apartment building. She waited on her window bench, staring dolefully out into the night. There wasn’t much to look at since her room faced the adjoining building and the window of Mrs. Orn, the neighborhood cat lady. Her visitors included, Mr. and Mrs. Wong, from the restaurant downstairs, who brought her dumplings, Nan, and the errant news reporter.