Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #5)(18)

She made it past two more turns and didn’t see or hear anything else. The floor squeaked beneath her foot, and she froze. Had she given away her position? She should have made it to the middle of the maze by now. Where had the bear gone?

A noise came from ahead, and Mina ducked behind a self-standing wave mirror and listened. She heard footsteps—light and close together. Mina moved from behind the mirror.

Charlie stood in front of her, wooden popgun hefted over his shoulder like a weapon.

“Did you find her?”

He shook his head no.

“Where did they go? I came in the exit.” Mina didn’t think she missed anything, so she continued toward the front where Charlie had come in. It would’ve been easy with all the twists and turns to have missed them. Maybe the bear was hiding, and she or Charlie had walked right past them.

But then Mina thought she heard scuffling, and this time it didn’t sound like it was behind the mirrors. It sounded like it was under them.

She dropped to her hands and knees and pressed her ear to the floor. The sound was clearer. Something large was crawling under the floor.

“Charlie, can you go find Ever?”

He shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Please! We need help.”

He didn’t look happy, but he went running out the front entrance. After she was sure Charlie had gone, Mina backtracked to the spot where she’d made the floor squeak and searched for a trapdoor. She didn’t want her brother to know she knew where the door was. She didn’t want him anywhere near that angry Fae bear.

Mina felt along the floor until she found the edge and the metal clasp. She slowly lifted the trapdoor, expecting something large to spring out at her. When nothing terrifying immediately attacked, she opened the door and rested it back on the floor. The darkness under the house of mirrors almost caused her to chicken out.

She swung her legs over the edge and dropped down to the ground. There wasn’t a lot of room below, but she immediately saw a large wheel. The fair was mobile, so the whole house was on wheels. As she let her eyes adjust, she could see a lot of light leaking in through the shabby tarp wrapped around the wheel bed.

She crawled over to the next section. Her heart sank when she noticed a large tear in the tarp where the bear had made a hasty escape. She backtracked and climbed back into the house of mirrors and called out for Charlie. When she pulled herself up out of the floor, she saw Teague—not just one Teague, many Teagues.

His reflection appeared over and over among the mirrors, each one smirking at her in unison.

Mina stood tall and tried to stare down the reflection closest to her.

“She’s gone.”

“No, she’s not,” Mina argued.

“You’ve lost.”

“The game is only beginning.”

“I’m taking each of your friends one by one, Mina. Like I promised I would. Even your Godmother friends are no match for me.”

“Let Nan go!”

“Why do you demand? Don’t you realize I’m not that unreasonable?”

A loud crashing noise sounded outside, and the floor rumbled below them.

“What was that?” she asked, terror filling her soul.

“Why don’t we go see.” He waved his hand, and the building exploded outward. Pieces of mirror shards plumed up, sparkling in the air like glitter, but none touched her because Teague placed a protective shield around them.

Mina looked out and saw people lying on the ground around her, hurt from the blast—men, women, and children. Farther up, she saw the giant troll, the same one that had been captured deep underground in the Godmothers’ Guild. It was now destroying her school. Before, half-encased in the wall, his size had been impossible to tell. The troll’s back had beams and pipe from the Green Mill Recycling Center melded into it, which gave him a dinosaur-like appearance.

Someone screamed, “Godzilla!”

She closed her eyes and tried to turn away as the troll’s large club rose in the air and came down right over the cafeteria. The ceiling groaned as it caved in.

“Stop! There could be people inside.”

“Why do you care about this place or these people, Mina? I know for a fact that you don’t like school, and most—if not all—of these students have called you names. I know the resentment you have for them. I’m doing you a favor.”

“It doesn’t matter how bad people treat you. It’s not worth hurting them.”

Teague stared at her, and she didn’t back down. “Interesting choice of words. Are you saying that to save your own skin?”

The glowing bubble Teague placed around them grew brighter, and Mina gasped as her feet left the ground. He hovered over the school, bringing her closer, so she could see the devastation. The troll had moved on to the gym.

The higher they flew, the more destruction she could see. The Ferris wheel had people on it, and one of the giants was spinning the wheel. People screamed inside the cars as they swung precariously.

“Make it stop!”

Constance appeared out of the crowd and ran toward the giant. She started to sing, and a few seconds later, the giant stopped shaking and spinning the Ferris wheel. His eyes got droopy, and he tottered back and forth. He let go of the wheel and fell backward, crashing into the already destroyed and abandoned dunk tank. Teague frowned at the Godmother and shrugged his shoulder. “She can’t sing forever. As soon as she stops, he’ll wake up again.”