Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #5)(27)

The large portrait of her father no longer sat on the easel, but on the floor. Now a new canvas and portrait sat in its place. The subject was a young girl, sitting in the same high back chair that was in the front living room. The girl had a slightly heart-shaped face, dark brown eyes, a hint of rosy cheeks, and long brown hair. Even though the painting stopped just past her shoulders, and only the pencil outline showed the rest, it was obvious that some magic was creating her portrait, and her fear was slowly coming to realization. Yes, that image would one day hang in this house after she passed.

Somehow, the house knew her time was almost up and was painting her death portrait.

Mina yelled in frustration and knocked the canvas from the easel. She picked it up and kicked right through the center of the fabric, tearing it from the staples. She stepped through it, venting her anger on it until nothing was left but a broken frame, and she was spent, sitting on the floor, staring at the mess she had made.

“Sorry, house sprite, or whoever is doing this, but I’m not ready. So no more memorial portraits until after I’m dead, got that? At least wait another eight hours.” She spoke to the air, but she had a feeling that the magic house heard. “Now if you want to help me, you can show me where there are some mirrors.”

Nothing happened.

“Fine, be that way.” Mina began moving pictures and uncovering sheets from piles of boxes.

The curtain by the window moved. It could have been the air vents kicking on, but a sliver of moonlight fell through and pointed across the room to some boxes.

Mina checked that corner. Behind the boxes stood a large square mirror in an antique frame. She used part of the sheet to dust it off and then lifted it up carefully and carried it out. But not before saying a parting thanks.

Mina struggled under the weight of the mirror. Brody noticed and ran up the stairs to take it from her.

“Here, I got it.” He gently took the mirror from her hands.

“Thanks.” Mina smiled at him, surprised at how there was no awkwardness between them. Once she’d compelled him, it took only minutes to find his true love. How could Mina not feel good about that?

She walked by the front room and noticed Charlie passed out on the couch again. She stopped and brushed his hair back from his forehead. He wasn’t warm anymore, just exhausted and sleeping.

Ever called her into the kitchen. Nix followed, carrying another mirror that Mina recognized from her mom’s bedroom.

Ever directed the positioning of the mirrors around the kitchen, so they reflected across the island and back at each other.

“We know Teague has Mina’s Godmother mirror,” she said. “So he can watch her whenever he wants. But I remembered something from my gran about how to block the mirror from seeing true. We dilute her reflection by reflecting the images back at each other, within each mirror. He’ll see a kaleidoscope of images, but they will be reflecting so much it will be hard for him to see or hear her.” Her grin grew wide in self-appreciation.

“Like a really bad cellphone connection,” Nan realized out loud.

“Exactly. Hard to make a connection if the call keeps getting dropped.” Ever winked. “All plotting must be done within the safety of this mirror prism.”

They sat around the kitchen island, and Mina crossed her arms and hugged herself. She took a deep steadying breath and looked over her group of friends. All of them in this together, to help her. She had to do what she could to save them, but that meant she mustn’t tell them what she sacrificed to do so.

“Teague stopped his attack at the fairgrounds very suddenly. I’m not sure why. It could be that he saw the police arrive, and he wasn’t ready to reveal himself yet.”

“That’s dumb, since hundreds of people saw his monsters attacking the school. There must be another reason,” Nan spoke up as she slapped a large grayish poultice from Nix on her bruised cheek.

Nix went back to the kitchen stove to put together another poultice for Brody. She’d seen him do this before—make a mess in her kitchen, going through her cupboards mixing healing herbs.

“Teague won’t stop here. He will destroy everyone unless he gets what he wants,” Ever spoke firmly.

“Well, what does he want?” Nan mumbled. “Obviously it’s not world peace.”

“Turtle peas?” Nix asked loudly from behind his boiling pot of water. He dropped the lid, and it rattled.

“Not turtle peas—world peace,” Ever snapped. “If you could keep it down a bit, maybe you could hear.” She sighed dramatically and continued. “No one is safe. I believe the only reason he hasn’t done more damage is that he’s fixated on Mina. Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”

Brody didn’t look pleased at Ever’s suggestion. His fists closed angrily. “No.”

Ever just laughed. “You don’t get it, do you? She’s the best chance we have, and she’ll probably have to face him in the end anyway.”

“Find another way,” he said.

“Okay, sheesh,” Ever replied. “But you’re kind of tying my hands. So our other option is that we can bring in Ferah to help us.”

“Anyone except for Ferah,” Mina added.

Ever made a sour face. “Yeah, well, I don’t really want her on my team. I’d rather eat nails than partner up with her, but you do have a point. We’ve only got one shot at this, and I think I have an idea.”