Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #5)(64)

But then she thought of someone else putting a glamour over her and changing the way she looked, making it so when she looked in the mirror, what she saw was a lie.

That infuriated her. How dare someone alter her, change her, do something to her without her consent? Mina let her anger boil over, felt the onslaught of power, and let it burn outward. She envisioned the lie burning away with siren fury.

The truth!

I want the truth, to see myself for who I truly am. She heard Winona gasp, and Mina looked up and wiped the stray angry tear out of her eye.

“What?”

“It worked.” Winona’s words made her shiver in fear.

“Is it bad?” She felt like a child asking.

Her grandmother covered her mouth, her own tears pouring forth. “No. You’re beautiful.”

Mina’s skin was tinged with gold along her wrists, more obvious than the other sirens’. She raised the mirror, her hand shaking as she held it to see her reflection. Her skin was a pale white, her nose devoid of freckles. Her lips held more color, and her cheeks had a natural rosiness. Her nose and the shape of her mouth were the same, thank goodness.

But her eyes and hair!

Mina’s boring brown hair was longer, fuller, with gold streaks. And her eyes were now filled with glowing flecks of gold. Even her grandmother’s eyes weren’t as bright as her own.

“Oh, how beautiful. Your mother had red accents and marks. But you’re a gold siren—very rare. No wonder your power is so strong. It’s a pity you can’t shift. You’d have a gold tail. You are a gem, Mina. You’re beautiful, and no one can tell you otherwise.”

One more glance in the mirror made her cry in relief. She’d been worried that she’d be ugly. How absurd was that? But wasn’t it a fear of all teenage girls who’d just been told they were part fish? Mina smiled at that.

“Now see if you can change it back,” Winona said kindly.

Mina balked at the idea at first, but she knew it wasn’t a demand. Her grandmother wanted to know if she could. It was so freeing to feel that heaviness and self-doubt gone that she didn’t want to change. But she did it anyway—for her grandmother.

Mina closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt as if she was being suffocated as the glamour fell over her. How had she not noticed this before?

“Good, now don’t be afraid. You can be yourself around us. It’s just a useful tool to know when you go around the human plane.”

It was such an odd conversation. Mina had been living on the human plane for seventeen years, and she was just now learning tools to survive it. She released the glamour and felt the cloying stickiness of it leave her.

Was this what it was like for Ever when she had to hide her wings? No wonder she only hid a part of herself. A glamour was not a comfortable thing to wear.

“Now, I think you have one last thing to work on.”

“What’s that?”

“Power of suggestion.”

She shivered as she remembered the giant. “I’m not real fond of doing that.”

“But you need to, so you can replicate it again.” Winona called out over her shoulder. “Kino!”

Ternan heard his wife call and came over with Kino, who bounded up and paused as he laid eyes on Mina. “Oh, Mother of the Sea, please tell me I can marry her.”

Mina blushed, and Ternan whacked Kino in the arm. “That’s my granddaughter, you sea slug”

Kino blushed and tried to dodge another attack by Ternan.

“Kino, Mina has had a chance to get to know you, and I’d like your permission for her to try and control your mind.”

Kino swallowed nervously. “But we haven’t even courted yet.”

“Kino.” Ternan warned. “He’s just teasing, Mina.”

“Why Kino?” Mina asked them. “You said he was strong. Maybe I should start with someone else.”

“Because he’s strong,” Winona said. “Ternan and I will be here to watch over the two of you.”

“Okay.” Mina looked up at Kino who ran his hands through his dreadlocks, making the water run from them. He crossed his arms and eyed her, challenging her to do her worst.

She looked into Kino’s brown speckled eyes and glanced at the darker brown siren marks across his arms. She met his eyes and tried to command him to clap his hands.

She stared at him, and he just smirked.

“Nuh-uh, sea princess. I’m not so easily controlled.”

That was right. Mina remembered. Giants were relatively dumb and hard to control. A virile young siren, one of the strongest, would be a little harder. She focused on what she wanted and thought she saw his hands flinch, but he just reached up and scratched his arm instead.

Oh bother.

“Have you gotten tired already? Am I too strong?” He flexed his muscles at her, and she grew irritated. “Maybe you need to go take a nap.”

“Oh, go jump in the ocean!” Mina snapped.

She watched in surprise as the smile fell from his face. His eyes took on a hint of golden glow, he climbed the railing, and he jumped in.

“Uh, Mina, you need to tell him to swim out now. You can’t give an order without clear directions.”

“Oh right.” She ran to the rail and saw that he’d sunk beneath the water. She couldn’t see him. He was too far down.