Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #4)(13)

Mina smiled. “Yes.”

“Go on…” he waited.

Mina’s eyes drifted to his chest and then to his injured arm that was turning an ugly purple. “Not now. First we need to worry about this.” She stepped away from him, which was harder to do than she thought. She opened the bathroom door and pointed with her head for him to precede her.

Brody slid from the countertop, picked up his bloody and ruined shirt, and walked into the hall. Mina brushed all of the cotton balls into the garbage and screwed the lid back on the disinfectant before walking him to their kitchen.

He probably could have found the kitchen without her based on the horrid smells wafting down the hallway. Mina found Nix wearing her mother’s flowered apron as he hummed and stirred a cast iron pot full of boiling green liquid.

The kitchen was an epic disaster. It looked like Nix had raided the cabinets and left all the cupboard doors open. He was currently going through the spice cabinet, taking the lid off every available jar of natural herbs to smell them. Most he discarded quickly, making a face and shoving them to the right. He did set two or three in a different group. But then he reached farther back, and slid out a few glass jars sealed with wax.

Mina didn’t recognize the unlabeled jars as belonging to her family. Well, not her immediate family. They could very well have been put there by her father—or even her grandfather.

Nix seemed pleased with what he’d found and added them to the boiling concoction. The way he mumbled to himself, tossing herbs in, made him look very much like he was boiling and toiling up some trouble. The brown terra cotta pot that sat in the corner by the kitchen table had been stripped of all of its leaves. She had no idea what the plant was—it had already been in the house when they moved in—but obviously Nix knew.

“Take a seat. The doctor will be ready in a moment,” Nix said, chuckling.

Brody sat on a chair facing Nix, who started straining the foul smelling broth into a teapot. He kept the spices, leaves, and who knew what else and threw them into another pot, crushing the remains with a potato masher until it took on a pulpy texture. It looked horrible and smelled worse. But Nix scooped the paste into a small bowl and stood over Brody.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Nix grinned happily. He was clearly in his element.

“Not on your life,” Brody said, holding his hand over his nose. “That stuff can’t possibly help.”

“Arm,” Nix demanded, eyeing the wound that was starting to ooze again.

“You don’t even know how to work a toaster. I’m not letting Betty Crocker go all Florence Nightingale on me.”

“Who?” Nix asked and looked to Mina.

“Exactly!” Brody pointed toward Nix. “You agree with me right, Mina?”

Mina had to cover her mouth as the laughter just spilled out. Amid all the stress, these two could still make her laugh. When her giggles stopped, she finally choked out, “No, he knows what he’s doing, Brody…trust me.”

Brody looked at her like she’d grown horns. “No.”

“Why not?” Mina frowned.

“Not until I know for sure that you’ll go with me to that thing.”

“Are you really going to deny being treated until you have an answer? I thought I already said yes.”

“Well, technically you did, but I want to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind.” Brody raised one eyebrow at her and waited.

Nix watched the exchange, holding a long wooden spoon filled with the green paste up in the air. Any minute now, he would start tapping his foot.

“This has nothing to do with the date. You’re just trying to delay the inevitable. Just let him treat your arm before you get rabies and die, you big baby.”

“Okay,” Brody said sheepishly. He held out his arm.

Nix looked relieved and started to smear the goo up and down, covering the large bite marks. Mina didn’t want to draw any more unnecessary attention to it, but those wounds were made by something bigger than any dog she’d ever seen. Way bigger.

“It feels weird.” Brody kept flexing his fingers. “It’s getting hot.”

“That means it’s working.” Nix grinned and went to pick up the glass jar he had found earlier. “At home in my cave, I used to keep a jar of this stuff. I never expected to find it here in your world.”

Mina’s eyes went wide, and Brody’s head snapped to look at Nix.

“Cave? World? What in—”

“Heaven’s name is going on in here!” her mother screeched as she came to a halt in her kitchen. Her face flushed red as she surveyed the mess in the kitchen, the half-naked boy sitting at the table with her daughter, and the other boy wearing her apron.

Charlie peeked around his mother and took one look at Nix in his apron and ran to him. Nix bent down and scooped the boy into his arms in a big hug. Charlie began to pull on Nix’s red hair and touch his face as if he couldn’t believe the difference. It took a second for Mina to realize that this was the first time her brother had seen Nix’s new human body. He’d seen Nix on the Fae plane with green hair and skin. Charlie had been the one to insist that she drag him into their world. She hadn’t been sure Charlie would remember.

“Hey, Li’l man.” Nix chuckled, placing Charlie’s feet back on the floor.