Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #4)(75)

Safe. What a thought. How she’d taken that for granted for so long. Would she ever feel completely safe from Teague again? The familiar song came to an end, and Brody told her to wait right there. He’d be right back.

She stood in the middle of the dance floor, barefoot and alone. The Dead Prince Society had already been playing for a while. The clock on the wall said it was quarter ’til midnight.

The band took a quick break as they prepared their next set. Mina was sad she’d missed their introduction. Naga, with his black and white-striped mohawk, set his guitar down and rolled his shoulders. Burly Magnus set down his drumsticks and grabbed a bag of Cheetos from the floor beside him. Long white-blond haired Constantine adjusted the strap of his bass guitar and said something to the lead singer and Brody’s cousin Valdemar. He put down his bottle and approached the mic again. She was glad she’d pushed for the band to play here. And glad that the stupid dance cards ended at eleven and she could have Brody to herself now.

The stage lights danced across the floor, creating beautiful patterns. The whole thing felt like a dream.

Valdemar began to sing a soft ballad, and warm hands wrapped around her waist turning her in a full circle. She smiled up at her partner, expecting Brody’s adoring face.

But she was inches from Teague.

Her smile dropped and her heart pounded loudly. She tried to pull away, but he held on to her tightly.

“Na, ah, ah. I believe you owe me a dance.” His words were like ice.

She pushed against his chest trying to escape, but his hand covered hers, trapping it there.

He gasped. She was touching the spot—the exact spot where the tip of the Erjad knife had broken off.

“So, Mina. Are you happy to see me? Or should I say Elle? Mina suits you much better.”

“I’m never happy to see you,” she muttered, looking over his shoulder at the blank faces of the couples dancing around them.

“Do you have what I want?” He turned her in a circle, making her head spin.

“No,” she lied.

“I told you, don’t lie to me.” His grip tightened around her waist. “The gate never fully closed, you know. It’s faded over time, and I’ve created others. I never could believe that you came from the future. I’ve searched for you for over a hundred years. The Grimm brothers finally gathered the courage to cross over to my world one of your human years later, to try and stop the Reapers. They spoke of you. Even described you down to the dress you were wearing the day you fell from my tower.”

“Was thrown,” she corrected heatedly.

“Thrown—fell. The ending was the same. You disappeared into another world. The brothers said you appeared there, but only for a short time before you vanished into a ball of light. We could only assume you went to the future…and here you are.”

She swallowed nervously. “What happened after I left?”

His eyes darkened and he refused to speak for a full three measures of music. “I became more powerful than anyone in the Fae world. More powerful than the Fates themselves. They were scared. They betrayed me and split my power, my very essence, in two.” He smiled wryly and raised an eyebrow. “I can’t blame them. They saw their opportunity with the Grimm brothers, and they took it. But I will make them pay for their betrayal.”

A guitar riff picked up and Teague looked up in interest. Naga played on, his head bobbing with each strum of the guitar. Teague turned his focus back to her and stared deep into her eyes. “Well, you know what happened next. They bound part of my soul to my journal on the Fae plane and the other half into the book the brothers carried. And wouldn’t you know it? It’s the same book I gave you. How do you think the brothers got that book, Mina?”

She didn’t say anything, just waited.

Eventually Teague continued his story. “The Fates sent them back to the human world, hoping the two books would never find each other again. But we know that’s not what happened. Thanks to you, my weaker side, Jared, is gone.” He pulled away from her and gestured to himself from head to toe. “I’ve never felt more alive and powerful. And now my Cinderella has finished her quest to the past and retrieved my knife. I’d like it back.”

“I don’t have it. I lost it,” It surprised her how quickly the lies formed on her tongue.

Teague gave an exaggerated sigh. “Why must you lie so? If you had only told me the truth from the beginning, you could have been part of my reign of destruction. Instead, you will be crushed under my boot.”

“Everyone has an Achilles heel.”

“What’s that?” he asked. She had piqued his interest. “Another fairy tale?”

“Greek Mythology.” She held on as he spun her. Something he saw bothered him, because his face became ugly.

“Ah, I see that the human is coming back to whisk you away for the fireworks display. But I leave you with one warning. At midnight I have a surprise of my own for you.” He lifted her hand and placed a kiss on her knuckles. “I’ll let you wait until after you’ve seen my present. You may be more agreeable to my wishes in the morning. Until midnight, Mina. May the next few moments leave you in terror.” He bowed and disappeared into the crowd.

She tried to go after him, but she ran into a gray mist and knew that he was gone.

Brody appeared by her side and grabbed her hand, pulling her up the stairs to the second floor of the hall. She passed a grandfather clock and saw that it was only two minutes to midnight. Brody opened a door and led her into a secretarial office with a mahogany wood desk and matching bookcases. Behind the desk was a glass-paned double door that opened onto a balcony.