UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(34)

Tears fell freely down her cheeks. He was confirming her worst fears, but she had to, she had to survive. “You’re wrong.”

“I’m never wrong.” The boy answered kneeling down to look at her closely.

“You have to be, I have to break the curse. I have to finish the tales!”

“Why, what’s in it for you? What have they promised you that would make you so determined to break the curse and risk your life?”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t been promised anything! I need to see this through to protect my brother, Charlie. He’s too young; I won’t let him be the Story’s next victim.” Mina gritted it out, her fingers digging into the ground in anger.

This statement seemed to confuse the boy more, his eyes widened in disbelief but no other words or sounds came forth.

This was one of the first times in her life that Mina had ever felt this angry about something. She was usually the passive aggressive student, who avoided confrontation, but it was as if something in her broke. Something stirred deep within, a hidden reserve of strength and she was drawing on that now. “I will survive, I will be the Grimm to finish the tales and live, I will beat the Story.” Mina stood and looked heatedly in his eyes. “With or without your help.” With strength that Mina didn’t know she had, she pushed the boy in the chest so hard he stumbled backward but did not fall.

The boy stepped away from Mina, giving her room to pass. He cocked his head to the side and answered. “Well, maybe there is a chance for you after all.” A faint hint of a smile appeared at his lips.

“Leave me alone!” Mina yelled. She turned angrily and began to march down the road, biting her cheek to keep her from snapping out a heated reply. He was the rudest person she had ever met, and she actually believed she may hate him, and Mina never hated anyone. When Mina turned around to see if he was still there, the alley was empty. The boy had disappeared.

Mina ran the rest of the way home and burst through the door to find Nan sitting on her couch, eyes red from crying. Nan flew to Mina and grabbed her around the neck.

“You are alive. I’m so sorry; I should have never have left your side. I went outside to look for a sign with hours and as soon as I turned around the door, window, everything was gone. It was a brick wall.” Nan stepped back away from Mina and her hands went into overdrive as she explained what happened. “I went into the Pottery store and asked them about the building between them and the flower shop and they gave me a blank stare. Apparently there has never been a shop there, same with Rosie’s Flowers. Mina, they thought I was crazy, but I knew better. I knew that the building was there and it had eaten you!” She hiccupped with nervousness.

“Nan, I’m fine,” Mina consoled her best friend, getting her to sit on the couch once again.

“I waited. I waited on the sidewalk for hours but you never appeared. I searched the whole block and alley for you and I couldn’t find you. I didn’t know what to do but to come back and wait for you. I’m just glad your mom and brother weren’t here when I came back. I wouldn’t want to explain to them how you were eaten by a building.” Nan was speaking so fast and her hands waved faster and faster, a telltale sign of exactly how worried she had been. When she had a moment to settle down and catch her breath she pinned Mina down with a wary glance. “What did happen to you?”

“I found the Grimoire,” Mina smiled widely and pulled out the red spiral notebook to show Nan.

Nan frowned at the notebook. “That sure doesn’t look like a Grimoire, but then again, how am I supposed to know what one looks like?”

“It was in that building, I had to solve a few puzzles to find it and it was deep underground. But it was like it wanted me to find it. You wouldn’t believe it. When I did, it was in a glass chest and started out as a scroll, before it morphed into a smaller book, then a textbook, and now it’s this. I tell you it changed itself into this notebook to please me.” Mina went to the kitchen table and laid the notebook down on it.

“May I?” Nan asked pointing to the cover. When Mina nodded Nan gently opened the cover. “Okay.” She looked inside. “It's blank?”

“But it wasn't at first,” Mina pointed to the pages. “There were pictures and stories but then it erased itself when I took hold of it. What do you think it means?”

“That it's obviously not complete? The Grimm brothers never made it through all of the stories?” Nan asked.

“No, after someone dies it restarts with the next living heir. If they would have made it through them all then I wouldn’t be subjected to the same fate. Maybe that's what happens with the Grimoire. It starts over too.”

“Mina?” Nan asked worriedly flipping through the book. “What if there is no end?”





Chapter 13


“What if there is no end?” Those words haunted Mina all that night and the next day. She tossed and turned each night and woke up feeling drained and miserable. She asked if she could stay home from school on Monday but Sara firmly told her no.

Mina went through the motions of being in school, but her mind was a million miles elsewhere. It wasn’t until her advanced art class that Mina felt another trickle of dread. Something was wrong. People were whispering and pointing.

Looking up Mina was surprised to see a set of familiar grey eyes staring at her from across the room. It was the same boy who saved her in the alley. He looked away from Mina to finish addressing their art teacher. Mr. Ames was delighted at having a new art student and nodded for him to take up an empty seat.