UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(47)

“How about Red Riding Hood?” Mina intoned sadly.

Brody’s voice brightened. “Then I will be your hunter. Never fear Mina, I’ll keep the big bad wolf away.”

Those words sent a tingle of dread through her limbs. She felt the power of the Story at work and she actually feared that very conclusion.

~~~

After the phone call Mina climbed out her window and made her way up to her rooftop retreat. It was just after dark when Mina pulled out the red notebook. She decided to look through the blank Grimoire where her mom wouldn't worry. For Sara, out of sight, out of mind, really was the best medicine. Mina reclined in the lounge chair and flipped through the empty notebook's pages. Mina caressed the lines and spoke to the Grimoire.

“So there's this dance and this boy. I really want to go but I'm scared what will happen. Do you think you can help me? I could really use all the help I can get. Please.”

Mina waited as if for a response, but the wind chose that moment to pick up and swirl fallen leaves around the rooftop retreat like mini tornadoes. She dropped the notebook and the wind blew the pages closed. Mina felt the hairline crackle of power crawl over her arms and she new that something was near.

“I take it, that was a no,” a masculine voice spoke behind her.

Mina turned and grabbed the Grimoire holding it to her chest protectively, until she saw that it was Jared who was standing on the other side of the roof.

“What are you doing here?” Mina snapped.

“I'm surprised you are asking the book for help? I thought you had decided to run away. You certainly seem to be good at it.” Jared walked past Mina ignoring her to admire a rose bush growing up a brick wall.

“I know that I can't run forever, but I can at least get away from you. But even that seems impossible now.” Mina turned her back on Jared and began to pick up her jacket and fold it over her arm. She didn't hear Jared move but in one second he was next to her grabbing her wrist, holding it up to the waning light so he could see a faint outline of bruising.

He felt a moment of rage. He had lost control earlier and caused her pain. The paleness of her skin stood out against his dark tan skin. The bruises circled her wrists where he had grabbed them and tried to subdue her. In a rare moment of weakness, Jared found himself rubbing the bruise on the insides of her wrist with his thumbs.

Mina’s eyes widened, she jerked her hands out of his in surprise. A caress from Jared was the last thing she would have expected. His eyes turned dark, his expression unreadable. Mina found herself rubbing her own wrists, whether to rub the feeling of his touch away or to soothe the pain she wasn’t sure.

“You can’t run anymore. It’s too late.” Jared turned his back on her so she couldn’t read the emotions that were running across his face. “It was almost past the point of no return, once you stepped into the Babushka's Bakery. The power compelled you to enter the tale and act. It placed you in the position and you chose. Once you saved your friends life, it started. It’s too late for you Wilhelmina Grimm, great great great granddaughter of Wilhelm Grimm.”





Chapter 19


Mina felt as if she was going to faint. “Who are you really?” Jared was really starting to scare her. He knew too much about the Fae. Maybe he was a character from within the fairy tale come to life. “What part do you play in this?”

Jared looked at her and she could have sworn that his skin glowed golden for one split second. But after she blinked her eyes she decided it was just an illusion from the setting sun. The sun was covering both of them with a bright warm glow.

He closed his eyes as if he was soaking up the sun and took a deep breath as if it was his first or his last. He listened to the sound of the street music and let the wind caress his face. The words sounded like a whisper and Mina had to strain to hear them. “I am a part of this as much you are and have as much at stake, if not more.” He sighed and looked at her. “Everything else has a time and a place but it is not now, not yet.”

Mina couldn’t understand the change in his speech, he was speaking in rhymes or puzzles. She shook her head as if to clear her thinking and remembered an earlier statement. “What tale are you referring too? When did it become too late?”

Jared walked away from Mina back toward the edge of the roof, she had no choice but to chase after him if she wanted an answer.

“Hansel and Gretel.”

“But wait, how?” Mina thought back through the day. “The bakery was the gingerbread house?”

Jared snorted, “Obviously.”

“But there wasn’t an old witch. No one was imprisoned.”

“There wasn’t? Are you positive? Think again, no one was held captive?” Jared’s mouth turned up in the corner in challenge and he actually looked at Mina in surprise.

“Well no, we were all free to walk around. The boys did seem to act strange when the tour guide was talking but…” Mina’s eyes lit up with elation. “Wait, that’s it. The tour guide didn’t capture anyone but she did captivate the boys' attention, and then seemed to settle for Brody in the end. He was the only one she really cared about when the tour seemed to be winding down. But she wasn’t a horrible old woman and she didn’t try to put him in an oven. She wasn’t going to eat any of the students like in the story right?”