UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(55)

“They ARE following YOU!” Nan mouthed.

“Where’s Brody?” Mina walked back to where she had last seen him and he was gone. “I gotta find Jared!” Mina called out, feeling herself panic. If she couldn’t have Brody by her side at least she wanted to know where Jared was. Good or bad she needed to know where he was.

“I don’t know. He danced with me a few songs but disappeared shortly after they arrived.” Nan nodded with her chin to the group of guys again. They stopped trying to blend in with the crowd and moved menacingly towards Nan and Mina.

The tingling sensation began in Mina’s body and she knew, it was time, but instead of rising to the occasion, she lost her nerve. “Nan, I have to get out of here.” She began to pull on Nan’s arm. Nan, sensing Mina’s distress, turned and grabbed her hand and headed for an exit.

The first door was blocked by Rapunzel’s tower and the second was right between the group of unknown guys. Mina definitely did not want to head that way.

“The stage. There should be another exit behind the D.J. on the stage.” Nan yelled over the music. They ducked under a column of streamers and balloons and headed up the steps to the stage. Once on stage Mina looked out over the dance floor and could see two groups of people making their way toward the stage. Who were they? What did they want? When they passed through the foggy dance floor and the laser hit them, Mina noticed a slightly blurring of the human form. What she saw revealed chilled her to the bone. They were the Fae wolf pack. One of them looked up to the stage and saw Mina’s terrified face. He ditched the mask and practically drooled with pleasure at seeing her so scared.

“Here!” Nan pulled a curtain aside and they pushed on the exit door that led backstage. Nan spent enough time in the theater department for productions and improv. groups that she knew exactly where everything was. They ran toward the stairs that led down to the side doors but were blocked by a large man.

“EEEP!” Nan yelled as someone grabbed her from behind and clamped a fist over her mouth.

Another figure loomed out of the dark. Mina screamed in fright, but it couldn’t be heard over the thumping of the bass from the D.J.

“Ah, Little Red, Little Red you strayed from the path.” It was the one Jared called Grey Tail. Mina tried to run, but he lunged for her and slammed her against the wall, spinning her so that her head crashed into the brick. Spots flecked across Mina’s vision.

Grey Tail leaned forward and pressed his face into her neck, inhaling her scent. He was feeding off of her fear and it made him heady and a bit unstable. He brushed his teeth against a vein in her throat, and followed the pulse up. “Where is the book?” he leaned down growling into her ear.

“I told you before, I don’t have it,” Mina whimpered in fright.

“She’s lying,” A woman’s voice came out of the darkness; it was gravelly, thin and old.

“Does it look like I have a book on me?” Mina shot at the figure in the dark. Her vision was swimming.

“She may have left it at home,” Grey Tail spoke hesitantly to the dark figure, while still pressing himself close to his prey.

“You searched her home once and didn’t find it, what makes you think you can find it this time? Hmmm Grey Tail, you worthless dog.”

Mina’s vision began to clear and she could make out the wood flooring of the stage and the clicking sound drew nearer. Slowly a pair of red high heel shoes came into view. She knew those heels and was about to comment on them when a hand grabbed Mina’s hair roughly, digging the bobby pins deeply into her scalp, forcing her to look at the speaker.

It was Claire.





Chapter 24


Or what used to be Claire. She had aged considerably within a few weeks. She no longer looked to be in her thirties but now eighties. Her hair had turned grey and was falling out in clumps; her skin was wrinkled and covered in sun spots. She had lost weight, and what once was a beautiful woman was now the epitome of a horrible hag.

“This is your fault.” She gripped Mina’s head and slammed it against the wall again, proving that her body had aged but not her strength. “I was perfect, timeless, until you showed up at my bakery. Once you left, I started to age, slowly at first, and then faster. It took some digging and I had to loose a few faithful followers, but I finally found the reason. Who would have thought that an actual Grimm would walk through my doors? I’m honored, really, to be included in one of the infamous tales and maybe if I had fed on an earlier school tour, I would have noticed you. Believe me, if I had, you wouldn’t have survived long. I still can’t believe I let you waltz through my doors and did nothing.”

Mina shrank away from Claire’s touch. Jared had said that she would eventually age and die, Mina thought it would take years, not days. This made her wonder even more at the depth and power of the tales.

“I’m sorry; I had no idea about the power of the tale and Story until days later. You have to believe me.”

Claire studied Mina closely. “I believe you, but you see, we still have a problem. I don’t want to age. I want to stay young forever. I want it to go back to the way it was before you showed up at my bakery.”

“I can’t, I don’t know how to reverse what was done.” Mina trembled with fear. The men that surrounded Claire stepped forward, flexing their fingers as if they were trying to barely contain something deep within themselves.