Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (8 page)

Her feet began to tingle,
as if they had fallen asleep, and her hands grew warm. She could
have sworn that she could even hear better. Her breathing picked up
as her muscles flexed, and a maniacal grin formed on her
face.
Is this what it’s like to actively
touch the Fae power?

Savannah frowned when she saw the confident
look on Mina’s face, and when the third play began, she was still
standing there, confused, as Mina flew around her. Like the wind,
she turned, twisted, and dodged around Savannah, and took off
running toward the end zone and Brody. He was running, and she was
keeping pace with him. Someone on the red team reached for him, and
she screened him. It felt good to protect the guy she liked.

She wasn’t even winded as yard by yard she
stayed dead even with him and interfered again as another player
came to steal his flag.

Not happening,
she thought, and quickly turned around and ran
backward and slowed to get in his way.

“
Move it!”

“
Make me!” she yelled
back, grinning from ear to ear. She could hear the yell of her team
as Brody crossed the end zone. No one else was even near
them.

Brody ran back and high-fived her. “Nice
screening. I didn’t know you were that fast.”

“
Neither did I.” She
beamed, feeling glorious.

There were others who took notice of Mina’s
newfound confidence. The coach even tried to convince her to go out
for track. Boys started to pay attention to her, not for her looks,
but for her tomboyishness—which made her one of them. Brody didn’t
like the attention she was getting, and it was obvious. He kept
moving her closer to him until she was playing running back.

It felt great the one time that Savannah had
the football, and Mina got to rip both of the flags from her belt
in rapid retaliation. Mina was so fast that she was snagging flags
left and right. It was a close game. They were tied, and her team
had the ball.

Brody counted down, and she ran. She heard
Steve yell, “Mina’s open—toss it to Mina!”

Wait? What? OH NO!
Not quite prepared, she looked up and freaked as
the spiraling pigskin was coming straight toward her head. Without
thinking, she reached up and confidently caught the football. Now
what? Oh, yeah, run. She took off toward the end zone, both of her
yellow flags still attached to her band. Frank was running toward
her arm, outstretched to end her run, but no, she wasn’t going to
let that happen. She pumped her legs harder and bore down the
field, dodging right, then left, staying out of the reach of the
other team’s defenders.

She could see it! The goal, and nothing was
going to stop her. She didn’t know what was happening, but whatever
it was, she liked it. Especially when she carried the football into
the end zone and still had all of her flags. Mina did a little
victory dance and tried to toss the ball on the ground in
celebration, only for it to bounce up and hit her in the face. Yes,
she was faster and stronger, but still as uncoordinated ever.

Her hands flew to her face and her swelling
nose. She pulled her hand away and saw blood.

Brody was the closest to her. “Ouch! Are you
okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?”

Mina rolled her eyes. Of course, he would
see her act of stupidity.

Coach Beeber had caught up to them and
echoed Brody’s previous statement.

“
No, I don’t need the
nurse, just a towel and some ice,” Mina mumbled through her bloody
hand.

“
I’ll escort her,” Brody
announced.

“
To the girls’ locker
room?” Coach Beeber scoffed. “She’s a big girl, Carmichael. If she
can’t find the ice pack and sit in the girls’ locker room for a
spell, then I feel bad for her. Besides, there’s still ten minutes
of class left.”

Brody turned scarlet. Coach Beeber turned to
her. “Now, if you think you need to go to the school nurse, don’t
hesitate for a moment.

Mina nodded her head in understanding and
slowly jogged across the field to the gym’s blue double doors. She
slipped into Coach Beeber’s office and headed to the small mini
fridge. She was quite familiar with the location of the ice packs.
In fact, she probably had one with her name on it. Sure enough,
there was the cute bear-shaped ice pack. She grabbed it out of
habit and retreated to the girls’ locker room. She sat on the
bench, applying pressure, and replayed the last half hour over and
over in her head. When her nose finally stopped bleeding, she
decided to take advantage of the empty locker room and take a
shower.

She went to the last stall, turned the hot
water on, and went to her locker to pull out her regular clothes,
knowing the pipes needed time to heat up. With an unnatural speed,
the locker roomed filled with steam, turning the ugly fluorescent
white light into beautiful halos. There was something strange about
the haze. The steam sparkled and glittered like gold. It was
getting hard to breathe, but never before had she seen something so
beautiful and unnerving at the same time.

Mina looked at the condensation building on
the mirrors and carefully ran her finger across it, leaving a clean
streak of her own reflection. Her finger came away covered in
gold.

“
What the…?”

Her hands trembled slightly as she turned on
the faucet to confirm her suspicion. At first the water sputtered
out clear, but then transformed before her eyes into liquid gold.
Frightened, she hastily turned the faucet off. A noise clanged over
in the corner of the locker room and Mina spun around, her heart
pounding so unnaturally loud even to her own ears. Something by the
ceiling darted out and flew to another iron beam. It was a
bird.

Her hand flew to her heart in relief. This
wasn’t the first time a bird had found its way into the girls’
locker room and scared quite a few girls. They’d had the oddest
animals, birds and snakes, creep in through open locker room
windows. This bird was large like an eagle, but its wings
glistened, reflected as if it was made of an unnatural material,
and the tips were glowing like flames.

The sound of the metal shower knob cranking,
followed by the silence of the previously running shower, alerted
Mina to the presence of another person in the locker room, which
drew her attention from the bird. The tingling building within her
warned her it was Fae.

“
Hello,” Mina called. “Is
someone there?” No answer came forth, but she could hear the echo
of boots on the cement floor. She couldn’t tell from what direction
it came, though. The steam had become unnaturally thick, and the
gilded haze was starting to leave trails of golden dew on her skin.
She looked down, and goosebumps rose up on her arms. Mina flung
open the nearest locker and reached in to grab the first object she
could find to defend herself. It was a baseball bat. She’d take
it.

There! She saw it. A slight movement to her
left. She shifted her feet and kept the locker at her back, and
tested her grip on the metal bat. Something was moving toward her
out of the haze. Mina had just taken aim at the shadowy figure
walking toward her when something flew from above and attacked her.
Pain laced through Mina’s hand as the bat fell from her grip. She
looked down and saw three bright red slashes along the top of her
hand. The maniacal bird turned in the rafters and came back for
another attack. Out of self-preservation and instinct, she dived
and rolled out of the way.

She jumped to her feet without her
weapon.

“
Why, hello, dear, looking
for this?” The haze had parted to reveal a man, smiling profusely
while holding her baseball bat. He was good-looking, in his
mid-thirties; his copper-colored hair was pulled into a ponytail.
His pale skin did nothing but accentuate his haunting hazel eyes.
Even in the heat of the sauna-like locker room, he wore a
three-piece suit embellished with a cornucopia of golden trinkets,
leather, and pockets that completed his odd ensemble, making him
look a mixture of dashing and hodgepodge. But it was his hat that
told her he was her midnight stalker. With the top hat and its gold
feather, the silhouettes were identical.

“
Who are you? And why are
you following me?”

“
Temple. My name is
Temple, and I have a proposition for you.” He held up his gloved
hand and tipped his top hat toward her. “Hear what I have to say
first, and then I promise you, if you want to scream, then do so.
But I think you will be extremely interested in what I have to
offer.”

Mina hesitated when she saw that he held the
bat and slowly took off a gloved hand and touched it, turning the
aluminum bat into gold. She swallowed and then faced the stranger.
So far he hadn’t made an attempt to harm her, and it wouldn’t hurt
her to at least listen.

“
Okay, what is it that you
want?” she asked hesitantly.

“
I want you to procure an
item for me. That is all. Say you will get this item for me, and I
will give you all of this,” he motioned to the golden bat, “and
more.” He reached toward her shoulder; even his fingernails were
long and golden.

Mina flinched, but he reached past her into
the opened locker to withdraw a single expensive sandal that she
recognized as belonging to Savannah. As soon as his hand touched
the sandal, it immediately turned to gold. He smiled crookedly when
he saw her eyes widen, and dropped the sandal into her hands. Mina
immediately tossed the shoe back into the locker.

“
The Midas touch?” she
asked.

He frowned at her. “No, more like the family
trait. So you see, you can be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Rich
enough to impress your young human and maybe even steal him back
from your best friend.”

“
How do you know about
that? How could you possibly—”

“
I make it my business to
know these things. So, what do you say? Procure the item for me,
and I’ll make you rich.”

Mina looked at the gold sandal and bat, and
back at the man. Every inch of her knew better than to make a deal
with the Fae, no matter what the cost.

“
No, there’s no amount of
money in the world that would make me enter into a bargain with
you.” She tried to step around him, but he held out his arm,
blocking her.

“
Wait! Everyone has their
price, and no one says no to me.” He frowned at her.

“
Well, I just did say
no.”

“
That’s only because you
haven’t heard my
other
offer.” Temple took off his hat and brushed imaginary dust
off it.

“
It wouldn’t matter,
because the answer is still no. You have nothing I want,” Mina
said.

“
Ah, and that’s where I
beg to differ. I do have something you want. I make sure to always
have something someone wants.” He placed the hat back on his
head.

“
Are you deaf? Because I
just said no.” She placed her hands on her hips and raised her
chin.

“
What about your brother
Charlie? Such a quiet boy, but charming all the same. He misses
you, I can tell.”

Mina came alive with anger. “What do you
mean, Charlie? He died in the fire!”

“
Come now, you can’t
really believe that!” He touched his hat and fingered the golden
feather. “I sent my servant to retrieve the boy for me and destroy
your home. Now he is mine. I will trade him to you for the item I
want you to procure, and nothing more. His life for my item. It’s
fair—what do you say?”

Mina stared at Temple in horror. “You did
this? You planned this from the beginning, stealing my brother to
make sure I couldn’t say no! What kind of monster are you? It’s
been weeks. Why now? You could be lying. Why didn’t you come to me
that night?”

“
Because you’ve been
surrounded by Fae. What’s a few weeks in the life of an eternal
Fae? I’m patient. I’ve been waiting for hundreds of years—what’s a
few mere weeks? But if you fail, Charlie is mine
forever.”

Tears of relief started to trail down Mina’s
cheeks. “What is it I have to do?”

“
A favor, one itsy-bitsy,
teeny-weenie favor. A piece of cake for a Grimm.” His smile was so
sweet it was sickening.

“
What is it?” Mina said,
her heart dropping into her stomach, since she already had an
idea.

“
You have a wonderful
book. The Grimoire—its power is unmatched…except for one other
book. Its twin. I want that book.”

“
Impossible,” she blurted
out quickly.

Temple’s expression started to get angry,
but then he was able to calm himself down. “Unfortunately, I know
you are wrong. My plans are always...perfect.”

“
How do you expect me…?
How could I possibly…?” She couldn’t finish; she knew nothing about
the Fae world or how to cross into it. It was a hopeless
quest.

But weren’t all quests hopeless at one time
or another? If her ancestors hundreds of years ago figured out how
to cross over, then how much harder could it possibly be now, in
the twenty-first century?

“
I don’t know how to go
about it. I don’t know how to cross over,” Mina said.

“
Ah, where’s the fun in
that? Besides, I’m confident you’ll figure it out. I find that
those with the most to lose tend to be the most motivated. So are
we in agreement?”

“
I have no choice,” Mina
mumbled. “I have to try to save Charlie.”

Temple bent down and picked up a bobby pin,
and motioned for her to hold her finger up in the air. She did so,
and he pricked her finger, drawing blood. As her blood soaked the
bobby pin’s edge, it began to turn gold. He smiled and opened his
jacket, revealing an array of pockets and containers with various
gold objects, each with a small bloodstain on them, evidence of
other bargains and transactions he’d made. She could see a pencil,
a knife, a large spindle, and her heart stopped cold.