Read Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) Online
Authors: Chanda Hahn
Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4)
Reign
An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4
Copyright
© 2014 by Chanda Hahn
Cover
design by Steve Hahn
Cover
model Jacelyn Moore
Photographer
Tiana Meckel
Kindle
Edition, License Notes
All
rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization
of this work in whole or in part in any form is forbidden without written
permission of the author.
This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events
or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Bonus Short Story: Jared’s Quest
Bonus Chapter: Vampire Lies Season 2, Book 1 by RaShelle
Workman
To my Father, Steve Trujllo
One day her Prince will
come and it will be her worst nightmare.
She was drowning. Her fingers were numb
with cold. An eerie green light surrounded her while her lungs burned in agony.
Something dark and ominous swam toward her through the murky water. Mina kicked,
swimming to the surface to evade the approaching being, but no matter how many
times she tried, she never got any closer to the surface.
And she knew that tonight in this dream,
like all the other nights before, she wouldn’t make it.
It was a memory being played out over and
over in her head. A reenactment of her memory on the Fae plane fighting for her
life against the sea witch. Every night it plagued her subconscious as she
fought against the nightmare, but there was no eluding what was coming next.
She hated this part of the dream. The
monster’s strong hand grasped her ankle. Inwardly, she screamed, using all of
her strength to kick against the thing grabbing her leg. She kept her eyes
pinched closed and refused to look at the beast. She could feel its strong
hands pull her down as its touch moved up her legs, to her waist, and then to
her shoulders. The sea witch stroked her cheek, trying to convince her to open
her eyes and gaze upon its hideous form.
But Mina refused. One thing she had
learned was that sometimes she could control things in a dream… like holding
her breath for near eternity.
“Come to me, Mina,” the familiar dream
voice coaxed as slithery hands reached under her chin and pulled her face to
mere inches from the monster’s. Mina shivered in revulsion and fear.
“Why do you fight me when you can join
me?” The male voice, though underwater, rang clear as day in her mind. “Accept
me.”
She couldn’t help it. Her eyes started to
open and she met the gray eyes of Jared. Her heart soared for a split second
before she realized her mistake once again. The eyes weren’t gray—they
never stayed gray for long. Just a trick of her imagination before they shifted
and changed into the deep blue eyes of… Teague.
“Never.”
“Have it your way,” Teague sneered. Then
he dragged her down into the never-ending depths of her dream, to her death. As
always.
Every scenario and every sequence Mina
tried to play out always ended with this scene, and just when she couldn’t hold
her breath any longer, she would wake gasping for breath and crying.
She had fallen for Jared, and—because
of her stupidity—he was gone. Or the Jared she knew was gone. He was now
her mortal enemy, and these dreams were just a reminder of what she had done
and what she would have to face.
Tears trickled down Mina’s cheeks like
rain, and she wiped her face on her blue sleep shirt, letting herself mourn her
loss. She spent many hours crying in the night, scared to fall back to sleep
only to return to the same dream. Instead, she would lie in bed, stare out the
window, and wait for the sun to rise signaling a new day.
Her seventeenth birthday came and went
with nothing more than a cake and a present from her mom and brother. They
tried to cheer her up, but they knew what she was going through. For her mom
had gone through the same thing when her father died. She was mourning the loss
of someone she loved. That pain took time to heal. And it couldn’t be rushed.
Each day, it became harder to drag
herself out of bed. The alarm clock would go off at seven o’clock on the dot,
and she’d listen to the weather and traffic report on some nameless AM channel.
She’d stare at the ceiling and wish for her limbs to move, but wishing on anything
other than a falling star, was merely that—wishing.
Her mourning turned to terror as the
dreams persisted week after week. She knew it was better to pretend they didn’t
occur each night, so she wouldn’t worry her mom.
The door opened and her mom, Sara, walked
into her room wearing khaki pants and a navy polo, her signature Happy Maids
uniform. She stopped in front of Mina’s nightstand and gently pushed the snooze
button.
“Sweetie. It’s time to get up. You have
your presentation today.”
“Kill me now.” Mina groaned and pulled
the comforter back over her head.
“Mina, it can’t be that bad.” Her mom
yanked on the coverlet and pulled it completely off the bed.
Her mom couldn’t understand. It was the
dreaded English presentation where she had to give an oral report on a famous
author. All the students in her class had to pull a name out of a glass
fishbowl. Nan had been ecstatic when she drew J.K. Rowling, and of
course—because Mina’s epic unfortunate luck would have it—she
pulled out the Brothers Grimm.
“Yes, it is. It’s worse than bad. It’s horrible.
I have to talk about my… however many greats it is, because I can’t remember
grandfather and uncle. Not to mention I have to lie about their whole lives.
They weren’t traveling the world collecting stories for their book. What a
crock! They were saving mankind from evil Fae and trying to permanently close
the gates to the Fae plane. But if I said that, I’d get an F and a trip to the
school’s counselor.” Mina rolled over to her stomach to hide her head beneath the
pillow. “Can’t you call in and say that I’m sick or something? Or how about dead?
Yeah, dead would be good,” she mumbled.
“Now, Mina, stop it,” her mom said
softly. The mattress dipped as she sat on the edge. “I know this hasn’t been
easy for you. It’s a lot for a girl your age, but you’ve handled it with such
strength and determination. I know you can go in there and give a simple
presentation…while leaving out all of the important details.”
“What if I just sneak in a few juicy
tidbits?” Mina rolled over and forced a smile at her mother. “Can I tell them
how they had to cross-dress to complete Hansel and Gretel?”
“Absolutely not, Wilhelmina Grimm. You
are just asking for more trouble.”
“Okay, what about my name? Can I finally
tell someone I’m a Grimm?”
Her mother let out a disgruntled sigh.
“You know why we hide who we are.”
“What’s the point of hiding when every
Fae in the world knows we’re here? I mean, we are in a magic house.” Mina sat
up, crossed her legs, and gave her mom the dreaded teenager stare, the—
you know I’m right
—stare.
Her mom tucked her hair behind her ear. A
small golden bracelet dangled from her wrist, and two charms now hung on the
bracelet. The first, a small gold elephant, was a charm of forgetting. Her Fae
Godmothers had put it on last year to help her mom forget about her brother
when he’d been kidnapped by a Stiltskin. The second charm was new. A small
golden bell dangled next to the forgetting charm, and Mina knew she would have
to ask Mrs. Wong about it when she saw her next.
“No, Mina, you can’t tell anyone about your
last name. I know we’re no longer hidden from the Fae, but we can’t risk
bringing more trouble down on us.”
“Fine, I’ll go to school and give the
report, but don’t expect me to get an A on it or anything,” Mina said. “I hate
standing in front of people and giving speeches.”
Her mom leaned over kissed her head. “Okay,
but you better at least pull a B minus. After all… you don’t want to disappoint
your ancestors.”
Mina scrunched up her face. “Sure,
whatever.”
Her mom left the room and the door closed
with a soft click. Mina got out of the huge four-poster bed and made her way
over to the dresser. It still took some getting used to, the large house, which
had apparently belonged to all of the Grimms before her and changed according
to the new owner’s needs.
After she’d saved Charlie and lost Jared
and crossed back over from the Fae plane, the world had righted itself. At
least as much as the Story and the Fates allowed. She still wasn’t sure who’d
pushed the magic reset button this time and covered up Charlie’s death.
The fire had still happened. The Wongs
lost their restaurant and the whole building still came down, only in the new
version, Charlie never died—or was never presumed dead. He got out of the
fire and they all moved into the Grime Mansion. Or that’s what Nan continued to
call it.
When Mina was finally dressed, she
grabbed her jacket and a fun colorful scarf and headed down the hall. Charlie was
standing on a chair, trying to drag a large suitcase from a shelf in the hall
closet. Mina reached up and helped pull the large case down, but it slipped out
of her hand and crashed to the ground, spilling the contents onto the floor.
Charlie jumped at the opportunity and
began to dig excitedly into the pile of odd clothes and hats that all looked to
be decades old. There were scarves, vests, purses, and few odd knickknacks.
Charlie pulled out a pinstriped suit vest
and pulled it over his head without buttoning it. He saw an old hat and reached
for it, but when his hand touched it, he looked like he flickered out of focus
for a moment. Mina’s breath caught in her throat and a trickle of dread raced
through her body, causing the hair on her arms to stand up. She snatched the
hat out of his hands and threw it back into the suitcase.
Charlie’s hands flew in anger as he
signed his displeasure and made a face at her.
Mina’s hands shook as she tried to close
and lock the suitcase, but a long feminine blouse hung out, preventing it from
closing properly. Opening the case, she shoved the blouse back in and forced
the clasp shut until it clicked. Then she proceeded to put it back on the top
shelf in the closet, being sure to push it to the far back and out of her
brother’s reach.
Once she stepped off of the chair and
closed the door, she turned to give her brother her full attention.
“I know. I know. You wanted the costumes
out of there.” Her brother was the greatest kid, mute since birth, smart as a
whistle, and unique in a variety of ways—one being his penchant for
expressing himself in a bevy of weird costumes ranging from villains and
superheroes to anything bright and shiny. Currently, he was dressed to impress
in a Flash t-shirt, the vintage pinstripe vest, and Bermuda
shorts—complete with cowboy belt, holster, and boots.