Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (15 page)

Constance opened another door, and they
entered a large gathering area filled with Fae of all sizes,
colors, and shapes. They were eating at long tables filled with
food that smelled heavenly. When they saw Mina, the bustling
stopped, and every one of them stared. After a few seconds, a furry
cat about knee-high came up and pressed against Mina’s leg, looking
for affection.

Her hand immediately went to pull him off,
but she changed her mind, and she decided to bend down and pet it
instead. There was a large sigh, and the silence was broken as Fae
after Fae began to clap and call her name. Mina’s hand couldn’t
help but stroke the small furry head pressing into her knee. She
looked down to see that it had disappeared, but her hand was still
gripped in a headful of fur.

“
Whoa!”

Hearing her confusion, the small cat
reappeared briefly…only to change again into a dog, then a goat,
and finally a squirrel that decided to run up her pant leg and
settle on her shoulder.

“
I see that you’ve made
friends with our resident Baldander.”

“
What’s a Baldander?” Mina
asked, trying to hold still under the onslaught of the squirrel’s
curious hands.

“
I think it’s pretty
obvious. That.” Mei chuckled.

Mina reached up to try to pull it off, but
it disappeared again and moved to her other shoulder.

“
They’re extremely rare.
Give him a moment, and he’ll settle down and stop shifting and
disappearing on you. He’s just excited to meet you and that you see
him.”

“
Can’t everyone see
him?”

“
No, not everyone,” Mei
answered.

A small furry hand patted her cheek in
affirmation, and she could feel him settle down on her shoulder. He
started petting her head as if she was his pet.

Constance motioned for them to continue on
through the kitchen, and as she passed through the Fae, she could
feel a few of them gently touch her arm, wish her luck, pat her on
the back, all while the Baldander rode her shoulder, chittering in
excitement.

“
I’m not a pony—rides
aren’t free,” Mina whispered under her breath.

The Baldander shifted into a mini Pegasus
and flew around her head instead, still never leaving her
vicinity.

They’d gone through the door and down
another long hallway when she felt something odd. A change in mood,
a coldness in the air. It was subtle, and maybe it was her
imagination, but she felt like she was being watched. There in the
corner was a large giant statue of a troll that blended in with the
gray stone of the wall. It wasn’t just blending with the color—it
was actually half encased in the stone of the wall.

She paused and stared. It was so
real-looking, very lifelike.

“
Are you okay?” Mei
asked.

“
Yeah, I just—”

The troll opened its eyes focused on Mina.
They were filled with such hate and anger that she began to
tremble. Its gaze was powerful and intense, and she felt rooted to
the spot, unable to move. The Baldander squeaked and disappeared
off her shoulder to disappear who knows where.

Constance came between them, cutting off the
troll’s gaze with her body.

“
Mina, it’s okay. Don’t
look in his eyes. He can’t hurt you unless you make eye contact.
We’re so used to him that we no longer see him, which is why he is
disappearing into the wall.”

Mina felt herself begin to regain control of
her body and breathe easier. “What is he? Why is he there?”

Mei was the one who answered. “He was sent
by the dark prince to destroy our headquarters over twenty years
ago, and he’s been frozen there ever since. It happened on an
October morning. All but three of the GM headquarters were
destroyed. He’s been imprisoned since then.”

“
That’s
horrible.”

“
Would you rather we kill
him?” Constance asked. “He can’t do anyone harm there, and he’s
alive, which is more than I can say for the hundreds of Fae he
killed years ago. Right now, he’s frozen, and slowly he’ll turn to
stone.”

“
Are there more like
him?”

Constance nodded. “The troll in Seattle is
almost completely stone. He’s under the Fremont bridge. Just don’t
look them in the eye, or you’ll crumble under their hate.”

Mina was able to pull her gaze away and
follow the two Fae women back into a small office with round table.
She sat in the closest chair and felt as if her feet were encased
in stone. She looked around and saw that there was a giant map on
the wall covered with glowing dots that she could only assume were
Grimms, or persons of interest. Large pictures lined the wall, and
she recognized them as her family tree. She saw her Uncle Jack, her
father, and others—all strangers, but she could still see a
familial resemblance.

Mei saw where Mina was staring and pointed
out a blank spot proudly. “Your picture will eventually go
here.”

“
What is this
place?”

“
These pictures represent
all of the Grimms who have been cursed. It represents our call to
action. Our call to help.”

“
Why are there so
many?”

Mei look disturbed and refused to make eye
contact with Mina.

Constance cleared her throat, and her hands
fluttered nervously. “These portraits don’t represent the living,
Mina. These portraits represent the Grimms who have passed because
of the curse.”

“
So you’re saying that
spot…that blank spot…is for my portrait—when I DIE! You people are
disturbing.” Mina shot up from the table and knocked over her
chair, getting ready to make a beeline out of the door.

“
Stop, Mina. You know more
than anyone that you can’t run from your destiny. Yes, many Grimms
have come and gone. Most of them didn’t make it past their first
quest, mostly because they didn’t have what you had. They didn’t
have the Grimoire. Have you not been studying the tales? Has Jared
not been explaining things to you?” Constance asked.

“
Yes and no,” she replied
grudgingly. “Can a Fae ever say anything outright without hiding it
behind innuendos and half-truths? Sometimes I’m not even sure I
should trust him.”

“
You’re absolutely
right—you can’t fully trust him. But never mind that for now. The
Grimoire came to you. You have an even bigger chance of beating
this because you have figured out the Grimoire’s secret. You’re
stronger than the rest.”

Mina had to close her eyes and calm her
heart and listen to them. She came here for help. She was probably
the first mortal to ever step foot in the GM’s headquarters.

“
Okay, tell me about the
Grimm curse, from your side.”

Constance leaned forward and let her hands
rest on the table in front of her. “Well, you already know that the
Story prefers males. We believe this is because he thinks they’re
the stronger adversary. And the Story tends to choose the next
Grimm from the closest living male relative, which is why it went
from your grandfather to your uncle to your father. After your
father died, the Story would have to pick another male Grimm, so
Sara thought it would go after some distant second or third cousin,
and that you two would be free from the curse. But you know as well
as I that a few weeks after your father’s funeral, your mother
found out that she was pregnant.

“
Sara was extremely
frightened and worried, and told Terry all of her worst fears of it
being a boy, and the curse never leaving her family alone. Terry,
using magic, was able to determine the sex of her unborn child.
When your mother learned that she was carrying the next boy Grimm,
she became hysterical, refusing to eat, sleep, and work. Finally,
Terry, tired of watching and being unable to help her charge,
begged us to intercede, and we did. We did something we promised we
never would do. We intervened on an unborn Grimm. We cast a spell
to make him invisible to the Story, to make the Story look
elsewhere for his next Grimm.”

“
That’s why Charlie is the
way he is?” Mina gasped, and started to cry in relief. “I knew he
was special, I knew he…” she sobbed, and Mei came over and hugged
Mina and let her cry out all of her worries and
frustrations.

“
Yes, it is our fault that
Charlie is different. He is harmless and of no interest to the
Story, but the Story knew he had been duped. He always came back
year after year to see if there had been a change. To see what had
happened to his next Grimm. I think that is when he became
interested in you, Mina,” Constance said sadly.

Mei joined in excitedly. “He kept testing
you when you were growing up, and your mom saw it and became
frightened, and moved a lot. But I knew. I knew it would choose
you.”

“
What about the house?”
Mina asked.

“
What about it?” Constance
didn’t seem worried.

“
Where did that come
from?”

“
It’s the same house the
Grimm Brothers lived in hundreds of years ago. It’s been invisible,
hidden for years until the next Grimm needed it. We had to gather
enough fairies and convince them to use a fairy circle to move it
here, and each time it’s moved it changes a little to fit the new
surroundings. Your grandfather lived there, but your father just
used it as his office. He refused to move your family there. He
wanted to try to keep as normal a life as possible. And now it
belongs to you.”

Mina meditated on what she’d just been told.
She had a house that was protected from Fae, a whole Guild of
Godmothers that were of no help to her because they wouldn’t fight,
and a blank spot on their wall for when she died.

“
What about the Grimoire?
How did Jared and Teague get involved with the quests that
originally started out between the Fates and the Grimm Brothers?
Jared already told me that a sprite split the Fae book in two,
creating the original Story and its doppelganger, the Grimoire, and
that one is evil, the other good. But how do Jared and Teague fit
in? When did they become so…attached?” Mina couldn’t help but smile
at her own joke.

Mei blushed and refused to look at Mina.
“Well, that is a tender subject.”

Mina could easily read between the lines.
“It has to do with a girl, doesn’t it?”

Constance interjected, “There’s not a whole
lot known about the Royals. A very secretive family, but there are
always rumors. That something happened and someone cursed the
princes into servitude to these books, and over the many years
their personalities have changed and merged. One prince struggling
to not become a slave to the book, while the other succumbed faster
and became darker and more obsessed with power and the role of the
tales.”

It made so much sense now that she had more
puzzle pieces and could finally see the whole picture. She began to
feel sorry for Jared and his brother. “Is there nothing to be done
to break their curse?” she asked.

“
Oh, Mina. No wonder he
chose to come to you. Only you would be worried about breaking
someone else’s curse over your own.”

Mina sat down at the table and felt
something brush against her calves before scrambling back into her
lap. She didn’t have the energy to push the Baldander off, and in
fact was finding comfort in his nearness. It was soothing stroking
his fur and thinking through all the new information she just
learned.

Constance cleared her throat to get Mina’s
attention. “But we need to focus on your problem, not theirs. So
back to the problem at hand. What kind of Stiltskin were they?”

“
One was young, a teenager
like me. The other was older. He looked like he just walked out of
a comic convention.”

“
No, Mina, not what were
they wearing—what was their element? What form did they work in?
Was it tin, iron, bronze, silver?”

“
Oh! Uh, copper. Reid kept
changing everything to copper.”

Mei looked relieved. “Copper means he was
probably the youngest-born sibling. The one who you made a deal
with…?”

“
Gold,” she answered
excitedly. “Everything he touched turned to gold.”

Constance let out a long sigh and rubbed her
forehead wearily. “That’s what I was afraid of. He’s the oldest
son, then, probably from the original family. If only you had met a
nickel or bronze. We could have handled one of those—but gold? That
goes back to the original Stiltskin family, to Rumple himself.”

“
Well, in that tale all
the princess had to do to save her child was guess his name, so
shouldn’t it work the same way? He already told me his name. It’s
Temple.”

“
They’ve wised up, changed
their bargains and deals. Names used to hold a great deal more
power. I think our best bet is to try to do what he wants, although
he will more than likely try to trick you into becoming his slave
either way. So the first order of business is, what did he
want?”

All of a sudden, something told her not to
tell them. A small voice warned her away from the GMs. If she told
them she was going after the Fae book, they might refuse to help
her, just like Jared. So, out of self-preservation for her quest,
she lied. “He didn’t say yet. He wanted me to cross over to the Fae
world first, and then he would find me and tell me what my task
is.”

“
Are you kidding me? There
can only be one reason he wants a Grimm to cross over. He’s going
to send you after the Royal Family,” Mei said nervously.

“
You’re right. You can’t
do it. I doubt you could get to the palace without getting killed.
So you only have one other choice. You have to kill Temple first,”
Constance said.