Forever (19 page)

“She can
find him,” Winona said firmly to Ever. “Mina has the closest connection to him
of any of us.”

“I don’t
know how.” Mina felt the mounting pressure being placed on her and began to
doubt.

“In your
dreams. The pixie told me of your dreams, that you see things,” Winona
encouraged.

“No,
mostly nightmares. But then sometimes it feels real,” Mina answered, a slight
panic rising within her.

“Can you
honestly tell me you’ve never dreamed something, a conversation that never came
true?”

The
premonition of Ever’s death. And more than that. Mina thought back to her many
restless nights and the pieces of her dreams that came true. Of being pulled
underwater by Teague, though he was pulling her underground. Or the
conversations she had with him. Her heart raced, and breathing became a
challenge.

It was
true. She was seeing bits of the future. “But how can I do it on purpose?”

“Just
think about him while you fall asleep. Your subconscience will seek him out,”
Winona said.

Mina felt
all of the eyes on her and swallowed. “I’ll try, but I think I’m too wound up
to sleep.”

Winona
smiled. “I have a tea for that. I’ll brew you a cup and let you sleep. Take
your time. The dream will come.”

“But what
if I’m too late?”

“Then we
will have to fight Teague to steal him back,” Ternan answered.

“You’re
not afraid of him?” Mina asked.

“No. In
fact, it will be our pleasure to inflict a little payback on the Royals for
what King Lucian did to our daughter.” He grinned evilly.

Mina felt
a moment of indecisiveness arise at her grandfather’s eagerness for war. Was
she really in the right place to find help for Charlie? She couldn’t go back to
Teague now, so she prayed that she was doing the right thing.

Chapter 26

Sleep
didn’t come easily. Mina had lain down on a small padded bench in the captain’s
quarters with a pillow and blanket. She tried to focus her mind on her brother,
but too many questions, thoughts, and fears plagued her—not to mention,
she was in the middle of the ocean on a Fae ship, surrounded by her mother’s
family. Instead of relief, a flood of angry thoughts rushed at her. Her mother
shouldn’t have kept them from her. She lied.

Mina
punched the pillow and tried to get comfortable again, but the gentle sway of
the waves didn’t help. They only reminded her she wasn’t on land. She stared at
the warm cup of tea on a small table to her right. Her first instinct was to
avoid the sea blue liquid with its unique aroma. She’d never in her life seen
blue tea, and she didn’t know what it would do to her—or if it was even
safe. And she had only just met her mother’s parents. They might be lying about
the effects of the tea.

But what
other choice did she have?

Mina
picked up the blue tea to give it a cursory sniff and picked up motes of fruit
and honey. Tipping the cup, she drank the first few sips slowly before she
gained enough courage to finish it off. She laid back down on the pillow and
tried to concentrate on Charlie.

But her
mind couldn’t stay away from Teague.

He was
furious. She could see his stiff angry posture as he stormed about the castle,
searching for her. Her heart ached to see that she was causing him so much pain
and anger.

“You
promised me!” he yelled into the empty room. He stormed through the halls and
burst through the doors to his own room. He went to a table and snatched up a
small silver hand mirror and spoke her name. In the dream, she could see the
mirror shimmer as it changed from his reflection to an image of her.

Confusion
marred his face as he met her eyes. “You ran away to be with the sirens.” His
voice wavered. “I told you what would happen if you broke our deal,” he said,
his voice suddenly like steel. “You’ll have to come back to me if you want your
brother.” His hands held the mirror so tightly his knuckles turned white. He slammed
the mirror back down onto the table then turned and yelled out the door.

“Summon
the Reapers and my army. She has broken my trust for the last time.” Mina could
see shadows move to do his bidding. She wanted to scream at him that whatever
he was seeing was a lie, that she hadn’t abandoned him, hadn’t left him.

Her dream
shifted. It was night, and she was running for her life. She could hear the low
growl of the omen on her tail. She was running down an unfamiliar street. She
tripped in the darkness and landed on the pavement. Her hands and knees were
scraped, and she looked desperately around in the darkness for the omen,
pulling out a small hand mirror to glance over her shoulder. There it was, mere
feet from her, with its eyes pale as death and his snarling mouth.

It
lunged, and she dropped the mirror.

She cried
out in her sleep and woke up covered in sweat. Winona sat in a chair off to the
side of the room, watching over her.

Mina
covered her mouth with her hands and tried to keep from crying out, but she was
wracked with silent sobs. Winona rushed forward and kneeled beside the couch.
“What is it? What did you see?”

“My
death,” she whispered. Her body went cold. “I don’t make it in time to save
them.”

She was
quiet afterward, solemn. Nothing Nix or Ever did could bring her out of the
spiral of depression her mind had sunk to. She hadn’t dreamed of her brother.
She couldn’t find his location, and there was nothing she could do for another
twenty-four hours or until it was safe for her to take the tea again. Mina was
so overwhelmed that she knew there was no way she’d fall asleep naturally. Not
when she didn’t know how many days she had left to live.

She sat
on a crate of supplies and stared across the sea at the setting sun.

The image
of the omen’s eyes bothered her so much, she finally gathered the courage to
ask Winona about it. She went to stand near her grandmother. “What is an omen
exactly? Is it a Reaper or something else?”

“An omen
is the form the Death Reaper takes before he strikes and takes your soul. They
are a different breed of Reapers, unlike the ones that guard the Fates. Because
they are already dead.”

“So can
it be killed?” Mina asked.

“No. Only
the dead can challenge Death to become the next omen. Then they must spend
their half-life collecting souls.”

“How
horrible.” Mina shuddered.

“It is,”
Winona agreed.

“Who’d
want to become a Death Reaper?”

“Someone
desperate enough to want a second chance at life, even if it’s only a
half-life.”

“Then is
there a way to stop it?” she asked.

“There’s
lore of a bone whistle that can control the Reaper, but I think that’s all it
is—a tale. Because nothing can stop Death when he strikes.”

“It’s how
I lost Mom,” Mina whispered. “The omen stole her soul.”

“I know,
but I also know that she loved you and would have traded her life for yours in
a heartbeat, love. Don’t ever mistake her sacrifice for weakness.”

Mina
stared at her hands and saw the half-moon fingernail indents she had left on
her palms. She made herself relax and looked up as Winona moved to Ternan’s
side.

While
they’d talked about the omen, Ternan had his siren crew unfurl every
sail—crimson, copper, aquamarine. They were trying to beat the sunset and
make it to specific coordinates. Ternan and his first mate were hunched over a
sea map calculating distance and wind speed.

Nix asked
Winona if she thought they’d make it.

“Of
course, dear boy. This is the fastest siren ship ever built. The sirens were
the first to discover the sea gate to the human plane, although the humans were
the first to discover its sister—the Bermuda Triangle. This one is
closest to us, and we’ve risked many of our lives keeping the Fae from using it
to cross the planes.”

“Luring
them to their death, you mean,” Nix said.

Winona’s
chin lifted in challenge, but she laughed good-naturedly. “Aye. The only ones
that come sailing here for the gate are up to no good. They’re the low down,
dirtiest scum that walks the Fae world. So yes, we call them to their doom, and
no one has cared or stopped us. In fact, we do the world a favor.”

“And
that’s how my mother met my father.” Mina spoke up.

“Somehow
the young man sailed through the gate into our world while he was chasing the
Loch Ness beast across the planes.”

“You mean
the Loch Ness Monster is real?” Mina asked in disbelief.

“Well,
they’re certainly not all from your Loch Ness, but the beasts like deep lakes
on both planes,” Winona said. “James followed it through the gate, and, when he
did, it attacked and capsized his vessel. It was our youngest daughter, your
mother, who saved him. We told her to let him drown since he wasn’t one of us,
but she couldn’t. She cried for days when we made a raft and sent him back
through the gate to his own plane. There was nothing we could do to help her.
She was young and in love, and she begged us to let her go after him.”

“And you
let her?” Mina asked. Then she saw Ternan’s face of disgust. “…right?”

“Of
course not. We’d never tell her to expose her Fae side to a human. But when we
forbade it, she went to a sea witch for help and had her powers bound. That
wasn’t enough for her though. She wanted to forget all about us and went to a
guild of rogue Fae for help.”

“I
believe they call themselves the Godmothers,” Winona corrected.

Ternan
growled out, “Whatever, but they helped her. Before they altered her memories,
she contacted us and told us never to try to reach her again. It wasn’t until
years later that we realized she’d fallen for a Grimm. It kind of changed some
things since he already knew about the Fae, but it hurt that she wanted nothing
to do with us. Wanted to be human, to raise human children.”

“So we
watched you, in our dreams,” Winona said, “and waited, hoping one day, you
would need us. And that day is today.” Winona came over and put her arm around
Mina in a side hug.

Winona’s
eyes locked on the iron cuffs around Mina’s wrists. “How dare he?” Winona
gripped the band harder, fuming. “How dare someone shackle the power of a
siren!” Her hair crackled with static electricity as her anger rose to the
surface.

Mina
watched in awe.

Winona held
out her hand and power raced to her, her hair whipping about from the abundance
of energy. “No one lays a hand on my granddaughter.”

Winona
touched the cuffs, and Mina felt the current of power blast through them,
turning them black. Whatever magic had blocked her was killed. Her bonds
clicked open and fell to the deck with a thud.

Mina
hadn’t known what she was missing, but when the Fae power came rushing back to
her, it was as strong and as sharp as regaining the ability to see after being
blind. She needed to grab a hold of Winona’s arm to steady herself. Her wrists
weren’t rubbed raw like Jared’s, she could only assume that it didn’t hurt her
as much because she was only half Fae.

Winona
smirked and raised her eyebrow. “Now that is just a taste of our power. Shall I
teach you the rest?”

Mina’s
mouth was dry, and she had to swallow a few times before her verbal yes spilled
out. “Teach me anything and everything I need, so I can save my friends.”

“Very
good,” Ternan grunted, watching the exchange. “There’s the siren spirit. But
you’ll have to delay your lessons until we are through the gate. Any outlash of
power can collapse it around us, trapping us between the planes forever.” He
gestured to the setting sun.

Mina ran
to the front of the ship to watch the miracle that was about to happen.

She saw
nothing on the horizon except for two giant stone monoliths that rose out of
the sea. Heads popped out of the water to watch them.

Mina
couldn’t help but be drawn in by the beautiful aquatic features of the sirens.
The fleeting sun reflected off their tails and scales as they swam alongside
the ship.

A few
came up and called out, a loud piercing shriek, but it didn’t damage the boat.
If it had been anything like her brother’s gift, it could very well tear them to
pieces. These calls were more of a warning to the boat. The closer they came,
the more violent the attacks became.

Until
Ternan strode to the bow holding a giant gold trident. He raised it, and the
sirens in the water jumped high into the air and flicked their tails in a
salute before diving deep below the waves. This continued the last mile. When
they reached the twin monoliths, the sirens that guarded the gate left them as
the ship continued toward it.

“Almost,”
Winona called out. “Starboard,” she yelled to the young siren with dreadlocks
who currently stood at the helm. “We can’t breach the gate too early, or we’ll
miss our chance completely. We won’t have time to turn around. We’ve got one
chance tonight. We can’t afford to have to wait till tomorrow.”

Ever came
and stood nervously next to Mina. “I’ve only ever passed through one of the
smaller gates between our worlds or used the seam ripper. I’ve heard of the
Sister Rocks and the rumor it was a gate, but I’ve never imagined actually
seeing it or passing through.”

“Why are
we not using the seam ripper to open a gate between the planes? It’s too
small?”

“Do you
see how many sirens are on this ship? The seam ripper would only let two or
three max through before it closed, and it’s too dangerous to open in the same
spot over and over. You’re bringing an army through, so you need one of the
natural gates. Just like Teague would have used.”

Nix
looked at the setting sun and the gate and voiced his concern, “We’re not going
to make it!”

“Yes, we
are!” Ternan bellowed. He ran toward the stern of the ship. He held his hands
up in the air, and Winona did the same. Soon every siren on the boat raised
their hands in unison, facing the sea behind them.

The ship
stilled on the water, and they dropped down suddenly. Mina looked over her
shoulder, and a giant wave surged up behind them. A wave that would surely
break their boat apart.

“Hold
on!” Ternan shouted. He controlled the wave, causing it to break and rush under
the ship. It lifted the boat and propelled them toward the Sister Rocks.

Ever and
Mina screamed. Nix pushed them against the middle mast and wrapped a rope
around their waists, securing them to the large wooden post. Water rushed over
the side, and the wave dropped again. People screamed—most in excitement—as
they were airborne for a few seconds before slamming back into the water. The
sun just touched the horizon.

The gate
opened, a spiral of bright colors.

But they
were off course, charging straight toward the right monolith.