Forever (9 page)

Mina wasn’t so sure, she
could feel that darkness from down inside her, the jealousy that would
sometimes surface. She’d used it to manipulate Fae power and the Story to get
what she wanted. She even let it turn her into the evil queen during one quest.
It had been so easy, since she had a bit of siren deep within her.

Understanding why the Fae
power came to her so easily did give her some relief. Finding out that her
mother was Fae in her own right was a little disconcerting. What it meant,
though, was that she really had belonged in the choosing ceremony among the
others. She was Fae.

“Ever, we’ve got to talk. Is
there anything we can do to keep Teague from hearing us?”

Ever thought for a minute while
Mina’s mind swirled with plans and questions.

She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I
got it. We’ll take care of it back at the house.”

“There’s something I have to
do first,” Mina said. “Before I head back to the house.” She went around to the
back of Brody’s SUV and opened the hatch. Ever helped her get her bike out and
onto the pavement. “Can you make sure Charlie gets back safe? And you may have
to stop at the store for supplies, since we never made it there.”

“What kind of supplies are
you after?” Ever asked.

“I need to get Charlie far
away from here.”

Ever didn’t say anything. She
just nodded her head and took the money out of Mina’s hand.

“What? You’re not disagreeing
with me?”

“No, I agree with you one
hundred percent, which is why you didn’t get a sarcastic reply. I’m assuming
you need supplies for two people.”

Mina looked hard at Ever,
willing her to understand. “Yes. I’m going to ask someone to take him.”

“And I can trust you not to
get killed while on this errand?”

“Yeah, I think I’m safe for
now. Teague won’t come for me yet.”

“But you think he’s coming?”

“I know he is.”

Chapter 10

Mina slipped away on her bike
while Ever distracted the group. Ever would make sure they all made it back to
the house.

According to her watch, Mina
only had eleven hours until Teague would come for her, so she needed to use the
hours left to take care of business. And by business, she meant her
friends—her only family.

From the school, Mina rode
her bike to the nearest bus stop. She took a moment to latch the bike onto the
bus’s front bike rack and rode a half mile to the Country Club—where the
ball had been held the night Teague attacked. Mina got her bike and rode up the
sidewalk.

The gate was closed.

She parked beside the brick
wall and walked around until she found a spot in the hedge she could squeeze
through. Jogging up the grassy hill, she thought again how beautiful the
Country Club was. It looked as lovely this evening as it had a few nights
earlier.

Mina looked for the balcony
she and Brody had stood on to watch the fireworks. There were a couple, but
Mina found the balcony that overlooked the river. She pulled out her laser
pointer and searched the bushes below it.

She wanted to kick herself
for not bringing a flashlight. Even though she still had a few hours of
daylight, the shadows had lengthened, and the brush under this balcony was
square in the dark. Brody’s class ring couldn’t have rolled too far away. She
hoped beyond hope that the laser would reflect off the big stone in the top of
the ring. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

The bushes were scratching
her arms up, and she was getting angry. She didn’t have time for this. She
wanted to do something great for her friends, and the bushes were getting in
her way! Her hands tingled, and she shoved at the bush again in frustration.

The bush started to
part—she jumped back. It was moving.

“What the?” The bush’s
branches pull themselves away from her and shifted out of her way. She shined
her laser pointer into the newly cleared area.

And then she saw it. A glint
reflected back at her.

The ring! Wedged under the
bush. There was no way she would have found it if the bush hadn’t moved.

She didn’t want to spend time
pondering the whys anymore. She grabbed the class ring and ran down the lawn.

The ring rested safely in her
pocket as she pedaled to the bus stop. She only had to get home now. The bus
would drop her off about two miles from her house, and she’d be home free.

***

The rain gods must hate her.
She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve this, but as soon as the bus dropped
her off, it started to pour.

Bitter, angry, and let down,
Mina pulled her red bike off the rack and started the miserable and wet ride
home. The last few weeks, she’d neglected her notebook titled,
“Unaccomplishments and Epic Disasters,” but now she could see her next entry:
Tried to save the world. Drowned doing it.

Her chest ached, and her legs
burned as she pedaled furiously. Twice, a car drove right through a rain puddle
near her. Each time, she squealed and veered toward the side of the road,
dodging the car. But the second time, as she bumped into the grass and mud, she
lost control of the bike for a moment. When she got back on the road, she
wanted to scream. Nothing was fair! All she wanted was for her last few hours
of life to at least be dry.

She came to the bottom of
Kingdom Hill and got off her bike. The hill was a blast to ride down to school,
but riding up it was killer on her legs. It was a half-mile incline, almost
impossible to pedal. The hill was lined with forests on both sides of the road
and barren of houses for the next mile. This was usually the most peaceful part
of the journey.

In the rain, it was
miserable. Mina walked alongside her bike and couldn’t help but stare into the
moss-ridden forest. Sometimes a deer or squirrel would dash into the
underbrush. This time, something else caught her eye—an oddly shaped
giant ash tree. It was skinny and crooked on the top with long branches. Its
bark was covered with green moss, and mushrooms peppered the base.

It wouldn’t have gained her
attention on any other day, but she swore she saw it move. There! Its branches
were shaking. Granted, it could be from the weight of the rain pelting the
branches, but she didn’t want to take that chance.

She picked up her pace, kept her
eye on the ominous tree—its branches shuddering in her peripheral
vision—and walked as fast as she could up the incline. But when she could
no longer keep the tree in her eyesight, she heard it.

She’d almost been expecting
it. A deep groan sounded, a cracking and snapping of branches. The cracking
became more frantic—louder.

As it grew, so did her panic.

When Mina glanced back, the
ash tree was gone. She ditched her bike and sprinted up the wet hill away from
the noise. She gasped for breath, the sound loud in her ears.

So loud she couldn’t
distinguish the crashing anymore. Afraid to look back, she just ran.

The ground rumbled under her,
and a deafening roar pounded her ears. She screamed seconds before a large,
rough, vine-like arm scraped and wrapped around her waist and lifted her high
into the air.

Feet dangling helplessly,
Mina struggled against the rough bark that bit into her skin. She wriggled and
pried herself out of its grasp, falling onto the muddy ground not far from the
road’s edge. Winded, she turned in horror to face the monstrous tree beast. It
had uprooted itself and was now leaning over her.

Its roots moved along the
ground in spider-like fashion, inching toward her leg. Whimpering, Mina crawled
away from it. The trunk of the tree had cracked open to reveal a jagged mouth;
the thick branches worked as the monster’s arms. It moved toward her. The moss
and leaves on the tree began to turn brown and slowly fell to the ground,
dying, but she didn’t have time to ponder why.

She got to her feet and ran,
only to slip on the muddy terrain and fall onto her knees. A loud creak of
branches was her only warning. She lifted her gaze to see one of the tree’s
large branches swing for her head. With a cry, Mina rolled to the side. The
strike grazed her foot. She didn’t think she could outmaneuver the tree monster
a second time. Her only option was to get out of there.

Headlight beams blinded her
in the mist. Mina rose to her feet—Brody! She tried to wave him away.
Tires screeched on pavement as he braked to a stop. The tree monster roared in
fury at his black SUV and took two huge menacing steps toward it.

“Oh no!” Mina cried out.

The tree swung a massive
branch toward the car. Brody slammed the car into reverse as the tree pounded a
branch within inches of the hood. He continued to drive away recklessly in
reverse, the tires squealing as he made a hectic escape.

Mina breathed a sigh of
relief that the car and driver were okay, but she couldn’t help being a little
disappointed that he’d left. Not to mention, she should have used the momentary
distraction to run away.

She’d blown her opportunity.

“Oh, Mother Hubbard!” Mina
let slip and took off. She was tired, sore, and bruised. Normally she would
have pulled out the Grimoire by now. But she was on her own. Just when she
thought she had outrun the tree monster, another one—a
birch—appeared in front of her. The peeling white-gray bark created a
face with eyes and a mouth. She was surrounded. The birch-tree monster swayed
menacingly in front, while the mushroom-covered-ash-tree monster caught up and
blocked her escape.

“I mean you no harm,” she
called out. She held up muddy palms in the air to show she was defenseless. “I
didn’t do anything to you. Just leave me alone!” The mushroom tree had dried
out even more, and leaves kept falling to the ground. Maybe the monster
couldn’t survive above ground long. If that was the case, she only needed to
wait.

A figure in a long black
cloak appeared from the woods.

“Help!” Mina cried to the
cloaked being.

But it only watched her from
the tree line, neither helping nor hindering. “Please help me!” she tried
again, but the figure didn’t move—just continued to observe as she ran
from the monsters. “Fine! A thousand curses on you!”

The figure raised its hand
and pointed at her, its meaning clear. It was commanding the trees to harm her.

Mina tried to keep the
monsters in sight, but the way they skittered about on their roots made it
difficult. The ash tree started to shake and crack, its movements becoming
stilted. The birch monster showed no signs of wilting or slowing until it
stopped, and its long, gangly roots burrowed deep into the ground. Suddenly,
they erupted out of the earth right in front of Mina, wrapping themselves
around her legs.

She screamed and clawed at
the roots, trying to pry them off. She swore she heard the monster laugh as it
began to drag her into the ground. Flipping over, she dug her fingertips into
the dirt, desperate to anchor herself. She glanced toward the hooded figure and
noticed it had come closer as if to watch.

A low rumbling noise sounded
in the distance, growing louder as it came closer. Headlight beams illuminated
the tree attacking her and created a giant circular bull’s-eye. The vehicle
accelerated. Brody was back! He hit the curb at an intense speed, lifted into
the air, and torpedoed straight into the trunk of the ash tree.
No
!

The monster shrieked as the
impact severed many roots. The ones that had imprisoned her loosened, and Mina
was able to wiggle free.

Brody’s front wheels were
halfway up the trunk of the toppled ash tree. He kept his foot on the gas, the
wheels of his SUV continually spinning three feet above the ground. Was he too
scared to let off it, or was he injured?

She held her breath.

He stirred and moved around
inside.

She let out a sigh of relief.

Brody waved at her, trying to
get her attention. His car was probably totaled, but the electric window
worked…sort of. It whirred and made a loud grinding noise as it wiggled down.

“Mina, look out!” Brody
shouted.” His face was pale as a ghost.

Mina turned as the ash tree
toppled forward. It was going to fall on her. She dove to the left and missed
being crushed by the thick trunk. Branches snapped, and she imagined a rush of
wind as if the tree had exhaled its last breath.

Thump…thump…thump. Brody
finally got the driver’s door opened and dropped the three feet to the ground,
his legs wobbly.

“Mina!” He crawled to where
he had last seen her.

“Over here,” Mina answered.
She inched out from behind the dead tree. “I’m okay.”

She looked back to the tree
line. The ominous figure was gone.

“Is it dead?” Brody asked,
rubbing his hand up and down his left arm.

He refused to come any closer
to either of the tree monsters. His cheek was swollen with reddish scratches
across it from the airbags deploying. It was already starting to bruise. One of
his eyes looked swollen, and blood trickled from a small cut on his forehead
onto his white polo.

“Brody! You’re hurt!”

He was favoring his arm. She
went to touch it, but he pulled it away.

“This will be an interesting
tale to tell my insurance company.” He looked his totaled car over. “Tell me
I’m not crazy.” He wiped at his bruised face and winced. “Those trees
were
attacking you…right?”

Mina scanned the scene before
her. The ash tree had fallen over dead. It had apparently been out of the earth
too long, and whatever Fae magic had kept it moving had worn off. The birch
tree was quickly drying up as they watched. Within seconds, it was back to a
regular looking tree.

Mina pointed at Brody’s arm.

“I’ll be fine. I just need to
sit down for a second.” He looked at the mangled car, the puddles of mud, and
the tree corpses. “Yeah, I think I need to sit way over here.”

He walked a few feet and
almost collapsed as he tried to sit on the wet curb. Thankfully, it had stopped
raining.

“What are you doing here?”
she asked.

“I was following you. I
followed you to the Country Club, and then I followed the bus. I never expected
dating you to be so dangerous,” he chuckled sadly.

“It’s only going to get worse,”
Mina warned.

“I promised I’d protect you.”
His eyes looked glassy. “I don’t go back on my promises.”

“What if I released you from
that promise?”

“I don’t think I like where
this is going.” He looked down at his shoes.

“A lot has happened in the
last few days, but it feels like it’s been weeks.”

“I know. I feel like I’ve
aged ten years.” He chuckled and grabbed her hand.

“You might have, thanks to
Claire’s touch,” Mina admitted as she ran her hand over the back of Brody’s.
“She took some of your youth to sustain her.”