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  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.”

  Brody studied her, his eyes filled with sadness. He reached out with his other hand and covered hers. “Mina, what happened the night of the ball when you kept disappearing? Something changed that night, and I can’t figure it out.”

  “I fell in love with someone else that night,” she admitted… to him and to herself.

  “But you were only gone from my sight for a couple of moments.”

  “And each of those moments felt like a lifetime on the Fae plane.”

  “So he’s Fae? This person you fell in love with.” Brody didn’t seem angry. He seemed curious. Her heart swelled with relief that they could talk about this like friends.

  She released a long drawn out breath, “Oh, yeah. Fae alright.”

  “Does he love you back?” Brody asked.

  “No.”

  “Then he’s blind.”

  “No, love is blind.”

  “Love is Grim” Brody whispered as he gently touched her face. “Why do I feel like you’re saying goodbye? What are you not telling me?”

  Mina reached into her pocket and pulled out his class ring. “You offered me something that, two years ago, I would have given anything for.” She couldn’t keep the tears of regret from creeping into her eyes or her voice. “But I can’t give you what you want, because really? I lost my heart a long time ago, to a prince in a story.”

  “I may never get my happily-ever-after ending,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean you can’t have yours.” Mina placed the ring in his open palm. “You’ve given up so much for me, and I can never thank you enough. You promised to protect me, but I’m asking you to do something even greater. Protect Nan.”

  Brody was about to protest when Mina put her hand on his lips, stopping him. Her hand grew warm with power, and she pushed her will toward him and commanded, Find your true love.

  Brody froze for a second, and Mina watched as her compulsion settled inside him. Why had she never noticed what she could do before? She was the one who couldn’t control her own desire and kept compelling him to fall for her. And if her direction worked, she’d quickly find out if her instincts were correct.

  He blinked a few times and looked at her, but there wasn’t any strong emotion behind his eyes. Just trust and true friendship. Mina stood up and shivered, deeply thankful for this moment of resolution. Brody may have been able to ignore the chill of the evening, but she couldn’t. The monster trees had wasted enough of her precious time.

  “Let’s go back.”

  Brody got up, and hand-in-hand, they walked the last mile to her house in silence. They took comfort from one another’s touch, but it wasn’t anything romantic. Mina was extra careful now to keep her feelings and desires locked up in her heart. She didn’t want any stray thoughts to influence Brody.

  When they finally made it up the hill and stood in front of her front door, it opened as if someone had been watching from inside.

  Nan stood there. Her gaze dropped to their clasped hands, and her face fell.

  Mina groaned inwardly. That wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t mean to hurt her friend’s feelings. How would she explain this to Nan?

  She didn’t have to. Brody took two steps forward, picked Nan up, even though he was injured and bruised, and kissed her.

  Nan squealed in surprise but sure didn’t stop him from kissing her.

  Ever and Charlie happened to walk by, and Charlie stuck his finger down his throat and made barfing actions. Mina carefully squeezed past Nan and Brody as they continued to kiss. She silently closed the door and let them have privacy on the porch.

  “Well, I think that was the fastest breakup and get-together in history.” Ever leaned over to pull the curtain aside so she could spy.

  Mina swatted her hand away. “No, he was always meant to be her prince charming. I just got in the way, and she was too good a friend to tell me her true feelings.”

  “So she lied to you,” Ever said.

  Mina thought about it, about all the jokes Nan made about not liking Brody Carmichael, even though their families were great friends. How she hadn’t wanted to be the one to bring the folder to his house that fateful day when he ran over Mina’s bike. Nan had liked him just as much as she did and was probably even more nervous than she was. Plus, Nan would never let herself admit to liking the same guy Mina did.

  “Yeah, she lied. Not just to me, though—she lied to herself.”

  Ever nodded.

  “Hey, you said you had a way for us to talk without being listened to?”

  “Yeah. We need to get all the mirrors.” She peeked back out the window again.

  Nix walked in and noticed Ever looking outside. He pulled the curtain back and whistled at them.

  Something loud slapped at the window, and Nix backed off.

  “Leave them be,” Mina commanded. “We have work to do.”

  Chapter 11

  When the front door opened, and a red-faced Nan and a smiling Brody tried to sneak in, Ever pounced. She handed Brody a screwdriver.

  “I need all of the bathroom mirrors taken down. You.” She pointed to Nan. “Tackle the hall mirror. Nix, bring every other mirror in the house to the kitchen.”

  “Why?” Nan asked.

  “Why must you ask why? Just trust me.” Ever made a face and rolled her eyes.

  Nan started unhooking the hall mirror, and Brody headed to the downsta
irs bathroom.

  Mina went to the upstairs storage room. It had been a while since she’d entered this room. As she flipped on the light, a tremor ran up her arms. She’d been sitting on that very settee with Jared when he almost kissed her. A blush ran up her cheeks at the memory.

  The large portrait of her father no longer sat on the easel, but on the floor. Now a new canvas and portrait sat in its place. The subject was a young girl, sitting in the same high back chair that was in the front living room. The girl had a slightly heart-shaped face, dark brown eyes, a hint of rosy cheeks, and long brown hair. Even though the painting stopped just past her shoulders, and only the pencil outline showed the rest, it was obvious that some magic was creating her portrait, and her fear was slowly coming to realization. Yes, that image would one day hang in this house after she passed.

  Somehow, the house knew her time was almost up and was painting her death portrait.

  Mina yelled in frustration and knocked the canvas from the easel. She picked it up and kicked right through the center of the fabric, tearing it from the staples. She stepped through it, venting her anger on it until nothing was left but a broken frame, and she was spent, sitting on the floor, staring at the mess she had made.

  “Sorry, house sprite, or whoever is doing this, but I’m not ready. So no more memorial portraits until after I’m dead, got that? At least wait another eight hours.” She spoke to the air, but she had a feeling that the magic house heard. “Now if you want to help me, you can show me where there are some mirrors.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Fine, be that way.” Mina began moving pictures and uncovering sheets from piles of boxes.

  The curtain by the window moved. It could have been the air vents kicking on, but a sliver of moonlight fell through and pointed across the room to some boxes.

  Mina checked that corner. Behind the boxes stood a large square mirror in an antique frame. She used part of the sheet to dust it off and then lifted it up carefully and carried it out. But not before saying a parting thanks.