Forever

by Chanda Hahn

  The laser threw off the glamour. The griffin began to stir. A wing unfolded, and its head turned, revealing a black beady eye. It blinked right at her.

  “Griffin!” Mina squealed and grabbed Ever’s hand. Ever snatched the laser pointer and shone it at the closest wolf, who didn’t take too kindly to her laser attack. It lost the glamour fast, shook out its fur, and howled into the sky.

  People backed away in terror, not understanding how the wolf had appeared in the middle of the stopped carousel. A child stood right in front of the wolf, waiting to get on it, when it changed shape. Now the little girl was screaming.

  The wolf lunged for her.

  Right before it snapped its jaws around the girl, Mina saw a flash of red hair. Someone grabbed the wolf from behind and flung it back into the slowly shifting griffin. Nix handed the girl back to her mom and told her to run.

  “Nix!” Ever shouted and jumped up and down.

  “Run!” He pushed Nan and Charlie toward the exit as mass hysteria ensued. Everyone entering the ride tried to jump the security fence or run out the exit. The carousel creaked and groaned under the weight of all the Fae beasts as they slowly revealed themselves.

  Someone in green appeared next to Nix. Ferah, knives drawn, fended off a griffin as it tried to snatch a young girl and haul her into the air.

  Nan couldn’t get out the exit, so she went to the fence and lifted Charlie over it and into Mina’s arms. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know.”

  She tried to swing her leg over the fence, but a bear in half-human form yanked her back. She screamed, and Mina saw her blonde head only for a second before it disappeared back toward the carousel full of monsters.

  “Nan!” Mina yelled with Charlie in her arms. She tried to hand her brother to Ever, but Charlie screamed and lashed out until Mina dropped him. He wasted no time running toward the entrance to go in after Nan.

  Ever was already flying over the fence to find Nan as Mina ran after her brother. Most of the Fae had scattered into the fairgrounds, and the griffins took to the air screeching a hunter’s cry. Mina jumped onto the almost empty platform and saw the mangled gold bars and posts. The carousel was lopsided now, broken into two. She ran to the back and saw the bear running away, Nan tossed over its shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  Charlie was right on their tail and didn’t slow down as the bear ran into the house of mirrors.

  “No!” Mina cried.

  Charlie disappeared inside after them.

  Chapter 7

  Mina slowed just before entering the building. Inside, cheesy calliope music blared, but over it she could just hear Nan’s angry voice telling the bear off.

  There was a loud roar, and then Nan’s voice cut out mid-sentence.

  Mina’s heart clenched. She darted around and entered the maze through the exit, hoping to cut them off. Mina slipped into the back hall and came face to face with her own reflection. She almost cried out but held in her scream. With her back to the wall, she pressed on, trying to make her way through the maze.

  Wasn’t this how it always was in horror movies? Hero and bad guy duke it out in a mirror maze. She could have rolled her eyes at the irony of what was happening, but she couldn’t even blame the Fates, because she doubted the Fae bear had seen those movies.

  A noise to her left made her freeze. It came from another mirror, behind it maybe. Mina wanted to call out for Nan or Charlie, but again, movie self-preservation told her to hold her tongue.

  She made it past two more turns and didn’t see or hear anything else. The floor squeaked beneath her foot, and she froze. Had she given away her position? She should have made it to the middle of the maze by now. Where had the bear gone?

  A noise came from ahead, and Mina ducked behind a self-standing wave mirror and listened. She heard footsteps—light and close together. Mina moved from behind the mirror.

  Charlie stood in front of her, wooden popgun hefted over his shoulder like a weapon.

  “Did you find her?”

  He shook his head no.

  “Where did they go? I came in the exit.” Mina didn’t think she missed anything, so she continued toward the front where Charlie had come in. It would’ve been easy with all the twists and turns to have missed them. Maybe the bear was hiding, and she or Charlie had walked right past them.

  But then Mina thought she heard scuffling, and this time it didn’t sound like it was behind the mirrors. It sounded like it was under them.

  She dropped to her hands and knees and pressed her ear to the floor. The sound was clearer. Something large was crawling under the floor.

  “Charlie, can you go find Ever?”

  He shook his head and crossed his arms.

  “Please! We need help.”

  He didn’t look happy, but he went running out the front entrance. After she was sure Charlie had gone, Mina backtracked to the spot where she’d made the floor squeak and searched for a trapdoor. She didn’t want her brother to know she knew where the door was. She didn’t want him anywhere near that angry Fae bear.

  Mina felt along the floor until she found the edge and the metal clasp. She slowly lifted the trapdoor, expecting something large to spring out at her. When nothing terrifying immediately attacked, she opened the door and rested it back on the floor. The darkness under the house of mirrors almost caused her to chicken out.

  She swung her legs over the edge and dropped down to the ground. There wasn’t a lot of room below, but she immediately saw a large wheel. The fair was mobile, so the whole house was on wheels. As she let her eyes adjust, she could see a lot of light leaking in through the shabby tarp wrapped around the wheel bed.

  She crawled over to the next section. Her heart sank when she noticed a large tear in the tarp where the bear had made a hasty escape. She backtracked and climbed back into the house of mirrors and called out for Charlie. When she pulled herself up out of the floor, she saw Teague—not just one Teague, many Teagues.

  His reflection appeared over and over among the mirrors, each one smirking at her in unison.

  Mina stood tall and tried to stare down the reflection closest to her.

  “She’s gone.”

  “No, she’s not,” Mina argued.

  “You’ve lost.”

  “The game is only beginning.”

  “I’m taking each of your friends one by one, Mina. Like I promised I would. Even your Godmother friends are no match for me.”

  “Let Nan go!”

  “Why do you demand? Don’t you realize I’m not that unreasonable?”

  A loud crashing noise sounded outside, and the floor rumbled below them.

  “What was that?” she asked, terror filling her soul.

  “Why don’t we go see.” He waved his hand, and the building exploded outward. Pieces of mirror shards plumed up, sparkling in the air like glitter, but none touched her because Teague placed a protective shield around them.

  Mina looked out and saw people lying on the ground around her, hurt from the blast—men, women, and children. Farther up, she saw the giant troll, the same one that had been captured deep underground in the Godmothers’ Guild. It was now destroying her school. Before, half-encased in the wall, his size had been impossible to tell. The troll’s back had beams and pipe from the Green Mill Recycling Center melded into it, which gave him a dinosaur-like appearance.

  Someone screamed, “Godzilla!”

  She closed her eyes and tried to turn away as the troll’s large club rose in the air and came down right over the cafeteria. The ceiling groaned as it caved in.

  “Stop! There could be people inside.”

  “Why do you care about this place or these people, Mina? I know for a fact that you don’t like school, and most—if not all—of these students have called you names. I know the resentment you have for them. I’m doing you a favor.”

  “It doesn’t matter how bad people treat you. It’s not worth hurting them.”

  Teague stared at her, and she didn’t back dow
n. “Interesting choice of words. Are you saying that to save your own skin?”

  The glowing bubble Teague placed around them grew brighter, and Mina gasped as her feet left the ground. He hovered over the school, bringing her closer, so she could see the devastation. The troll had moved on to the gym.

  The higher they flew, the more destruction she could see. The Ferris wheel had people on it, and one of the giants was spinning the wheel. People screamed inside the cars as they swung precariously.

  “Make it stop!”

  Constance appeared out of the crowd and ran toward the giant. She started to sing, and a few seconds later, the giant stopped shaking and spinning the Ferris wheel. His eyes got droopy, and he tottered back and forth. He let go of the wheel and fell backward, crashing into the already destroyed and abandoned dunk tank. Teague frowned at the Godmother and shrugged his shoulder. “She can’t sing forever. As soon as she stops, he’ll wake up again.”

  Other Fae from the Guild were running toward the Ferris wheel. Ken Wong stood at the operating board, trying to get the wheel to work. The operator had run away, and they couldn’t get the cages open. He signaled to one of the larger Fae who looked like he was part lion. With a loud roar, he ripped the door off the hinge of the first car and helped four terrified teens out. The lion sprung on top of the empty cage and jumped onto the cart above. He pulled the door off, grabbed the first girl, and jumped down thirty feet to land on his hind paws. As soon as he deposited her next to Mr. Wong, the lion went back for the next student.

  Screams came from the car, but the lion was able to get the kids in the car after that to come willingly with him as he jumped again. Another human wearing a carnival uniform came out of the crowd and shifted into a cat. He scaled the other side of the Ferris wheel and mimicked the first rescuer. She couldn’t be certain, but Mina had a feeling that this Fae who had jumped in to help wasn’t part of the Guild, but a good Samaritan.

  “Cats always land on their feet. Well, we’ll see about that.” He made a motion as if to stop them, but Mina put herself in front of them.

  “Please, no more.”

  He stopped and smiled. “Do that again. I like it when you beg.”

  She would have too—except that, as her gaze drifted down through their floating bubble, Mina caught sight of Charlie. He stared up at them from the ground, the only one not running away in the mass hysteria.

  But her hesitation and downward glance made Teague notice her brother as well.

  “Ah, the little Grimm,” he said. “We really don’t need two of you trying to kill me. I think one is enough.” Teague signaled a red-brown griffin, and it dove toward her brother.

  “No!” Mina gasped as the griffin screeched, his claws extended for the kill.

  But the griffin didn’t make contact. Charlie opened his mouth and screamed in anger. A loud, shrieking, piercing noise—so painful that Mina clapped her hands over her ears. The griffin was hit with a force so powerful, it knocked the beast over, and it crashed into the school.

  “A siren? And he’s quite powerful for one so young. No wonder he’s been so quiet. That takes lots of control. I see you’re shocked as well. Somebody’s been keeping secrets,” he taunted in a sing song voice.

  “Hurts doesn’t it, when those closest to you lie to you?” Teague leaned close to speak over her shoulder. “You can’t trust those Godmothers.”

  Charlie was shaking and trembling. His little body couldn’t handle the power that he’d just unleashed, and he fell to his knees on the ground and started to convulse.

  “Please help him,” she cried out. “Let me go to him.”

  Teague didn’t respond. He simply stared around him, taking in the destruction. “He’ll recover, Mina. He just needs time. See? He’s already trying to get back up and keep fighting. You’ve got to admire that in one so young.”

  Sure enough, Charlie had made it back to his feet. He wiped white foam from his mouth with the back of his hand and turned his gaze up to them, furious. His eyes glowed with anger. Charlie turned his rage toward Teague and let forth another ear piercing shriek. The protective bubble around them cracked but didn’t break.

  “Too bad, I think the first attack wore him out. Now I wonder what spurred on his rage? Oh, I know. The death of his mother, perhaps?”

  This time, Charlie just fell to the ground—with no convulsion. He slumped his head and appeared to be crying.

  A large ogre with a bulbous nose came walking by with Ever in his hand. She kept trying to fly away, but he pinched her wings between two of his meaty fingers. When he gave a tug on them, Ever cried out in fury and pain. Mina remembered what Ever said about ogres and how they liked to eat pixie wings. He tugged again, and she screamed.

  Mina cringed.

  Claire strode into the middle of the fairgrounds with Grey Tail dragging Brody forcefully behind. She already looked ten years younger, and she kept touching Brody’s face longingly. She had already taken a few years of his life and she was begging for more. So much was happening so fast, and Mina felt absolutely powerless.

  Reid and Temple overpowered Constance. Temple put a golden gloved hand over the muse’s mouth to stop her singing. The giant slowly started to wake up, and the Fae hadn’t gotten all of the passengers out of the Ferris wheel.

  Mina watched, helpless, as Nix ran and threw himself on Charlie just as Claire and her wolves circled him. There was little Nix could do to save him. He was fully human now. Mina turned in a circle, tears falling freely from her face as she watched her school continue to crumble beneath the onslaught of the troll.

  Police were arriving, and ambulances lined the outskirts of the fairground, but they were hesitant to move in because of the giant that stomped toward their cars.

  Mina had lost the war.

  Utterly lost.

  She wasn’t a general or a fighter or a leader. She was a clumsy seventeen-year-old girl. She couldn’t be responsible for all of these people dying. She didn’t want to be the reason for so much tragedy.

  “You said you weren’t unreasonable,” Mina choked out softly.

  “I’m not.”

  “Then let’s reason. What would it take for you to stop this massacre and leave my friends alone?”

  Teague looked around, his hands held wide open. “You want me to stop destroying this… and the people who hurt you?”

  “Yes, yes I do. And I want you to release my friends, all of them, even the Godmothers. What would it take for you to do that and to never bother them again?”

  “I think you know the answer to that, Mina.” Teague made their bubble fly higher and higher into the sky until they were way up in the air surrounded by clouds. “There are only two things I want. If you give them to me, I’ll stop everything and let your friends live.”

  He stood before her, his eyes glowing with power. She tried to stand tall in front of him, but she couldn’t stop the tears as they fell.

  “The dagger and…” She let her voice trail off, knowing the other but unwilling to say it out loud.

  “Your life.” He smiled, one corner of his mouth pulling up to show his even white teeth.

  Mina took a deep breath and shuddered. She held out her hand.

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 8

  She knew the deal had to be made, but she pulled her hand back at the last second.

  “Changing your mind already?” He sneered.

  “No, I uh, I’d just like to add a few conditions.”

  He crossed his arms and snorted. “Of course you would.”

  “I’d like twenty-four hours before you collect on your debt.”

  “Two hours.”

  “Twelve. Take it or leave it.” Mina panicked inwardly, thinking she wasn’t even going to get that.

  “Twelve measly hours isn’t going to save you from my wrath any more than two. The ending will be the same.”

  Mina sighed. “I know. I just want to say my goodbyes.”

  “Your human emotions are so
typical.”

  “They’re not just human emotions. They’re Fae as well.”

  “Emotions make you weak,” he said, as if his own jealously and rage weren’t emotions.

  Apparently he only considered sentimental emotions weak. How interesting. “Twelve hours,” Mina repeated and held out her hand.

  Teague looked at her offered hand with a raised eyebrow. He wasn’t sure what to do with it. “So Mina, twelve hours I grant you. Then I will come for you. You better have my dagger. And no funny business. He pulled her delicate hand mirror out of the air. “Remember, I’m watching your every move.”

  He disappeared right before her eyes—and with him, the bubble holding her thousands of feet above the ground.

  Mina screamed as she fell out of the sky. Her hands clawed at the air as if, somehow, she could slow her freefall.

  She couldn’t inhale, she was falling so fast. Her destroyed school appeared, and what looked like ants all around it. But they weren’t ants. They were people—people getting bigger.

  As the ground rushed toward her face, she placed her hands in front of her, closed her eyes, and prayed. She imagined two large hands catching her and stopping her fall, saving her moments before she hit the ground. She pushed every ounce of willpower she had into her imagination.

  She could hear someone else scream when they noticed her falling, or maybe she was screaming herself. Then she slammed into something warm and soft.

  She grunted at the impact and looked up, but she was surrounded by darkness. Except that it wasn’t completely dark. A crevice of light opened up, and Mina could see what was left of the day peering in through the crack in rock. Although it couldn’t be rock. The walls shifted, opening up, and she realized she was sitting in the palm of the giant’s hand.

  She looked up into his eyes, and they looked straight into hers, glowing golden. When Mina turned her head, the giant turned his head too. She looked up, and the giant looked up.

  Put me down. She mentally commanded the giant. Then added, Gently, for good measure.