War
"Not all Fairy Tales have happily ever afters.
Some just have afters."
He watched her intently through the looking glass. "Aw, poor Mina, she won't know what hit her." He sat at his desk, in his room. Decor and emblems of the royal seal sat on a ledge above his head.
Teague saw Mina working on the mural she had started with Jared. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, as her hand swiftly moved the paint brush along a blank part of the wall. Next to the emerging painting was a picture of shining glass slippers. With all the tiny crystals at the bottom of the heel. She continued and Teague soon knew what she had been painting.
It was the time they had kissed, up in the tower.
A yellow glow illuminated them in the background, giving it a warm feeling. Just for a moment a small smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth, but just for a moment. Then it vanished into a frown.
He watched her work, and was about to turn his back and walk away, when she began painting something else next to it.
This time, there was no warm glow, but a dark shadow above them. A young elf stood off to the side and Teague lied on the floor in pain. His body twisted in a strange way, while Mina kneeled over him, sobbing. The erJad knife in her hand.
For a moment Teague didn't move, but just stared at the painting, his eyes turned dark and he clenched his hands into fits until his knuckles were white.
The wet paint dripped in heavy drops onto her white, already stained carpet, but Mina didn't care. One look at what she drew and she was sobbing mercilessly.
He angrily turned away and waved his hand at the mirror as it turned cloudy. "Time to pay my Grimm a visit." He smirked. Walking out of his suite, he slammed the door and ran down the left hallway, into a room with a small chest. He stopped running and opened the box, grabbing a small circular, silver tube. He ripped off the cap, pointed and walked through.
Chapter 2
A dark shadow fell over the room. Mina felt it and quickly wiped away the tears and stood directly against the wall, hiding her paintings.
"What do you want Teague?" She snapped. He smiled as he became visible, standing uncomfortably close to her. Mina thought of backing up, but remembered the wall. Darn wall!
"Oh, just to say hi." He lied.
"Haha, very funny. Now why are you here? The looking glass and the guild wasn't enough for you?" She snapped again. Teague was seriously getting on her nerves.
He looked taken aback a bit but his face soon relaxed as his hand stroked her cheek. Mina's heart sped up and she immediately waved her hand at some rope she needed for a school project on the floor.
Finally! Something goes right!
The rope shot up and went straight for Teague. He still looked at her, motionless. Until his hand flew behind him as he used Mina's magic against her and the rope wrapped around her body. Leaving only her head free.
Or not.
"Na ah ah." He teased. "I thought you would know smarter than to try me."
"Well, I guess I'll be right today." One of her free hands shot up, releasing her from the rope, wrapping up Teague and hanging him from the wall. He struggled to get free. Kicking and twisting every which way, but the rope held tight.
Mina burst out laughing. The once all powerful dark prince was now in her room, struggling, under her control.
"So, what are you waiting for? Kill me." He challenged.
"No." She said simply. Teague may be evil, but it's not his fault. There must be someway to free him.
"What? Why?" He asked frustrated.
"Because, no matter what you've done you don't deserve to die. Not yet at least. It's not your fault, sort of."
Teague was stunned. What was this girl thinking? Not killing the enemy?
"Fine. Have it your way." Noticing she let her guard down. He released himself from the trap, somehow landing on his feet.
Mina gasped and he gently pushed her aside so he could better see the mural.
Uh oh! Please don't say anything. Please don't say anything.
"You are a very talented artist." He complimented. Pointing to the glass slippers.
"What? Was that a compliment?" She asked surprised.
"Well, if you're not going to kill me, I might as well not kill you. Yet."
"Thank you." She responded to his compliment.
He walked around her room. Following his fingers on the marks she had made with the paints.
"What is this?" He asked intrigued
"A mural. My room needed something, and it might as well be Grimmy, so I decided to paint all the tales I've completed."
He looked at her with interest and sat on her bed. Taking in the Grimminess of it. A mirror with Jared in it caught his eye. He pointed.
"Ah," he laughed "that was a fun tale. For me anyway. Human emotions are so fragile"
She sat on the bed, a little too close to him than she wanted to. She roughly shoved him. He just laughed and smiled. He gripped his chest in pain, but it quickly stopped before Mina could notice.
"Why are all fae so heartless?" She looked straight at him as his eyes started to flicker. She gasped.
"Humans chose love over power. Love is weakness."
"Not true." She argued.
"Yes it is. Take you and I for example." She inwardly cringed. Why did he have to use us?
"I choose love instead of strong and ruthless. Now see what happened." He guested to the room. "You will always be my weakness." He mumbled, but Mina could hear.
Her heart soared to new heights. The real Teague was still in there somewhere. The one she fell in love with.
Before she knew it, Teague was leaning forward with his eyes closed. He was going to kiss her! Mina was instantly transported to her happy place. Jared. And Jared was still in there somewhere. She closed her eyes and leaned too. They were inches apart. Mina could feel his breath on her face.
She heard an agonizing scream and opened her eyes. Feeling dumb. Like Teague would ever love her again. Until she saw him sprawled out on her bed, clutching his chest in pain.
"Teague, what's wrong?!" Mina yelped. But she knew exactly what was happening. Something was wrong with his heart. The horrible memory of the day in the tower came flooding back and it was too much.
She froze.
Totally unmovable.
As if someone had glued her body to an invisible wall.
After, a century it seemed, the pain stopped as Teague did. He sat upright on the bed and started to try and slow his breathing.
Still frozen, she asked. "What just happened?" Her breathing matched Teague's. Heavy and out of control.
"Teague, what just happened? you haven't done that since…" Her voice trailed off, not wanting to recall the awful memory.
"I-I-I don't know." He confessed.
"What do you mean you don't know?" She grabbed his hand, and he let it stay there, foolishly. Another strike of pain surged through his body. He let out another cry, letting go her hand. Right then, the pain stopped.
Then he disappeared into a cloud of gray mist.
He reappeared at Mina's school. In the back, heaving and clutching his chest. Leaning up against the brick wall. His eyes were wide, his hands trembling.
"Mina." he whispered. "No." he cried. Mina had done something to him, and he knew it. Everything was fake.
All a facade so that she could take him down, or at least he thought so.
He looked at his surroundings. "What the fae am I doing here?" Then, like magic, he had an idea.
A wicked, mischievous, and twisted idea.
chapter 3
With a snap of his fingers, he changed his appearance totally. Everything except his eyes.
Teague still had those fierce, blue eyes that pierced through Mina's every being.
Now, he had blonde, tousled hair, that gave him a soft side. He wore a goofy, nerd, t-shirt with a math joke on it. Pulled out of his light blue, denim jeans.
He ran his hand through his new hair, as a small hand held mirror appeared directly in front of him. He grabbed it and jumped back.
"Whoa! Holy Fates." At first he looked like the boogie man was behind him, but his face relaxed as he took a liking to his new, innocent human look. The total opposite of his real self.
Circling around to the front side of the building, he tried to blend in and made a navy blue backpack appear, slung over his shoulder in a bad boy, 'I don't care' way.
As he merged into the jumble of students, filing into the school, he spotted Mina in the same outfit as he had this morning. Her Dead Prince Society t-shirt was paired with some plain, old ripped jeans. And they didn't come that way. Her old, faded backpack was ripping at the seams, as it was pinned at the top with a large safety pin. Slung over her shoulder too, but in a more, 'get me out of here, who was the dummy that invented education anyway?' sort of way.
Nan was next to her, ranting about some cute shoes she saw in a store that she just 'had to have' but, Mina tuned her out.
On the other side of her, was Brody, holding her hand possessively. Ready for any fae action that was about to go down.
But, all Mina could think about was this morning and what happened.
Her head was down and she pulled her hand from Brody's. Not feeling very lovey dovey that day. He looked at her, worried that he had done something wrong, but she told him she just had a rough morning and not a detail more.
"Anything, you know... weird." He whispered.
"It was nothing. Really. Just drop it." she pleaded.
Why do people have to be so nosey?
A grin appeared on Teague's face as he watched his nemesis get turned down.
Mina ran ahead of her friends and Teague followed her. She ran to the door, crowded by students with the same location in mind.
She squeezed by and Teague followed her example. Running down the left hall to the chorus room. Hoping to find Constance and tell her of Mina's strange and terrifying encounter with the dark prince.
With Teague on her heels, she entered the chorus room. Teague was using a glamour to disguise himself as whatever he was against or behind, which was working quite well at the moment.
Mina's heart sank when she found no muse, singing her sweet tunes and playing the whimsical piano that usually sat in front of her. But not today.
"Ugh. What am I gonna do?" she complained. Having no one to confide in. At this point, even Nan wouldn't understand. She was her best friend, but she would never know how she truly felt. No one would ever know how she feels.
Her fingers danced along the keys. Making the once beautiful instrument sound like a torture device. She plopped down on the stool and tried to harness all of the fae power around her, which was hard considering there were no fae around that she knew of and nothing magical about the empty school room. But, with enough practice, Mina was able to pull together some and send the piano crashing into the cabinets in front of her.
Boom!
She was staring at the disaster she had caused and hid inside an unbroken, human sized cabinet. Praying no one would find her as the footsteps became louder and louder.
Crossing her fingers, she saw the feet of the principal and other worried teachers through a small crack at the bottom of the wood box.
"What happened!" The principal, Mr. Palmer. A medium sized, plump man, who always wore wacky bow ties and suspenders that even the nicest person couldn't help but make fun of.
"If this is Glen View High trying to get back at us. Oh they better watch out. Yeah. They got another thing coming if they think they can mess with my school!"
Mina gave a quiet giggle at the revved up principal. Fortunately no one heard, and they teachers and Mr. Palmer marched out and probably went to his office to pout and fire off an angry email.
The door creaked open as Mina popped out, Teague was still disguised as a chair when he quietly left the room and reentered as Faed, his fake self to find Mina rummaging through her backpack for something. His presence interrupted her and she stopped, turned and gave a surprised face at the strange, but cute boy in front of her. That reminded her a bit of Jared.