Chapter Seven - You Could've Died

Hey guys! I'm back, with yet another update! I really hope you guys like it, considering I'm really excited to write it. Hopefully it won't disappoint you guys!

09Who knew90 : Haha, I'm glad the review left you in shock! Hopefully there weren't too many details for you to take in. cx That's an interesting theory. Whether or not it's right is yet to be seen. c; And Forever Jared can be quite fun to write, although I have reasons for picking him specifically. As I previously stated, if anyone figures out why I'll be impressed. :p I can't tell you what happened to Nix - besides the fact that he disappeared - or who had anything to do with it, if anyone did. But I will promise that he's not going to be forgotten. He will be back! He is not full nixie in this story though. He has some human blood in him, so he can't become a sea witch. c; I'm glad you like the mystery though! I like adding things that leave readers in suspense and wondering, as you probably figured out. X3 I'm glad that the appearance of Ever was good, and that it gave readers stuff to chew on! I quite enjoyed adding her in. I like that it was a good twist, and yes, Jared did silence her! How he did it is still up in the air though. We'll probably find out how that happened later. ;) As for Mina calling the Dark Prince, you have to remember that her only memory of her - that we know of - is when he was nice and healed her. So, she doesn't really see him as "dark," and we really don't know how dark he is, seeing as the dagger shard was taken out of him by Willa. And I'm totally fine with your long reviews! cx They are super nice and really fun, it's always so nice to see such a nice review on my stories! I know I've said it before, but your reviews always bring a smile to my face. :D I'm glad there were only two typos; the fact that they were common ones is good, although it does irritate me that I made them. xD And I'm glad you've liked the constant updates! On Tuesday, I'll be switching to updating Killer of My Heart for a week, so that should be fun!

Now, let's get to the part everyone wants to get to. The chapter!

The hand that Ever is not pinning me against the wall with reaches for my neck. "Calling for your pathetic excuse for a guardian, Gimp?" Is she really back to calling me that? I thought we were maybe making progress. "Maybe you should try calling for the cowardly excuse for a prince instead. Perhaps he'll save you."

I hesitate for a moment, but then shout, "Prince Teague!"

I wait - along with Ever - for a few minutes, but there's no sign of anyone coming. That small hope fades as a deja vu feeling creeps back inside.

Ever grips my neck, starting to cut off my air slowly. "I've been waiting a long time for this. Don't you see? No one cares what happens to you, Gimp. No one is comi-"

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Ever." A now rather familiar voice comes from behind Ever, and then Jared appears, yanking her backward by wings that have suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

I gasp for air like a fish out of water as I'm released, and out of relief nearly begin to cry. "Jared, you came!"

"You doubted me?" He raises an eyebrow at that. "Of course I came. You didn't have to alert the Prince to your dilemma. I was already on my way when you called for me. I will admit that I wasn't paying as close attention to your mirror as I should've been," My mirror? "but when I realized you were in trouble I came as fast as I could."

"Do you seriously not realize tha-" Ever begins to say something, but her voice is suddenly caught off even though her mouth keeps going. Did Jared just use Fae magic to mute her?

"Close your eyes, Mina. I'm going to handle her."

Mina's Point of View

For once in my life, I do as I'm told without any hesitation. I scrunch my eyes shut, and somehow manage to keep them closed as a scream filled with pain rips through the air. No doubt the source is Ever, although I feel no pity for her. In fact, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm quite happy that she's suffering, even though I can't see it. The amount of Fae magic in the air is practically suffocating though. It's absolutely awful.

And then - nowhere near as slowly as it came - all the magic just seems to disappear from around me.

I wait one minute. Then two. Then three. There's not a single sound besides the wind blowing through the trees, and the silence is almost as frightening as the screaming had become, when I thought about what Jared must've been doing to invoke such pain. But, taking the silence as a cue that it's finished, I decide to risk opening my eyes. What I see takes me completely by surprise though, because I see the school yard. That's not the surprising part though.

The surprising part is the fact that I'm now the only one standing outside. Jared and Ever are both gone. I expected Ever to be gone, of course. But Jared? I thought he would stay and make sure I was okay. Where could he have gone?

"Jared?" I call out, scared and confused. "Jared!"

My only response is the wind, as it continues to rustle the leaves on the trees. He left me. He saved my life and didn't even bother to make sure I was okay afterwards. What is wrong with him? Does he not have any manners? I need to talk to him!

Four days later...

I'm now on my fourth day of trying to get Jared to show up, and I've tried practically everything. I have to talk to him, especially after the whole Ever situation. I wanted to talk to him before that, of course, but now that I haven't had a proper conversation with him for six days, I'm starting to get irritated. He's avoiding me. That's the only thing I can think of. But why? That's what I don't understand. He's my guardian. As much as I didn't want it before, after the whole issue with Templestiltskin, I decided that I definitely needed one.

Day one, I just tried calling for him a lot after school. I didn't know what else to do, seeing as I don't normally have to handle stuff like this. Day two, I didn't even bother to go to school, even though it was a Friday. What did it matter? After all, it wasn't like my mom would care. She generally leaves me to my own devices. She probably came up with some excuses for me not showing up anyways, so I didn't have to worry about that. On day three - yesterday - I didn't even bother to just try screaming for Jared. I called for the Prince Teague too. I didn't even just call for them. I cried. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I shouted. I even asked for Prince Teague to take me now and not wait for my sixteenth birthday, so that I could just get it over with. If Jared didn't intend on showing up, I wanted to just start the stupid curse. I did every little thing possible, and yet neither of the two responded. They didn't even bother to show up for even a split second, to let me know that I'm not forgotten. It hurts even now, and so today I stayed holed up in my home for awhile, and then I devised a plan. If they didn't want to come, I'd get their attention myself.

After all this time in my home, I came up with a plan to get their attention, or die trying. And I mean that quite literally.

I'd grabbed my bike, and I'd taken off, out of my mom's property and through the town, to the outskirts. It'd taken me awhile to find a good place to do it, but after wandering through the woods for awhile, I found a tree that would serve my purposes. I'd climbed upwards, and sat on a branch that was as high as I dared to go without snapping one. That would be one way to pull this off, of course, but I'd prefer to have some say in when this happens. I slowly climb outwards a bit, and the limb sways a bit. I'll admit, it's frightening. I've always hated tree climbing, ever since I fell as a child from one and caused my dad to be killed. Tears pricking at my eyes from sadness and fear, I stand up and grab the branch above me to steady myself.

"Alright, Jared." I whisper, deciding to address him alone instead of addressing both Prince Teague and him. "You want to play this game the hard way? Fine then, we'll play this game the hard way." I shake my head rather condescendingly as I speak. "You can stay silent and watch me plunge downwards, which will probably be cause me to die rather painfully," I pause for dramatic effect, "or you can come out and explain yourself to me, as well as save me from bestowing this fate upon myself." Hesitating for a moment, I add something else. "You wouldn't want me to die after all the trouble Prince Teague and you have gone through to keep me alive, would you?"

There's no reply, although to be honest I wasn't expecting one. I expect I'll get one when I actually try to pull off my threat though. The question is, will he come through and save my life?

"I'm going to do it!" I shout this time, staring upwards.

There's still no reply, and I shake my head. He really is stubborn. Does he not believe that I'll go through with this? Because I fully intend to, and he'd better hope he's fast when I do.

"Fine then." And on that note, I walk off the branch.

Barely a second later, strong arms grab me and pull me backwards - rather painfully - on to a sturdy branch. He actually came. I let out an inward sigh of relief, although I don't dare do out loud for fear that he'd hear it. I was worried that he wouldn't come, and that I'd signed my fate. I'd thought that I'd be okay with dying, but the moment I walked off and stared it in the face for that one second, I realized that I was not prepared in any way for death.

"Wilhelmina Grimm, what on earth do you think you're doing?" The angry voice of Jared hits my ears, and he doesn't bother to release me from his hold, as if he's afraid that I'll try and finish my crazy stunt. Not that I intend to.

I've never heard him so angry before. And yet, the awful deja vu feeling I've been getting recently creeps in again, nagging at the back of my mind. I can't figure out why though. Like always. Deja vu doesn't ever make sense to me anymore, although I guess it never really did before. Pushing it from my mind, I turn myself around and avoid Jared's gaze.

"Mina, answer me!" Jared's furious words almost scare me as he moves one hand to move my chin up so that I look him in the eye. "What do you think you were playing at, trying to pull a stunt like that?"

"The only time you've shown up after you started ignoring me was when I was going to be killed. And that was the only reason you showed up." My voices raises a little bit. "When you disappear for pretty much four days - not counting the two days before the Ever incident - and don't come no matter now many times I call for you or your Prince, I decided that I would have to find a way to make you come."

Jared apparently isn't satisfied by this answer though. "So you were going to kill yourself if I didn't come? Do you realize how stupid that logic is? If I hadn't shown up in time - or hadn't shown up at all - you would've actually died, Princess!"

"How was I supposed to get you to show up otherwise?" I argue, and my voice raises to a shout as I go, seeing as I become more and more furious. If I wanted to, I bet I could pull of a Siren Call right now. "You were acting like you couldn't care less about what happened to me, Jared! It was as if I didn't exist in your mind anymore! You went from checking in on me practically every hour to never showing up at all!" I decide not to mention that I was terrified. I'm too mad at him to add in that fact.

The reaction Jared has is one you would imagine he'd have if I'd slapped him across the face, and his voice quakes a little as he whispers, "I'm sorry."

"You-" I start to shout, still angry. But then I stop, because my mind register what he said, and I manage to calm down enough to talk at a normal sound level, although my voice is a little bit higher than usual due to anger. "What did you just say?"

"I'm sorry that I was ignoring you." He apologizes again, although this time he explains the apology more. He avoids my gaze as he does so. "I found that I was becoming too attached to you, Princess. The fact is that I can't have that happen. So, I decided that if I wasn't seeing you as much - if I only came when it was absolutely necessary - I would fix things. But it didn't. In fact, it made things even worse for me. I couldn't do that."

"What do you mean?" I bite my lip.

"I was intending to try and work up the nerve to apologize to you today before you decided to pull of your crazy way to try and get my attention." He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Ignoring you wasn't working. But, I figured something else out."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I raise an eyebrow, growing rather confused. "What did you figure out, Jared?"

"I figured out a way to get past the curse, Princess." Jared's face is pretty much an inch - maybe two - away from mine, and I can feel his breathe. I'm completely frozen, unsure of what to do. "There's an area that Prince Teague won't be able to get into. If we can get there, you won't have to go. We can stay there. But we have to leave now, or there's no way we can make it. And even if we did go now, we might not make it." He frowns, biting his lip. "That is, if you want to go."

"If I let Prince Teague take me, I'm never going to see you again, am I?" I ask, the realization only just dawning on me.

"You probably wouldn't see me, no." He sighs, staring at his feet.

It doesn't take me too long to get an answer. "I don't want that. You're my guardian, and I don't think I'll be able to cope without you after everything that has happened. I denied it before. But now, I realize that I do need someone to help protect me. Let's go, Jared."

"Do you need anything?" He asks, but I shake my head the moment after the question leaves his mouth.

"Nope." My heart almost breaks when I answer him, because I realize how pitiful it sounds. "I don't have anything of value."

"Your bike is near here, right?" He asks, and I nod. "Good. Let's go there. I can turn it into a truck," I'm relieved to hear him say that and not a motorcycle, "and we'll drive there. Hopefully we'll make it. But before we go," That doesn't sound good, "I need to make sure you understand one thing."

"Okay." I ask, a bit nervous.

"If we don't make it in time, Prince Teague will take you. And when he does, there's no telling what his reaction will be. Are you willing to risk his wrath?" It's a genuine question, and when I think about it, I find that I'm a bit frightened.

And yet - at the same time - I'm not. "Let's worry about that hurdle if it comes."

Woah, Mina is running away from the curse? How do you guys think that'll go? Will she succeed? Or will Prince Teague catch her? And if Prince Teague does catch them, how do you think he'll react? Also, what did you think of this entire chapter? Hopefully it wasn't disappointing. c: I'll be interested to see if any of you guys hate Jared now though. cx

Please review! I'll try and update at least once tomorrow. c; Until next time! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

~ Dagger