The side screen door opened, and the girl ducked into the small yellow house. The figure at the end of the driveway grew more distinctive as it came closer. It was a young man with short-cropped hair and wearing a white shirt, denim jeans and sneakers. His arms were well-muscled, and he had the body of an athlete. He walked softly up to the side door, skipped up the steps and rapped three times.
“Kathleen?” he chimed out quietly. “Please don’t cry. I’m sorry. I’ll promise to never make you cry again.”
A porch light went on. The door opened slightly, and a breathy voice answered. “Tom, do you promise?”
Tom looked down at his feet. “Is it that terrible that I tried to kiss you? I’m sorry it wasn’t what you wanted. I thought it was a fabulous first kiss.” Kathleen didn’t answer, and Tom looked back up at her pleading. “I’ll never disappoint you again.”
“No—no you won’t,” her husky voice answered in return.
Before Jared and Mina could react, the teen boy was pulled into the house. The inner door closed, and the screen door banged shut against the doorframe.
Jared’s skin crawled. He could feel the Fae inside. This was not a run-of-the-mill Fae, and he had only ever heard of this one in tales.
“Looks like a lover’s quarrel followed by some making up,” he spoke casually.
Mina stood and eyed the house quizzically. “I guess,” she answered and started walking toward the creek. “I just felt so certain that this was the next quest. That the story wanted me here, and now I don’t know. Maybe this is all a joke. A bad one set up by the Fates.”
Jared mentally sighed and followed behind Mina. “Don’t feel too bad, I mean you’re not the best Grimm I’ve ever seen, so maybe your Grimmdar is off.”
“Grimmdar?”
“You know Grimm Radar.”
Her hands flew to her hips as she turned. She looked him squarely in the eye, and arched her eyebrows accusingly. Uh oh. He knew the signs. He was in trouble now.
“Tell me the truth, Jared. Could you sense any Fae nearby? I know you can tell when they are near.”
Ah, she’d cornered him. He couldn’t outright lie, but he could avoid the truth, and it was something he was quite good at doing. “Yes, there was a Fae nearby. A tall, dark and handsome one that is really hungry and quickly wasting away.” His inner Fae self did a little happy dance at how well he’d avoided her question.
Mina pointed her finger at him. “No, I mean someone else—wait, listen!”
Jared stopped and tried to listen, but all he could hear was the beating of his own nervous heart, when he focused he heard how quiet the woods behind the house had become…too quiet.
“The bullfrogs, they stopped,” he whispered.
The screen door opened again, and Kathleen exited the house holding something in her hands. She turned towards the woods and started down a small gravel path toward the creek.
Jared yanked Mina into his arms and dropped to the ground. She struggled slightly under his upper body weight and the inconvenience of being smothered by his leather jacket, but he couldn’t worry about that. He needed to make sure that he masked her human scent. At least she couldn’t sense that there was another Fae nearby.
Of course Mina wouldn’t know that. Maybe he should tell her the reason for pressing her face into the earth and practically making her eat dirt, but that wasn’t in his nature. He would just let her grumble and fume and complain.
He watched Kathleen walk to the creek bed and crouch down beside the running water. “You’re a disappointment, Tom, just like all the others.” Kathleen spoke sadly.
Jared felt Mina wiggle underneath him and escape enough for her head to pop up. She’d be able to look through the tall grass to watch what was unfolding in front of them.
Kathleen slid off her shoes and stepped into the dark murky water. As soon as her legs touched the flowing liquid, her legs turned green and sinewy, her mouth began to stretch and widen, and her eyes grew even larger until she resembled a skinny but very human-sized frog.
Her green webbed fingers still clutched something in her hands, and it was trying to jump away from her, but she gave it a slight shake in frustration. Jared heard the small croak come from the frog she was holding.
“You were supposed to save me and end my curse. You promised to be my prince. Instead, you failed. And now you are like all the others. Ugly, useless, beasts.”
She flung the bullfrog, who was once a very human Tom, into the creek, and he landed in the water with a small splash. A few seconds later Tom’s frog head peeked above the water and croaked at her in protest. Followed by another frog head, and another frog head. The creek was quickly filled with dozens of large bullfrogs. All of them were croaking at Kathleen in anger.
She waved her hand at them, and they silenced their croaking symphony.