The little nine-year-old boy put his hands on his hips and glared at her. She knew that look, knew that Charlie wouldn’t budge without bringing Nix along.
“Okay, fine.” Mina could see that the gate was slowly closing, and she couldn’t waste any more time. She leaned down and put Nix’s arm over her shoulder, and half dragged, half carried him toward the portal. Once Charlie had seen that he had gotten his way, he happily jumped through the gate into their world.
Mina couldn’t help it. She turned to look at the Fae world one last time. A battle had ensued between Jared/Teague and the guards. Being a Royal meant that they were both shifters, and now that the two were one, he was an even stronger and more ruthless fighter. She heard a scream and a sword flew past her face, and she knew then she needed to leave.
She took a deep breath and dipped down to get better grip on Nix. She heard him whisper in awe as he looked at the gate, “Is this Heaven?”
“No, but it’s as close as we get,” Mina answered before jumping through the gate.
Chapter 28
She awoke back in the biology lab. Something wet was pressed against her face, and she sat up abruptly to wipe it away. She had been drooling. Soft whispers and giggles erupted around her, and Mina sat back in the chair and stared at everyone in confusion.
She was sitting at an empty lab table at the back of the room, and the rest of the class seemed to be in the middle of a lab experiment.
A familiar face popped in front of her, and Melissa smiled sweetly before whispering loudly, “So are you thinking of retaking biology? I hear it can get pretty gross.” She had sneaked over to Mina’s empty table. Her friends were looking at Mina and waving. They were the source of the giggles. “I didn’t even know you were here. One minute this table is empty. The next, you’re here. Are you, like, related to Houdini?”
“No, where am I?” Mina asked worriedly. She spun around in her chair and then hopped off to look underneath the lab table for Charlie.
“Um, last period,” Melissa answered, and ducked under the lab table with Mina.
Luckily, most of the class seemed preoccupied with working, and the teacher didn’t notice the sudden appearance of an extra upperclassman student in their class.
“Well, what day is today?” Mina felt completely at a loss. What had happened? Where was Charlie? Where was Nix?
Melissa frowned and then gently touched Mina’s head. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should head out to see the nurse. I’d use the back door, since you don’t want to get detention. I’m pretty sure I can cause a distraction, and you can slip out.”
“Can you?” Mina asked, relieved.
“No problem.” Melissa popped up from under the lab table and walked right over to her jar with a very live frog in it, and dumped it out the open window. She winked at Mina and whispered, “I’ve been looking for a way to get out of this dissection.” She turned to her friends, who Mina recognized earlier from choir, and the other girls followed suit. Three more frogs made a flight to freedom.
“Mr. Pierson! Our frogs have escaped,” Melissa said with a very worried expression. “I don’t know what happened—we turned our backs, and then they were gone.”
“Now, girls, frogs just don’t walk off on their own.” Mr. Pierson frowned at them and pulled out a key from his pocket, then walked over to the large glass cabinet and unlocked it, looking for another specimen for the girls.
“You’re right. Frogs don’t walk off, they hop off,” Melissa answered innocently.
The whole class erupted into fits of laughter, and Mina used the distraction to slip out the back lab door into the empty hall.
She clutched her head in wonder and tried to make sense of what had happened. Where’s Charlie? Where’s my brother? She began to walk the school halls on tiptoes, calling out her brother’s name. Maybe he appeared in a different classroom, and now he’s scared and hiding.
Room by room she went, storage closet by storage closet. She searched the gym, the locker room, the library, and finally she gave up and sat down in defeat by her locker. She was a terrible Grimm; she had lost her brother again, lost her good friend Nix, who she was sure didn’t survive the trip here, and Jared was lost to her. Nothing was easy, and she had a zillion more questions to answer. The final bell rang, and Mina ignored the students coming and going, grabbing their backpacks and leaving for the day. She didn’t care. She wasn’t going anywhere until she had found her brother.
A pair of white flat shoes stopped by her and gave her leg a little nudge. Mina looked up into Nan’s worried face.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling okay?” Nan leaned down and touched Mina’s knee gently. “Do we need to cancel the movie tonight?”