Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 by Chanda Hahn Read Free Book Online

the traffic jam they were
causing and walked around them, using one of the other doors. Jared
turned and looked at her, his dark gray eyes filled with
emotion.
    “ Hey,” he said, gently
touching her shoulder so she would look up at him. “You’ll get
through this. If today is too much for you, just say the word, and
I’ll get you out of here. You got it?”
    She dropped her head to look at her shoes
and found it impossible to swallow the lump forming in her throat.
“You promise?”
    “ I promise. Just say my
name, and I’ll take you away.”
    Mina nodded and adjusted her backpack over
her shoulder. It now felt like someone had loaded it with bricks.
Jared opened the door and motioned for her to enter first.
    The school smelled the
same, a weird mixture of books, paint, and sneakers. The
air-conditioned air hit her as soon as she walked in, and she
balked at the memory and guilt that assailed her. Jared gently
touched her elbow and pushed her forward. She reached into her
green jacket and pulled out a crumpled-up class schedule
labeled Grime, Wilhelmina—Junior. Class
A . Other than her name, she couldn’t make
out where her first class was located. Her eyes were watering. She
didn’t even know if Nan was in any of her classes. She was a
wreck.
    A cute girl with a pleated skirt, black
boots, and a skull shirt popped up next to them and latched onto
Jared’s arm. Her short black hair had a new stripe of purple added
to it, giving Ever added flair.
    She started chatting nonstop, and Mina could
feel the slight breeze created from her invisible wings. Ever was
Fae, like Jared. A pixie, to be exact, who had the biggest crush on
the banished royal prince.
    “ Oh, did you see who I got
for history—snooze fest. And advanced physics. Yikes! I think I’m
doomed to be a student here forever. I’ll never pass those
classes.” The pixie kept chatting until she noticed someone to the
left of Jared. When she saw Mina, she paused long enough to say,
“Hey, Gimp.” And then she was back to her self-absorbed universe,
asking Jared to hang out after school.
    Mina shouldn’t have been surprised at Ever’s
reaction. Pixies tended to have short attention spans. But Jared
was put off by Ever’s words. He pulled his arm out of her grasp and
gave her an ugly glare to be quiet. She took his cue and
immediately stopped speaking, and slowed to walk a few feet behind
them. Jared directed Mina to her home room class and stopped
outside the door.
    “ Here you are, safe and
sound,” he said lightly. “Don’t worry—if you get through today,
tomorrow will be a breeze. I’ll see you in forty-five minutes, and
I’ll come make sure you don’t get lost on the way to second period.
Here, give me your backpack, and I’ll put it in your locker for
you.”
    “ Wait, how do you know
where my locker is, and how do you know the
combination?”
    He smiled crookedly at her, and for the
first time since the fire she felt a stirring of emotion other than
sadness. Her mind flickered back to their encounter in the storage
room, and her cheeks flushed. It was like her frozen heart had
started to thaw just a little at his smile.
    “ Ah, that’s for me to know
and you not to find out.” He opened up her backpack, pulled out a
spiral notebook and pen, and handed them to Mina before turning and
leaving.
    Mina almost dropped the notebook and had to
maneuver quickly to grab it. Instead of sitting near the front of
the room, she headed for the farthest corner of the room and sat in
the back row. Ever happened to be in the same home room as Mina and
gave her a worried frown before sitting up a few rows and over. It
was obvious that Ever was upset at Jared’s treatment and was going
to take it out on Mina.
    Students began to file in, and Mina stared
at the spiral notebook, preferring to not make eye contact. She
must have stared at the notebook for two minutes before she noticed
something odd about it. It was the Grimoire, but it was once again
in