Free Forever by Chanda Hahn

was hit with a force so powerful, it knocked the beast over, and it
crashed into the school.
    “A siren? And he’s quite
powerful for one so young. No wonder he’s been so quiet. That takes lots of
control. I see you’re shocked as well. Somebody’s been keeping secrets,” he
taunted in a sing song voice.
    “Hurts doesn’t it, when those
closest to you lie to you?” Teague leaned close to speak over her shoulder.
“You can’t trust those Godmothers.”
    Charlie was shaking and
trembling. His little body couldn’t handle the power that he’d just unleashed,
and he fell to his knees on the ground and started to convulse.
    “Please help him,” she cried
out. “Let me go to him.”
    Teague didn’t respond. He
simply stared around him, taking in the destruction. “He’ll recover, Mina. He
just needs time. See? He’s already trying to get back up and keep fighting.
You’ve got to admire that in one so young.”
    Sure enough, Charlie had made
it back to his feet. He wiped white foam from his mouth with the back of his
hand and turned his gaze up to them, furious. His eyes glowed with anger.
Charlie turned his rage toward Teague and let forth another ear piercing
shriek. The protective bubble around them cracked but didn’t break.
    “Too bad, I think the first
attack wore him out. Now I wonder what spurred on his rage? Oh, I know. The
death of his mother, perhaps?”
    This time, Charlie just fell
to the ground—with no convulsion. He slumped his head and appeared to be
crying.
    A large ogre with a bulbous
nose came walking by with Ever in his hand. She kept trying to fly away, but he
pinched her wings between two of his meaty fingers. When he gave a tug on them,
Ever cried out in fury and pain. Mina remembered what Ever said about ogres and
how they liked to eat pixie wings. He tugged again, and she screamed.
    Mina cringed.
    Claire strode into the middle
of the fairgrounds with Grey Tail dragging Brody forcefully behind. She already
looked ten years younger, and she kept touching Brody’s face longingly. She had
already taken a few years of his life and she was begging for more. So much was
happening so fast, and Mina felt absolutely powerless.
    Reid and Temple overpowered
Constance. Temple put a golden gloved hand over the muse’s mouth to stop her
singing. The giant slowly started to wake up, and the Fae hadn’t gotten all of
the passengers out of the Ferris wheel.
    Mina watched, helpless, as
Nix ran and threw himself on Charlie just as Claire and her wolves circled him.
There was little Nix could do to save him. He was fully human now. Mina turned
in a circle, tears falling freely from her face as she watched her school
continue to crumble beneath the onslaught of the troll.
    Police were arriving, and
ambulances lined the outskirts of the fairground, but they were hesitant to
move in because of the giant that stomped toward their cars.
    Mina had lost the war.
    Utterly lost.
    She wasn’t a general or a
fighter or a leader. She was a clumsy seventeen-year-old girl. She couldn’t be
responsible for all of these people dying. She didn’t want to be the reason for
so much tragedy.
    “You said you weren’t unreasonable,”
Mina choked out softly.
    “I’m not.”
    “Then let’s reason. What
would it take for you to stop this massacre and leave my friends alone?”
    Teague looked around, his
hands held wide open. “You want me to stop destroying this… and the people who
hurt you?”
    “Yes, yes I do. And I want
you to release my friends, all of them, even the Godmothers. What would it take
for you to do that and to never bother them again?”
    “I think you know the answer
to that, Mina.” Teague made their bubble fly higher and higher into the sky
until they were way up in the air surrounded by clouds. “There are only two
things I want. If you give them to me, I’ll stop everything and let your
friends live.”
    He stood before her, his eyes
glowing with power. She tried to stand tall in front