“Why did they allow it to happen? Why couldn’t they control their own son?” Mina felt herself start to tear up again, but she bit the inside of her cheek. She wouldn’t be weak anymore.
“Mina, there’s something you need to understand about Jared and Teague. This was shortly after, mind you, the Grimm Brothers began their quests to close the gates between the worlds. Teague was engaged to the princess of a neighboring kingdom and almost caused a war when he called it off. It seemed that was his intention all along: to cause a war of mass destruction. To save their son, the Queen and King had the strongest Fae in the land come and try to drive the dark side of Teague out. They did it. They separated his dark personality from his good, but it didn’t necessarily split down the middle evenly.”
“I’ll say,” Mina grumbled, remembering how surly Jared could be at times.
“But now that they had split Teague’s two halves, they needed to imprison them and keep them far apart from each other so they would never become whole again. So one of the Queen’s own handmaidens, a sprite, split the Grimm book that Teague was ever so obsessed with in two and attached each of the two personalities to it, and then sent them to separate planes.”
“So are you saying there was never a Jared?” Mina didn’t think she could handle this news.
“Oh, no, there was always a Jared. There still is a Jared. He’s just one side of Teague.”
Mina made a face in disgust. “I don’t think I like any part of Teague.”
Mrs. Colbert gave Mina a scorching look. “Don’t discredit him. After all, there is a small part of Teague that you love and will always love—the Jared side. And if you love him, there’s always hope.”
“So everything was a trap all along. Teague was just trying to get his other half back over to the Fae plane so he could combine himself again and become even more powerful. All of the quests, everything was just a big fat lie.” She yelled out the final word, and it echoed inside the building. A few people stopped to stare at them before they kept on working.
“It’s always been his plan, but for it to work, he needed a Grimm to use the Fae book to combine them.”
“And I was the only Grimm stupid enough to do it.” Mina began to twirl her brown hair around her finger in distraction.
“No, you were the only one brave enough to do it.”
“What about my father?” Mina forced the words out and stared at her hands clenched into fists, preparing herself for the worst.
“He, like you, made a deal with the Stiltskin, only his deal was different. He didn’t know the real side of Teague and Jared. Your father sought out Temple on this plane and made his own deal. If he died during a quest, he wanted Sara to have a son to replace himself. So, during one of Teague’s more deadly attempts at a quest, your father was mortally wounded, and the Stiltskin came to collect. Your father’s life for Sara’s yet unborn son. He gave the rest of his life willingly, Mina.”
Mina’s eyes squeezed shut, and her heart filled with pain. “So what did I see on the Fae plane? Who was it I saw released after the Stiltskin died? A ghost?”
Mrs. Colbert reached over and squeezed her hands. “He died in this world, Mina, on the physical plane. I don’t think he can come back.” She handed her a tissue.
Mina sniffed and crumpled up the tissue to wipe at her eyes. “Soooo,” she stuttered out between crying breaths, “as long as he stays on the Fae plane, he’ll live.”
Mrs. Colbert picked up the seam ripper and handed it back to her, gently placing it between her hands. “You’re not done with this yet, my dear.” She smiled softly. “Whether you know it or not. You are one step closer to breaking the curse on your family.” She pulled her bag onto her lap and opened it up to pull out a familiar small book. It was the Grimoire.
Mina had been so worried when it didn’t travel across to the Fae plane with her, and worried about who would find it. It turned out she didn’t have to worry at all. Mina gingerly picked up the notebook and ran her fingers over it. It didn’t feel the same. It felt lacking, like it was missing something—Jared.
She opened up the book and found that it was just a book. The cover was still the same, but all of the pages were blank. Her pulse started to quicken, and her hands became clammy.
“What happened? Did I break the curse?”
Mrs. Colbert shook her head. “No.”
“Then what—what’s going on?”
“You’ve come farther than any other, and yet you are so young.” Her teacher’s eyes were sad, and Mina could feel dread creeping over her.
“What’s wrong?” Mina asked.
“The Grimoire is just a book, nothing more. It will mimic the Fae book for you, but that is it. It’s lost its guardian, and so have you. You’ve weakened the curse, and now there is only one more thing for you to do to be completely free,” Mrs. Colbert whispered sadly.