What could she tell him? She couldn’t encourage him to do the wrong thing and alter more of history than she was supposed to. Repercussions could be endless. She had to be careful to only affect her own timeline. Still, it seemed like he was asking her permission for something.
“Hope for the best. Maybe you’ll find your true love over the next few days. And if not true love, then true friendship. But I do have to ask—why haven’t you married before now?”
He gave her a slow smile that rocked her to her core. “Because I never met the girl of my dreams…until now. Tell me, though I can already see it in your eyes. You know me like I know you. You’ve dreamt of me also, haven’t you?”
Heat flooded her cheeks and her heart skipped a beat. How could he know just from a look? The Prince of Fae may have been dreaming of her, but how could she explain that when he appeared in her dreams they were her worst nightmares? She shivered at his words and her stomach sank. He saw her shudder and mistook it.
“You’re cold? I’m so sorry. It’s late. I should be getting you back to your escorts.” He paused and looked around in confusion. “Where are they?”
“I seem to have lost them,” Mina lied.
“Well, that will be no problem. I’ll find them. And if not, I’ll send a coach for you, and you can come to the palace. I’ll tell my parents there’s one last addition to list.” He grinned and stood back a few feet.
“No, you can’t. I’m not here for—”
But he didn’t hear her. “Have you ever seen a Royal shift? Because only the Fae with royal blood can do it.”
Mina pursed her lips at him and laughed. “Of course.”
“No, I don’t mean earlier. That doesn’t count.” His smile lit up his face. “Name anything that flies, and I will find your entourage.”
She had no desire to ruin his fun by telling him she had seen him shift numerous times in the future. And he looked so earnest, she couldn’t help but laugh at his attempt to impress her. “Okay, how about a bald eagle?”
“What is that?” he asked, confused. She realized her mistake. He wouldn’t know all of the creatures from the human plane. Yet.
“It’s a bird.”
“Well how can a bird be bald?” he laughed. “That’s absurd.”
“Uh, never mind. Why don’t you pick?”
“All right. Stay here and I’ll be back with your escorts shortly.” Teague stepped back and took off running.”
“No wait!” Mina called after him.
He just waved at her and kept running. He spread his arms and leapt up into the air, shifting into a fiery phoenix. His feathers left a trail of flames in his wake and she watched as his path lit up the sky. She tried to keep him in her line of sight and wave him down, but she was quickly distracted. The shoes that she had left discarded on the ground began to glimmer and flash.
Already? She hadn’t finished what she came here to do, but she couldn’t be stuck in the past. Mina ran to the slippers as their flashing picked up speed, like a timer counting down to activation. She wouldn’t get to say goodbye to Teague. He wouldn’t know where she’d gone.
Mina got one foot in the slipper and dropped the other. She cried out and slipped her foot back in just as another ball of light enveloped her.
She shot down a bright luminescent tunnel.
Chapter 20
This time she was burning hot, and her muscles felt like rubber. She opened her eyes to find herself collapsed in the driveway of the country club—only a few feet away from where she had left Brody.
In fact, he was still there.
“What just happened? You disappeared, and now you’re here again. Where’d you go?” Mina reached for Brody and he helped her up, although she immediately felt like falling again. “You’re burning up. Are you okay?”
Mina nodded. “It’ll pass. Just give me a second.” Odd. It seemed going into the past made her body cold, and shooting into the future made her core temperature a raging inferno. This couldn’t be good for her. And she’d blown it. She hadn’t saved anyone. Her family was still doomed.
It was all because of the stupid shoes. They were broken. They didn’t work. Not to mention she’d been sidetracked by Teague and his problems. Brody helped her back inside the country club and to a private sitting room. Once she sat down on the chair, her defeat set in, and she started to cry. She’d failed.
Brody wrapped his strong arms around her and let her cry on him. His hand rubbed her back as he tried to comfort her. When Mina had settled down, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I went back in time. The shoes did it. I was supposed to help my ancestors and save myself and my family from disappearing.”
It took Brody all of one minute to let the news sink in. “And you knew the shoes did this? That they would take you back in time. When were you going to tell me?” That reaction was not what she expected.
“Soon. After tonight. I don’t know. I was just given them today, and no one told me when they would work—only that they needed to charge. Then—” she waved her hands in the air, “—poof I would go. But they sent me to the wrong time. I was nowhere near where I should have been. In fact I was on the wrong plane entirely.”
“Where’d you end up?”
“On the Fae plane. I was attacked by a griffin.”
Brody didn’t look pleased. “Take them off,” he demanded.
“I can’t. I need to be ready in case they work again. In fact, give me your phone. I have to call Mei.”
His lips thinned in frustration, but he let her have his cell phone. She quick dialed in Mei’s number.
Mei answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Mei, it’s me. It didn’t work. I didn’t fix anything,” she rushed out. “I doomed everyone.”
“Mina, Mina. Calm down, okay?” There was muffled whispering, and then she heard static. “You’re on speaker.” Mei’s voice sounded far away. “Constance is here.”
Mina put them on speaker phone too, so Brody could hear. “I ended up on the Fae plane. Not the human plane. The shoes are defective.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Constance said, “They’re not defective. How long were you gone?”
“I think only a few seconds,” Mina answered. Brody nodded his head in agreement.
“Then they took you exactly where you needed to be for the right amount of time. I’ve talked with Schumacher, and he explained that they can only hold you in time for a certain amount total before their powers are depleted for good. Look at the heel.”
Mina slid one shoe off and turned it over. Sure enough, within the heel was a small hourglass. The top half was filled with hundreds of tiny diamonds that looked like sand. Some had started to fall, but the top was still filled.
“Do you have time left?”
“Yes, there are still diamonds within the heel.” Mina swallowed and felt herself start to relax.
“Then you still have time. Trust the shoes; trust Schumacher. Just don’t lose them—don’t even take them off,” Constance said.
“You’ll do it, Mina. You will fix this.” Mei jumped in, trying to calm her down.