It was over.

Afterwards, the forest was eerily silent, and Mina saw the Grimoire's pages flip. It stopped on a page, and just before its light faded and it closed, she could make out the picture of the final battle between her and the Reaper.

Mina turned to help Ferah, but the Fae girl was gone. She'd disappeared, leaving only a slight impression where her body had lain on the grass. Mina was about to call out for her when she grew cold and a large shadow beast appeared before her. She wasn't afraid as the shadow dissolved into Teague's Fae form.

"You ran away, Elle. Why?" His voice didn't give any hint to his feelings. But she knew from experience with Jared, that he wasn't asking. He was accusing.

She couldn't answer him, so she turned her back on him and continued to scan the forest for Ferah. If the girl came back now, she'd be in worse trouble than before. She hoped Ferah had the sense to stay far away.

"Answer me, Elle." His voice rose, and she could hear the anger he was trying to hide.

Mina sighed and turned, holding her hands at her side. "I'm trying to find my way home." She couldn't make eye contact with him, so she continued to stare at the grass.

"I don't know why you always think the worst of me. If you had passed the next test, you'd always have had a home with me. Even if you didn't, I would make sure you'd be taken care of."

Her heart skipped a beat, but she remembered why she was here. Teague couldn't be trusted. Even split from his worse half, Jared couldn't always be trusted.

"I can't. You'll come to hate me over time," she answered truthfully.

"You don't know that." He sounded hurt.

"I do. And I also know that I can never live in the castle. That will never be my home." She pointed back toward the hills beside the palace.

"So you would rather run away, fight a Reaper, than marry me?" He was clearly trying to stay calm, but his words were sharp and his arms flung in each direction as he spoke. "I can tell you that I'm not that bad." He finally noticed the Grimoire laying on the ground and leaned down to pick it up.

Mina argued, "Hey wait a minute, that belongs-"

"-to me," he finished. But Mina grabbed the journal from him and pulled.

Teague wasn't prepared to let go, and the book ripped into two pieces. "You tore it!" He growled in frustration.

"No, you did!" she yelled back.

"I can't believe you stole from me." Shocked, he held his ripped half up.

"Borrowed," she corrected indignantly.

"When were you going to give it back? After you ran away from the ceremony and killed one of the Fates' Reapers to save a fugitive? I bet you were coming right back to give it to me, weren't you?"

"Um, okay." She bit her lip and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Borrowed with the intent to not return...right away."

He crossed his arms and held the damaged book in front of her. "If you wanted it that badly, I would have given it to you." His hand glowed, and he waved it in front the damaged book. It began reknitting itself. He did the same to Mina's half, and her front cover and few pages filled out into a completely separate book.

"Now we both can have one. See?" He flipped his open, stopping to stare at the image of the ogre on one page and the Reaper locked in battle of scythes with Mina on another.

Mina held her half of the Grimoire tightly and eyed the one Teague held. She started to shake. It couldn't be. This wasn't how it all started, was it? Was she the reason the Grimoire had been split in the first place, creating the two books? Could all this really have happened before? It was too much for her to take in.

The sky spun and she felt light headed. She could barely make out Teague dropping the book and running for her as she slid to the ground in a faint.

Chapter 27.

It was a maze.

The final test was a maze and Mina was horribly lost.

She'd awakened the following morning back at the Fae palace in her own bed, weak and a bit disoriented. Her head literally pounded.

No wait. It was the door. The brownie girl came in and helped Mina get dressed for the final test. The rules were simple. They would each be placed on different corners of the maze. Teague would be waiting in the middle. The maze was enchanted and would shift and change. Whichever girl made it to the tower would be worthy of being Princess of the Fae and would marry Teague.

The brownie overlooked not a single detail as she curled and pinned Mina's hair to befit a princess. Mina's dress flowed from her hips in swaths of lavender silk that resembled flower petals. Strips of the same lavender silk wrapped around her torso creating a fitted bodice. She had no jewelry, nothing to adorn the beautiful dress, but it really didn't need anything else. She looked like a beautiful chrysanthemum.

"You did a beautiful job-not just today-but every day that you've helped me." Mina felt sad that she hadn't spoken to the brownie before this.

Her deep tanned face grinned, making her eyes sparkle with pride. "My charge will be on equal playing ground with the others. Doesn't matter if you're not from here. You belong with the prince."

Mina's stumbled in her borrowed shoes. "How do you know I'm not from here?"

The brownie smiled knowingly and pressed her finger to her nose. "We brownies are smart." She waited a moment before adding, "Plus, I found something in your coach when you first got here. I was looking for your trunks, but all I found was this." She handed over the seam ripper.

As Mina felt the cool silver tube in her hand, she wanted to cry. "How? Why are you giving this to me now?"

"I had to make sure it wasn't dangerous, so I brought it to my brother who studied it and took it apart. We had to make sure it wasn't a weapon."

"You took it apart? What if it doesn't work now?"

The brownie looked offended. "He wouldn't have broken it. See? It looks as good as new." She paused and looked eagerly at the silver object in Mina's hands. "But he didn't know what it does. What does it do?"

Mina lied. "Nothing. It's just a good luck charm."

Now the Fae had the schematics to make a seam ripper. All because of her. Things were getting stranger by the minute. She tucked the seam ripper in her pocket next to the Grimoire.

"Thank you." Mina answered, unsure about what she was supposed to do next. Captain Plaith, wearing his sun and moon emblazed armor, was the one who appeared at her door to escort her to the final test. He seemed on edge, worried. Similar to how she'd seen him when she and Nix snuck into the palace before. Though this time, he had less gray hair.

Everything was a daze. She barely registered walking the halls. One minute she was in her room, the next she was outside being led across the dew-covered palace lawn. There was a slight chill in the air, and a morning fog crept along the ground which only added to her dismal mood. The fog hid the maze until she was almost right on top of it.

Green. Walls of twisted green bushes rose out of the ground, ten feet high.

"The maze is over two square miles in size. In the very center is the glass observatory. That is your goal." Captain Plaith relayed information to her the same way he relayed information to his troops-formal and direct.

She could hear voices on her near right and caught a glimpse of Ever and her escort just before they disappeared into the morning mist.

A loud, haughty voice laughed to her left, and Mina cringed. Annalora's laugh would haunt her for days. She was glad the fog hid the horrible girl from view. Only briefly did she wonder where Dinah would end up.

"Each of you will be entering from a different side of the maze. But be careful. It is enchanted. You will come face to face with your true self inside, and that can sometimes change people." He clipped his boots together and turned abruptly, presenting her very own entrance to the maze-a large silver door decorated with vines and roses. She couldn't help but think of Alice and Wonderland. Would she the words "Off with her head" today?

The beautiful door loomed in front of her. Mina's future depended on the choices she'd make once she entered. It was too much for a seventeen-year-old girl to take.

Queen Maeve and King Lucian stood on the nearest palace balcony overlooking the maze. He addressed the contenders. "Remember, only the most worthy among you shall make it to the tower. Once the princess has made it into the star observatory," he pointed to the tower, "a light will shine across the land for all to see." Lucian seemed pleased with his announcement and placed his hand around Maeve's waist.

Two trumpeters on either side of the Fates lifted their instruments to their lips and began a melodious fanfare.

Mina was neither nervous nor excited. She was sick to her stomach and really just wanted to find a place to throw up. This wasn't happening. She shouldn't be here. The trumpeters ended the fanfare, and the final contest began.

As Mina approached the silver door and her hand brushed the iron latch, she almost lost her nerve. What was she going to do? She had to enter, or at least start the contest. She turned the latch and the door swung inward with barely a creak.

Swallowing back her misgivings, she entered the maze. The grass was soft and a pleasant aroma of poppies surrounded her. The door swung closed behind her, and Mina gasped. She grabbed at the handle and twisted, but it was too late. She was locked inside the maze.

Forward was the only option. As she moved farther into the maze, she kept her right hand on the hedge and tried to follow the twists and turns by never letting go. She wandered that way for most of an hour. After a few more bends, she came across a beautiful stone bench.

Trying to use the bench as a marker she continued on for another hour and wound up right back at the same bench.

"What?" she turned in a circle and looked at the entrances to her little seating area. "Okay, I'll go this way." She took off again on a mission to get as far away from the bench as she could. Forget the tower. After another hour, the bench greeted her once again.

"So this is how it's going to be, is it?" She spoke to no one in particular.

Mina decided to sit down and think things through before she went on. She knew-or at least thought she knew-what was going to happen. All of her steps up to this point had seemed oddly destined. There was no doubt in her mind that she had already come to the past and had a part in the division of the books and even in giving the seam ripper to the Royals.

But the possibility of what could happen next terrified her. She wasn't sure how to proceed without messing up her own timeline. She was here to change things, after all, but what was right? And what would ruin everything? Should she sit and wait for Annalora to make it to the center of the maze and to Teague? Maybe by doing nothing-she was doing something. If only that was the answer.

No, waiting didn't feel right. She caught her breath and continued searching the maze.

Mina tried to gauge the time by watching the suns cross the sky. She had to have been going in circles for quite some time. The contest had started a few hours ago, and it looked to be almost afternoon. Her stomach was growling, and she'd begun to lose feelings in her legs from walking for so long. She shaded her eyes and looked up at the tower for any sign of life. Had she seen a shadow move past the glass? Had someone made it to the tower? Or was that Teague pacing and watching them from above? She turned toward the tower and was again confronted with the stone bench.

She heard soft footsteps and angry muttering. The noise drew closer.

Annalora hurried around the corner of the hedge.

"You!" her angry voice rang out. The gnome princess looked out of breath, her cheeks red and perspiring. A sheen of sweat dotted her forehead. Her deep red dress was cut low to show off her assets, which honestly made her look desperate for attention.

Annalora glanced around hesitantly to see if anyone was near before approaching Mina. Her right hand was hidden behind the folds of her dress. The way she walked warned Mina that something was afoot. "I finally have you alone." Annalora laughed softly, but it sounded stilted. Her eyes looked a little wild, and there was something desperate about her mannerisms.

"Leave me alone, Annalora. Solve the maze and go live your life with the prince," she rushed out. "I'm no threat to you." Mina took a seat on the bench, hoping to convey she wasn't going to compete.

Annalora continued her approach, her head shaking, "Oh no you don't. I've searched every inch of this maze, and I've gotten to the center-to the tower. There is no entrance. There's no way up." She started to laugh and scratched at right her arm. "Then it dawned on me," she continued. "The Fates said that only the worthy one would make it to the tower."

Mina looked at her, confused. "Yes, we all heard the rules. So what?"

"Don't you see? The answer was there all along. There can only be one. Only one of us can win. The others didn't believe me, but they couldn't find the entrance either. I'm right. I know I'm right." The whole time she spoke, she crept closer.

Mina noticed that some parts of her red dress looked darker than others-wet.

"So that means the tower won't open until there's only one of us left...alive." She pulled a large stick from between the folds of her dress and swung at Mina's head.

Mina wasn't prepared for the assault and fell backwards off of the stone bench. Her dress hampered her attempt to get to her feet, and Annalora was on her in two seconds flat. Mina struggled under the weight of the gnome girl and used all of her strength to keep the makeshift club at bay.

Annalora's animalistic scream echoed into the sky, sending birds flying. When she couldn't get the branch past Mina, she tossed it aside and went for Mina's throat. She squeezed.

"Anna...cough...Ann...cough...stop!" Mina gasped out. She clawed at the hands strangling the life from her. She didn't dare release her grip to reach for the Grimoire, but she was starting to black out from the lack of oxygen.

Something moved in the corner of her peripheral vision. Mina heard a thud and a small groan as Annalora went limp and fell forward, crushing her. She continued to gasp and cough but was able to move her unconscious attacker to the side.

Ferah stood over her with Annalora's discarded branch in her hands. The elf girl, wearing green leather pants and a vest, looked fully recovered. She gave Mina a slow nod, and a mutual understanding passed between them.

A life for a life.

"Thanks," Mina wheezed, rubbing at her sore neck. But the girl was gone, running back into the maze.

That's when Mina noticed the blood on her hands. She searched her body for the source, but she had no open wounds. She rolled Annalora over and searched her, but again came up empty-except for the blood splatter on her dress.

It must have come from one of the other girls! "No! Dinah, Ever!" Mina whined, and took off running, desperately searching for her friends.

There was blood on Annalora.

Fresh blood.

She'd said she had to convince the others. Did that mean what Mina thought it meant? Had the crazed Annalora killed Ever and Dinah?

"Ever!" Mina screamed into the maze. "Ever! Answer me, you stubborn pixie."

Picking up her skirt, she ran toward the tower. Of course it wasn't easy. It was a maze. Every time she turned right, it dead-ended into a wall. She'd turn around again and hit another wall. The hedges were changing, making her turns impossible to keep track of. She was thoroughly lost, and she kept envisioning Ever lying in a pool of blood somewhere in the middle of the maze.

What had happened to Annalora? Was it the maze that changed her? Bringing out her ruthless side? Or was that Annalora's true self? Is that what Plaith had meant about the maze changing them?

Near panic, Mina grabbed her head and turned in a full circle. The maze changed again. There was no exit. She was completely enclosed in a square hedge. Mina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Please. I just want to find my friend."

When she looked again, there was another opening. Mina dashed through it before it changed and found herself on a cobbled path. Was she getting closer to the tower? She tried to keep it in her line of sight, but every time she headed toward it, the path led her farther away. How was she supposed to get to the middle? To find Ever?

"Please! Someone help me!" Mina cried out again, hoping that someone-anyone-would answer. The wind picked up and leaves scattered along the path before her. A mist gathered near the turn ahead of her, forming into a familiar ethereal being with dull brown hair and a small moustache.

"Dad?" Mina clasped her hands over her mouth.

It couldn't be him. He'd died. Or as Mrs. Colbert said, his physical form died. He still lived on in the Fae plane, and he was here. Her father James was right here. In the maze.

"How?" she choked out in the midst of sobbing. Was the line between future and past so thin that he could cross it as easily as she passed through the Fae plane? Or was he a much-needed figment of her imagination? She decided to believe the first.

He stepped out of the mist, whole and looking very much alive. He was taller than she remembered, and his kind brown eyes were filled with worry. He wore the same outfit she had last seen him in, when he walked out the door of their house never to return-his favorite white shirt and vest and the khaki pants with smear of peanut butter on them.

"Don't worry about the how, sweetie," her father said, stopping just short of her. "Just know that I'm here to help you."

"But, Dad, I have to know. Why'd you make the deal with the Stiltskin? Why did you leave us? Why did you die?"