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

and replayed the last half hour over and
over in her head. When her nose finally stopped bleeding, she
decided to take advantage of the empty locker room and take a
shower.
    She went to the last stall, turned the hot
water on, and went to her locker to pull out her regular clothes,
knowing the pipes needed time to heat up. With an unnatural speed,
the locker roomed filled with steam, turning the ugly fluorescent
white light into beautiful halos. There was something strange about
the haze. The steam sparkled and glittered like gold. It was
getting hard to breathe, but never before had she seen something so
beautiful and unnerving at the same time.
    Mina looked at the condensation building on
the mirrors and carefully ran her finger across it, leaving a clean
streak of her own reflection. Her finger came away covered in
gold.
    “ What the…?”
    Her hands trembled slightly as she turned on
the faucet to confirm her suspicion. At first the water sputtered
out clear, but then transformed before her eyes into liquid gold.
Frightened, she hastily turned the faucet off. A noise clanged over
in the corner of the locker room and Mina spun around, her heart
pounding so unnaturally loud even to her own ears. Something by the
ceiling darted out and flew to another iron beam. It was a
bird.
    Her hand flew to her heart in relief. This
wasn’t the first time a bird had found its way into the girls’
locker room and scared quite a few girls. They’d had the oddest
animals, birds and snakes, creep in through open locker room
windows. This bird was large like an eagle, but its wings
glistened, reflected as if it was made of an unnatural material,
and the tips were glowing like flames.
    The sound of the metal shower knob cranking,
followed by the silence of the previously running shower, alerted
Mina to the presence of another person in the locker room, which
drew her attention from the bird. The tingling building within her
warned her it was Fae.
    “ Hello,” Mina called. “Is
someone there?” No answer came forth, but she could hear the echo
of boots on the cement floor. She couldn’t tell from what direction
it came, though. The steam had become unnaturally thick, and the
gilded haze was starting to leave trails of golden dew on her skin.
She looked down, and goosebumps rose up on her arms. Mina flung
open the nearest locker and reached in to grab the first object she
could find to defend herself. It was a baseball bat. She’d take
it.
    There! She saw it. A slight movement to her
left. She shifted her feet and kept the locker at her back, and
tested her grip on the metal bat. Something was moving toward her
out of the haze. Mina had just taken aim at the shadowy figure
walking toward her when something flew from above and attacked her.
Pain laced through Mina’s hand as the bat fell from her grip. She
looked down and saw three bright red slashes along the top of her
hand. The maniacal bird turned in the rafters and came back for
another attack. Out of self-preservation and instinct, she dived
and rolled out of the way.
    She jumped to her feet without her
weapon.
    “ Why, hello, dear, looking
for this?” The haze had parted to reveal a man, smiling profusely
while holding her baseball bat. He was good-looking, in his
mid-thirties; his copper-colored hair was pulled into a ponytail.
His pale skin did nothing but accentuate his haunting hazel eyes.
Even in the heat of the sauna-like locker room, he wore a
three-piece suit embellished with a cornucopia of golden trinkets,
leather, and pockets that completed his odd ensemble, making him
look a mixture of dashing and hodgepodge. But it was his hat that
told her he was her midnight stalker. With the top hat and its gold
feather, the silhouettes were identical.
    “ Who are you? And why are
you following me?”
    “ Temple. My name is
Temple, and I have a proposition for you.” He held up his gloved
hand and tipped his top hat toward her. “Hear what I have to say
first, and then I