Mina didn’t recognize the unlabeled jars as belonging to her family. Well, not her immediate family. They could very well have been put there by her father—or even her grandfather.
Nix seemed pleased with what he’d found and added them to the boiling concoction. The way he mumbled to himself, tossing herbs in, made him look very much like he was boiling and toiling up some trouble. The brown terra cotta pot that sat in the corner by the kitchen table had been stripped of all of its leaves. She had no idea what the plant was—it had already been in the house when they moved in—but obviously Nix knew.
“Take a seat. The doctor will be ready in a moment,” Nix said, chuckling.
Brody sat on a chair facing Nix, who started straining the foul smelling broth into a teapot. He kept the spices, leaves, and who knew what else and threw them into another pot, crushing the remains with a potato masher until it took on a pulpy texture. It looked horrible and smelled worse. But Nix scooped the paste into a small bowl and stood over Brody.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Nix grinned happily. He was clearly in his element.
“Not on your life,” Brody said, holding his hand over his nose. “That stuff can’t possibly help.”
“Arm,” Nix demanded, eyeing the wound that was starting to ooze again.
“You don’t even know how to work a toaster. I’m not letting Betty Crocker go all Florence Nightingale on me.”
“Who?” Nix asked and looked to Mina.
“Exactly!” Brody pointed toward Nix. “You agree with me right, Mina?”
Mina had to cover her mouth as the laughter just spilled out. Amid all the stress, these two could still make her laugh. When her giggles stopped, she finally choked out, “No, he knows what he’s doing, Brody…trust me.”
Brody looked at her like she’d grown horns. “No.”
“Why not?” Mina frowned.
“Not until I know for sure that you’ll go with me to that thing.”
“Are you really going to deny being treated until you have an answer? I thought I already said yes.”
“Well, technically you did, but I want to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind.” Brody raised one eyebrow at her and waited.
Nix watched the exchange, holding a long wooden spoon filled with the green paste up in the air. Any minute now, he would start tapping his foot.
“This has nothing to do with the date. You’re just trying to delay the inevitable. Just let him treat your arm before you get rabies and die, you big baby.”
“Okay,” Brody said sheepishly. He held out his arm.
Nix looked relieved and started to smear the goo up and down, covering the large bite marks. Mina didn’t want to draw any more unnecessary attention to it, but those wounds were made by something bigger than any dog she’d ever seen. Way bigger.
“It feels weird.” Brody kept flexing his fingers. “It’s getting hot.”
“That means it’s working.” Nix grinned and went to pick up the glass jar he had found earlier. “At home in my cave, I used to keep a jar of this stuff. I never expected to find it here in your world.”
Mina’s eyes went wide, and Brody’s head snapped to look at Nix.
“Cave? World? What in—”
“Heaven’s name is going on in here!” her mother screeched as she came to a halt in her kitchen. Her face flushed red as she surveyed the mess in the kitchen, the half-naked boy sitting at the table with her daughter, and the other boy wearing her apron.
Charlie peeked around his mother and took one look at Nix in his apron and ran to him. Nix bent down and scooped the boy into his arms in a big hug. Charlie began to pull on Nix’s red hair and touch his face as if he couldn’t believe the difference. It took a second for Mina to realize that this was the first time her brother had seen Nix’s new human body. He’d seen Nix on the Fae plane with green hair and skin. Charlie had been the one to insist that she drag him into their world. She hadn’t been sure Charlie would remember.
“Hey, Li’l man.” Nix chuckled, placing Charlie’s feet back on the floor.
Charlie smiled and yanked on Nix’s arm, pulling him out of the kitchen and pointing toward his room.
“What are you doing, Charlie?” her mom asked, evidently confused at her son’s reception to a complete stranger.
“It’s okay. They’ll be fine,” Mina spoke up. She jumped up and moved as far as she could across the room from Brody and began to clean up. “I’ll have this cleaned in no time, Mom.”
“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing and why he’s”—she pointed to Brody’s chest but wouldn’t look at him—“not wearing a shirt. And what is that awful smell?” Brody was smart enough to move to the restroom to try and clean up.
“Mom,” Mina rushed over to her and pulled her closer to the sink. “Let me explain. Look at his—”
“Mina, I don’t know that I want to hear an explanation.”
“He was bitten by a wolf.”
“That’s ridiculous. There are no wolves around here.”
“No, I think it was a different kind of wolf. You know. Of the Fae variety. Although I’m not certain.”
Her mom stopped talking and froze. Mina gave her credit for not immediately breaking down into hysterics. She looked over at Brody’s empty chair and asked, “Is he going to be okay?”
“I think so. Nix made something, and it seems to be making it better.” She gestured to the messy kitchen.
“Nix?”
“The boy with red hair, the one that’s with Charlie.” Her mother walked over and gingerly picked up each bottle reading the label. She looked into the cauldron and over to the teapot. “This smells familiar, this smells…Fae. Mina, what do you know about this boy?”
For starters, Mina didn’t know her mother could tell just by smell what things were Fae and what weren’t. Was that even possible?
“Charlie saved Nix’s life when Nix was about to die on the Fae plane.”
“Charlie was on the Fae plane? When? What happened?”
“I think it’s best if you ask your Fae godmother Terry for those answers. Right now, I need you to trust me. We are doing what we can for Brody.”
Brody stuck his head in the kitchen and held out his arm. “You won’t believe this.” He pulled up one end of the dry paste to reveal a bright pink patch of skin. There wasn’t a single wound left. “That putrid smelling garbage works.”
Chapter 8
Thankfully, Mina’s mom understood and helped her clean up the kitchen. Brody had hundreds of questions. Her mom and Nix were able to fill him in on the gist of it. It was nice to have someone else besides her to explain. When three different people agreed on the story, it was at least slightly easier to make him believe he wasn’t crazy.
Convincing him the Fae really existed was tough. He got quiet a few times and had to get up and walk around the kitchen. Once, he even left the house and stood in the rain before he came back in to hear more of the impossible. The inner turmoil was evident. His mind struggled to come to grips with the reality of what happened versus the false memories implanted by the Story.