by Sonia Parin
The fairy sprung to her feet and crossed her arms. “When my Queen hears about this, she will give you a taste of her wrath. You will beg for mercy and she is not known for her compassion.”
“How is the Fairy Queen involved?” Lexie asked.
The fairy did not disappoint. She lifted her chin in defiance and clammed up.
Lexie persevered. “Did she send Rebel to spy on us?”
The Fairy Tale Fairy lifted her chin even higher.
Luna nudged her with her paw. “Answer the High Chair.”
The fairy looked over her shoulder and blew Luna a raspberry. “Your breath smells of fish.”
“It will be smelling of fairy soon if you don’t answer.”
The fairy’s expressive eyebrows curved down. “Don’t you have a saying where you come from? Don’t shoot the messenger.”
“So the Fairy Queen did send you.” Lexie leaned forward. Lowering her voice, she said, “We can offer you asylum.”
Luna sat up.
“No harm will come to you if you cooperate,” Lexie said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“How will you do that?” the fairy demanded.
“You could come with us.”
Luna shot a foot off the floor. “No! No more fairies. I’ll eat her before she sets foot in our apartment.”
Jonathan surged to his feet and scooped Luna up.
“Well?” Lexie prompted.
The fairy looked around her and then said, “Our Queen holds you responsible for the siege on the forest.”
“But I had nothing to do with that. She-whose-name-we… well, I don’t even know her name, she’s responsible. She took over Mackenzie Hall and spread her dark scourge on the forest so everyone had to flee.”
“We’ve been told a different story,” the fairy said. “You went on a rampage and destroyed Mackenzie Hall forcing everyone to flee for their lives. Now our forest is under siege. No one is safe.”
Who would spread such lies about her?
The fairy continued, “And now, you’ve turned rogue. Rumor has it, you’re on a killing spree. Someone has to stop you.”
Lexie shot to her feet. “Is the Fairy Queen acting alone?”
The fairy shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. No one tells me anything.”
“She’s lying,” Luna spat out. “Release me and I’ll make her talk.”
Jonathan tucked her under his arm and held on tight. “Down tiger, she’s just a little fairy.”
“You said the Fairy Queen holds me responsible for the siege,” Lexie said. “She lives in Cat’s forest. Cat will tell her the truth.”
“That’s not all.” The fairy shrugged. “She thinks you’re dangerous and should stand trial for your crimes. As I said, there are pacts and you’ve breeched them. You’re giving the magical world a bad name. You don’t see fairies flying around in your realm causing havoc.”
Luna snorted. “That’s where you’re wrong. We have a fairy in our sitting room.”
“Why would the Fairy Queen care about me killing a serial killer?”
The fairy tried to flap her wings and grimaced. “The O’Connor warded the cabin. Tell him to lift it.”
“The O’Connor?”
The fairy pointed at Jonathan.
Lexie glanced at him. “Are you like the O’Rourkes?”
“I think we’re bigger… as in, there are more of us. There are always one hundred O’Rourkes. When an O’Connor dies, we just assimilate. Our knowledge and experience merges into our collective consciousness.” Jonathan blinked and looked confused, as if he didn’t quite know where all that information had come from.
Lexie peered at him. “So… are you saying there’s more to you than meets the eye?”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I get my head around it.” He waved his hand around his head. “I’m just passing on the information that’s coming to me.”
Just like that? It hardly seemed fair. When Lexie wanted to know something, she had to levitate and meditate. She turned to the fairy and smiled. “Why should he lift the ward? You’ll only try to escape.”
“You can’t hobble a fairy,” the fairy wailed. “We’re creatures of the forest, we’re meant to be free.”
Luna laughed. “Cry me a river, fairy.”
Shooting Luna a warning look, Lexie said, “I want to know what the Fairy Queen did to get me here.”
The fairy tried to flap her wings again, to no avail. Finally, she huffed, “It was me. There, are you happy?”
Lexie and Jonathan shifted to the edge of their seats.
“What did you do?” Lexie asked.
“Well, duh! I’m the Fairy Tale Fairy. I wrote you into the script.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Conspiracy
“Show me the script,” Lexie said.
“Are you deaf?” Luna spat out. “Show her the script or I’ll pluck your wings out.”
The fairy looked horrified. “You wouldn’t.”
Luna lowered her head and her voice. “Yes, I would. When you least expect it. You won’t see me coming. I am a master of stealth.”
“Fine. I lied. There is no script.”
“Oh.” Luna sounded disappointed.
“Then how did we get here?” Lexie demanded.
“You came in search of ingredients for Rebel’s broth,” the fairy said, her tone mocking. “Don’t you remember?”
Luna managed to wiggle free and lunged for her. They tumbled around on the floor and the fairy gave as good as she got.
“Ouch. She bit my ear,” Luna screeched. “She bit my ear.”
When Jonathan succeeded in separating them, Luna curled up into a tight ball and whined.
“It can’t be that bad,” Lexie said. “She’s tiny.”
Luna grumbled, “She has pointy teeth, as sharp as a needle and I hate needles.”
Lexie wagged a finger at the fairy. “I’m running out of patience. You need to start talking now. Next time, Jonathan is not going to stop Luna.” It didn’t make any sense to Lexie. Why would the Fairy Queen intervene? Did she think she had grown too big for her boots? “No one knew I would be coming to the Crone’s realm.”
“But once they found out,” the fairy said, “they acted quickly. Word spread like wildfire. The Crone could have given you all the ingredients, but she didn’t. Instead, she sent you off on a quest that could keep you busy for eternity. The deeper you go into her realm, the more difficult it will be to find your way out.”
Lexie’s breath caught in her throat and she doubled over as if sucker punched. She had thought of the Crone as her friend. Well, perhaps they were not that close but they had a mutual respect of sorts. “She’s in on it?” she finally managed to say.
“If it makes you feel any better, and I’d like the fact I’m thinking of your feelings to go on the record, they coerced the Crone into it. I don’t know all the details, I only know they told her to use delay tactics and keep you here for as long as possible.”
Lexie’s voice filled with a mixture of wariness and disbelief, “Who’s they?”
“Brace yourself,” the fairy said. “Your Coven.”
Luna whipped the fairy with her tail. “You didn’t give her enough time to brace herself, you inconsiderate mite. You’ve driven her into apoplexy.”
The Coven?
Lexie’s mouth gaped open but this time, she had no words. Her own people had done this to her. Her mom. As the current High Chair, Morgana was the Coven.
“They’re afraid of you.” The fairy took a timid step forward. “At first you showed some promise, but now… You’ve managed to escape the O’Rourke detectives. They’re the last line of defense against rogue witches. Yet they couldn’t stop you from killing the serial killer. From what I understand, no one could stop you.” The fairy looked at Luna, “Someone should have advised you to fake it. Instead, you showed them your strength.”
It took a second for Luna to realize the fairy had taken a stab at her. Snarling, she lunged f
or the fairy who evaded her by diving between Jonathan’s feet and sliding under the couch.
Lexie surged to her feet. She took a moment to get her balance and then strode to the window.
“It’s true,” she whispered. Her own people had trapped her here.
“Are you going to set me free?” the fairy demanded.
“Hush,” Luna said. “Can’t you see Lexie is fuming?”
Lexie had lost track of how long she’d been standing by the window staring into the night sky.
She had set out to rid the world of a menace and she’d been punished for it. Lexie tried to gauge her feelings on the matter. She should be angry. She should feel betrayed. Instead, she could only agree and think they had good reason to want to punish her. Or, at the very least, banish her.
If she had to explain how she had located the serial killer, she would be at a loss for words. Something had taken possession of her and that something dwelled within her.
Had it always been there, waiting for Lexie to start using her powers?
What if she lost all control to this entity inside her?
Jonathan came to stand beside her and asked, “Do you need to talk about it?”
She wanted to but Jonathan would only encourage her to stand her ground and fight for her innocence. Or would he? “Where do you stand on all this?” She expected him to give it some serious thought but he wasted no time in answering.
“I saw everything. Remember, I get to see you in action even if I’m on the other side of the world.”
She swung around to face him. “Exactly what did you see?”
“Your determination. Actually, you went through several stages. When you found the girl, your face paled. When you left the room she’d been in, you looked slightly helpless. As if you knew you wanted to do something but you had no idea what to do. Then…”
Lexie’s breath stalled. She knew the point in time he had just referred to; that split second when she had decided she would take action. Even if it cost her everything, including her freedom. Yes, she had known what the consequences would be.
“I saw you stare into space but I knew you had entered a meditative state. Just before that, you had a look of stony resignation. If you’d spoken, you might have said something along the lines of no going back now or to hell with them.”
Lexie’s voice lowered, “Did you see any darkness around me?”
“Is that what you’re afraid of?” he asked.
“I’ve seen enough of it around to know it’s lurking everywhere. If I ever succumb to it, heaven help me. I’ll happily give myself up.”
He grinned. “That’s reassuring.”
Lexie dropped her gaze and smiled. “Of course, it’s easy to say that now…”
The fairy crawled out from under the couch and said, “If it helps any, I think you’re only under observation. Also, they need time to decide what to do with you and to see if you really pose a threat.”
“You seem to have a lot to say now, fairy,” Luna purred.
“I’m only trying to help. Can I go now?”
Luna flicked her tail and sent the fairy tumbling back.
Lexie swung around. “How did you get here?” she asked the fairy.
“I flew and I’d like to fly again. A fairy without the use of her wings is a dead fairy.”
“That’s not what I meant. I assume we’re still in the Crone’s realm. But we came here through a rabbit hole.”
“I guess I came through the same rabbit hole,” the fairy said.
“Liar.” Luna whipped her tail out but the fairy jumped in time to avoid being hit.
Lexie hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “Where does that road lead?”
“Everywhere. Nowhere.”
Luna flicked her tail again. This time, the fairy fell on her butt.
Turning to Jonathan, Lexie asked, “If you came through the door, do you think the O’Rourkes can come through too?”
Jonathan grinned.
“What?”
“I just heard the O’Connors replying.”
“You mean, the way one hundred O’Rourke detectives roar?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s just there. The voices. The knowledge. I can’t put my finger on it.” Jonathan closed his eyes. After a moment, he laughed.
“What?”
“We… As in, the O’Connors set the wards at the pub. The O’Rourkes can never go through the door. Oh…” He looked away.
“What?”
“I think we’ve always known they couldn’t touch you.”
Lexie drew back and frowned. “So why go to the trouble of warding the door against them?”
The air around them grew thick with tension.
“What’s going on?” Lexie asked.
“It’s them.”
“Them?”
“The O’Connors. They…” Jonathan lowered his voice. “They think I’ve said too much.”
That meant he knew more. Would Jonathan keep pertinent information from her? For her own good?
When she felt her shoulders lower into submission, Lexie straightened. “They can’t touch me.”
“You’re like that TV show,” Luna purred. “Lexie the Untouchable.”
“What’s a TV show?” the fairy asked.
“It’s a series of ongoing fairy tales,” Luna explained.
Shaking her head, Lexie pushed out a long breath. “I still can’t believe the Crone is involved.” The Crone. The Coven. The Fairy Queen. And who else? What role did the O’Connors play in all this?
Luna cleared her throat. “Actually, the Crone must be involved. Trouble knew you were in the Orchard.”
“Huh?”
Luna explained how she and Jonathan had encountered Trouble and how Trouble had helped by sending them straight to Lexie. “I don’t remember saying anything about where I’d left you. How did Trouble know where to send us?”
“She works for the Crone but she is first and foremost a fairy.” Lexie nodded. “She must take her orders from the Fairy Queen.”
Luna nudged the fairy. “Well? Say something?”
The fairy went limp and crumbled to the floor.
Luna prodded her with her paw. “What’s wrong with you? I barely touched you.”
“I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten anything in hours. It takes a lot of energy to fly.”
“We don’t have fairy food here, and we don’t want fairy food here,” Luna warned. “You’ll have to conserve your energy. Speak only when you’re spoken to.”
Jonathan strode to the table where he found a small basket of blueberries. When he handed them to the fairy, Luna gasped.
“You conjured blueberries for the fairy but you refuse to get my gold?”
As they squabbled among themselves, Lexie fell silent. She had a vague memory but it refused to take shape in her mind. It had to do with the Crone and why she lived here…
Had she been imprisoned? And why couldn’t Lexie remember?
She sank down on a chair. “Another memory wiped out by the Coven?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Pledge?
“We’ll find a way out,” Jonathan assured Lexie.
Lexie glanced over at Luna who’d been bringing up the rear, her attention fixed on the fairy flying ahead of them.
“Are you sure you tied that string properly?” Luna asked. “She could take off at any moment.”
“She won’t,” Jonathan assured her.
“If you get tired of holding the string, I can take over,” Luna offered.
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
Lowering her voice, Luna warned, “Fairies are tricky. They can disappear at the blink of an eye. Are you sure you warded the string properly?”
Jonathan released a long-suffering sigh. “I’m sure.”
They’d been walking along the road for hours and the trees were only now beginning to thin out.
As tempted as Lexie had been to stay in the cabin for a while longer, they needed to keep
moving. “With purpose,” Lexie whispered. A second later, she brightened. “We’ve been going about this all wrong.”
Luna hurried to catch up with her and settled on her shoulder. “Have you had a bright idea?”
“Yes, I think so.” She’d been obsessing about how and why she had landed in the Crone’s realm. Now she had to get her act together. “From the start, we’ve been on a quest. When we focused on the ingredients we needed, we found our way to them.”
Luna looked into the distance. “Yes, well… That didn’t quite work out for us. Remember, when we went in search for an apple, you died. And the carrot landed us in here where you were subjected to a kangaroo court trial. FYI, the term kangaroo court is often erroneously believed to have its origin from the Australian courts. However, some sources suggest that it may have been popularized during the California Gold Rush of 1849. Many theories abound. The phrase could refer to the pouch of a kangaroo, meaning the court is in someone’s pocket. Others believe it was used to describe vigilantes who took matters into their own hands to the point of hanging people without a trial.” Luna huffed out a breath. “I believe you had a lucky escape.”
“Yes,” Lexie agreed. “Thank goodness. I live to fight another day.”
“Oh, are you feeling aggressive?” Luna asked. Her voice lowered. “Do you sense a darkness surging inside you?”
“No, Luna. I’m feeling quite normal.”
“Define normal. You might be too far gone to know the difference. For all we know, the evil inside you has already consumed you, leaving nothing but the shell we see before us.”
“It’s all me. Inside and out,” Lexie assured her as she wondered when they had started referring to her powers as evil.
“Yes, well… You’d say that,” Luna whispered.
Lexie waited a moment to see if Luna had anything more to add. When she didn’t, Lexie said, “Everyone needs to think about ginger and finding the way home.”
“Sooner rather than later,” Luna muttered. “That carrot sticking out of your back pocket is starting to look rather enticing.”