by Leanne Leeds
So, Meryl Hawkins knew about pixies.
How much did she know about pixies?
Enough to work with a rebel group of them?
And to what end?
Chapter Seventeen
It’d been a frightfully long night following a ridiculously long day, and I was tired. I’d started the day before at dawn’s first light, and by my calculation, we were coming around to it again in just a few hours. I hadn’t had so much as a nap.
“Do you want to rest?” Rex asked, slowing his stride. “You’re beginning to look tired.” The vampire’s tone sounded concerned. “I can find a place for us to sit for a few moments if you’d like to close your eyes.”
“You’re doing all the work here, Rex, so if I wanted to close my eyes right now, I guess I could do it. No need for you to stop. But I’m fine.” I yawned, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my palms. “I’m just mentally running through what the pixies told me the last time I was in the swamp. Ugh, this swamp,” I snorted. “You know, I’ve been here three times in twenty-four hours. Maybe I should buy a condo.”
“I’d hate to think of the shenanigans that would ensue if humans built a condo building in pixie territory.” Rex’s grip was firm as he carried me through the darkness. “I am curious. Did you not believe Pistachio Waterflash the first time you met him?”
“That pixie chieftain that we just met? The one just trying to protect the woman he loves? That guy is not who Emma and I met this morning. That wingnut seemed to go out of his way to be obnoxious and offensive.” I sighed. “I don’t know. If what he says it’s true, I can’t blame him for the lack of trust. Six pixie women trying to knock him off his throne? And they’re threatening Alice’s safety?” I shrugged. “He didn’t know who we were. And my owl did try to eat him.”
“He didn’t say they threatened Alice,” Rex said.
“No, but you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Amethyst Cloudspirit.” I thought back to my meeting with the rebel pixies. They were working on getting us to side with them against Pistachio Waterflash, but the two main pixies that spoke used very different tactics. While Ebony sought to charm us, Amethyst seemed to teeter on the edge of resentful aggression. “It’s also clear the rebel pixies don’t have the support of the wider pixie clan. Well, if Pistachio is right and chocolate works as a leadership bribe.”
“If the clan didn’t approve of his leadership, he wouldn’t be leader anymore,” Rex agreed. “That means that the rebel pixies are trying to perpetrate a coup.” Rex’s motion stopped, and he cradled me close as he leaned over slightly. “I think we’re on the edge of the pond you spoke of.”
I looked ahead of us. Tiny, itty-bitty flames flickered from the crevices and rocks across the water. It looked vaguely like the island. “That might be it. They had little tiny torches all over the place.” I looked up at him. “Rex?”
“Yes?” he asked distractedly, still scanning ahead.
“You want to put me back on my feet there, buddy?”
His arms flexed with a hard tension. “I’m going to need to carry you over to that island. If that’s where you intend for us to go.”
“Probably. Can you tell if that’s where the rebel pixies are?” I asked Rex.
“No,” came a sharp voice from the darkness. “No, invaders, the rebel pixies are not on the sacred island. They are right here.” A light flared, illuminating Amethyst’s angry face. “ Drop the witch, vampire.”
“Are you shaking?” Amethyst sneered.
Um. No. But I didn’t answer.
“You should be. How dare you come back into our swamp dragging a vampire? That’s twice in one day you’ve invaded our territory.” I felt the pressure of her hand on my arm. “I have lost my patience with you, witch!”
“Have you now?” I tolerated the invasion of my space and the presumptuous grabbing of my arm without punching her in the face in hopes she would keep talking. Rex, standing behind me, followed my lead and said nothing. “And what patience have you been extending to me that has now run out?”
Then I yawned.
I honestly didn’t mean to—it really had been an incredibly long day, and I was exhausted. The pixie’s expression was offended.
“We know that you just met with Pistachio Waterflash, and we know that you left him standing. Alive. You didn’t attack him. After all that we told you, after all that we trusted you with—how could you give him the time of day? Whose side are you on?” She dropped her grip on my arm and turned to the pixie next to her. “I told Ebony that this witch would be of no use to us.”
I wasn’t shaking.
But I was intrigued.
What use did they think they would make of me? My eyes narrowed. Was Emma’s “dusting” less about Emma and more about manipulating me into the position these pixies wanted me in?
“I’m on Emma’s side. And Alice’s side. I can tell you whose side I am not on.” I crossed my arms. “I am not on Meryl Hawkins’s side, and if you’re working with her? You and I have a problem.”
Amethyst was flanked by two pixies I didn’t recognize—they were not at the island meeting earlier. At the mention of Meryl’s name, they both jerked back slightly in surprise. Amethyst, of course, didn’t look surprised at the mention of the reporter at all.
Interesting.
“Why would I be working with the human Pistachio drugged?” Amethyst glanced back at the two women as if ensuring they were still there. “I have no reason to have any discussions with that woman or any of the other three—”
“She’s lying,” the vampire interrupted. “And more than that, the two pixies behind her have seen her with the reporter multiple times,” Rex murmured. “This one is lying to so many people she’s having trouble keeping her own story straight in her head. She forgot these two have seen her with Meryl.”
Amethyst’s staff shot out toward Rex, and just as quickly, my arm blocked her attack. “None of that, Miss Saltypants. That’s Emma’s brother. If you want to start up a fight with the older brother of a Forkbridge detective you may (or may not) have caused some harm to, I suppose I can’t stop you. But honestly,” I said with a raised eyebrow, “is that really the way you want to play this?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied in a flat voice
“Pistachio told us that the two of you used to be engaged. He also told us that you felt pretty much entitled to lead the pixie clan, and his decision not to marry you put the kibosh on those plans. True?”
Her face twisted in anger.
“What?” One pixie’s expression turned to one of scornful disbelief. “Amethyst, I thought you chose not to marry Pistachio because he was a misogynist that didn’t respect women.” The raven-haired pixie lowered her staff. “Is what the witch says true? Did you call off the engagement, or did he?”
Sweat suddenly beaded on Amethyst’s forehead. “Don’t listen to the witch! She’s lying! They just don’t want pixies to have any power here in Forkbridge! They’re trying to divide us. Do you see why I have done what I’ve done?”
The other pixie lowered her staff slightly and looked confused.
“The witch is not lying,” Rex told them both. “You both know vampires can read minds, correct?” They nodded with frowns, their eyes wary. “I heard Pistachio Waterflash’s story, and unless there is some new magic I am unaware of? Your chieftain was not lying to us when he said he told Amethyst he could not marry her because he loved another.”
“He said what?” The raven-haired pixie’s eyes grew even wider. “Amethyst?”
“The vampire is a liar!” Amethyst’s face twisted with rage.
“Your illustrious leader here has been meeting with Meryl Hawkins?” I asked them. “We just caught Meryl Hawkins in an office with Paul Wakefield, the married CEO of Punktex. She’s having an affair with him, which seems a little weird since Amethyst claimed earlier Meryl is one of Pistachio’s drugged, devoted cult women—even though Pistachio says he hasn’t been going arou
nd drugging women and has no cult.”
Amethyst looked gobsmacked, her eyes moving back and forth between us.
There was a breathless hush as the two pixies considered my words.
“You confirmed that with your powers, vampire?” the smaller of the two asked, her face concerned. “You confirmed that Pistachio has not been going around drugging women? That this is a…lie?”
Rex raised his eyebrow. “I did.”
“Are you going to believe a vampire and a witch over me?” Amethyst hissed at them. “How dare the two of you even open your mouths when I am around! I am the leader here, not you! You’re simply here to serve me! Now, keep your mouths shut! I command that both of you maintain silence for the remainder of this encounter!”
If Amethyst expected the two women to cower in fear, she didn’t get the response she was looking for. They stared back at her, angry.
“Wow. Someone skipped right over the positive leadership course in pixie school, I see,” I observed.
“You told us you dumped Pistachio. That you rejected him for his crimes!” the raven-haired pixie said, throwing down her staff. “You told us that he was drugging human women! That he was abusing them! Why would you lie about such a thing?”
Amethyst, momentarily taken aback, turned to face her.
“And you claimed that Punktex would belong to the pixies in just a few months,” the other added, her anger quiet but no less intense. “Suddenly, the victim Meryl you claim to have been helping is having an affair with its CEO? What have you done? What have you made us a party to—without our consent?”
Amethyst looked indignant. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. It’s ridiculous that you think I should have to,” she said dismissively.
“You are not chieftain, Amethyst Cloudspirit! I demand that you tell us what’s going on. Clearly, you’ve been lying to us, your sisters, for months now.” The angry pixie waited for a response, but Cloudspirit simply stared at her in stony silence. “That is not the sign of a leader. You’re no leader.”
“I am—”
“I follow you no more.” The quiet purple-haired pixie broke her staff over her knee and threw it at Amethyst’s feet. “No wonder Pistachio did not want you.”
The former pixie leader’s face twisted in rage.
I blinked.
I knew pixies could be capricious and flighty, but I didn’t expect the two pixies flanking Amethyst to turn on her so quickly. And not based on the word of a vampire. Or a witch.
“Why do you believe us over her?” I asked.
“She lied to you about Meryl Hawkins,” one of them stated. “I know this the same as I know my own name or the waters of this swamp. I have seen them together. What’s more, I heard her…lie to our seer about the Hawkins woman.” She looked mortified. “How did I not see this? How did I ignore these little offenses for so long?”
“Little offense?” the other asked. “It is the highest offense in our clan to lie to the seer. Nutmeg, why did you not say something?”
“I believed!” Nutmeg said with a shake of her head. “She is my sister!”
“Oh, that’s just rich. You believe a vampire and a witch over me? Over me? Nutmeg, Windsong—how can you betray me like that?” Amethyst looked enraged. Her eyes skittered in multiple directions as if she was watching her plan shatter into pieces like an expensive vase. The two women facing her down looked more than a little miffed themselves. “I am a warrior of the pixie clan. Everything I do is for Clan Waterflash—”
“That’s right, Clan Waterflash, not Clan Cloudspirit!” Windsong shouted. “I have seen you with Meryl Hawkins! You claimed to be helping her. You claimed to be freeing her from Pistachio’s grip, and yet here we find that she is tempting Paul Wakefield to break his oaths to his wife!” The lithe pixie stomped her foot. “If she were truly drugged by Pistachio, if they shared the elixir? She would not be engaging in such actions!”
“To tempt men to betray their wives for no reason? This is not the pixie way!” Nutmeg added, her tiny nose judgmentally in the air.
I yawned again.
“Are we keeping you up?” Amethyst hissed.
“Sorry. I’m usually asleep at night.” I looked around. “So what now?”
“We will tell Ebony of this one’s crimes of dishonesty,” Nutmeg said, pointing an accusatory finger at Amethyst. “It would not surprise me if she were banished from the swamp and—”
“Banish me? Like I even want to be here! I was doing all this for the clan, but you ungracious pixie twits don’t deserve what I was going to do for you, anyway!” Amethyst roared. The warrioress struck toward Nutmeg with her staff, and I jumped forward again to block it. “We were going to leave this godforsaken pit of mosquitos and alligators! All of us! We were going to live like kings! With refrigerators for the chocolate!” She stepped backward. “Stay here and rot in the heat, then, for all I care! Peasants!”
Amethyst turned and ran into the dark swamp.
Rex moved to speak, but I held my hand up.
“Can you track her?” I asked him, pointing. “I want to follow her, but I want to talk to them first.”
“I can, yes,” Rex said, studying me with his cold, discerning eyes. “But I want to—”
“Them first.” I pointed, turning toward the pixies. “I’m so sorry to have brought this to you in this way,” I told them.
“I appreciate it, witch. I can’t say I thank you for this information,” Nutmeg told me sadly. She glanced at the shadowed brush where her former leader, Amethyst, had disappeared. “My heart grieves for the loss of my sister, though it rejoices for the return of our honor.”
“Yes, our honor is the most important thing,” Windsong agreed.
“Well, I’m glad for that. I did want to ask, though—did you happen to overhear what Amethyst and Meryl Hawkins were talking about?” Rex moved to speak again, but I waved him quiet. “Just give me a sec. They have to get going.”
Rex closed his mouth and leaned back, waiting quietly.
“They were talking about someone going to jail,” Windsong explained. “I thought they were helping someone named Alice to get back what was rightfully hers, but now?” The pixie looked perplexed. “Now, knowing what I know, I am not sure what Amethyst’s plan was. If she lied about the humans being abused, what else did she lie about?”
And suddenly, it all clicked.
Well, maybe.
“Huh. What if Paul Wakefield didn’t embezzle any money at all?” I said to Rex. “What if this was some long-game con by Amethyst and Meryl?” Amethyst’s parting shot that the pixie clan would’ve gotten out of the swamp to live like kings echoed in my mind. My jaw dropped. “What if this is all about money? Revenge and money? Maybe Meryl and Amethyst were like Bonnie and…um, Bonnie.”
Rex frowned. “The problem is—”
“No, wait, hear me out. If Paul Wakefield goes to prison for embezzlement, all the control reverts back to Alice, right?” I explained to him. “But if he doesn’t go to prison for embezzlement, and Alice dies, all the control and money goes to him. By having control of both of them? Amethyst and Meryl cover all their bases.” I held up my hands. “The pixies have an elixir that makes someone worship them. Control them, right? So presumably, whatever they tell them to do? They’ll do.”
Rex sighed. “It’s an interesting hypothesis, but—”
“I know.” I nodded, assuming he spotted the same hole I did. “But the elixir made Emma and Alice worship the chieftain of the pixie clan. How would that help Meryl and Amethyst?” I frowned. “Amethyst seems to hate him.”
“That’s not necessarily how it works,” Nutmeg interrupted.
I turned. “What do you mean? How what works?”
“The elixir is used in marriage ceremonies, at births. The elixir bonds more deeply two people that have the beginnings of a new bond. Understand? Or, well, it can. The effect fades after a time, but for a few days? The potion cements total loyalty between two people that have st
arted down a path.”
“Between two people?” I raised my eyebrow.
“Well, yes, two people take it at the same time, of course,” Windsong said. “You wouldn’t want just one person to take it. Whoever they took it in the presence of? They would be under the control of…that person…oh, I see what you mean.” The pixie chewed her lip nervously. “That’s not how it’s supposed to be used at all.”
“But, wait a minute—Emma drank the elixir while she was with me.” I frowned. “Why did she have a huge crush on Pistachio instead of me, then?”
“She is not bisexual,” Nutmeg shrugged. “Or if she is, she’s simply not that into you. You’re quite attractive and all, but you can be a little abrasive at times. I can see that being a problem.”
“Oh, yes, that’s likely why,” Windsong added.
Rex chuckled. I glared at him. “So it’s a romantic thing?”
The pixie held up her fingers and listed all the ways the elixir could be used. “Romantic, familial, or religious, yes,” Windsong said.
I rolled my eyes. “All this magic has such specificity it just drives me nuts. Okay, so you can use it with two people or just one person. Family, romantic, or religious bonds—but not friendships or two people with no ties. Wait a minute—if one person takes it alone, how do they get controlled?”
“I don’t understand,” Nutmeg said.
“Like, if I took some right now and no one else did, who would control me? Rex because he’s closest? You because you’re a pixie?”
“Oh, me,” Windsong said, raising her hand. “I had some a few hours ago. Nutmeg had some yesterday. I would eclipse the pull of any other relationship because I drank the potion most recently.”
“So, whoever had the drink most recently?”
Windsong nodded.
“This is enough to give me a headache,” I muttered.
“I don’t think we need to deep dive into the intricacies of pixie magic,” Rex said with another shrug. “It’s clear from Amethyst’s own words what she was planning, or at least her end goal—money, taking over the pixies as the leader, pushing Pistachio out. My main concern is my sister. Can we reverse the hold this elixir has on them?”