Page 4

Chapter

Four

I looked around as we walked through the library, peering at the tables where people stared at stacks of books, like they were looking into a magical world that I couldn’t enter. The whole thing was enormous, light-filled, glowing with a sense of contentment and peace laid into the very soul of the building. Gold chandeliers with glittering crystal tinkled every time the enormous front doors opened. In the center was a large marble desk where two people were sorting books into piles and taking notes while weaving very subtle magics into it.

“This place is interesting,” I said, watching a woman carry a stack of books taller than her head with a bold stride, like she could see through them.

“For readers,” Max said.

“Are you not a reader?” I looked up at him, and he narrowed his eyes at me, thinking how to answer such a suspicious question. Or he was thinking about something else entirely. I couldn’t read his mind. If I could, I could easily plant the knowledge that fairies were going to kill him and all of his people so that we could have his caves.

The awfulness of that reality made me stop walking. I stood in the middle of the wide lobby, fabulous light fixtures above casting a golden hue over Max, making him look like one of the noble knights in the stained glass windows above the courtyard of death, where my mother and her court were slaughtered.

It wasn’t just fear of retaliation that motivated me anymore. Soft warrior wolf Max and young Ruin weren’t what I’d fought in the invasion. Neither one of them deserved to die.

“Sparkles? Did you hear me? Are you going to throw up again? Don’t do it near any books.”

I blinked him back into focus, my heart pounding, my stomach churning. I delicately patted my stomach. “I was just thinking.” How could I approach this without implicating my people and turning him into the kind of warrior wolf he could be? “Why do you leave your caverns so empty and sad? Why don’t you turn them into a nice forest? A fairy would turn it into a garden, but wolves prefer woods, don’t they? Shady groves, moon-speckled shadows as you run through the trees, the wind in your fur, the rustling of the…”

He tugged me into motion, his hand wrapping around mine more firmly. “Wolves don’t turn caves into forests. That’s not rational.”

“But it’s possible. Do those mean the same thing? Can something be irrational but still real? I don’t know, but I do know that you can terraform almost anything. All you’d need was a bit of sky from somewhere else, somewhere lovely with good clean air, and then water brought from far below. Crumble the stone into sand, mix it with some lovely humus, and you’d have the canvas to create any kind of place you’d like. I was inside a shell once that had the most elaborate garden. It was more difficult, because she had to draw the water from the air for her plants, and shrinking plants changes the life cycle, but it’s perfectly possible.”

He grunted. “Werewolves don’t make gardens inside shells.”

“Then you could hire it out. It is labor intensive, but if you’re the alpha, you have the numbers at your command.”

“Sure, Princess. I’ll hire you to turn our caverns into a forest.” Threads of golden will wrapped around me from him, squeezing me tight. It was like the other thing. The duty thing.

I inhaled sharply. “What?”

“You offered. I accept. Now, let’s keep moving. We need to be in and out before the Scholar gets nervous.”

“But…” I felt the bindings of the promise tighten around me. What in the world had I just done? Why would I be so careless with my words when they could be so powerful? I knew that. I was a princess. My decree could change the world. And apparently, it would change the caverns, because I was bound to the wolf with a promise I couldn’t break.

But it would only last until he died, which would happen when the plan was put into motion and the werewolves of Singsong City were slaughtered. And werewolves were supposed to be the brutal ones? It was so absolutely awful to even contemplate.

I looked up at Max, and he met my eyes with that same concern in his. He’d fed me when I hadn’t realized I was starving. He’d protected me from the old wolf who wanted my wings like it was nothing. Was it a ruse? It could be. Or things could have changed. He was different. He wasn’t one of the old warrior wolves who had taken everything from me.

“What brings you here today?” a blonde woman with skin that glowed with an inner light asked, giving us an angelic smile. She was so beautiful, light, benevolent. She was what a good fairy should look like. Was she an angel? I didn’t see wings, but she was just so glowing. I used to glow like that, only different, because her glow was golden, and mine was the moon.

Max said, “Librarian. I need everything you have about Fairyland.”

She looked at him with a raised brow. “Fairyland? No one’s been there for generations. I heard that after the war, it wasn’t the same, but no one ever documented it. Fairies don’t document anything. I heard that they keep their memories in trees.” She looked at me with a raised brow. “Oh. You’re a fairy. You look different from most of them. So skinny and small.” She immediately winced. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be rude, I’m just the worst at social graces. Why don’t you follow me to the mythical creatures section and we’ll see what we can find?”

“I’m here to research werewolves,” I said as we followed her towards a large set of marble steps with a golden angel statue on the right and a gold statue of a demon on the left. The artist had meant for them to strike terror into the heart. They’d succeeded.

“Oh, good. We have much more on werewolves. What languages do you read? We have a whole section divided by language and category. Fairyland is going to take some doing. We don’t have a single text by an actual fairy in my library. It doesn’t seem possible.” She frowned in concern at the thought that her library was missing a certain kind of book.

Looking around at the pillars with books stretched all the way up to the ceiling, I had to agree that it seemed impossible that there could be anything missing.

I rose on my toes to see the second floor’s tomes. “Fairies don’t have a written language. I don’t know how to read any language at all. I did know a fairy scholar who wrote scrolls and scrolls of this and that, some of the tree records and some magic spells. He left them at the bottom of the stairs, and I was always tripping on them. That was a long time ago.”

The librarian stared at me with the most peculiar expression. “You don’t know how to read any languages?” Her voice was choked with shock and horror. She tried to keep it off her face, but failed miserably.

I looked up at Max. Was he also shocked and horrified? No, he only gave me a flat smile and said, “You’d better get on that or you’ll never get your dissertation written.”

I blinked at him. Oh. Dissertations were written. I should have realized that. How embarrassing. I licked my lips and tried not to look like an idiot.

Max cleared his throat. “Any texts you have in Latin, Greek, German, French, or most dark tongues, I can read.”

She smiled at him brightly. “None of the light languages? Celestial? Elvish? Elves are the most likely to have researched the subject. They research everything.”

“I’m not perfectly fluent at elvish, but I’m sure it’ll come back to me. No on the angelic tongues.”

“Great. I’ll compile what I can find, and you can come back tomorrow for the tomes. I think your friend needs to find a bed before she curls up on the floor.”

I straightened up, because I really had been drooping, with only Max’s hand on my shoulder holding me upright. “I’m fine. I just had a long train ride.”

“You didn’t get a bed?” Libby asked. It’s like everyone knew there were beds on trains. Except for me.

I sighed heavily. “Next time, I’ll definitely get a bed.” Then again, I’d spent so much time in bed lately. It was good to get out and do something. Even if it was entirely insane.

We started back down the stairs that had taken so much effort to climb. Maybe I should accidentally trip so that Max would catch me and have to carry me while I rested. He knew how to read so many languages. Was that why he was so soft, because he read instead of training in the art of war?

He tugged my shoulder as I started heading towards the elevator. “Not that way, Princess. We’re taking a cab back. We’ll have to walk a few blocks to get out of the no-driving sector, but then we’ll ride the rest of the way. Librarian, thank you for your help.” He bowed at her while she waved his thanks away and started drifting towards the stairs, like she heard someone calling her name.

“Cab?” I asked Max while my mind raced, trying to think what a cab was. Oh, one of those loud iron horses people climbed inside so they could ride in their belly. “I’d rather be eaten by a vampire.”

He gave me a sharp smile. “Vampires don’t eat fairies. They just drain them of their blood. You’ll have to get used to technology if you’re going to stay in the city.”

Was I? “Only as long as it takes to terraform your caves.” I’d actually given my word to do that. I was so stupid.

We left the library through the large front doors, past a human guard who nodded at us, then down the long marble steps and towards the street. It was a noble building that faced a tall, sparkly high-rise that seemed to sing in the afternoon light.

How could I talk about the likelihood of his people being poisoned without making him suspicious? “Lord Max,” I said as politely as possible while we walked down the sidewalk past all the other respectable looking pedestrians. They gave me several looks of horrified awe. My outfit was apparently quite notable.

“Yes, Princess Sparkles,” he replied gravely.

“Have you ever worried that your people might be poisoned?” And there the words just fell out of my mouth like drops of agony. Yes, my skills of subtly manipulating the conversation were legendary. Legendarily bad.

He blinked at me. “By modern technology? All the time.”

“Modern technology?”

“I’m speaking of more metaphysical poisoning, the destruction of mind and soul.”

I cleared my throat. “I’m referring to the more physical, immediate danger.”

“You mentioned me trying to poison you earlier. Are you always paranoid, or have you been poisoned recently?” He studied me thoughtfully, peering into my eyes like he could read my thoughts.

I brushed him away. “What are you doing to make certain no one poisons your people’s water?” Apparently, subtlety was lost on me. Or lost to me. Yes, that was more likely.

“I don’t do anything. We get our water from the same place everyone in the city gets their water. If the werewolves were poisoned, we would all die together.”

“Unless there was something in the water that only targeted werewolves, like silver.”

He raised a brow as we walked. “How would you poison the city’s water with silver?”

I frowned in thought. How would you do that? It sounded distinctly impossible to put enough silver in water, which would naturally dilute it. “Perhaps a slow build-up over time? But you’d have to keep adding silver to the water, and who would have access to and be willing to do it? I suppose someone could be bribed, but it’s a very long-term plan that has a lot of problems. I think you should be more worried about the food supply.”

He blinked at me. “Thank you. I wondered what I should be more worried about, the food or the water.” He patted my head. “You’re so cute, worrying about werewolves like we aren’t the hardest things to poison.” He pulled me towards the curb on the street where the cars were driving by, exhaling smoke and growling like dragons. He waved at a yellow car, and it pulled over. He opened the door and climbed in, pulling me after him. I’d been leaning away from the car, so when I finally went in, I sprawled over the werewolf, who reached past me to close the door, trapping me inside the beast, with a beast. “Song, Lupin District,” he said to the driver while I struggled to get untangled. The seat was slippery, and the fact that I was inside an iron beast had me shivering.

He frowned at me. “Are you okay?”

I looked from him to the back of the driver’s head. “I’m in the belly of the iron dragon, and you’re asking me if I’m okay?” I whispered.

He smiled and relaxed. “You’ll get used to it. It’s not iron, just various alloys that shouldn’t hurt you.”

“My cab’s chassis is one hundred percent steel,” the driver said, looking back to give me a sparkling smile. What was he? Elven? Goblin? I was too panicked and exhausted to tell.

“Easy, Sparkles,” Max murmured, a low rumble that had me looking into those mesmerizing golden eyes. Maybe he was a werewolf sorcerer who could control the minds of those around him. No, his people were way too undisciplined for that. “Why don’t you close your eyes and relax?” His voice was more persuasive than anything. Close my eyes so I wouldn’t see the dragon or the passing street, or the werewolf I was with? What a wonderful idea. I closed my eyes.

“Good. Now relax. Take a deep breath. This dragon won’t keep you. It has other passengers to pick up. Just relax and enjoy the ride. It must beat holding onto the roof of a train. Everything’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.” His voice got lower and lower, until I slumped down, boneless, leaning over on his chest like he wasn’t my enemy. I was like that, in a stupor, when the taxi stopped and I lurched upright. We were back in the undercity, closer to the caverns, but next to a large, squat building made out of gray blocks.

“That is the ugliest building I’ve ever seen,” I said. I flinched and looked up at Max, because you just didn’t say things like that to a werewolf about their house.

His eyes glimmered. “I was wondering what activities I could give to the juvenile delinquents who are stuck inside until they’ve paid for their crimes. Painting the building is a great idea.”

“You’re taking me here with juvenile delinquents? I’m a fairy, not juvenile.”

“Fairies are always juvenile and delinquent. You’re in lockdown with the rest of them until you get the pixie dust out of your system. It’s my duty.” He winked at me while I sighed heavily. Did I warn him enough? He didn’t seem to take my warning seriously. And he had bound me to terraforming his caverns. I didn’t have time for that. Although what else was I doing with my life? ‘What life?’ was the obvious answer.

He leaned over me to open the door, then followed me out, hand still on my shoulder. He was really good at hanging onto me so I couldn’t slip away. Not that I would. I had a better chance of keeping his people alive if I was one of them. Also, his grip was gentle for being so firm, and he had kept me from falling over countless times.

He pulled me to the car’s front window, handed the guy a black card, then took it back, pocketed it, and walked me towards the double doors of the building. It wasn’t that short, it just seemed to be compared to how sprawling it was.

Inside was even less inspiring. Everything was gray, except for the pads on the floor, which were blue. There was machinery on one end with a mirror attached to the wall. When I saw my reflection, I froze. I looked… What is the word the opposite of magical? I was the midnight fairy, the princess of the moon and the glory of all nocturna, but I looked like some goblin, a messy, slightly sparkly goblin with bad hair, gray skin, dull eyes, and a whole aura of exhaustion that made me want to drop to the floor, curl up in a ball, and sleep until everything went away. The trails of dark glitter from the corners of my eyes across my cheekbones didn’t help. I looked dirty. Maybe I was dirty. It had been a long ride from Fairyland to save the werewolves and my people. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t even save myself.

Max squeezed my shoulder, his warmth soaking through me. “We’ll set you up in a corner on a mat. I’ll spell it quiet and dark so you aren’t disrupted by the others.”

I let him drag me through the others, which were apparently five kids, all boys except for Ruin who gave me a slight wave before ducking her head. The boys wore scowls as I passed through them.

“Ruin, why did you have to try and steal an owl egg? You’re such a bonehead,” one of the boys said.

She shoved him, knocking him flying. “You’re the one who dared me!”

Max sighed. “But you should have known better than to take a dare. That shows a lack of wisdom as well as a weakness of character. If you can’t say no, what can you do?” He shook his head and kept pulling me towards the corner with a stack of the blue pads. “Here you are.” He released my shoulder and gestured towards the floor.

I stared at the blue, shiny pad, then at him. Why did I feel weird without his grasp on my shoulder? I rubbed it absently. “Here I am,” I agreed. “Now what?”

“Now, you lie down, close your eyes, and sleep.”

I grabbed his sleeve as he was about to turn away. “And you’ll make sure no one is poisoned while I’m sleeping?”

He covered my hand with his. He was so warm, strong, capable. “I will make it a priority. Rest.” His eyes twinkled, and he smiled in a soft way that made me take a step away from him and nod, staring at my filthy feet. I should have shoes to keep them clean. I went to the furthest corner, curled up on the pad that was not at all close to soft, pulled the blanket over my head, and slept.

I was out so fast and so hard, I barely noticed soft, furry bodies crowding around me. They were warm, and I was cold.

I woke up shivering in the dim light, cold and aching all over down to my bones. Ruin was sitting in front of me, frowning at me.

“You can’t read?” she asked like an accusation.

I wrapped my arms around myself and sat up, slowly, because it was so hard, and my head pounded, and everything was wrong. “No? Why…”

She held up a bright book with an illustration of a smiling wolf wearing glasses. “The librarian sent this with the other books Max has. Can he really read all those pointless languages? But you can’t read anything? What does this say?” she asked, pointing at some shapes at the top.

I frowned at it, but my head threatened to explode from focusing too hard. “I don’t know.”

“The Wolf Wore Pajamas. It’s a children’s book they make for all the light species who are afraid of sleeping because fear of us keeps them awake. It didn’t keep you awake. You slept like the dead. Did you notice the pile-up? Have you seen Max’s wolf yet? That would probably give you nightmares. Why are you shivering? Oh,” she said, leaning close and whispering. “I put your invisibility cloak in a small cave on the side of the cavern. No one should find it. Thanks for that.” She straightened up and gave me a slight smile. “You took a lot of hits for me. I owe you one. I didn’t think the owls would be that vicious. Sometimes I wonder if Max is actually right about the big one being magical.”

I blinked at her. She’d said a lot of things. “It does seem magical.”

“Do you think it would let you ride it? You’re so little and light. Fairies are supposed to have an affinity with animals, right?”

I blinked at her. All these questions. Where to start with answers? Should I answer her questions? She was a werewolf, the enemy, but at the same time, she reminded me so much of myself when I was young and unaware. “Some fairies are good friends with the forest creatures, but I’m not that kind of fairy.”

“Oh. What kind of fairy are you?”

Broken. Stupid. Helpless. I smiled brightly. “I’m a midnight fairy. I have an affinity with all the night creatures, particularly moths. I can make them large and then ride them. I have wings, of course, but they aren’t in the greatest shape. I should grow a new pair and see if they’re better. There’s a fairy with wings in a moth pattern, so my mother thought that he’d be my consort, but he doesn’t approve of me.”

She leaned closer, eyes large. “Consort? What’s that? And why doesn’t he approve?”

“Oh. Consort is like mate, I suppose, only fairies don’t have mates like werewolves. And he doesn’t approve because I don’t know how to read.” He probably didn’t approve of it, anyway. I wasn’t getting into all the multitudinous reasons Vervain had for holding me in contempt. Probably his biggest issue was that I refused to be queen. Yes, that was definitely his biggest issue. I should declare myself queen, take the mantle, the burden, and power, instead of dodging it like the coward I was.

She wrinkled her nose at me. “I mean, reading is useful, like reading signs and texting, but he sounds like a snob. If he doesn’t think you’re good enough because you can’t read, then he should just teach you. Seriously, boys are so lame.”

I nodded soberly. “So lame,” I echoed, then smiled slightly.

She grinned back at me and opened the book to the first white page, with large text in the middle. “I’m just going to read it to you, with my finger under the word that represents what I’m saying. Then I’ll teach you the alphabet. By the time I’m done with you, your fairy boy will be so impressed, and then you’ll have to get a new boyfriend, so he’ll be jealous and regret the day he dissed you.”

I smiled and in spite of the shaking, the shivering, and the aching, I felt a slight glow of warmth. “Thanks. Vervain will rue the day.”

“Vervain?” She scoffed. “Such a pansy name. You need a guy with a good name. Like Torment. Or Calumny. There’s a wolf up north with that name. He’s hot.” She looked around like someone might hear her while her cheeks pinked up. “Not that I like him. You can think a guy’s hot and not like him.”

I nodded, although I had no idea what she meant by hot. Probably not their body temperature, although Max was quite pleasantly warm when he touched me. Why did thinking about him make my heart beat faster? I put a hand on my shoulder where he’d held it so much and smiled at her. “Yes. And you can like someone and not think they’re hot.”

She gave me a skeptical glance. “If you say so. Now, listen. This story is so dumb, but the words are simple. You’ll pick up reading in no time. And then Max will stop growling at me for letting the jerk talk me into bad decisions. Again.”

She started reading, and I followed along as well as I could, filled with a growing sense of connection to the girl intent on teaching me so we could diss Vervain and gain Max’s approval. Would Max think more highly of me if I could read? I frowned and focused more intently on the words, ignoring my pounding head as I tried to understand the shapes on the page.