Page 15 of The Folklore of Forever (Moonville #2)

Fifteen

Peer through a three-holed Odin’s stone and you’ll see the fae folk. Odin’s stones with four holes will allow you to glimpse fae-made illusions, which are just as pretty as they are dangerously seductive.

Legends and Superstitions, Expanded, Tempest Family Grimoire

I’m walking toward it before I can think, passing them, listening.

“ Old and new ,” it goes on.

Morgan turns to watch where I’m disappearing to, silvery violin notes tracing my steps. “Zelda?”

“Ahhhh!” I’m clobbered by Aisling, who hugs me tight around the middle, her flower crown drooping with missing petals. She’s rosy and beaming. “This is the best birthday of my life.”

I am tugged back into the fray, disoriented. The clock. The clock. The clock.

E T O

HK L

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Old and new. Who on earth is lurking in here?

“Just wait till you’re fifteen,” Luna is saying to her daughter. “That’s when we let you cast your first spell.”

Aisling twirls. “It’s going to be amaaaaazing.”

Cannon smiles at her. “Which birthday present was your favorite?”

“The bluefairy pie.”

His face falls into a slight pout. “Who gave you that?”

“My husband, King Aelaric of Lowhill.” Her voice drops, but I’m close enough to overhear. “I stepped into the fairy ring, just an inch, when nobody was looking. In the span of three earth seconds, I lived ten whole years in Fairyland. I married a fairy king and became a real live fairy queen.”

Cannon’s mouth falls open in surprise, but fury catches up. “You did not.”

She grasps his wrist, eyes hypnotic. “Cannon, it’s glorious there, like nothing you can imagine. I really wish you’d gone with me! Maybe someday I’ll take you, but not just yet, because I’ve been trying to get back here for a while now. I missed my family, and they don’t have electricity in Fairyland. Although Aelaric is probably looking for me already. If the Fairy Council finds out I’ve run away, they’ll track me down in this realm and remove all the magic powers I’ve been developing.”

Cannon is still unhappy, but she’s piqued his interest. “What sort of powers?”

She is spared from inventing a response, however, when Luna announces it’s nearly midnight. “Twelve years old at twelve o’clock,” Luna pronounces, herding her daughter by the shoulders back to the rest of the crowd. “A powerful time for magic.” She fishes a matchbox from the pocket of her cloak and strikes a flame, then sets it to the wick of a stubby white candle half-buried in the ground. “Make your wish.”

Ash shuffles forward. “I wish…”

She hesitates, staring into the blaze. The white candle appears to bubble, as if the wax is boiling. “I’m not going to say it out loud.”

She blows out the candle, her secret wish swimming upward in a plume of smoke.