Page 36 of Chased By the Fairy

“I’m doing this, regardless of what you say.”

Then he leapt off the branch before she could stop him.

Letting his wings flutter through the cloak to help soften his fall, he silently landed on the platform without being noticed. They all landed behind just as he was pushing on the knotted door.

The area was quiet and empty.

“There are no guards posted,” Zahrya whispered.

He’d found that rather odd too. Even more so when he spotted claw marks on the floor.

They descended into the bowels of the spiralling tree.

A sickening feeling arose in his stomach each time he stepped over shattered glass. Each cage was empty, as if all the collected odd prisoners had escaped.

“They’re all gone,” a royal guard rasped, taking it all in.

“We should turn back, your highness,” Zahrya suggested. “Before anyone notices we’re here. We can go to Haven Hollow and gather information on his current whereabouts.”

Cypress shook his head, his feet moving forward. “He may not have gotten away. We should check.”

They were only on the third level when they came across Jeffers and some of his men trying to install new glass for the cages. They were quickly making repairs, and had already locked away a few sprites as if they never had the chance to escape or were recaptured quickly.

Jeffers turned with a gasp when the royal guards drew their swords. Jeffers’ men turned, most of them figtree beetles, who immediately pulled out crude batons.

Cypress, using his wings for speed, flew forward and shoved the head cretin against the wall. Jeffers choked and spluttered when Cypress pressed his elbow into his neck.

The royal guards quickly shot forward behind him, acting as a barricade against his back.

“Where is Sorrel?” Cypress demanded, his face twisted into a snarl.

“You’re stupid for coming here, Prince Cypress,” Jeffers wheezed out, his eyes alight with cruel humour. “The moment the other sprites hear of this, there will be outrage.”

Cypress shoved his arm up under the beetle’s jaw, forcing his hard head back. “Where is he?!”

“I don’t know who you speak of.” He shrugged his lanky shoulders. “And, as you can see, my little zoo of pets has recently had an escape.”

“But he was here, wasn’t he? A man who looks like a wingless flower fairy.”

“Really?” Jeffers stated with a hum. “I didn’t think such a rare specimen existed. I would never keep a fairy. Unlike you, I care for the treaty between our kinds.”

From his belt, Cypress removed a tiny dagger. He slotted the tip into a segment of his torso.

“Start talking, Jeffers, or I start gutting. A swallow sprite saw you take off with him.”

The beetle sucked in a breath when he felt the sharpness against his exoskeleton. Fear shone in his rounded black bug eyes, yet his features tightened.

“I don’t know where he is.” He waved towards the side of the room where broken glass still lay. “He’s the reason my zoo is in such disarray. He escaped, like many others.”

“Go check he isn’t lying,” Cypress demanded to his royal guards, without removing his sight from Jeffers.

A short, but tension-filled pause was shared as one of them ran off to check. She returned shortly.

“It’s empty. There’s no one here with his description.”

Cypress sneered at Jeffers, lowering his gaze to his rich suit vest, before bringing it back up to the beetle’s face. “What you’re doing here is despicable,” he spat out. “Keeping people imprisoned for your own entertainment.”

A villainous smirk crinkled his hard face. “No one cares enough to stop me, and you flower fairies can’t get involv–”

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