Page 39 of Faerie Fate
Bronwen was the first to spot the laundry hanging out to dry on a line strung between a cottage and a nearby barn.
“Will those work?” she asked.
A smile split my features. “They’ll have to.”
I’d never been good at transformation spells, not when it comes to clothing. Shifting my body? Sure. Changing my clothing? Not so much. That type of transfiguration didn’t come easily to me, and with Mike low on magic…
I held the others back with a hand and glanced left, right. A slight breeze pushed the line into a shaky dance, the clothes held in place with pegs.
“Tavi, be careful,” Bronwen warned.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
I crouched low and crept toward the house. Despite the warmth of the day, smoke puffed up from a chimney, and therewere no windows facing this side of the house. Whoever tended the line must have been inside.
Several earth-toned tunics flapped in the breeze.Fast. Grab them and go.
Grinning to myself, I snuck forward and nabbed a shirt. The pants were a little large but they’d have to do for one of us, since we weren’t exactly swimming in options at the moment. With Bronwen as a lookout, I stuffed the clothing under my arms and moved on to a mud-brown cloak.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
The voice blasted through me, the woman’s accent lilting and unfamiliar. A chill skittered up my spine.
“Get away from my property!”
I straightened and turned in time to watch her rear back like a pitcher at a baseball game. Her features twisted with rage as she launched a fireball at me.
Stomach dropping, I jumped backward, avoiding the blaze, and it landed on a swath of flowers, igniting them instantly. The petals turned to ash.
“Get away from there! Go on, now. Drop the clothes.” The woman launched a second fireball.
This one lobbed close enough to take a bit of my hair with it and the stench burned my lungs.
A growl split the air and Noren sprinted in front of me, shielding me with his body. The fae woman shrieked at the sight of him, her next fireball going astray and hitting the roof of her barn.
“Direwolf! The Unseelie are here!”
Torn between fight and flight, the fae woman gathered another round of fire between her outstretched fingertips, but I couldn’t wait for her to steel her nerves.
Noren provided the perfect cover as we took off back toward the road. Chest heaving, I tossed the cloak and the pants at Mike, who was in no shape to run.
“Here. Get changed so we can get the hell out of here,” I muttered. “She’ll draw the neighbors.”
Mike lifted his gaze to mine and hastily looked away. My insides seethed. Nothing was good enough to get him to see me for me again. Not with this scar disfiguring my neck. Mike would never want me. Not maimed. Not belonging to a creature like Kendrick.
“I didn’t get to steal any food. But we’ll find something,” I promised him.
He exchanged cloaks while Bronwen and I changed into tunics. We discarded our old clothes underneath a row of yew trees.
“It’s fine. Let’s just go.”
The knot in my throat grew. We hustled down a few side streets until the sounds of the woman’s yells began to fade.
The tunic fit was too loose but it gave me room to maneuver as I stalked through the alleys between buildings.
There were fires everywhere, each of the decrepit if tiny cabins trailing smoke into the clear sky. Someone had to have something cooking that we could take.
I managed to find a few pieces of meat roasting over an open flame in someone's front yard. A tiny push of magic protected my hand from the heat and I grabbed them, hurrying back to where Mike and Bronwen waited.
