Page 50 of Faerie Fate
What Poppy just did washugemagic. Transporting all of us from Grove to this place? A chill covered every inch of my skin and I shivered, shocked and suddenly worried.
What kind of power was she hiding? What if we were all in danger?
Chapter Fourteen
Dormered windows with mullioned panes brought pale light to the interior, and the roof was covered in moss.
The posts holding up the roof of the front porch were carved with archaic symbols I barely recognized.
Mike was the first to recover his wits and stepped toward me, concern narrowing his eyes.
“Stop! Don’t move.” Poppy’s voice came out of nowhere. “Before you take a step, I have to open the protective wards to let you in.”
Mike glanced sideways toward her. “What happens if you don’t?”
“Then you’ll be burned to a crisp.” She said it easily.
Her cloak flapped behind her with each purposeful step and Poppy lifted her hands. The effort hardly showed on her features. She handled her magic as easily as she wielded her weapons. The corners of her mouth twitched. A vein in my forehead pulsed and my breathing grew louder as I watched her weave her magic, making an opening for us.
She gestured over her shoulder for us to follow. “Don’t be stupid now. No weak stomachs here! I’m not going to hurt you.”
The moment I rose and took a step, I faltered. Crap, I must have lost more blood than I thought, and all because I’d been stupid. I’d let myself get injured.
Bronwen reached beneath my arm to support me and Noren was on my other side. “It’ll be okay, Tavi,” Bronwen whispered. “I don’t think we have a choice. We’ve got to trust her.”
Which was exactly why I didn’t.
Together, we stepped through the wards. There were things in these woods a lot scarier than Poppy, I tried to tell myself. Things I’d fought against before.
The wards fell over us with a strange heaviness and I closed my eyes. Focused on my breathing for a beat. Noren brushed past me but it took much longer for me to find the strength to move my legs forward.
“This is really weird,” Mike whispered. “This sensation?—”
“Try not to freak out,” Bronwen warned, fingers twitching against mine. “It’s wild magic.”
Wild magic I’d felt before, hadn’t I, like the glide of ribbons on my skin.
We pushed through the wall of magic, and coolness trickled through my nervous system like the first brush of rain on a hot summer night. My raw, frayed nerves soothed instantly as my body remembered something my mind couldn’t.
Mike helped me navigate the steps up to the porch, his fingers to the small of my back, but his touch stayed hesitant, almost like he loathed having any physical contact between us anymore.
Noren was the first through the door Poppy held open. She smiled appreciatively at him, but she shoved her hands into her pockets when we passed, as if resisting the urge to strangle us.
She didn’t want us here any more than we wanted to be here.
The glow of lamps on the inside of the cabin were a beacon against the fast-approaching night. I’d never been scared of the dark, but for some reason I hustled forward as quickly as my body allowed, eager to get into the safety of those lights.
I took the first step over the threshold, feeling unwelcome despite Poppy’s offer to help. The door swung closed behind us without anyone touching it.
She turned sharply and strode toward the back of the cabin, past an impressively curved staircase on the left. Bookshelves bordered the cozy living room, covered by an assortment of glass jars of herbs and books old enough to be considered relics even now. The ornate design carved on the wooden back of the sofa looked like vines and flowers, the cushions tasseled and soft.
Poppy snapped her fingers and a belch of smoke erupted in the fireplace. Within seconds, a fire lit, consuming the stacked white wood in the hearth.
“Mike and Bronwen, feel free to use the kitchen and bathroom to clean up. Help yourselves to some food, and whatever the wolf wants, he can have,” she called. “Tavi? I need you back here with me.”
She loomed in the doorway, her shadow reaching me where I stood near the front door. Her green eyes seemed to bore holes straight through my soul, leaving me wide open. Clutching my wrist to my chest, I trudged as though through cement to get to her.
Everything was in its place in her kitchen in a type of organized chaos I recognized from other visits to fae homes. Trinkets littered every available surface but the trail across the rough wooden floors was clear of any debris. The kitchen had a large stove with four open burners and a space beneath for a magic fire. It crackled merrily in preparation for whatever Poppy might make for dinner.
