Page 52 of Faerie Fate
Poppy adjusted her crouch in front of me and grabbed another handful of salve. “Is that a fact.”
I couldn’t tell if she was laughing at me or not.
“I’m also under a zombie blood curse, back in my time. I need help breaking that, too, that’s why we’re looking for the morsana flower. We happened to know exactlywhenOxana the Sightless would be, along with the plant I need for the curse. We just don’t knowwhereshe is.”
Poppy bobbed her head, satisfied with my wrist, before glopping her salve across my neck as well. The movement took me by surprise and I gasped.
“Yes, you do,” she said gruffly. Her brows knitted together. “You do know where she is.”
“We knew the general area where we thought we’d find her, but that’s why we went into Grove. To ask around.” My scar tingled hotly. “No luck, though.”
Poppy straightened, her neck cracking as she reached overhead to stretch her arms. “You’re really not very observant, girl, are you?”
My gaze narrowed. “Why?”
“BecauseI’mthe witch who made the Shifter Prophecy.” Poppy bit out the words. She lowered her arms to her sides. “And I don’t believe that you’re the one.”
My face went white and flames tickled my insides. “Wait. You…? No.You’rethe one who made the prophecy?”
The smoke must be getting to me. It was the only explanation.
Poppy gave me her back and tossed a handful of lavender into the fire in the same movement. The flames flared bright pink for half a second before returning to their normal colors.
“You think I’d go around using my real name? I’ve got business with people who don’t need to know what I can see,” she explained in short terms. “When the gift strikes, I assume another name, and then I go back into hiding. Can’t trust people. Can’t trust anyone.”
Very clearly, she couldn’t trust me, either. I’d just said the wrong thing. She’d drawn an invisible shield around herself.
“Okay, well, maybe it’s not me,” I replied. “I still need help. Your help. The curse will kill me if I don’t get the flower.”
“I want to do a truth spell on you. To make sure you’re not an enemy.” Poppy already had a new bottle in hand. “It won’t hurt.”
Mistrust boiled behind her eyes. I knew the feeling. I greeted it like a long lost sibling.
Poppy looked and sounded so unapologetic I admired her strength. She’d gone from hesitantly helpful to shut-off in the blink of an eye.
“Sure,” I replied through thin lips. “I have nothing to lose.”
The salve had hardened on my wrist and neck, and the lack of pain granted me more freedom of movement. I stood, kickingthe stool slightly away. If she wanted to go through with a truth spell, then I’d rather stand for it.
Put us on slightly equal footing rather than her looming over me like a praying mantis.
Poppy met my gaze and tossed the vial of clear liquid into the cauldron, glass and all. It landed with a plink and a puff of smoke as she conjured a clutch of herbs out of thin air. Easily.
“We’ll need a little bit of black ash to bind it together.” She shook her head and turned to her stores, her hands going to her hips. “And I think some clear quartz and lapis lazuli. Already got amethyst in there. Mugwort.”
She conjured the ingredients out of thin air, stopping only long enough to glare at me over her shoulder.
“It would be better done on a waxing moon but I suppose this will have to do.”
Taking a chance, I glared right back at her. “Unless you think your power isn’t strong enough to get the job done without the moon in the right phase.”
“Primrose and thyme,” she snapped in response.
Poppy conjured and completed the potion, tossing each new ingredient haphazardly into the simmering cauldron. I swear, if I didn’t know any better?—
The way she worked reminded me of Barbara throwing together the potion for my glamour, to hide my shifter side from the professors at the academy.
I brushed the comparison aside. All witch magic was the same.
