Page 73 of Faerie Fate
Mike bristled, taking automatic offense. “There was no miscalculation. I know better than to be sloppy.”
But he’d done the same kind of sloppy job when he pulled me from the academy. He wasn’t as strong or as capable as he should be. Just like me. We were two misshapen pieces in a world where we couldn’t fit.
“We have to go into pixie lands to get the morsana flower,” Poppy said. “No other choice. The fae probably won’t launch another attack so soon. We’ll be?—”
“Don’t sayfine,” Mike interrupted.
“We should stay and help these people,” Bronwen said with a groan. “More hands make for less work?—”
“They don’t need your assistance,” Poppy stated. She stared sideways at Bronwen. “Not to mention anything you do could lead to dire consequences in the future. We’ll have a hard enough time avoiding this war.”
She strode through the chaos and left us behind to follow or flounder. Probably both.
Mike and I shared a look over Bronwen’s head. We were walking right into an active war and there was nowhere to go but forward.
Chapter Twenty-One
Poppy kept a breakneck pace through town, stopping long enough to barter her strange wooden coins for supplies. Which were hard to come by and cost double what they would have normally.
She told us with painstaking clarity and an eyebrow raise that we were draining her reserves. But we stuck together. She didn’t boot us out on our asses, as she could have done.
I was too tired to ask her why she didn’t.
We were trouble, her cabin was demolished, and a fool’s journey lay ahead.
When she had enough fresh water and supplies for a few days on the road, divided between us in packs she’d also bought, we set off along the rutted dirt road toward the source of the smoke we’d seen in the distance from the cabin.
She scowled at the black billowing smoke. “The further we go, the more worried I get that the smoke is coming from the pixies’ morsana fields,” she muttered. Low enough for only me to hear.
“Please tell me there are more,” I whispered back.
“Yes, but a harder road to travel.”
Mike stared at his feet. His expression was tight, and the further we walked, the deeper the lines of concentration on his forehead. “I don’t get it. I specifically sent us back a week before the war. I considered everything. I knew the risks.”
HIs confusion pushed pins into my heart. “It’s not your fault.”
He rolled his eyes. “Then who else can I blame?I’mthe one who worked the time manipulation.I’mthe one who miscalculated.”
The reassurances died on the tip of my tongue. There was no good way to spin it around, not even to make Mike feel better. Whatever happened, we were exactly where we shouldn’t be.
“I’m fuzzy on many of the details of the Great Pixie War,” he continued, sniffing. “And those are exactly the kinds of details we need right now to make sure we aren’t about to step into the front lines.”
“Poppy won’t let us go near the front lines.” Out of all of us, Bronwen sounded the surest.
In theory, it should be easy to find the flower and book it back to the future. Theory and reality never held up to my expectations. Nothing about this trip had been easy.
One step forward equaled three steps back. We never got ahead.
“Melia told us that the flower went extinct because the fae targeted and destroyed it during the war,” Bronwen replied. “Right?”
My shoulders slumped forward under the weight of exhaustion as the straps from the pack dug grooves into my skin. “She said it was used for weapons, yeah.”
“Weapons, hell. They use it for everything, but only the pixies are able to wield it. Their magic makes the pods grow. Fae can’t do the same. One of the morsana’s powers is enchantingweapons to hit harder than physics allows. And those enchanted weapons never miss their marks,” Poppy said.
“Theynevermiss?” Mike asked.
“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” Poppy growled. “Need me to pop you on the head for not paying attention?”
