Page 85 of Faerie Fate
Soft violet hair touched the tips of bony shoulders in gentle waves. The gown flowed in layers of silk, allowing movement for her wings, as her hands circled the baby bump. She smiled at Poppy, who practically threw herself on the couch, then set her gaze on me.
“Oh, you poor thing. You’re in a terrible state, aren’t you?” She swept out an arm. “Place her on the couch and I’ll look over her injuries. Poppy, seriously? Move.”
Clearly the two had a decent relationship. Elfhame ordered, and Poppy groused but did as asked.
“Got herself changed into some crazy form,” Poppy said as she rolled into standing and automatically flopped onto the nearest available seat. “Damndest thing. Weapon I haven’t seen before. Took us a good hour to get the pieces of her back together again.”
Mike helped me over to the couch and propped the cushions behind my back, forming a pillowy wall.
Elfhame perched beside me and her touch cooled the heat in my cheeks. “What kind of crazy form? Tell me everything.”
Poppy explained the situation, or at least as much as she understood. “I don’t have the magic to fix shifter power disruptions,” she finished with a huff. “We gathered all the pieces and she changed back but she needs more than I’m able to provide. It’s strange magic.”
Elfhame ran a hand over my forehead. Her touch remained gentle but her skin was cool to the touch where I felt like I was burning up.
“Indeed, it’s strange,” she agreed. She blinked and her pupils expanded as her gaze went distant. “I’ve never felt magic like hers before.”
From the blood curse to the lost soul pieces, I was a wreck. I guess I’d needed to hear Poppy spell it out from start to finish to understand just what kind of shitstorm I’d gotten into.
When would I learn to think before rushing in?
Elfhame drew her fingers over the scar at my neck and I flinched.
Probably never.
“I can fix this.” Elfhame said it simply and rose from a crouch in a single graceful movement. As though her stomach only added to her poise rather than throwing her off balance. “It shouldn’t be an issue.”
Her wings fluttered, maybe compensating for the extra weight at her front.
I wished I knew more about pixies. I wished I’d thought to ask when I had the chance.
They were even more beautiful up close. Elfwaite had let me look at her wings sometimes, but since we were the same size now, the individual veining of the delicate lacy structures were clear.
Pixie wings more closely resembled a dragonfly’s wings than a bat or a hawk.
Elfhame swept out of the room, returning moments later with her finger crooked in the air and a tray floating just above her. She spelled the tray over to the table.
“This is for you. Please, eat, drink. Replenish yourself. The tea is made on the farm as well as the food. What did you say your name was?”
I never actually had. I gulped over my very dry throat and managed a meek, “Tavi.”
“Then, it’s a pleasure, Tavi. Please. Eat.”
Elfhame held out a blue and white floral patterned plate, a brownie taking up the majority of the center, the only one on the tray.
“This is a morsana brownie. We bake the flowers into many things, to be used as home remedies. The morsana properties are vast and it will heal internal injuries, like what you’ve done to yourself with the shifting.”
“How?” My stomach grumbled and my mouth watered. The crisp chocolate edges looked like this would be the best brownie of my life.
“In essence, the flower will bind the pieces of your fractured soul together again,” Elfhame explained. “The morsana are also pivotal components to necromancy ceremonies.”
She’d cut right to the chase, hadn’t she? And Poppy hadn’t told her about myotherlittle problem.
Poppy huffed her agreement, kicked out her feet, dragging a stool over with the heel of her boot and crossing her legs at the ankles on it. “Told ya the pixies would know.”
It made sense, then, that we needed the flower to cure the zombie curse.
“Yet the other properties are only accessible with fresh morsana blooms,” Elfhame continued, “not baked brownies. The moment the buds are cooked, the potency is lost.”
