Page 45 of Fae Uncovered

Beryl’s new right-hand man worked at a deli down the road from Bad Moon Café. I would make a stop there before work and ask him to hand-deliver the letter to Beryl. I could always pick up a sandwich to use as an alibi if anyone asked why I needed to go to that deli.

With the letter written, I grabbed my cardigan and purse. Slipping out undetected would be difficult. I waited for Rhoan to start work on another ward. Once I was sure he was working, I grabbed Feri, told him he was coming with me, and bolted out the door.

I felt a little guilty running off without Rhoan. The ferret climbed my knit cardigan and settled around the back of my neck where he could admonish me for slipping off on my own again. I told him that he wasn’t the boss of me.

“You’re going to die before you can do anything of importance,” Feri grumbled.

My heart skipped a beat. All the times I’d come close to dying flashed before my eyes. Chest tight, I struggled to breathe. Somehow, I kept it all to myself. I kept a smile on my face and fear out of my eyes as I walked down the street.

“I’m doing this because I want to survive,” I told the small creature on my shoulders.

“What makes you think that this will work?” Feri scurried down my arm. He ripped the letter from my hand and lifted it up. Shaking it at me, he continued. “If there was a ploy that would stop Beryl, someone would have tried it already. You would be a real princess back in a safe Seelie Court instead of this mutt-daughter you’ve become.”

I snatched the letter from Feri’s little hands and shook the creature off my arm. He fell and landed on his feet like a cat. The little beast didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.

A shiver ran down my spine. My head snapped up. I looked around, expecting to find the assassin woman breathing down my neck. No one appeared, much to my dismay because the feeling of being watched never went away.

Swallowing, I continued to turn. I tried to narrow down the direction the sensation was coming from. Feri seemed to notice. He stood upright and cocked his head. In the end, both of us stared at a small grove of trees crammed between two old buildings. Instead of a tall wrought iron fence, a small wood fence rose between us and the little garden.

I spared a glance down at Feri. I wasn’t asking for permission, but I did want the little guy’s opinion. If he thought heading closer was unsafe, then he was probably right. But Feri didn’t look back at me. The creature sprang onto all fours and rushed towards the little garden.

Following, my heart raced in nervous anticipation. Magic crawled across my skin when we got closer. It wasn’t the harrowing sensation of violent magic. This was soft and sweet, leaving the air tasting of blackberries.

Feri darted between the slats of the wood fence. It was low enough that I could hop over it, if I wanted to. I paused and put my hands on the top of the fence so I could lean in and peer around. The trees here were old, older than any tree in the heart of Syracuse could have been. It was as if the city had been built around this section of land.

The thick bushes gathered by the building walls were laden with all sorts of berries. My mouth watered until I noticed movement. Startled, I blinked. The movement wasn’t obvious. It was the rustle of bramble leaves, then the blur of little wings.

“Pixies,” Feri said, excitedly.

Several little faces appeared, all at once, then vanished in the same instant as they rushed towards hiding places. I looked down at Feri and clicked my tongue at him for scaring everyone.

“You could have shown better manners,” I said to Feri. “Next time, calmly introduce yourself and ask for permission before entering.”

Feri puffed up and put his paws on his waist. Before he could snap back at me for being a mannerless heathen, a number of faces poked out from the bramble.

“I’m going to have to agree with the lovely little lady here,” a slow and lethargic voice said above us.

A green form descended from the branches of one of the old trees. At first, I thought a branch had fallen, albeit quite slowly. But no, this wasn’t a branch. It was a fae. He was massive and oddly human shaped, though his entire form was covered in the long leaves of a weeping willow. When his feet touched the ground, he softly lowered into a frog-like crouch and smiled gently at us. The leafy tendrils gathered over his wide mouth like a grandfatherly moustache.

“A leshy?” Feri asked, bemused.

The tree-man-frog-fae nodded. “That is what I am. I have lived in this plot for eighty years. The trees and garden are mine to protect, as are the pixies that tend to the berries here.”

I spared no time launching right into conversation. “Why were you all watching me?”

The leshy’s big eyes, so wide and brown, looked me up and down. He tilted his head and the leaves covering his body rustled. “You look…familiar. I cannot remember where I have seen you before, though. Forgive me for my wandering eye. The others and I were trying to remember who you are.”

Remember? Have I been stricken from their memory?

Feri looked up at me with the same question on his furry little face. There was a chance that the community had been cursed to forget the Seelie Court ever existed. I had no idea how to go about breaking such a curse. Would they even want that? Who would want to remember their fallen home? They were likely better off this way.

I bit back my sigh and rocked on my heels. “I don’t know.”

The leshy’s expression faltered. Open confusion lowered his brows and pursed his lips. Just as I expected, a prickle of magic turned the air tart. It was subtle, nearly blending in with the smell of the blackberries. Something blocked me from their memories.

I wanted to keep it that way. If no one remembered me, then they weren’t waiting for me to come back and save them. They could go on and live their lives like normal. There was no other life for them to crave other than the one they knew and loved.

Feri was a loud-mouthedrodent, though. “This is Princess Cerridwen of the Seelie Court! She has returned to save us all!”

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