Page 90 of Fae Crown

The fairy—parvnit—huffed. “I will too go. I’ll?—”

“Enough,” I growled, more loudly than I’d done anything since I’d found myself on the floor of a shack wondering if and how I might piece myself back together.

“Enough,” I repeated. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Of course it is,” Edsel said. “She ain’t coming and she needs to know that.”

“I am too coming,” the fairy said right away. “I’m going to?—”

“Be quiet,” I interjected with a sigh. “You’re going to be quiet. Both of you. Please.”

When I asked the dragonlings in Nightguard to be quiet, they never were. But to my surprise, the room grew silent.

I rubbed my temples before facing the parvnit. “He might not have said it in the nicest way”—I swiveled to quickly glare at Edsel before facing her again—“but he’s right.”

She opened her mouth to protest. I held up a hand.

“It will be dangerous. Too dangerous for someone so young.”

After eyeing Edsel with blatant wariness, the parvnit alighted on my bed. She wore a vibrant red, bell-shaped flower as a skirt, and a violet flower as a top. What appeared to be the crown of an acorn served as a hat, concealing whatever hair she might have beneath it. Her feet were bare as she walked toward me, stopping so near I could touch her.

I didn’t.

Her head tilted all the way back to see my face. “You’re young too. And not just ‘cause you look it. I hear things. I know you’re young. A lot younger than the queen you’ll be going up against.”

“True,” I said, dragging out the admission. “But the queen’s already tried to kill me a million times. She’ll keep coming for me till she ends me—or I end her. You’re not in danger, and you should stay out of it.”

Those tiny hands slammed to her hips once more. “OhshouldI? That sounds a lot like you telling me what to do. And you’re not the boss of me.”

“Of course I’m not. I’m just looking out for you.”

“I don’t need you to look out for me. I don’t need anyone to look out for me. I’ve been looking after myself for a long time, and everything’s gone just fine.”

“Then why ye hiding here of all places?” Edsel asked.

She whipped her head in his direction. Her hatwobbled and she brought a hand up to steady it. “‘Cause I felt like it, that’s why.”

She turned back to me. “I can take care of myself. Besides, I promised to hurt the queen for what she did to my family.”

Oh no. My stomach sank. Was there a single person or creature in this entire realm untouched by the queen’s brutality?

“Well, really my ma did,” she went on. “But I took on her promise for her.”

When she straightened her shoulders in what looked like pride, I didn’t have the heart to argue the wisdom of her position.

“If we take ye with us,” Edsel hedged, holding up a hand. “And I ain’t for a second saying we will. If something happens to ye, and it very well might, then we can’t risk having the parvnits hold it against us. Your kind’s vicious.”

“No more vicious than goblins,” she snapped. “We’re only vicious when we’ve got good reason to be. Goblins are vicious just ‘cause they’re grumpy all the time.”

“That ain’t so,” Edsel said.

I hurried to interrupt before the conversation could once again devolve into a heated back-and-forth.

“I know next to nothing about parvnits,” I said, testing out the unfamiliar word. “But we can’t risk having any more enemies. The queen’s more than enough challenge.”

Her shoulders drooped before she seemed to noticeand hastened to straighten them. “No one will care what happens to me. There’s no risk the parvnits will come after you.”

“Surely someone cares,” I offered.

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