Page 20 of Fairies Don't Fall

He slowly stopped chewing, eyes skeptical. He hesitated then finally spat the crushed and wet bug into my hands, making me feel icky.

“Thank you,” I said, trying to smile.

“Now you’re going to eat it? You think my saliva will break it down better for you since your spit is glue.” His eyes were so golden and beautiful, as was the slight smile playing behind his pretended shock.

I looked at that mouth, then shook my head and refocused on his eyes. “No. I have the glue spit, but also poison. And venom.Most of the time it’s just an ordinary digestive aid. I’ll also need some of your blood.”

His brows rose “Poison, venom, and glue? You’re the Swiss army knife of fairies. You haven’t taken enough of my blood tonight?”

I shrugged helplessly. I really shouldn’t take it. “Not much, just a pricked finger should do it.”

He looked skeptical, like I’d tried to bleed him out an hour ago. I tried to look innocent. Finally he opened his mouth, touched his finger to one of his canines, then held it out to me, welling blood.

I smiled at him then took his finger, closed my eyes, and started sucking on it. His blood was incredibly potent, wild, but sweet. Once I had enough in my mouth, I pulled out his hand and then spit his blood with the crushed roach onto the ground before writing on the stone in the correct pattern, spreading the mess of life and cells around.

“You look like a pigeon hopping around,” he said, amused.

I didn’t look up to frown at him for trying to distract me. I sliced my own arm and then did an elaborate dance of moon and magic, while my blood flowed in dark sparkling lines that spread out in the exact shape of my spell. It wound around Max until it slapped the ground with a hiss.

I crouched on the stone, my hands spread out on the rocks while I listened. Lines of quartz flowed like rivers through the slate. It wasn’t a very hard rock, so it shouldn’t take too long to…

My hand plunged through the dirt and into the soil, spreading around us so Max sank up to his ankles in the suddenly soft ground. The cry of an owl made me look up. I saw flicker past Max of white wings and then the outline on the ceiling of another spell on the roof above us, a spell of dissolving that was similar to what I’d done, but not quite the same. If I hadn’t seen that flash of spell, I wouldn’t have known that itwasn’t just an extension of my own spell. I also wouldn’t have known to throw my hands up in a glowing glittery shield that spread above Max’s head and down to the ground all around us.

“What are you doing, Princess Sparkles?” he asked, after a few seconds of watching me crouched like that, fingers trembling as I held the shield.

Then the ceiling came crashing down around us in a huge cloud of swirling dust.

Chapter

Seven

“Max! Get closer to me and down. You’re too tall!” My voice was shrill from the effort of holding up the shield and the thousands of tons of rocks above us.

He immediately dropped down so he was crouching against my legs, closer than I’d intended, but I didn’t have the breath to argue.

“How long can you hold that, Princess?”

I gave him a panicked look. “Not long?”

He nodded and took a deep, calming breath before he smiled at me. “In that case, I’m going to introduce you to my beast. He’s a shameless flirt. He’ll hit on you until you’re convinced that he’s desperately in love with you and that you’re the only one he’ll ever want.”

“Oh. That sounds…friendly?”

“Too friendly. And he’s going to dig us out of here, so you’ll be very close. He’ll probably carry you. He likes to carry helpless females.”

“I’m not helpless. I’m holding up tons of rock,” I panted.

He nodded. “I know. But he has ideas. Just reassure him that you’ll pat him on the head after he rescues you, and what a big,strong beast he is. And his claws. Tell him how awesome they are, which they are, definitely good for digging, like an aardvark. Very attractive aardvark claws. And try not to scream and use up your breath when I shift. He’ll think it’s adorable and probably snuggle you too much. He thinks all fairies are adorable. You ready?”

I stared at him, on the brink of collapse, then whispered, “I am braced for an over-friendly beast. Feel free.”

He nodded, still frowning, then taking a deep breath, and forming a triangle at his chest with his thumbs and forefingers, he spread his hands and ripped in half. Not actually, but the beast exploded out of him, without any progress from Max to Beast. Just one second I was looking at Max, and the next, his beast was crouched low on the rock, looking at me with flickering eyes of molten gold. He was also drooling, or slavering, whatever beasts did, and looking at me like I was going to be his next meal. He did not look friendly.

“My, what big claws you have,” I wheezed. “I bet you could dig us to safely so quickly with those massive claws of attractiveness.”

He grinned and ran said claws up my leg. I was still wearing a towel, so there was a lot of my leg for his claws to cover. And those claws were massively large, and thick, like mini-swords attached to the freakishly muscular creature. Gulp.

“None of that, now,” I said, shifting slightly, then freezing when my force field flickered. I stared upwards, trying to coax it to hold together. “After you get us to safety, I’ll pat your head.”

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