Page 28 of Fairies Don't Fall

When I saw Shotglass, I headed towards her to get a better fix on her mind. Her eyes were large, pink iris sunken in her hollow cheeks. But when she saw Max, she smiled how the beautiful fairies smiled, all allurement, sparkle, and charm. I touched her shoulder at the same time she grabbed his hand, sliding her fingers greedily over his skin.

It wasn’t the best moment for me, because I was in her head, and it was a shocking place to be when faced with the object of pleasure she found Max.

I saw a flash of her on his lap, rubbing against him like a shameless nymph, him pushing her down with gentle hands, hands that made her want him even more in their strength and size.

In the memory, his voice was a sensual growl. “No. I belong to the moon, little fairy.” Max had a pitying smile on his clean-shaven face. “Do you want me to rehabilitate you again?”

“Yes,” she’d said breathlessly, but I was in her head, seeing her memories, so I saw too much of what she wanted and pulled my hand away from her with a jerk. I wasn’t breathing. Was I breathing? Could I breathe?

“Sparkles?” Max said, leaning over me where I was crouched on the ground, stomach churning, head pounding.

I carefully looked up at him, and noticed the beautiful lines of his face, the broad strength of his shoulders, the power in his hands combined with an unnatural gentleness. I was cursed nowto see him with her eyes, which saw only objects to desire, and things to take.

I stood up and grabbed Shotglass’s throat, dragging her towards me while she whimpered in alarm.

“Hi,” I said with a sharp smile, squeezing a bit. She raised her hands to scratch me, but then I let my claws out, piercing her skin enough that she froze while her eyes got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. “You’re going to plant some trees for me. You’re going to put any useful knowledge you have in one tree, and the rest will be for penance.” For wanting Max so shamelessly. “For stabbing Berry, my terraformer. I imagine it’s pixie dust you stole. It’s gone now. Should I let you use pixie dust again? I don’t think I will. In fact, I’m sure of it. You’ve used up too many of Lord Max’s resources without offering anything in return. You are a changed fairy.”

Her eyes got so big, her heart beating faster and faster, that I could see it was going to burst. I’d have to heal her. I grabbed her face with my other hand and pressed healing spells into her skin, sending a sheet of glitter over her dull flesh that stank of over-sweet, spoiled fruit.

She dropped to her knees while Max stood behind my shoulder, probably thinking I was a psycho. Well, they called me the death fairy. This was mild compared to what I could have done to her. What I wanted to do to someone who had looked at Max like he was an object to be taken and used.

I healed her until her skin was sticky with her sweat, and her heart stabilized. Then I straightened up and rubbed my hands together, trying to get her off my skin. When I glanced at Max, he gave me a slight smile.

“Thank you. She’s been troublesome, but I felt bad about killing her. This is better.”

I swallowed hard. He didn’t think I was crazy? Why did that make me want to burst into tears? Probably because I’d been inher head too much and now had some of her instability. Like I needed that. Maybe I did.

I nodded and headed away from the group of fairies who were eating gruel and thinking about trees. No one else had recognized me. Berry stood with his gruel in his hands, looking from me to Shotglass, then back at me again. The fairies serving were also watching me and Max with guarded expressions.

“The car’s over here,” Max said, gesturing me up the bank, towards the city and away from the river.

“Thanks. I’m tired. The fairies are so…” Awful. Pathetic. Horrible representatives of my species. Just like me.

“Hungry. Yes. They get like that.”

We were almost to the car when someone grabbed my arm. I whirled around, hand up, claws out, only to find one of the servers with gray eyes, silver hair, wings like speckled stone. “You forgot to eat,” she said, handing a bowl to me with a slight bow. She knew who I was, then.

I took it with a bow in return. “Thank you. Thank you for the work you do here.”

“Lord Max pays well.”

I glanced at him, frowning, then smiled at the fairy, even more sober and serious than Vervain. “Of course.” I climbed into the back of the car with my bowl of steaming gruel, while Max closed the door on me and got in on the other side.

“You pay her? Why? How much? How long?” I asked as soon as his door was closed and he was seated next to me.

He raised a brow. “Yes, I pay her. Why? I’m morally opposed to slavery. How much? Not as much as she’s worth. How long? About twenty-five years. Before that, I hired werewolves, but for some reason, that wasn’t as effective.”

“But why would you bother feeding pixie-dust addicts at all? Did the owl god tell you to do it?” I peered into his eyes, tryingto understand what could possibly compel him to do something that random and nonsensical and…I didn’t even know.

He smiled. “Why did you decide to write a dissertation on werewolves, then change your mind to terraforming caves instead? Eat your cereal, Princess Sparkles.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Could I tell him that I was worried about genocide and eventual war? That might be the best way to finally make him understand the danger. I bit my bottom lip. I couldn’t trust him not to turn his random acts of kindness into raging fury. I didn’t understand him well enough.

I took a bite of gruel. It was actually delicious, and my stomach wasn’t delicate anymore, so I could eat quickly while I pondered the question. Finally, the bowl was empty. I scraped the bottom and then looked up at him, nervous.

“I guess I felt that werewolf and fairy relations had been strained for long enough,” I finally said.

His smile became sharp and toothy. “Exactly. It’s time for a new era of peace in this coalition between fairy and wolf. Beast and butterfly. Princess Sparkles and Lord Max.”

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