Page 33 of Fairies Don't Fall

“What?”

“To capture our knowledge? Is that why you came?”

I shrugged. “I’m learning how to read. Until books are conventional in Fairyland, imprinting is necessary. Your memories and experiences, as well as your knowledge, are all priceless. Each person here, however long they’ve forgotten who they are, is a necessary part in the tale that we weave together.”

“You sound like your mother,” she said, tilting her head as she studied me skeptically.

I shrunk under the gaze and some of my pride in releasing the sky shrunk too. I wasn’t the Queen. I couldn’t be responsible for the happiness of a people I’d ruined. And yet, here we were, in a terraformed werewolf cavern filled with weeping fairies with nothing better to do. Werewolves who had been poisoned by a fairy. Responsibility could be shared, if they were willing.

I took a deep breath because I wasn’t a give-speeches-and-gather-the-people-for-a-good-cause kind of fairy. Still, we were all responsible for those who had been poisoned.

I snapped my wings out, a sound like a whip that cut through the noise so I had their complete attention. “I’m going to the warehouse to help heal the goblins and werewolves.”

Berry sneered as he looked at me. “You think you can heal as well as you can terraform?” That was a slur. He apparently didn’t appreciate my lack of skill. “You have no source of water. How can you grow trees without water? You can’t.” He made an excellent point. Also, he was incredibly disrespectful, almost like he wanted me to publicly rip out his spine or something else totally on-trend for the death fairy.

I sighed. “No, I am even worse at healing than I am at terraforming. But I can do something, and so I will. Each of you is invited to join me. This isn’t a command, but an offer to help pay back Singsong City’s pack in this small way.”

“You expect us to heal goblins?” a fairy boy said with a look of shocked distaste.

I gave him a hard smile that made him flinch. “No. I only invite. I do not expect.” I walked briskly towards the cave entrance, not looking to see if anyone had accepted my invitation or not, Max at my side. When we left the cavern, I glanced up at the soft warrior wolf. He had a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked ahead.

He was taking me to the warehouse to help heal his people, but what good could I do? “I really am not a great healer,” I admitted.

He glanced at me. “What? I already told you that the city’s healers and magic users will trace the poison and neutralize it. Leaders don’t have to do anything other than go ahead in the right direction. Or the wrong direction as long as it’s done with confidence.” He gave me a quick wink.

I exhaled a breath of relief. I wasn’t alone down here trying to fix the error of one of my own. I grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight for a moment. “Thank you.”

His hand wrapped around mine, and for a moment I felt almost all right, but then he released my hand, and I was left without that connection I was starting to crave. I didn’t want to be alone. I hated it. I should be used to it, but instead, I was sick of it. I was tired of feeling the weight of the world without anyone to back me up. Maybe I was ready to choose a consort. A consort was the Queen’s greatest strength. Not that I was the Queen, except that back there was absolutely queenly behavior. A Queen would tell Max the truth, so he’d know where to look for the poisoner. A friend would also do that.

I sighed heavily then spoke quickly. “Max, you’ve been working with fairies for a long time, and you've got a lot of books about us, right?”

“That’s right.”

I licked my lips. “I think one of my kind is trying to kill all of your werewolves, to steal your caverns. Do you know any fairies who aren’t pixie dust addicts who would have a strong motivation to do that?” There it was, all out in the open. What would he do? Would he show me his scary beast and try to rip off my head? I might let him without any struggle, like he hadn’t struggled when I’d had my claws in his chest, bleeding him out.

He rumbled low in his chest, not quite a growl, but something that made my skin tighten. “You think a fairy is trying to kill my pack? That’s why you’re really here?”

I hesitated then nodded. “I can hear the thoughts of other fairies, so when I heard someone talk about it, I came to stop them.”

“You can read minds, but you can’t tell whose mind you’re reading?” He didn’t look at me, just kept his gaze forward, weirdly expressionless. I couldn’t read him. I needed to know what he was thinking, really thinking.

“Yes, I mean, no. I can usually trace thoughts to the source, but this time I was blocked. It shouldn’t be possible for one ofmine to be able to block me, but they did, and I have no idea who it was or how they did it.” My shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry.”

He hesitated then patted my shoulder. “Don’t be sorry for coming all this way to try and save my people. I understand how impossible it is to control those you lead. All you can do is provide an example to follow. Perfect control is impossible for any amount of time. And I wouldn’t want it.” His voice was hard at the end. He removed his hand from me and squeezed it into a fist while he frowned into the distance.

“Yes. Actually, no, I didn’t come here to save wolves.”

He looked at me with a slight brow furrow. “You wanted to watch us get poisoned?”

I wrinkled my nose at him. “No, I just thought that the repercussions would prove deadly for my people. I’m not looking for another invasion.”

He nodded slowly. “You were there?”

I shrugged. “Not for the first slaughter, but I led our armies against Malamech.” The memory was so bitter in my mouth. So many of mine lost. So many broken.

“I didn’t know Fairyland had armies.”

“We didn’t until I called them to war.” I still remembered it like it was yesterday, screaming my war cry as I called my people to blood and rage.

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