Page 23 of Fairies Don't Fall

“But…why?” She looked so confused.

I patted her head. Her hair was silky, so she probably used conditioner. “So you can run in the moonlight.”

“We could just go to some regular woods if we wanted to do that. Max has this huge property northwest that’s hills and forests. We go a few times a year, and it’s amazing.”

It sounded amazing. The caverns weren’t that big, but still, it would be nice to have a little bit of nature for them to enjoy right where they lived. “Exactly. Why wouldn’t you want a piece of that action at home?”

She shrugged. “I mean, sure, it’s just that it seems like a waste of your time. What’s in it for you?”

“I don’t know. I just said I could do it in passing, and Max turned it into a promise. He’s tricky.”

“Ah,” she said, nodding wisely. “Max is finding a healthy outlet for you that doesn’t involve pixie dust. I guess that’s good.”

Whatever that meant. What would be good was showering again and washing off the dirt and the feel of Max’s beast’s tongue.

I rubbed my cheek and shivered.

“Yeah,” Ruin said, studying me. “I’ve never seen Max’s beast before. His wolf is bad enough, but that monster? Everything about him is too much. Like that mohawk. Those haven’t been cool for decades.”

“You should tell him that.”

She shot me a horrified look and shuddered. “Suddenly I feel like running. Are you up for it, Princess Sparkles?”

I nodded and then we ran, her boots pounding on the pavement while my feet were a softer patter. It didn’t take us long to reach the warehouse. Inside, the boys were kicking a ball around but stopped to nod at Ruin and stare at me.

“What happened to you?” the biggest one asked, a piece of metal glinting in his ear. “Did you mud wrestle with a wolf?”

“The cave roof fell down,” Ruin snapped, grabbing my arm and dragging me past them. “She’s lucky to be alive. Idiots,” she muttered once we were past them.

She set me up with shampoo, a clean if old purple towel, and a washcloth. The shower was so good, particularly without any wolves in there with me. I could just let the water run over me, washing away my worries and cares. Then I’d have a memory of Max’s beast, and my heart would start thumping in my chest, and I’d slump against the wall for a few minutes. If they succeeded in killing his pack, he was precisely the sort of werewolf that could lead an army to devastate my country. Did someone want to finish off Fairyland for good?

I got out of the shower, feeling the day, needing to sleep, but instead, the kids were sitting on the mats surrounding cardboard boxes that gave off an appetizing aroma.

“Max ordered pizza!” Ruin cried, hopping up and coming over to me. “You’re in a towel again. Didn’t you see the clothes I left in there for you? Come on.” She dragged me back to the bathroom, clearly very excited about this pizza.

She helped me figure out the clothes. The tank top was almost low enough in the back to go under my wings. With a little rip of her teeth, it was perfect. The bottoms were loose, slouchy things that tied at the waist. Then she held up the hoodie with a look of triumph. “I cut it from the bottom, so the hood part works over the wings.”

I pulled that on and felt kind of weird in so many loose heavy layers, but at the same time, they were warm, and Ruin had sacrificed her clothing for my sake.

I gave her a hug that she returned hard and tight before pulling away with a large smile. “Now the pizza! He even got a weird one with flowers on it for you. Fairy pizza? Who knew there was such a thing?”

Max knew. Like his beast knew Shakespeare. And like I knew that whatever happened, I had to protect him and his wolves.

Chapter

Eight

Ididn’t have time to sleep. I lay curled up on the blue mat in Ruin’s clothing until the warehouse was dark and quiet, all the kids sprawled in a pile of limbs and fur while I carefully searched fairy minds for who could have known I was here, and who would have wanted to kill me, or Max, if he was the target.

Soft fur brushed my hand, and I automatically reached my fingers out to touch it. That wolf hair was well-conditioned. Was it Max? I forced myself to focus on the fairy minds in the surrounding city, and not on Max and his many variations. There were so many minds that were unclear, filled with a buzzing haze that offered me nothing. I couldn’t find the mind of the one who had explained how to terraform a cave so thoroughly until hours had passed, and I was struggling not to fall asleep.

There was a flash of fear that cleared the mind enough for me to recognize it as the terraformer. I saw an image of a feral fairy with a knife, felt the pain in his neck, his chest, as she stabbed him, and then turned and darted away, pink and yellow wings flopping uselessly behind her as she ran with whatever she’d taken from him clutched to her chest.

I sat up. I needed his knowledge. Fairies didn’t have books, we had people who carried information with them. Maybe we should do books, because people died, and their knowledge with them unless they imprinted it into a tree like they were supposed to. Hm. Maybe we could have a repository forest in the werewolf caverns. That could be a noble cause for the sake of my kingdom. Otherwise, terraforming the caverns was too altruistic, and all because Max had trapped me in my words.

I needed to find out who was targeting him and his people. I need to find out how someone was able to block me. None of the fairies seemed to have the slightest idea, but Max had a whole stack of books about Fairyland. Maybe an outsider had written something that was impossible to see from the inside. As for the terraformer fairy who was bleeding out…I wasn’t the greatest healer, but I could certainly keep him alive.

I crept out of the warehouse, wishing I had my cloak of shadows, but it was in the caverns wherever Ruin had stashed it. I hurried through Song, pulled east, in the direction of the river, hunching in my hoodie and wishing my wings were invisible. No one looked at me twice, so maybe the normal clothing helped camouflage me.

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