Page 8 of Fairies Don't Fall

“Eat,” Max said, once we were both sitting.

I frowned at the salad then up at him. “You want me to eat that? Why? Fairies are very hard to poison, unlike werewolves who are almost too easy.” I swallowed hard after I said that. I couldn’t just blurt out that fairies were planning to poison his people, but I needed to plant the paranoia in him somehow.

He said, “Because fairies are always thin, but you’re skeletal. I know that if fairies get too hungry, they feed on flesh. It’s better if I feed you before I take you to the library.”

“I’m not…” I trailed off as I stared at my arm and my fingers. Skeletal was the word. Fairies weren’t always thin, but in my case, I was definitely malnourished. I suppose my medicine and poppy pollen wasn’t nourishing enough. Of course it wasn’t. Vervain said it wasn’t, and he was always right.

“Eat,” Max said, grabbing the fork, stabbing some flowers and greens and holding it to my mouth.

I opened my mouth automatically and let him feed me. I chewed slowly, staring at Max, wondering how in the world he’d been able to get me to eat when Vervain couldn’t do it. Oh. I was in his territory, and he’d bound me to his duty. He was more powerful than he realized and could command those who were weak-willed or part of his pack. Was I weak-willed, or did him claiming that I was his duty put me in some temporary pack position? Which was the more terrifying option? I should spit the salad out at him and run, but I probably really did need to eat…

After three bites, the food hit my delicate stomach and then I was retching on the floor, bits of salad sizzling in sparkling purple goo that hissed and steamed. If I was a poisoner, I’d collect all that vomit to redistribute to the enemy. As it was, I just huddled on that bench and felt like an idiot.

“I told you my stomach was delicate,” I snapped at Max.

He smiled back at me and then held another bite of salad to my lips. I tried to keep my mouth closed, but as his eyes bore into mine, I opened and took another bite. That time, it was a dozen bites before my stomach rebelled, and I was once again retching, but this time there were gooey black strands that trailed from the sparkling oozing pile to my mouth and down my throat. So gross. Was this my medicine or the death sickness comingout? Either way, good thing I wasn’t trying to make a positive impression.

I pulled the strands out, feeling that slimy slick come up my throat until I let it all slide off my fingers into the pile of seriously toxic ooze on the floor. It was so sparkly. So deadly. So representative of me and my life.

I glared at Max, arms crossed as he held up another bite.

I shook my head, lips pressed together.

He cocked his head and his eyes started glowing golden and dangerous.

“I’ll just throw up again,” I protested, sounding weak and whiny.

“That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

I glowered at him. “Next time, I’ll aim in your direction.”

“Whatever you want, Sparkles.”

I rolled my eyes and took a bite. I ate as slowly as possible, resisting his will until, finally, the plate was empty. I laughed in relief and it sounded hysterical. Yep. I’d eaten real food without vomiting. The world was a crazy place.

He studied me with eyes full of soft concern. “How do you feel?”

I cleared my throat. “Fine.” I fidgeted with my fork, tapped it a few times on the plate and then put it down and looked up at him. “Shall we go?”

He shook his head. “In a minute. We’ll have to wait here until someone comes who can take care of the mess for us. Just sit and relax, wait for the solid-ish food to hit your system.”

“Solidish?”

He smiled slightly and leaned back. “Salad isn’t actually solid, which is good for a little fairy that lacks body mass.”

“I’m not a little fairy. I’m perfectly average.” That was a lie. I actually was on the small side, which Vervain mentioned when he wanted to remind me how superior he was.

He raised a dark brow. “I’ve already met all the ones who are taller than you?”

I sniffed and glanced away. It was rude to talk about how small someone is. In the next minute, a man came up to our table, tall, dark-haired, with gleaming red eyes in his pale face.

He focused on Max and gave him a slight nod. “Alpha. What brings you to my laboratory?”

His laboratory? Ah. This was a power play. There must be so many in a city like Singsong with all the big bads living, literally, on top of each other.

Max gestured at me. “We are on our way to the library, where I’m going to ask the Librarian for texts on fairies, while Miss Grace is going to research werewolves for her dissertation. I wonder if we might trouble you for some clean-up before we venture there. Miss Sparkles has a delicate stomach. Perhaps while you’re at it, you could give me some of your detox drops.”

The newcomer was strikingly handsome, with eyes that shifted from red to purple, with bits of blue peeking through. As he studied me, my skin prickled, like I was facing a warrior wolf. This predator was gauging me as both threat and prey. Could he hunt me? Did he need to?

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