Page 521 of Flirting with Darkness

Then I thought of the way he’d watched me until I closed the door, of the way the plant had attacked me in the garden, and I wondered if he worried I was in danger.

I ran to the door and pulled it open, leaning out into the hallway to call him back.

I felt a thrill of relief to see his broad shoulders stopped at the end of the hall. He was talking to someone, so I froze instead of calling out his name like I’d intended. I didn’t want to interrupt.

A golden ball of light tried to fly over his head—another fairy—and he caught it in his big fist. He crushed it, and luminous blood slid down his wrist.

My stomach dropped, and now I was truly frozen, unable to move from the doorway.

He put it into his mouth and chewed. From behind, I could see the bulge in his enormous jaws, the way only one side worked as his wicked teeth made short work of the once-chittering fairy.

Terror tightened my chest so that I could barely breathe, but my legs were finally working again, clumsily.

I stepped back into the room and close the door between us.

10

Iwas pacing my room anxiously, debating where to go next, when a fairy landed on my arched windowsill.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, walking toward the glowing creature on the windowsill. She was small—the height of a pencil—and I had to stoop to examine its tiny, exquisite face. She had sharp ears and large, luminous green eyes flooded with tears. “Are you looking for someone?”

The thought made an ache press my chest.

She reached out a hand to me imploringly, then raised its four lacy silver wings—each as fragile and beautiful as butterfly wings. She fluttered to the door, looking back at me expectantly.

“Do you need a way into the castle?” Maybe the fairy Tor had crushed was its friend or sister. With a painful edge in my stomach, I swung the door open.

When I glanced down the hallway, a luminous shimmer spread across the marble. I glanced again at the glowing creature that hovered in the air beside me. Was that spilt fairy blood?

She flew off in the opposite direction, not seeing the blood, and I exhaled.

“Bye!” I called, before turning back to my room, but she swooped back toward me. She buzzed around my face, which made me stiffen as if I were being buzzed by a wasp, even though I knew better.

Then she landed on my shoulder, and I froze, afraid I’d hurt the fragile little thing.

The sight of Tor squishing a fairy so easily in his big fist played like an endless loop.

And then he’deatenher. I hadn’t seen much with his back to me, but my imagination was fervently recreating the image from every angle. I could imagine Tor’s ruined face, his jaws working as luminous fairy blood streamed down his chin. I suppressed a shudder.

“Come with me,” the fairy’s high voice was barely audible, and I jumped, surprised that she spoke to me even though I shouldn’t have been. “I’ll show you the way out.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you’re trapped here like we are,” she said. “I want to show you how to escape.”

“What do they do to you?”

“They eat us,” she whispered.

“Why don’t you run away too then?”

“I can’t go through the doorway alone. They have magic that keeps us here. But if I’m with a mortal like yourself, the magic won’t stop me.”

I nodded. “Okay, show me the doorway.”

I could decide what to do once I saw it, but I needed to understand everything I could about this eerie world.

She wrapped her hands in my hair, her body so light that I could forget she was there had it not been for the glow in my peripheral vision. I was surprised, but strangely pleased, she wanted to stay so close instead of flying in front. She pointed ahead, and the two of us slipped through the castle halls.

---