Page 73 of Defy the Fae

Elixir is busy running his fingers over a stash of bottles Cypress had brought in for Juniper, from oils that will relax her muscles to a fizzing drink that will cool her temperature.

Juniper sits upright in a hammock the centaurs have erected for her. She’s pouring through the Book of Fables while chewing on the temple tip of her spectacles. She’s not reading but worrying, and she’s trying not to show it.

I open my mouth to say something, anything that will get her to smile.

“Excuse me,” a soft voice interjects.

All heads swing toward Cove, who’s perched in a chair with a stack of Juniper’s notes in her lap. She sets one of the leaflets down, struck by a thought. “The Deep’s flood happened because the wild is fading, which had already been changing some of underground’s geography. Doesn’t it stand to reason parts of the woodland might have changed, too? Perhaps not yet in massive ways, but even the smallest shift in terrain can alter a traveler’s route, throw them off course.”

Fuck it all. She’s right.

Warmth sweeps across Elixir’s face. As for the rest of us who hadn’t considered this logic, we continue to stare at Cove until it makes her uncomfortable.

She scoots in her chair. “I mean, it’s possible. Elixir and I saw lots of subtle changes throughout the river, which amounted to a big change in the end. Not that you’ll experience a flood in the forest—they don’t have massive waterways like that, right? Anyway, my sister and I have rescued animals often enough to know that the path isn’t always straight, and we’re not even talking about the mysteries of Faerie.

“Nature has a mind of its own, and with the wild decaying, the environment could shift at any moment. You might run into barriers and need to detour or find another way to the Evermore Blossom. And if that happens, that will make it difficult to get where you want to go without being noticed.”

A grin spreads across Juniper’s face. “Wisely done.”

Pink stains Cove’s cheeks. “I learned from the best.”

“It is a valid prediction,” Cypress concedes. “The best we can do is be mindful.”

“And have another set of eyes,” a feminine voice announces from the tent’s entrance.

The centaur goes rigid as a lithe figure steps through the yurt’s threshold. Her footfalls are tentative, hardly the usual sashay she once mastered among her woodland kin. Yellow petals crowd the nymph’s dark hair, a floral dress drizzles down her body, and stacks of color dust her upper eyelids, ranging from yellow to green.

Lark and even compassionate Cove look ready to tear the female’s hair from her scalp. Cerulean’s blue eyes narrow to slits. Elixir merely stares in the female’s direction, impassive and the only soul here who can relate to her despicable actions.

Fury blazes from my hooves to my antlers. “What. The. Fuck?”

“I asked for her,” Juniper says, prompting me to swing her way. “Cove beseeched a centaur to call on Foxglove—on my behalf. My sister wasn’t too happy to heed the request, but in any event, she’s more than correct about the wilderness. If there’s a remote possibility the landscape is going to give you problems, you need others who know the forest.”

“Cypress knows the forest,” I grit out. “Sylvan knows the forest.”

“But you have to plan for all contingencies. Foxglove’s the chief nymph. She has her own knowledge of this land.”

“The chief nymph,” Foxglove muses from the entrance. “I like that.”

I pivot toward her and snarl, “Not happening.”

The female crosses her arms, the movement displaying the same dagger she’d used during the battle at The Gang of Elks, when she tried to save Sylvan. “I’m here because of your mortal. Not you, handsome.”

“Her name is Juniper. If memory serves correctly, you strangled her and buried an arrow in my best friend.”

Foxglove cranes her head high but avoids Cypress’s withering stare. “I attempted to fix that blunder.”

“You failed. Sylvan lives only because of Juniper.”

“Okay, I’m not here to nitpick. I came to repay a debt.”

“My, my, my. Now who said anything wanting your cheap-ass redemption?”

“You could have come after me for what I did. I heard through gossip that Juniper stopped you, and that’s why I was allowed to stay on allied turf.” Foxglove glances at Juniper. “I owe you for that. Besides, in The Gang of Elks, I saw what you and Sylvan meant to each other. The respect and kinship between a Fae fauna and a mortal…it made me think differently.”

She exhales and redirects her attention to me. “Fine, everything that happened made me think differently. If Juniper wants me to join you, then I’m joining you.”

“You forget I’m still the ruler around here,” I growl.

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