Page 28 of Beasts of Briar
“I knew that was a bad idea!” He shook a finger. “And you didn’t warn me he was going to look like a beast.”
“Am I a ghost?” The pixie flicked a piece of lint off her short skirt. “Did you hear me?” She had an accent that I couldn’t place, lilting and thick, but beautiful. “Come on, then.”
All of us stayed rooted to our spots, gaping at this pixie with her arms crossed, staring at us like we were an inconvenience.
“Come where?”I signed.
She studied me with interest, some of her annoyance melting away. “You don’t speak?”
“I speak fine.”My movements were sharp and punctuated as I glared.“It’s not my fault if you don’t understand me.”
“Please don’t piss off the fairy,” Driscoll said out of the edge of his mouth.
“I’m not a fairy,” the pixie snapped, then her gaze turned back to me. “And I understand you just fine, dear. You use an old language that has been around far longer than you have.”
The pixie would know. They were created by the Seven Spirits.
She tapped her long glittering nails on her arm. “Well? Do you want out of this prison or are you three going to stand there and stare at me all day?”
Leoni shot me and Driscoll confused looks. “You’re going to help us escape?” she asked the pixie slowly.
“What?” Fear flashed in the pixie’s eyes. “No, I am not helping you escape. Don’t say such things.”
She emphasized the E so that it sounded more like ee-scape, her accent growing thicker as she grew more agitated.
“And keep your voices down,” she snapped. “I’m simply following orders.”
“Whose orders?”I signed.
The pixie crossed her arms. “Who do you think?”
Driscoll gulped.
“Why do all of you look like I just ordered your executions?” She wrinkled her nose. “This is becoming tiresome. Do I have to beg you to step out of the prison cell? You’re staying here as guests in his castle.”
I started at that, not sure I heard her correctly.
“He took our shadows,” Leoni said. “That doesn’t make us guests.” She gestured to herself and Driscoll. “We can’t leave here. We’re bound to this place until we get our shadows back.”
The pixie waved her hand. “Semantics.”
“And why didn’t he take her shadow?” Leoni jabbed a thumb at me.
Driscoll’s gaze swung to me. “What in the spirits below did you do in his dream?”
“Dream?” the pixie echoed. “Master does not dream.” She scoffed. “We don’t have time for this. Or, more accurately, I do not have time for this. You either follow me now or I shut this door and tell Master Kairoth that you wish to remain in the prison cell.”
Kairoth. Just the name exuded strength. Driscoll and Leoni both shuddered at the pixie’s use of it, and I wondered if they felt it too. The power behind it. The wonder. No one knew the gods’ actual names.
Driscoll rubbed his hands together. “Are the beds comfy? Are they stuffed with feathers or straw? Can I get my clothes washed?” He held up his stained green tunic and gestured to his trousers, also covered with mud.
“Does it really matter?” Leoni shoved past him toward the pixie. “It’s better than a stone floor with rats crawling over us.”
“That’s actually a fair point,” Driscoll said as they both walked up to the pixie, her blonde brows pinched together in annoyance.
They turned as I stayed rooted to my spot.
“Why would he want us to stay here as guests? This makes no sense.”
