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She must’ve read my thoughts on my face because her eyes narrowed into slits. “Take me with you or I’m cursing you.”
I shook my finger at her. “Blackmail is not a nice way to deal with problems.”
“Why not? Everyone else does it.”
Trust the Fae to lead by example. “Just because other people do it doesn’t mean you have to do it, too.”
“Pfft.”
“You don’t really want to deal with the consequences of a curse.” As with most Fae magic, it’d involve a give-take situation. “The magical payback will be harsh, even if you’re a kid.” Especially a kid who already had enough magic to open her own portals.
“I’m not a kid!” She seemed to think about things for a few moments, then her expression brightened again. “I’ll pay you.”
“Oh?”
She reached into a pocket of her pants and brought out a tiny round pebble, which she dropped into my hand. The surface was smooth and iridescent like a pearl, and who the heck knew what it could do.
“What is it?”
“My payment.” And there went the implied duh again.
The kid might be young, but she was already well versed in the act of stating the obvious. I grinned. “Good answer.”
“You’ll help me?”
I considered my options. On one hand, I could drag her to Lord Velei and dump her on him and hope if she wasn’t one of his, that at least he’d be good to her. On the other, if I did that, she might try to curse me for real—for both of our detriments.
I pocketed the pearl in my jeans. “We’ll take one look—”
“Yes!”
“—and then we’ll see.”
Surely, a fast look in the middle-of-nowhere Faerie couldn’t be that dangerous, could it?
Chapter Two
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
Lila made a run for the wall, but I intercepted her. “Let me take care of that.”
Concentrating, I sent the mental Greenie-signal.
A few moments later, a huge pool of oily goo spread over the wall, and Greenie jumped out, eliciting a yelp from my young companion.
No way was I traipsing through the land of scary Fae without my favorite Fae hound and biggest backup.
Greenie was a huge Fae hound resembling a wolf but made of moss and leaves and twigs and was as tall as my shoulder. His big bright-green eyes found me immediately, and his tongue lolled out in happiness.
“No,” I warned.
Greenie jumped forward and gave me a long lick from neck to temple.
“Ugh.” I pushed his face away and looked down at the girl. She was staring at Greenie like he was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen, and I couldn’t help the pride infusing my chest at the sight. Yup, Greenie was the absolute best and could eat her Squibbit any day.
In fact, Greenie had a propensity for eating other Fae creatures, especially ones made of goo.
I grabbed the picture and showed it to him. “Squibbit is friend, not food.”
