Holding up my palms, I move away so Tegwyn can converse with our visitor. He leans over the table, swallowing her up with his menacing shadow, yet the smaller faerie hardly looks perturbed. “Well,explain.”
She emotes animatedly with her arms, telling him her side of the story, but I don’t hear a single word.
Tegwyn, however, seems to understand her every syllable, and then he sighs, palming his face.
“Tonight? Are you sure? You weren’t particularly very clear on that account.”
She nods her affirmative, and Tegwyn rubs his temples, groaning loudly. “Great! I’ll start getting ready.”
Silence drifts across the room once the pair finally stops. The smaller faerie taps her silken pump again, and Tegwyn rolls his eyes, hand vanishing into his coat pocket. “For your services.”
He passes her a golden coin bigger than her whole body, and she takes it in both of her hands, examining it carefully. Then it disappears, and I blink. Where did it go?
She flitters her wings, hovering several feet in the air. He swats her away. “Now get. It’s bad enough I let youlivehere…”
She blows her long tongue, drifting higher and higher until she reaches the stalactites. Then, with one final sweep of the cave, she vanishes down the tunnel, leaving me speechless. I turn to Tegwyn, and he sighs when he catches the question in my eyes. “Ask away.”
I shake my head, still a little baffled. “Where do I even start?” He gives me a scathing look, so I start the first thing on my mind. “Faeries canbethat small?”
Tegwyn narrows his eyes, and he knows exactly where my mind has gone.
Faeries are often described as minute in human folklore, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. In actuality, they come in a myriad of shapes and sizes.
“Yes, they can. That was awisp. Nasty little blighters. There were several back at Stannog’s tavern, floating about the rafters, but to you, they probably just resembled glowing orbs.” I don’t recall seeing them, but I was a little preoccupied with the bigger faeries.
However, I think I remember several wisps dancing around my head when I’d been under the influence of that Fae wine, but the memory is vague.
He smiles tightly when he spies my expression, and he must be remembering that night, too. “That one is named Thicket. She frequents my study from time to time, pulling tricks on me now and then.”
“She has been here this whole time?”
Of course. Now it makes sense.
That first day in the mountain, back when I got lost and wound up in Tegwyn’s study, someone had braided my hair. Could that have been Thicket?
Goosebumps prick up and down my arms. I thought it had been a ghost, which I guess wasn’t all that far from the truth. Ghosts and faeries aren’t unalike in that regard; I’ve seen both, and I can confirm that they’re equally terrifying.
Tegwyn answers my question. “Yes. I paid her once to post a letter for me, and she hasn’t left since. So, I let her stick around out of habit. She must be lonely if she can even stomach living with me. I don’t think she talks to the other wisps.”
How sad. Even though she threatened me with her tiny, pointed teeth, my heart goes out to poor Thicket.
Despite her rough edges, she still seemed rather sweet. And she braided my hair, after all.
I gesture to the envelope in his hand, noticing the wax seal. He stuffs it inside his pocket, staring nervously after the wisp.
“Is something the matter?”
Once again, an unnatural smile spreads across his face, displaying his fangs. “The… the matter?”
He keeps stealing nervous glances at the tunnel. He really can’t tell a lie at all. Fae normally skirt around the truth by using impressive wordplay, but this one just stammers.
“Yes. Tegwyn, are you keeping something from me?”
He laughs, one long, ringing sound. Then he stumbles, fumbling his words. “I’m… er… I just need to…fuck…”
He curses, and he can’t even look at me now.
I move closer. “I thought we promised to be truthful with one another from now on. No more secrets.”
