Go ahead and leave. I left food out for you. I want to sniff around in my two-footed form.
Be careful then. And…thank you. Cromwell turned and raced off, looking relieved.
I waited until he was gone, then shifted back. Kneeling down, I eyed the stone again. The sense of dread still clung to the statue. I started to pick it up, but hesitated. We’d had a cursed charm tossed on our porch. What if this was cursed as well? And was it connected to the charm? I pulled off my scarf and tied it to the nearest tree so that I could find the stone again, then turned and jogged back to the house. Cromwell was right. Whatever was here, it didn’t belong, and we needed to find out who and what it was, and what it wanted.
Back at the house, Camille’s car was gone, and I found Iris in the kitchen, kneading bread dough. We’d offered to buy a bread machine so she wouldn’t have to do that, but she insisted that she enjoyed the process. She looked up as I came in.
“Boots on the back porch, please,” she said, giving the ball of dough a resounding smack before lifting it into the mixing bowl and covering it with a towel. “What were you doing out there? It’s far too cold to go running around in the woods.”
“You’re one to talk,” I said, pulling off my boots and setting them out on the porch. “You live for this weather.”
“I might love a snowflake or two, but you aren’t used to it,” she said, cleaning the counter.
“We have snow back in Otherworld,” I said. “I was talking to Cromwell. He showed me something that I think we need to investigate.”
“Does it have to do with Lukia’s situation? Camille filled me in on what was going on before she left for the bookshop.” Iris handed me a cookie that was fresh out of the oven. “Here, try these. I’m working on a new recipe for chocolate macadamia nut cookies. Tell me what you think.”
I bit down on the cookie and melted, along with the chocolate chunks inside the cookies. “I think they’re a hit,” I said as soon as I’d swallowed the bite. “Fantastic. And I don’t know if it has anything to do with Lukia,” I said. “It does scare me, though.”
“What happened?” Iris poured herself a cup of tea. I shook my head, opening the fridge. I poured myself a big glass of milk, took two more cookies, and sat down at the table with her.
“Well…I found a stone. Cromwell showed it to me, actually. It appears to be a carving—a statue of sorts.”
“What kind of statue?” Iris was sitting on the chair we’d had specially made for her that boosted her up so she could sit at the table normally. She looked about twenty-two, though I knew she was far older than that.
“It seems to be…well…I’d say it’s a large mushroom. I think one of the red-capped kind. What are they called? Fly agaric? At least by the looks of the carving. I suppose it could be a regular toadstool.”
Iris froze. “What did you say?”
I frowned, repeating myself. “It was just sitting there on the ground. Cromwell said, to the best that I can gather, that it wasn’t there a week ago, and then it just appeared.”
“Oh no,” Iris said. “I need to see this statue, but I might know what it is.” She paled; her skin so waxen she looked like a porcelain doll.
“You’re scaring me, Iris.” The look on her face was enough to frighten me.
“If it’s what I think it is, you should be afraid,” she said. “Go get it as soon as you’ve finished your milk and cookies.”
“Can I bring it back to the house? I didn’t know if that was wise.”
“Wise? Perhaps not. But if it’s what I think it is, it won’t make anything worse.” She sipped her tea, shaking her head. “I come from a land filled with woodland spirits. I’m a Talon-haltija myself. A house sprite. But not all of us are friendly, and many are downright dangerous.”
I played with my cookie, nibbling on the edge. “You’re part of the Fae Kingdom, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but there are many types of Fae—as you already know.”
“What about the Hags of Fate, like Grandmother Coyote? Is she part of the Fae kingdom?”
Again, Iris shook her head. “No. The Hags of Fate are Immortals. But there are the Elder Fae—surely you have them over in Otherworld as well?”
“I think so,” I said. “But I don’t know much about them. There are also the great Fae Lords—the ones who initiated the Great Divide. That must have been a terrifying thing to live through. I can’t imagine what happened. The turmoil it caused.”
“They ripped the worlds apart. I don’t think I want to know what it was like,” she said. “The Elder Fae are unique, each to their own. They’re far more powerful than most of the regular Fae. They predated the Fae races.”
“So, you think this statue belongs to some sort of fae?” I asked.
“Maybe. I’d have to see it to be able to tell.” She refilled her teacup. “The question is, what’s it doing on your land?”
“And…does it have something to do with Lukia’s situation? We’re near enough that whatever it is, it might have wandered over to her place from here. And the charm she found—and touched—was the same that we had on our porch. I’m glad that we didn’t actually touch the one we found.” I crossed to the back porch. “I’ll go get that statue now. But I’m wearing gloves.”
