Page 83 of The Heart and the Hawthorn

‘No, you didn’t,’ Moth said with a snort. ‘Not for one second.’

Frida giggled, lightheaded. Every bone in her body felt like jelly. But when she glanced down at the LEZ logo on her shirt, it felt like being doused in cold water. She wanted to burn the cursed thing.

‘Dian.’

‘Yes?’ they replied, leaning against the nearest trunk. It might have looked casual, if it hadn’t been for the taut line of their muscles, and the way they almost seemed to dissolve into the shadows. She had to squint to keep hold of them. They touched the edge of their downy hair, and she thought she saw a faint tremble in their throat when they swallowed.

‘Back there, in the house. I . . . Did you . . . Could you hear . . .’ They couldn’t have heard, she told herself. She’d been speaking English, untranslatable through the wards.

But she watched their throat work as they wound their fingers through their curls.

‘I understood,’ they whispered. ‘I heard what you said. Some of it, anyway.’

‘But I was in the cage, and the wards, and . . .’ But at their face, she trailed off. ‘You did?’

‘I – speak a little of your language.’

Frida blinked, then she realised they were speaking halting English. Normally, their voice sounded soft and crackly, slipping right into her head like summer leaves on a breeze, autumn foliage underfoot. She’d grown so used to it that hearing them speak in a human tongue felt bizarre.

‘I thought you’d never met a human,’ she said in confusion.

Dian wrinkled their nose. ‘No, no I haven’t.’ They slipped back into whatever their own language was, Raindrops on Hawthorn Boughs, perhaps. Frida relished the sound of it swishing through her again, but they were staring at the ground, continuing to wind their curls around one long finger fretfully. ‘After my . . . After Gia was taken . . .’ Their shoulders heaved a heavy sigh. ‘After that, my other root-kin insisted. We travelled far and found a fairy who had some knowledge of the languages of this land.’

‘Someone who was somewhat less nasty than the others,’ Moth added helpfully.

A small smile tugged at Dian’s lips. ‘Somewhat.’ Then their eyes caught and held Frida’s, and the darkness was full of memories. ‘I spent a year with them. My kin thought it might be useful, someday.’ Their brows knit. ‘I wonder if they knew,’ they said softly.

A shiver ran down Frida’s spine.

Far away, she could hear shouting through the open windows, signs of the house mobilizing. Someone would come looking for them soon, but she couldn’t go another second without Dian knowing the full truth. She imagined she could hear Dian’s heart. Or maybe it was her own. Before her, the cliff yawned. She could make the leap, or retreat. But then she realised, maybe she’d already jumped.

‘I have to tell you. I –’

‘Do we know each other in the future, then?’ Dian interrupted.

Frida startled at the abrupt question. Trembling, she inclined her chin.

‘And it’s bad?’

She paled.

They angled their face up to the yew boughs and sighed. ‘I thought so.’

The huge trees were like caves. She wished they could crawl into one together. Better still, go back to that enchanted pool. Forget everything. Forget that house, forget the shouts that seemed to be getting closer. Forget the alarm bells that were now ringing. Forget the future.

Moth crawled up one of Dian’s curls, the colour of spun grass, and asked, ‘How bad, exactly, are we talking?’

Grief swelled up inside her chest. The whole story was there, from a hawthorn ending in the zoo, to the lightning, to Lucky digging her into the earth. She was about to answer, ready for all of it to tumble out of her, when Dian took a quick step backwards and shook their head, raising their hands as if to protect themselves. ‘No, I don’t want to know.’

‘What?’ Moth exclaimed. ‘Why not?’

‘I can’t,’ they said shakily, their voice a thin reed of a thing. They were gazing at Frida as if she was the only thing keeping them standing.

‘But you’re the guardian of the smallest fairy territory on this island!’ Moth glanced at Frida, then back to Dian in disbelief. ‘Frida Rose is offering us a chance to know what might come. To have an advantage! Are you certain no is your answer?’

Dian’s nostrils flared. ‘You think we could change the outcome, even so? I do not. There are some fates that cannot be changed. I know those wards in there will rip through the worlds, no matter what we do. I know terrible things are going to come to pass!’

Moth paused for a long moment, as if trying to collect himself, before he cocked his tiny head and said slowly, ‘I thought it was only humans who claimed to know too much. Anything can be changed, Dian.’