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I dipped my head once and looked up at Edrich. “Looks like your obligation has been met, then.” I gestured around us. “We’re nearly there now, then you’ll never have to worry about me again.”
Edrich paled, opening his mouth, then closing it again. Instead of responding to me, he looked down at Rumple. “Thank you,” he said, taking a step forward.
Suddenly, Uncle’s voice rang out, but not in answer. In warning.
“Don’t move!” he yelled.
I flew back to investigate only to see that one of Edrich’s feet was resting in a circle of mushrooms.
“What’s the problem?” I asked. They looked like ordinary, white, velvety mushrooms, nothing suspicious or dangerous at all—but I knew better than to assume.
White tendrils of smoke crept out from the circle, stretching toward the three of us. Maggie whimpered and ran off into the flowers, escaping whatever poison was heading our way.
Edrich’s eyes widened as he tried to escape it, though his steps were far too slow. All the while, Uncle merely shook his head and cursed under his breath. He looked me directly in the eyes before he fell to his knees, his pupils dilating and constricting again and again.
“Well,” he said, his words slurred. “You got your wish. We’ve found the fairies. Or rather, they have found us.”
30
Edrich
Smoke billowed out of the circle of mushrooms faster than we could hope to outrun it. Lina glanced between us and the distance, like she was unwilling to fly off without us, and Rumplestiltskin was looking at her with fear in his eyes.
For her.
Was this more toxic to her, or was Lina’s simply the only life he cared about?
Fear sped up my heartbeat, and for all that Lina had accused me of only caring enough to protect her because of the bargain I’d made, I knew in that moment—beyond all shadow of a doubt—just how wrong she was.
“Lina, just go!” I yelled, with the last bit of my breath, trying not to inhale the fumes.
It was no good. The smoke crept up my nostrils, and before I knew it, I was… floating. I looked down at my feet with a head that suddenly felt too light and too heavy at the same time.Do I have wings like Lina?
But my feet were solidly on the ground.
Something about that was funny. I laughed, and it sounded far away and distorted to my own ears. Something was niggling at me. Something decidedly not humorous.
Lina.
Lina was in danger.
It seemed to take a lifetime before I lifted my eyes up to where she had been flitting around only moments ago, but there were two more fairies there.
Or were there four?
Their shapes blurred in and out of focus, but I didn’t miss that they each carried a tiny lance, or the beetle-like wings on their backs. They were brown and veiny with a thick and shiny blue shell that rested in the middle of their backs, nothing like Lina’s iridescent wings. I had thought that maybe all fairies were beautiful, but these two brutes proved me wrong.
I wondered if I voiced the thought aloud, because their eyes were suddenly on me.
Or Rumple?
Moving my head around to look for the evil troll made me dizzy. Maybe he’d escaped.Or maybe he’s the green blob next to my foot.
I blinked and looked back at the fairies, and somehow the lances they pointed at us were huge, steel tips glinting menacingly. Then another slow blink, and they were normal-sized again.
I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they seemed to be arguing. And then they were taking Lina.
“No!” I wasn’t sure if I got the word out or not, but the two fairies shot vaguely distasteful looks my way while Lina’s confused eyes moved between them and me and… the green blob.
