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I scowled at him, but it did beg the question…
“Do you often travel with fairy-sized clothes?”
He shot me a look that was half-disgust and half-condescending.
“This isn’t my first trip to Ellaria, and since I was going with the village idiot, I figured you might activate the mushrooms.”
I couldn’t decide if it was more or less offensive that he had been right, so I ignored him, focusing instead on the intricate details of the world around me—things I had never noticed before. Like the thick lines running up and down each blade of grass, or how many tiny pieces of thread went into the main line that carefully stitched my black leather boots—boots that were now several inches taller than I was.
And moving.
I jerked backward a step, my hand going to a sword that was no longer there.Perfect.I was small and unarmed, and one of my giant boots was moving. And… grunting? Before I had time to panic, a pointy brown snout came poking around the side of my boot, followed by a quill-covered head.
A giant hedgehog.
Or, rather, a normal-sized hedgehog, next to a miniature-sized me—something I still couldn’t wrap my brain around.
“Maggie?” I wasn’t sure why I phrased it as a question, when I was fairly certain no one else was going around randomly painting hedgehog toenails and fitting them with makeshift saddles.
Makeshift saddles…
I exchanged a resigned look with Rumplestiltskin.
Never in a million years did I think a saddled hedgehog would be useful, but I wasn’t going to look a gift-hog in the mouth.At least now we have a faster way to get to Lina.
33
Lina
We flew until the sun began to set, heading straight for the tree line on the other side of the meadow. The two fairies guiding me didn’t spare me more than a few backward glances for most of the journey. They remained silent except for the whispers of frustration they had for each other. So, for hours, I had nothing to do but think, which was dangerous.
From the way that they hadn’t threatened me or forced me to come with them, I felt relatively safe. However, there was still something they weren’t saying, and they made little effort to speak to me.
I reminded myself that the dangerous beings of the forest had stayed clear of us since Uncle had shown up. That even though they were delirious when we’d left them, I felt relatively certain that as long as Edrich stayed with him, they’d be safe.
If not from each other, then at least from everything else.
I glanced back in the direction we’d come from, but there was no sign of any of them. And we hadn’t seen any creatures in the meadow aside from a few woodland animals. It seemed peaceful, especially in comparison to the forest we’d trekked through to reach it.
Surely if this place was dangerous, the animals wouldn’t feel so at ease.
Fireflies began to twinkle as the sun dipped lower on the horizon. They had seemed to be lighting the way for the three of us as we flew toward a wall of twisted and knotted trees.
I shivered from the evening’s dropping temperature. I hadn’t been wearing more than my thin sleeveless dress when Maggie had taken off. It was one of the few things that had accommodated my new wings. Crossing my arms, I ran my hands over them quickly, trying to infuse some warmth into myself.
The men must’ve noticed, because they slowed their pace and flew a little closer. The heat emanating from them seemed to stifle the chill, but only slightly.
“We’re almost there,” Gentian offered, with a small smile of reassurance.
Oren sighed.
“This is a mistake,” he muttered, under his breath.
I looked at the emerald-haired fairy, and though his tone was tense, there seemed to be something more than irritation in his eyes.
Fear?
I didn’t have much time to guess at what it was before we were finally coming to a stop at the base of the tree wall.
