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With a clawed hand, I reached out and felt the invisible wall holding me back. It rippled beneath my touch. I’d tried to punch my way through it earlier.
I wasn’t done.
“I see you plan on using brute strength to get out of this one,” Hilda said.
Lip curled, I didn’t stop. This barrier would collapse eventually. Nothing could hold me back from my queen. I would return to her side one way or another.
Hilda sighed behind me. “Cerridwen made you out to be a tactical genius. You were supposed to be the one to turn the tides on the battlefield. Instead, I’m stuck here watching you bash your brains against a wall. I’m starting to wonder about the princess’s taste in men.
“You’re no smarter than a damned redcap, good sir. And it’s a shame to see.”
Pausing, I let my head fall back. I spoke to the ceiling, asking any gods who might be listening to save me from the sharp tongue of a lost brownie. When I slid my gaze in her direction, she hopped off the table and put her hands on her hips.
“I can help you get out of here, but I want something in return,” she said.
“You’re just a brownie. What makes you think you can help me cross an impossible barrier if you can’t even enter the Seelie castle because of the wards? You’re wasting my time.”
Cerri was alone. She’d run off to stop Beryl from whatever the woman was up to now, and I couldn’t help. My hands turned into fists at my sides. Cerri hadn’t even had time to explain what was going on. I could have advised her on what to do next, but it seemed that time had run out on us already.
And the longer I trifled with the brownie woman, the more time I wasted. I pulled my fist back and prepared myself to strike the invisible barrier again.
“I can find the source of the curse holding you here if you would just wait a damned heartbeat, you brainless beast.” Hilda clucked her tongue.
Sucking my teeth, I could feel them grow into sharp points as the beast in me fed on my anger. Once more, I looked to the ceiling as if to ask why I deserved this.
“You doubt me?” Hilda asked incredulously.
A shadow stretched across the nearby wall. It darkened everything it passed over before peeling away from the wall to take the form of the brownie woman again.
“Boggarts,” I muttered under my breath.
She snickered and put her hands on her hips proudly once more. “I’m a housekeeper spirit, you daft fool. You think there’s anything I can’t find? If the source of the curse is in this lodge, I’m going to find it and break it.”
“And? What do you want in return?”
What was I willing to give? I’d already been locked in a curse that’d stripped me of my ability to love Cerri the way she deserved. While I had another chance, I wasn’t looking to see if I could muster up a third.
“Help your damned woman defeat Beryl,” Hilda said. “Cerridwen made a deal in the Goblin Market, and I want that woman to live up to it. If she doesn’t, her court will fall. I kind of like this little thing she’s got going on, and I’m not about to let it all fall to pieces just because she wanted to cut a deal for some damned herb.”
That must have been what was in the potion. Cerri had forced it to my lips during the fight with Faust. I’d felt the liquid’s arcana inside me when she’d put her hand to my chest. It’d somehow fused the beast to me so that Faust couldn’t take it away from me again. I never properly thanked her for it.
“This isn’t a contract,” I growled at the little woman.
She waved a dismissive hand in the air as she walked off. “I know. I know. Contracts are for the tall fae with superiority complexes. I don’t need a complex to know I’m superior.”
Despite the situation, a smile still somehow reached my lips. I licked them as my heart picked up pace. Time was running out. I didn’t have all night for the brownie to find this curse.
She walked to the middle of the room, between the mounted television and the coffee table, and stomped one foot. A magical aura rushed out in all directions. It slammed into me and touched every part of me like a pickpocket greedily searching for treasures to pilfer. I took a half-step back and gave Hilda a wary look.
This was not at all what I’d expected from the brownie woman. It was an arcana I didn’t know her kind were capable of. I realized just how little I knew about the small folk. As a knight of the Seelie court, I’d kept to the inner part of the court so I could be closer to my king and queen. I’d had no reason to interact with anyone else.
Yet, these few weeks with Cerri had put me in close quarters with far more small fae than I’d ever expected. She invited them in and gave them purpose within the court as if they were on the same level as everyone else.
I had to remind myself that’s because they were on the same level. Hilda, the redcaps, and the dryads were no different than the tall fae. Cerridwen knew that without ever having to be told. She gave us all a new perspective on the world and how it needed to change.
For her, I would move the stars in the sky. I would take them down and hand them to her so that she had everything she needed to make this world better. And Hilda knew that. In her own way, she was also handing the stars to Cerri.
I wasn’t about to thank the little woman or she would hold it over my head for the rest of my life, as fae liked to do. Instead, I said:
