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“There’s no Goblin King here, Doc. You came to America to escape all the partisan politics in Britain and Europe. What was the point if you were just going to bring it with you?”
“You don’t understand. I can heal humans, I can heal unseelie Fae, and beast-kin are generally considered neutral, with the exception of your own species. But if I heal a seelie Fae, it’s aiding the enemy.”
“But you’ve always taken care of me, and I’m supposedly the enemy, too, aren’t I?”
Doctor Nudd sighed. “I’ve never regretted helping you find your way, my boy. You’ve made me proud. But I’m not willing to take that level of risk for a sprite I don’t even know.”
Pete grabbed Doctor Nudd’s nightshirt in both hands. “You have to help her. She’ll die if you don’t. And it’s my fault.”
“You did this to her?” Doctor Nudd deepened the wrinkles on his craggy forehead. “What could a flower sprite have possibly done to you to make you beat her like this?”
“I didn’t beat her. I hit her with my van. I couldn’t stop in time.” He swallowed, and those clear blue eyes shone bright in the moonlight. “If she dies, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Siobhan opened one large violet eye and glared at the two men. “Either fix me up or leave me to die in peace. I’ve got a headache the size of a mountain and you two arguing is not helping.”
“You would accept aid from an unseelie Fae?” Doctor Nudd said, disbelief in his voice.
“Oh, no, I’ll be taking one of my many other options instead.” Even badly injured, Siobhan’s sarcasm was in full working order. Even Liliana could tell she meant the opposite of what she said.
Doctor Nudd ran his hands nervously through his already disheveled brown hair, making it stick out in a few new directions. He looked around at the woods as if spies watched, waiting to catch him aiding a Fae from the wrong court.
Liliana looked as well, just to be sure, but no human or Other had witnessed the clandestine meeting.
“I don’t know about this,” Doctor Nudd grumbled. “I am disinclined to do things that might get me executed, even if I’m not likely to get caught doing them. It’s one of the reasons I’ve lived as long as I have.”
“If it helps, I’ll owe you a favor,” Siobhan said with a tired sigh.
Doctor Nudd’s bushy eyebrows crawled up his brown forehead. “A favor! Well, …” He scratched his stubbly chin. “If anyone questioned me, I could say I was bribed.” Every Other knew a favor from a Fae could be incredibly valuable, even from a simple flower sprite.
“I knew I could count on you!” Pete hugged Doctor Nudd swiftly. He scooped the sprite up in his arms, but her wings still dragged on the ground.
A high-pitched groan came from her as her broken wing and shattered arm got jostled. Through clenched teeth, Siobhan said, “A werewolf and a goblin. If any of my people saw me now, they’d think I was about to get cooked.”
Doctor Nudd steadied her injured wing with one of his long arms. Pete held her mangled arm against his chest as gently as he could as they took her into Doctor Nudd’s house to the part that was used for his business of healing.
Nudd gathered instruments as Pete laid the injured Fae on an examining table in a small room.
“You’re not, are you? Planning to cook me, I mean?” the little sprite asked, not sounding overly concerned. She seemed only partially aware they had moved her to a new location. “I’m too tired to care much either way, so you might as well tell me.”
Pete grinned at her and held her small uninjured hand. “Nah, there’s not enough meat on you to be worth bothering with.”
Siobhan groaned again. “Size jokes. Marvelous.” But her lips twisted in a faint smile.
“What were you doing out in unseelie territory alone?” Pete asked her.
Her smile disappeared. “Banished. Thanks for reminding me,” Siobhan gritted out. “And how was your day?”
“Kinda sucked.” Pete gave her a wink, while Dr. Nudd examined the little sprite. “Crazy fairy splatted on my van and a boggart tried to eat me.”
“Hey, none of that fairy rubbish, or I’ll bleed on you.”
Pete raised his hand in mock surrender. “Got it. Crazy, but not a fairy.”
Liliana couldn’t help but smile. Some things had not changed.
She paced around the circular table in her workspace with no goal in mind except a need to do something, and a conflicting need not to go anywhere so she wouldn’t get lost in time and miss her favorite client’s appointment.
But, where did Siobhan get the strange eye that sees in the dark?
