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“Not exactly. We already know how to get there. I’m asking you to come with us as backup.”
Allison tilted her head. She didn’t speak, but the ‘what were you planning to do on your own’ showed clear enough in her expression that words would’ve been superfluous.
“It’s kind of a long story, which I don’t mind filling you in on later.” Tammy held up her hands and summoned a thorny vine, which leapt from one arm to the other before dissipating back into green light.
“Oh!” Allison went wide-eyed, grinning. “Magic! Wait, you can do magic?”
Tammy smirked.
“No wonder you’re nervous,” said Allison. “Going after Annie with only a few days’ practice would be... harrowing.”
“I agree.” Tammy darted to the back door. “Except I receiveda lotmore training than just a few days. C’mon, we have to go.”
“Let me guess: faerie time weirdness?” Allison hurried after her.
“Yeah. How’d you know?” Tammy jogged across the yard, following Maple.
Allison shut the door behind her, then ran to catch up. “Faeries are involved. I guessed.”
Maple gave off a shimmer of multicolored light. Their surroundings shifted in an instant to thick woods. Allison let out a startledmeepnoise. Faerie magic did teleportation differently than Mom. With Mom, it felt as if they leapt from one place to another. Maple’s spell seemingly changed the environment while they stood still—like performing on a stage with a giant movie screen for a background and the image simply changed.
A second later, Allison shot a look at Maple similar to the face she’d make at a little kid who snuck up behind her and popped a balloon to scare her on purpose—simultaneously annoyed and amused.
“Where are we?” asked Allison.
“Not sure, exactly. Woods somewhat close by.” Tammy pointed. “There’s a faerie door here.”
Of course, given the density of the trees, ‘somewhat close by’ could be anywhere in Southern California. The only two things faeries had less care for than clothing were distance and logic. Some of the things they did felt like what Tammy referred to as ‘Bugs Bunny logic.’ They did it because they didn’t know they couldn’t: like the cartoon gorilla flying with concrete wings because he didn’t know it violated the law of gravity.
Maple zoomed over to a large tree, easily as wide as their refrigerator at home. Near the bottom, a tiny door had been painted on a smooth portion of bark. It looked like someone’s arts and crafts project, the sort of thing a somewhat eccentric person—like Mom’s mother—might decorate her garden with.
Despite it appearing to be a none-too-realistic painting, Maple grabbed the doorknob and opened it, revealing a small rectangle of bright emerald light, into which she promptly vanished. Tammy took Allison’s hand and stuck her other hand into the hole.
“That little doorway is only nine incheshiiiiii—” yelled Allison as a powerful force gathered them up and hurled them forward.
The diminutive opening explosively grew into the size of a normal doorway—or perhaps Tammy shrank; she still didn’t quite know for sure which way it happened. She, pulling Allison, flew headfirst into a swirling rainbow tunnel of lights and gossamer semi-solid wads of… something. A sensation similar to running through massive cobwebs came and went. Moments later, Tammy landed on solid ground as if she’d only jumped two steps forward without a tree in the way.
Allison crashed into her from behind, clamping her arms around her waist and squeezing so as not to fall over. “Whoa! And wow, this is so pretty.”
Impossibly lush, unnaturally green forest stretched as far as they could see in all directions. Tammy knew they’d landed about twenty miles southwest of the faerie village she’d recently called home. It felt weird to be here while wearing modern clothing.
“Never saw the faerie realm before?” asked Tammy.
“Sort of,” said Allison. “In visions. Never went there in person.”
Maple glided off. “This way.”
“C’mon. She’s leading us to the bad place.” Tammy ran after the faerie queen.
“You can understand her?” called Allison from behind.
“Yeah.”
Allison sprinted to catch up, then fell into a jog at her side. “Since when do you understand them?”
“Since Elizabeth fully left my head.” Tammy shrugged. “Dunno exactly when it happened.”
“Right…” Allison looked her over. “You don’t seem any different. At least, not physically. Something’s different, though.”
