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Tammy caught herself about to snarl. “No.”
Maple shook her head so rapidly her hair fluffed up. “Dark ones will be punished severely.”
“There’s something terrifying, yet cute, about a four-inch-tall woman on a homicidal rampage,” whispered Tammy to Allison.
Except the faerie queen overheard her. She jabbed a finger at Tammy. “I’mfiveinches tall, thank you very much. And the homicidal rampage is quite real.” She huffed.
Allison whistled. “What did you drag me into here, Tam Tam?”
“Saving Annie.” Tammy waved dismissively. “Don’t worry too much about killing the dark faeries. In a way, we’re doing them a favor. Like putting tortured beings out of their misery. They’re evil little turdballs and they wouldn’t hesitate to kill us.”
“Turdballs?” Allison snickered. “You’re eighteen now. You can say ‘evil little shits’ without getting in trouble.”
“Eep. Careful!” Tammy grabbed her arm. “We’re in the faerie realm.”
“Yeah, I figured… so?” Allison scratched her head.
“There’s a reason those words are calledcursewords.” Tammy peered up, then looked around.
“Are you messing with me?”
“I wish.” Tammy shivered. “Sayingthatparticular word might cause someone to explode from the butt for hours… or make it rain from the sky all over us.”
Allison stared at her as they walked. “Youarebeing serious.”
“I am. Don’t ask how I know.”
“How do you know?” Allison gave a nervous chuckle.
Tammy sighed. “Fine. Like a year into my second childhood, I stubbed my toe on a root and blurted the ‘s’ word. It started raining poop.”
“Now I know you’re messing with me! How does a magical faerie realm know what is or is not a curse word in modern English?”
“It doesn’t know the words. It knows the intent behind them. Language doesn’t matter.” Tammy picked up speed as Maple had started pulling ahead of them.
“Whoa. Okay, so what would happen if one of us dropped an f-bomb?” Allison snickered.
“Satyrs,” said Maple, calling back to them. “Frolicking centaurs will appear. Trust me, you will not get the image out of your head... ever.”
Tammy blushed. “Let’s try to forget that word even exists.”
***
After leading them for several hours, Maple slowed to a veritable midair crawl.
Quite unlike her normal self, the faerie queen circled around to land seated on Tammy’s shoulder, trembling like a frightened child.
“What’s wrong?” whispered Tammy.
“We are close to the dark grove.” Maple pointed forward.
She clenched her hands in fists. Going into the realm of the dark ones made Tammy nervous purely because it contained dangerous monsters that would try to kill her. Queen Maple, on the other hand, faced the additional threat of succumbing to the temptation of negative energy. It would be unlikely for her to spontaneously turn evil, but if she suffered significant injuries or exhaustion, the evil of the place could seep into her.
Over the course of her training for this mission, Maple repeatedly made it clear that if she started showing signs of corruption, it would be Tammy’s duty to destroy her before it consumed her completely. There would be no point in suggesting Maple simply wait here for the two humans to come back. That would only start a fight. It would be as pointless as someone kidnapping Paxton and telling Mom to sit at home and let the cops handle it.
Maple likely couldn’t bring herself to fly into the ‘dead zone.’ A human carrying her across afforded her a degree of mental defense. The little queen could cling to the idea she hadn’t made the choice to willingly enter the place, regardless of the noble reason behind it.
With Maple on her shoulder, Tammy resumed walking. “Okay, let’s go.”
