The Accidental Fairy, page 17
As she looked around at the interior of the cabin, with its warped planked floors and enormous stone fireplace, Prim decided this wasn’t so bad. At least she wasn’t dead, right?
A small ball of light zipped into the sitting area, where plaid blankets sat on the back of a worn sofa and on top of a coffee table made of something she couldn’t identify.
“I’m Farrah, and I’ll be your host tonight! Please come in and sit down. Make yourselves comfortable.”
Sten’s eyebrow rose as he looked to the open door where Gary stood and whispered teasingly, “Farrah, eh? How come I didn’t know about Farrah?”
Gary gave him a randy wink. “What? We have a lot in common. Plus, she’s really good at keeping a secret.”
Sten barked a laugh. “You old dog. Congratulations!”
Farrah buzzed over to Gary and gave him a peck on the lips then the tiny fairy clapped her hands, her sparkling wings flapping madly, and directed them to the table. “C’mon, you lot, before the food gets cold!”
Everyone scrambled for a chair, seating themselves as Farrah brought bowl after bowl of food, filled to the top and steaming hot.
Prim wasn’t sure what much of it was, but one granola bar and an energy drink at lunch hadn’t exactly been the meal of kings. So as she filled her plate with assorted meats and unusual-looking cheeses in pink and green, her mouth watered.
Farrah filled their tin cups with some sort of shimmering liquid that tasted of cinnamon and pears.
Everything was unexpectedly delicious, and she stuffed herself until she thought she’d burst.
As they all enjoyed the meal, as the group chatted and laughed, making the best of the situation, Prim decided to ask her first friendly live fairy about her wing, and that crazy thing she’d done with her voice to Smitty.
She picked up her plate and made her way to the sink, where Farrah canoodled with Gary through the window.
Gary cleared his throat, his green cheeks burning bright red. “We have company, my love.”
Farrah squeaked, buzzing to hover in front of Prim’s face. “Apologies. Is everything all right?”
Prim smiled at this tiny sprite of a woman with aqua-colored hair that sat in a high, wavy pony on her head. “Dinner was wonderful. Thank you. I don’t mean to intrude, but…”
She flapped her tiny hands. “No intrusion at all,” she reassured, flying to land on a basket set on top of the crude wood cabinets. “Bet you have some questions, don’t you?”
Prim gave her a sheepish glance. “Do you mind?”
“Hit me!” she chirped, crossing her tiny legs as she perched on the edge of the basket.
“First, I’m probably the biggest fairy to ever hit the Hollow, and Raff’s no slouch either. I know at one point I was smaller, because I was in a jar, but how do I do that…again?”
She jabbed a finger in the air with a wide grin. “You, m’dear, are a fairy raised in the human world—which means you can switch back and forth. It just takes practice, and once you meet your oracle and some of your guides, they’ll teach you how.”
Well, that was a bit of a relief. At least she wouldn’t be Gigantor in a land of little people. “And my hump… I mean, my deformed wing? Why won’t it either go away or fully form? Raff got his wings with no problem.”
She chuckled a melodious laugh. “Everyone’s different, Prim. It’s like boobs,” she said with a shake of her torso. “Some girls get them early; some get them later.”
It was all she could do not to cover her own boobs—or lack thereof. “But some never get them at all.”
“You hush!” she chastised with a shake of her finger. “You have boobs. Are they the size of melons? No. Are they just right for Prim and her long limbs and enviable tiny waist? Yes! You’re beautiful, and your wings, when they pop, will be too.”
Beautiful was a ridiculous assessment of her, but she’d take it.
Shoving her hands inside the pockets of her jeans, she felt a little better, but there was still more troubling her. “What about the invisibility and that awful thing I did with my mouth?”
Farrah’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together in glee. “You can manipulate sound! That’s a rare gift, my friend. It positively screams royalty.”
“Royalty…?”
“It means whoever your parents are, either one or both are royalty. Only royals can manipulate sound. Or it’s possible someone gifted you that specific power. The people responsible for your capture bestowed the gift of sound manipulation.”
That didn’t make any sense, and she said as much. “Why would they give me something so powerful if they want me dead?”
Farrah’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. I’m as confused as everyone else. I guess for now, we have to go with the theory that you were swapped at birth and the powers come from a biological parent. I can’t explain why they give them to you only to turn around and try and kill you. None of us understand it. That’s why you must see the queen.”
Prim looked down at her fingers, twisting her mother’s ring around her pinkie. “It didn’t feel like much of a gift. It felt like assault with a deadly mouth.”
Farrah flew toward her then, hovering in front of her face, her eyes soft with sympathy. “But I’m told he was a very bad man. He deserved what you did to him, Prim. Regardless, you’ll learn to control it. This I promise you.”
“And the invisibility thing?
She grinned. “We can all do that. Watch!” She snapped her fingers and disappeared, before reappearing right before Prim’s eyes.
God. This was bizarre.
More than anything else, her next question had been burning a hole in her brain since she found out there was a whole other world or realm or whateverthefuck they called this, aside from Earth. “Do I have to live here? I mean, do I have to leave New York and come live in a tiny Barbie house?”
Farrah snorted. “No, silly! Your life has been lived in the human realm. Just like Sten’s wife Murphy and her sister Nova. They travel from realm to realm with the greatest of ease. Once we know your position here, the rest will fall in line. Of course, you’ll want a place to stay in the Hollow. Sort of like a vacation hideaway, but that can all be sorted when we get you fixed up. Raff, too, if he’d like.”
Okay then. She was up for a vacation hideaway. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“Have you been hearing any voices?”
“Um, voices…? Maybe just the ones that were calling me whenever I was near the hole in my house.”
Farrah nodded, her aqua pony bouncing. “Yes. That’s the call of your new people. At least I think it is. But I mean, specific voices. As if someone’s talking to you, but they’re really in conversation with someone else.”
Prim shook her head. “Nope. Not yet anyway.” And thank fuck. Jesus, she had her own voice in her head, she didn’t need another one.
“In time, I’m sure. When you meet your oracle, he’ll teach you.”
“Here’s a thought,” she muttered. “What if they don’t want me here? What if we’ve done all this, and these oracles and guides and whatever else don’t want anything to do with me? I mean, I’m allegedly the one who’s going to end the dark and the light, right? If those two henchmen who kidnapped me and then came back for seconds wanted me dead, someone sent them to do the job. Couldn’t it have been this Queen Pria, trying to protect the Realm of the Hollow, who sent them?”
Farrah sighed, her expression thoughtful. “Therein lies the crux. I don’t for a moment believe Queen Pria would approve that, no matter what this supposed scrit says. Our queen is good and kind. She loves her subjects. She’d find a way to make this right. She’d never order your death. Which means someone else is spearheading this.”
Prim looked down at the braided rug on the floor by the rusty sink and took a breath.
Farrah flew to her, pushing her chin upward with her tiny body. “Look at me, Prim, these women, Sten, Gary, they’ll find out who’s behind this, and when they do, I’m certain the queen will punish them severely. We’ll keep you safe until our last breath.”
God, this was all so heavy, she didn’t know how to keep her head held high, but she was going to try. “Okay, so on a lighter note, I heard something about a wand. Do I get one of those?”
Farrah giggled, brushing Prim’s face with her soft wings. “When you graduate fairy school, young lady. All in due time. However, I will admit, it’s one of the coolest gadgets I own. Wanna see?”
Prim laughed, too, feeling a little lighter as Farrah produced her wand and they chatted about all the amazing things she’d do with it once she was given hers.
For the first time since all this began, she felt a little bit of hope.
Even if a bunch of mean fairies wanted her dead.
She climbed the winding stairs to the turret at the top of Farrah’s rickety cabin, praying her big feet didn’t take out the rotting steps.
Prim needed a moment to herself to gather her thoughts before they began this next part of their journey, and seeing as she couldn’t go outside—in order to keep her safe—she opted for the next best thing.
Entering the tiny room, she caught her breath at the shadow sitting on the bench that spanned the width of the windy turret.
“It’s just me,” Raff said quietly.
Her heart instantly fluttered the way it once had where Raff was concerned…before she became so numb inside, she felt nothing but rage.
“Do you want to be alone?”
He shrugged his wide shoulders. “Nah. Come and sit with me and look at this incredible sky.”
She hooked her leg over the splitting wood of the bench and took a seat, unsure what to say, because Raff hadn’t said much to her in the last few days since fairy bootcamp had begun…or since that kiss.
The kiss she couldn’t stop thinking about when she wasn’t worried someone was going to whack her.
“Would you look at that sky, Prim?” he whispered. “It’s incredible.
She looked up and gasped as the wind in the turret whooshed, echoing.
Indeed. Indeed it was. Fluffy blue and pink clouds drifted by, their backdrop an indigo blue. Stars you could almost reach out and touch, fat and lemon-colored, winked back at them, forming shapes.
The vast landscape below was mostly barren. Miles and miles of snow-covered land, glistening under the pale pink moon.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” she whispered in awe.
“It reminds me a little of the night sky in Yemen,” Raff said, sounding very far away.
“They had pink and purple clouds in Yemen?” she teased, hoping to lighten his clearly ominous mood.
Raff shook his head, pulling off his knit hat and tucking his hair behind his ears. “No. I meant the sky. It’s a sort of deep blue. It’s beautiful.”
“Will you miss it?”
He lifted his chin and swallowed hard. “Not Yemen itself.”
“But someone specific?” Prim experienced a stab of jealousy, which was ridiculously unfair. How dare she have the nerve to be jealous when she’d never once even asked how he was doing while on the job.
Even odder still, she’d never asked if he’d been involved with someone anywhere.
Know why that is, Prim? Because you’re afraid, chickenshit.
That was very fair. She’d purposely avoided asking questions because she didn’t want him to ask her questions.
Raff let his head hang between his shoulders. “Yes. Someone specific.”
When he didn’t say any more, she gulped. Dare she ask? The silence between them engulfed her, swallowed her up until she knew the right thing to do was at least ask.
How could she have never once inquired about his mental health? Surely, he’d seen some horrible things. His pictures alone told her that.
God, she was a massive jerk. In the interest of self-preservation, she’d sacrificed everyone’s feelings.
All this thawing out was beginning to wear her down. It was everything all at once and it scared the hell out of her.
Instead of pressing or pushing, Prim wrapped her arm around Raff’s broad back. “You don’t have to tell me. You don’t have to say anything. I’ll always be your paper towel. No matter what.”
Raff leaned into her then, letting his head rest on her shoulder, heaving a long sigh. “Her name was Amal. She was like everyone’s grandmother in her village. Her sons had both been killed in the war and she was alone, except for her cat and her neighbors who all looked out for her.”
Prim sat, listening to Raff breathe, waiting until he was ready to continue.
“Even when she had so little and virtually lived in poverty, she brought me homemade cakes and water. We developed a friendship—a deep one. Whenever I was there, I always went to visit her in her village, and she always welcomed me with open arms. Some of the best conversations I ever had were with Amal—broken English and all.”
“How did you meet?”
She felt Raff smile against her shoulder. “Very unconventionally. I saved her beloved cat, Jabal, from a bombed site. He was stuck under some heavy rocks, and I got him out. She made me Bint al-sahn, a honey cake, as a gift of gratitude. That sealed the deal for me. I brought her supplies, food when I could. I even tried to find a way to get her out. To bring her here. But I never got the chance.”
Prim sat quietly, saying nothing. Instead, she ran her fingers through his thick hair and listened.
He sat up and ran a hand over his face, as though he could wipe the memory from his mind. “I saw it happen. I’d just returned from another assignment, and I was headed out to see her. I knew the danger had ramped up recently, but that’s my job, right? To take pictures of dangerous things. I was just entering the village, and as always, when Amal had word I’d been spotted, she’d wait by her crumbling front door for me.”
Prim’s stomach turned, her heart chugging so hard she heard it in her ears.
Raff let his head hang low, his chin touching his chest. “So there she was, smiling and welcoming me…waving…and then boom. It was over in half a second. Some insurgents bombed her village, wiped out almost everyone. If I’d just been a little earlier, we would have gone for a walk, and I could have prevented…”
Prim fought a gasp, even though she’d been almost certain of the outcome before he told her. “Oh… Oh, Raff. Raff, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, pulling him to her and pressing her lips to his stubbled cheek before letting her nose rest on it.
“If I’d just gotten there a minute sooner…”
Survivor’s guilt. Dr. Shay had talked about this in reference to her guilt over her mother’s passing. How horrible. How devastating.
“I… Were you hurt?”
“Not really. I got scraped up and a stitch or two in my arm from some shrapnel when I managed to dig out Jabal, who went to a loving home via an adoption program here in the US, but I didn’t care about me.” He paused, his words tight and slow. “I dug… I swear, I tried to find her body…I couldn’t… I tried…”
A tear slid from Raff’s eye then, one that landed on her lips, salty and warm. “Of course you did. Of course, Raff,” she murmured.
He sat up and straightened then, shaking off his sorrow in the same way he had when his mother was killed. “After that, I took a break. It was time. Seven years is a long time to see what I’ve seen. I don’t know how people do it for a lifetime, but I don’t think this is for me anymore. So that’s why I’m back. I’m in the process of rethinking my life and where to go from here.”
Yeah. Same. Then, her selfishness reared its ugly head. How could she have been so blind to all he must have suffered—even if Amal hadn’t been killed, Prim knew he’d been exposed to the horrors of war.
Why hadn’t she ever bothered to ask how he was, for fuck’s sake?
Remorse stung her gut like salt on an open wound, almost doubling her over. “I’m sorry, Raff. I never asked. I…” How could she explain what an awful person she was?
“It’s okay. I get it,” he said, quite suddenly much lighter. “You have a lot on your plate, too.”
He’d only asked what was on her plate a million times over the years, and she’d only shut him down a million more.
Without warning, without thinking it through, Prim said, “About that kiss the other night…”
He stiffened against her. “Maybe we shouldn’t—”
But she thwarted him by pressing her finger to his soft lips as tears welled in her eyes. “Let me finish. We have…stuff, Raff. We have so much stuff going on inside us, and we need to fix it. We have to. I have to. All these years, I let you chase after me, look after me, care about me, and I threw it back in your face because I have…stuff. I never asked about your life, about how you were doing, about anything because of my damn stuff.”
He grabbed her finger and kissed the tip. “It’s okay, Prim…”
She put her finger back on his lips and shook her head. “No, Raf. No, it isn’t. It’ll never be okay that I was so fucking selfish. Never. Right now, that doesn’t matter. Here’s what matters—we both need to fix ourselves before we do anything else. But I need you to know…it meant something to me, and no matter where we go from here, that kiss will always be one of the most important things in my life because I love you. I’ve always loved you—”
“Hey! Secret lovers!” Nina called, poking her head inside the turret. “Got some news from the palace.”
They both turned, Prim feeling Nina’s vibe, and it wasn’t good. “What’s going on?”
“Someone’s kidnapped the queen.”
Chapter
Twenty
While the women and Sten, Darnell, and Raff sat around the big table and tried to devise a plan to save the queen, Farrah had gone off to investigate and bring back any information she could get her tiny hands on about what was happening in the kingdom.
All they knew for sure was a coup had occurred.
“I say we go fucking balls to the wall, storm the castle and make those fucking little traitors tells us what the hell’s going on,” Nina said from clenched teeth, her fangs poking out of her mouth.
