"He's my brother." This time the moths let him approach her. "It's a Fairy's curse, Miranda."
"But you've come to the wrong Fairy."
"You must know a way to break it."
She seemed to be made of the shadows that surrounded her, of the moonlight and the night's dew on the leaves. He'd been so happy when this was all he knew. But there was so much more.
"My sister isn't one of us anymore." Miranda turned her back to him. "She betrayed us for the Goyl."
"Then help me!"
Jacob reached out his hand, but she pushed it away.
"Why should I?"
"I had to leave! I couldn't stay here forever."
"That's what my sister said. But Fairies don't leave. We belong to the place that brought us into this world. You knew that as well as she did."
So beautiful. The memories spun a web in the darkness, entangling them both.
"Help him, Miranda. Please!"
She raised her hand and brushed her fingers over his lips.
"Kiss me!"
It felt as if he were kissing the night, or the wind. Her moths were piercing his skin, and all he had lost tasted like ashes in his mouth. When he let her go, he thought for a brief moment he could see his own death in her eyes.
A fox was barking outside. Fox always claimed she could feel when he was in danger.
Miranda turned her back to him.
"There is only one remedy against this spell," she said.
"What is it?"
"You will have to destroy my sister."
Jacob's heart stopped, for one beat, and he felt his own fear clammy on his skin.
The Dark Fairy.
"She turns her enemies into the wine she drinks or into the iron form which her lover builds his bridges." Even Chanute's voice had sounded hoarse when he'd spoken of her.
"But she can't be killed," he said. "Any more than you can."
"For a Fairy, there are far worse things than death."
For a moment, her beauty was like a poisonous flower.
"How long does your brother have left?" she asked.
"Two, maybe three days."
Voices came to them through the dark. The other Fairies. Jacob had never found out how many of them there were.
Miranda gazed at her bed as if remembering the times they had shared in it. "My sister is with the Goyl, in his main fortress."