Normally, Jacob would’ve been embarrassed by the speed with which he spun around when he heard something rustling behind him. But there was nothing coming through the willow branches. Only the wind was swaying the slender leaves, and he was about to turn around in relief when he saw the card in the grass.
I am impressed. Too bad the vixen had to return the rushnyk. I have to say, the silver skin made her even more beautiful, though that would have deprived me of my prize. How are you going to save her next time? You won’t always have a Baba Yaga nearby.
Jacob didn’t know what was worse, his helplessness or his rage. He was a fish on a silver hook. What fun it must be to watch him wriggle. Yes, if only he could’ve held on to that magic cloth, but he’d been stupid enough to get caught. Turn around, Jacob. Do it for her. Take her to safety, take her away, far from here, where he can’t find her.
Fox was still talking with Sylvain. He could see them through the branches. For her. Give up, Jacob. L’Arcadie…Why not? Surely nobody had heard of Alderelves there. Or what about Aotearoa, Tehuelcha, Oyo... So many places they hadn’t seen.
The card filled with new words. What? Was he being congratulated on his decision? No, it was more. It was his reward. The green letters formed from such slender lines, it looked as though a spider was threading them with its silk.
In Nihon is a tree where the caterpillar of an invisible butterfly goes to pupate. Shape-shifters who carry one of the empty cocoons will not age faster than a normal human.
Spieler? Oh no, he was the Devil. “Do what I tell you and I give you what you desire most.” And then he sank his hook in even deeper.
They pupate only every ten years.
Jacob flung the card as far as his weary arm would let him. But the wind carried it back to him.
“Can’t get rid of it that easily. You have to bury it in damp earth.”
The speaker was standing by the edge of the pond. Her face was hidden behind a veil as red as her dress, which looked like it belonged in a palace, not a Varangian village.
Jacob rose to his feet.
Looking for one Fairy but finding another. His deadly mistress, so beautiful and so unchanged. Without thinking, he reached for the amulet that had hidden him from her for so long, but he hadn’t worn it in a while. Careless. Was she getting tired of waiting for her sister to finally kill him for her? After all, she had tried twice. He attempted to feel proud that she’d come herself. In contrast to her dark sister, the Red Fairy hardly ever left her island. Do not look at her, Jacob. But it was hard not to look at so much beauty.
“Challenging an immortal never gets you anywhere.” No.
She lifted her veil. Eyes that were darker in the daylight. And he’d so hoped she might have forgotten him.
“Like you forgot me?” She could still read his thoughts.
She gave him a smile that had cost many men their lives—or their sanity. Miranda. Jacob was the only mortal to know her name. She didn’t hate him for that, at least not as much as her dark sister did, but she would never forgive him for leaving her.
“Yes, all you think of is the vixen,” she said, coming closer. “And she’s not even half as beautiful as I.”
The setting sun turned the horizon behind her as red as her dress.
He didn’t dare scream for fear Fox might hear him.
The farmer who was trundling his cart past them probably took them to be young lovers. He would never know he’d been looking at a Fairy.
Jacob backed away from her. He felt the willow branches in his back. They let him through like a curtain, but the Red Fairy followed. The light of the setting sun filtered through the leaves, and Jacob felt like he was back on the island. With her.
“You’re as white as snow.” She stroked his face. “You think I’m here to kill you. You are right. I’ve wished for this every day. I should not have saved you after the Goyl shot through your faithless heart, but it seemed too quick and easy a death for all the pain you’ve caused me.” She put her six-fingered hand on his chest, and Jacob felt his heart slowing.
Look at me! her eyes commanded. How can you prefer a human woman over me?
He wanted to say, “Get on with it. Do it already.” Sylvain would hopefully keep Fox away from her. That was all he could think about. Please, Sylvain! Fairies liked to turn their rivals into flowers, which they wore in their hair until they wilted.
“You have to find my sister.”
Jacob’s brain was too numb with fear and exhaustion to comprehend what she’d just said.
“She’s hiding, even from us. She is putting us all in danger. Not that she ever really cared. She knew some of the Alderelves had gotten away, even when she went off to find the Goyl. She knew there was only one way for them to break the spell. Why could you not leave the crossbow where you found it?”
There was something in her face, something Jacob had never seen there before. Fear. It didn’t seem to go well with immortality. What did she have to fear? But the Red Fairy was afraid. And she had not come to kill him.
“What do you want from me?”