Pretty Little Fairies
Page 12
It was him all along.
Wyatt is the one who told me my son had died. He’s the one who told me the doctors said it was a birth defect, but I never spoke with the physicians myself. I hadn’t needed to because Wyatt’s word was gold to me. His word has always been gold to me. It had always been more than enough.
“You killed my son,” I say.
“And your wife,” Wyatt confirms. “And your sisters-in-law. And soon,” he adds. “You.”
He pokes me in the chest, pushing me backward again, but I slug him hard in the face. Wyatt seems taken aback. He reaches for his lip, wiping away a drop of blood, and shakes his head.
“Oh, my lord,” he says calmly. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
He reaches for the amulet he wears around his neck, one I seem to have never noticed before, and he spins it. Suddenly, I can’t see him. I hear him laughing, but I’m confused as I look around wildly.
“Are you wondering where I am?” He asks. His voice seems to come from everywhere at once. “Good. That means the confusing charm is working. You won’t be able to find me, good sir, at least until I want you to.”
This time, Wyatt hits me. He punches me in the gut and I keel over, crying out in pain. He laughs, and the sound seems to surround me, wrapping around me like a hug I just don’t want. Suddenly, I’m seized by guards on all sides who drag me down the aisle of the cells. I see Billy’s face pressed to the window. His mouth is shaped like a tiny “O” as he watches what’s happening to me.
Good.
I want Bill
y to see this.
At the very least, if I die, I want Billy to know that I had nothing to do with any of this.
Other faces appear at the cell windows: faces I haven’t seen in a very long time.
Faces Wyatt told me had moved or gone away.
Faces Wyatt told me had been lost.
I’m shoved into a cell at the very end of the row. Suddenly, Wyatt appears again beside his guards.
“I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” Wyatt says.
Then the cell door slams shut.
I stare at the door for what seems like an eternity, and then I look around my new home. The cell is dark and dank: exactly how I remember the dungeons being. I walk around for a minute and then I sink the floor.
“Hey, your highness,” a voice from the next cell says.
“That would be me, I suppose,” I say.
“Welcome to hell,” the voice says cheerily. “And good luck. You’re going to need it.”
Chapter 6
Rose
I LEAVE LUTHER’S HOME and realize I need to find a place to stay. It’s already past lunchtime. It’s past when I should have had the potion. I’ll have a few more hours of daylight, but once darkness comes, there’s no way I should be lurking around the city. No one should. Not after Wyatt’s bold move. I don’t even know who this guy is, but I know he’s dangerous, and I know he’s not afraid to steal people.
I manage to find a random bench I can sit on near a little park, and I collapse on it. There are trees all around me, which at least gives me the illusion of being isolated.
I twist the amulet to give myself a little bit of privacy. Usually, the spell works for a few minutes. I’ll at least have five minutes to myself to look at this book without anyone noticing. I don’t think there will be any passers-by, but I’m not from here, so I really can’t tell. The last thing I need is to draw any more attention to myself.
I need to hurry up and find some anquan potion. I’ve already wasted almost an entire day trying to get this stuff. Who knows how long Tulip actually has? I hate thinking of her and Daisy being at home, alone. I know that Daisy is scared, but she’s also so very brave. Still, it seems cruel that I left her alone while I came to find the potion. It seems totally wrong and mean, but I have to do this for all of us.
Finding privacy in the city is much harder than I ever thought it could be, but the bench seems like a quiet haven as I pull the book out and yank it open. At first, the pages appear to be completely blank, which is perfect, really, since it means I grabbed the wrong book. That doesn’t make any sense, though, because it was so carefully hidden away. Why would Luther hide a blank book? Why would he hide it away? Why would he take the time to do something like that if the book didn’t have some value?