22. Lysandra
Puck strolls off with a smugness that makes me want to throw something at him. I know he cheated, but I can’t figure out how.
On and on we play, round after round, wrong guess after wrong guess. The longer we go, the wider the leprechaun smiles. He’ll let me sit here all day and won’t care one bit. I can’t afford to get hung up on the first challenge, not when there are days of challenges ahead. Days. I’m going to be doing this for days. My head aches at the thought.
After yet another missed guess, a growl builds in my throat. It’s becoming increasingly hard not to upend this table and steal the damn scroll. But the leprechaun, no matter how small, still has his magic while mine remains woefully dormant.
I release a slow breath and try to clear my head. Devorah said this challenge would require us to think differently. Usually, I would turn to magic to get out of a situation, and when that doesn’t work, I use reason. Neither will work in a game of chance and no matter how closely I watch the acorns, I don’t know how to cheat my way out of this. There has to be another way.
“Another miss,” the male says.
I hate him. I want to flick him into the four-leaf clovers he calls home and stomp on the whole patch. I want to shove him so far into his pot of gold that he never sees another damn rainbow in his life.
Gold.
I have gold. I took a whole bag from the palace treasury. Do leprechauns even like gold? Or was that a myth that got distorted in the mortal realm? If the lore is correct, it’s their driving force.
It’s worth a shot.
“I have a proposition for you,” I say as he shuffles the acorn tops again. I rummage through my bag until I get a sack full of coins. I wait until the leprechaun looks up and his eyes go wide. His focus completely zeroes in on the brown canvas sack before I drop it on the table. It jostles the acorns just enough that I catch a glimmer under the right top.
“I’m listening.” He’s practically salivating, completely unaware of what I saw.
“I’m running too far behind. I’ll take one more guess,” I say, gesturing to the game. “If I win, I take the scroll and leave. If I guess incorrectly, I’ll pay this entire bag for you to give the clue.”
“That would be cheating,” he says, but leans in closer.
“I prefer to think of it as bending the rules.” I return his malicious grin.
“One final guess,” he agrees, and I feel magic solidifying our bargain. It smells clean, like grass after it’s been freshly mowed, a stark contrast to his disheveled appearance.
“I get to turn over the acorn,” I add, and he grumbles but steps away from the table. With one hand securely on my coins, I flip over the right acorn, revealing the Cintron gem. The leprechaun turns so red he’s almost purple. “A deal’s a deal.” My voice is deep and commanding. Even though he complains, he produces the scroll and hands it to me.
I snatch it from him and unroll it, checking that it’s legitimate. “Pleasure doing business with you.” As a parting gift, I remove one gold piece from the bag and toss it to him. His face goes from furious to shocked to gleeful.
“Pleasure’s all mine,” he says, practically doing a jig as I place the coins back in my bag, the magic of the pack shrinking them and making them near weightless. With a salute, I take the scroll away and lean against one of the ancient trees.
While similar in temperature to Spring Court, the air is crisper in this part of the Varesen forest. The leaves, which are every shade of red, orange, and yellow, sparkle in the slanted sunlight as they lazily drip off the trees and dance on the wind to the forest floor. I expected there to be an undercurrent of decay, but this half of the forest is as alive as ours. If anything, it feels older and wiser, and it lends me its strength. I stretch out my muscles, sore from hunching over the table for so long, before unrolling the scroll and reading the next clue.
A star burns fast and bright
Flying low in eternal night
Ready to be brought to creatures who fear the light
They’re rhyming now.Great.
Creatures who fear the light are vampyres, which means this clue will center around the Night Court. It makes sense; it’s just north of Autumn Court.
A star burns fast and bright. Flying low in eternal night.
I haven’t seen it personally, but legend says the stars are closer to the ground in the Night Court, and because of that, Fae often collect stardust. But it’s still very, very rare, and the bits that are collected are hoarded or sold for a fuck-ton of money. Anyone can fly up and claim the raw dust, but how am I supposed to get up there when I don’t have wings?
I could ask Hades if she has any advice, but I have no idea where she is. Finding her would take too much time, and I’m already behind Puck. I rummage through my bag, secretly hoping Hades or Larisa gave me stardust. There’s nothing.
My hand brushes against the map of the Underground entrances Hades gave me and I freeze. The Underground peddles hard-to-obtain items, and stardust might be the hardest of them all.
This map, like the one Larisa gave me, has a pinpoint of my location and I spend a few minutes moving forward and back to figure out where I am. There are only a handful of entrances to the Underground, and luckily, there’s one ahead, close to the Autumn Court palace.
I speed walk, doing my best not to trip over fallen branches. There’s only the sound of my feet crunching the leaves until I pass a small village where I hear growls. I keep my head down and rush by as fast as I can. Werewolves are territorial and I’m pretty sure it’s close to the full moon—which means they’re way more trouble than they’re worth.
When I reach the spot for the entrance, I spin in circles. Where the hell is it? It looks like a black splotch on the map, which I’m pretty sure is meant to be a hole, but it’s not anywhere I can see. Giving up all stealth, I start kicking aside piles of leaves. I find another cluster of leprechauns in the process, but they refuse to acknowledge me or answer my questions once I’ve disturbed their homes.
“It’s under the tree,” a small voice says. I look up and find a pixie descending from a branch. She’s the size of a dragonfly, with wings almost as long as her little body. Her hair is a beautiful ombre that reminds me of fire, starting at a dark red and lightening to a pale yellow as it reaches her shoulders.
“This one,” she says, her voice light and melodic as she flies up to a tree that’s barely a twig. “Just pull.” She points to the tallest branch, and I do as she says, pulling it to the side. The entire thing lifts, even the roots and grass, to reveal a hole in the earth.
“Thank you.”
“Hades told me to keep an eye out for you.” She smiles a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. “If you need a guide, I’d be happy to assist.”
“Yes, please.” Thank the goddess I made friends with Hades. The pixie nods and flies into the hole. I undo my pack, holding it tight in my arms before sitting on the edge and sliding.
The slide is made of something similar to plastic and is completely enclosed, making me feel like I’m in a mail chute. I can see through the clear material to the ground outside and all the creatures living in the dirt, but they’re separated by the plastic and can’t get in.
After a very long fall, the slide gently slopes, coming to a stop and depositing me in the Underground. This section looks like a shopping mall. It’s illuminated with fluorescent magical lights that make me squint after being in the dark of the chute. The floors are tiled in glossy white and black squares, and each storefront has an elaborate window display showcasing their wares.
It’s what’s inside the windows that reminds me where I am.
The first has a display of glass-blown pipes in an array of colors and shapes—even one that looks like a vape pen. Golden plaques beneath have a list of which drugs work best with each pipe. The next store hosts a myriad of iron-tipped weapons. There are two males within—a salesman in a suit, and one toward the back covered head to toe in protective gear using a grinding stone to create weapons. Just breathing the air that wafts into the hallway hurts my lungs, I’m not sure how the Fae shopping inside can stand it.
“Are you looking for passage?” the pixie asks. She points to a tram that’s being loaded with crates of mushrooms and clear barrels of toxic green liquid.
“I actually need to purchase something,” I tell her, peering around at the other stores in the hope of finding what I need. “Stardust.”
The pixie sucks in air through her sharp teeth. “It won’t be cheap.”
“I just need a small amount.” The clue didn’t say how much stardust, so they’ll get what they get.
“Still.” She flits in front of me, leading me down the labyrinth of hallways. A glance at my map tells me we’re headed in the direction of the Night Court, but I would be lost if not for my guide.
Finally, we stop at a jewelry shop. The magical lights in the window are a different shade and make every gem sparkle in blinding brilliance. On blue velvet pillows, jewelry from simple golden bracelets to a diamond ring as large as my head is displayed. The one that catches my eye is a white-gold necklace with an opalescent gem in the center. It seems to shift colors depending on where I stand and has an other quality that I’ve never seen from gems in the mortal realm.
“That’s stardust,” the pixie says and jerks her head forward. “Go on, talk to him. I’ll wait.”
I enter the shop, and the male behind the counter looks up. He has hair so black it swallows the light around him, and skin barely a shade lighter. His eyes are deep red and his upper lip pulls back to reveal fangs.
Vampyre.
Unlike vampires in the mortal realm, who are made, vampyres in Faerie are born and thus can stay out in the sunlight and don’t require blood to survive—though they certainly enjoy it. Since arriving in Faerie, I haven’t come across any vampyres, but I hope they might be friendlier than their mortal realm counterparts—
“No,” he says instantly. Maybe not.
“I didn’t even—”
“I know all about your challenge and I want nothing to do with it. I’m not selling you stardust.”
Well, shit.
He folds his arms over his chest, daring me to remain in the shop. His biceps are so large that if he put me in a headlock, I’m pretty sure he’d squish my skull like a grape.
But this is the only plan I have, and I’ve already lost too much time.
“You’re not selling me stardust,” I repeat. “But would you be willing to make a trade?”
He cocks his head. “What do you have that I could possibly want?” I’m about to pull out my bag again, hoping to find anything valuable, when his eyes fall to my neck.
Vampires—the ones in the mortal realm—can only drink human blood, so, being Fae, I’ve never experienced a bite before. But how bad could it be? It’s better than bartering away my entire court.
“Ever drink the blood of a royal?” I ask, my smirk just as predatory as the one he wears. He arches bushy eyebrows and licks his lips. “One mouthful of blood for an ounce of stardust.”
He considers. “Two long drinks.”
“I have a realm-wide journey ahead of me, I need most of my blood in my body.” The last thing I need is to faint. I have no idea when I’ll have a chance to rest or eat, I shouldn’t have offered this much as is.
“One long drink now, and one on another day of my choosing,” he counters.
“One mouthful now, another on a day of my choosing.”
“Deal,” he says and sticks out his hand for me to shake. His skin is cold to the touch, but it’s nothing compared to the icy rush of his magic as it seals our deal. The vampyre bends beneath the counter and extracts a vial of black sand.
“That’s not what it looks like in the window,” I say skeptically. He shakes the vial and the entire thing starts to glow, each grain of sand sparkling like its own star. The starlight interacts with the magical lights illuminating the store, creating dancing rainbows across glass cases. “Wow.” The stars fizzle out and settle into the same black sand at the bottom of the container.
“When you manipulate it, it forms the jewel you saw in the window,” he says like a parent boasting about their child. The fond expression softens his face, and I almost forget he’s a devious predator. “You can bring either form to get your next clue, but you’d need a lot more than blood to buy the finished product.”
I take the vial, shoving it into my bra for safekeeping. “Your turn,” I say, and extend my wrist.
“You’ve never been bitten before?” he correctly guesses. “I’ll make it good for you, then.”
“What—”
Faster than I can perceive, he zips around the counter and ignores my outstretched wrist, aiming for my neck. His fangs pierce my skin, and I cry out with shock and the brief, piercing pain.
Then, the pain subsides and is replaced by warmth that floods my entire body. “Oh fuck.” It feels like he’s turned me into stardust, shaking me until I shine so brightly I scatter rainbows into the jewelry shop.
And then, he sucks.
Swearing, I brace myself on his shoulders. The pulling of my blood throbs in time with the pulsing of my clit. His leg has slipped between mine, and my hips buck forward, grinding on his thigh as I seek relief from the immense arousal flooding my system. He chuckles, his fangs still buried inside me.
I can’t help but think of Puck, the way he played my body, and the way he sucked and touched and fucked me into oblivion last night. Even with all that, I was desperate for more when I woke up this morning. This only intensifies that need.
The vampyre licks my wound before poking his finger and smearing blood on the mark until it heals. I’m panting and flush, and a part of me wants to beg him to take another bite so I can come. When he steps back, he keeps his hands on my waist to support me as my knees wobble. “Give it a second for the arousal to fade,” he says gently.
When I finally gulp down enough air that my brain works again, I nod my thanks and stumble toward the door.
“Until we meet again, Your Highness. My hand flutters to the place where he bit me, a little aftershock sparking as I graze it.