“Come, sit by the fire and eat.” Flame used a stone knife to slice off a chunk of the dark purple fruit. Its insides were bright yellow and a little bit stringy. She handed a piece to Wynn. Wynn took a bite, and immediately shoved as much as she could in her mouth. It was sweet!
She smiled, but then the flavor changed. It turned bitter. Wynn swallowed it quickly.
“Do you like it?” Flame asked. She took her own bite, and chewed it without flinching.
“I like the sweet part,” she said. She took another piece. She knew how it felt to be so hungry it was dangerous. She wouldn’t turn down food, even if it did taste bitter at the end.
“The fruit nearby is better here than any other place in the wood.” She wiped her chin with the back of her hand. “Fruit in the rest of the wood only tastes bitter.”
“Thank you,” Wynn said, helping herself to more.
“It’s a blessing and a curse. The elves come around here to pick the sweet fruit sometimes. That’s when we have to hide.” Shadow settled down between them, and curled her long tail around Wynn. “Shadow and I used to live near the rock ledges. The sweet fruit grew there, too. The elves came around so often to gather them, we had move to a new part of the forest, a hollow near the stream. After a while, the fruit there turned sweet as well. We came here not long ago. Now the sweet fruit is growing here. It seems to be spreading. We’ll have to move again before long.”
“Are the elves mean?” Wynn asked. The fairies always said they were bad.
“They aren’t mean. They’re very desperate. They do what they must to survive. As long as you stay away from them, they aren’t a bother. It’s the fairies they are really after.” Flame used her staff to prod the fiery rocks. Sparks flew up and drifted toward the ceiling. “There is something about you I don’t understand.”
Wynn knew what that was like. She didn’t say anything, just tucked her ruined dress around her legs.
Flame didn’t really look at her, but stared past her out the door. “If you were safe underneath that shield, why did you come into the wood? You were protected there.”
“A snake tricked me,” Wynn said. She felt heat rising in her face. She was very angry at that snake. “It looked like Mildred. She was hurt. I needed to help.”
Flame brought her pale gaze back toward Wynn. “You risked your own safety for your bird?” Her hand stroked Shadow’s neck.
“She is my friend,” Wynn said. “Friends do nice things.”
Flame’s forehead wrinkled. She looked like she was thinking hard. The fire danced over the rocks, sometimes growing bright, and other times dimming to a soft glow. “I will help you find your way back,” she said. “You don’t belong in these woods. If you are my friend, I’ll get you home.”
In the distance, a reaper howled.
CHAPTER TWELVEElric
ELRIC SPENT MOST OF THE night awake, sitting on the floor near his window staring out at the wood and praying for his sister. The night sky was unbearably bright underneath the glowing dome. He could see the darkness beyond it, and imagined Wynn lost or hurt somewhere in those shadows.
He paced until exhaustion forced him to sit again. He didn’t want to go anywhere near his bed. He knew he would fall asleep, and that would feel like giving up. The hours slowly passed, with Elric only feeling more and more sick with his situation. He could see no way out.
Then he felt a cool breeze against his cheek.
Zephyr appeared next to him. “Hello, Prince.”
“Zeph!” Elric shot to his feet. It was such a relief not to be alone, locked in his room with his grief. He really needed a friend. “I’m so glad you’re here. What time is it?” He had lost track of the hours in the quiet part of the night.
“Not yet morning. It is still dark beyond the dome.” Zephyr’s feet left the floor as he peered through the window.
“I can’t leave her out there, Zeph,” he said. “I have to get out of here and find her. If there’s any chance at all that she’s alive, I can’t give up.”
Zephyr looked down and nodded. “I know. That’s why I brought help.”
With a wave of his hand, a sparkling mist covered the door, then faded to nothing. It slowly opened to reveal Osmund standing on the other side holding his woodcutter’s ax.
“So, are we going into the Nightfell Wood or not?” he asked with his usual ambivalence. But Elric could see the light in the man’s eye.
Elric stared at the man in his doorway in shock. His mind was reeling. He thought that Osmund had sided with the Fairy Queen. Osmund stepped through the door and softly shut it behind him as if nothing were amiss.
“But—but you betrayed us,” Elric stammered as he stared down the man. “You told the queen to lock me up!”
Osmund shrugged. “The Otherworld has taught me a thing or two,” he said. “Including how to say one thing and mean another. Masking intentions can come in handy, especially when you need to get away with something dangerous and you don’t want your mother to know. If I hadn’t said what I said, the queen would have locked me up too, and then where would we be?” Osmund glanced around Elric’s room. “I told you to play along before we left the Otherworld, but like always, you have trouble listening.”
Elric stared at him with his mouth agape.
“So, are we going to save Wynn or what?” Osmund asked. He held out his hand. Elric hesitated only a moment, then took it. Osmund helped him to his feet. “We need to be sneaky to get out of here. There aren’t many fairies around at this time in the morning, but the
