“Because we’re naked and in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin.”
“Speak for yourself,” answered Stratos as she pushed to her feet and stretched. She still wore a sports bra and shorts, though they were tattered.
“Forget the clothes,” Nero muttered as he sat up and rubbed his face. “Does she have a phone?”
“Why?” she asked, her brows drawn together in confusion.
From across Nero’s lap, a large brown wolf straightened up and shook out his fur. Then there was a sudden center of cold air and a golden light before Josh appeared in his human body. “I’ve got one,” he said as he pulled an iWatch face off the chain holding his dog tags. “Give me a sec to connect.”
Bruce was torn between being impressed by his brother’s foresight and wanting to mock the guy for being unable to go anywhere without his tech. But before he could say a word, Lady Kinstead stepped daintily between two wolves who apparently intended to stay in that form. She came right up beside Bruce, then dropped to one knee before him, putting them eye to eye. Then she asked her question.
“It’s Thursday. Do you have the answer?”
It was Thursday? Already? Had they really been running for two days? Shit! And no, he did not have any answers. In desperation, his gaze landed on Laddin, who was looking at him with hope shining through his eyes. In fact, a quick glance around told him that everyone was looking at him expectantly. Even the wolves.
“I’m sorry—” he said, but Wulfric interrupted him.
“Start with the basics. You must have figured out your power. You made the moon, after all.”
“Not me. I….” His gaze went back to Laddin. “Well, maybe. I mean, I figured out the light bulb.”
Yordan sighed. “Not exactly rocket science.”
Josh rounded on the guy with surprising ferocity. “Give him a minute. My brother may not think logically, but he does think.”
“Hey!” Bruce said, a little insulted by the “not logically” part of that statement, but before he could voice it, Yordan grunted his acceptance.
“Instinct guy. I can get behind that.”
“Everyone shut up!” Laddin snapped. “This isn’t easy on him, and commentary from the peanut gallery only muddies the water.”
“Mixed metaphor there, Laddie,” Stratos said, but then she bit her lip at Laddin’s glare.
And then everyone was looking at him again. Fortunately, Laddin grabbed his hand and his attention. “Don’t look at them. Look at me. What did you figure out about the light bulb?”
“Not what. Who. It’s you, Laddin. I’m the current, you’re the light bulb. You made the moon, not me.”
Laddin took a moment to absorb that. Then he shrugged. “Not one of my best ideas.”
To the side, Bing rolled his shoulders as if unkinking his back, and his black hair flowed about his shoulders in a very cinematic display. “We did not eat any rabbits or deer. It was a successful run at a time when we all needed the break.”
That was definitely true—except Bruce had failed at the one thing he was supposed to do. “I didn’t see the demon. I don’t know where it is.”
Lady Kinstead stroked across his jaw. The touch was gentle, and there was no censure in her voice when she spoke. “Are you sure?” she asked. Though he didn’t feel it in her tone, her question reverberated with judgment all through his body.
“No, I’m not sure!” he snapped. “I’m not sure of anything. And it doesn’t help when you put the fate of the world on my shoulders and no one tells me the basics. It would have helped to know that there are two different Fairylands.”
All around him, wolves and people straightened up in confusion. He saw looks shoot back and forth between them, but it was the wolf—now man—with the whispery voice who said what everyone else seemed to be thinking.
“There are two Fairylands?”
“Yes,” Bruce huffed. “That’s what Erin Rodger-Dodger said. That they made Earth Fairyland, but they want to go to Fairy Fairyland.” He struggled to put meaning to what he’d seen before going wolf. “The pixies are Earth fairies, right? They take our thoughts and make moons and stuff. And Bitter you-know-who, the fairy prince, is from Fairy Fairyland. He doesn’t have anything to do with what the pixies make.”
He took a deep breath. “So there are two Fairylands, and nobody told me.” It was a lame way to end his statement. The truth of the matter was that he’d been tasked with finding the demon, and he’d failed spectacularly. Except when he looked around, everyone was looking at him with shock and a little bit of excitement in their eyes.
“What?” Bruce asked. “What did I say?”
“We didn’t know,” Wulfric said, his voice low and his expression thoughtful. “Fairyland is so complicated. I assumed that the pixies created another part of it, another realm, so to speak, in a vast land.”
“No,” Bruce said. “It’s an entirely different place. Or dimension. That’s what Erin said.”
“Created from our thoughts,” Laddin said in a bright voice. “It makes sense. The pixies use our thoughts to create Earth Fairyland, whereas Fairy Fairyland is—”
“Created from fairy thoughts,” Josh said. “It’s like the difference between Windows and Mac OS. The end products may look similar, but they’re not the same at all.”
Stratos nodded. “And they don’t play well with each other.”
Okay. So this was interesting, but it didn’t solve the problem. They still didn’t know where the demon was. Unless….
Bruce exhaled loudly, the realization hitting him broadside. Then he asked a question to everyone and no one in particular. “You guys searched everywhere for the demon, right? But who searched Fairyland?”
The man with the whisper voice answered. “A Fairy Queen.”
“She could search Fairy Fairyland, but what about Earth Fairyland?”
Silence.
Bruce groaned. “Nobody asked a pixie?”
Nero shook his head. “They’re not exactly easy to pin down.”
“Find, pin down, or talk to,” Yordan agreed. “In fact, they don’t often talk to anyone except you, Sir Farts-a-Lot.”
“He’s Windy Wolf to the fireworks fairies,” Laddin said.
Lady Kinstead smiled, and the expression was half-mad even
