Both of them rolled their eyes. It would have been comical if they didn’t so desperately need the information. Feta pointed at Bruce.
“You thought.”
Erin pointed at herself. “And I made him bigger.”
Feta pointed at Laddin. “You thought.”
“And my friends made him bigger.”
Then Feta pointed past them at Nero. “You thought.”
“And we made him much bigger!”
Feta turned and pointed at Josh, who stood beside Nero. “You thought—”
“I got it!” Laddin interrupted before Feta pointed at everyone in turn. “Every human nearby thinks about the demon—”
“And he gets bigger!” both Feta and Erin said at once.
“Because that’s what you do?” Bruce asked. “The Earth fairies take thoughts and make them into things. Like the moon and the—”
“Fireworks!”
“We do it too!” Feta cried. “We do it here.” He pointed to the ground. “And there.” He pointed to the distant bushes. “And over there.” He pointed to the field to the right. “And—”
“We got it!” Laddin interrupted.
“But how does that make the demon bigger?” Bruce asked.
Laddin didn’t wait for the fairies to answer. “Because everything we think creates their world, which—I guess—bleeds over into our world. The demon originally came from a short story that the locals told. That’s how we know how to kill it. Because Josh read the story and told us.”
Laddin looked back at Josh, but it was Wiz who caught his attention. The man quietly pulled out a gun from a tiny pocket on his dog tags. The guy was naked and the pocket was about the size of a quarter, but he pulled out a pistol anyway and showed it to Laddin before hiding it behind his back. It was the way the townspeople had killed the demon in the short story—a special bullet, right between the eyes.
Then Laddin looked back at Bruce, who was still sorting through how the fairies worked. “They take our thoughts and create things in Earth Fairyland.”
“Which sometimes bleeds over into our world. That’s how they created a moon that was powerful enough to affect the werewolves in our world.”
Bruce rubbed a tired hand over his jaw. “I hated fairy tales growing up.”
That wasn’t the point. Laddin focused again on the fairies. “So the demon is in your Fairyland—Earth Fairyland. We know he’s very big, but we still want you to take us to him.”
“No.” Again, both fairies spoke at once.
“Why not?” This time, Laddin and Bruce spoke at once, which was weird and kind of cool.
“Because,” Erin said as she pointed at the two men. “You cannot go there.”
“He must come here,” Feta finished as he pointed at the ground.
Laddin looked at Bruce, who nodded. “Then bring him here.”
“No!” Erin cried out. “You will make him bigger, and he is big enough.”
“We won’t make him bigger.”
“Promise?” Feta asked.
“No!” That answer came from at least three people behind them. Laddin had no idea who, but he didn’t need the reminder that promises were never easy with fairies.
“I promise that we don’t want to make him bigger.”
Erin wrinkled her nose. “That is not a promise, that is a wish. You don’t wish him bigger, but he is getting huge anyway!”
Feta nodded. “Huger than huge.”
“The hugest!”
Laddin interrupted before they got distracted again. “What if we made him smaller?”
Bruce leaned in. “What if we made him go away completely?”
Erin folded her arms in an angry pout. “All you do is make him bigger!”
Laddin looked at Bruce. “That’s because we keep thinking of him. All of us do. We keep thinking and worrying, then the media spins story after story—”
“And he gets bigger,” Bruce muttered. “But if we get him here….” His gaze hopped back to Wiz, the implication clear. If they got him back here, then Wiz could shoot the thing between the eyes. Problem solved.
Erin shook her head, her frown clear beneath her flower hat. “I will not bring him here. I will not bring him anywhere near you!”
“I will,” Feta said, his voice smug. “I will bring him right here if you take me to Fairyland.” He grinned as he lifted his head. “I want to be even bigger!”
Bruce sighed. “I told you. I can’t take you to Fairy Fairyland. Only Bitt—” He abruptly changed his word, presumably because he didn’t want to say Bitterroot’s name out loud. “Only the fairy prince can do that, and he’s already said no.”
Feta folded his arms and lifted his chin in defiance. “And I told you, Smoked Gouda has said you will.”
“Then bring the demon,” Bruce said. “If Smoked Gouda is right, I will get you to Fairy Fairyland afterward.”
Feta appeared to think about that. That had to be hard to do given that his brain was probably made up of mold.
“I swear I will do my best to convince the fairy prince to take you,” Bruce added.
“Deal!” Feta clapped his hands. “I will bring the demon here. Then you will take me to Fairy Fairyland.”
“No!” Erin said loudly.
It didn’t matter, because Feta looked at everyone gathered there. “Think very hard!” he ordered. “Think of bringing the demon here for you to see.”
They had no choice now. They had to roll with it for as long as they had the pixie’s agreement. So Laddin thought as hard as he could. He thought about how Wisconsin was dying mile by growing mile, and he thought about ending that disaster once and for all. As did everyone else. A single glance around the field showed him every serious face, jaw tight with determination. But nothing happened until Bruce held out his hand. Laddin took it without conscious thought, but the moment their palms connected, he felt the power surge through him.
Bring the demon here, he thought.
And it came.
Chapter 24
GODZILLA NEEDS TO GET HAPPY
BRUCE HAD dressed as the Creature from the Black Lagoon once for a haunted house. That was what he expected to appear. Something a little more than man-sized and black with ickiness.
He’d gotten the icky part right.
First off, the thing was huge—larger than Godzilla—and it
