I knew the fountain well. I’d already ended up there several times in my attempt to navigate the garden. I dropped, panting onto a stone bench, and wished I had Sebille’s wings so I could get an aerial view of the place. The Obsession plant had to be nearby. If only I could find it.
Wings buzzed up behind me. I sucked air and said, “Finally! I thought you’d never get here. Is he asleep?”
I started to turn, catching the glint of light off a slender blade just before it pierced my throat. “Ah!” I threw myself off the bench and army-crawled beneath it.
“No, young lady,” Aelfsvald growled out. “I am decidedly not asleep.”
Crusty crab cankles! The fairy was getting on my last nerve. “What did you do to Sebille?”
He hovered just above the ground and shoved the blade toward my thigh.
I shot energy toward the thing as he lunged and managed to push it off course. The slender blade slid into the wooden leg of the bench and stuck.
The fairy’s wings buzzed frantically as he tried to pull it free.
“Ha!” I exclaimed, untangling a leg from the encroaching vines and slamming the bottom of my foot into the stupid fairy.
He yelped in pain as he shot backward and crashed into the fairy in the fountain. His tiny form went boneless and slid down the marble figure, landing in the flower bucket with a soft splash.
Crawling out of my hidey-hole, I stood and yanked the sword out of the bench, carrying it with me to check him out. I prodded him gently with the sword, but he didn’t move.
“Good,” I said. “Take that!”
More buzzing ensued.
My nerves all aflutter, I swung around and lunged.
Sebille had a glower on her face, a truly colorful black eye, and energy dancing around her fists. “Go ahead,” she said. “Make my day.”
I sighed, lowering the sword. It promptly turned back into the walking stick, the head of which, I noticed, was a dark silver cat. “Awe,” I said. “It looks like Wicked." The thing whipped around and slashed at my hand, drawing blood, and then settled back into immobility.
Sebille laughed. “It acts like him too.”
“Har,” I said, glaring at her.
“Come on. The Obsession plant is over here,” she told me. “I saw it when I was flying over to rescue you.” She took off and I trudged after her.
“Who rescued whom?” I asked, feeling cranky.
The plant was nestled in a dark corner of the garden, under an overarching trellis that was covered in flowering vines. The flowers on the vines smelled like cat urine and had thorns on their stalks the size of my little fingers.
Sebille hovered several feet away from the trellis. “I don’t know what this vine is, but I get the feeling it’s guarding the Obsession. Try not to touch it.”
“Ya think?” I said, easing past while trying to make myself small—an impossible feat. I really needed to get back to the salads since the giant, salad eating dinosaur named Tildy was gone. The time-traveling tortoise had certainly taken us on a few adventures. But she would mostly be remembered for the fact that she kept eating my lunch.
The space beneath the trellis was shadowed, the air icy and thick with magic. Every time I moved, an invisible energy skittered over my skin, bringing gooseflesh up on my arms and forming ice along my spine. “I don’t like the feeling of this place,” I told the sprite.
She buzzed over the trellis and behind it. “Weird.”
My gaze shot in her direction. “What’s weird?”
More buzzing and more frantic movement ensued. “Um, Naida…”
I reached for the feather Whom had given me, anxious to get the job done and get out of there. “I’m hurrying.”
The bulbous white flower had long petals that folded up from the sides, their tips tucked into the top, making it resemble a white orange. As I stood there, the petals quivered and started to open, emitting a delightful floral scent that sifted along my pebbled skin, soothing it. A smile tugged at my lips, even as alarm bells went off in my head. The opening petals revealed a quivering pool of silvery liquid at the blossom’s center. The poison? I didn’t know, but it seemed likely.
“Naida, you need to get out of there!” Sebille said. Her tone was hushed but taut with urgency.
I reached the tip of the feather toward the sweet-smelling blossom. A sense of warmth and love filled me. A sparkling wash of energy rose up off the flower and embraced me in delight.
My hand that was holding the feather paused. I fought to remember what I was doing there.
Birds sang in my head. Sunshine bathed me in golden light, and I looked around at a meadow that spread as far as the eye could see in every direction.
Naida!
Why did Sebille sound so frantic?
I looked down at the feather in my hand. My gaze lifted to a sea of Obsidian flowers, each one opening slowly to the sun.
The scent coming off the blooms was heady, like the finest wine, imbued with love.
The smile on my face turned giddy. My fingers began to open. The feather started to slip away. I eyed the lush green grass beneath my feet and thought it would be nice to lay down for a while, let the sun coat me in warmth as I breathed in all that delicious fragrance around me.
Naida! Get your fool head out of your backside!
Well. That wasn’t very nice. That Sebille was such a buzzkill…
Whack! Pain burned in my jaw like fire.
Whomp! Agony ripped through my middle.
The feather slipped from my fingers.
Argh!!!!
What was that infernal buzzing?
Kaboom!
I jerked, my eyes shooting open as explosions ripped through the peaceful garden.
I stared with glossy eyes at the feather down by my feet. What was I doing?
“Naida! What in the name of the goddess’s favorite
