Toni shook her head. “I don’t know! It’s like you said, I was here and you all were singing Christmas carols and then I was in my grandmother’s meadow…”
So now someone was just snatching her up?
Jon’s face came into her line of vision next, his eyes troubled, his hand cupping her jaw. “Toni, are you all right?”
She didn’t have time to waste lingering on the fact that his hand felt pretty damn good on her skin. She was out for blood. The blood of a lying fairy.
“Where’s the damn fairy?”
Jon pointed over his shoulder with clear hesitance. “I’m afraid you’ve maimed the Truth Fairy, milady.”
“The Truth Fairy? Seriously?” she asked, spitting at the water dribbling down her face and over the front of her gown.
“Of course, lass,” Dannan responded, kneeling down to place his hulking frame in front of her. “The king uses her oft to parse the liars from the truth sayers. ’Tis important when creating armies to keep our lands safe.”
“Oh yeah? Well, the Truth Fairy just tried to kill me with her ninja fireballs.”
“That’s not true!” a diminutive, weak voice protested from behind Jon.
“Liar, liar, wings on fire!” Toni croaked, her throat raw.
And then Marty and Wanda gasped.
Toni’s eyes flew to the fairy lying on the ground as she began to return to her normally petite size—well, except for her nose. Her nose sprouted from her face like the pointy end of a carrot.
Jon pulled Toni upward, tucking her close to his chest in a possessive gesture she wasn’t up to fighting. “What say you, fairy? Does the maiden speak the truth?”
Flitting upward, her head rolled on her neck as she warred with the weight of her nose. Pressing her tiny hands to each cheeks, she held her head upright to keep it from lolling. “Look what you’ve done!” she screeched in outrage.
Toni was astonished, her eyes going wide. The nerve. The damn nerve. “What I’ve done?”
“You’ve stolen my powers!” the fairy squeaked. “I can feel it! Disgusting humans! The lot of you!”
Dannan plucked her from the air and eyeballed her. “Did the queen send ye?” he growled.
Her legs dangled as she tried to shake her head. “No!”
Dannan looked to Toni, his blue face stoic. “She speaks the truth, maiden.”
Regaining some of her energy, Toni planted her hands on her hips. “You know this how?”
“Look at her nose—it hasn’t grown again. She speaks no falsehoods,” he said, as though they should already know that bit of information.
Toni’s brain raced through her vast array of fairytales and she suddenly remembered. “Pinocchio?” she asked on a shout.
Dannan’s brow furrowed, his head cocked as his fluted ears wagged. “Whom?”
Toni narrowed her gaze at the fairy. “Is that how you tell if the king’s army is lying? By making their noses grow?” she asked.
Jon looked down at her with what she thought might be a hint of pride, secretly making her a little giddy. “’Tis exactly the way, Toni. How did you know this?”
Toni rolled her eyes, forgetting everything was upside down here. “Same old song. It’s similar to a fairytale back in my land. But I’m telling you, this fire-slinging winged nut launched a fireball at me! It’s not my nose that’s bigger than my head, now is it, you teeny-tiny winged terror? No. It’s yours, which means you’re lying. I didn’t steal anything from you!”
The fairy struggled against Dannan’s grip, her little body swinging to and fro like a festive pendulum. “But you did! Now you have the power to prove falsehoods. What will I dooo?” she cried.
Toni cocked her head to the right and paused to put this new revelation together. Yesterday, she’d fought a dragon. Today a fairy. She’d come away from the first battle with the ability to breathe fire. Now she had the ability to find out when people were lying by making their noses grow?
Where was this bag o’ tricks when she’d tried to prove Stas was lying about being a killer?
“So you’re telling me I’m the new Truth Fairy?”
“Arghhhhh!” the fairy screamed, writhing and twisting to no avail.
Toni didn’t have time to focus on the particulars; what she needed was to get to the root of the problem. This Angria and her grudge. “So why would you try to trick me into going with you if you don’t work for the queen and weren’t planning to take me to her? What’s the dealio here, Truth Fairy? What’s your motivation?”
“Greed!” a voice boomed, shaking the snow and leaves from the trees as a long staff crashed to the ground in front of their feet.
Ding-dong, fairytale character number three calling…
Chapter 7
The Truth Fairy shrunk in Dannan’s fingers, her eyes wide and full of terror. “Ellesandra, my queen!” she gasped.
“Silence!” the woman ordered, stomping her staff once more.
So this must be the Blue Fairy? Interesting.