Ellesandra’s eyes went wide. “You defeated the Truth Fairy? A human?”
Toni nodded, brushing her tangled mess of hair from her cheek. “Believe me. No one’s as surprised as me. Look, this is a long story, but a couple of days ago I worked in an outlet mall for a boss I could have spat from my vagina if I were just a few years older. Now I’m breathing fire and making liars’ noses grow. Color me as shocked as you. But it wasn’t on purpose. She started it. Which I think is obvious from the state of her nose.”
“This is a startling turn of events,” Ellesandra said, whisking her vast robes over the snowy ground as she headed down the path. “Follow me, darling ones, and I shall make all things right!”
Toni’s mouth fell open when they entered Ellesandra’s cottage, which wasn’t really a cottage at all, but a mini-castle. The outside was deceptive—it looked like all the other cottages in the Garden of Wings, covered by the colorful sugared vines and trees so prevalent, but the inside was nothing short of spectacular.
A spiral staircase in the middle of the vast entryway led to places unknown, winding upward into what looked like swollen pink clouds the consistency of cotton candy. Vases in creamy ice cream colors held ferns and ivy, spilling from their tops in lush green. Candleholders as tall as Toni supported fat, squat candles, their scents filling the house with pears and lavender.
Rough stone fountains sculpted into fairies riding swans spewed forth champagne-colored water, the bubbles dissipating as they hit the air.
Windows as high as the ceiling with oyster-colored drapes falling to the ground in graceful sweeps spanned the room, the view to the world of the Garden of Wings in all its pink-and-purple twilight almost incandescent.
Ellesandra waved them to the back of her home, past room after room filled with books, fairies dotting the interiors with their bright hues and cheerful buzzing. She took them to her kitchen, where tables and chairs sat off to the left, vases of flowers centered upon them.
A cauldron bubbled beneath a warm fire in a stone fireplace, misty tendrils of green and blue rising from its depths. She motioned them to puffy chairs around the hearth as she gave orders to an elderly man who stirred the cauldron.
“Nourish our guests, please, Hamish. Their journey has had pitfalls,” she said as she swept out of the room, taking Dannan and Jon with her.
Toni helped Nina to a long couch, the armrests gilded in gold and blue scrolls, setting her gently on the cushiony edge. “Lean back, Nina.” She pressed a light hand to Nina’s shoulder and instead of biting it off, she actually did as Toni commanded without a single word of protest, making Toni’s heart constrict.
Hamish, his stout body attached to short legs and even shorter feet, produced steaming teacups. As he bent forward, the thin wisp of graying hair atop his round head wafted upward.
He peered over round spectacles and smiled warmly. “The coffee you so desire, miladies,” he said, setting a tray on a table with a bronzed sculpture of a fairy beneath it, the hands of the statue holding the glass tabletop aloft. “Milk and sugar as well.”
“God, he sounds like Arch, huh, Marty?” Nina asked, her voice so weak Toni was beginning to really worry.
Marty brushed one of the vampire’s soggy curls from her milk-white face with a tender hand and nodded. “Yeah, he does, friend.” She patted her lap. “Here, put your head on my lap and rest.”
Nina did so without protest, letting Marty stroke her raven hair as Wanda slipped in next to her friend and inched over so Nina’s upper torso sprawled across both the women’s laps. Wanda patted Nina’s sagging wings, her face lined with worry.
She looked so small and helpless, Toni had to fight tears. This was not the woman who’d threatened her with endless harm. This wasn’t the woman who cussed like a sailor and stomped around in a dress like an Army sergeant.
This was a woman who’s emotions ran deeper than most. Who lobbed angry insults and taunts, but who’d die protecting the people she loved.
She decided right then and there, she didn’t care what Angria did to her, but Nina had to go home now—or she’d die. Screw Brenda and screw her tasks, but especially screw getting her to the castle. She’d find a way to get there without jeopardizing Nina’s life.
“We’ll figure this out, Nina. Swear we will,” Wanda whispered, her breath shuddering in and out of her lungs as she bit her trembling lower lip.
“You think Charlie’s okay?” Nina asked, her words thick, yanking hard on Toni’s heart.
“Aw, you know it, Elvira. If the boys know we’re gone, Arch is in full maternal mode by now. He’s buying stuffed unicorns and more Teletubby DVDs than even your drafty castle can hold.”
“I’ll kick his stodgy British ass if he gets her one more stuffed animal,” Nina groused, her eyes half-closed.