“What are you talking about?” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “And again, why are you even here? This quest has nothing to do with you. We are journeying to find the cure for Erualis, not seeking some fairies’ favor.”
Clapping her tiny hands to her trim hips, her frosty blue eyes glared at him. “I will pretend you didn’t just group me into the category of some fairy,” she sneered, “and if you believe for a moment that it was mere happenstance that led you to Lilith, you couldn’t be more dead wrong, you imbecilic baboon.”
Not sure whether to laugh or be offended, Giles simply dropped his brows. “Come again?”
“Aye, you heard me,” she said in an exasperated tone. “It wasn’t Rumpel’s idea to bring the two of you lovebirds together—he’d have sent you off to the wolves to fend for yourself alone. The man thinks like a man, after all. It took much convincing on mine and Shayera’s part to get him to see that you might actually need a guide to traverse the wilds of the mostly unexplored regions you’ll be soon entering.”
“I have done just fine.”
“Good grief,” she said with a disbelieving chortle. “Was it not my girl who saw you safely through the dragon’s lair? I believe it was, and a damn fine job of it she did, too.”
“She put herself in harm’s way. She only needed to use the charm and we could have—”
“Ha!” she screeched and before he knew what she was about, she flew up to him and rapped on the back of his skull twice and with vigor. “Anybody home?”
Swatting her away, he glowered at her. “You deny that she put herself in danger, mucking around with a dragon’s opal? Everyone knows their life force is tied to that stone.”
“Precisely, which meant”— she shook her head for emphasis, bucketfuls of fairy dust dropping onto his pants—“the dragon could posture all it wanted, but it would have never done a thing to hurt her. Not so long as she held tight to its precious. And by the way, have you seen the movie about the golem? Betty showed it to Jericho and me just last eve and that thing is quite hideous.” She shuddered and then proceeded to chuckle, her eyes going far away as she whispered “my precious” in a high-pitched voice over and over again.
Giles snapped his fingers, causing her to jerk and cease her laughter. “I know nothing of movies and please, I’ve not time for tangents. Erualis could even now be—”
Finally she sighed, turning fully serious. “Indeed, the boy is not well. It is partly why I’ve come. Rumpel bid I ask you to hurry.”
Giles gave her an incredulous stare, because he was fairly certain that’s what he’d been getting at all along.
“No.” She wagged a finger in his face. “It is not the same thing. You are impatient, and you are also blind and stupid.”
“Excuse me?”
She blinked prettily. “I’m sorry, Giles, did I stutter? Let me say that again. You are b-l-i-n-d and s-t-u-p—”
“I know what you said,” he snapped. “You make absolutely no sense, fairy. Tell Rumpel that we will soon be there. That I will return with the chalice and that Erualis will be fine. I vow it upon my darkened soul.”
“Oh, good grief. Why are all demone sooo melodramatic?” She smacked her forehead, glancing up at the roof, and muttered beneath her breath, “Jericho, darling, would it be too much to ask that they’d just listen for once?”
Giles knew little of this fairy other than she had a penchant for being a godmother to the ill-bred and crazy cast of characters inhabiting Kingdom. Rumpel had spoken of the fairy a time or two, especially during Shayera’s trial. Calling her as mad as the heathens she cared for. And seeing her now, talking to the air, he could almost believe it.
A lavender beam of moonlight bolted through a small hole in the room, haloing and framing her so that she appeared to glow the ghostly mirage of the undead. Her flesh radiated with the light and she gave a happy little smile. “Love you too, darling,” she whispered and then blinked back at Giles. “That was my husband, and he told me that perhaps I should tone it down a wee bit. But I do get excited, especially when I sense a viable love match, and you are. Can’t you see it?”
“What? A love match? Between Lilith and me?” He chuckled. “We can barely tolerate one another.”
Not entirely true, but the fairy didn’t need to know that.
Her head cocked as though she were listening to something far off in the distance. Shaking her head, she held up a hand. “I’m okay, Jericho. I shall not turn him into a toad, I vow it.” Turning her eyes back to Giles her smile grew broader. “My husband is so good for my temper. Now,” she inhaled deeply, “one more time, and this time I shall endeavor to be kinder in my delivery.” The light around her pulsed brightly.
The moonlight was behaving in a way around her Giles had never witnessed it doing before.
“You and Lilith are a destined pair.”