Moon's Flower (Kingdom, #6)

“Show yourself, fairy.” Quirking a brow, she withdrew her wand from the voluminous folds of her icicle-blue gown. When the shadow failed to budge from the wall, she shot a bolt of her power at the swing, causing it to light up and reveal the worried face of one of her snail Fae.

A short, pixie haired fairy with piercing gray eyes who continued to stare at her feet, even when Galeta cleared her throat for the wee thing to continue.

“Fine.” She snapped her fingers, lighting the lanterns affixed to her mushroom walls. “You have three seconds to tell me what it is you want, Jinger—”

“It’s June, ma’am,” the snail mumbled.

“What was that?” Galeta leaned in. It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard her, it was that she had very little patience for simpering and timidity. Galeta was of the mind that if you were bold enough to break into someone’s home, you were bold enough to speak up.

Taking a fortifying breath and squaring her shoulders, the fairy turned her face up. “I said it’s June, ma’am.”

“Aye.” Galeta huffed, as folded slips of clothing floated from her suitcases to her bedroom dresser. She always hated cleaning up after returning home from an extended trip. “Well, then, why have you broken into my home? Anything that needs to be said could have been spoken at the games tonight, could it not?”

Nibbling on a corner of her lip, June looked as if she was soon to faint. Disgusted, Galeta growled.

“I’ve very little patience for games, snail. Either tell me why you’re here or I shall strip your wings for daring to enter my home while I was away.”

“You… you must promise me that she will not be harmed.”

The words seemed ripped from June, and her constant fidgety manner, was an obvious clue that the snail wished to be anywhere other than where she was now.

Galeta’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “Harm who?”

Nostrils flaring, breath scissoring through her lungs audibly, the poor Fae looked as if she was ready to expire any second now. “Ca…Calanthe.”

The name immediately pricked Galeta’s ears. The fairy had the devil in her, had ever since the night of her birth beneath the roses. Calanthe had been a thorn in Galeta’s side for ages, prone to do whatever her emotions led her to, reckless and wild and often without regard for rules or regulations.

“What has that chit gone and done now?” She asked with exhaustion lacing her words.

“She stole from you, ma’am,” her words were a jumbled murmur. Galeta could barely make out what she’d said. All she’d heard was ‘blah, blah, blah, ma’am.’

Gods, snails were so incredibly stupid. Why couldn’t they have half the brain of the flower fairy? It would make understanding them so much easier. With a roll of her eyes, and a rumbly growl in the back of her throat she said, “would you mind saying that again and this time speak up.”

Clearing her throat, June squared her shoulders and said, “I said, ma’am, that Calanthe stole from you, ma’am.”

Nostrils flaring, Galeta cocked her head. “Stole what?” There were treasures untold she kept hidden in her home, that Calanthe would dare to enter without her express permission first made The Blue experience the type of frosty fury she was infamous for. Clenching her fists until her nails dug into the palms of her hands, she took a step closer to the fairy before her, “answer me now, June, tell me all I wish to know, or you too shall suffer the same fate as your dear friend.”

June turned her head to the side, but not before Galeta witnessed the flash of pain scrawl across her face. “A moon flower seed.”

“She did what!” Taking a step closer, Galeta didn’t think, she grabbed June by her tunic, and shoved her face so close that their breaths mingled. “When did she take that?”

June mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like two months ago.

“Did you say two months? Please tell me that you did not say two months, because if, in fact, you did say two months, then I shall very likely kill you myself for keeping that from me for so long.”

To threaten to kill another fairy was a crime that could very likely land her before The Ten, the high faerie council, but June would never tell because Galeta was simply too powerful. Besides she had no need to strip June’s wings or plunge a knife through her heart, fear would keep this fairy very loyal now.

“Please don’t hurt me, Galeta, I’ve wanted to tell you I did, but I wasn’t sure whether to approach you when you returned or while you were away at the council, and she has stopped since I swear it. I’ve kept a close eye on her.”

“Ah, but you’re not telling me everything are you? Because if you say that she only stole once, and yet you’ve continued to keep an eye on her there must be a reason, no?”

The one thing Galeta had always been good at was her ability to suss out a lie. there were good liars, and there were bad liars. It was always harder to spot a good liar, but June was not a good liar. Her eyes were shifty, her skin moist, and her throat bobbed like an apple’d been stuck in it. There was more to this story, of that she had no doubt.