Page 80 of A Lady’s Guide to Fae Kings

“Your powers don’t work here, little king.”

Lachlan did not look concerned. His eyes were hard as he crouched to meet her gaze. “Care to test that? Do you think a little thing like that will stop me if you harm my wife in any way?”

Jenny Greenteeth paused, sucking water through her lips sulkily. In the detritus of her hair, floating on the fetid surface of the bog, were leaves and bones that looked distressingly human, teeth, an eyeball Pippa had no intention of investigating more closely, and what appeared to be the tail of a lizard.

Pippa remembered reading something about lizards. Something that felt important. She murmured a spell over the guide book until the right page opened for her. Lizards shed their tails, which they used for moving about, for balance and proprioception. As a sort of limb.

A limb shed with no blood.

Pippa crouched low, hoping Jenny Greenteeth was distracted enough by Lachlan not to hear the loud thumping of her heart. Lachlan glanced at her, then shifted slightly to give her more cover. She snatched the lizard tail and dropped it into her basket, straightening quickly. Then she backed away.

Right into a tangle of knotted, mossy vines and branches.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Jenny Greenteeth spat as more ropes descended, weaving themselves together into a barrier. Poisonous bog flowers bloomed. Pippa felt weak almost instantly. She blinked, colors bleeding together. The smell of lilies was overpowering.

“I’ve been alone here for too long. No one to talk to, no one to eat. It’s grown tiresome.”

Jenny Greenteeth might not be brave enough to fight Lachlan directly, but she would not have to. She just had to trap them here until they died of thirst. Lachlan pulled a dagger from his boot.

“I met a Jenny Greenteeth in Hallow once,” Pippa said quickly. It did not seem like good manners to tramp through someone’s bog without invitation and proceed to murder the inhabitants. Though it had to be said that she was not particularly keen on being murdered herself either. “She enjoyed gothic novels with terrifying ghosts,” she continued. “And recipe books. What do you like to read?”

“Don’t know, do I? I was cursed to never leave this bog.”

“I see.” Pippa tilted her head. “What if I had a book for you? Would you let us go then?”

“What kind of book?” she asked suspiciously. “And how do you know I can read?”

“Can you?”

“Well, yes.”

“I have a lovely guide to the bogs of Britain. You could read all about your cousins on the other side of the fairy rings.”

She looked interested. Peevish but interested.

Pippa held up the book. “At the Library, we expect these back, but you may keep this one. If you let us pass unharmed. Both of us.”

The mossy jail tightened, then loosened. “Oh, very well.”

“Than—”

“A fair bargain struck,” Lachlan interrupted. He whispered in her ear, “Never say ‘thank you’ in Elphame.”

She nodded and cut herself off with a huff of frustration. She knew that. Don’t eat the fruit. Don’t say thank you. What a small thing that might have lost her the trials. Being polite was a way of life on Lyonesse, and the way she had made herself invisible and safe for years now.

Lachlan took the book from her and handed it to Jenny Greenteeth himself. “No tricks, mind.”

She sniffed. “I made a bargain.” She snatched the book and propped it on a branch, above the thick green water. Her fingers were wrinkled, and a snail had taken up residence on her left thumbnail.

“Please don’t eat my other friends,” Pippa called over her shoulder as they hurried away.

Lachlan tugged her farther down the causeway. They walked for some time through the green shadows, peering into the dark waters, and between the dripping silver mosses. Eyes gleamed high up in the black trees.

A hauntingly beautiful song drifted toward them.

The bog water turned clear and sparkling, the green mists fading. A shaft of sunlight broke between the trees, catching dancing motes and the golden glitter of Fae magic. White lilies bloomed. It was so beautiful that Pippa felt instantly better.

She halted.

“Oh no.”