I Do Believe in Faeries (The Cotton Candy Quintet Book 3) (9 page)

She started walking towards me, treading through the water and leaving behind a trail of dark red in her wake, although her scream never stopped.

Something grabbed me by the upper arm and pulled me away from her. In one last try, she reached out for me before I was pulled out of sight and away from her. The scream went on for a little longer, and I shut my eyes against the horror of it. I never wanted to hear that again.

“Trust you to find the Bean-Nighe,” a familiar voice said, trying to sound amused, but only sounding exhausted.

I looked up too see Robin’s gaze boring into mine. He actually looked just as worse for wear as I did, his green eyes tired as he offered me a small smile. “You are pretty hard to track down when you want to be,” he said softly.

Where had he come from? What had happened to him? Who was that woman?

All sorts of thoughts, but only one made its way to my lips as my face crumpled and tears fell for the millionth time today. “I couldn’t find you!” I cried. “I woke up in wherever-the-hell-this-is and I was lost and I tried finding you and the will-‘o-the-wisps took me here and that woman—”

To my utter surprise, he took me by the shoulders and hugged me to him, like I was some sort of treasure that he was afraid to let go. He wrapped his long arms around me and put his chin on top of my head.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “I tried to find you as fast as I could.”

I was so shocked by the sudden embrace, I stood stiff and unmoving. Then I melted into the safety of his arms and felt safe for the first time since I arrived here.

Chapter 10

“I think you may know the Bean-Nighe better as a banshee,” Robin told me some time later, when my tears had stopped and we had set up a little fire for us to relax and warm up beside, before we started walking again. The mood between us had completely changed. Before, we had bickered and bantered. Now, though, it seemed like there was a wall that had come down between us.

“A banshee?” I asked, glad for the distraction from my empty stomach.

Robin sighed and sat back, the light from the fire that I had started, dancing across his face. “A woman who screams when someone dies. The Bean-Nighe in particular—” he pointed in the direction of the stream and I shuddered inwardly “—washes the clothes of someone who is about to pass on.”

“So someone just died when I saw her?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Not too sure. They say that the Bean-Nighe is the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth.”

I clasped my hands and felt my heart sink at the thought. “That’s horrible,” I whispered finally, “that she can’t find peace even in death.”

I thought about Alaina being pregnant with the baby that I was trying to find here. I hoped she’d be all right once everything was fixed. That there was nothing even remotely like this in her future.

“There are a lot of things that happen outside of our control,” Robin said. “You have to make do with what you have.”

Like being the only one in my family without magick
.

“I wonder why the will-‘o-the-wisps took me to her,” I murmured softly.

A wicked smile came to Robin’s features, exaggerated by the flickering firelight. “They were trying to help, I think. After all, her scream alerted me to where you were.”

“What happened to you?”

He was silent for a long time before he scratched his ear and readjusted the position of his legs. I totally did not look at the flash of his abs or anything as he moved.

“I woke up in a nest of pixies that live as hedgehogs. I even landed on a few and had to pull out some quills.” He grimaced at the reminder and rubbed at his back. “Luckily, Jack-in-Irons—the giant that we met—was nowhere to be found, so he must have kept going down the road. I wish I could have returned the favor and hit him back to the Winter Court.”

His face took on a severe frown as he said that, so I felt like I should lighten the mood a bit.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “For pushing me out of the way when the giant tried hitting me with that club.” I gulped nervously. “I would have been killed.”

He chuckled mirthlessly. “Well, you still owe me a favor, and you can’t pay me back if you’re dead.”

So that was it. That was the only reason why he was here, a favor. I guess I shouldn’t put any more stock into why he was here. I had to fight back my disappointment as I looked away.

“What kind of favor are you expecting from me?” I asked, dreading the answer.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe your personality. Maybe your true love. Or…” He sidled up to me and met my gaze. “Maybe your youth and beauty. You have quite a few years left on you.”

I gave him a horrified look, at which he cackled. Actually cackled.

“I’m kidding, Tinkerbell. Take a joke.”

“Because it was
so
funny,” I said sarcastically. Then I realized that he had said “beauty” and I tried to figure out if he meant that as part of his joke.

His eyes sparkled with mischievous humor. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “Don’t worry, it won’t be your firstborn child or anything. I don’t want you going through Tir na nÓg again to get
that
baby, too.”

I watched him, feeling my heart pound at his words and wondering what I should say after that. I settled on, “Good.”

He chuckled and then fell silent, the reflection of the fire in his eyes. “Maybe my favor will be for you to take me out on a date.”

Oh god, now my heart was in my throat. Did I really hear that right?

“What?”

He sat back, propping himself up on his arm. “Yeah, why not?” he asked. “I’ve been in the mortal realm for a long while now and these date-things are always fascinating to me. Sometimes there’s more than the first date. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. But, I’d like to see if it would work out.”

“If going on a date works out?”

He shrugged. “If you and me would work out.”

“Is that another joke?” I asked.

“What do you think?”

I looked at him, trying to figure if it was or not. A part of me, the part of me that was experiencing insta-love with him, wanted it to be so badly. Then again, another part of me freaked out at the thought, because the truth was, I
did
like him a lot. But he was a faerie, and I was mortal.

If that was all the favor would be, then I might be okay owing him more favors…

“So anyways, Tinkerbell,” he said, his voice slightly ragged, “when all this is done, I—” He stopped abruptly and glanced back behind him.

“Aw, hell,” he sighed, reminding me of what he said just before Jack-in-Irons showed up. That sent my mind into a panicked state of mind.

And for good reason, too.

I looked behind him to see a bunch of eyes watching us. Then a bunch of armored beings came out of the shadows, as tall as my waist. They were various shades of mossy green, with huge ears poking up from beneath their helmets. They were also chubby, big fellows with beer bellies that their tattered shirts didn’t cover.

I could run from one, but there were at least two dozen watching us keenly. I had no hope of running, and I didn’t trust my magick to get us out of this one.

“Goblins,” Robin sneered, as much for my benefit as it was for him to hail the newcomers.

“Robin Goodfellow,” the big fat goblin in the front hailed. “You’re a wanted faerie.”

Robin crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “Everyone wants a piece of me.”

He moved to block as much of me as possible from the lead goblin’s sight. Like he was trying to protect me without bringing too much attention to it.

At least it seemed that way. Who knew what was going through his head?

“Queen Mab wants to see you,” the big goblin said.

“I guess I’m flattered,” Robin said, blinking in mock surprise, “that she’d send off the best of her goblin army to the Autumn Court to see me. You realize that this is trespassing, right? If anyone finds out, it could be an act of war between the Autumn and Winter Courts.”

“A calculated risk,” the goblin sniffed derisively, although Robin’s words had the desired effect on the other goblins. They murmured amongst themselves, shifting their weight and looking very uncomfortable. Heck, I even felt uncomfortable myself at those consequences. I did
not
want to get caught up in a faerie war.

“Silence!” the lead goblin growled. “We won’t get caught if everyone shuts up!”

That worked, and the rest of the goblins quieted. The leader peered around to make sure there weren’t any stragglers before finally turning his attention back to Robin. “You’re coming with us, Robin Goodfellow.”

“Can’t,” Robin said in an offhanded way. “I already have a prior engagement.”

That was when the leader tilted his head to look around Robin and saw me. Our gazes met and the goblin’s face twisted into anger.

“A mortal?” he spat. “What is Robin Goodfellow doing with a human girl?”

Robin stiffened in front of me with a sharp inhale. He was trying to figure out how to get out of this one. At least I hoped so. I had the feeling that these goblins wouldn’t take too kindly to a faerie traveling with a mortal girl.

“She’s my prisoner,” Robin said at last.

I blinked to make sure that I had heard that correctly.

“Prisoner?” I repeated at the same time as the leader. We both sounded incredulous, but for different reasons.

Robin grabbed my arm, and I hissed in pain as he hauled me to my feet. “Yes, my prisoner,” Robin said. “I was actually just on my way to bring her to Queen Mab myself. You know, because I owe her Frozenness a favor.”

“What are you doing?” I whispered, trying to figure out what was going through his head.

Robin flashed his eyes on me, cold, calculating, and warning me not to speak. This was completely unlike the Robin that I’d just been talking to a few minutes before. This was someone else entirely. Someone inhuman who I didn’t recognize.

I shrunk under that cold gaze.

“She seems to think you’re friends,” the goblin grunted.

Robin shrugged. “All a part of the plan.”

“But—” I protested.

“I know that Queen Mab likes mortal servants,” Robin said, roughly shoving me into the space between us. I stumbled and fell, crying out in pain from my cracked ribs. “And since I’ve been, ah, indisposed and unable to come to the Queen’s aide, I decided to do a make-good by bringing her a mortal girl.” He glanced down at me. “This one has fire magick.”

That got the goblins’ attention. “Fire magick?”

“Yeah,” Robin said, chuckling. “I tricked her into wishing for magick, and then brought her here. Isn’t that typical of mortals to trust me?”

The goblins howled in laughter, like it was the funniest joke ever.

No, this was a trick that he was doing to protect me. Although why, I had no idea. We just needed to get out of here and go to the Summer Court and everything would be fine.

His fingers dug into my arm, bruising the skin, and I had to blink wildly to keep my tears from falling. The betrayal, if that was what this was—even though I still had trouble believing it—hurt worse than the pain in the rest of my body.

“Robin, I—”

“She still thinks we’re friends,” Robin said, his eyes as cold as if we were already in the Winter Court. “But what can you expect from a stupid mortal?”

“Good one,” the leader chuckled at the non-joke.

Suddenly they were all buddy-buddy, and I was at the center of their mocking.

After everything we’d been through together, I thought I could trust him. He had hugged me when I was terrified of the Bean-Nighe. He even called me Tinkerbell, for Pete’s sake. Surely that wasn’t all fake. Surely we were friends and this was a trick.

Surely.

“Stay back,” I said. I staggered backwards. “The next person who touches me will feel the burn of my fire!”

To my despair, the goblins all burst into laughter, like I had just told the funniest joke. It wasn’t meant to be funny. I’d been totally serious.

Even worse, Robin had joined in with their laughing.

“Oh, that’s funny,” Robin said. “Didn’t I tell you a long time ago that you couldn’t do anything to me, Tinkerbell?”

He called me by my nickname, the name that I had started to like. That drove home that I was dealing with someone who wasn’t who I thought he was.

He reached out and grabbed me. I screamed and unleashed a fury of fire through him. It was a stronger blast than the fireball that I had used to light up Jack-in-Irons’s club. It should have set the faerie on fire.

Only, as soon as it hit Robin, it just fizzled out. Like it was nothing. Robin inhaled deeply and brushed off the one bit of his clothing that got singed.

“Well, she
had
fire magick,” he said with a chuckle. “I guess she’s used all of it up. Actually,  I just took it.”

I blinked in terror and sent another stream of fire his way. The only thing that I did was just wave at him. There wasn’t even a bit of magick this time.

I started hyperventilating. Oh my god. What was wrong with me?

“She should be safe to handle now,” Robin said, proud of himself. He gave me a toothy smile.

I whimpered despite myself as I was dragged between all of the goblins. They leered at me, binding my hands and my feet. I sobbed, terrified out of my mind, as they hefted me between all of them, like I was bodysurfing at some sort of horrible concert. Except that I was the center of attention of a horde of goblins.

“She smells like cucumber and melon.”

“Her hair is blonder than Titania’s!”

“Oh, look, she’s crying!”

I heard a sobbing noise. Only then did I realize that it was me.

“We’ll take her to Queen Mab,” the leader said, somewhere out of my line of eyesight. I cried as one grabbed my hair and pulled me along.

“Nuh-uh,” Robin’s voice came. “Not without me. She’s my present for the Queen, remember?”

“But of course,” the leader chuckled. “She wants to see you too.”

I couldn’t see anything as I was pulled along. They carried me aloft above them, like I was on a palanquin of smelly, ugly goblins. It wasn’t glamorous at all.