“Nothing . . .” I didn’t want my nose to grow so I added, “that can’t wait until later.”
Donovan seemed to agree. He pulled me toward the meadow. “Chrissy is waiting for us. She’ll take us home.”
“She came back too?” Of course she had. How else could Donovan have gotten here? Chrissy must have borrowed magic from someone, and Donovan had volunteered to search Queen Orlaith’s land for me. The thought filled me with warmth, with energy. I used that energy to run faster.
Chapter 29
The advantage of sprinting through the forest without a stolen goblet shoved in your dress is that the birds don’t rat on you in squealing alarm. The only sound I heard was our footsteps and panting breaths.
The trees thinned. I saw Chrissy in the meadow, floating a few feet off the ground. Her wings fluttered in agitation. “Hurry!” she called to us. “Kailen is coming!”
I glanced over my shoulder. A dark shape was gliding over the forest—not a bird. Kailen flew in his fairy form. I had no idea how he knew I’d escaped from the bush, but he held his twisted wand outstretched as he scanned the trees, looking for me.
I pushed myself to go faster. We only had a few more trees to pass, and then we’d be out of Queen Orlaith’s lands. Donovan could have pulled ahead. He stayed beside me, though, matching his pace to mine.
Chrissy flew a couple of feet closer, then stopped, held back by an invisible border. She hovered in the air, waiting and fingering her wand so that sparks of glitter shot from its end.
We were almost to her.
“Hurry,” she called again. “I can’t come on Kailen’s land, but he can come here.”
Yeah, I remembered that detail from the last time Queen Orlaith had captured me and dragged me back to her domain.
Chrissy swished her wand and a swirl of sparkles hovered and twirled at the edge of the boundary, illuminating it for us. Freedom was so close, just a few sparkles away.
“Stop!” Kailen yelled from the tops of the trees. He’d spotted us.
I ran faster. The border was only a few steps away.
“By fairy law,” Kailen called, full of indignant authority, “the girl is my prisoner.” He spoke to Chrissy not to me.
Donovan and I sprinted across the border. It felt like running into a shower of glitter. I waited for the lights to brighten, for Chrissy to take us away. She didn’t. We ran to her, and she did nothing except twirl her wand and eye Kailen—watch his black wings carrying him toward us.
“Let’s go,” I breathed out. I wanted to add, don’t you dare turn us over to him, but I was panting too hard to say it. So I stared at her with a correlated expression.
Chrissy didn’t even glance at me. Her wings slowed until it looked like she was lazily hanging in the air. “The girl is my charge. That gives me the right to help her.” Her smile was smug, almost flirty. “We can’t expect mortals to obey fairy law.”
Kailen landed on the ground, tucking his wings behind him. His eyes fixed on Chrissy. “I can expect you to obey it.”
“You can expect it,” she said, definitely flirting now, “but you’ll be disappointed.”
And with that, lights flared around us . . . lit fireworks, surrounding us in white flashes. A whoosh of air pulled me upward.
When the lights cleared, we stood in a hotel room—my old hotel room—the one where I’d first met Chrissy and Clover. My suitcase sat where I’d left it near the closet by the bathroom. Pieces of glitter from Chrissy’s first visit still lay on the floor. The only difference was that now Queen Orlaith’s goblet stood on the dresser next to the TV. It seemed out of place there, a gleaming fairy relic aside a cheap plastic remote.
Donovan blinked to adjust his eyes and looked around. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw we were in the right century.
Chrissy opened a gauzy purse that appeared on the end of her wrist and slid her wand inside. “That will teach Kailen to ask for my number and then forget about me.” She snapped the purse shut in satisfaction. “I bet he remembers me for a long time now.”
Donovan put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath. “Could you have cut that escape any closer? We were running for our lives, and you stopped for witty banter with the enemy?”
Chrissy glided over to me, still glowing with triumph. “Here’s a pearl of wisdom from your fairy godmother: Never waste the chance for a dramatic exit, especially if a hot guy is involved.”
I was too overjoyed to be mad at the way Chrissy dragged out our departure. I threw my arms around her in a hug, which is sort of hard to do when the person you’re hugging has huge wings. “Thanks for returning for me.”
Chrissy patted my back reassuringly. “That’s what fairy godmothers are for: helping you and dispensing pearls of wisdom about hot guys.”
Donovan sliced Chrissy a glare, his hands still on his hips. “She came back because I paid her.”
“What?” I pulled away from Chrissy and turned to Donovan. The last time he made a deal with a fairy, it involved stealing a powerful goblet from an enemy queen. “What did you pay her?” My gaze returned to Chrissy’s, already pleading, already dreading.
Chrissy folded her arms. “Don’t look at me like that. He cashed in a wish, and I gave it to him.”
“He cashed in . . . what?”
Donovan reached into his pocket and pulled out three sticks he’d cut from the queen’s trees. One silver, one gold, and one missing the diamond that had been there.
He held up the diamond branch. “The wish fruit ripened just as we left. That meant I had a magic wish. I wished you would come back home.”
Chrissy smiled benevolently. “Some fairy godmothers wouldn’t have had the courage to grant that wish. Fortunately, your fairy godmother is exceptional. And if the UMA contacts you with a customer satisfaction survey, please remember to use that wording. Exceptional.”
I’d forgotten Donovan had a branch with unripe fruit, and now I laughed at the way it worked out. My sacrifice sending Donovan home had ripened the fruit, giving us the extra magical wish we needed. And the sweetest part was he’d used the wish to save me. “Exceptional,” I repeated.
Chrissy walked to the dresser, an extra bounce in her step. “Well, that’s another project successfully completed. Clover wasn’t able to sabotage my attempts, no one died, and I retrieved a powerful relic.”
She picked up the goblet from the dresser and surveyed it with approval. “Let the Fairy Godmother University acceptance committee say I don’t deserve to be admitted now.”
She held up the goblet, making a toast. “This should put my job as an insomnia fairy to rest. Pun so intended.”
I didn’t point out that Donovan and I had played a large part of retrieving the goblet. “Is Jason back to his regular life?”
Chrissy fingered the goblet, still admiring it. “I left him at his dressing room at the America’s Top Talent arena, surrounded by gift baskets.”
Good. His natural habitat.
I looked around again, noting the hotel room’s unchanged state. “How long have we been gone?”
Chrissy checked her watch and scowled. “Beetle dung. It’s been half an hour. I thought for sure I’d gotten the stopping time thing right this go ‘round.” She let out a dramatic sigh. “Oh well, I’m still exceptional.”
Half an hour. Not long at all. My mother was probably still at the store. No one was panicked or worried sick about my disappearance. I wouldn’t have to come up with some convoluted explanation no one would believe anyway.
“About Jason,” I said, drawing Chrissy’s attention back to me, “is he still in love with me?”
“Yes, but he’ll get over you quickly. Jason never stays in love with the same girl for long.” As though anticipating a protest, she added, “You never specified a time length.”