CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

By the goddess, it’s harder to keep my distance from Selena than I expected. Not a single moment passes that I’m not aware of her—the quick sound of her soft footfalls, the hitch of excitement in her breath as she steps into a new cavern, the warmth of her magic as she makes sure to heal the others time and again.

Even in the darkest of depths, I can’t escape her sunshine.

Her gentle touch on my arm and the way her magic sings through my body makes me long for her. I long to knot her and keep her for myself.

Yet as soon as we get to Moon Blade Village, the truth will come out that she’s bound to another, more worthy man. One young and full of life who will feed her joy with his own. One who won’t fail her when she needs him most.

I can’t bear the thought of her looking upon me with hurt and disappointment that I didn’t tell her this sooner. Better anything other than that.

The sooner we finish this quest, the sooner I’m out of my misery, and the sooner Selena gets to begin her joyful new life with her intended.

I spread the map across the floor in front of Bellavesaria. “Well?”

She studies it for several moments, then jabs a taloned foot toward one of the tunnel mouths. “That way.”

“You’re certain?” I squint at the parchment. Our way’s become ever more convoluted the farther we go, the tunnels weaving about one another in a chaotic dance.

“As certain as I can be,” she says, her wings rustling in agitation. “The closer we get to the center of the mountain, the less accurate the map gets. Adult dragons can’t travel these tunnels, and younglings aren’t supposed to, so all of the knowledge is secondhand.”

“If dragons didn’t make this map, who did?” Selena asks, eyes sparkling with curiosity. “And can we ask them for help?”

“We got the information from gnomes,” Bellavesaria says.

“No,” I growl. “Anything but gnomes.” By the goddess, I already have to deal with a cocky dragon youngling and a mischief-loving mount who’s more pooka by the day. The last thing I need is to add gnomes into the mix.

Ignoring me, Dash stomps his hoof against the ground. Even in the leather boots I made, a purposeful strike from his stocky leg makes a decidedly solid thump.

I glare at him. “Don’t you dare.”

He laughs in defiance and rolls his eyes, his hooves hitting the ground in a set rhythm, rat-a-tat-tat-tat.

Selena’s toes start to tap in time, her eyes darting from one tunnel mouth to the next.

She’s looking in the wrong place.

The moss all around us starts to shiver. One of the purple clumps breaks free of the ground, and a swirling figure rises up out of the rocky cave floor like a mini-tornado, finally coming to a halt to show a two-foot tall woman with light-green skin and white hair. She stands on one tiptoe with her arms thrown wide for dramatic effect. Her clothes are made of purple rowan leaves spotted with the occasional splash of blue from a blue birch leaf. The glowing patch of purple moss balances perfectly upon her head like a little cap.

Beside her, an equally small man with a long white beard tumbles out of the ground, doing a back flip without losing his pink moss cap.

Selena gasps and claps her hands together in glee as all around us the cavern fills with dancing gnomes wearing glowing moss caps.

“Unicorn, er, pooka,” the male gnome says. “Why have you called the gnomes?”

Dash glances toward me, and I wave him off. “Oh, no. This is all on you. ”

“Well…” The unicorn stumbles to a halt, at a loss for worlds for a change.

“We need a clarification of your map.” Bellavesaria taps the parchment with her talon. “You promised the dragons it was a most excellent map, but we’re having trouble following it.”

“You aren’t dragons ,” the gnome says. “You’re one youngling. My deal was with Sheevora, not you.”

Bellavesaria’s head rears back, and her tone becomes affronted. “Sheevora the Magnificent is my mother.”

“Fine.” He crosses his arms across his stocky chest. “Call your mother here, and let her ask us questions, then.”

The dragon youngling opens her mouth, but nothing comes up but a tiny wisp of smoke.

“Hi!” Selena gives a wave. “I’m Selena. Is there something we can trade for the information?”

“Can you make us a Ferris wheel?” the first gnome woman asks excitedly.

“A Ferris wheel?” Selena shoots me a puzzled glance.

“Long story,” I say.

“A human witch made the low-land gnomes a Ferris wheel, and we want one, too!” the gnome woman says.

Selena raises an eyebrow at me.

“All right,” I grumble. “Perhaps not that long.”

Selena turns back to them. “I can’t make you a Ferris wheel—”

A chorus of disappointed “awws” echoes through the cavern.

“—but I have healing magic. Is there anyone I can heal for you? ”

“You’d do this in exchange for our help with your map?”

“What if I did it because I want to help anyone who’s sick or hurt?” she says. “Afterward, you can help us, if you like.”

The gnomes huddle together, their moss caps turning into a solid carpet of patchwork color as a series of furious whispers teases the edge of my hearing.

“Gnomes don’t understand anything but bargains,” I murmur to Selena. “They won’t know what to do with your proposal.”

“Have a little faith.” She glances up at me with a wry grin. “People can surprise you.”

After several more moments of hot debate, the gnomes break apart. The leader does a front flip that lands him right in front of Selena. “We accept.”

Her smile is so glorious it makes my heart skip.

One of the gnomes disappears into the ground in a spinning whirl that leaves their moss cap right back where it started.

Selena crouches and pokes it with a hesitant finger, then runs her hand over the entire clump. “It’s reattached to the ground. How did they do that?”

“Gnome magic,” Bellavesaria says.

Dash adds, “They can move through solid dirt and rock.”

“It makes them excellent miners,” I say.

“Indeed, we are.” The leader pulls a ruby the size of a walnut from his pocket and holds it out to Selena. “Why, I found this only yesterday. Would you like it, pretty lady? ”

She reaches for it, and I clasp her hand, stopping her and glaring at the diminutive fae. “What must she give you for it?”

He sniffs. “A year of service to the gnomes. It’s a small thing.”

“A year of service?” She jerks her hand back and jumps to her feet. “That’s not small.”

“See,” I growl. “Don’t be fooled by their small size. Gnomes are still fae, still wily.”

Her lips press together into a straight line, but as soon as the other gnome returns with two more, Selena sits down on the ground to be nearer to them.

The first new gnome leans on another as if too weak to stand. They don’t even do any whirling or tumbling or anything, so the situation must indeed be dire.

Selena’s hand brushes over the sick man’s brow, and she closes her eyes for a moment, then opens them wide with a gasp. “He’s been exposed to deathsleep.”

“Can you fix it?” The man holding him up asks.

“I can.” Selena presses her hand to the ill gnome’s neck, and her magic sings through the air, a lovely song right at the edge of my hearing.

The gnome stirs, and his drooping eyes open all the way. The man holding him gives a cry of delight and kisses him.

“See, I did it,” Selena says.

“You did one,” the gnome leader says. He claps his hands, and several more gnomes disappear, only to return carrying completely comatose companions in their arms.

One after the other, Selena heals them .

I don’t even need to ask what it is that ails them—it’s clearly deathsleep. But that, in and of itself, is disturbing.

As soon as she heals the final gnome, I turn to the leader and point to our destination on the map. “Show us how to get to the crystal cavern.”

“We can lead you there, but it will do you no good,” the gnome says.

“Why not?” I growl, having a feeling I already know what he’ll say.

“A sluagh already came into the tunnels. It threw multiple gourds of deathsleep to drive us from the area.”

“It took the crystals?”

His small head nods vigorously. “It threw all of them into the mouth of the mountain.”

“Can we retrieve them from there, from the mouth of the mountain?” Selena asks.

“No,” Bellavesaria says. “It’s a lava vent. Anything tossed into it is incinerated.”

The gnome gives a solemn nod. “The mouth is hungry. Nothing escapes it.”

Fuck. I’ve barely begun, and already my quest is a failure. I’m a failure. Frustration and anger war within me. I stand and stomp back into the tunnel we just came from, waiting until I’m out of sight to slam my fist into the unyielding rock wall.