“They want collateral, something of great importance.” Kol dug into his pockets but only revealed a wallet, his thauma-thing, and his gloves. “Can I owe you one?”
This time when the pixies expressed their unintelligible displeasure, Kol’s brow narrowed, but his attention had diverted to the hell-geese. He tugged Piper with him as he walked closer to the birds, and she leaned backward but allowed herself to be towed along.
Kol knelt before one of the creatures. Its bill was held open in a hiss, head serpentining and prepared to strike, but Kol just reached out and gently lifted one of its wings. “Sorry about this,” he said, running fingers over the feathers as he spread them out.
Piper remained on her feet, looming over Kol’s back with her arms tucked in. She knew enough about wildlife to understand something was wrong, but she doubted even the county rehabilitators would know what to do with a goose from the underworld.
But Kol seemed to, once again pulling out his magic tablet and placing it directly on the ground. He swiped around on the screen, and lineaments lit up in the snow, snaking away into the forest. “Stay here,” he said to Piper as he stood, and then to the pixies, “if you take her, I will find you, and I will bring a much bigger stick.”
Piper’s objection caught in her throat when he made eye contact before walking off. His gaze pierced hers just like when she’d been sat on the bench, but instead of some obscure threat, she was reassured.Oh, all right, things will be fine then, her own voice said into her head, and though she didn’t entirely believe it, it was said all the same.
As Kol disappeared, following one of the green, glowy lines his device magically conjured, Piper took stock of the pixies and Hades’ personal geese surrounding her.Remember the stick, she wanted to say, but instead just smiled awkwardly as one of the pixies zipped around her like the world’s tiniest flying shark. Another came to hover before her face.
Six eyes looked her up and down—or, she assumed, it was hard to tell without pupils—and then its massive mouth said something indiscernible.
“I don’t know what you’re saying, but if it matters, I really am sorry about the tree.”
More blabbering, angrier blabbering.
“We are taking good care of it. Well, Kol is. He’s good at that, apparently.” She looked after where he had disappeared, a slight ache forming in her chest. “We’ll make sure it gets back where it belongs, but for now it’s happy, and it looks really pretty with all the ornaments and lights—”
A little finger was shoved in her face, and the blabbering turned to snarls.
“Yup, you’re probably right, it’s not for decoration.” She pressed the tips of her gloved fingers together and squinted. “But it does look really pretty anyway!”
As the pixie grumped, another one buzzed up to her and began poking around at her jacket.
“Um, excuse me?” She leaned away but kept her boots firmly planted. Two more pixies darted toward her as the first dug into one of her pockets, and then there was just a blur of violet and iridescence swirling around her as she felt herself be tugged in every direction. “Remember the big stick!” she finally shouted, covering her face and squeezing her arms into her sides.
The whirlwind stopped, and when she peeked between her fingers, one of the pixies was hovering before her and holding up a polished piece of brown agate.
“You stole that out of my bag!” Piper pulled open her purse but already knew exactly where it came from. There was only one like it, and she and her mother had found it together two decades ago on a hike in the very same woods. She snatched at the stone, but it was pulled out of her reach and then tossed from one pixie to another.
Piper whirled around, jumping to the height the agate was thrown, but the pixies were so much quicker than she could follow, and she only managed to lose her balance as the hell geese hissed with more mirth than malice.
Piper got back to her feet, balling up her fists and glaring at the one she’d decided was their leader. “Okay, look, I really am sorry about the tree, but can you please give that back? It’s really important to…” Piper took in a slow breath and then let it out. “It’s important, just like your tree. Right. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Collateral until the tree’s returned.”
The pixie tipped its head and nodded, catching the agate when it was tossed to him and clutching it to his chest.
Piper didn’t think it terribly fair, but there was no other way, and it was probably a little better than going to that nether place. “I understand,” she said, swallowing. “Just please be careful with it.”
The pixie eyed her, something like appreciation on its face, and then held out the polished stone and dropped it.
Piper squeaked in horror, but before it could plummet to the ground, the agate disappeared in a puff of glitter.
“Did you send it to hell?” she asked weakly.
“I told you they’re originally from the nether.” Kol walked out of the depths of the forest, hands full of some sort of pulpy goop. The glowy lines had disappeared from the snow, the ingredients he’d gone out to find presumably squashed up in his hands. He knelt at the goose’s side again, and it extended its wing willingly this time as he applied the poultice.
She watched Kol’s long fingers move carefully along the feathers as he spread the mixture, adept and measured. She felt them around her hand again, the surprise at being touched at all, and then how quickly it became familiar and welcome to have him so close, which was ludicrous! But as her gaze lingered on the way his fingers slid through the poultice, her hands warmed with the memory of his touch, and then so did everything else, just like when she’d pressed up against him under the branches.
“Give it an hour, and you should be able to fly again,” Kol said, breaking Piper of a daydream where they might have been pressed against one another with fewer layers on. “Now, let’s get to negotiating. You can’t have the tree, but I’ve had this hat for years, and—”
“I took care of it,” Piper cut in, and the pixies nodded, looking almost as friendly as the one depicted in Kol’s tablet.
The half-elf’s gaze darted between them. “Youbartered with the pixies?”
Piper shrugged. “Well, yeah. I mean, it’s not my first deal with a little magic guy.”
