I whirled around, but found no one.
“Or both of us,” a second voice said. “I’d havelovedto help.”
“Oh, please, Dum! You know I would have been perfect for the job. I’m much more of a go-getter than you or that stupid pooka. He transformed into a fly and forgot her here! Probably worried about being on time again, the fool.”
Well, that answered the question of how Herald got out of the room.
“And you seem set on confusing the heck out of the poor thing,” the other voice, Dum, retorted. “Alice! Look up!”
My eyes drifted upward, which was a great deal farther than it had been minutes ago, and widened when I found two pixies sitting on a windowsill.
“Oh, hi.” I blinked up at them.
“Hello. I’m Tweedle Dee, that’s two words, if you please!” The pixie with short, red hair and a matching dress stood and curtsied as she introduced herself.
“And I’m her twin sister, Dumtalora.” The pixie with blue hair down to her tiny butt, and a dress to match, threw me a wave.
“Hi, Tweedle Dee and Dumtalora.” I said the names slowly, hoping they were some kind of joke.
“Oh, you can call us Dee and Dum,” Dumtalora said quickly. “Obviously, our names are a bit of a mouthful for you.”
Now someone named Dum thinks I’m slow? Oh, the irony.
“You two wouldn’t be able to help me out here, would you?”
The pixies slipped off the window ledge. Their retracted wings popped out, and they fluttered in midair.
“We can help you get the key.”
Embarrassment crashed over me. Why hadn’t I just unstrapped my wings?
Some faerie I am . . .
“Yeah, that would be great.”
They beamed at me before landing next to the key. After a scuffle over who would hold it, they discovered that it was too heavy for one pixie anyhow, and shared the burden.
A minute later, they landed in front of me and dropped the key.
“Oh my! We need to exercise more!” Dum clutched her side and bent over as if she’d run a marathon.
“For once, I totally agree.” Dee fanned the back of her neck with her red mane.
“Thanks.” I lifted the key effortlessly, which told me that despite our sizes being equal, the pixies were kinda weak. “Now, time to get outta here!”
I slung the key over my shoulder and spun toward the door.
“Hold on!” A shriek came from behind me, stopping my heart before I’d even taken two steps.
“What?!” I twisted around, thinking maybe one of them had had a heart attack from exertion. “What happened?”
Dee shoved Dum. “Nothing. She’s just being dramatic.” The red-haired pixie rolled her eyes and lifted off the floor.
I watched as she soared up to the tabletop, grabbed the teacake, and floated to me. She handed me the cake, and suddenly my hands were very, very full.
“She didn’t want you to forget this.”
“What does it do?”
