“By the aether, you two gave us such a scare!” Dum soared over. “What can we do to help?”
I pounded the ground with my free hand, trying to get my breathing under control.
“Just let them breathe, idiot,” Dee said.
The pixies backed off, waiting for us to catch our breath. When Hatter recovered first, he leaned close and began rubbing my back in calming circular motions. “Easy, Alice. Try to breathe in and out of your nose.”
Normally, I would tell someone who touched me without permission to take a hike, but his touch felt so good, grounding. Plus, I couldn’t breathe, so a mini lecture was out of the question anyway.
Eventually, the coughing stopped, and my eyes quit stinging. After what felt like forever, I sat up. The moment I did, Dum flew at my face and hugged my cheek.
“Ummm.” I squirmed because her hug was constricting, and my breaths were just starting to come freely again.
“Dum, get away from her!” Dee hissed, pulling her sister back. “Can’t you see you’re making her uncomfortable?”
Dum unlatched herself. Her blue eyes brimmed with tears. “Sorry, I—”
“Don’t apologize. It’s fine,” I said. Even though Dee was right and I had been uncomfortable, I didn’t think Dum should feel bad for wearing her heart on her sleeve.
“How’s the book?” Hatter asked.
The book!
My eyes shot to the small tome I’d risked my life for. It lay on the ground, right where I’d collapsed on top of it. I snatched it up, my fingers feeling the stitched bindings, and the symbols etched into the leather cover .
“Seems fine.” I glanced at the spine. “It’s in English?” I hadn’t thought about it until I read the title,Properties of the Aether, but shouldn’t a fae book be written in some other language?
“I suspect there’s a translation spell on it,” Hatter said. “Either from a witch or an aether-blessed fae. After all, the aether-blessed exist in your world, too. Not just Faerie.”
He had a point.
I opened the book. “It looks very . . . in-depth.”
That was an understatement. The scrawled text was tiny and packed tightly.
Hatter chuckled. “Those types of books usually are. They—”
A loudboomsounded as the cottage, or what was left of it, collapsed.
My eyebrows shot up. “You know what? We should probably move. Even if that fire doesn’t spread, whoever set it might still be around.”
Dum gasped, and Hatter’s eyes widened.
“You’re right,” he whispered. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that earlier.”
“You were preoccupied with trying to breathe,” I made an excuse for him.
And rubbing my back.
I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“What are we going to do with Coleti?” Dee asked.
Oh snap. My attention fell on the old fae at the edge of the wood, her body eerily still in death.
“We’ll take her with us,” Hatter announced in a tone that brooked no argument. “Give her a proper burial.”
I nodded. I had no idea what a proper burial would entail here, but it was the right thing to do.
