“Why have you stopped?” Gwyneth asks.
“Quick, hand me the lamp.”
She guides it into my hand, and I give it a quick rub. The genie pops out in a dramatic swirl of glitter which lights up the cave we’ve crawled into. I was right to be concerned. There’s no drop, but there is a freaking lake to my right. One of those that looks shallow due to its still waters, but I know is probably deep enough to drown in. “Wow,” Gwyneth states as the genie grows in size, illuminating more of the cave. It’s an oasis of exotic plants and beautiful flowers.
The genie looks around. “You made it? Color me surprised. I thought for sure you wouldn’t make it out of The Hallows. I even bet Margaret my prestige room at this annus’s magical creatures’ festival.”
“You have a festival?” I wonder.
“And you have a genie,” Gwyneth adds.
“He’s good for three wishes, but there is a dark side to the consequences of those wishes, and he doesn’t spell it out.”
The genie shrugs and raises a wispy eyebrow at us. “Where are your clothes?”
I pick my way across the shoreline of the lake and head toward a gap in the greenery before flopping down onto the sand. Ugh, sand in your floof is not a good thing. The genie follows alongside Gwyneth. Hamish appears from behind a bush, pecking at the sand like it holds gold.
“Where’s Eugene?” I ask the capon. Like she heard me, Eugene comes barreling down the tunnel and joins our little group.
“Did you place this in my dress?” I ask the genie, waving the dagger around.
He shrugs and drifts over the surface of the lake. “It seemed important that you have a weapon, and it was the first one I could find.”
Gwyneth chuckles as she flops down next to me and her sunshine dress spills out around her, covering my legs. “Daphne doesn’t have a lot of luck with sharp, pointy objects.”
I open my mouth to argue, before slamming it closed. She is right, I do have little luck. “I can fashion you both some clothing from that enormous dress,” the genie offers.
I frown at him and narrow my gaze. “What will it cost me? Because there’s no way I’m wishing for that.”
He taps his chin like he hasn’t already thought of his price. “I would like to be let free from the lamp at least half of the turns every diurnal.”
“Agreed. Is there any chance you could also produce some food?” I ask as my stomach rumbles. It was a terrible decision to leave those platters.
He waves his hands and the exact platters that I had abandoned in the knight’s chambers appear in front of us. The next tempo me and Gwyneth are wrapped in golden shimmery poofy pants and a matching top. I chuckle. “You made us look like genies.”
He shrugs. “I’m a little rusty with the current fashion.”
Gwyneth and I settle down for our meal and I feed Eugene and Hamish some bits of food to keep them happy given they’ve taken to sticking their heads in the sand.
I stretch out and yawn. “My fair maiden, should I return to inform the knights of your safety?” the mirror man asks.
“Yes, do that,” I whisper, my eyes feeling heavy. My gaze skims wearily around the vast cave. Why do I always seem to end up in a cave with a body of water? First, the one under the castle, then Theo’s little dragon lair. “Wake me if a sea witch approaches.”
“You can trust me,” the genie says, eyeballing the water. I can rest. For the first time since we arrived at The Hallows, I don’t feel like my life is hanging in the balance. How silly of me.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
“Daphne, wake up,” someone demands, disrupting my dream about a flying horse with a capon head. I wave my hand, because I’m too curious about this animal my imagination has concocted to engage with the real world.
“Leave me alone,” I mumble.
A beautiful voice wraps around me. She sings a melody full of compassion and understanding. I blink my eyes open and rub the grit from them as I sit up. Gwyneth is asleep on the sand, with Eugene and Hamish nestled between us. The genie is nowhere to be seen. So much for standing guard.
The lake shimmers, vibrations rumbling across the top like something deep below is disturbing it. Silvery light glows from the center. I scramble to my feet and grab the dagger. Of course, I'll be taken down by a sea witch after escaping the clutches of The Hallows. The words of the song are in a foreign tongue, a long ago forgotten language, but the feelings it evokes are so powerful it brings tears to my eyes.
A head pierces the water, and an ice blonde woman rises higher and higher until her feet poking from the bottom of her white dress are grazing the top of the water. The song is coming from her, but her lips aren’t moving. That is some freaky skill. My hand trembles as she draws closer. She is stunning, but not the fake shiny Hallowed kind of stunning. This is a transcendent beauty where she glows from within.
My feet move of their own accord until the water laps at my ankles. “Who are you?” I wonder.
