“None of your business. What is your price?” he asked, gripping my hand even tighter.
The goblin man started laughing, as if Xavier had said something very funny.
“I don’t care for money, nor do I care for secrets or names. I want to play a game.”
“A game?”
The man nodded, taking out a small bottle covered in dust, and a snowy liquid inside.Was this the Faerie Water?
“How about I tell you one riddle, and you’re going to guess the name of the story,” he suggested, his gaze wandering around.
“What story?” Xavier asked.
“A fairytale, obviously. My favorite kind,” the goblin man replied with a malicious smirk.
“Who is going to give you the reply?” Sparrow asked.
“I’m very friendly and welcoming, Sparrow. You are obviously surrounded by many friends here who could indeed help. But it isyourbrother that wants something. He needs the Faerie Water, so he is the one who’s going to give me the answer.”
“Okay, tell me the riddle…” Xavier said.
“Petal’s sleep and rivers freeze, once full of bloom and life, now stripped of ease. Magic swirls, the land decays, her people plead, the blossom sways. So, she had no choice but to bind herself to ash and bone, a place of shadows and darkness. To whom does she turn in silent plea to set her kingdom free?What bond must never come and was never allowed to be?”
“Sounds like a kitschy love story,” Sparrow muttered. Nathaniel hushed him, and to my surprise Sparrow listened, keeping his mouth shut.
My gaze wandered over to Xavier, seeing how much he was thinking about it.
“I’ve never heard of this story…” Xavier stated angrily, grabbing my hand and stroking over my knuckles. “Something is foul.” His red gaze pointed at the goblin man.
“Well… I never said it is a well-known fairytale. Maybe it is a secret about them I decided to share,” the goblin man replied, chuckling.
In a matter of seconds, Xavier let go of my hand, grabbing the man by his throat and yanking his head back.
“Do you think we are stupid or something?”
The goblin’s man eyes widened at Xavier. He didn’t think any of us could answer it, so he indeed tried to play tricks on us.
But then, something rattled in my head, almost like all the pieces came together in my head.
Petal’s sleep and rivers freezemeant nature was drifting away, almost dying. And the queen had decided to save her kingdom… the man bound to shadow and decay.And their love was never meant to be.
It sounded so much like the story from my childhood, the one which had always made me feel safe and warm, where the Faerie Queen of the Spring Lands was forced to either choose him or her people.
“Do you know the story?”I reached out to Xavier over our mind connection.
He didn’t reply, but I knew he listened to me. His gaze was trailing over me, the green of his beautiful eyes slightly taking over again.
“I think I might know it, but I’m not sure.”
“Tell me, my love.”His voice was breaking in my mind, fragile.
“It sounds like my childhood book. The title was ‘The Last Tale of the Spring Lands.’ The story told about a forbidden relationship between a Faerie Queen and a magical wizard. Itdeals with the type of relationship he described. But I’m not sure. I could be wrong.”
Xavier rasped.
“So, did the vampire prince come to a conclusion or does he want to leave without the Faerie Water?”
“What about the “The Last Tale of the Spring Lands?”
