The Edge of Strange Hollow by Gabrielle Byrne (best affordable ebook reader txt) 📕

long fingers drummed on the arm of her throne. “It seems to me you have altogether too much will for someone so weak.” Her fingers stopped. “So! You must pay with the sweat of your brow. I will give you a challenge. Complete it, and I will acknowledge you worthy of the information that you seek. Fail, and I take what I want from you in exchange. That is a bargain worth making.”

“Poppy…,” Mack warned.

“Done!” Poppy snapped as Mack bristled at her side.

The slow smile that grew on the queen’s face forced Poppy back another step. Should she have taken more time to consider? She forced herself to stand straighter. “What’s the challenge?”

The queen nodded toward another handmaiden. The slight faery, eyes downcast, brought her a small blue bottle.

“Your challenge is a song.”

“A song?”

The queen smiled. Her teeth were small and pale. “Take this bottle.”

Poppy stepped forward and took it, hurrying back to Mack’s side.

“I warn you, however. Do not open it. It was made specifically to hold the Valkyries’ battle song.”

The bottle was smooth and cold in her hand, despite the heat of the day. “But I don’t—”

The queen waved her hand. “You have twenty-four hours. If you’re late, or return without the song, my bargain is won.”

“Twenty-four hours? You never said—”

The queen’s dark brows rose. “All Fae agreements are either for the duration of a single day, or for the duration of a year and a day … or, occasionally, one hundred years and a day. Everyone knows this. It is our way. Besides which, I was under the impression, girl, that you were in a hurry.”

There was no way she was leaving her parents trapped inside a malediction for a year! “Fine. A day. Twenty-four hours.”

The queen gave a nod, her smile wide. “As you wish. Our bargain is struck. As a show of good faith, I will suggest you begin at the bluff meadow.”

Nula’s voice was barely a whisper. “Your Grace … Your Grace, if I could just ask…”

“I don’t like your face, pooka.”

Poppy gave an audible gasp, her eyes shooting to Nula. The pooka looked stricken.

Poppy hadn’t liked the Faery Queen before—but now a curl of anger heated her belly.

“Your kind are weak and cowardly,” the queen continued. “You have nothing to offer me that I desire except your absence.”

Mack hissed like he’d been burned, and Nula seemed to shrink back as though each word was a punch.

“Go now, before I get rid of you permanently. That is my thanks.”

Nula spun around. The look she shot at Poppy felt like a blow.

Poppy opened her mouth to apologize—she wasn’t sure what for—but before she could utter a word, Nula tucked her head and fled. She didn’t even bother to change forms.

“Nula!” Poppy called, but the pooka was gone.

Poppy turned to Mack, but he wouldn’t look at her. Without saying a word, they hurried after Nula. They only stopped to rest when they were far enough away that they could no longer hear the music of the harp on the breeze.

It was as if the forest came back to life around them. Even the air was warmer. Poppy let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and lifted up the little bottle to the light.

It was small, about the size of her palm. The pale blue glass shimmered a little when she turned it. They had twenty-four hours to find the Valkyries and catch their song. Then she’d get all the information she needed about the Soul Jar and track it down. A surge of anxiety raced through her.

Behind her Mack was strangely quiet. She turned, thinking she’d show him the bottle, but stumbled back in surprise. He was standing with his arms crossed, glaring at her with his copper eyes flashing as if they could set fire to the trees.

He didn’t wait for her to ask what was wrong.

“How could you?”

“What?”

“You swore. You promised me you wouldn’t bargain with the faeries.”

Heat rushed to Poppy’s cheeks. “Mack—they’re my parents! I—”

He stabbed a hand into his hair. “I know! I know they’re your parents, Pop. I get it. But you can’t find them if you get killed on the way!”

“Get killed? Mack! You’re overreacting.”

“No—stop saying that! Stop calling me a worrier—that’s just your excuse not to listen to me and you know it!”

“An excuse? Are you kidding me?” Poppy felt something snap inside her and stomped forward to yell in his face. “MY PARENTS ARE TRAPPED! I have the best excuse in the world.”

Mack’s face contorted, the hurt in his eyes knocking Poppy back better than a shove. “If you cared about me … you would have kept your promise. You would trust me and let me help. But you don’t,” he snarled. “Not when it counts.”

Poppy couldn’t believe this was happening. Her voice rose to a wail against her will. “I do trust—”

“You made a deal with the Faery Queen, Poppy! Do you even know what a Valkyrie is … or how to find the bluff meadow?”

“I—”

He met her eyes. “How far is it? Is it dangerous? How do we catch their song?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I have to do it! And it doesn’t help to have you second-guessing every choice I make! I have to find them. How can you even think I would say no—if there’s a chance?”

“What chance? The chance that this magical forest will just let you do what you want with no consequences? IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS?” he roared.

Mack was yelling at her. A sick feeling began to build in Poppy’s stomach. His anger had caught him off guard too. He slumped against a tree and turned to face her.

When he spoke again, his voice was soft and sad. “You think you know better than everyone around you, but I know these woods better than you, Poppy. That’s a fact.” He wiped a tear off his cheek. “I don’t know everything … but you—you just throw yourself into things all the time. You don’t think. You don’t care what your choices cost the