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

the Holly Oak’s warm brown skin. She looked … worn. Still beautiful, but older, as though the truth exhausted her. “They—”

Nula groaned. “They probably didn’t discuss the specifics. They just saw those extra years … and all the beautiful outfits, and all the food. How could they say no?”

Poppy cocked her head at Nula, then turned back to the tree. “What were you going to say?” she asked.

“Wait,” Nula said. “I can’t stand it anymore! I need to…” Nula swallowed. “I have to tell you guys something. Right now. I need … I need you to understand.”

“Okay, but—”

Mack shook his head at Poppy. “Wait,” he said, his brows all bunched up in their worried way, as he turned to Nula.

She was still talking. “You should see how happy everyone is at the dances. It’s not like it looked with all the spiders and … and the grouchiness.”

Grouchiness? Mack and Poppy exchanged confused looks.

Nula swallowed again and looked away. “No one ever dances alone, you know. You always have someone by your side in the faery court. You never have to … be alone.” She closed her eyes and a blue tear rolled down her cheek. “Oh, the dances,” she sighed.

Mack reached out and wrapped his fingers around Poppy’s wrist as if he needed a tether. “I don’t think we’re talking about Prudence Barebone anymore, Poppy.”

“Don’t you see?” Nula asked, turning her face to meet Poppy’s perplexed expression. “If the faeries accepted me … really accepted me, that meant I could finally be someone worthy … someone who deserved friends.”

The pooka’s face had flushed a deep blue. She stared down at her lap. “I—I’m so sorry, Poppy. I’m really, really sorry.”

Poppy reached out to take her friend’s hand, but Nula took a step back. “Nula! What’s going on? Sorry for what?”

Mack released Poppy’s wrist.

“I … I didn’t realize,” Nula went on. “I didn’t think about the true cost and … now I’ve ruined everything and I—I can’t even fix it! But I’m not under a geis, like the Holly Oak was … I have to at least try and explain.”

“Nula.” Mack stepped closer. “What are you trying to tell us?”

“Please, don’t come any closer, Mack. If you two try and make me feel better, I might change my mind and I can’t change my mind, because you’re my friends—not them. Not! Them!” Tears were pouring down Nula’s face, but she lifted her chin and met Poppy’s startled eyes.

“They promised,” she hiccupped. “They promised I could be one of them—part of the faery court for real. They had heard about your cerberus and—” She stopped and held out her palms, pleading.

All at once Poppy’s entire body went cold, as if she had fallen through ice. “You … you brought us to the faeries … because they wanted Dog?” She couldn’t breathe. “You traded Dog to join the Fae?”

“But I don’t want that anymore, Poppy! They’re terrible! Mack! Please! I didn’t know what it would be like!” She was backing up now.

“What what would be like?” Mack’s voice had turned gentle, and Poppy stared at him and then at Nula, as the cold running through her slowly began to burn. Dog was gone because Nula had betrayed them. The pooka had pretended to be their friend, but it was a lie.

Nula dropped her face into her hands and wept. “Having friends,” she wailed. “I didn’t know what it would be like—having real friends.”

There was the space of a single breath, before the fire in Poppy ignited. “GET OUT OF HERE!” she screamed, charging toward the pooka with her fingers like claws.

Mack grabbed Poppy, holding her back. “Go, Nula,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Nula sobbed, and poofed into a moth—disappearing up into the ceiling.

Stillness followed Nula’s departure. Poppy could hear the blood pounding in her ears.

The Holly Oak broke the silence. “I too am sorry, Poppy Sunshine,” she rumbled behind her. “I warned Prudence there would be a cost. The magic it takes to lengthen your lives is great—but even I did not realize how deep, and how dark, that cost would grow.”

“Thank you for the truth,” Mack managed to say, stumbling as he tried to steer Poppy toward the door.

Poppy couldn’t answer. Her chest was hollow. She couldn’t see through the thick tears that watered her feet. Mack moved her toward the exit, while Poppy wept as if she could patch up the holes in her heart by filling them with tears.

Everything hurt.

Dog was gone. Nula wasn’t her friend at all. She was her enemy. Her parents were trapped somewhere, and she didn’t know if she would ever find them. Maybe they weren’t alive at all. She had been so sure before. Now, she wasn’t sure of anything.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

There was only the cold glow of moonlight to illuminate their way as Mack led Poppy past the pavilions—where only a few creatures milled around—and down to the shore to set up camp for the night. They moved as if they shared a single mind, not speaking a word. Poppy gathered windfall wood, while Mack found a hearthstone and started a small fire. The Alcyon lapped at the shore. The air was crisp and smelled of salt water and ripe blackberries.

Once they were settled, Mack walked back up to the pavilions and got them some dinner. It was roasted meat—hard to say what—in a blackberry sauce, which explained the smell in the air. There were potatoes too, and bitter greens. Poppy picked at her food and tried not to think about her parents, or Nula, or Dog.

She tried not to think about anything. A sharp pain lanced through her chest, and she forced her thoughts to Prudence Barebone and the rhymes of the Grimwood. Everything she had learned tied itself in knots as she tried to make sense of it.

She gave up.

She felt hollowed out. She didn’t want to miss Nula, but she did, and it was infuriating. She hoped her parents were okay. She hoped they were planning an escape. She hoped they knew she would try to find them, no matter how long it took.

The