Free The Secret of the Dread Forest: The Faire Folk Trilogy by Gillian Summers Page A

and she still had to go back into the forest.
    Dad looked around her room as if searching. “Do you feel something strange here? It’s like a dark energy.”
    Keelie kept her eyes away from her closet, where Elianard’s amulet lay hidden under the folded towels. “No, Dad. Maybe it’s Alora.”
    Dad stood. “No. Definitely not.”
    Although she felt bad about being so secretive, Keelie couldn’t make herself reveal the presence of the amulet. For some reason, ever since Einhorn had given it to her, she’d felt the need to keep it hidden. “What time is dinner?”
    “Eight. Are you going out?”
    “Just checking on Ariel and stuff.”
    He squeezed her shoulder and stood. “Don’t be late.” He closed the door behind him as he left.
    Her mind reeling from everything she had learned, Keelie sat for a moment then got up, anxious to get the clothes to Jake. He was probably shivering, waiting for her.
    “The aunties said that Zeke’s brother died many rings ago.” Alora’s voice piped up. The room jingled as she moved her jewelry-laden branches.
    “What else do the aunties say?”
    “Water me.”
    “I’m sure they didn’t ask you to water them.” “I’ m so thirsty.
    Keelie sighed and got up. The watering can was by the door, still half-full. She started to pour the water on the soil around Alora’s slender trunk, then stopped. She needed to hide the amulet better, and what better place than under Alora? Keelie reached into the towels and pulled it out. She put the amulet on, shuddering as the cold, thorny acorn touched her chest.
    She wrapped her arms around Alora’s pot and heaved it up, then carefully walked to the hall, bracing herself against the wall when she got tired.
    “What are you doing, Keelie? Are we going shopping? Laurie told me about shopping. I need new twinkles for my branches.”
    The treeling didn’t know the word for the finery she wore, so she projected the effect she wanted, twinkling her branches covered in gems.
    Keelie snorted. “No, we’re not going shopping, but you are about to get a major twinkle, and it will be our secret.”
    She carried Alora’s pot outside, past Dad’s workshop. The treeling talked nonstop. By the time she set the pot down, Keelie was ready to heave her over the closest hedge.
    Inside the workshop she found a large clay pot that Dad had prepared to allow for Alora’s growth. It was half full of rich soil. Keelie dragged it outside, then took theamulet off and dropped it into the pot, digging it in with her fingers.
    Alora watched, quiet. Keelie turned to her. “I want you to take care of this necklace,” she whispered aloud. She was glad the treeling could hear and that she didn’t have to send the message telepathically, in case other trees overheard.
    “It’s beautiful,” Alora whispered back. “But very cold.”
    “Must be the magic. I’m going to repot you.”
    A surge of treeling happiness filled her mind. Alora was glad to get a new pot and a new necklace. Keelie tilted Alora’s pot and tapped it all around, loosening the soil, then grasped the treeling low on her trunk and pulled a little. She came up easily. Keelie dangled the little tree over the new pot, letting the roots barely touch the soil.
    Alora giggled. “That tickles. Hurry, Keelie. My toes are cold.”
    “You don’t have toes. You have rootlets.”
    Alora made a rude noise.
    Keelie grasped a handful of soil and dribbled it around Alora’s roots, repeating until Alora could sit comfortably. Then she grabbed the old pot by the rim, upending it into the new pot so that all the soil fell in. She tucked Alora snugly into her new home.
    “Remember, no one must know that the necklace is under you.”
    “Okay, but I must have a gift for my silence.”
    A bribe. Twice in one day. “What do you want?”
    “More twinkles. Twinkles that show.”
    “I’ll get you something.”
    Alora hummed happily. Keelie left her there for the time being and went to wash the dirt from