Free 13 Curses by Michelle Harrison Page B

space beside it was also one of Spitfire’s favorite snoozing places. The combination made for a deadly possibility. Tanya’s stomach lurched as she took another step. She had witnessed the death of one fairy at Spitfire’s claws. She had no wish to see another.
    This time, when she peered around the side of the clock, Spitfire was nowhere to be seen, though the sight that met her was no less gruesome.
    “Oh, no…” Tanya murmured.
    Three pairs of tiny fey eyes—a mixture of anger and terror—met hers. The fairies huddled together in such a way that, even as one of them bared its teeth, Tanya could see that they were afraid. Behind them a fourth fairy was the source of the whimpering. It looked up at her, its eyes huge with fear and pain. Just in front of it lay a pale cube of cheese.
    “What is it?” Fabian asked.
    Tanya swallowed. “One of the fairies from the clock. Its wings are caught in another trap.”
    She dropped to her knees, deaf to the cries of the trapped fairy’s companions. She had never before seen the inhabitants of the grandfather clock, and had always imagined them to be ugly creatures with good reason to hide themselves away. But the lodgers, as she’d always thought of them, were actually rather beautiful: small, silvery beings with bluish skin and white hair and dressed in tiny mouse skins.
    “Let me help,” she told them, but as she reached out they fled and hid behind the clock. The trapped fairy shrieked in distress.
    “Stay away, tricketty girl!”
    “I’m trying to help,” she muttered, wondering if she should just take the whole thing—trap and fairy—to her grandmother. But she simply could not bear for the fairy to suffer any longer. Gently, she released the trap, disabling the spring that held the snapping arm in place, and eased the fairy into her hand. It was moaning incoherently now, while its companions looked on from the foot of the clock.
    “I’m taking you to my grandmother,” said Tanya. “She’ll know what to do.” She stood up. Fabian hovered helplessly at her side.
    “Search the house for any more traps and dismantle them,” she told him, starting down the stairs. “If more fairies become injured, we could be punished.”
    “How badly is it injured?” Fabian asked.
    “Its wings are completely crushed,” she said in a low voice. “I don’t think it’ll ever fly again.”
    Fabian took off, back up the stairs. Doors opened and slammed as he searched the rooms. In the kitchen, Oberon bounded over and tried to jump up at her, but Tanya shooed him away, afraid he would further injure the fairy in her hand.
    Through the back door she could see Florence pegging laundry out to dry. Tanya called to her and waited in the doorway, next to the General’s cage. The bird tilted his head to one side, staring at the fairy quivering in her palm with interest. He gave a loud click suddenly, making both Tanya and the fairy jump. A moment later Florence came in and closed the door. She took one look at Tanya’s hand and pressed her thin lips into an even thinner line.
    “How did this happen?” she asked. “Was it Spitfire?”
    “No,” Tanya answered. “A mousetrap.”
    “A
what
? Who on earth would—”
    “Nell,” Tanya finished.
    Florence’s eyes narrowed and she held out herhand urgently. Tanya placed the fairy into her grandmother’s palm as gently as she could. The creature moaned.
    “Where is Nell?” Tanya asked.
    “She’s gone to the post office in Tickey End,” said Florence. “But I’ll be having words with her when she gets back.” She marched out of the kitchen and started up the stairs. Tanya hesitated, then went after her.
    Her grandmother’s bedroom door was ajar as they approached, and Tanya wondered if she would notice. Fabian must have been into Florence’s room in his search for the traps, but if Florence realized it, she did not mention it.
    As they entered Tanya heard a thump from a few doors away. Fabian was still engaged in