Free Bloody Fairies (Shadow) by Nina Smith Page A

more difficult it became. Her bare feet slid on the slick rocks. Poppy’s torch lit up the black water just enough to make it look murkier and more dangerous. Hippy tried not to think about water monsters. Huge fish with sharp teeth. Swimming vamps. Eels with lights on their heads. Dragons. It was harder and harder to keep her balance when she started to shake.
    Poppy grabbed the back of her dress and kept her upright when she almost slipped. “Steady on.”
    Hippy grabbed her arm and held on tight.
    “So let me get this straight,” Poppy said. “You can scale a vertical wall and drop ridiculous heights without batting an eyelash–I haven’t figured those out, but I will–but you’re afraid of water?”
    Hippy nodded.
    “What are you, a cat?”
    She shook her head.
    “You’re an odd one.”
    “I’m a Bloody Fairy.”
    “Yes, you said that before. What is that, some kind of circus cult?”
    “No, it’s my family. We’re all afraid of water.”
    “Why?”
    Hippy blinked. “I don’t know! It’s just the way things are!” She flinched when the water lapped up to her ribs.
    “I think you’re very brave to be facing your fear like this.”
Hippy beamed. “Really?”
    “Really. Any idea where your lunatic friend is taking us?”
    “No.”
    “Wonderful.”
    They walked in silence for a few more minutes. Each trickle and drip of water echoed in the tunnel. Pierus forged ahead, bending lower and lower when the tunnel narrowed. “Here,” he finally said, stepped out of the water and disappeared.
    Hippy hurried to pull herself onto the rocks, where a set of crooked, dilapidated stone steps wound up into another passage. She took them two at a time to put distance between herself and the water. Poppy followed close on her heels.
    They came out in a huge cavern, where a still, glassy lake mirrored tiny glowing lights on the roof. The air was so cold Hippy was quite sure icicles were forming on her wet skin.
    Poppy swept her torch over the lake. The beam found a stone bridge so old it looked like part of the cave arching over to the other side. Pierus was already halfway across it.
    They hurried after him. Fine granules of stone skittered away under Hippy’s bare feet. Behind her, Poppy’s heavy, wet boots crunched with every step.
    Hippy tried not to look at the water below. She focused instead on Pierus’s back. There was a tear in his dark blue coat. When she caught up with him, he put his arm around her shoulders.
    “Now is your time to shine, my dear.”
    “Good. I like shiny things.”
    Pierus stopped at the edge of the bridge. “Light please, young woman.”
    Poppy shone her torch ahead over a big, empty sandy floor.
    Pierus made the tiniest sound, perhaps a sigh of relief. “Up a little.”
    The torchlight moved up and illuminated an enormous stone statue of Medusa. Hippy’s eyes widened in awe. The stone was pitted with age. A chunk missing from her mouth made it look like she was snarling. Her blank stone eyes looked right through them all. Her hands were cupped in front of her. The snakes that curled from her head writhed in frozen fury.
    Hippy smiled. She liked snakes.
    Poppy said what sounded like a bad word.
    Hippy repeated the word, intrigued. “What does that mean?”
    “It means I find that thing incredibly disconcerting, dear.”
    “Hippy you must go up to the statue,” Pierus said. “And bring me back what you find in those hands. Do not be afraid.”
    Hippy tentatively took a step off the bridge. Then another. The statue didn’t move, so she gained confidence.
    “Why her?” Poppy asked. “Why not you or me?”
    “It has to be her,” Pierus said. “Nobody else can touch it.”
    Hippy walked barefoot to the statue. Water dripped from her tunic, making tiny craters in the cold, fine sand. The statue’s hands were too high for her to reach, so she found all the tiny little niches nobody but a fairy could see and scrambled up the rock wall next to it. When she reached elbow