Fairy Lies Read Free

had come out that way so the door would be unlocked. (Once, she’d climbed out her bedroom window to dance and had to climb back through in the middle of the night.) She had almost reached the steps to the porch when she sensed movement behind her and glanced back. A human-sized fairy stood in the trees at the edge of the yard. Tamisin gasped. Usually the fairies who watched her were tiny—and harmless.
    The fairy stepped out of the shadows and into the light cast by the carriage lamp beside the door, revealing his narrow face; his thin, pointed ears; and the tilt of his bright green eyes. He was taller than most full-sized fairies and wore the subdued browns and greens of a warrior. Sweeping his peaked cap off his head, he bowed in a courtly manner. “I am sorry to startle you, Your Highness. My name is Mountain Ash. You’re Princess Tamisin, are you not?” he asked.
    “I am,” she replied.
    “I had heard of the pull fairies feel when you dance, but I did not know how strong it was until I experienced it for myself. I am glad the rumors were true, for it helped me find you. I’ve come to give you news about your father.”
    Tamisin frowned. “My birth father died hundreds of years ago.”
    “Someone has lied to you,” said Mountain Ash. “Your father is very much alive. If you come with me, you will see that I’m telling the truth.” The fairy held out his hand as if to grasp hers.
    Tamisin took a step back. This was too much like the stranger danger they taught little kids about in school. “There’s no way I’m going with you,” she said. “I have an English final in the morning, and I need to get some sleep.”
    The fairy warrior sighed and moved toward her. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” he said, and raised his hand toward her cheek.
    Tamisin slipped out of reach, but before she could take another step, his hand was touching her shoulder, and an instant later, everything began to change. She started to run, but her entire body felt fizzy, as if bubbles were popping inside her. Tiny lights exploded around her; she could see them even after she shut her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, the trees, the house, and the birdbath all seemed to be growing until they towered above her. Soon the grass itself was higher than her head. She cried out when an enormous hand closed around her and squeezed just enough to pick her up. Then she fell into the gaping mouth of a brown sack and was engulfed in darkness and stale air. She landed on her side with a gasp as her breath was forced from her lungs.
    “Oberon thinks it’s time you met your real father,” Mountain Ash’s voice boomed as the opening over her head shrank to a tiny circle, then disappeared altogether, cutting her off from light and any hope of fresh air.
    Tamisin rolled over and tried to stand, staggering when the bag rose and the bottom curved under her feet.Small bits of dried leaves crunched beneath her, releasing the scent of mint. She could tell that she was rising by the way she suddenly felt heavier. There was a rushing sound in her ears, and Tamisin passed out.

Chapter 2
    Jak was in his bedroom in the human world, sound asleep on his back, when something touched the tip of his nose. His cat-goblin reflexes woke him with a snort. At first he thought his grandmother might need him, but Gammi slept in the room next to his, and he could hear her snoring through the wall. Opening his eyes, he saw the twinkling lights of two tiny fairies hovering inches above his face. “What do you want?” he grumbled.
    Fluttering their wings, the fairies rose in the air until Jak no longer had to look at them cross-eyed. He didn’t bother turning on a light; his cat-goblin blood allowed him to see in the dark nearly as well as he could in the daylight.
    A moment later two full-sized female fairies were standing on either side of his bed. “We came to tell you what happened,” the fairy dressed in green said with a quaver in her