I watched as Iris disappeared into the darkness. Her giggles faded and then returned with wondrous joy as she entered the ring of light produced by my torch. Iris stopped short of landing on the front door threshold and hovered in the air. Her round face flushed and smiling.
“I’ve never felt so light,” Iris said, doing a flip and spin all in one.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” I smiled back at my sister.
“Stop smiling,” Gerald said to me. “So the fat fairy can flip out there, so what? Anybody could do it in that air.”
I watched Iris spin away into the darkness again. “Quiet. You said you wouldn’t call her fat anymore.”
“You said you wouldn’t leave me.”
“I’m not leaving you for good.”
Gerald tried to push past me and I snatched his wing before he could take off.
“Let go,” he said.
“You’re staying. Just lock the doors and everything will be fine.”
“I bet you said that the last time, and Easy got stolen.”
I pulled him down the hall and placed him against the wall next to Iris’s room. We both coughed from the smell and Gerald’s nose started to run.
“I had to leave Easy to help you. You owe him. We can’t take that baby with us. He must weigh a ton. So somebody has to stay, and that’s you. It’s your turn. Understand?” “No.” Gerald crossed his arms. “Iris can do it. She let Easy get stolen.”
I turned my back on Gerald and walked down the hall to the door. Iris landed, hopping up and down with excitement. She hooked her traveling bag strap around her neck and attempted to find a way to carry it comfortably. The bag bulged with snacks and a juice flask she’d filled with water. I told her we wouldn’t be gone that long, but Iris’s excitement blocked out any sense.
“I’m ready,” Iris said.
We flew off the threshold into the lighter-than-air air and grinned at each other. I turned back to the doorway and found Gerald standing there, his face a mixture of rage and fear.
I fluttered back to him. “Lock the door. We’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“What if the spriggans come?”
“They won’t. They already got what they wanted. Lock the door and put a diaper on that baby.”
Gerald nodded and closed the door. I pulled on it to make sure it was locked and turned back to Iris. We flew straight away from the mantel until we’d passed the partition opening. I stopped and hovered. Hundreds of lights flickered beyond the partition. Iris joined me, no longer joyful. Two lines formed between her eyes and her little pink bow of a mouth puckered into a frown.
“We’ll go to the dryads. They’ll help us,” I said.
“We’re in the soup now,” Iris said, imitating Dad’s gruff voice.
“We’ll be fine.”
“You only say that because you can’t hear them.” Iris gestured to something scurrying across the floor beneath us. It paused as if it’d heard and looked up from beneath a smooth, shiny black shell. In the darkness, all I could make out was gleaming white eyes and a set of teeth, curved into a grin.
“Better go,” I said.
Iris nodded and I flew between glass cases and furniture. I spotted the bridal chest and swooped down to see if the brown pile of furry fairies was gone. It was, with no trace. We flew up high and I felt safe in the air. So far we’d seen nothing else flying. I felt something touch my foot and saw Iris red-faced, struggling to keep up. I slowed slightly and went around a corner. The closer we got the dryads, the more determined I felt. I pictured Soren, smiling and nodding. He’d help. He’d know how to get Easy back.
We turned the last corner and the dryads’ home appeared before us. The furniture stood bathed in the glow of a red sign over the mall door that read, “Exit.” I landed, looking around for some sign of the dryads. They were hard enough to see in the light, but I had a creepy crawly feeling dozens of eyes were on me.
Iris caught up and landed next to me.
“That was horrible,” she said.
“I know I flew fast, but we had to get here. You’ll be all right.”
“It’s not that. We better find those dryads right now.” Iris squeezed my arm and gave me a frightened look that made me feel wobbly.
I turned and pointed. “That’s Soren’s mother’s house.”
Iris let go of me and ran. She’d gone at least ten steps before I reacted. Iris never ran. The last time she ran our mantel got torn off the wall. I stared for a second and then slowly turned to look in the other direction. Advancing out of the murk was an army of dark creatures. They scuttled out from under furniture and from around glass cases. The red glow of the exit sign didn’t touch them. I didn’t wait until it did. I ran.
CHAPTER 10