“And not scary in the slightest,” Perriwinkle adds in his squeaky voice.
Hmmph. I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to lunge at him, grab him in my fist, and squeeze the marrow from his bones, to show him just how scary I could be. But I decide against it. The pixies could prove useful.
I rip another couple of beneni from the bunch, dropping one for Akari, then digging into the second.
“So, do you live here?”
The pixies break into fits of high-pitched laughter.
“Here?” Flotsy gasps in hysterics.
“In the Wylden Forest?” Adds Perriwinkle, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“How stupid could it be?” Flotsy giggles.
The ‘stupid it’, akame, slouches in grumpy silence.
“Oh, hush, you two! How could Delta know? She is not from this realm, after all,” Pixel says sternly, though I don’t miss how she quickly reigns in her own humor. I roll my eyes at her apparent innocence. “The Wylden Forest is no place for a pixie to live. It’s dangerous. More so than it is for a human.” She raises a brow, nodding at me.
“Then what the fuck are you doing here?” my gaze darts around as I look for any possible threat to the wee little brats. No idea why I should bother, seeing as how rude the other two pixies had been to me. But Pixel was growing on me.
“Because of the Wild Hunt, of course!” she exclaims excitedly. “No one wants to miss the Hunt. We may not be able to participate, but it sure is entertaining to watch.”
Of course, she would be just as sadistic as the fae.
“Right. The Wild Hunt. How… amusing,” I say sarcastically. I try to swallow my sarcasm, honestly, but fuck do I fail.
Pixel shuffles anxiously, and her cheeks begin to glow. Huh. So she could feel shame.
“I suppose it isn’t so fun when you are human…” she ventures.
I drop the beneni peel to the ground without looking. Hopefully, Akari ducks out of the way before receiving a moist beneni peel to the forehead. I seethe for a moment longer as Pixels’ glow spreads to her chest and upper arms. Fuck, I’d better say something before she combusts. Then itwould be open season on me, and while I don’t think the pixies would be too capable of harming me, I didn’t want to test the theory.
I decided to take advantage of her embarrassment.
“Wouldn’t it be super fun if a human managed to escape this year? The firstever.”
“Ooh, yes! How exciting!” Pixel claps excitedly. “But… surely you don’t thinkyoucould do it?”
I choose to ignore her lack of faith in me. “Precisely. MeandAkari.”
All three pixies peek down at Akari, who is squinting up at me as if I’ve lost my damn mind. I’m not entirely sure that I haven’t.
I toss her another fruit.
“You could even help,” I suggest casually.
Pixel instantly pales and shakes her head. “Oh, no. No, no, no. I could never. The trouble I would be in!”
“It’s ok,” I soothe. “I promise I won’t tell anyone. Besides, it’s only a teeny tiny favor I would ask of you.”
Perriwinkle flits to stand behind Pixel, arms folded across his chest.
“Hell no,” he squeaks. “The fae would kill us!”
Pixel stays silent as she watches me closely. I keep my face open and honest under her scrutiny.
Eventually, she tips up her chin and asks, “What exactly would this small favor be?”
