The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2) Ektaa Bali (free ebook reader txt) 📖

Meera swam back up to the glassy surface and tapped it with her finger. “The Fae pond is shut. It won’t let me through.”

Vidya’s heart froze in her chest. “How can it do that? I don’t think I have much air left in here.”

Meera put her hands on her lips and looked around them. “We could find another Fae pond, I guess…”

To Vidya’s horror, the silvery bubble faded around them. She shouted a warning just as water flooded around them on all sides.

“Don’t panic!” came Meera’s shout in her ear.

Vidya flailed in the water, kicking her legs so she didn’t sink. She grabbed Pancake, who was flapping his arms and legs around in terror.

“Maybe we can break it!” Cried Meera.

Vidya and Meera swam up to the glassy underside of the Fae pond and pounded their fists against it, but it felt like solid ice against their skin. Vidya’s lungs burned, heart pounding fast. She needed air. Badly.

But she was stuck, and there was no way out.

Pancake released the air he was holding in a cloud of bubbles. Then he went limp.

10

The Fae Queen

In the home of the Old Ones, one speaks with a voice leaden with the reverence of he who knows he was about to receive information of utmost import. In the home of the Old Ones, one sees with eyes that glisten from the sight of something granted only to them. In the home of the Old Ones, one treads with feet heavy with the weight of what brought them there.

—The Book of the Fae, Queen Mab the First, 3333 B.C.

Vidya clutched Pancake to her chest. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears, her throat burned, she wanted to breathe so badly.

“Hold on, Vidya, please!” Came Meera’s cry from the conch shell earpiece in her ear. Meera was thrashing around in the water, fists banging again and again on the glassy underside of the Fae pond.

“Let us in!” She cried.

In an explosion of white bubbles, something long and hard burst through the portal above them. A barky arm grabbed Vidya around the waist, and she was pulled upward through the water.

Cold night air stung her face, and she gasped and spluttered, water streaming out from her nose as something thumped her on the back.

“Oh, for Earth’s sake, Vidya!” cried a familiar, rude voice.

“L-lobey?” asked Vidya, as something released her onto the ground. She rubbed at her eyes to make out the dark shapes in the clearing.

“Yes, it’s me, you crazy Fae,” Lobey said angrily, a little further away. “Oh wake up Pancake!”

Vidya scrambled to her feet as her vision cleared. On the other side of the pond stood a tall Devil’s Finger Tree, swaying softly, and beneath it, Lobey was on her knees over the soggy round of fur that was Pancake. As Vidya watched in shock, Princess Meera leapt out of the water and came to sit on the side of the Fae pond. She leaned over, pinched Pancake’s nose, and blew into his mouth. The little quokka reacted immediately, coughing, water pouring from his mouth. But that wasn’t all that came out. A golden, glowing petal of from the Flower of Awakening stuck out of Pancake’s mouth, and Meera exclaimed. She pulled it out with her fingers as Pancake wheezed.

Once it was out, Lobey rolled him on his side, whacking him on the back.

“You’re alright,” cooed Meera, placing the petal on a rock. “That was a close one,” she said, looking up at Lobey. “What is that?” she asked, pointing at the Devil’s Finger.

“That,” said Lobey with her nose in the air. “Is my guardian plant. This one I call Jimmy.”

Vidya gaped at the Devil’s Finger tree, standing calmly at Lobey’s back, then at Lobey’s brown face. Lobey nodded knowingly. “I know,” she said quietly as Pancake scrambled over the rocks to Vidya. She picked him up and squeezed him, trying to wring the water out of his coat.

“That’s sure something,” said Vidya. “Thanks, Lobey, without your help, we were goners.”

“I know,” she said curtly, patting Jim’s rough bark. The tree leaned into her hand like a puppy wanting a scratch. “Luna told me that a couple of the kids out in the city said they had seen a Fae pond freeze over, like it was a human pond in winter! I knew you’d be in trouble then. I flew over here and tried to break it open with a stick, but it wouldn’t work. Then this guy showed up.”

She patted Jimmy fondly. “And I could hear him, Vidya, like actually hear his voice in my head. What’s the problem? He asked, and I said, ‘I need to get through this thing.’ Then I saw you three hovering like shadows underneath. I saw Meera’s fist, and then Jimmy broke through.”

“Well, thanks, Jimmy,” said Vidya gratefully. “What a time to find out your guardian plant, hey?”

Lobey shook her head. “I had a suspicion when we went to find Nani in the greenhouse, but I wasn’t sure. We didn’t spend long in there.”

Meera held up the sodden golden petal. “You guys will have a lot to discuss.”

“Did that come out of Pancake’s tummy?” asked Lobey, recoiling in disgust.

“No,” said Vidya, leaning over the Fae pond to take the petal. “Lobey, this is a petal from the Flower of Awakening.”

Lobey’s mouth hung open.

“All this time,” explained Vidya. “It was being guarded under the sea.”

“It’s true,” said Meera glumly. “I was the one who found it missing. There’s a big old hole in the sand down there.”

“The Bunyip King has it now,” said Vidya. “It changes animals, look—” She held up Pancake.

“Hi Lobey,” he squeaked.

Lobey almost fell over. “Animals take years to learn English from the Fae!”

“Yep,” said Vidya, cuddling a shivering Pancake to her once more. “But holding the petal made Pancake speak straight away. That must be how the Bunyips can think and grew their wings.”

“The Flower of Awakening brought us up from the soil and made