Agatha Harkness's Arc

Chapter 3 of 21

The manor stayed quiet for three days. Agatha did not trust the quiet. Peter knew her door now, and fae kings kept their promises. She needed advice from someone older in the ways of forest bargains. She thought of her neighbor, the woman who ran the small tea shop. Wanda dealt with fae every day. Her whole staff had wings. Agatha put on her coat and walked down to the shop, expecting a leisurely afternoon and a plan. The shop had a striped awning and flower boxes under the windows. Inside, cups sat waiting on shelves. But no pixies swept the floor. No small wings blurred the air. Wanda stood behind the counter, wiping the same clean spot over and over. "You're closed?" Agatha asked. "No." Wanda set down the cloth. "I'm looking for one of mine." Agatha sat at the little round table with its three cushioned chairs. "I came for advice. A fae king means to collect a debt from me. I need to know how to stall him." Wanda did not sit. "Two days ago I left Pip filling honey jars. I told her I'd close up. She was gone by morning." She looked at Agatha with flat green eyes. "People walk past pixies. They forget they're there. No one will look but me." Agatha understood the trade at once. Wanda would not spend a single thought on Agatha's fae king until her own pixie was found. That was the price of the room. "I don't chase small creatures through the forest," Agatha said. "I trapped one in a jar last week and it cost me a king at my door. I want them out of my life, not in it." "Then you won't get your advice." Wanda picked up the cloth again. Agatha weighed it. She could walk out and face Peter with nothing. Or she could pay. She thought of the pixie she'd sealed in glass, the dust leaking through her walls, the king who came for it. She knew exactly how a lost pixie moved and where its light spilled. "I know how they travel," Agatha said slowly. "The dust. It seeps into cracks. Follow the glow at night and it leads back to the wings." She stood. "Help me find yours, and you tell me how to handle a king who takes futures." Wanda studied her a long moment. "Deal." They shook on it. Agatha felt the bargain settle like a stone in her coat. She had come for one afternoon of quiet counsel. Instead she'd agreed to hunt a pixie through the dark forest, the exact kind of creature that had already brought a king to her door. Outside, the light was fading. Somewhere in the trees, a small glow waited. Agatha followed Wanda into it, further from her manor than she wanted to be, and no closer to peace.