Glitter Bug's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Glitter Bug knelt in the nightbloom patch and reached back for wings that were not there. Her hand met bare skin between her shoulder blades. Someone had cut them off in her sleep four nights ago, and midsummer was eleven days out. Miss the Bloom Gate and no fairy crossed to the human world again. She had tended this garden alone for years so she could earn the crossing. Now she could not even lift off the dirt. She walked the rows and looked for a sign. Nightbloom only grew where something had died, and her patch was wide and quiet. At the far edge, near the pink cottage she called home, three fresh sprouts pushed through soil that had been empty yesterday. Something had died there. Small. Recent. She dug with her fingers and found a tuft of blonde hair caught on a thorn, and a single glittery flake stuck to it. She knew that glitter. Every fairy in the realm knew who painted her cheeks with it. Glitter Bug flew nowhere. She walked. She walked past the orchard and down the hedge road until she found the half-elf sitting on a stump, mending a boot. Breukelen looked up and smiled like they were old friends. "You lost something," Breukelen said. "My wings." Glitter Bug held out the flake. "Your face is on this." Breukelen touched her cheek. The smile did not move. "Not me. But I know the buyer." "Say the name." "A boy. Human side. Paid in coin and a promise." She paused. "I can take you to him." "Why would you." "Because I want to come with you when you cross." Behind Breukelen, a second figure stepped out from the hedge. Broad shoulders. Gold thread on a dark coat. He kept one hand near his collar, where a chain sat under the fabric. Oryn Pale. Glitter Bug had heard the name from traders at the gate — the heir who had run from his own engagement. He looked at Glitter Bug's back, then at the ground. "I didn't know they were yours," he said. "I was told they were sold fair." "They were cut off me." He went quiet. Then, "I don't have them anymore." "Where." "I traded them. For passage. To someone who wanted proof of fairy work." He stopped himself. "I shouldn't say more here." Glitter Bug closed her hand on the glitter flake until it bit her palm. Eleven days. Her wings were somewhere in the human world already, in the hands of a stranger she had no name for, and the only two people who could point her at that stranger were a runaway heir and the fairy who had sold the paint that marked the trail. "Then we go together," she said. "All three." Breukelen stood up. Oryn touched the chain at his throat and did not answer.