Witchy Sour(61)
My feet slowed of their own accord, and I couldn’t help but believe these trees were rife with magic. When I focused on the scent, it grew stronger. If for any reason my mind began to wander, I found myself stopping more frequently, looking around, starting down the wrong path. When I refocused, the scent pulled me along like a trail of breadcrumbs.
“Here you are,” I murmured. “The mushroom!”
I bent down, scanning the monstrous plant. It grew to my knee in height, while the top was wide enough to be an umbrella for a dwarf. I stared at it, soaking in every aspect of the plant. It was like no mushroom I’d seen before. It looked like it belonged in Alice and Wonderland with its yellow and red and blue and purple color-scheme.
I leaned further forward, examining the tie-dyed pattern, until something stung me on the nose so hard I stumbled back several feet and landed in a pile of soft moss. “Ow!”
“Get away!” A teensy tiny thing—likely a sprite or a fairy—shook a fist at me from her perch on my knee. “Leave my home alone. I don’t go stomping into your house and peeking in your bedroom windows!”
“I’m—I’m really sorry,” I said, enthralled by her tiny features. From the blond pixie haircut to the floral green dress, she resembled Tinkerbell with a bit more sex appeal. This fairy had big red lips and, from the looks of it, she was smoking something that looked like a cigarette, though it didn’t smell like tobacco.
“Darn straight you’re sorry! This is my shroom.”
“Can you tell me where I might find the blooming tree?”
She scowled then pointed. “Open your eyes!”
“My eyes are...” I said, trailing off as the fairy fluttered over and poked me right in the center of my chin. Before I could swat her away, she was already back on her mushroom, hands planted on her hips. “Sometimes it amazes me how long you non-Forest dwelling folks live. If I was as unobservant as you, I’d be dead in a second.”
“This is beautiful.” I was too busy taking in the sight before me to respond to her sarcasm. The tree in question was laden with hundreds of thousands of blossoms the color of a blood moon. Orange swirled into red as flowers as big as a sunbonnet flapped with the slightest hint of a breeze.
“Beautiful?” The fairy’s voice held a note of curiosity. “Yes, it’s beautiful.”
“Why do you sound so hesitant?”
“Because it’s also deadly.”
“Deadly?” I swallowed. Liam hadn’t mentioned anything about the flower being deadly. “Are you sure?”
“You don’t believe me? Go take a flower and we’ll see just how deadly it is.”
I took a few steps toward the tree’s blooms and inclined my head toward it, breathing in the faint scent washing off the huge petals. “It smells nice.”
“From a distance, maybe.”
“What happens if I go closer?”
“Try it.”
“You look far too giddy for me to want to try that.”
“You’re smarter than you look,” the fairy said with a frown. “You don’t wanna die?”
“No, not really. Plus, you’ve lived here longer than I have, so it’d be stupid of me not to listen. Will it kill me?”
She pouted. “It could.”
“Which part of this is Dust of the Devil?”
The fairy flew over and landed on my shoulder. Apparently, we were now friends.
“They really are gorgeous.” She stared into the branches of the enormous, colorful tree, her mouth parted slightly in awe. “Have you heard the story behind them?”
I shook my head. “I’m here to help a friend. It’s not for me.”
A spark of recognition flashed across her face. “You’re the new one.”
“The new what?”
“The new Mixologist.”
“That’s me. Did you know the last one?”
She pointed a haughty finger over at the large mushroom a few paces back. “Of course I knew him! His first time here he trampled my shroom. Do you know how long it took me to re-grow my home? I suppose I was due for a remodel anyway, but honestly. He had huge feet and they just stomped all over my roof.”
“How often did he come?”
“I think I scared him away the first time,” she said thoughtfully. “There was a while he didn’t come back to visit me. I was nicer the second time. After that, he came back more often.”
“Why can’t we grow these closer to the bungalow?” I reached for a flower, but the fairy pinched the skin of my shoulder so hard I yelped and leapt backwards. “What was that for?”
“I just saved your life.”