Fragile Destiny (The Aether Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

patient.
    “Wait.” Elise held up a hand. “What do you mean? This isn’t Noli’s tree house.” Concentrating, she tried to understand what they were telling her. “Oh, Noli comes here?” She gave the tree house an appreciative glance. “I can see why.” It was so grand.
    The faeries showed her a mental picture of Noli, along with a dark-haired man she’d never seen before.
    “Will Noli return soon?” she asked them, hope bubbling inside her. Perhaps things would work out after all.
    The faeries nodded, tiny heads bobbing furiously as they assured her that Noli, or the man with her, would return soon.
    “I’ll wait in the tree house until someone comes.” If not Noli, then the man with the dark hair. He could take her to Noli—and she’d bring her to Steven or James.
    Her stomach rumbled. Would it be too much to hope for something to eat?
    Several faeries led her into the grand tree house. It was much larger than Noli’s. Noli could probably stand up in it. This one even had a table and chairs. Elise sat her valise on the table and poked about the one-room house. A few moments later, several faeries flew through the open window, each with a small piece of fruit in their hands.
    “Oh, I appreciate that so much.” Elise devoured the sweet-as-sugar fruit as the faeries darted in and out the window carrying grass. If only there were more fruit—and something to drink. She yawned, fatigue pressing down on her.
    The purple faery pulled her over to the corner opposite the window.
    “You made me a bed?” Grass didn’t sound very comfortable, but exhaustion consumed her. “Please wake me when Noli comes.” Elise curled up in the little bed and went to sleep.

    Kevighn couldn’t shake the feeling that killing Quinn should have been less … anticlimactic.
    But it had to be done. For his sister. For himself.
    Now, to find the girl.
    The place the portal left him reminded him vaguely of the wildwood by the palace. It wasn’t, but it still seemed familiar. His eyes cast about the eerie wood as he tried to discern his whereabouts. He’d tracked the little girl to a garden with a portal. Odd that she’d headed there. It was
a dark court portal and most would fear to use it. The faery tree took him to wherever she’d gone. Considering who Ailís was, he’d expected to end up near the House of Oak, the earth court palace, or the high palace.
    He peered at the half-dead tree. His skin prickled. It resembled the old portal at his parents’ home. But then the house should be …
    No, the house was gone, taken by the high queen when he was exiled. The grounds remained, yet they looked wilder, fiercer, waiting for someone to tame them with their magic.
    Why had the girl come here ? Where did she go?
    He made his way through the rift in the magic that brought him to Creideamh’s grove. Darkness surrounded him and he made a small light in the palm of his hand.
    Wood faeries accosted him, pulling his hair and tugging at his clothing.
    “She’s waiting for me ?” Kevighn blinked in surprise at their words. The Bright Lady seemed to enjoy toying with him. He climbed into the tree house. There, in a bed of grass, lay a sleeping blond girl in a pink dress and a white pinafore, both streaked with dirt.
    “Ailís?” he whispered.
    She sat up with a start, a frown on her pink lips. “Who are you?”
    “Shhh, it’s all right. I’m Kevighn Silver. Why are you in my tree house?” He kept his voice gentle, not wishing to spook the tiny thing.
    “I’m so sorry. I’m Elise Darrow. I was trying to take the magic tree to Noli’s tree house, but I’ve never traveled by tree before and it brought me here instead. But the faeries said Noli came here and that you were her friend. Will you take me to her? Please?” Giant blue eyes, Queen Tiana’s eyes, shone in the darkness.
    Ah, yes, the portal didn’t take Ailís to Magnolia’s tree because that tree wasn’t a portal. By the Bright Lady, this could work.
    “Yes,