Page 61 of Casting Butterflies

The woman frowned. “Dead? He’s not dead.”

My turn to crease my brow. “You mean he’s managed to survive underground with the goblins?”

She shrugged. “I know not his current location, but as we share family blood, I can state with assurance he is alive.”

Well damn. Now I wish I’d ignored Cedric and gone back to dig—AKA magically tear open—a hole to yank him out.

“He mentioned having a grandma named Dasha who was an elder. You, I assume?”

“Yes. What else did he tell you?”

“Not much. He kept saying to wait until I met the elders. Said they would answer my questions.”

Dasha cocked her head. “Feel free to ask them and I’ll do my best to answer.”

My mind blanked. I’d had so many questions on our journey, but now, when the time had finally come to speak, I could think of only one. “Why did the voice in the necklace choose me?”

“If you don’t mind, could first explain to me what happened, starting with how you came to be in possession of the jewelry containing Anivivi.”

I told her everything. From the seers in Infernal with their riddled prediction, Papillon’s house, guarded with argencae, the necklace that no one but me seemed bothered by. The way I’d been flung into a recurring nightmare and asked to accept a task that had never been clearly defined. How I met Misha, our battles with the pernicae as we journeyed. The train derailment. My escape from the military and how I’d followed a butterfly here. The only thing I left out? The fact Misha and I became lovers.

When I finished, Dasha remained silent for a moment. “That is quite the tale.”

“It’s all true.”

“I don’t doubt it for a moment. You mentioned your cat companion was a dryad?”

I nodded. “Cedric came with us in the hopes you could help. The seers seemed to think you might have a solution to his problem.”

She shook her head. “I am puzzled why they would think that. Even at my strongest, I would have lacked the ability to bond your friend to a new tree.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t help a crestfallen expression. Poor Cedric would be so disappointed. “That sucks. I don’t suppose we can rescue him from the Yeti?”

Dasha nodded. “Yes, although it will take some bargaining with Zana if she’s already grown attached.”

“I can’t believe you have a Yeti guarding your town.”

“Zana was a foundling, who got too spoiled by my people and ended up lacking the skill to survive on her own in the wild.”

Wild, but not as crazy as the fact I was in an elf village with no Santa in sight. “One thing Misha never said was what would happen once I got here with your spirit thing. How do I give it back to your people?”

Dasha’s lips turned down. “It is a shame Anivivi didn’t remain in the necklace.”

“Why?”

“With Anivivi now a part of you, the transference will be complicated.”

“I take it we need to get the spirit to return to that dead tree outside?” I glanced at the window. “Are you sure that’s even possible?”

“No, but we are hopeful.”

I whirled back to face Dasha. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That we are in unprecedented territory. We aren’t entirely sure how to remove Anivivi from your body. And as you noted, given the state of the tree, we don’t know whether it is possible to revive it. Our research through the fragments of our history indicates it’s possible but will require sacrifice.”

My blood suddenly chilled. “By sacrifice I assume we’re talking chickens?” Dasha’s lips flattened, and she gave a slight negative shake. “Goat? Cow?” With each animal I mentioned, her expression turned stonier, and to make it worse, her eyes screamed an apology.

An apology that didn’t forgive her next words.