Bloody Fairies (Shadow) Read Online Free Page A

her. She could smell the blood on her. Her stomach heaved again.
    Hippy slipped down the side of the tents and peered around the edge. Her eyes widened. She’d never been into the muse camp. The tents surrounded a big open area where there was a huge central table and a fire pit. Shiny banners of purple and green were hung from all the tents, making pretty, pretty walls that flickered and glowed in the firelight. A group of muses sat around the fire talking in low voices. Soup bubbled in a huge cauldron, sending clouds of fragrant steam into the air.
    The sound of footsteps sent her darting into the shadows around the edge of the clearing and then down a passage between a row of larger tents. She slowed and trod carefully over the taut ropes.
    More voices, closer this time. Any minute now they’d see her and she’d be in trouble. She dropped to the ground, lifted the silk wall of the nearest tent and rolled underneath just in time to see a pair of feet go past.
    Safe. She lay on her back, eyes closed, and took a few deep breaths. She couldn’t smell blood any more. Her stomach unclenched. The fog in her head cleared and she opened her eyes.
    Hippy stared. This tent was huge. The walls were hung with shiny, shiny mirrors everywhere, some big, some small, one very long with a gilt frame. Little tables gleamed here and there, and on them shiny statues stood watch. Most of the statues were of a woman holding a mirror, except for one little one of a woman with snakes coming from her head. A huge bed was draped with purple and red sheets in one corner. In the centre of the space was a gleaming, polished wooden table.
    Hippy cautiously sat up and looked around. She was alone. She got to her feet and brushed her fingertips over the mirror with the gilt frame. It reflected a big-eyed girl with dirt on her face and wild hair back at her. She scrubbed at a spatter of blood on her forehead.
    She crept around the edge of the tent towards the door. She would just go before anyone came in. Of course she would. She had no business being here.
    She glanced at the table and stopped. It was covered with a huge map of Shadow. Hills and mountains were sketched out around Shadow City. Below the city was the forest and next to that, a little purple flag marked the spot where the camp was. Hippy drifted closer, intrigued. She’d never seen a map of Shadow.
    Something shiny caught the edge of her vision. She left the table and touched a crystal hanging around the neck of a tall statue of the woman with the mirror. It sparkled in her hand. So pretty. She picked up a little sparkly figurine of a horse with wings from the base of the statue, studied it and put it down again.
    Behind the statue there was a curtain. Unlike all the rest of the hangings in here it was plain black, with just a little sheen to it. Hippy twitched it open. Her eyes got very wide.
    There was no room behind the curtain. She couldn’t quite figure out what she was looking at, except that it was a dark space and it was somehow torn. Light gleamed through jagged edges going from the roof to the floor, shimmered and moved like water. It was so shiny.
    Hippy reached her hand toward the light. The rip widened.
    A voice right outside the tent made her freeze. She ducked behind the curtain and flattened herself in the corner.
    Footsteps entered. Three different voices. Hippy crammed herself further into the corner, away from the rip. She shoved her knuckles in her mouth to keep from making a noise. That was Pierus out there, with Flower and Nikifor from the sound of it. Holy Shadow, she’d be in deep trouble if they found her here.
    “More incursions.” Pierus’s voice filled the tent. He didn’t sound pleased at all. “ Vampires are pouring past the Bitter Tower now. We’re sitting targets out here with nothing but a pack of fairies and an untried Champion. These raids are just distractions. We can’t delay any longer.”
    “But it’s madness!” Flower sounded even less