Some people were staring. The sane ones were running and screaming.

I was narrowing my eyes and regarding the beast. And talking into my phone. “Seb, do you think it’s real?”

“What makes…oh. It’s not. The ripples are going the wrong way.”

Relieved, I let out a breath. “Somebody’s idea of a prank. Not my dad’s.” It wasn’t subtle enough for him. It felt kind of childish.

I hung up on Seb and raised my voice. “Nice work, but your ripples are going the wrong way and real dragons have scales that are more shield-shaped.”

The dragon vanished. “Aww,” came a voice from nearby.

“Still nice work, though.” I looked around for the voice. “Ooh, invisibility too.”

The air shimmered and a fairy appeared.

Of course.

“You gave me a moment, though. I left my dragon slaying gear at home.”

The fairy giggled. “It’s fun to play with the mortals, too. And then pick out the interesting ones.”

“Those would be the ones running and screaming, no doubt.” Not that there was any more of that going on.

“Exactly.” The fairy looked androgynous, but the voice was definitely female. It wasn’t sidhe, it was some lesser type but, I suspected, old and experienced to make a glamor that size. She grinned at me.

“Sorry to spoil your fun, but again, ripples.”

She made a face at me. “You Aesir are no fun at all. Except Loki.”

“Oh, Loki’s a lot of fun. You know he likes chocolate, right?”

“No…I’ll remember that.”

I was trying to hide the laughter. Of course, I’d probably done something horrible giving some random fae with a sense of humor the best way to attract my dad’s attention. I’d have to stand well back now.

“Anyway…”

“Anyway, I’m going to go somewhere with no meddling goddesses.”
The fairy started to fade out. Then she reappeared, abruptly, and crumpled to the ground.

There was an iron knife sticking out of her back. Hissing, I dropped to my knees next to her. Normally I’d leave a knife in, instinct had told me to do that.

But cold iron is poisonous to fairies. If I was going to save her, I had to act now.