The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 011

TFTcover“So it’s hopeless then?” The creature gnawing at her heart sprouted another set of teeth.

Lyra grinned, and the sparkle came back into her eye. “Of course not! I may not be able to do anything about it, but there’s nothing saying you can’t.”

Gwyn lifted her head, and the air around her turned fragile as spun glass. “What can I do?”

“Well,” Lyra drawled, linking her arm with Gwyn’s, “I may not know how to break the binding, but I can teach you how to make a door.”

“A door?” Gwyn asked, thinking of the many doors Lyra always insisted she find on her own. “Can’t I already do that?”

“Yes and no. You know how to find a door if you have to, but it’s always better to know how to make one. Doors are handy things, but only if they’re there.”

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The Curious Leaf: Voyage to the Moon 011

TCL CoverThe dark queen raised her hand as if to caress the bottle, but stopped just short of touching it. Her eyes gleamed with a crafty look. “That is not the only apple you have in your possession, I believe.”

Kya blinked and put the apple back into the pouch. “No.”

“The apple is for you?”

“No.” Stronger this time as the certainty that the dark queen meant to trap her somehow grew with each beat of her heart.

A secret smile deepened the corners of the Moon Queen’s lips. “Do you know for whom the last apple is intended?”

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Mira Morganstein: The Pink Lemonade Club 010

MMCoverMira swallowed the squeal that shot up from her chest and into her throat. She backed up as quickly as she could, earning a few more scrapes.

“Your fear tastes of cinnamon,” the owner of the eyes said with a voice that reminded her of a fuzzy blanket that had had most of its color washed out. It grinned at her as though it very much liked the taste of cinnamon.

Without a word, Mira grabbed the strap of her bag and scrambled to her feet. The creature was fast, so she would have to be faster.

Her heart setting the pace, Mira ran up the sidewalk to her front door. She’d fished her key out of her pocket as she ran, and jammed it into the lock the second she reached it. She wrenched the key out, and was inside, the door slammed and locked again before she’d taken another breath.

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The Faerie Thief: The Ruby Queen’s Garden 010

TFTcoverHer lips pursed into a tight rosebud, Lyra reached into Gwyn’s apron pocket and pulled out a pair of disgruntled gloves. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.

“All this time . . .” All this time she’d been fearful of the Ruby Queen because she knew she couldn’t fight back. She hadn’t the magic for it.

Or so she’d thought.

Lyra held out the gloves and Gwyn took them. She felt numb all over, as though she were nothing more than one of the queen’s tiny marionette dolls. She had a wooden head that was too solid for thought. Strings she didn’t control lifted one hand while her other slid the glove onto it.

The change was instantaneous.

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The Curious Leaf: Voyage to the Moon 010

TCL CoverThe new queen gave her a smile like the edge of a knife, bright and shining and ever so sharp. “For the same reason you had to give up your roots to sprout wings. To have one, you must give up the other. Not all dearest dreams are willing to share.”

The queen turned and sat on her throne, her hair white and her gown silver once more. “It is a cruel fate, but one that all creatures share if they only dare to look.”

Kya looked down at the perfect moon apple that glimmered with a quiet light. If what the Moon Queen said was true, then she held perhaps the rarest and most dragonish of treasures in her hand. And the dragon himself had given her not one, but three. Entrusted them to her care.

And the seeds!

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