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leaned down and patted the lump that was Markis’ body. “Stick my body wherever you’re sticking his.”
    “ No, Saffron!” Birds squawked and rushed from the pine tops, as if her words were wind that blew them all away. “You do not try to understand!” She looked as if she would stamp her foot, but the graceful fairy did not. “If it takes a thousand years to find Markis’ soul, then we shall count ourselves lucky!”
    Saffron shrugged with false bravado. “Doesn’t matter. This is my fault. I can’t just pretend this is not happening. I need to find him. He would come for me….”
    “ What about your family, Saffron? Your beautiful mother…?”
    Saffron stood up, crossed her arms over her chest, and locked her steel-grey eyes onto Li. The fairy’s overly large pupils, thinly ringed in violet, were as disconcerting as ever — especially contrasted with all of those white lashes — but Saffron spoke firmly. She shook her head slowly as she spoke. “You don’t care about my family. You just want me to hurry up, get old, and drop dead, so I can return to you in the fairy world. Then maybe we can plan another great reincarnation adventure together, right? Maybe if I was four, I could appreciate your dire need to play house with me, but as we’re talking about somebody’s life here, I think you’re just going to have to wait to play with me again.”
    Li’s features tightened, making her face look like white crystal. Tears pooled in her eyes, but did not spill over. Confusion and anguish mingled on her face while she reached a finger to lift a tear away. She stared at the perfect dome of glowing, fairy liquid that shone on her fingertip. She continued to look at the tear as she spoke. “How could you say such words to me? You should not say such words to me.” Her hand fisted to clutch the tear in her palm. “You do not know what you do.”
    “ Li, store my body with his. I will search for him.” Saffron’s voice started to crack. Though she wanted to be strong, the fairy’s misery was washing over her, filling her head and chest with a clutching blackness that brought such weight, Saffron found it difficult to continue standing.
    “ As you wish it, Saffron, but I will not let you go alone.” Li turned away from Saffron and brought her hands up to cover her face.

 
    Chapter 7
     
     
    S affron stood stiffly with her arms clutched about her. She stared at the trunk of an old oak standing several feet to her right. Its clinging vines reached up and swirled around its massive trunk, desperate for the sparse sunlight that was peeping between sections of canopy above. Moss grew on one side of the oak, a sprinkling of pale mushrooms at its base.
    The fairies milled around Saffron in silence, quickly preparing to carry the body of her friend. Her boyfriend. They weren’t sure how many of them it would take to fly him away. They were accustomed to escorting souls, not an entire human body. The weight of his flesh was considerably more than his spirit. They wanted to be quite certain that they wouldn’t drop him mid-flight.
    With glassy eyes and stoic expression, Saffron turned to watch the fairies. Her entire body moved as one fixed unit, as if she were a statue and was unable to swivel her head. The fairies’ movement was fluid, hypnotic; or, maybe she was in shock, and that made their actions seem surreal, almost fuzzy, as if a sudden wind could blow the whole scene away. Their transparent wings were threaded with gold, silver, and bronze veins. Some had skin that sparkled. Their hair shone bright blonde, brunette, black and every color of the rainbow — even colors that Saffron had never seen before. Some of the fairies cast frowns in Saffron’s direction, and this was finally what shocked her out of her complacency.
    Frowning? She had never before seen a fairy so disgruntled. Well, Li and Ny could put on a good act – those two were almost campy – but these frowns…. These fairies were in