top of the tumble dryer.
Poppy comes to a halt at my side, both of us looking between each other.
“Are fae creatures usually allowed to just be here?” I question. “I know the reapers hunt Unseelie fae, but how do they feel about creatures from the Otherworld?”
“They are banned and hunted. We hide the ones around our house because my mother has a kind heart, and my father could never tell her no. I’m just as shocked as you to see a creature here other than your monkey,” she admits, biting on her lip. “The queen would have our heads for hiding a fae creature.”
I almost laugh at the irony of that, considering who I am. The Bwbachod, who looks a little like a troll and is the size of an apple, just stares blankly at us.
“I care for you,” the Bwbachod tells us. “I was sent, and I honour my task. Do you wish for food?”
Who the hell sent him here?
“Erm, I think you should get out of here. You will be killed if you’re caught,” I gently tell him, leaning down to look in his glowing green eyes. His green skin reminds me of fresh apples, and he smells like bleach, which is a little off-putting this close-up. “Don’t you know fae creatures are hunted and killed here for sport?”
“Then why are you here?” he retorts. I still a little as Poppy laughs.
“Silly fae creature. Daesyn is in the academy, and reapers are always allowed here even when they have some fae blood in them. Like Daesyn has because of her eyes, but she isn’t a fae,” Poppy replies for me, and I softly shake my head at the Bwbachod. I will be cooking him for dinner if he gives my secret away.
“My name is Sword, and I will care for you. To be sent home in disgrace is worse than death,” he proudly states. “And I know how to hide from your kind. I will not be seen.”
“What do you think?” I ask Poppy. I want to keep him here, but this is her risk as much as mine. I’m not sure how Mossy will take me adopting a second fae creature very well.
“I mean, he has stayed hidden all this time. I don’t think we should just kick him out,” Poppy suggests. “And I am hungry. I would cook, but I’m terrible at it.”
“Same,” I mutter. Unless burnt baked beans is considered good food, because I’m ace at that.
“At your service, madam Poppy,” Sword says, and he runs out of the room faster than my eyes can track, leaving only a trail of green dust in his wake. I head back to my room, not that surprised to see Mossy sitting on the bed, his head on my pillow.
“I like it here,” he points out, “but they have shit security. It was too easy to get in, and it will be easy to get out. I’ve already hacked their cameras and system. No one looks in here anymore, and if they do, they just see the same image on rerun.”
I laugh. “Sometimes I wonder who is smarter: me or a monkey?”
“Definitely a monkey like me,” Mossy replies, and I hear his tiny stomach rumble. “Food?”
“There is a Bwbachod called Sword who has apparently moved in with us. Do you remember those creatures?” I question. I don’t remember them well, but I do remember a book on fae creatures that my uncle gave me, and they were on the first page. Bwbachods are creatures who live to clean and organise, and they feed off the pleasure they get when a room is tidy. But, if you piss them off, they can explode like a bomb and be extremely deadly.
That’s why I remember them. I always thought my mum was a little like a Bwbachod when she had cleaned the house and then I made a big mess.
“Mossy is back!” Poppy says as she steps into the room. “I was getting worried about him.”
“He was making sure we have an escape plan if shit goes wrong,” I tell her.
“Like what?” she questions. Wow, this girl has a lot to learn. The smell of cooking fills my nose, and my stomach rumbles. When I smell coffee, my legs are moving towards the kitchen. Sword has a big cup of coffee on the counter where the stools are, and I wrap my hands around it, looking for the Bwbachod, but he is moving too quickly to really see.
“Thank you!” I tell