I’ll be in deep trouble if I ever go out to play after dark. That’s when the faeries come out. They sing to children like me and promise us things beyond our wildest dreams, but nobody ever sees them again once they follow the faeries into the forest. Mama said it’s because they gobble them up for supper. I don’t believe her. I mean, how horrible would that be? I don’t think we taste very nice.
Pitch said the real reason the children don’t come back is magical.
He told me that they grow wings and go to live with the faeries. He said I can do that, too, once I make my wish. I’m so excited. I can hear him singing to me and I start humming along to his favourite song, the one about the raven and the wishing well. I follow his voice, excited to play with him again and eat snacks and tell each other stories. No one else can see or hear Pitch apart from me and the faeries. Although we’re the same age, he doesn’t look like any of the boys from my village. He’s extremely pale with glowing amber eyes and long ebony hair that sways around him like the shadows do in here. I know he’s different and that’s why I like him.
That’s why I’m following him.
Now that it’s my eighth birthday, Pitch is going to let me make a wish in the well he sings about. He says only special humans—the chosen ones—get to make a wish here. Sometimes he says funny things like that and I don’t understand him. All I want is a pair of shiny blue shoes, the same ones as my dolly. Pitch says the faeries are going to give them to me, and then I’ll finally have the same outfit as my little dolly.
The faeries guide me to the edge of a clearing which is bright from the moonlight shining down. I wave goodbye to them, even though I can’t see where they are, then I continue humming and skipping after Pitch.
I can see him now, sitting on top of the well, and my heart soars as I race through the clearing. Once I reach the well, he lifts me onto the stone with him. It’s wide enough that the two of us can stand together without falling into the hole.
“It’s time to make your wish,” he says, and my stomach fills with butterflies. “Are you ready to be born again?” I don’t know what he means by that; I just want the lovely shoes. I nod anyway, and Pitch smiles at me. “Then close your eyes.”
When I do this, I hold my breath, too excited to breathe.
My heart feels like it’s going to burst out from my chest. I feel dizzy and sick and excited.
“Do you remember what we talked about?” Pitch asks quietly. “What do you do once you make your wish? It’s very important that you don’t forget that part.”
“I won’t forget,” I tell him firmly, peeking through my eyelashes. “Can I say it now? Can I make my wish?”
He giggles and lets go of my hand. “Go on, Corvina. Make your wish and make it count.”
I let out an excited squeal, then I scrunch up my little face and think really hard because I don’t want to mess this up.
—Hello faeries! Please, can I have the same shoes as my dolly? You know, the sparkly blue shoes with the pretty bows on the silver buckles? I would like them very much. Thank you.—
With my wish uttered, I open my eyes. Pitch is gone just like he said he would be and I’m alone on the well. I look down into the tunnel of darkness stretching before me. A loose pebble falls away from the edge and drops into the well. It takes forever to splash through the water at the bottom, and I gulp, my palms turning sweaty against my dress.
For my wish to come true, I need to go down there.
Pitch said he’ll be waiting for me and that the faeries will even give me wings so that I don’t hurt myself. I’ll be just like the other children who followed the faeries into the woods and lived happily ever after. Maybe I’ll even be able to see my friends, Bella and Michael and Agnes.
We’ll all be faeries together, like we used to talk about.
I turn around and spread my arms out like wings, smiling at the thought of seeing my friends from