Girl Who Read the Stars

by Skylar Dorset

  “That’s the Unseelie Court,” says Will.

  “I don’t suppose we can just cross over the bridge,” I note grimly.

  “Not with a dragon underneath it,” remarks Kelsey.

  On cue, the dragon, from out of sight in its pit, belches fire that rolls over the bridge in hot billows.

  “Get off,” the Erlking says to me, and I manage to clamber off the horse. He swings off gracefully and strides purposefully over to the bridge, stopping just at its edge, looking down.

  “Well?” Will asks him.

  He shakes his head a bit. “You can’t even see the bottom, it’s so deep.” He steps back, frowning at the bridge.

  “Well, we have to get across somehow,” I say. This was my only idea, the thing I said we had to do to fulfill the prophecy. We can’t have spent all that time getting here just for it to turn out to be a waste. “Can we enchant the dragon somehow?”

  “I can cast a protective spell that will block the fire from reaching the bridge,” Will says. “The dragon isn’t really the issue.”

  The dragon roars, flames momentarily engulfing the bridge in white heat.

  “I can’t wait to hear what’s really the issue,” comments Kelsey, staring at the embers left behind by the flames, “if it’s not that.”

  “The bridge is enchanted,” explains the Erlking impatiently. He is pacing up and down the cliff, looking irritated. The Erlking, I realize, doesn’t like being still. When Kelsey and I just look at him, he continues, “It isn’t really there.”

  We look back at the bridge.

  “It’s not?” I say.

  “It’s there as long as the Unseelie Court wants it to be there.”

  “Oh,” I realize. “So we could get halfway across and…”

  “Yes,” he concludes grimly. He turns decisively from the bridge and looks at me. “We have to go to the Unseelie Court, you claim. We have to find Benedict’s mother to find the other fays to keep the prophecy on track and defeat the Seelies.”

  “Yes,” I respond.

  “This isn’t because you hope Benedict is there and you’ve gotten yourself all starry-eyed over the best enchanter in the Otherworld, is it? Because I’m not doing all of this just because you’re under some sort of spell.”

  I draw myself up, offended. “He left me,” I say. “It was his choice. I wouldn’t be here if I was just chasing him. The precious book of power said that his mother hid the other fays, and we need the other fays for the prophecy, and you said this is where his mother is.”

  “We also need Benedict for the prophecy,” Will says. “I think. If I’m reading it right.”

  “But that’s secondary,” I insist.

  The Erlking continues to look at me for a long moment. Then he nods. “Then I’ll go first,” he says and turns to face the bridge.

  “Wait,” Will protests. “What?”

  “I am the least valuable,” the Erlking proclaims steadily, regarding the bridge. “The most expendable. There is no prophecy about me the way there is about the rest of you. And I am the most likely to be trapped by the bridge, since I’m the one who upset a member of the Unseelie Court. The rest of you are innocent. Well, as innocent as you can be in the Otherworld. Which in your case, frankly, isn’t very. But anyway. I’ll go first. Alone.”

  There is a long moment of silence. I feel like one of us should protest—he’s only involved in this because we asked him to be—but I’m worried that instead he’d suggest sending across Kelsey or Safford, who are also more expendable than me, and I don’t want that to happen.

  I look at Will, who sighs and rubs at his temples.

  The Erlking turns away from the bridge and walks over to Will. “You can cast the enchantment to block the dragon, right? I don’t need to be worrying about that too.” He is unstrapping the sword from around his waist.

  “Yes,” Will tells him. “Of course. What is that?”

  Because the Erlking is now holding the sword, sheathed in its scabbard, out to Will. “Here’s something nobody else knows, Will. This sword is the Seelie talisman. I can’t have it vanish with me, if I do vanish. Take it, and keep it safe, and bring it back to Goblinopolis for me. Do you promise?”

  Will nods and accepts the sword. “My word of honor,” he promises, and he tries to say it very brusquely but I can tell he is touched by the trust in the gesture.

  “Excellent.” The Erlking turns back to the bridge and walks confidently over to it, standing on the very edge. “Ready?” he asks Will.

  “The spell is already cast,” Will answers him.

  The Erlking steps onto the bridge without a moment of hesitation. I think we are all holding our breath there on the edge of the cliff—I know I am—but the Erlking strides confidently along the bridge. His cloak drifts in his wake, and the dim light from Will’s orb picks up the blue sheen to his dark hair. The dragon breathes fire but it passes up and over the bridge in a fiery arc that would be beautiful if it wasn’t so obviously very deadly. The Erlking’s rhythm does not hitch. He gleams and billows his way across the bridge and then steps onto solid land on the other side, where he turns and executes a bow in our direction, gathering his cloak dramatically around him.

  “Is it safe then?” I ask, even though I know the answer.

  “Safe enough for him,” Will responds.

  “Should we all go over at once?”

  “No,” says Will. “If it disappears and kills all of us at once, then that is far worse than it disappearing and killing just one of us, at which point the rest of us can try to come up with an alternate plan.”

  “Then who should go next?” I ask. And suddenly I hear myself saying, all in a rush, to Will, “I think you should go last.”

  Will regards me with surprise. “Really? Why?”

  “Because you can get everyone back to Boston easily. And you’ll know what to do to protect my aunts and father, as much as you can. If you go, I’ll have no idea what to do to save them.”

  Will looks at me for a moment. “But you’re the fay—”

  “What will it matter if I’m left all alone? I won’t know what to do.”

  “Selkie,” Will says gently. “You’ll be you. You’ve gotten us to this point, haven’t you?”

  “And I left my entire family back there and who knows what’s happening to them. Please don’t fight me on this. You can save them. I can’t. I’m going next.”

  And then, before there can be any more discussion about it, I run over and onto the bridge.

  “Selkie!” Will and Kelsey shout from behind me, but I am already on the bridge and there’s nothing they can do now.

  I keep running, focused on the Erlking on the other side of it, watching me expressionlessly. The bridge feels very solid under my feet; I find it difficult to believe it’s not real, except for the fact that I can’t see how it’s moored to land in any way.

  Then, just like that, it’s not real. The bridge disappears underneath my feet, and I am falling through space.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Skylar Dorset grew up in Rhode Island, graduated from Boston College and Harvard Law School, and has lived in New Orleans, Mississippi, and Washington, DC. But she actually spends most of her time living with the characters in her head. She hopes that doesn’t make her sound too crazy. Visit www.skylardorset.com.

  Check out more of Selkie’s story in

  The Girl Who Never Was

  This is not your average trip to Fairyland.

  Buy it now!

  Thank you for reading!

  We hope you enjoyed The Girl Who Read the Stars by Skylar Dorset.

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  The book you’ve just finished is a novella in the Otherworld series. Book 2 in the series, The Boy with the Hidden Name will be available
December 2014. In case you missed them, other books in the series are The Girl Who Never Was and The Girl Who Kissed a Lie: An Otherworld Novella. If you loved The Girl Who Read the Stars, check out our mailing list for updates on new releases and access to exclusive content.

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