She felt her jaw drop open. Leaves rained down on the dog’s shoulders, but he didn’t seem to care. All he did was huff out another breath that blew one from his shoulder. When she didn’t respond immediately, he turned around and pranced away.
“Wait!” she shouted. “Shouldn’t you at least try?”
Again, he paused, although this time he looked rather angry. “Why would I help you?”
“Because I need help?” Freya realized that was a flimsy argument at best. “Because I’m asking. I can’t be trapped here for all eternity, I have to save my sister.”
“Yes, you said that.” The dog wandered close to her again. “What do you have to trade?”
She floundered, trying to understand what he was asking for. Her mother had always said faeries were interested in helping humans, but for a price. She didn’t want to make a deal with him or she’d end up in the same place as Esther. But this wasn’t a deal. He was asking for a trade.
“I won’t make a deal with you,” she clarified. “If that’s what you’re asking.”
He waved a paw in the air. “Petty magic. Goblins like making deals, yes, but I’ve risen above my kind.”
“So you’re a goblin?” She eyed him again, trying to see some semblance of the creatures she knew. He wasn’t human enough for him to be a goblin, or at least in her opinion.
The few goblins she’d gotten a good look at always had some kind of human quality to them. Arms. Legs. Skin that wasn’t covered in fur. Sure, this creature wore human clothing, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a dog in a velvet suit.
He glared up at her. One side of his mouth lifted into a snarl. “Of course I’m a goblin! What else would I be?”
She didn’t know, but they were in the faerie realm, so she supposed he could be all manner of things.
Freya pressed her lips together and eyed him. “I just need someone’s help. And you look as though you are the kind of person who knows a thing or two about the place we’re in.”
“Yes, well—” he started as though he were going to argue more, then paused as her words processed. He planted both his paws on his hips then replied, “I do know a lot about where we are.”
“And you seem far more benevolent than any other goblin I’ve met. So I thought it much more likely that you’d be more likely to be a knight in shining armor for a poor woman like myself?”
Freya tried her best to keep the hopeful tones out of her words. Perhaps if she plied him with compliments, then he’d give in. If he could get her out of this forest, then she’d gladly be on her way without him.
He sniffed again. “Yes, I am more giving than the rest. It’s what sets me apart.”
“I can tell.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “My name is Freya of Woolwich. What’s yours?”
He touched a paw over his heart. “Arrow the goblin.”
“Well then, Arrow the goblin. Would you please help me?”
He seemed to mull over her words. If the goblin relented, that was a better start than where she was at. Surely a goblin would at least know a way out. And maybe he’d know how to find her sister.
“What do you have to trade?” he repeated.
She grumbled out a few expletives before she yanked her pack off her back and tossed it at his feet. “Would anything in there suffice?”
He gave her a rather wolfish grin for such a small dog. “Let’s find out, shall we?”
Chapter 6
Freya wasn’t certain how long they walked. It felt like days, though the sun never moved. She tried to keep up with the goblin dog, but no matter how quickly she walked, she always seemed to tire before him.
At least Arrow wasn’t impatient. He paused when she needed to, eyeing her with that dark gaze. Almost as though he were a little disappointed.
Freya didn’t know how to prove her worth. She was trying as hard as possible, but she couldn’t walk forever. Time passed and her legs quivered. Her back ached. Sweat slicked her skin from head to toe, and still Arrow hadn’t given her any guidance on how to get to the end of this path.
Finally, she had to stop. Freya lifted a hand to her sweaty brow, then bent over with her hands on her knees. “I can’t,” she muttered. “I need to stop for a bit.”
“All right, then.” Arrow crossed his paws over his chest. “We can stop.”
She wanted to grumble he hadn’t ever started. The goblin had let her walk and walk and walk while he remained still the entire time. He hadn’t lifted a single paw.
With a groan, she allowed herself to sit on the ground. Her butt hit the dirt, and she admitted to herself that she didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to sit with a goblin on an impossible path. She certainly didn’t want to feel like she was talking to a dog and slowly losing her mind.
But this was the only way to save her sister.
“Damn it, Esther,” she muttered. “Why did you take that necklace?”
Arrow settled onto the earth beside her. He laid down just like the animal he looked like, which was disconcerting while he still wore clothing. “Esther? Is that your sister’s name?”
She nodded.
He put his head on his paws. “It’s a pretty name. I can see why the goblins wanted her. We like pretty names.”
“No, they...” She shook her head. “They had a necklace that looked like something our mother used to wear. She disappeared a few years ago, and Esther was certain it was the same necklace.”
Arrow narrowed his gaze, then shook his head. “Unlikely. We don’t take from the dead. Bad luck, you see.”
Such information was new for her to hear about the goblin kind, and she stored it away for the future. Goblins were afraid of the dead. Or perhaps they just honored those who were no longer with them. Similar to humans, really, although she’d seen people dig through graves for anything that was worth a few coins.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Well, either way. They took her for accepting the gift of the necklace.”
“Ah.” Arrow grumbled out a sound that was eerily similar to a growl. “The fine print. She really should have read the contract a little closer.”
“There’s no contract with goblins.” Freya’s voice snapped through the air like a whip. “They take what they want. Who they want. And this time they took the wrong person. My sister wasn’t for barter.”
The leaves froze. The wind stopped blowing. It appeared the entire path was holding its breath after her outburst.
Even Arrow hesitated before he quietly replied, “Losing family is very difficult.”
“What would you know of that?” She pulled her pack into her lap and rummaged through it. The canteen full of water wouldn’t last much longer, but she couldn’t stand the thickness of her dry tongue.
Only a few bars of honey and dried fruit were left. She still had a full loaf of bread, but that was only one more day’s worth of food. Freya was running out of time and this goblin refused to help her.
Arrow shifted again, standing up and straightening the hem of his velvet coat. “I would know a great deal about that, human child, and I’m offended you think otherwise.”