Chapter Text
The book didn’t look like it belonged.
Luz noticed it in the middle of one of the towers of books that sat by the bookshelves that had long since reached maximum capacity. The cover shimmered and caught the light, the bright baby-blue color standing out among the drab olive greens, mottled wine purples, and the browns of what Luz was going to continue to believe was imitation leather.
Fairy Tales, the title read. Fairy Tales, in glittering gold cursive.
There was going to be a trick, because this was the Boiling Isles and there was always some kind of catch to something that sounded completely innocuous and innocent. Maybe Boiling Isles fairy tales were even more grim and gruesome than the real versions of human fairy tales (which had been the subject of a book report Luz had presented in grade school, which had earned her a severe talking-to from her teacher about what was and what wasn’t appropriate content for school). Maybe the book would be full of actual fairy tales, a recording of the oral histories and cultural practices of fairies (which Luz had learned precious little about, save that some of them collected skin).
Maybe the pages would be full of teeth and the book would simply try to take a bite out of her. That had happened before. Twice.
But since she was the first one awake this morning, and since the cover did look especially shiny and sparkly, it was a risk she was willing to take.
“Alright, book,” she said to herself, wiggling it out of the precarious tower while keeping her other hand on the topmost book for balance. “‘I’ll play your game.”
With the book halfway out, Luz could get a look at the cover. It had a picture of a girl and a wolf on it. This wasn’t even a menacing wolf intent on swallowing up Little Red Riding Hood whole, they both looked like they were taking a leisurely stroll through a sunny meadow. From the girl’s cheery smile, it looked like she and the wolf were the best of friends. Maybe he was her animal companion. Maybe these fairy tales took place in a world where it was perfectly normal for girls to be friends with wolves. The picture made the book look like it wouldn’t have been out of place in a child’s room, sitting on a shelf and waiting to be read from at night.
Something about the cover struck Luz as being faintly… incorrect. Off. Wrong. None of those words were exactly the right one, because she didn’t know exactly what it was that didn’t quite make sense about the picture.
She leaned down to take a closer look.
Which caused the top of the stack of books to wobble.
Immediately she dropped Fairy Tales to steady the tower. It fell to the ground spine-first and opened as Luz braced against the books with both hands. There was no flash of light or puff of smoke or roar from some hideous murderous beast emerging from the pages.
So the twist wasn’t that, at least.
Once she was sure the books weren’t going to topple over in a noisy mess, she sat down cross-legged in front of the open book. It had conveniently fallen open to the start of a fresh story. Printed at the top of the open page was
The Girl and the Wolf
which could only be the story the picture on the cover came from.
Something nagged at Luz about the cover. The something she couldn’t quite place a finger on. She could have easily shut the book to check the cover, to try to figure out what it was that was bothering her.
Instead, she began to read.