Another novella from Into the Woods¹, this time with Jenks striking out on his own (more or less) to save the day!

First thought: Jenks and Bis is a fun dynamic. Jenks is a lot when he’s a side character, but somehow seeing into his head is so much better.

In that reguard, have we actually seen on screen/page what Jenks wished for all the way back in the first book? Daw.

And has Rachel figured out what I think Jenks already knows here about what the embeggining actually did to him?

Second thought:

“Jenks?” Bis said loudly, half hiding behind Sylvan’s statue. “Maybe we should leave the goddess alone.”

Huh. So thinking about it, have we really seen much in the way of ’tiers’ of creatures in The Hollows? There are some that are difficult for others to fight, but nothing truly ‘godly’. Interesting that.

And what about Daryl, anyway? A deluded nymph, Sylvan had said. A goddess, Daryl claimed. There were no gods or goddesses. Never had been, but there were documented histories of Inderlanders taking advantage of humans, posing as deities. He frowned. Her eyes were downright creepy, and he hadn’t liked demons being mentioned, either.

I wonder if that will stick.

Otherwise… we learn in this book that apparently Pixies can make explosives . Delightful. And no one knows. Probably for the best.

And finally, some last bits of world building around pixies and gargoyles. They eat pigeons (the latter) and their names get longer the further down the birth order they are (the former).

Overall, a fun little story. Always neat to see the side characters get their chance to shine.

I do bet that, just like banshees, this isn’t the last we’ll see of nymphs/dryads in this series. Or at least I hope it isn’t!