Book 2 of No Ordinary Fairy Tale Summary: The last time Timothy broke a rule, he got suspended. But when he defies the faery empress, it might well get him killed. Timothy Sinclair doesn't believe in faeries - after all the hardships he's suffered since his missionary parents sent him away to boarding school, he's not even sure he still believes in God. But when a tiny winged girl named Linden bursts into his life and begs him to help save her people, the skeptical Timothy finds himself drawn into a struggle against a potent evil that threatens humans and faeries alike. With a deadly pair of hunters on their trail, Timothy and Linden flee across country, drawn by the legend of a white stone that could be the faeries' salvation. But the dangers that await them test their courage and resolve to the limit, threatening to tear their unlikely partnership apart. And when it comes down to one last desperate battle, they and all the people they love will be doomed unless Linden and Timothy can find the faith to overcome... Opening Lines: The Queen is dying.The knowledge sat in Linden's belly like a cold stone as she hunched over the tub of greasy water, scrubbing her thirty-ninth plate. She'd promised Mallow, the Chief Cook, that she'd wash all the Oakenfolk's dishes in exchange for a second piece of honey cake at dinner, and at the time it had seemed a reasonable bargain. But now that she knew what was happening at the top of the Spiral Stair--that the faery Queen was lying pale and weak upon her bed and might never rise from it again--she wanted to heave up all the cake she'd eaten and throw the last few dishes straight back in the Chief Cook's face.
