The Grim Adventure, page 16
She continued looking at Iris. Her eyes hardened as she said, “If it weren’t for Fern and whatever she does, I might be his hostage right now. Fern’s father’s hostage, that is.”
A murmur from the room gave her the courage she needed to say something.
“That’s right,” she said, confirming the secret she’d only told her closest friends and Dante. She looked at the others. “I know what I saw. The Seelie Keeper is no friend to the school. He’s desperate to learn how to navigate the Lost Woods. It was absolutely terrifying until Fern arrived. If she hadn’t shown up—”
As if on cue, the doors to the common room banged open.
A gust of wind, the scent of fresh, wet soil, and the bright flash of red hair, freckles, and fluttering wings stepped through the door. The entire room erupted in shock.
“Not you again,” Dante groaned from somewhere behind Rosemary.
“Please, not now,” Una pleaded with the newcomer.
“Aw, don’t mind them,” grinned the cheery party-crasher. “Happy birthday, Rosemary Thorpe. Thirteen, huh? That’s a big age! I hope you saved me a piece of cake.”
Miss Amanda planted her hands on her hips. “Now’s not the time, Fern.”
“Of course now’s the time!” Fern said with a brilliant smile. She took several long, purposeful strides into the middle of the room. “I heard my name, and I came running. Rosemary practically summoned me.”
Rosemary’s shocked look only earned her a wink and a grin from Fern.
Wings fluttering, the freckled fairy took several confident steps into the middle of the room. She extended her hand for the gift. Rosemary gaped down at the box, then offered it to Fern without thinking.
“No.” Fern tsked. “Not that one. Give me the compass that Iris has been using to jump between the school and the Seelie court.”
Any prior discomfort was nothing compared to the shock and terror that gripped the room. A ripple of questions and demands crackled through students and teachers alike as all eyes turned to Iris.
Fern released a dramatic sigh. “It’s not her fault,” Fern said. “Our father is tricky. You’ll learn soon enough.”
Rosemary spun on Iris with every intention of yelling, only to see that her face had paled to match the white of her dress. Iris’s whisper was barely audible. “Our father?”
“Oof.” Fern threw up her hands. “My bad. Nice to formally make your acquaintance, sis. Now, if you’ll hand it over, I have a father to stop and realms to save.” Then to Rosemary she said, “It really isn’t Iris’s fault, but I suspect you knew that already. If not, I’m going to need you to work on your graveyard gift a little harder. You could end a lot of this if you could tell us what we need to know about how this ends.”
Rosemary was too speechless to do more than stare.
Iris’s father wasn’t working for the Keeper.
Iris’s father was the Keeper.
And what did Fern want from her? How could her visions possibly help?
Fern rolled her eyes and crossed the room. She bent at the waist and snatched the silver device from Rosemary’s pocket. She offered a half-hearted apology as she plucked the silver compass from her jeans by the chain.
Magnolia’s, Una’s, and Aster’s voices clashed as they protested.
“You can’t just—”
“Say, now—”
“Fern, don’t be ridiculous—”
Their words did nothing to deter her.
“Now,” Fern said, fingers tightening around the compass, “I have bad news. You sent the students away so they wouldn’t be here when the Grim Reaper arrived, isn’t that right, Dante?”
The students looked at the tutors with wide-eyed horror.
“I didn’t know whose soul he’d come to take,” Dante said. There was a sturdy, dark quality to his words as he challenged Fern. “So yes. I used the test to protect my students. If someone had to die today, it wouldn’t be someone under my care. I did the right thing. I can’t say you’ve done the same.”
“Come now.” Fern waved her hand as if swatting a fly. “It’s one thing to help students from the rain by giving them an umbrella. It’s another to save them by stopping the storm before it starts.”
Dante squared his shoulders. “I won’t ask you again. Do not interfere with my students. This is your last warning, Fern.”
Fern perched on the edge of a sofa. She tilted her head to the side, fiery hair cascading down her shoulder. There was a twinkle in her eye as she asked, “He didn’t show, though, did he? The Grim Reaper from your prophecy? The reason you sent the students on their wild-goose chase?”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t be mad, but you’re really not going to like what I have to say next. This isn’t just my family reunion.”
Dante paled. “Don’t—”
“Grim?” Fern called sweetly.
A moment later, a hooded figure approached from somewhere behind her. He pushed the hood back to reveal the same face Rosemary had seen after her night in the Gremlin camp.
The teachers leaped to their feet. Una scrambled to stand between the students and the uninvited courtless fae. Henry’s eyes went red. He lifted his fists, ready to fight.
Fern ignored the reaction entirely. She clasped Grim on the shoulder. “It didn’t seem right for a father to miss his daughter’s big day.”
Then, with the sort of breezy charm that made it clear that she didn’t have a single care in the world, she gave Iris a wave. “Bye, sis. Sorry about our dad. We’ll have to grab a cup of tea under different circumstances. In the meantime, I hope you start making better choices.”
Fern vanished in a flutter, leaving the room in a panic.
Rosemary’s ears burned hot. Her vision swam as she looked at the embodiment of death.
From behind his back, the Grim Reaper produced a single cupcake. With a sad smile, he said, “Happy thirteenth birthday, Rosemary.”
Now, wait just a minute before you get mad at me. Let me defend myself, because, just like always, I have my reasons.
I told you we were barreling toward Rosemary Thorpe’s thirteenth birthday, didn’t I? Did you think it was a coincidence that the girl with the graveyard gift with the power to see when people will die was born on Halloween? That it was an accident that Grim and I are the two courtless fae trying to take down the Seelie Keeper? Why, then, are you surprised to learn who her father truly is? I don’t believe in coincidences, and neither should you.
Some say the number thirteen is very unlucky, but then again, some people also think bones and shadows and screams are unlucky. Those same people might be convinced that fairy wings and white dresses and sparkly jewels are a very good thing, and if you’ve met my father, you know that all the shiny wings and fancy crowns in the world won’t make him kind.
That’s the point, isn’t it? That things that look bad can be good, and things that look good are sometimes very, very bad.
Now, I understand if you don’t trust me enough to keep telling the story of one strange, brave, incredible demifae and how she changed the world. It’s a tale that goes up and down and turns from side to side.
When it comes to Rosemary and her life amid the wayward fae, buckle your seat belts and lift your hands for the most treacherous ride of them all.
Creating a book is exactly like making a birthday cake, except for the ingredients, and the fact that you can eat one but not the other.
The 2 cups of sugar in Fern’s School for Wayward Fae are two marvelous agents, Carolyn Forde and Alex D’Amico.
The 3 hearty cups of flour—the bulk of our dessert—belong to the brilliant editor Tricia Lin.
The 6 eggs (this is a very eggy cake, you see) are replaced by the six close friends who read everything I write the moment it’s written.
Our teaspoons of vanilla are marvelous authenticity readers and copy editors.
The pinches of salt belong to a dog named Arrow and a patient partner.
The 1 cup of milk belongs to our librarians.
The analogy begins to fall apart, as there are more wonderful people in illustration, marketing, and bookselling than there are ingredients in birthday cake (for surely they can’t all be butter, though butter is quite nice).
And most importantly, a generous helping of frosting goes to the fairies, as it wouldn’t be birthday cake without their magic.
After all this time, do you really think I’m going to tell you my secrets? That wouldn’t be very Fern-like of me. Perhaps you still have a thing or two to learn about fairies. I do have a special friend—a friend who’s probably human—who received her master’s in folklore and could probably teach you all about fantastical mushroom rings and mystical knots in trees and other clever ways that cryptids and fae come and go between the realms. Her name is Piper CJ, and as long as she remains useful, she’ll continue to write many books about magic and mayhem for students and adults alike. As long as Piper stays on my good side, she may help me tell my story.
The Grim Adventure
first published in Australia in 2025
by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd
Gadigal and Wangal Country
Locked Bag 22, Newtown
NSW 2042 Australia
www.walkerbooks.com.au
Walker Books Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the country on which we work, the Gadigal and Wangal peoples of the Eora Nation, and recognises their continuing connection to the land, waters and culture. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present.
Published by arrangement with Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC
Text copyright © 2025 by Piper CJ
Cover art copyright © 2025 by Matt Rockefeller
Cover border copyright © 2024 by Lisa Perrin
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
ISBN: 978 1 760659 33 2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior written permission of the publisher. Additionally, no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems, nor for text and data mining.
The illustrations for this book were created digitally.
Cover design by Katrina Damkoehler
Internal design by Megan Shortt
Typeset in 11.2-point Bembo Book MT Pro
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury
Fern Forgettable, The Grim Adventure
