Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Wendell decorates the cottage to make it cozier. Henry and Lizzie flee Ljosland without a word, despite the dangerous travel conditions, and Emily infers that it is because of Wendell having exposed them to the changeling. As winter rapidly approaches and makes living conditions more difficult, Emily and Wendell realize them must chop more firewood or freeze. When Wendell refuses to help Emily chop wood, she continues on her own and accidentally slices his arm with the iron axe. Emily and Wendell successfully return to the cottage as Wendell loses substantial amounts of blood. Wendell tells Emily he needs stitches. Emily runs to town and accepts help from Aud and Lilja, finally gaining Aud’s forgiveness; Aud tends to Wendell’s injuries while Lilja chops firewood. Emily’s suspicions that Wendell is a courtly fae from the Irish Folk are confirmed when human remedies don’t help and when his physical body begins to fade in and out of existence in the room. She must locate a red willow in the nearby forest—because it’s “the only tree that [she] was certain grew also in Ireland” (104)—and brew it in tea, which she feeds to Wendell. Aud sees Wendell’s fading body and learns Wendell’s identity. Emily informs Aud that Wendell doesn’t know that she knows. Aud finds this humorous and the two bond over this secret knowledge. Aud, despite her distrust of fae, feels no malice toward Wendell because he has not hurt Emily or their townspeople. When Wendell recovers and wakes, Emily bursts into tears, overwhelmed by her own relief, and leaves to visit Poe.

Emily and Wendell receive many warm visits from the locals following his injury, marking a drastic change in Emily’s research experience and local acceptance. Emily makes progress with her research thanks to the now-willing participation of the townspeople following Aud’s forgiveness. She learns the courtly fae of the region are unique, keep to the cold and snow, and are rarely seen by mortals. They have “a particular fondness for youth in love” and in recent years, they’ve been stealing more citizens from Hrafnsvik (109). Emily gathers folkloric stories from the townsfolk, several of which speak of a mysterious white tree that imprisons an ancient faerie king. Wendell is against seeking out the tree, but Emily is convinced she must visit it for her research.

by the changeling. Wendell is fairly apathetic toward their plight but advises that they spoil the changeling rather than keep it locked up in the attic. Wendell seems to know this information will work definitively.

Deep in the forest, Emily and Wendell find the white tree supposedly containing a faerie king. It has a fascinating allure that draws Emily in. She approaches the tree but notices Wendell is a ways behind her, refusing to come any closer. He urgently begs her to step back and join him, using a knowing tone that insinuates his otherworldliness without admittance. Stubborn and entranced, Emily refuses him repeatedly and remains engaged with the tree. When her fingers accidentally brush one of its leaves, a strange chill crawls up them. Wendell attempts to use faerie compulsion to warn Emily away, which she evades by clutching a copper coin she keeps in her pocket. He orders Shadow to drag her away by force and the angered tree responds by dragging Wendell toward it by its roots. During this struggle against the tree, Emily deduces that Wendell literally cannot reveal himself as fae because of an enchantment. She admits that she knows, and he is able to use his fae powers to teleport out of its grasp. Wendell regards the tree and the imprisoned faerie king strangely afterward and sparks Emily’s curiosity when he says: “He is very powerful. He would let me use that power, after whatever bloody rampage he has been plotting” (130).

Emily spends her days collecting research. She learns that Lilja has a girlfriend in a neighboring village, but doesn’t disclose this information to Wendell, as she finds great amusement in watching him flirt to no avail. On a night in, Wendell speaks of his ancestry. He is a faerie prince of the Irish Folk, from Silva Lupi—meaning “the forest of wolves” (141). His stepmother killed his five eldest siblings and exiled him so that her biological son may have the throne. He’s spent a decade searching for a back door into his world that she won’t be guarding, in order to kill her and retake his throne. However, to take it, he must “make [him]self so powerful that they cannot be rid of [him] again” (136). Emily offers to help him find his door. As they bond over their new, shared knowledge, they grow closer.

which brushed the leaves of the faerie tree. Though she wishes to tell Wendell about it, she’s literally unable to; she believes she’s been enchanted by the tree. She knows that even if he asks her about it, she will lie her way out of admittance.

Emily visits Poe’s tree, which has been burned by the Hidden Ones. She finds Poe lost in the forest and leads him home in exchange for answers to three questions about the Hidden Ones. She doesn’t ask the questions immediately but leaves back for town. When she returns to town, she learns that Lilja and her girlfriend, Margret, were abducted in the night by the Hidden Ones. Wendell is once again apathetic in the way that Folk are known to be, but Emily feels compelled to save the women somehow. Wendell begrudgingly agrees to help. Emily expects a faerie bargain, but he strangely doesn’t request anything from her in return.

The town provides provisions for Emily and Wendell before they set off on their rescue journey. Before leaving, they first visit Poe, and Wendell heals his burned tree with one touch, eliciting Poe’s immense gratitude, which he repays with hot glazed cakes and a woolen blanket. Emily asks Poe two questions and learns that the women have been taken “to the place where the aurora bleeds white” and that the Hidden Ones fear fire (153). She saves her third question for a time of greater need.

As Emily and Wendell continue their journey, a ring of shadow encircles her finger. She’s still unable to tell Wendell and the enchantment forces her to hide it under gloves. When she leaves camp to use the restroom, she’s surrounded by bogle faeries, who take pleasure in devouring those they come across. Emily resorts to Words of Power to protect herself—magic words capable of different enchantments. Emily knows two: one which retrieves lost buttons (which she has never found a use for) and another which lends its speaker temporary invisibility. She speaks the latter and becomes invisible long enough to evade the bogles’ immediate grasp, but she knows her invisibility will soon fade. She screams for Wendell, who appears and brutally rips the bogles apart, even laughing at their pain and tortuous death. Emily is shocked and a little frightened by his behavior, leaving for a bit to gather herself. While she’s gone, Wendell sews her drab clothing into more fashionable pieces as an apology for allowing himself to lose his temper. Wendell lets slip that he’s actually a Faerie king, not a prince, though he was only a king for a day before he was forced out of his realm.