Chapter Fifteen
The tingling woke me that night. My spine tingled like it had fallen asleep. I sat up and rolled my shoulders around, trying to get rid of the feeling, but it wouldn’t let up. I reached my hand around my back to scratch when I felt them.
My wings.
Flipping on my nightstand light, I got to my feet and hurried to my mirror. I pulled the hem of my shirt up and spun my back to the mirror, peering over my left shoulder. It looked like two small rolls of creamy yellow fabric budding from in between my shoulder blades. I reached back and stroked the delicate buds. The soft wings tucked snuggly in themselves as if unready to hatch. Breathing in and out, I watched them in the mirror.
In that moment everything clicked. Everything I’d been fighting or wanting to deny was becoming a reality as I examined the yellow bundles poking out over my spine. When it looked you dead in the eye how could you reject it any longer? It was like I was in an AA meeting and I was finally coming to terms with my life.
My name is Calliope Willow Holbrook and I have wings. I am a faery.
I couldn’t tear myself from the mirror. I knew I needed to sleep, but I had freaking faery wings! Every couple of minutes that thought triggered and I was reminded that I was looking at my back, not just watching some fantasy movie play across the mirror. Their appearance altered subtlety as I observed them, but nothing drastic happened. After about an hour the weight of my eyelids began to sag and I dragged my legs back to bed, compelling myself to sleep.
When I woke up the following morning, I raced to the mirror to check the progress of my wing’s development. The rolls had grown, but they stayed curled neatly inside like a bear hibernating in the winter. Even after watching them all night long it still hadn’t registered that they’d grown out of me.
Suddenly, it dawned on me. How was I going to hide the Hunchback of Notre Dame? I looked like a hump was growing on my back. My backpack would cover it while I wasn’t in class, but what was I supposed to do when I took it off? It was only October. It wasn’t cold enough to wear a hoodie inside, but I would simply have to suffer the heat. With the bulk of the material and the hood resting against my shoulders, maybe it would distract the eye.
I threw on my thickest sweatshirt and checked my back. The bulge was still visible, but not as noticeable. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do. I rolled my ringlets into buns on either side of my ears, settling for Princess Leia style—going for a grunge look and praying I pulled it off.
Cameron must have seen it in my eyes the moment our eyes met. When I walked up to our lockers, he scanned my body up and down and knew. “You got them?” he whispered close to my ear.
I nodded once, discreetly I hoped, pretending that he didn’t say anything to me.
Isla was busy on her phone, thankfully overlooking our small interaction as Lia walked up.
“Good morning, all,” she said.
“Good morning,” Cameron and I said in unison. Isla barely lifted her head and muttered something resembling, “morning.”
“I’m dying to go swimming. You want to head to Lake Keowee and go for a dip after school?” Lia asked.
Cameron and I shared a quick look and glanced swiftly away, but I don’t think it was fast enough.
“I’m going to have a lot of homework today. Maybe I’ll catch you next time. How about a movie tonight?”
She glanced between Cameron and me. Isla was oblivious as she finished writing a text. Cameron caught onto the immediate awkward silence, but rather than saving me he bailed. “Isla, we’re going to be late. Let’s go.” He escorted her away from our crowd.
“Bye, guys.” She waved over her shoulder.
“Bye, Isla,” I said.
They weren’t gone for more than five seconds when Lia cornered me.
“What’s up with the secrecy?”
“What secrecy?” I shifted my backpack. The weight was pinching my buds.
“You and Cam.” She gestured to him walking down the hall. He looked over his shoulder, an anxious look in his eyes. Poor timing, Cam. “You’re hiding something.”
“I’m not hiding anything,” I said, shaking my head and chuckling breathlessly.
“Are you and Cameron…” she let her question trail off, alluding to something sketchy behind Isla’s back. “You know…”
“No,” I said adamantly and started walking to class.
“What is it then?” she persisted. “Why can’t you tell me?”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I chuckled to make light of things. I did not need her thinking I was doing the dirty with Cameron behind Isla’s back. How could she think so low of me?
“Oh, there definitely is,” she insisted.
Lia wasn’t going to make this very easy on me. I hated lying to her, but I couldn’t tell her. “There really isn’t, Lia. We’re just finally back to the way it was before.”
“No, this is more,” she challenged.
I sighed. “Enough detective for one day, yeah?”
She eyed me, knowing I wasn’t being completely honest, but she let it go. “Whatever you say, liar. Keep your secrets to yourself. I’ll let you for today.”
The last thing I needed today was for Lia to start a fight and abandon me. I felt alone enough as it was. Losing a best friend on top of my human genes might actually put me in a mental institution.
“I saw you with Jake yesterday,” I deflected the conversation from me. “You looked awfully chummy by his locker.”
She stood a little taller, closing off her expression to me. “I was talking to him about our life skills project.”
“You did not tell me you had a class with him. And you have a project together?”
She shrugged, trying to feign indifference. “What’s there to tell? He’s in a class with me. He sits across the room and I actually listen during class. No one else exists in there, but me and the teacher.”
I smirked. “And you have a project with him?” I egged her on. It was probably a bad move, but the distraction of simple life issues was refreshing. I actually missed them. When all I really had to worry about was my unrequited love for Cameron. I’d gladly welcome back my human problems if they would take away my new genes.
“Mrs. Jennings paired us against her better judgment. I did not willingly go into the partnership and I set ground rules on day one. If he causes me to fail this project I will make his life a living hell.”
“I can imagine that was only more of an incentive to screw up. Some attention is better than no attention in some people’s minds.” I chuckled.
Lia wasn’t amused. “He’s actually deemed himself to be a worthy partner, contributing and pulling his weight on his part of the assignment. I’ve been quite impressed.”
“Apparently,” I said, nudging her shoulder. “I don’t recall mere school project partners smiling the way you did at him.” She grew quiet and shifted uncomfortably. “I’m only giving you a hard time, Lia. If you really like him don’t let me—or Cam, for that matter—hold you back.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
“He’s really not some dumb jock,” she said timidly. “He’s actually really smart. And nice.”
I grinned. Though Jake was that last person I pictured making Lia happy, I wasn’t about to be the one to stand in her way.
“I’m glad you’re happy, Lia.”
“Thank you.” She finally smiled at me.
“Would Matt absolutely flip if he found out about him?” The idea made me chuckle. Cameron wasn’t the only one who wasn’t a fan of Jake.
“Oh, Matt’s living up his life in Italy. I couldn’t care less what he thinks,” she said. But I knew she was speaking through her teeth. Matt’s opinion meant everything to Lia.
“Can I be there when you tell him?”
Lia shoved me and I nearly tripped over myself, laughing.
By the end of the day my back was throbbing. It felt like I had a charley horse the size of Texa
s between my shoulder blades. My backpack was not helping the situation at all. I dodged everyone I could on my way out of the school doors and raced home as fast as my car would take me. Lia would have questioned me further, seeing the apparent pain in my eyes and Cameron would have begged to see them.
When I stormed through the garage door my dad was there to greet me, hunting in the fridge for an afternoon snack.
“Is everything all right, Calliope?” he asked, closing the door.
“No, it’s not all right. They came in.” I arched my back, dropping my backpack on the kitchen floor and tugged my sweatshirt off. “I have to get to my room.” He stepped to the side and let me run down the hallway, swinging my door shut.
I tore my shirt off and instantly the wings uncurled from their cocoons, stretching like a limb after being in one position for too long. I immediately felt freedom. When I peered at myself in the mirror, four long daisy-like petal shapes fluttered behind me as if they were waving, greeting me for the first time.
They felt strange as if they didn’t belong to me, like they weren’t attached to my body. It was like an out of body experience. I was above myself watching these wings branch out of someone else’s back. And yet they felt more a part of me than anything else, like my arms, just another limb that moved without thought.
The top wings peeked about a foot and a half above my shoulders. They weren’t as big as I pictured them being and that was fine by me. I just hoped they didn’t plan on getting any bigger. These were controllable. Now the struggle was to figure out how to plaster these babies to my body and hide them under my clothes.
I fiddled around with their movement, testing how they fluttered and my ability to shift them. It turned out I could get them to curl around my torso, but they didn’t want to stay that way for long. I suspected it was like trying to stay in a position for any extended amount of time. They needed to stretch. I let them spring back out behind me and the relief was instant.
They really were beautiful. Their soft yellow tint gleamed in the reflection of the mirror, a soft reminder that they were there, a soft reminder that they grew out of me. After admiring them for who knows how long, it dawned on me that I was running out of time for solutions. I needed something for school tomorrow.
It really was unfortunate that I had to find something to hold them down. I dug around in my drawers, throwing out tank tops, underwear and bikinis. Then something caught my eye—my leotard from ballet. I couldn’t wear it every day because number one, it was from like three years ago and two sizes too small; and number two, it would be too noticeable under my clothes. But it would give me something to go shopping in in the meantime.
It took a lot of restraint to keep the wings down without snagging them in the spandex. I pinched them a couple times and winced from the pain. You are smarter than the leotard. I stretched the straps over my shoulders, feeling the indentation they were already leaving in my shoulders, but I finally managed to conquer the leotard.
“Where are you going?” Dad asked when I passed through the kitchen on my way to the garage.
“To buy something to hold these down,” I said, slipping my purse over my shoulder.
When I looked to him there was a haze over his eyes, making him unreadable as he scanned my body.
“Dad?”
“What?” He gazed up at my eyes, finally acknowledging me again.
“I’ll see you later.”
He only nodded as I waved.
After searching through way too many stores to count for my wing restrainer I finally found a viable bustier. I suppose it was more of a tight tube top. There was no boning or wires that could jab my wings. It was stretchy, a soft comfortable material, and, most importantly—form fitting.
By the time I purchased the wing restrainer and got in my car to go home, it felt like I’d been tightening my abs all day and could barely hang on a minute longer. The wings began to cramp. I raced home, blaring music, summarizing Macbeth, trying to think of Cameron, and solving math problems in my head all at the same time, attempting to keep my mind off of them. When I pulled into the garage it was seven-thirty and Mom was home.
She and Dad danced around the kitchen, opening and closing drawers, working around one another to get dinner ready as I raced by, trying to slip by without them noticing.
Success! They didn’t even as much as twitch, too consumed by each other and the meal. I reached my bedroom door, closing it behind me. I tugged off my shirt and struggled with the leotard, moving as cautiously as I could around my wings. When they finally unfurled I let out the breath of air I held. Never had anything felt so good.
There was a knock at my door. “Calliope?” Mom called.
Crap! “Just a second!” I looked to the door handle and realized I hadn’t locked it. Crap! Crap!
I reached for my shopping bag, tearing the tags from the bustier. What was I thinking? There was no time for the bustier!
“Honey?” She rattled the door and I heard the click as she turned the knob.
“Hold on, Mom! I’m naked!” I hollered in a panic. I might as well have been naked. I was completely indisposed. Under the pressure I concentrated as much as I could, but they didn’t want to lie down. Who could blame them? They’d been trapped for enough hours as it was.
“What’s taking so long, Callie?” she questioned through the crack in the door.
“Just give me a second,” I pleaded, hoping she couldn’t hear the distress in my voice. I sighed and closed my eyes, reaching for the nerve endings in my back. Thoughts of the trees and the cool breeze running through my hair fanned across my mind. Leisurely, my wings glided around me, wrapping snuggly around my torso. And stayed. I threw on my shirt.
“Come in.”
“You snuck right by us.” She smiled, but I saw the suspicion in her eyes as she scanned my body as I fidgeted. “You hungry?”
I nodded. “Starving.” Not really, but it was something to say.
She looked to the shopping bag on my bed. “Did you go shopping?”
Dad saved me when he appeared behind her. “What’s taking you girls so long? Dinner is ready,” he said, kissing Mom on the neck, distracting her on purpose. She giggled and spun to him, smacking him in the arm. “Finn.” She grinned.
He looked to me. I thanked him with my eyes and he winked, but I could see the unrest in his eyes. He thought we were going to be discovered.
I asked them to give me a minute and then I would be there. Dad closed my door with a relieved look on his face. He couldn’t have closed it fast enough though. I tore of my shirt and released the wings and stretched them wide. These things were not meant to be confined.
This was going to be way more difficult than I had planned.
School dragged on and on the next day. Keeping my wings pinned down wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d hoped. They stayed confined, but they were suffocating. It felt like I was trapped in a straightjacket. The more I thought about it, the more I was aware of their need to be free. But I had to get used to this. They had to get used to this. I couldn’t let them roam free. It just wasn’t going to happen. Not possible.
I found Kai and Declan huddled together in the clearing, speaking in angry hushed tones. When I looked at them side-by-side Declan was a few inches taller than Kai. Though they were both well built, Declan’s figure was more intimidating, bulkier. Declan looked down at Kai or I suppose it was more of a glare, but Kai didn’t shrink in the least from his stare. If anything, he looked fiercer glaring back as they spoke vehemently.
“Hey fellas, am I interrupting something?”
Their eyes jerked toward me as if surprised by my presence. It wasn’t as if I had been that quiet.
“No, of course not.” Declan tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. In his eyes I saw traces of fear.
“Is there something I should be worried about? Is everything okay?”
“There’s nothing you need to worry about, Callio
pe.”
Kai scowled at Declan, clenching his jaw tightly, an obvious stance of disagreement.
My forehead scrunched. “It doesn’t look like nothing to me.”
“It’s nothing,” he reassured.
Kai crossed his arms. “Declan and I have very different views of what exactly ‘nothing’ is.”
“We’re not going to quarrel about it in front of her, Kai,” Declan hissed. “Why are you pushing it?”
“Why do you think she can’t handle it?” Kai shot back.
I liked Kai’s confidence in me, but Declan’s uncertainty made me worry that maybe it was something I didn’t want to know. They faced each other, nearly chest to chest. I really didn’t want to have to break up a faery brawl, so I decided to intervene before it got that far.
“Okay, boys, knock it off, and how about you let me decide what I can and cannot handle.”
They continued their stare down with gritted teeth. “It should be her decision. You can’t take that away from her,” Kai pressed.
Declan sighed heavily. “Fine.” He broke, and moved away from Kai. “But I will tell her.”
Kai was satisfied enough that he grew a snarky grin. “Fine.”
Declan straightened his shoulders. “Some fae came too close for my comfort today, so we had to steer them away.”
“Declan hasn’t had anyone get that close to you before and—” Kai interrupted.
“And it riled me up a little bit,” Declan cut him off.
Relief settled inside of me. At least it wasn’t any more information about me that they knew and I didn’t, or that Favner had finally located me. “Now, that wasn’t so bad was it? I think I can handle knowing about a couple of faeries adventuring out my way.” They stayed silent, which always seemed to speak volumes with them. “But I’m guessing these faeries weren’t as harmless as you two?” I questioned.
Kai narrowed his eyes at Declan, urging him to give it up.
“They were Keepers of Favner. His top two in command.”
“Which means Favner knows one of two things.” Kai looked pointedly at me. “Or both. That Declan and I are leaving Faylinn and hiding something from him or that you are alive.”
“And Favner can’t know I’m alive because then I’ll be deemed as a rogue faery and forced to go back?” I questioned. I still wasn’t completely clear on what Favner’s beef was with me.
“Exactly,” Declan stated, eager to end the conversation. “What did you come here to talk about today, Calliope?”
With all the testosterone drama I’d almost forgotten about my wings. “They came in.” I shrugged.
“Your wings?” Declan asked.
“Well, let’s see them.” Kai relaxed first, letting the corner of his mouth quirk up.
“No.” I took a step back.
“Oh, don’t be such a troll. Let’s see those big beautiful wings.” Kai came closer, but I held my ground this time, meeting his confidence head on.
I suppose he was trying to insult me. Trolls must be cowards. “I don’t want to take them out. I finally figured out how to strap them down comfortably.” Or as comfortably as it was going to get. “It’ll take me another hour to strap them back in if I show you now.”
It was only partially true. The main reason I didn’t want to show them was because I knew they would gawk and talk about them for the entire afternoon and I couldn’t bear to hear them examine every little inch of me. Not today. Not ever. But really not today.
Kai rolled his eyes and folded his arms defiantly across his chest, pinning the vines under his hand. “Fine.”
“Don’t listen to him, Calliope. You don’t have to show us anything you don’t want to.”
“Thank you, Declan,” I acknowledged. “I only came to give you the news. It’s just one more step to faerydom that I figured I would share with you two.”
“So you just use us for faery information and then leave,” Kai said. “I see how it is. I feel so violated.”
I gave Kai an annoyed glare, one that I’m sure he was getting used to and I was becoming a pro at.
“Calliope,” Declan prompted, ignoring Kai. “How do you feel about your wings?”
I hadn’t been able to give myself five minutes to think much passed what an inconvenience they were. When I thought about it though, they really were pretty. A little cumbersome to hide underneath my clothes, but they were truly magical. The wings finally made me feel magical. “I like them. Definitely better than my ears. My ears make me feel like a troll.” I eyed Kai.
Declan chortled and shook his head. “You don’t look the like a troll, trust me.”
“Trolls are hideous,” Kai agreed.
“Obviously trolls exist,” I muttered dryly.
Declan gave me a rueful shrug. Why wasn’t I surprised? For all I knew every other creature from my bedtime storybooks existed in my backyard without my knowledge. All the monsters hiding under beds and in closets really did haunt every child’s night.
“How about Vampires?”
Declan and Kai laughed. I took that as a no.
“Werewolves?”
They shook their heads, smirking at my game.
“Mermaids?”
Declan scrunched his eyes, thinking.
“Maybe?” Kai said. “I think I saw one once, but I normally stay away from large bodies of water.”
“Fallen angels? Demons?”
Kai and Declan shared a look as if they were asking one another through their eyes. They turned back to me and shrugged.
“So, it’s just trolls and faeries, huh? Oh and Pixies.”
“Other creatures are out there. Sprites, gremlins, dwarfs, elves, brownies… but we don’t really converse with them,” Kai said. “They have their own territories in Faylinn and keep to themselves.”
I put my fingers to my temples and rubbed. It was going to be a few days before that information set in.
“Okay,” Declan said, assertive and moved toward me. “I think you need a little break. Yes?”
Was it that obvious? “Always, but it depends on what you call a break.”
“Let’s get out of here today,” Declan offered, leaping swiftly from the ground to the top of the boulder.
“Get out of here? The clearing?” Kai asked, excitement rising in his voice.
“Yeah. What do you say, Kai, think we could show Calliope the wonders of the woodlands?”
A grin that was way too mischievous for my taste sprouted on Kai’s face. “Oh, yes. I think it’s about time the little princess learns what it’s really like to be a faery.”
I eyed them as Declan and Kai shared a glance. Were my ears and wings not enough of an indication? What else was there to know?
“Would you like to do the honors or shall I?” Declan asked Kai conspiratorially.
“For her first time maybe you should.” Kai measured me with his eyes, making me feel self-conscious in a whole new way. “Although I could use a good laugh.”
“What are you two talking about?” I probed. I don’t know why I bothered asking when they started talking all cryptically like this. My opinion all of a sudden didn’t matter and they took pleasure in making me squirm.
“It’s better if we don’t warn her,” Kai said.
“Don’t warn me about wha—”before I could finish asking my question, Declan snatched me up in his arms and soared up into the canopy of leaves, landing agilely on the highest branch within a matter of seconds. I looked down and immediately regretted the decision.
“Holy crap!” I cringed, gaining back my stomach. “Yeah, a little warning would have been nice.”
The forest floor came in and out of focus as it struck me how high up we were, the branches crisscrossing below us like a woven basket. Declan’s chest shook from laughter. It suddenly dawned on me that I was pressed against his bare chest, clinging to his neck.
“You should see the look on your face,” Kai said from a branch on the tree next to us. “It’s priceless.”
/> “Can you put me down please?” I asked.
“You think you’ll be able to balance well enough?” Declan asked, uncertain of my equilibrium. If he was so concerned about that why soar into the trees unannounced?
“I’m a faery shouldn’t that come naturally?” I peered down at the limb he had us suspended on and watched as it lightly bounced under our weight. It didn’t look strong enough to be holding the both of us.
“Were you able to walk your first try as a toddler?” Kai asked.
I scowled over at him briefly and then asked Declan, “So, I’m just supposed to let you carry me from limb to limb as you leap through the air, fifty feet off the ground? That sounds harmless.”
“I won’t drop you,” he assured.
“Will you at least let me try?”
The way Declan and Kai underestimated me was frustrating. I realized I was new to this, but how hard could it be? I couldn’t be that incompetent. My faery instincts should come naturally, right?
“I think we better start lower to the ground for that.”
He stepped off without warning, sending my stomach into a whirlwind as we dropped to a branch below, about twenty feet from the ground. I caught my breath. Declan’s arms steadily released me, standing me upright. I straightened my shirt over my stomach. This limb was a lot thicker than the one up higher, which gave me a little more confidence. Kai landed on the opposite side of me on the same branch.
“You got this?” Kai asked, doubtfully.
“I can balance just fine,” I contended. I kept my arms straight at my sides, extending my hands to keep steady. It wasn’t as difficult as they were making it seem.
“It’s not the balance I’m worried about. It’s the leaping or… falling. You may not quite recognize your proximity to the next branch. It’ll come with practice, but if I were to tell you to jump to that tree across from us, would you be able to make it?”
“I don’t see why not. You guys make it look easy enough.” I stood straighter, squaring my shoulders, poised.
Kai swept his hand in front him to let me pass and get closer to my target. “Be my guest.”
“Kai, don’t encourage her,” Declan stepped in. “Calliope, don’t get overconfident. You’ll have to learn one way or another, but be careful as you make that first leap. Try to estimate the distance in your head and measure the power you think you’ll need behind the jump.”
I steadied myself on the edge of the limb, curling my toes, gripping for balance and focused on the closest branch with the least amount of foliage blocking my landing.
“Focus on your target,” Declan advised. “Then leap.”
“But don’t overestimate,” Kai interjected.
“Don’t underestimate it either,” Declan added.
“Will you two just be quiet?” I scowled. “You’re making me nervous.”
They smiled sheepishly and quieted down.
“You can do it, Calliope,” Declan encouraged softly.
I didn’t let myself think anymore. I took a deep breath and leaped over the moss covered logs and rocks below, landing on the opposite tree. I made it, but what I didn’t plan for was how round the limb would feel under my feet. I couldn’t catch my balance before I was falling forward. With no time to think or scream, my hands reached for a branch to latch onto, but all it did was tear at my palms as it was ripped from my grasp. Arms latched onto my waist before I hit the ground and I found myself in Kai’s arms, which set me gently down.
“Seems easy enough, right?” he said, smirking. I glared at him, but softened it when I realized he’d just saved me from being further injured.
“Not bad for your first time. My first time I didn’t even reach the destination before falling,” Declan said when he landed behind me. “At least your feet touched the branch. Now you know what to expect.”
I winced when I opened my palms. “Ouch,” I muttered.
“What did you do? All you had to do was fall. We were here to catch you,” Kai reprimanded, stepping closer to me.
“Well, my human instincts kicked in to save myself before falling to my death. Heaven forbid I impulsively reach for a branch.”
“Here, let me see.” Kai reached out for my hands.
“No, don’t touch! It stings!” I pulled my hands protectively to myself, cradling them against my stomach.
“Don’t be such a baby. Let me help you,” Kai urged. Something in his husky voice made me want to stop fighting him. A small part of me wanted him to touch me, to feel his hands on mine again.
Kai was only inches from me now as he placed his hand on top of one of my scraped palms, gently applying pressure as he cupped it with his other hand. His fingers softly grazed my torn skin. The heat radiating between our hands churned my stomach. I peered up from under my eyelashes and saw his eyes concentrating on our grip. As if he felt my gaze on him, he lifted his pulsating eyes and caught my stare. Warmth spread in my cheeks, but he didn’t smirk. He held my gaze for a few seconds, then cleared his throat and motioned with his indigo eyes for me to look back at my hand. It tingled slightly for a moment before he lifted his fingers and my skin was perfect again, only the residue of blood left over. The cuts were healed.
“How did you…?”
“Another one of our fae qualities,” he said. “How do you think we can live so long? You think we’ve really dodged that many accidents?”
“Can I do it?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” He nodded to my other hand. “Try it.”
I put my healed fingers to my other palm, but nothing happened. “It’s not working.”
“Are you even trying?” Kai rolled his eyes and reached over, putting my hand back over my palm with his hand laced on top, our fingers intertwined fitting seamlessly together. “Imagine sewing up a tear or patching up a hole.” He looked at me, urging me to try. I don’t know how he expected me to concentrate with the feel of his skin warming mine, his body only a breath away.
I looked back at my bloodied skin and tried to focus. The Keepers watched my every move, studying everything I did or said. I’d still become a science experiment, only in a completely different way than I expected.
The tingle never started and I was about to give up again when Declan’s low voice came from behind my shoulder. “Close your eyes. Sometimes that helps.” So I did as he instructed and pressed my eyes shut, picturing my hand sewing a rip in my sweater. When that didn’t work I pictured a needle and thread actually stitching up my skin. There was a surge of what felt like electricity shoot through my hand. When I lifted my hand, I was as good as new.
“I did it!”
They both looked at me with approval.
“Bravo, Princess, you’ve just fulfilled your first enchantment,” Kai said with only half the mockery as usual.
“I’m going to take that compliment and run with it.”
“You should.” Kai lifted a crooked grin.
Later that day Declan looked to the sun. It hung in the sky just above the shade of trees, making its descent. “I need to make it back to Faylinn by sunset. I must go.”
“Oh.” A twinge of sadness weighed on me at the thought of having to end the day. “Evening shift, huh?”
I’d settled for practicing my balance in the trees for the remainder of the afternoon. They showed off, of course, flipping from branch to branch and swinging from vine to vine. It was actually pretty fascinating. Almost like watching Cirque Du Soleil fae men style. I didn’t want the day to end. It was the first day in… in… I don’t know how long that I relaxed and miraculously had fun.
He nodded and shifted his eyes to Kai. “You good here?”
“Oh, ye of little faith.”
“Well?” Declan said. “I never know with you. Sometimes you stick around, sometimes you don’t want to.”
“I’ll be around for a little while tonight.”
“Good,” Declan said and turned to me. “Be safe walking home, Call
iope.”
“I will. Thanks, Declan. For everything today.”
He bowed his head, lifting his strong hand in a wave and sauntered west into the depths of the woodlands. I watched until his chiseled figure was swallowed up by the surrounding lush green.
When I shifted my eyes back to Kai, he was watching me strangely. I couldn’t put my finger on the blank stare of his deep blue-iris eyes. His scrutiny unsettled me so I decided it was time to go.
“I should go, too.” I started to make my way in the direction of my house.
“Stay.” Kai said hesitantly, as if he didn’t know why he said it. Then his face cringed as if he wished he didn’t say it, but didn’t take it back.
I looked back to him. “I can’t.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. “You can’t? Or you won’t?”
A stupid part of me wanted to stay. But why? He’d never done anything but insult or mock me. His rare moments of kindness were there, but mostly he left me anxious. “It’ll be dark soon and I should be in the house before dark,” I stumbled over my words.
“You don’t trust me, do you?” He tilted his head to one side, studying me.
“It’s not a matter of trust, Kai,” I said truthfully. “In all honesty, my mom doesn’t know about me yet. If she sees me walking out of the trees past dark she’ll freak.”
“As opposed to you walking out of the trees during the day,” he said dryly.
“During the day at least I could say I was just exploring, taking a walk or something, but there really is no good excuse if I come traipsing in the house late at night from the backyard.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “So, you’ll tell your friend Cameron, but you can’t tell your mother, a woman who already knows about the existence of the fae, that you’re a faery?”
“My dad has asked me not to.”
His face changed as if he thought he had it all figured out. “Ah. The loyalty card.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re loyal to your father.” He shrugged.
“Well, yeah… he’s my dad. But I’m loyal to my mom too. She just has a lot on her plate right now. We’ll tell her when the time is right.”
Kai rested his eyes curiously on me and for a couple seconds neither of us said a word. It hadn’t occurred to me that we were only about a foot apart when I felt us drifting closer. When had he gotten so close?
I blinked and the fury started to build inside of me. “Would you stop doing that? You promised you would never do it again.”
Then he blinked and the moment was gone as he sauntered away from me. “Do what?” He smirked.
“Enticement. You keep using it and I don’t appreciate it.”
He chortled, clearly pleased with himself. “Sorry to say, Princess, but I haven’t used Enticement on you since the first day we met. I told you I wouldn’t.”
He had to be lying. But as he smiled at me smugly I could see the truthfulness in his eyes.
“I’m afraid this is just my natural charm. I’m better than I thought.”
I bit the insides of my cheeks, feeling the blush redden them. “Whatever. Don’t flatter yourself.”
I could see the satisfaction in his eyes. “Have a good night.” He stepped further away, starting to leave.
“Wait. That’s it?”
He looked to me with a tilted grin. “What? You want me to sit here and beg for your presence? Sorry, Princess, I don’t grovel.” He turned from me again and began his walk away.
No. He didn’t get to turn his back on me over and over. And no, I didn’t expect him to grovel; I just didn’t like him always having the last word. He didn’t get to walk away this time. I ran in front of him. He nearly stumbled back, but was caught by his quick reflexes.
“Can I help you?” he said sardonically polite.
“You’re so infuriating!” I announced and clenched my fists. Was that really my best comeback?
“One of my better qualities, if I do say so myself.”
“No, you don’t get to do that.” I fervently shook my head. “You don’t get to agree with me while I’m insulting you.”
“You should really practice a little more on the insults, Princess. You haven’t quite mastered the art.” He smirked maddeningly. I wanted so badly to smack it off. Just to see what he would do. “I know a great teacher if you’d like some instruction.”
“Uh! You drive me crazy!” I stomped my foot. What. Was I three?
“Why thank you.” He bowed in his head.
“Why? Why do have to act so above everything all the time? Why don’t you take anything seriously?”
Kai folded his arms over his uncovered chest and lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t reply to me. His silence burrowed deep under my skin. He opened his mouth to speak, but then as if he thought better of it closed it again.
“You can’t answer a simple question?” I persisted.
He licked his lips and bit his bottom lips, contemplating an answer. I wanted to kiss that bottom lip and the realization of that thought hit me like a ton of bricks. I was going crazy. It was official.
I fought the ridiculous urge. “Well?” I pressed.
His voice lowered when he spoke. “You make it so easy to toy with you. Some faeries would eat you alive.”
I recoiled at the severity of his tone. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to seem playful or menacing. If he was going for menacing, that won. I’d give him a blue ribbon.
“One day you’ll figure it out.”
“Doubt it, since I plan to stay as far away from Faylinn as possible.”
“You’ll give in one day. You won’t be able to fight it any longer. You simply don’t have it in you.”
He was goading me. I knew it and it was working. I lifted my hand to smack him, but before I got the satisfaction he grabbed my wrist and pulled me to his chest. His fresh breath grazed my face and I gasped. His form met every inch of my body, chest to chest, thigh to thigh.
“We’ll work on your hand to hand combat some other day. It’s definitely not at the level it should be by now,” he said, his voice low and husky.
My breath caught. My eyes were level with his lips and the temptation to inch just a little closer was too much to hold back. I watched his lips press together as he swallowed then open them slightly. His warm breath washed over my face. I lifted my eyes to meet the depths of his that could swallow me whole. He blinked once, but that was all it took to sever the connection, pulling me out of the trance.
I let out the breath I was holding and grunted. Yanking my arm from his grip, I turned and stormed away. What in the world was I thinking?
“You know, retreating isn’t really helping your case,” he hollered, but I didn’t listen to him. I wasn’t going to let him affect me anymore today. It had been too perfect of a day to let him ruin it now.