5. Five - An Invitation
Five - An Invitation
Ana
I should have kissed him.
Walking home last night, I hadn’t run into a single other soul to distract me from the nameless man in the clearing.
Mina had asked a dozen sleepy questions when I finally got home, but I didn’t tell her about him.
And what would I have said, anyway? I don’t know his name. I don’t even know what kind of creature he is—though he’s certainly not human.
And all I can think is... I should have kissed him .
One kiss wouldn’t have been the end of the world.
The moon berries glow brightly from the open mouth of the opaque jar I’ve stored them in. But that brightness vanishes as soon as I burst their skin and squeeze the gooey flesh that suspends their pale seeds.
Straining it leaves me with a bottle of viscous mucilage and a sieve of the white teardrop-shaped pips.
Both are poisonous if they aren’t burst while still aglow.
Diluted and combined with marantha powder, the mucilage will compact into a nice little tablet to counteract Mister Scoggin’s reflux.
The seeds, ground to a paste will help with Mister Woolsey’s affliction.
“He can keep claiming he doesn’t know where it comes from,” I mutter to the draining seeds. “And I can keep my mouth shut about his odd little penchant for jerking off with a handful of nettles.”
The idea makes me chuckle... It also makes me very glad he has never shown an inclination toward me.
Why does every single man in this town come with a sackful of problems?
The bell over my door jangles and I close up the jar of moon berries I haven’t processed yet. They’ll keep as long as they don’t see daylight. I sweep the few loose berries into my hand and tuck them in my pocket, out of sight.
The people who need these potions don’t really care what’s in them. Anyone else might take offense. Too many tales paint the things as bad magic, but they’re only bad if you use them in ignorance or with ill intent—but that’s true of most things.
“Welcome in!” I call out as I close the narrow doors behind me. All the patron will see are the panels of beautiful stained glass my grandfather made. “What ails you today?”
There’s no response, and when I finally turn to the door, I almost expect my shop to be empty.
But the tall green man standing on the other side of my counter is silent, stunning, and he’s staring at me like he’s not sure I’m real.
“Hello,” I say, smiling and moving to stand across from him. “How can I help?”
Goddess, he is gorgeous.
I’ve never met this particular elf, but it’s easy to guess who he is.
He is dressed both too well and too casually to be a passing traveler.
Green brocade is tucked beneath a sumptuous leather greatcoat. Pearls tangle in his cravat…
Deep green eyes with a mercury sheen study me just the same as I study him.
His hair is tied back in a fashionable loop at the base of his head, but he isn’t wearing a hat.
I don’t know why that is what my mind settles on. Maybe because it gives me something to focus on instead of looking at his lips. His full, dark, beautiful lips…
“Good morning, Miss Eventide.” Those lips quirk and I know we’ve been silent a little too long to be polite.
“Good morning, Lord Ceylon.”
This time, his lips twitch downward, the smallest amount and I wonder if I got it wrong.
“Please call me Edric.” There’s a twinge of disapproval in the request. “I dislike standing on certain ceremonies.”
“Edric,” I say, liking the way it feels in my mouth. “What brings you to my shop for the first time? Rumplepox?”
He laughs, thank the Goddess.
“No, I am far too old for that.”
Elves rarely get rumplepox after their fiftieth birthday, so he’s not a young elf. But that doesn’t narrow it down for me at all.
“Cayrway salve then?”
“I’m far too young for that.” He chuckles and then leans forward to whisper, “You could ask how old I am if you want to know.”
I lean on the counter and barely manage to dim my smile when his gaze goes to my breasts.
His momentary distraction strokes my ego in a way I probably shouldn’t admit.
“Asking outright would be rude.”
“Then I guess you’ll never know.”
“No pox, no salve... If you keep me guessing, it’s only going to make me think poorly of you.”
“That is the last thing I want.”
The way he glances at my breasts again, I can hope the first thing he wants is to drag me out of this dry spell. Especially as I doubt the mysterious man from last night will ever reappear.
“I came to deliver this, actually.” He plucks a square of parchment from the inner pocket of his coat and slides it across the counter to me. “I didn’t trust it with anyone else.”
I give him a sidelong glance as I pick it up.
The envelope is creamy beneath my fingers, the dark green seal—a C stabbed through with a dagger and flourished with vines and flowers—makes me regret the need to break it.
“And what is this?” I ask, stroking the soft paper.
His gaze goes to my fingers and the corners of his lips curve up. “I suppose you’ll have to open it and find out.”
But not while he’s here... if he wanted that, he could have already spoken the contents of it to me now.
“Please,” he says, “feel no obligation.”
That makes me stand up straight. “Well now, I’m doubly curious.”
He smiles and bows to me like I’m a lady, and turns to go.
Halfway to the door, he stops, flinching, and I hear the rushed stomping outside, too.
“Ana!” The door flies open and he catches it before it can slam against the wall as Mina tumbles in. Her boots squeak as she stops in front of Edric.
She looks up and up and up and... Edric catches her before she can actually fall over backward.
My seventeen-year-old little sister—always in a rush—is speechless for once.
As he releases her, she stares at him with eyes so wide, I’m afraid they might pop out and roll across the floor.
“Miss Eventide,” he says, dipping his head to her, and then, with one last glance at me, he leaves.
Mina blinks after him.
“Oh Goddess!” she finally says. “I just made a complete fool of myself.”
The sound she makes is one I’ve heard exactly twice before and I know what’s about to happen, but I can’t get to her in time to break her fall.
She drops to the floor.
“Mina?”
No response.
She wouldn’t pretend as a jape. She’s actually swooned.
Silly girl.
I pluck a small vial of smelling salts from one of my shelves and stoop beside her before I pass it under her nose.
One inhale and she bolts upright on a gasp that turns into a choking cough.
Looking frantically around us, she deflates as her eyes lock on the closed door. “He could have fallen in love with me if I’d just said something clever. It would have been like a fairytale and I ruined it.”
I manage to keep my chuckle to myself as I make sure she’ll stay upright without help. “You’re seventeen years old, Mina. If he falls in love with you , he’s a creep.”
“But he’d be a handsome creep.” She sighs and flops her hands in her lap. “You’re right. Of course.”
“Yes, I am.”
But she looks longingly at the door once more. “What do the rules say about elves, again?”
My father’s rules had been made partially in jest, but I would never tell Mina to stray from them.
Humans, fauns and goblins of a similar age were always okay. Gnomes and giants and orcs he’d forbidden until we were eighteen.
“Twenty-five,” I remind her. That was when we were “allowed” to consider elves, centaurs, nagas, or ogres.
Dryads or mermaids, vampires or dwarves... they were questionable and depended on factors he never fully explained.
Basilisks and dragons were the only two creatures he forbade from consideration.
Not, as Mina pointed out, that we would ever meet either.
With a heavy sigh, Mina looks at the door one last time and mumbles, “Twenty-five,” under her breath. “Someone else will snatch him up before my eight years are up. But I can dream, right?”
“Don’t break your heart over him. You have plenty of time to find and fall in love with an even prettier person.”
“I hope so.” She lets me help her up to standing and asks, “What was he here for, anyway?”
“He came to deliver a letter.”
She makes a face I’m sure she wouldn’t want him to see. “That’s odd... why wouldn’t he send it with one of his staff?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s fallen in love with me?”
“Oh!” Mina claps her hands. “Wouldn’t that be brilliant? You have to open it. I will die of curiosity if you don’t.”
“It’s more likely to be an order. And if that’s the case, you aren’t allowed to look at it.”
“It won’t be. I’m sure of it.”
Carefully peeling the seal away, I unfold the letter and hold myself still as I rad the words written in bold script.
Miss Anastacia Eventide,
You are cordially invited to attend a late dinner at the Guardian’s Manor.
…
I don’t get a chance to read the rest—or the date and time below it—before Mina pushes close against my side.
“Ah!” She snugs herself close to my side and jiggles us both.
“He’s going to fall in love with you now!” she squeals, seemingly having forgotten that she wanted that same thing for herself moments ago.
“You get the fairytale! Quick! Eat an apricot for good luck!” She turns away from me as she claps her hands and bounces on the balls of her feet. But when she grabs the fruit from the bowl beneath my counter, she freezes, going pale and glancing toward the back door. “Mom can’t find out.”
“No, she cannot.” She would throw the letter in the fire and lock me in my room, as if I were thirteen and not almost thirty.
I tuck the envelope away and take a deep breath before taking the apricot and brushing it off on my apron. I may not need Mina’s fairytale, but if a little luck gets me what I want, I’ll take it.
“What did you come to tell me?” I ask before taking my first bite.
“Oh! Leaf and Bibble are fighting again and Celese asked me to come get you to stop it. She thinks it’s going to come to blows.”
Sighing I finish the apricot, placing the pit in my jar of Bragg beetles and go back to my work bench to put the berries from my pocket back into the jar. “Where are they?”
“At the inn, where else?”
The one place he should just avoid on principle. “I swear to the Goddess, this is the last time I save him from her.”
Next time, she can eat him for all I care.
But when we get there, Bibble is nowhere to be found and Leaf sits on the inn’s porch, glaring in the general direction of his home.
Mina doesn’t hesitate to tell her my news.
“Be careful,” Leaf’s scowl shifts to something more cautious. “He’s issued a few of those invitations.”
“Oh, she doesn’t care about that,” Mina says, waving away the caution. “If he’s been looking for the right fit, he’s about to find it. It’s Ana... how could he not fall in love?”
“She thinks this is the start of a fairytale love story.” And I’ll let her keep thinking that.
“Better you than her.” Leaf says.
Mina lets out an undignified huff but Leaf just smiles.
“You’re too young to be thinking about anyone that way, let alone an elf who has yet to disclose his true age.” Leaf asks Mina to run inside and get us both a drink, and when she’s gone, Leaf glances at me. “Edric Pendor Idonna Ceylon is not the name of a young man—I don’t care what species he is.”
“I don’t need him to be young, I just need his cock to work without causing me bodily harm.”
Lips twisted like she’s trying to keep something in, she harrumphs. “Well, if it’s good, then good for you. If it’s not, then at least steal something on your way out of that big house.”