Chapter 56 Reyna
REYNA
According to Khortland’s most recent message Reyna is supposed to meet him, Aerin, and the others at the apartment at nine p.m. to get the locket that will turn her Fae. Or at least make her appear Fae. She’s fuzzy on the details.
Only a few minutes off from nine o’clock now, Reyna wraps up her end-of-shift duties at the clinic. Just as she’s reaching for her bag the receptionist appears.
“We have one more. He walked in just before I could lock the doors, I’m sorry,” she tells her. Reyna sighs, setting down her bag.
“Of course, it’s no problem. What is his complaint? I’ll get the room set up.” Reyna grabs a fresh robe from the closet, hers already in the laundry.
“Looks like he needs stitches, pretty good gash on his leg,” the Shifter replies before leaving the room.
Reyna sets up the room closest to the front and the Shifter situates the patient inside of it before bringing Reyna the intake papers. As Reyna walks into the room she glances over the sparse information.
“Hello, I’m Healer Locke,” she greets the male before looking up.
On the form he circled Human, but Reyna pauses a moment upon seeing him.
He is like no Human she’s ever seen. Closer to Fae in stature, he is tall and broad.
His frame takes up a massive amount of space in the room.
His legs almost touch the floor despite sitting feet off the ground on the operatory table.
The male doesn’t look up when Reyna walks in. He has a head of black hair that hangs just past his ears. The strands have a slight wave, the ones at the nape of his neck curling into ringlets.
“Thanks for seeing me,” he finally says to his knees, still not looking at her.
Reyna scans his body for any injuries, wondering if his hunching is due to abdominal pain. Her eyes snag on the rip in his black jeans and the way the fabric around the tear is saturated.
“It’s no problem. You have a cut on your leg?” Reyna asks, setting the clipboard down and pulling on gloves.
“Yeah, did it at work.” He straightens, making room for her to examine the wound.
“What do you do?” Reyna makes small talk as she moves the fabric away. The gash is long and ragged, but not too deep. She certainly can heal it.
There is a baited pause before he says, “construction,” in a terse way that makes Reyna almost certain he doesn’t work in construction.
Reyna stands. “I’ll step out for you to remove your pants. Pants only please, if you don’t have undergarments there are some in that drawer there,” she says, pointing. “Then I’ll get you patched up.”
The male finally looks up and Reyna holds back a flinch. His eyes are red. A deep shade, like the color of rich wine, or maybe, the color of the spilled blood on his leg.
No creature she’s ever seen has eyes like that. Especially not Humans, whose eyes vary only minimally from brown, green, and blue.
Reyna steps out, closing the door behind her and shaking off the eerie feeling. He’s just another patient. Reyna loiters in the hallway, ringing her hands for the appropriate amount of time before knocking on the door again.
When she enters, the male is sitting in the exact same position on the table, only this time the blood-stained pants sit in the chair next to him.
His eyes are still cast downward, though his hands are wrapped around the edge of the table, knuckles white. Reyna puts on fresh gloves and approaches, towing a cart of supplies behind her. He straightens to make room for her and once again Reyna catches his eyes. Red.
Reyna swallows and looks away, grabbing the numbing gel from the cart to apply a thin layer. His bare thighs are an expanse of lean muscle, and as that muscle relaxes, Reyna knows the gel has kicked in.
“I’ll disinfect, stitch you up, and apply a healing salve,” Reyna explains, grabbing the disinfectant and a sterile towel.
He only nods, and Reyna glances at his face again, braving the eyes that give her the creeps.
Once she really looks at him, the male is handsome, if not a bit rugged.
There is no way he’s Human. The planes of his face are too severe, even though he does have some of the characteristic roundness to his features.
It’s almost like the two things are fighting to be seen.
His cheekbones aren’t harsh like most Fae’s, but his jaw is sharp in a purely masculine way.
His nose is narrow but rounded at the end.
And then there are his eyes, slightly too round to be Fae.
He gives her a shy smile and Reyna nearly recoils in her chair, caught off guard by it. She hadn’t realized she’d been staring. His teeth are perfectly straight and white, and when he smiles, a slight dimple forms in his cheeks, a purely Human trait.
Reyna looks away, getting back to work. They don’t exchange any small talk while Reyna stitches the edges of the cut back together and gently wipes the healing salve over the wound.
The whole time he watches her curiously but doesn’t say another thing.
Not until after Reyna gives him healing instructions and a tub of healing salve to take.
Not until Reyna is at the door ready to leave.
“Thank you, Reyna, your kindness won’t be forgotten.” Shock pulses through her at his knowledge of her first name, at the ominous tone of his words. Reyna whirls around, but the male is, somehow, already gone.
Shaking off the unsettled feeling that follows her from the clinic proves difficult. Reyna can’t help but cast glances over her shoulder a few times while she hustles through the dark streets towards the apartment. It’s past nine; she’s late.
When she finally makes it to the building, she glances around one last time.
Satisfied that nothing seems out of the ordinary, she pushes open the doors to the ground floor lobby and slips inside.
After three flights of stairs, she slides her key in the lock and pushes the door open, stepping inside and shutting it behind her, quickly re-locking it.
In an instant, Khortland is at her side, a comforting arm around her middle.
“Are you okay?” he murmurs into her ear before kissing the crown of her head. Reyna leans into him, feeling her body relax in a way only he can provide.
“Better now,” she says. Khortland nods, stepping away and allowing Reyna to face the room.
Aerin, Malice, and Emrys are spread throughout the space.
Malice is near where they stand, close to the door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Emrys sits in a desk chair in the corner.
He dwarfs it, the small Human chair not meant for a creature of his height.
He seems to be doing anything in his power to avert his gaze from where Aerin stands, by the single window in the apartment looking out.
She is about as far away from Malice and Emrys as possible in the small space.
Aerin turns to face them, looking ethereal as always.
Her sun-kissed skin practically glows in the low light, and there is a lot of it on display.
Reyna tries not to feel jealous of the Princess’s breasts straining against the top of her shirt or the long expanse of skin on display from the tops of her thighs down to her ankles.
In comparison, Reyna feels like a child.
Pausing, Aerin assesses Reyna like she had in that bathroom—a predator looking at prey.
“You’re late,” Aerin finally says, cutting the silence in the room.
Reyna drops her bag and jacket on the floor by the door before moving to the small kitchenette, shrugging as she does.
“I had a patient walk in right before closing,” she explains, finding a glass and filling it with water from the tap. She needs something to do with her hands.
“Well, now that we are all here,” Aerin says with an exaggerated sigh as she sits down on the edge of the bed. “I met with the Witch today.” Aerin pauses, her gaze not drifting from Reyna.
Khortland’s impatience shows when he immediately asks: “And? Did you get the locket?”
Reyna’s eyes fall to the item she hadn’t noticed before, a small gold locket around Aerin’s neck. Aerin’s hand drifts up to it, as if to confirm Reyna’s suspicion.
“I did,” Aerin says only to Reyna.
Khortland begins to cross the room to Aerin, but Aerin whips her head towards him and gives him a deadly glare. Reyna grips her cup to still her hands. Whatever game Aerin is playing, Reyna still isn’t sure she wants to be a part of it. But she also isn’t sure she has a choice anymore.
Khortland stills.
“It was made for her,” Aerin says slowly, her fingers playing with it. “Only she will take it. Only she will use it.” Aerin’s words feel ominous, but Reyna rolls her shoulders back and finds some confidence.
“Will it work? Will it turn me Fae?”
Aerin looks back to Reyna, her golden eyes almost bored.
“Work? Yes. Turn you Fae? No. Not inherently. It won’t give you magic. But it will change your physical features to that of a Fae.”
“So, it won’t protect me?” Reyna asks, deflating. Aerin tricked her, made her think she could solve all of Reyna’s problems.
“Isn’t that what your Prince is for?” Aerin asks her, as if the males aren’t even in the room.
Reyna looks at Khortland, who’s glaring at Aerin, but his mouth stays shut. Apparently, Reyna is handling this on her own.
“It would be nice to be less…” Reyna trails off.
“Human?” Aerin asks her with a tick of her perfectly shaped eyebrow.
“I was going to say fragile,” Reyna replies. “But Human, I suppose, works too.”
“Making you less Human is farther down on my to-do list. Considering my to-do list gets longer by the day, you might be waiting a while,” Aerin says.
Hope soars through Reyna. She looks back to Khortland, who looks just as shocked as Reyna feels.
She didn’t think Aerin would actually care to try to solve this seemingly impossible problem she and Khortland have.
The fact that the Princess, self-proclaimed strongest Fae in Novhelm, would even look into it gives Reyna hope she lost long ago.