Chapter 14
I screamed. Tris swore. And Wylen said something in an unrecognizable language as he tried to use the shower curtain to stop his fall. The fae stumbled forward, seemingly unaware that Tris and I were standing next to him, completely naked, Tris showing even more than that.
On one knee, Wylen threw his other hand out to catch the edge of the vanity and managed to stop his momentum. He muttered something again, the words unfamiliar but the tone recognizable. I was guessing this wasn’t going exactly the way Wylen planned.
“Dude!” Tris shouted. “Get the fuck out!”
Wylen snapped his head up, eyes yellow and face scrunched up in pain. But when he noticed the state Tris and I were in, his eyes lingered on both of us a little too long. Tris pulled me into his chest to help cover both of our most intimate parts. “Get. Out!”
Wylen took his time trying to stand. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was hurt or if he just liked pressing all of Tris’s buttons.
As he did this, Tris reached around my shoulders and grabbed one of the towels hanging on the side wall.
He wrapped it around me, and once covered, I returned the favor and snagged my second towel for Tris .
Trying to keep his eyes off us, Wylen stepped back. It put him closer to the toilet than the door, but now that we were both somewhat covered, I could take a moment to let my heart settle and find out what was wrong.
As I opened my mouth to ask or even yell at the fae, he dropped his head and held out a hand. “I am sorry, Sosie. It was not my intention to interrupt your coitus.”
“Coitus?” I asked.
“Yes, your sexual intercourse.”
“I know what coitus means.” I huffed, pulling my towel tighter. “It’s just that no one says coitus .”
Wylen looked at me in curiosity. “No? Then what do people say?”
“Oh my god. Get the fuck out, man!” Tris answered instead.
The fae looked appropriately humble as he shuffled his feet across the tile and let himself out. I waited until I heard the bedroom door close, too, before leaning back against Tris. And then I started to laugh.
“It’s not funny, Sosie. I guarantee you he did that on purpose.”
I couldn’t stop giggling. “Even if he did, who cares?” Turning in his arms, I gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “I don’t mind if he knows about us.”
Tris sighed and shook his head. “He saw us naked.”
“And?”
“And he’s a stranger from a faraway land. Who knows what he thinks about this kind of stuff?” Tris’s face was getting red, and I did my best not to laugh again. “Stop it, Sosie,” he grumbled.
“I’m sorry.” I stepped out of the tub and grabbed my hairbrush. As I tried to get the knots out, I watched Tris in the mirror. He was drying himself off, all previous signs of excitement now gone. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think he did it on purpose.”
Tris threw the towel on the vanity. “Oh, he most certainly did.” When I raised my brows and glared at the towel, he got the point and hung it back up where it was supposed to go. “And I’m going to find out why.”
I yelled at his back as he stomped toward the bed and picked up his clothes off the ground. “Tris, please don’t fight with him. I know he’s super annoying, but we need him.”
“Do we?”
I nodded. “I have a feeling we really do.”
“Whatever.” Tris jammed his legs into his jeans and pulled his T-shirt back over his head, covering up his incredible body.
With a sigh, I watched him comb his fingers through his hair and shake off the excess water. “I’ll be right out, okay? Please don’t do anything rash.”
“You mean like punch a peeping-Tom-fae-thing in the face for spying on us?”
“Yes, I mean exactly that.”
Tris picked up his shoes and walked to my bedroom door. Holding it half open, he leaned back and winked at me. It didn’t have its usual charm behind it, but I took it as a sign that he’d calmed down a bit. “I’ll behave. But don’t be long.”
“Be right out,” I promised, and as soon as the door clicked shut, I quickly started getting dressed.
It only took five minutes, but when I walked out of my room, I could feel the tension in the air.
Wylen was sitting on the couch in my stolen sweatshirt with his back straight, staring out the window.
Tris was leaning against the wall that separated the dining area from the kitchen with his arms crossed, staring at Wylen. Lovely.
“How about pancakes?” I asked cheerfully.
Ignoring both men, I went to my kitchen and started preparing breakfast. I hadn’t been shopping in a while, but I did manage to have all the ingredients on hand to make pancakes with fresh fruit and real maple syrup imported from Kilderoy.
The entire time I was cooking, no one spoke.
Wylen had started the pacing thing again, and Tris had taken up a defensive position at the table.
Wylen couldn’t get to me without passing by him first.
Men .
“Okay, come and eat.” The platter full of pancakes made a thunk when I set it on the wooden table. “They’re best when they’re hot!”
Tris stifled a chuckle and eyed Wylen as he took the seat across from him. “Sosie actually makes really good pancakes,” he told the fae.
“What is it?” Wylen asked.
“Basically, it’s just flour and butter and milk.”
Wylen bent over and sniffed the food on the platter. “It smells good.” He’d said it like he was shocked, and I did my best not to say anything. He probably didn’t realize that he was being offensive.
Tris dug in. He always ate my pancakes quickly, and I smiled down at him, thinking about our time together and how easy it usually was with him. Wylen grabbed one pancake, but when he saw Tris’s stack, he mimicked him and grabbed a couple more.
“Do you like strawberries?” I asked Wylen, passing him the plate of the berries I’d drizzled with sugar.
He grinned and took the plate, dumping about half of it on his cakes. “Oh yes. We have these in the Ashtabulah.”
“What about maple syrup?”
“Syrup?”
“Sap from a tree,” Tris said and then shrugged when I gave him a look. “What? That’s what it is.”
He wasn’t wrong. And apparently it helped Wylen understand, too. “Yes. We don’t call it syrup ,” he said awkwardly, “but we do drink the blood of the trees.”
“Well, when you say it that way…” Tris muttered, and I kicked him under the table.
For a few moments, it was quiet. The only sounds were of forks scraping against the plates and silent mumbles of delight.
Here I was, a halfling, sitting at my dining table with a part troll and a full-blooded fae.
Just one week ago, none of this would have even fit into my brain.
And that’s because none of this was real to me a week ago. But now…now everything was different.
Wylen cleared his throat and dabbed at his mouth with the paper napkin I’d given him. “I am sorry about my entrance this morning.”
“Yeah, what was that about?” I asked before Tris could make some snide remark.
“I’m not quite sure,” he admitted, pulling on the neck of the sweatshirt. I noticed his clothes again. It was the summer season in New Rothwick…why did he keep wearing my sweatshirt?
“Wylen, do you have anything else to wear while you are here?”
He shook his head. “Just the shirt and pants I arrived in.” Looking at Tris’s clothes, then at me, he added, “We don’t have similar attire where I come from. I would be noticed.” Tucking his perfectly straight blond hair back behind his pointed ears, he took another bite of pancakes.
“Do you have money?” I asked.
“A little.”
Wondering how that was possible and then deciding that I couldn’t handle that kind of conversation this morning, I just nodded. “Okay. I will take you shopping today.”
Stunned, Wylen stopped chewing. “I don’t think that is necessary. I will only be here a few more days and?—”
“Yeah, Sosie. He’s not going to be here much longer.” Tris grinned at my glare.
“Okay, fine.” Turning back to Wylen, I said, “Tris will bring you a couple of things to borrow.”
When Tris went to protest, I shook my head. He clamped his lips together and sat back in his chair. “Fine.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Wylen suddenly jumped to his feet, startling me and Tris. He pulled something out of his back pocket and sat back down as he unfolded the light purple piece of paper. “I believe I may have found some of your kind, Sosie. ”
Reaching across the table, I grabbed the sheet and read. “It’s a flyer for a support group.”
“Yes,” Wylen said with excitement. “I found it taped to the wall inside one of those holistic healing shops?” He questioned if that was the right description.
Looking at the paper again, I focused on the name. “Yep. I would guess that Divine Pathways is probably a holistic shop. You said you found this inside?”
“Yes.”
“How did you…wait. You didn’t break in, did you?”
Tris chuckled, and Wylen shrugged. The gesture looked weird on a man who was always so sure. “I didn’t break anything.”
Rubbing my forehead and feeling the headache coming, I asked, “What if they have cameras?”
“There were no cameras,” Wylen replied.
“How do you know?” Tris asked.
“Because I can hear them. This place…this place filled with natural herbs and oils and crystals? I would imagine they don’t believe in human technology.”
“It’s a store in the city. I’m sure they believe in surveillance.” Wylen continued to look confused while I digested what this meant. “Okay, forget the cameras. Let’s just assume that no one saw you break in. Why do you think these people are my kin?”
The fae moved to the seat next to me, putting Tris on edge. I could tell by the way he sat up straighter and pushed his plate to the side in case he needed to move quickly.
“They are using fae words,” Wylen said, excited to show me. “This word here?—”
“Leath?” I’d pronounced it like it looked, and Wylen gave me a parental look.
“Yah.”
“What?”
“It’s pronounced like Yah .”
“Okay, fine. But what does it mean? ”
Wylen leaned back in his chair and smiled like he’d just won a court case. “It means halfling.”
Fine. He’d done good.
“So, they have a group for halflings that meets at this hippie store?” Tris asked.
“It would appear so,” I said.
“Well, you have to go.” Getting to his feet, Tris set his plate in the sink and washed his hands. “I’ll stop by work and grab some undercover stuff.”
“Undercover stuff?” I asked as I followed his movements to the couch, where he started putting on his shoes.
“Like hidden cameras and microphones and shit.”
“Tris, I don’t know.”
“Sosie, as much as it pains me to admit this, Twinkletoes did something right.”
“Thank you,” Wylen said.
“It’s the best lead we’ve gotten.”
I didn’t think that Tris really cared about finding Gil. But he did love himself a good undercover job. And he was good with all the electronics and stuff. I also guessed he was feeling a little more secure in our relationship after last night.
“Fae Boy. Where is this place again?”
I looked down at the flyer and hoped Wylen would just stay quiet. “It’s near the harbour on Westray Square.”
Tris stood and clapped his hands together. Jogging over to me, he lifted my chin with his fingers and gave me one of his mesmerizing kisses that made me forget we weren’t alone. “Okay, message me the address and meet me there at…”
“Meeting is at six.”
“Five.” He kissed the top of my head once more before bouncing to the door. “And take him shopping. I’m not giving him my clothes.” Tris closed the door with a wave before I could argue.
“Trolls are fickle creatures,” Wylen finally said.
“Tris is a fickle creature,” I muttered. Gathering up the plates, I set everything in the sink before deciding what I needed to say. “Wylen. You kind of stink. Please use my shower. I’ll bring you a new towel.”
The fae discreetly sniffed his pit area and made a face. “I could use a bath,” he admitted.
Gesturing for him to have at it, I sighed when I thought about the status of the day. For some reason, I felt like it was about to get much more bizarre.