Chapter 43
Enid
Nevan lay sleeping next to me in my cottage, the light outside waning. Since we’d admitted our feelings for each other over a week ago, he’d spent every night here. The only problem was that he was very distracting.
Ever since my conversation with Fiona, I’d realized how much I wanted to be a healer, to use my creations in ways they’d never been used before.
I’d been studying and reading all the texts Nevan had suggested—or trying to.
It was hard when Nevan kept looking at me like he wanted to devour me.
Admittedly, I hadn’t gotten a lot of reading done in the last week.
But he was asleep now, so I had a book about the different methods for healing superficial wounds splayed open in my lap.
I’d have to shadow Nevan for two years before I could take on my own patients. But we had a plan. I would slowly take more and more of his workload, under his supervision, and he could use that time to work on his potions.
It felt like everything was finally falling into place. About time too.
A swirl of blue magic and smoke appeared, Ambrose stepping through.
I shot a look at Nevan, still fast asleep next to me. He knew about Ambrose, of course, and I’d also revealed the existence of the mythical Fair Folk. Nevan was almost more shocked that they were real than he was about my identity.
But the Fair Folk are children’s stories, he’d said.
It had taken him time to finally come to grips with it. However, I wasn’t sure he was ready to witness me talking to a man he couldn’t see. After all, knowing about the Fair Folk didn’t mean mortals could see them. That was their curse. Forever invisible. Their species dying a slow death.
“I guess I’ve been replaced.” Ambrose crossed his arms as I pressed a finger to my lips and pointed over the railing to the first floor
I got out of bed and padded down the stairs, hoping Ambrose would follow. Vine was curled on the couch, also fast asleep.
“What are you doing here?” I finally asked when I was downstairs.
He gave me a look. “How is it that we’ve done this for centuries and you still can’t remember when we meet?”
Right. Our monthly meeting. So much had happened between his last visit and this one; so much had changed.
“It’s over, isn’t it?” Ambrose asked, sadness filling his eyes.
I nodded.
“Because of him?” Ambrose pointed up toward the loft.
“Yes,” I said honestly. “And no.”
He raised a brow.
“You never truly wanted me, Ambrose. And it’s okay to admit that. We used each other’s bodies, and that was it. You needed me and I needed you, and I’m glad I had you all these years. I probably would’ve left for the Otherworld years ago had it not been for your visits.”
He shoved a hand through his blue hair, jaw locking. He really was so beautiful. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”
“What way?”
“Like I didn’t want you. I’m sorry that I made you feel like you were just a means to an end. I’m not great at this.”
I snorted. “Neither am I, but I’m learning.” My gaze flicked up toward the loft, and I thought about just an hour earlier when Nevan had been kissing his way up my body, murmuring how much he loved me. All of me.
“You love him.” Ambrose sounded surprised.
“I do,” I said.
It was that simple, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it, not anymore. I wasn’t afraid to admit that I wanted him, that I wanted a life with him. Mostly, I wasn’t afraid to dream of that life together.
“Wow.” Ambrose’s gaze flitted to my amulet. “Does he know about you?”
I nodded. “He found out. Or I told him.”
The faery sat on the arm of the couch, staring in awe. “I never thought you’d admit your identity to anyone.”
“I didn’t either.”
“So what’s the plan? Are you going to let your magic drain and become human? What about your people in the Otherworld?”
“They’re not my people,” I said, words sharper than I intended. “They were never my people, Ambrose. For the same reason the Fair Folk were never my people. They didn’t accept me either.”
“And these people do?”
I thought of Nevan, Fiona, and the book club, whom I’d admitted my identity to this week.
Like Fiona, Margaret hadn’t been surprised.
The rest had been varying degrees of shock and had a lot of questions, but no one had been angry.
No one had threatened to kick me out or turn me in.
I’d reveal it to the rest of the town in my own time.
“Yes,” I said. “They do. It’s a town of misfits. I fit right in.”
He smiled, but it was a sad smile that made a pang shoot through me. “So it’s over. It’s really over.”
“You can still visit.”
He cocked a brow. “Would Nevan be into that?”
I rolled my eyes. “As a friend.”
“Ah.” He stood. “I’m not great at friendship.”
“We can learn together.”
“Maybe,” he said.
The front door burst open, Fiona standing there, moonlight haloing her. “I think we can make a new cross species of plants using the germanias and—” She stopped as she walked farther into the cottage, her gaze widening as she took in Ambrose.
“Why do you have blue hair?” she asked. “Is it because of blueberries?”
Ambrose slowly rose to his full height, over a head taller than me. “You can see me?”
Fiona wrinkled her nose. “Duh. You’re kind of hard to miss.”
Ambrose and I shot each other confused looks. “How can she see me, Enid?”
I wasn’t entirely sure. Humans couldn’t see the Fair Folk. That was the entire point the curse the Fairwitch had lain upon them.
Fiona pointed. “You never answered my question about your hair.”
Ambrose just stared at the little girl, blinking. “This shouldn’t be possible.”
I tapped my chin. I’d had a theory or two after Fiona had overheard Ambrose and me when he’d visited weeks earlier. It had felt like a lifetime ago. “You know, this town’s magic is fueled by Fairwitch herself. Maybe because of that, the curse doesn’t apply here.”
Ambrose’s gaze shot to meet mine. “If that’s true, we could actually visit, interact with people.”
I thought of all the eligible women in Fairwitch Isle desperate for a husband. The same ones who had been clamoring for Nevan’s attention. They would certainly be interested in the gorgeous Fair Folk.
“You’ll find plenty of willing men and women here.”
Ambrose’s mouth curved into a smile. “I need to get back to Kiln Mountain immediately, tell the other Fair Folk about this.” He rushed forward, grabbing my shoulders. “This could change everything, Enid. We’ve been so lonely for so long.”
“Just slow down,” I said. “Take a deep breath. Come back in a few weeks, and maybe I can introduce you to the high prince.”
He nodded, then hesitated before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll see you in a few weeks, then.”