Chapter 13 #2
The corner of his mouth twitched in a way she now knew meant he was fighting a smile.
“I didn’t lie to you. Fae don’t track our ages the way you do.
We are only either immature, which is any Fae who hasn’t been alive for what is about their fiftieth human year yet.
Once you pass your fiftieth year, you are a mature Fae or an adult.
You remain an adult unless you pass something around your five-hundredth year then you become an older Fae or an elder.
But we don’t really track years. It’s more how you look and feel.
An immature Fae looks like a human kid or teen until sometime around their fiftieth year.
Then they look the same till around their five-hundredth year when they begin to show age, such as gray hair.
” He ran his right hand through his hair.
“You humans are always so obsessed with age, so when we visit your realm, as I have, we usually choose a human age to align ourselves with based on our expected lifespan. So, I align myself with 25 because I feel I am about a quarter of the way through my expected life of 500 years.”
Sierra quickly did the math. “So, you’re close to 125 years old?”
“Again with the counting, but if I was keeping track, I’m sure it would be somewhere around there, yes.”
“Interesting,” Sierra replied, thinking of how nice it would be if humans weren’t so obsessed with age and instead focused on how old they felt.
She then ran over what she had read online one final time but found he had answered most of her questions.
In fact, she only had one left. “Why did you come here?”
Aodhan looked toward her dark TV briefly before meeting her eyes once more. “I came to study. I wasn’t lying when I said I was studying history.”
Sierra narrowed her eyes. Something about the way he said it didn’t sound right, and she suspected he was deflecting, as he had mentioned earlier. “Are you studying at the university?”
A full smile spread across Aodhan’s face.
“You really are smart for a human.” He leaned toward her.
“I came here on a personal study to try and figure out why Fae magic is weakening and see if there is anything that can be done to preserve our race. While intermarrying is part of our magic weakening, the pace of the weakening has begun to accelerate, and I suspect it is something more than just genetics thinning the magic in our blood.”
Sierra couldn’t hide the look of surprise on her face. “And you can find that out in Dublin?”
“Yes, you have some of our ancient texts here. But you act like they are the holy grail or something, so I often have to wait for the one I want to see to be on display—or sneak around after hours.”
Sierra laughed, thinking of all the times she had been looking for Aodhan in the library and had been unable to find him anywhere. “I knew you were up to something suspicious at the library.”
To her surprise, Aodhan smiled back, marking perhaps the first real smile she had seen on his face. Something in her wished she could take a picture to save the moment, but she quickly brushed off the intrusive thought.
“Of course, the humans who work in the library are often very bright, and that has caused me to be here longer than expected,” Aodhan elaborated.
Sierra thought back to when she had first seen Aodhan on Tinder. “How long is that?”
“Almost a year now.”
“Oh wow, and you just now decided to get a job at the library?” she joked.
The smile fell from his face. “I wanted to try things the right way first. But then when I realized how difficult it was to get around the librarians, I knew I would have to figure out another route.” He leaned toward her.
“It's partially because of you, you know. I never thought of getting a job at all until I met you, and you mentioned you worked at the library.”
Sierra rolled her eyes. “If you get caught sneaking around at some point, please don’t spread around the fact that I inspired your crime spree, that will truly ruin my reputation.
” She was joking; it wasn’t like she had a reputation in Dublin to ruin in the first place, and her reputation in America was already non-existent.
“Don’t worry,” Aodhan said, brushing his hand lightly across her cheek. “Your secret is safe with me.”
The words hung in the air between them, and Sierra knew he meant that in more ways than one. Suddenly, she remembered she had one more question she had been wanting to ask him. “So, why Tinder, and why did you kiss me outside of the pizza place?”
Aodhan broke eye contact to look away, hanging his head slightly.
“I joined Tinder because…well…I was lonely, and I wanted to look for someone…” He trailed off, grimacing at something he left unsaid.
“With the kiss, I…I don’t really know how to say this, but I like you, Sierra.
Not just like, I feel drawn to you for reasons I can’t explain.
I know I didn’t go about courting you the right way, and I feel bad about it.
But I would like it if you would give me another chance. ”
Sierra tapped her chin with her finger, a mischievous look on her face.
The past twenty-four hours had made her realize that while she had been angry at Aodhan and annoyed these past few weeks, she hadn’t really hated him.
And the reality was, she hadn’t thought of him as her enemy since the day she had seen him at the pub the week before.
She had already decided during this conversation to give him another chance, but he didn’t know that.
“Another chance, you say?” She kept her face straight, but internally, she was laughing at the fact that he had actually used the word ‘courting’ in a sentence. He really was from another realm.
She’d forgotten, however, that Aodhan was able to feel her emotions because a smile spread across his face as he said, “You’re feeling pretty proud of yourself, as well as a sense of resolve, so I’m guessing that means you have decided to give me another chance?”
She nodded. “I have. But listen, honesty is really important to me. So, if we are going to give this,” she motioned between them with her finger, “Another try, you have to be honest with me.”
He set his hand on her forearm. “Sierra, I promise you. I cannot lie, and going forward, I won’t attempt to obscure the truth from you in any way, okay?”
She smiled, setting her hand on his. “Thank you.” She glanced down at her phone, noticing it was almost midnight.
“It’s getting pretty late, and I have another seminar tomorrow.
But I don’t work at the library, so maybe we could have that coffee afterward?
Start over with the date you were late for?
” She rose from the couch, and he followed, reminding Sierra of their height difference as he towered over her.
“I’d like that.” He smiled. “And I promise I will arrive on time, okay?” Sierra laughed as she led him to the door even though she was pretty sure he could just shift himself out of the room if he wanted.
Just before he exited, he turned to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “Until tomorrow, Sierra.”
Sierra grinned like an idiot, watching as he walked down the hall toward the stairs. She didn’t close the door until he was completely out of sight, unable to stop smiling at the memory of his kiss.