Chapter Twelve
Chapter 12
V alor woke to find that Kelyn had not returned to the room. She glanced out the window. The sun shone and the parking lot was drying up after yesterday’s rain. Could they get lucky enough to have sun for their mermaid hunt?
She couldn’t find hope without knowing if Kelyn had returned last night while she was sleeping, or maybe he’d not come back at all. Had he been that angry with her? Maybe Eryss was right. She needed to talk to him straight out.
Or not.
“You gotta stop being a flake,” she muttered as she wandered into the bathroom. “Be you. The tough chick who takes what she wants and gives as good as she gets. Yeah,” she said to her reflection.
She’d put the whole guilt thing aside and give Kelyn the respect he deserved. And maybe she could loosen up the tough act. Just a bit. Let the guy in? She didn’t always have to be one of the guys.
“Maybe,” she said on a whisper that ended in a wink at her reflection. She patted down a tangle of hair above her ear, then decided the gray T-shirt she’d slept in and the skinny black jeans were good to go.
Ten minutes later, she wandered through the casino, cautioning herself not to look down at the crazy carpeting that resembled Scottish tartan on crack. The pattern alone could mesmerize a person and set her off course to crash into a nearby slot machine.
Not many people were in the casino. In fact, she saw fewer than half a dozen sitting before the slots. It was early. Probably most were in the restaurant eating or enjoying their vacations by lingering in bed. She didn’t have to go far to spy the blond faery slumped in a chair before an electronic slot machine that flashed neon-haired women with purple kitty ears and tails. His feet were propped up on another machine, and one arm hung down the side of the chair, his knuckles brushing the floor.
That man was going to have one hell of a neck ache when he woke. Of course, if it gave her a chance to exercise her massage skills again, this time she would not balk when he tried to take it further with kisses and bare skin. Because she wanted to put her hands on him again. His muscles were so hard, and it wasn’t often she got to practice her healing magic, either.
Valor glanced to a passing attendant who was polishing the chrome-edged slot machines with a cloth and spray. The elderly woman wearing a pink apron and bright white high-tops offered her nod to Kelyn and a shrug. “Didn’t want to wake him,” she said quietly. “He yours?”
Valor shrugged. “I guess so.”
If only!
Then again, there was a lot she didn’t know about this man, and the fact that he’d rather spend the night camped out in a cheesy casino than up in a comfy bed beside her said so much. Had she hurt him that much with her flaky refusal to push the make-out session to the next level? Or was he one of those sensitive types whom a woman could never please no matter what she did?
Goddess, but she’d had enough of that type of man. Yet tops on her list of not-wants was the man who could never see beyond her as just another one of the guys. How to change that impression? She couldn’t do frills and makeup. That was so out of her realm of talents.
Valor slid onto the vinyl seat next to Kelyn and clasped her fingers about his wrist. The silver scars where his sigils had once been were not raised, but she sensed some minute power within. It seemed to poke at her own magic as if trying to shrug her off. Interesting. Could he have a bit of magic left within that he wasn’t able to consciously access?
Kelyn startled and then groaned. His body eased into a stretch, his long legs bending and his feet slipping off the slot machine with an ungraceful thud. That prompted another groan from him.
When he finally popped open one eye, he managed a smirk. “Morning.”
“That it is. I’ll reserve the good , though, until I can assess whether or not you’re going to have a screaming neck ache.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled. He cracked his neck one way, then the other. His wince told her he wasn’t pain free. “Should have returned to the room. I thought I was going to close my eyes for a few minutes. Guess all this traveling has worn me out. What’s up for today? You ready to go?”
“Uh, sure. But it’s early. We’ve time to catch some breakfast. You know how I do love a buffet.”
“That I do.”
“Unless you want to hang in the casino a little longer. I didn’t think you were the gambling type.”
“I’m not. But a few plays were necessary. Just to see if I could get all the purple kitties.” He smiled a ridiculously charming yet tired grin.
“Did you find someone who can take us to mermaids?” Valor asked.
“Never.”
“Oh. Uh, do you want me to give it a try?”
“Guy’s name is Never.” Kelyn sat up, wincing, and stretched his arms above his head, which tugged the shirt across his hard pecs right at about Valor’s eye level. The ridges of his abdomen pressed against the shirt, as well.
Yeah, she was over the guilt and the weird need to push the man away. She wanted this guy. To touch and kiss and...whatever came next. No strings or expectations attached. If he would give her another chance.
“Never is an Unseelie who left Faery years ago,” Kelyn said. He stretched back an arm, then swung it forward, working at the tightness. And then he leaned in close to her. “Erte told me about him.”
“I’ve heard that name before.”
“He’s my best friend. Elves in the mortal realm are rare. He lived in Faery ages ago, but he prefers our realm. Go figure.”
“And by ages, do you mean centuries?”
“I do. But the guy didn’t have to consume a vampire’s heart to live as long as he has. Long life is natural for elves. I trust him, but he said we should not trust Never.”
“Great. Untrustworthy faeries. And vicious mermaids. Just what we need to make this adventure unforgettable. You hungry?”
“Always. Should we head to the buffet?”
“Sure, but first...” She wrapped her fingers about his wrist again and paused to summon her courage. Eryss’s words resounded, yet she wasn’t quite ready to go all in. “This is the last time I’m going to say sorry to you, but you do deserve this one. I’ve been kind of flaky around you and it’s going to stop.”
“Valor, I understand—”
“You might think you do, but that doesn’t mean I can’t aspire to a different tactic and try to be...” A real girl. Someone with whom a man could see relationship potential. “I want us to be good.”
“We are good.”
“All righty. But maybe I want us to be better than good. Like, you know, good is for friends. Something a little beyond that kind of good?”
“Such aspirations are a fine thing to have,” he said, standing. “Beyond good it is.” He offered her his arm and Valor stood and hooked hers in his, pleased he’d agreed so easily to her not-so-definitive suggestion about their relationship. “Can I take you out on a breakfast date?”
“I’d like that. Oh, hey, look.” Valor ripped the paper tag from the slot machine. “You won twenty pounds from the purple kitty chicks.”
“Nice. We are definitely getting the plate-size upgrade.”
“Whoo!”
* * *
“What’s a thin place?” Valor asked Kelyn as, two hours later, he navigated to the village for which the faery Never had given him GPS coordinates. “I’ve heard it mentioned and suspect it’s to do with Faery.”
Kelyn possessed an ease driving the car, one wrist propped on the steering wheel and his eyes taking in the periphery, as if he were adventuring and searching for great sites. She found it sexy, so casual and sure of himself.
“You know Faery is everywhere?” he asked. “Though it’s not as close in the more populated places, like big cities.”
“It’s another dimension, of sorts, that overlies or underlies the mortal realm.”
“Right. But you can only get there through a portal and you must be sidhe or have another means, such as a spell.” He winked at her.
Valor caught that wink as if he’d given her a hug. She smiled to herself and felt that, whatever happened between the two of them, it was going to work. It had to.
“A thin place is where Faery bleeds into the mortal realm. It’s not Faery. It’s not the mortal realm. It’s sort of both.”
“Can you get into Faery through a thin place?”
“Maybe. It’s not a portal. It’s a place where the sidhe exist without being seen by human eyes. Sort of like FaeryTown in Paris. And like the Darkwood. That’s a thin place. You did know that about the forest before you went there, right?”
Now he didn’t offer a wink but instead a sideways glance.
“Maybe? First time I’ve heard the definition for thin place was today. But I get it now. Faery exists on top of the mortal realm. And woe to those who try to exert their power there. Or borrow a few mushrooms.”
“Borrow? What about invoking a dangerous spell?”
“Dangerous?” Arguing would open a can of worms she wasn’t willing to shake. Valor could but offer a guilty shrug.
“I understand pretty much the entire shoreline of Wales is a thin place,” Kelyn said, “though not the major ports. That must be the village ahead where those thin puffs of dark smoke are curling out of chimneys. Quaint. And that is what we are looking for.”
Valor looked in the direction Kelyn pointed. A long, winding fieldstone fence hugged the road, looking ever so Old World. And atop it crouched a man with dark hair and wings.
“Seriously? He sits out in the open with his wings revealed?” Valor wondered.
“I suspect he’s wearing a glamour against human eyes.” Kelyn pulled the rental car over to the side of the road thirty feet away from the faery, who hadn’t moved from his perch. “You ready for this?”
Valor shrugged. “Are you?”
“I am. And so you know, he requires payment for this venture. Which I’m perfectly willing to pay.”
Kelyn got out and strode ahead. While Valor, gripping the door handle, wondered exactly what sort of payment a faery would ask of another for the map to a thin place.