An Empty Owl Perch
Ryder ends up driving us to the cottage in his cart. Rowan is walking now, but he’s stiff and awkward.
“Go take a shower,” I tell him when we step inside. “I’ll make you a cup of tea when you’re out.”
“Okay.” He heads for the bathroom. “Hopefully I can remember how to work the plumbing.”
I laugh, shaking my head. As soon as the door closes, I turn to Ryder, exhaling loudly.
“What a day, huh?” he says.
“I can’t believe we pulled it off.”
Not that I really did anything.
The elf grins, nonchalantly shoving his hands into his pockets. “Me either.”
The sound of running water drifts to us. Rowan must have figured out how to turn on the shower.
I frown down the hall. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“He’ll be fine. I imagine being a man is like riding a bike. Give him a few minutes, and he’ll remember how everything works.”
I smile. “Do you want a cup of tea?”
“No, but thank you. I’m going to go home and sleep for sixteen hours.”
“Are you okay? Is your magic…okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good—as fine as I was before we attempted this anyway.”
“I’m sorry about everything that happened to you,” I whisper softly.
“Don’t fall in love with the wrong person, Tinker Bell.” He lowers his voice to a lighthearted whisper. “It ends badly.”
“Is your broken magic the real reason you left the fae college?”
He studies one of my aunt’s embroidered pillows. “It’s hard to take finals when you keep lighting things on fire.”
I nod, unsure what to say.
“What are you going to do with Rowan?” Ryder asks.
“Do with him?”
“He’s not an owl anymore. You can’t tuck him in a cage and keep him in your cottage.”
I roll my eyes. “He never had a cage.”
“You know what I mean.”
“He can sleep in the spare bedroom tonight. We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.”
Ryder starts for the door, winking roguishly before he goes. “If you need any help, you let me know, okay?”
“Thank you, Ryder.”
“See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
The elf lets himself out, and I wander into the kitchen, needing to do something that feels normal. And normal feels like tea.
But my eyes stray to the empty perch, and something cold settles in my stomach. I end up sitting at the table, feeling lost, unable to put my feelings into words.
Twenty minutes later, I hear footsteps.
Rowan walks into the room, dressed in jeans and a dusky blue, lightweight knit, long-sleeve shirt that Ansel gave him. Chester follows, my dog heeling like he’s found a new best friend.
My eyes drift over the man. And he is a man, not the boy from the picture.
Rowan’s shoulders have broadened, and his hair has mellowed to a deep cocoa shade. His jaw is more defined than it was in his youth. He has striking eyes, such an unusual gray, but they hold seven painful, lonely years in them.
The boy is gone, and so is the owl, leaving a stranger I don’t know.
When our gazes meet, I look away, nervous. “I was going to make tea, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. What would you like?”
“I can make it,” he says, his voice so familiar.
“Right.”
Needing to do something, I leave the table and busy myself by rearranging the utensils in the stand by the stove.
Rowan steps up beside me. “Kit.”
Refusing to look at him, I say, “Hmm?”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m a little freaked out.”
He chuckles at my honesty. The amulet didn’t do his voice justice. It’s a deep, rumbly sound, scratchy from years of disuse, and it tugs at my aching heart.
Nudging my arm, he says, “It’s because I’m hot, isn’t it?”
He sounds so much like himself, it hurts.
And though I laugh…I feel like I’m going to cry again. I finally turn to look at him. And then I look up, because he’s tall. “Can I admit something weird?”
He nods, his expression warm and curious.
“Okay, but it doesn’t really make any sense…”
Rowan lifts a brow. “I’ll try to keep up.”
“I miss you.”
“I’m right here.”
“I know.” I swallow, nodding to the empty perch. “But you’re not right there.”
“You’re such a pixie.” He laughs, wrapping his arms around me and drawing me against him. “Close your eyes. I’m the same Rowan, just devastatingly handsome now.”
I sniffle against the ribbed texture of his shirt, my tears dampening the material. And then I cry harder and wrap my arms around his middle, holding him tightly. “I can’t believe it worked.”
He rests his chin on my head and chuckles, sounding a bit emotional himself. “I can’t believe it worked either.”
Outside, it begins to rain. Gently, not like the storm I created earlier.
Fighting for control, I step back, meeting his eyes. “What are you going to do now?”
“What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to work at the tea shop. Remember?”
“But you were one project away from becoming a sorcerer,” I whisper. “Do you think you can be happy serving tea?”
His expression becomes solemn. “We made a deal, Kit. I’m not going to break that. You offered your magic in exchange for my help. Three years—that’s the plan.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Can you be happy at the tea shop?”
“Now that I don’t have feathers, I think I could be happy just about anywhere. And besides, I can’t abandon you now. No offense, but you’re rather hopeless.”
“You said I was ready to open the shop.”
His smoky eyes meet mine. “You’re ready if you have me.”
I sniffle, looking away. “You’ve already lost so much of your life. Are you sure you want to waste more of it?”
“We’re family, right? Isn’t this what family does? Helps each other?”
Oh, my pixie heart.
“You mean that?” I whisper.
He offers me a smile as he opens the tea cabinet. “Of course. Besides, Laverna said you have to take care of me for the rest of my life. Sorry, Kit. I didn’t make the rules.”
“Okay…but you have to move into the tea shop apartment. Ash will freak out if I let you stay here.”
“No offense, but I have no desire to watch the two of you fawn all over each other. I’ll happily move out.”
“He’s going to be angry with me, isn’t he?”
“Because we didn’t call him?” Rowan finally chooses a Taiwanese oolong. “Probably, since he likes to have his nose in everything, and he’ll be mad he wasn’t able to control the situation. But he’s the one who left—he could have stayed if he’d wanted to. He’ll get over it.”
“That’s true,” I say, acknowledging he’s right. “But he was working, and…”
“Let’s not worry about him right now.”
Nodding, I round the counter and sit on one of the stools, watching Rowan move about the kitchen like he’s lived here for years. And I guess he has… He just couldn’t access anything.
Rowan places a delicate porcelain teapot, one I haven’t been brave enough to use, on the kitchen island. “You’re brooding again.”
Once more, I glance at the empty perch. “Do you think you’re going to miss being an owl?”
“I’ll miss flying.” He measures out the tea. “But I’m happy to give up my wings for hands.”
“Is it weird? Being normal again?”
He lifts his hands, slowly scrunching them into fists. “It feels strange, yes.”
“Ryder said it’s probably like riding a bike. It’ll come back to you.”
Rowan nods. “It does feel a bit like that.”
“Promise me something?”
“What?”
“No more dangerous experiments, all right?”
He pours hot water into the teapot. “Define dangerous.”
“No more class five metamorphoses.”
“You know the problem wasn’t the magic, but the tether, don’t you?” He meets my eyes. “If I’d known I was going to end up as an owl, I would have gone about it differently. In fact, now that I’m thinking about it—”
“No,” I say sternly.
“No what?” His eyes are innocent, but that mage madness is at work.
“I can see your brain churning. You’re not doing it again. You’re not.” I lower my voice. “We just turned you back!”
Rowan chuckles. “I promise I won’t do it again—”
“Good—”
“—unless I’m certain I can return to my usual form.”
“Rowan!”
He looks up, grinning. A dimple creases his cheek, and his eyes are bright. Right now, he’s an older version of the boy in the picture. Happy. Carefree.
And my heart flutters.
Rowan’s eyes widen momentarily, his eyebrows lowering as his focus sharpens.
I rip my gaze away from him, staring at the teapot, my heart beating too quickly—but this time with horror.
It was only for a second, just a strange…blip. Like a malfunction in my magic.
“Don’t read too much into it,” I command.
“Read too much into what?” he says, his words strangely blank.
But we both know. We know what he saw; we know what I felt.
I just sparkled for Rowan.
To be continued…