Chapter 24 #2
Evie chuckled. “Yes. It will make your eyelashes long and beautiful. Perfect to charm that grumpy fae you’re carting around.”
She was quick on the defense. “Oh, I doubt that. He hates me.”
Evie smirked as she began working on the witch’s other eye. “I wouldn’t call that hate. I saw how he was watching you.”
Orelia’s skin warmed, but she knew Vade only kept a close eye on her because his life depended on it, not because he enjoyed her company. “It’s nothing. He’ll be glad to be rid of me soon.”
Evie finished and fluttered over to a half-open drawer in the desk with a vine crawling out of it. “Then we’ll make you look so beautiful tonight that he won’t ever want to leave you. You’re already gorgeous, but let’s make him hurt, shall we?”
The two women chuckled as Evie rummaged through the drawer.
“It’s awfully kind of you to let us stay with you tonight. I’ve only ever heard horrible stories about these woods, but this place is stunning.”
“The Greywood is a beautiful place, yes, but it is not without its frights. We are safe here at the Tree, but the carnador is master of the forest, and he is not one to be trifled with. You were lucky not to have run into him before you found me. Most newcomers don’t survive here.”
Evie flew behind Orelia and began combing through her hair.
“Then I guess I’m glad you were stuck,” Orelia teased. “But how did you get like that? Did the boulder fall on you?”
The comb slid through her waves. “My neighbors have two obnoxious sons, and they like to play pranks on me.”
“Is crushing your wing a prank?” Orelia asked, horrified.
Evie was quiet for a moment. “The world can be cruel sometimes, can it not?”
Orelia reflected on her question. “It certainly can.”
Evie finished her brushing, then attached things into her hair Orelia couldn’t see, weaving them into the strands. When she was done, she gestured for the witch to scoot over so she could look in the mirror.
Orelia gasped.
Her golden cheeks were splashed with soft pink that gleamed in the late sun. Dark, sensual lashes fluttered with each blink. Leaves and vines had been woven into a crown sitting on top of her head. Orange gemstones dangled off the crown, shining a magnificent blend of orange and bright green.
Orelia ran her fingers over the smooth stones in awe. “Are these . . .fire opals?”
“Mhm,” Evie mumbled, smiling at her work.
The rarest and most expensive jewel she’d thought to be a rumor. It made sense why many didn’t believe they existed if they were hiding here in the Greywood. “Remarkable,” was all Orelia could think to say.
“I know you are. Now, let’s get you dressed!”
Orelia eagerly followed the pixie into a stony alcove that looked as if it had been frozen mid-destruction.
“We haven’t had a visitor in a long time, but I can make you something out of this,” Evie said as she picked through a few pieces of thin linen dyed in various natural shades of green. “Take your clothes off.”
She said the words so casually that Orelia found herself not being embarrassed at the request. The version of her that tried to hide herself under long skirts and sleeved shirts back home to avoid attention in the brothel didn’t have to worry about such things deep in the forest.
Orelia set her boots and socks by her pack before slipping out of her shirt and pants. The stones were cool on her bare feet as she peeked out from the alcove.
Evie glanced at her. “All of it.”
Orelia instinctively covered her breasts, but the urge to conceal herself quickly vanished, as there was no reason to be shy in nature’s sanctuary. She removed all her undergarments and stood naked in the glow of the dying sun.
Evie constructed a garment of linen, woven grasses, and leaves, wrapping them around Orelia’s body. The leaves were smooth on her skin, somehow still alive despite having been plucked from the ground.
A necklace made of tiny white bones and small bird skulls clinked together as Evie looped it over Orelia’s head. “For good luck,” the pixie said with a grin.
When she was finished, Evie motioned to a standing mirror with a giant diagonal crack in the glass. “What do you think?”
Orelia padded over to the mirror, and her mouth fell open.
Evie had wound the vines to sit with the natural curve of her waist. The linen crisscrossed her breasts and wrapped around her ample hips, leaving her sides exposed.
The leaf-and-linen skirt stopped just below her buttocks with leaves dangling at varying heights, brushing the middle of her thighs that had become toned and strong.
The pixie added two twisted vine bands around her upper arms, each holding a fire opal the size of a bruno egg.
Her skin was practically glowing from the cosmetics and the days in the sun, and her hair was adorned in such beauty, emphasizing the loose waves of her deep auburn hair that fell just past her shoulders. “Evie . . .this is . . .”
The pixie sat on her shoulder and smiled at Orelia in the mirror. “Just bringing out your natural beauty.”
Orelia beamed, looking at Evie in the mirror. “Thank you. I’ve never met someone as kind-hearted and lovely as you.”
Evie waved her off. “Ah, it’s nothing.”
She’d never felt so beautiful in such exposing clothing. Orelia lifted the hem of the short skirt. “I’ve always wanted to dress more feminine like this. But where I come from, this attire attracts unwanted attention.”
Evie frowned. “You don’t like attention?”
Orelia’s fingers trailed down the strips of fabric covering her breasts. “I do. I mean, who doesn’t? But I used to work in a brothel, and when you dress in a certain way you invite certain types of people who think they can do whatever they want to your body just because of what you’re wearing.”
The pixie set her chin in her palm, perfectly content atop Orelia’s shoulder. “What’s a brothel?”
Her throat went tight. “A place you don’t want to find yourself in.”
The pixie tilted her head, curious, but she didn’t ask Orelia to elaborate. “Well, we don’t do things like that here. Our bodies are a symbol of nature’s power, but power that must be given freely. No one should have a say in what happens to your body but you.”
Orelia’s smile was split in the cracked mirror. Her words came out soft. “I wish the rest of the world thought the way you and I do.”
Evie fluttered off her shoulder and hovered in front of her. Her tiny brows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
She wasn’t sure what had made her so emotional to make tears burn behind her eyes. “I just want the world to be kinder. I don’t want kindness to be seen as a weakness, but a strength.”
Evie lifted a few of Orelia’s fingers and squeezed them. “Then we will make it kinder, despite the people in these ‘brothels,’ or the fae outside, or anything or anyone else. You are strong, Orelia. I can sense it.”
She smiled, a tear slipping free.
Evie looked up at the sliver of sky visible through the broken ceiling and grinned.
The dark moon had begun its climb, a smaller lavender moon moving in tandem with the larger white one, creating an eclipse.
They would move in sync across the sky all night, leaving only a sliver of amethyst light to guide the way.
“That’s why we call her ‘Mother’ Moon,” Evie said with reverence in her voice.
“Because it is women who know best how to brave the darkness.”
Orelia wiped away another tear. “I’d hug you, but I’m afraid I’d squish you.”
They chuckled together.
A dark moon was a result of the sorcerer’s vile magic that often bled into the hearts of moongoers, making them violent and wicked. But here in the Greywood, she felt none of those forces at work. Orelia was excited to dance in the shelter of the great willow with her new friend.
“The moon is out! Time to celebrate!” multiple voices called from outside.
Once they’d exited the ruins, Orelia looked around for Vade. She found him sitting on a stump in his leathers, the trio of pixies playing with a couple leafy vines they’d woven into his hair.
A wide smile spread across her face. He was participating. Sort of.
When the fae saw her, his jaw went slack.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Evie asked.
Vade shot up to standing, accidentally knocking the trio off his shoulders. “That’s a . . .new look.”
Orelia brushed her hair back over her bare shoulder. “I love it.” She twirled, letting the leafy skirt fan out around her. “What do you think?”
Vade looked her up and down, his throat bobbing. He opened his mouth to speak, but his words were cut off when music sounded. A group of tiny pixies sat on a high branch playing a lute, each in charge of one of the strings.
There was laughter, and mirth, and luminous plants all around the massive willow. The purple moon shone down on them what little it could, and Orelia had never felt such peace on a night that had brought nothing but pain in her past.
“Let’s dance!” Evie pulled Orelia toward the Tree where the other pixies had begun spinning one another, some clapping and singing along with the tune.
Orelia lifted her arms and spun, relishing in the cool grass beneath her feet. She laughed and held the tiny hands of pixies as they formed a circle, skipping together and singing a song she didn’t know. When the circle broke apart, a male a few feet tall approached her and stuck out his hand.
“May I have this dance, fair lady?” His endearing, high-pitched voice had Orelia dropping into her most fanciful curtsy. “Why of course, my lord.”
The two laughed as he flapped his wings and spun her around the Tree, the breeze whipping around them.
“You look beautiful,” he said, flying eye level with her. The moss covering his body broke apart on his chest, showcasing a hard abdomen, before leaves wrapped around his waist and hips. His piercing green eyes trailed down her body, building her confidence.
“And you,” she said after he’d spun her in a circle, “look quite handsome tonight.”
He gave her the brightest smile she’d ever seen. “I do, don’t I?”
She let him lead her into a dance, his hand low on her back. She savored the touch, and they didn’t stop until sweat had bloomed on their skin. Orelia lifted her hair off her neck and fanned her face, grinning from ear to ear.
“I think I need a break,” she said to the male trying to get her to dance with him again. He let her go with a pout, and Orelia panted as she made her way over to Vade, who hadn’t left the stump he sat on.
He handed his waterskin to her as she approached.
The fire opals on her crown clinked against each other as she tilted her head back and downed a mouthful of crisp, cool water. “Just what I needed.”
“You looked like you were having fun out there.” Onyx eyes flicked over her shoulder, and there was a slight pinch of his lips. She thought he may have been jealous, but the idea was so preposterous she almost laughed.
“I was. You should come dance.”
He gave her a stern look. “I don’t dance.”
“Afraid you might have fun?” She set the waterskin down. “Come on. Dance with me.”
Vade stayed rooted to his seat. “No, thanks.”
She spread her arms out. “Can’t you feel it?
The dark moon calling you to move? To delight in the pleasures of life?
” She began swaying, letting her hands drift down her body.
Her skin sparked with heat from her own touch.
The simple joy of dancing had transformed into something erotic she could only blame on the moon.
The air hummed, making her needy, making her hot with desire. She looked at Vade through her dark lashes, swaying her hips, trailing her fingers over her bare skin.
The fae’s chest rapidly rose and fell as he watched her.
“Please?” she drawled. “For me?” She didn’t know where the courage to plead for him was coming from, but she didn’t care. Orelia went off her feelings in the moment. So used to being calculated and worried about what others thought or needed, she found herself only caring about what she wanted.
And she wanted him to dance with her.
Vade rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, lamb.”
The nickname triggered something other than annoyance. She sauntered forward, closing the last bit of distance between them, feeling the music in her body. “You sure?” Orelia stepped in between his legs and gripped his shoulders.
His eyes flitted between hers. “Someone’s feeling bold tonight.”
She gave him a big smile. “I feel different. I feel . . .good.” Her fingertips skirted across her collarbone, and Vade tracked the movement.
He gently gripped her wrists and nudged her away. “Well then, go have fun. I’ll keep watch.” He gave her an awkward smile and fussed with his hair, sneering at the leaves that fell out of it.
Her shoulders slumped. Not even a pretty dress could make him interested in her in the slightest. Even if just for a single dance.
The male pixie she’d danced with earlier walked toward them. “May I steal her away?” There was a hint of a territorial claim in the pristine white smile he flashed Vade’s way.
The fae’s nostrils flared. “Only if that’s what she wants.”
Orelia tried to show Vade that he was the one she wanted to dance with, but he seemed not to understand the intent in her sultry gaze.
When she didn’t deny him, the pixie whisked her away, back to the Tree.
As the moons rose higher, moving across the sky together, Orelia found herself transfixed by the beauty of the night, even if Vade wasn’t inclined to enjoy it.
She danced the night away under the light of the amethyst moon, losing herself in laughter and joy with the creatures who had welcomed her into their home.
Her feet glided through the grass, and her sweat-soaked skin was kissed by the breeze as she danced with partner after partner, losing herself in the simple delight of dance.
Not even the fae still plastered to his seat could take this away from her.
This was peace, she thought.
This was freedom, and life, and joy.
This was happiness.
Shrieks broke Orelia out of her euphoria. Pixies darted around, hiding in the holes in the Tree with Orelia caught in the chaos.
The sickening smell of rotted meat had her freezing in place.
“The carnador!” someone shouted.