Chapter 31 Tegwyn
Tegwyn
Ivy slumbers like a goddess beside me as I lose myself in her honeysuckle scent, breathing in her golden waves.
I can’t believe she’s all mine. This beautiful human creature… Her skin is flushed, the glorious afterglow of sex yet to fade, and I brush a delicate claw down the curve of her spine, savouring every inch of her.
I’m still sheathed between her legs, her silken walls protecting me from the elements. If only we could stay this way forever.
The glamour worked like a charm in the end. No one suspected a thing, and I just hope our luck remains.
Ivy shudders, and I tug her closer, shrouding her beneath my woollen cloak to keep her warm.
It really is a cold morning. Soft flurries drift down around us, sticking to the grass, and my eyes widen in surprise. Snow? That can’t be right.
I puff out a breath, watching as it fogs, and it’s just as I feared. Winter has come to the village.
It looks as if Ivy brought some of the winter chill from the human realm when she snuck through the gate, and it’s time we trek back to the mountain before anyone realises she’s here.
I shake her gently, whispering in her ear, “Ivy.”
She wakes with a soft sigh, smiling up at me lazily. Then she trembles, huddling beneath my cloak. “So cold.”
“I know, and that’s exactly why we need to leave. It’s snowing.”
The human merely yawns, and I get it. She’s tired, and she may struggle to walk for a few days, but we need to make haste.
“And what of it?”
I meet the blue-green slits of her eyes. “It never snows in the village.”
Her lids fly open. Then she rises, slipping free of my cock and allowing me to button up my pants.
She winces when I help her to her feet, and since I’m the reason why she’s in so much pain in the first place, I tuck my hands beneath her legs and carry her the rest of the way down the hill.
Most of the Fae have gone home, and now only the most dedicated of revelers remain.
Several have passed out drunk on the cobblestones, and we pass one group, in particular, that resembles a naked heap of tangled limbs.
The air reeks of decadence. A lot happened while we were safely tucked away at the top of the hill.
Once upon a time, Ivy would have blushed at all the debauchery, but now she barely gives the faerie orgy a second glance as we head to the gate.
I feel like I’m tainting her innocent soul, but I can’t help but feel a little proud of her; it must get tedious being the good girl all the time.
We find the alleyway, and the spriggan lets us through the gate without protest. A blast of white wind steals my breath the moment we re-enter the human realm, and it looks like we’ve walked right into the heart of a blizzard.
Snow swirls in thick sheets, and I’ve never felt a chill like it before. It sluices across my skin and soaks my hair, freezing me right down to the bone. It’s not natural, whatever it is.
Ivy latches on to me tightly, chattering her teeth like a baby squirrel. I must get her back to the mountain quickly.
But I’m struggling to see ten feet. There is no way we will make it back tonight.
“What… what should we do?” she asks, trembling.
Dread leaches from my veins when I spy her bloodless lips. If I don’t do something soon, she’ll freeze to death.
All she wears is that flimsy gossamer, and even the vines and flowers are receding faced with this merciless storm. Hoarfrost seizes the dress’s once lovely petals, and they wither and unfurl, succumbing to the elements.
Ivy will not meet the same fate.
We left her clothes back at Bannog’s shop, but we can’t return because the spriggan has resumed his ancient slumber.
The only way to go is forward.
I’m Fae. There’s a strong possibility that I will survive this storm. Magic sustains the very blood of my veins, but Ivy will die.
I tug her closer to my body, bundling her up under my cloak, and she nestles her nose into the crook of my neck, shivering miserably.
“T-Tegwyn,” she shudders, her breath warming my skin.
I hold her tighter, praying to Maghelena to show us a way through the storm. “I know. But I will get you out of this. I promise.” She nods, putting her entire trust in me.
I can’t let her down.
Through a gap in the storm, I spy the yawning mouth of a cave and send a silent thanks to the goddess. She heeded my prayers.
Ivy is barefoot, so it’s no wonder she’s slipping away. I scoop her up in my arms, keeping her buried beneath the cloak as I wade through thick carpets of snow.
Once we reach the cave, I settle her down onto the hard, uneven ground, unclipping my cloak so I can place it around her shoulders.
Then I step back outside, braving the tempest once again. “I’m going to collect some firewood. Stay here.”
She doesn’t reply, too numb from the cold. I need to act, and fast.
I find the sloping branches of a pine, deciding it will do for tinder, yet after a few failed attempts at a fire, I finally give up the fight and create a spark with my fingers.
A Rogue Fae must always remember to budget his magic, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I’m not about to let Ivy freeze to death.
Ivy scoots closer to the flames, wrapping us both up in my cloak, but she needn’t bother. My magic should be more than enough to sustain us until morning.
The fire illuminates the inside of the cave, and I cast my eyes around our temporary dwelling, taking stock of the snottites that drip from the ceiling like globs of saliva.
It’s like being inside the mouth of a giant, but this smelly, rotten cave was our saving grace tonight.
Ivy huddles closer to absorb my warmth, closing her eyes as she tries to get some sleep. All the while, the wind continues to howl outside. We found a decent-enough spot downwind.
We may just survive.
It doesn’t take Ivy long to fall asleep, and her complexion soon returns to its former rosy glory.
I study her face, and not for the first time, I’m entranced by her beauty.
If someone had told me when we first met that I would be buried deep between her legs on the longest night of the year, then I would have laughed myself senseless.
I may have been raised by humans, but that doesn’t mean that I wish to consort with them. But I don’t particularly care for the company of my fellow Fae either. In fact, I never really needed anyone.
Until I met her…
It seemed she was my undoing all this time. I did always have a weakness for blondes.
Ivy will be the death of me one day, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I would gladly lay down my life for this woman. Bannog’s words repeat through my mind, and my heart grows as heavy as the blustering snow outside.
How am I going to tell her?
You don’t. Simple. You know it would make no difference to you anyway, because you don’t care about anyone but yourself.
I growl, grinding my teeth at the sound of her intrusive voice. She’s still messing with my head.
“Leave me alone,” I whisper to the gloom.
I’ll never leave you alone, demon. Not after what you did to my son...
Red sprays my vision, and then I see his terrified face, a face I’ve tried so hard to forget.
Duke.
That was the day I finally took a stand against the boy who made my life a living hell. I can still taste his warm blood on my tongue as it drips from my lips, staining my fangs crimson, and I try to block him out.
Outside in the cold, she beckons me—a shadow silhouetted against the spiralling wind.
She’s nothing but a wraith, tall and frail, and lacking any real flesh, and it's good to finally put a face to the voice.
Rosemary.
Another painful memory resurfaces, and then more shapes materialise behind her ghostly form. I recognise the glowing eyes of the villagers, and a gaping chasm opens up inside my chest, threatening to pull me under.
The whole village of Tillyfold has come to finish me off like they once promised. They weren’t satisfied enough with my leaving, so now they’re here to kill me for good.
For as long as I can remember, they’ve despised me. Vilified and treated me like a pariah. After all, I will never be one of them—the strange, green-skinned youth with the horns of a goat and the claws of a wolf.
“Don’t ever step foot in this town again,” Rosemary hisses, her voice close yet far.
Her gaze burns through the swirling snow, and I have never seen anything so vile, so inhuman.
“I’ll butcher you like a pig if you so much as breathe near my children.”
Why are they doing this? It was bad enough they chased me away from my home, but now they insist on torturing and killing me, too?
Mother, Grandpa…
They always treated me like family, but our short time together wasn’t meant to last. Because in the end, I could never replace the son Mother lost—the one she gave up all those years ago.
I wonder where he is now. Did the Fae merchant live up to his end of the bargain? Did the boy live like he promised?
Rosemary glides closer, floating atop the snow like a spectre, and her voice tolls like a death knell.
“Your mother never loved you. You were never enough to replace the loss of her real son.”
My eyes glow, casting a sickly yellow sheen on the slimy cave walls. “Shut up and leave…”
“No. I will never leave, Tegwyn, because I’m a part of you. All your deepest fears come to life.”
My body trembles, and then my claws peek from my gloves. When I look out of the cave, I find her hideous face staring back at me. She’s barely human now, just an ugly imitation of the woman she’s trying to emulate.
Rosemary is no more, and I finally see her for what she is. A boggart—a creature that feeds on the misery of those it deems less fortunate.
Well, it picked the wrong Fae. A snarl tears from my lips, and then I fly out of the cave, sending up a cloud of snow as I tackle the boggart to the ground. It continues to cackle with the face of Rosemary, its blackened teeth as sharp as blades.
The more gruesome cousin of the bugbear, the boggart not only manifests as their human victims’ deepest insecurities, but that of their fellow faeries, too.
When they’re desperate and hungry enough, that is.
I wrap my hand around the boggart’s skinny neck, smirking when it melts back into its natural form.
The creature writhes within my grip, and when I lean closer, its rotten stench burns my nose.
I’m just grateful that Ivy’s asleep. These cruel creatures have led many humans to suicide by merely convincing them that no one loves them and that their existence is meaningless. I must protect her.
“I said, leave…”
My eyes flash, reflecting off the boggart’s dark, glassy teeth, and it finally dissolves with the wind, merging with a passing snow swirl. It will have to find its meal elsewhere.
I bury my knees in the snow, the spiralling wind howling all around me. Yet I don’t move an inch. I may have defeated my foe, but its cruel words still linger.
Mother… Did she love me?
After all, she sacrificed her son just to raise me, but I guess I was nothing but a burden in the end.
Still, I think a part of her did love me. She was always so kind…And what she did for her son was truly commendable. Heroic even.
I never believed in true love, but her selfless act has almost converted me numerous times. Maybe one day, I can tell her in person that she is the bravest woman I’ve ever known.
But I will never get to tell her, because I am not welcome in the village anymore. If I go back, they’ll kill me.
The cold finally consumes me, and soon I’m buried in a foot of snow. But then something appears in the storm, landing on my arm, and I turn to find a moth splaying its pink and green wings.
An Elephant Hawkmoth? In winter?
I gaze into its beaded eyes, watching as it waves its antenna, and a smile curves my lips. No wonder I didn’t recognise him earlier. He’s changed somewhat since I saw him last.
Back then, he was a green pile of mush beneath Duke’s boot.
I may be delirious from the cold right now, slowly losing consciousness as my body falls into a magical torpor, but it looks as if my childhood caterpillar finally became a moth after all.
“Hello, Henry.”