I pushed aside the bristle I felt at the condescension in Flesser’s tone. “I don’t know what it means. I just feel like something bad is coming. Ever since we found the deer, I can’t shake this dread that’s crawling through me.”
He leaned near, close enough I felt his breath on my cheek. “Who’swe? Is there someone else you’re falling for?”
My heart leaped into my throat, panic catching my breath. I’d just slipped and said “we.” And pathetically, the implication that we were falling for each other did just as much to take me off guard. “Of course not. I meant me. I guess I was just thinking about the deer and I together.” I doubted I could have come up with a less believable response had I been given a month to consider. “And are we falling for each other?”
Flesser opened his mouth to speak but then grimaced. “I think you’re distracted.” He motioned toward my face.
I’d let my real appearance slip through the illusion. Refocusing, I became who he wished me to be once again. “Sorry.”
His smile returned, the one that nearly made his below-average appearance look attractive. Reaching between us, he wrapped his fingers around my flaccid penis. “You are falling in love with me. Unless I’m mistaken?”
If I hadn’t been desperate to steer the conversation away from my blunder, I probably wouldn’t have admitted my feelings. Although, perchance I would have, considering Flesser had continued to consume my thoughts, regardless of my worry. “I am. Though I know I shouldn’t.”
His smile grew as he began to stroke me. Despite having been inside him less than a quarter hour before, I began to harden. “Why shouldn’t you, Quay?”
By the Goddess, hearing him speak my true name actually drowned out some of my fears. “I know it is not love for me you feel, Flesser.”
His lips pressed tenderly on mine. After a moment, he pulled away, but only a hair’s breadth. “Then why do I come to you? Why do I seek you out after all this time, if this isn’t love?”
I didn’t answer. Even if the reason was due to the unwillingness of other fairies to accept him, speaking such would only harm him. Instead I lifted my hand to his chest, smoothing it over the flat plane of slim muscle.
“If there is some evil coming our way, I will not abandon you to it. I will not forget you.” His words surprised me, and even with the teasing hint in his voice, they filled my senses. Any thoughts of a future with him were illusion, as much as the face he chose to see, but even so, it was a consideration. After the changing, I’d known I was destined to be alone always. No matter how long this… this… whatever it was Flesser and I had, it was so much more than I’d dared hope for.
“I just wanted to tell you, Flesser. I wanted to warn you. I don’t want you to be caught unaware. Those of us on the outskirts are probably the most at risk. At least right now.” As soon as the words left my lips, I realized what I’d implied.
Flesser flinched backward, removing both his chest from my touch and his hand from my sex. “I don’t know to what you are referring.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that we were the same, you and I. I know you’re vastly far above me.” Even through my panic that I’d just condemned what little joy and pleasure I experienced, I hated the weak whine in my words.
His expression twisted into a grimace.
I knew the illusion had faded once more, but I couldn’t find the power to bring it back. “I just want you to be safe.”
Flesser rose and stood above me, his wings trembling behind him. “I can assure you, I am safe. Nor do I need your protection from imaginary villains.”
“Flesser, I’m sorry. Truly, I meant no offense.” I moved, readying to stand, but a wave of his hand cut me off.
“Nor do I have need of your body any longer.”
Nine
I waited, hidden deep among the pines. Dawn would arrive shortly. Surely Xenith wouldn’t be foolish enough to send a servant again. I waved the thought away. He would not. Though Flesser had dismissed my fears, Xenith seemed to take some stock in them. Of course, to be fair, he had helped me heal the wounded deer and then seen the state of the owl. Flesser had not had the advantage of seeing proof.
The past several days had aged me. I felt weak and broken. A strange sensation, considering my fate. I’d not been aware it was possible for me to become more damaged. Having to strip the poor creature’s wings made my past so fresh, so real once more. Such emotions only heightened my certainty that there was danger to more than just forest animals. Not that they did not deserve our full attention and protection as well, but I felt it. I knew, though I had no inkling how, that it would soon be fairies mangled in the trees and shot through the heart with weapons.
Every emotion and sense was compounded by losing Flesser. I’d known he had no true love for me, despite my own feelings that had blossomed. But there had been tenderness, kindness, warmth. With one careless statement, I’d ended the only comfort I’d ever hoped to receive.
My lament was cut off as Xenith’s shadow fell across the meadow. Watching my brother gracefully descend from the sky lessened my pain somewhat. As he always did.
Trusting Xenith would not be so careless a second time, I stepped into the clearing without confirmation of his solitude. “Brother.”
He smiled at my greeting. “I thought I’d have to wait an hour before you’d be willing to exit your tree, Quay.”
I glanced toward the horizon. “We have not the time, and I trusted you arrived alone.”
He only continued to grin.
“I was not foolish to make such an assumption, was I?”
