6
Ronan
Iput my arms around her and let her cry on me. I stroke her hair; my fingers tangling in the curls and try to reassure her that everything will be okay. I’m hoping that it will be, but I could be wrong. “It’s okay. You’re alive, so you should be celebrating.”
We should be celebrating.
I am home and while the magic of faery fizzes in my blood dread swells in my stomach. Now that I’m home, I need to report to the court. After so long in the human world, do I remember how to live in faery? I don’t know how much time has passed while I was away. A week? A month? Decades?
She sniffs but keeps her face pressed to my chest, so I keep my arms around her, liking it far more than I should. I can think of a few things to take her mind off monsters. The longer I hold her, the surer I am that she is mine and that I have done the right thing. I want her. And she’ll be able to feel how much if I’m not careful. I need to shift positions so she’s not pressed so hard against me, but if I do that, then she might let go.
“What was that thing?”
“Um…what thing?” I’m hoping she’s talking about my erection that must be digging into her and not the ceffylant.
“With the big jaws and eyes and…” she lifts her head and looks up at me. “Was it real?”
I’m so tempted to lie, and if I hadn’t ripped away the veil between fae and human, I might have gotten away with it. I could’ve left her in the human world, walked away and gone back to hunting and killing and watching the years slip by until eventually a monster killed me.
I nod. And for a moment I want to go back to my old life. The one I understood, and the one I expected to kill me before I returned to faery. Yet here I am alive, and with a human woman. Many would call that a victory. I’ll be congratulated. I should be proud of what I’ve done, that I survived for so long. For a moment I wonder if I can leave her here and return, but at the same time I know that my time as a hunter is over. I know that in my heart, and I knew it when I saw her running. I’d have done anything to save her, and I did.
Did I save myself in the process?
“You didn’t imagine it. That’s how you hit your head. The ceffylant picked you up and threw you.”
She draws in a breath and for a heartbeat I think she’s going to cry again. Her bottom lip quivers, but she keeps it together. “Monsters are real.”
“Yes, but they don’t usually live in your world.” They don’t live in my world either. “They live in the outer realms of faery, sometimes they come through to your world where the barrier is thin and there’s a breach.”
Her mouth opens. It’s too much for her to process. I can see the doubts in her eyes.
“But you killed it.” She wants reassurance that everything is fine and will go back to normal.
I’m not sure what is normal anymore. I’ve lived alone and spend my days hunting and killing for over a century. I breathe in the sweet air, feeling the weight of the years peel away from me.
I killed two, but that probably isn’t what she needs to hear. “That’s my job.”
But looking down at her in my arms, I can think of better ways to spend my time than killing. Now I’m home, and I brought a woman with me, I will be granted the privileges that only ex-hunters receive. That was the reason I volunteered in the first place. I’d wanted more than working on the farms. I’d hungered for honor and respect and to tell my own tales at parties.
She nods and lowers her gaze.
“I should be thanking you instead of crying all over you.” She moves and then freezes, and I know exactly why, and it’s not because there’s a monster behind me. She pats my chest and firmly steps back, breaking my hold. “Thank you.”
I let her go, for the moment.
“You’re welcome.” I give her a courtly bow, even though I’ve only been to the fae court once, and that was when I volunteered to cross the realms. This time I won’t just be standing in front of the ten that make up the court.
“Do you have a last name, Ronan? I can’t imagine monster hunter is the kind of job that is advertised online.”
I tilt my head and smile. She needs to learn the truth. “I hunt the creatures because I’m fae.”
She stares. “You don’t have wings.”
“No.”
“And you’re big. I mean tall.” Her cheeks darken.
She’s not wrong on either account.
