“That sounds dangerous. For you and the humans.”
“Yeah, but if I hadn’t gone into your shop—”
“It’s not my shop. I just work there.” A smile and some glitter. There’s nothing real about the shop, but before me is a real faery. “Why don’t you have wings.”
“Myth.”
“Magic?”
He nods. “Though probably not what you’d call magic. I can cloud people’s thoughts, make them forget they saw me.”
My eyes widen. “Don’t you even dare.”
I don’t want to forget him.
“We’ve spent too much time together and you’ve seen too much.” That pensive look is back on his face. “Because I went into your shop, the poenpoeth will now target you too. Each new one that comes through will find us and hunt us.”
“Why?”
He glances away. “Because I did my job and killed some.”
“How many more will come?”
“I don’t know.”
Something hits the windowpane with a solid thump. I’d like to pretend it’s the neighbor’s cat jumping up for some morning sun. But it’s not morning and the thing on the windowsill is yellow. I squint trying to see it clearer, but it remains a fuzzy yellow blob that’s too big to be a cat. They're going to be following me around for the rest of my life. What if, when the poison wears off, I go back to not being able to see them? And then I get stung again, and I can see them and avoid them, but I’ll feel like shit?
There is no winning in this situation.
“Are you going to kill them all?” Will Fin hunt and kill to keep me safe, like my very own faery knight?
“I'll do my best. But your friends might be attacked because they live here too.” He blows out a breath. “I've fucked this up.”
Everyone who comes near will now be a target.
I shiver as the towels become too cold against my skin.
Fin examines the swellings and scowls. “I think they're getting bigger.”
“And then what will happen?” Will they keep swelling until they rupture? “Will it kill me?”
Fin doesn’t answer but his frown deepens.
The fear that I may not get out of this alive threads its way through me and tightens around my heart. “You did this. You have to make it right. I don’t want to die.”
