I groaned and tugged the covers around my body more as I watched her get dressed, “Did I interrupt a dream about a certain Temu-Thor?”
Audrey’s cheeks immediately flamed bright red, almost as red as her hair, as she playfully glared at me. “I know you don’t like him, yet.”
“That is correct.” I stretched under the covers as I spoke. “He has a bit of groveling to do.”
“He’s a nice guy.” Audrey paused her sentence to lift a palm toward me. “And not like in an incel way. He just genuinely is a good guy. I…I don’t know. I like him.”
“You’ve always had a thing for blond partners, I’m not too surprised,” I replied. Whereas I always preferred dark-haired partners.
Audrey hummed while she pulled a comb out of her bag and started tugging through the knots in her hair. I finally pulled the covers back and stood from the bed, stretching my back out as I added, “His massive body and muscles really don’t suck, either.”
Audrey cackled, blushing again.
“The men and women in this realm, I’m telling you…” Audrey tugged the collar of her shirt and panted dramatically, “It’s like there’s something in the water that makes everyone ridiculously beautiful.”
“Based on the beautiful people I saw on TV, I think I believe you.” I smirked, thinking about how the reporters were also undeniably gorgeous. But then the image of the red-haired man smirking as he sipped his drink filled my mind. I shook it away, before I asked, “Why there are English subtitles, if everyone seems to speak in another language?” Liam, Queen Ada, and the healer had similar accents to Liam and the men who attacked me. The reporters also had an accent that, I suddenly realized, wasn’t European at all. It was an accent that didn’t exist in our realm.
Audrey smiled, “That depends on the news station. The one we were flipping through yesterday just happened to be pro-human-inclusive mating bonds.”
I was making the bed when I froze at her words, looking up at her suspiciously. “I beg your pardon?”
Audrey rolled her eyes. “I assume you know what I mean by mating bonds, then.” Yes, because she mentioned them in her letter. Context clues helped me figure out what exactly that meant.
“Are you telling me that there are English subtitles on news networks, because the owners of those networks want to…” I inserted my index finger into a hole my other hand made, in a dirty gesture. “…with humans like us?”
Audrey sat on the edge of the bed, lacing her sneakers up as she casually lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess that’s the simplest way to put it.”
Get me the hell out of here.
The fact that I woke up this morning, still in a magical realm named Hyvenmere, in a fae Prince’s family castle, anddidn’thave a nervous breakdown was a win. Audrey had me read enough of her paranormal romance novels for me to know exactly what “mating” and “bond” implied.
While I was generally monogamous in my sexual relationships, I wasn’t sure I was ready to settle down, yet. I had my coffee shop to run, and I liked having all my free time to myself. I liked being able to hole up in our condo for days at a time to start a new composition whenever I pleased.
Plus, I still had to wrap my head around the fact that my best friend had magical powers and spent half of her time in a place called Hyvenmere.
Audrey and I finished getting dressed in our human clothes, which the castle servants had washed and pressed for us. Then Liam knocked on our door. He held in his hand a thick paper that was the size of a business card, but I couldn’t read the language that was on it. Again, it reminded me of runes of some kind. But apparently that was what I needed to have on me should I choose to enter this realm again. I pulled out my wallet from my bag, thankful that all my personal belongings were stillin there after the clusterfuck I’ve experienced. I tucked my grant into my wallet, then stowed it away in my bag.
Leaving the castle was a surreal experience. It was difficult to imagine that I spent the last twenty-four hours of my (awake) time in a legitimate, occupied, functioning castle. When we walked out the front doors, escorted by Liam, I turned around with my hands on my backpack straps. The marble was a cream color, with flowers and vines circling up each side. Every window and doorway had a decorative, but natural foliage haloing them. Seeing all the blooming flowers and greenery made my nose itch, and I sneezed once as I turned around to follow my friend through the courtyard.
Other fae were there, watching us with curious eyes.
A younger boy, I would guess around the age of ten, was with his mother, who was picking flowers. He stared more blatantly than the rest of the pointy-ear creatures, and as I stayed in step behind Audrey and Liam, I gave him a tentative wave.
He smiled brightly and waved enthusiastically back.
I turned forward right when we were about to walk through an iron gate that led to the rest of the city, only to meet Audrey’s eye. She was smiling at me, happy with that exchange I just had with the little boy.
Queen Ada had mentioned that humans hadn’t had access to this realm for hundreds of years, but if Audrey was half-fae, would that imply that this realm at least had access to ours? How did that work?
I was wondering this as I got distracted by the smell of a delicious pastry from a shop that we passed. I bumped into someone, and as I apologized to them in passing, I realized something odd about Hyvenmerians.
Compared to them, I was considered average, or even small, in height. This was unnerving to wrap my head around, considering I usually towered over everyone I met. I had beentall since my middle-school growth spurt. I was used to being tall.
What I wasn’t used to, I quickly realized, was feeling small.
Especially in a sea of people.
A person I bumped into never broke their stride, and soon they were lost in the crowd while I jogged to keep up with Audrey and Liam, who led us through the stone streets. They weren’t exactly cobblestone, because they were smoother. There was just enough texture to keep people from sliding on the stone if it were wet but not displaced enough to easily trip over.
