The rhythm was off, the syllables misplaced, the cadence clumsy where it should have been fluid, changing the meaning entirely.
And then, too late, I realized the gravity of the man’s mistake.
The words were no longer an invocation.
They were abinding.
The ground didn’t tremble and the air didn’t shift. But as the echo of the ancient spell faded, I knew deep in my being…something had changed.
I reached for my connection with the earth, but she gave no reply.
I had never known what it felt likenotto belong to the land beneath me. Was this why mortals were so easily led astray? I stepped forward, searching for the deep, familiar pull, but the earth gave me nothing. I knelt, pressing my palm to the dirt, listening, waiting, but the silence stretched on.
“Faelan?” Samantha’s voice felt distant. “Are you okay?”
The connection wasn’t just dim—it was gone.
And for the first time in my long memory, I felt the slow creep of fear.
7
Sam
One minute we were standing there watching Randy make a fool of himself, and the next, Faelan was in the dirt. Drunk? He wasn’t drinking now. And I hadn’t tasted any alcohol on him before.
Plus, he was so big, it would take alotof box wine to bring him down.
I dropped to one knee beside him. “Hey, are you all right?”
He didn’t answer. And he was clutching at a tuft of grass so hard his knuckles had gone white.
What the heck? The only thing going on around us was Randy’s dumb ritual…and then I noticed the leaves in Faelan’s beard. Naturally, I’d just figured he had picked them up while we were rolling around on the ground. But he wasn’t shedding the debris.
In fact, if anything, he was sprouting more.
Tiny green leaves, too fresh, too vibrant. Not stray bits of the forest clinging to him, butgrowing.
Something inside me prickled.
“Faelan?”
He didn’t look at me. His fingers pressed harder into the ground.
I scanned him, taking in every detail, my brain running too fast, leaping to conclusions I didn’t want to reach.
Leaves in his beard. The sheer size of him. The way he moved, always rooted, alwayssure. The peculiar little stories he told.
And the way he’d pounded into me until I came and came andcame.
Not human at all.
Oh,shit.
I barely noticed the others still talking, or Randy rambling about his ritual like he hadn’t just done something with actual consequences. I leaned in close and kept my voice low. “Faelan? What’s happening?”
When he glanced up at me from beneath his thick, dark brows, I saw his irises weren’t just intensely green—they were literally glowing. “The words were all wrong.” His jaw worked. “And the earth listened anyway.”
I might not be entirely convinced Faelan wasn’t human. But I sure as hell wasn’t gonna let anything happen to him.
