“Ten hours,” Mitch answered. “The energy that it takes to wield magi,c especially when you’re not used to it, is draining. You needed the rest.”
“But I didn’t get to say goodbye to Bo or Aurelia.” He cleared his throat. “The troll and the brownie. They were nice to me.” Theo considered them both his friends. And as it had always been hard for him to connect with others, friends were important.
Dario smiled down at him. “You’ll see them later.”
“I will?” Really? Did that mean they had to go back to the fae realm? That made Theo feel sick. He wanted to see his friends but Theo didn’t think he would ever want to return to the fae realm ever again. Like ever.
“Bo went with Garrett and Josh but they’ll bring him back tomorrow. Aurelia is settled in your room,” Dario said.
“They’re here?” Theo sat up, nearly smacking his head on Dario’s chin.
Dario ducked back as he laughed. “We wouldn’t leave your new friends behind.”
Theo rubbed his chest. That place where he’d felt himself crack open. His friends had made the journey home with him. While Theo loved that for himself, was that what Bo and Aurelia had wanted? Theo would not be the type of person that kidnapped someone else. He might have unseelie blood but Theo wouldn’t allow that. He wasn’t evil. Theo had been on the wrong side of people who did bad things. Theo wanted to be good. Always good.
“They insisted on staying with you,” Dario told him. “Brownies are common in our realm for their abilities to run households for the paranormal. Aurelia will make friends with the other brownies here. It’s also safer for her. She is very sweet.”
“She was,” Theo agreed.
“And Bo is happy to explore a new realm. He is very young so I don’t know if he’ll stay, although I think it will be awhile before he decides to go home,” Dario said.
“How are we going to hide a troll?” Theo asked.
“That was the coolest thing ever!” Wylder bounced the bed with his excitement. He held his hands a few feet apart. “He shrank into a little gnome. Like one of those yard gnomes. We totally have to find him a hat. He’d look so cute!”
“He’s a gnome?” That didn’t make sense. Did his mates somehow get tricked into taking a strange gnome back?
“Trolls have a different form here,” Alek shared. “Here they are gnomes. But once they return home, he’ll get his original form back. There is no danger of him being here. He can enjoy our hospitality here as long as he wishes.”
“That’s cool. And Garrett? Is he back to his original form?” Theo questioned.
“He is. Although Josh was upset he didn’t get to talk to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh takes him home sometime soon. Well once it is safe.” Alek laughed. A rare laugh for hito.
“That’s good.” Theo was happy that his gargoyle friend was back to normal. Speaking of other forms. Theo looked at Mitch. “You were a very fierce demon warrior. I’d hoped that you would still be in your natural form.”
Mitch nodded. “I didn’t know if you would remember. I was worried about scaring you when you woke.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Theo assured him. “I saw a lot in the fae realm that scared me. But never you.”
Leaning forward, Mitch kissed him gently. “Thank you, wildcat.”
“Great. Good,” Wylder said. “I still have questions.”
Theo grabbed Wylder’s hand, just because he could. “Well, first we were attacked by pixies.”
“Pixies!” Wylder shouted.
“In the dark forest,” Theo revealed. “Or they chased us into the dark forest anyway.”
“You got pixies and we got massive beasts that tried to tear our throats out,” Wylder huffed. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
“That was when I first became suspicious of Steve,” Theo said. “I somehow brought our tree with me and Garrett when I was summoned. Steve is a dryad that was spying at is in our tree. He claimed to be Josh’s cousin. I don’t know if that is true or not.”
“It is,” Alek replied. “But the family is large. Josh had many cousins. Not all working with the seelie. Josh confirmed that Steve has been taken by the seelie guards to face judgement. It will be a harsh punishment if convicted for going after a chosen. We have a treaty between the fae and chosen. Steve helped the unseelie king break that.”
“I hate to say it but the little shit deserved what he gets.” Theo might still be a little mad at the betrayal.
“Josh will see to it. Steve never crossed into our realm when Josh was around or he would have known something was wrong.”
