by Karen Lynch
Finch whistled on the other side of the bathroom door.
“I’m okay. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
I applied a few steri-strips to the cut and pulled on a pair of leggings. By the time I opened the bathroom door, the cut was no longer stinging.
“All good.” I smiled at Finch, who watched me with worried eyes. “It was just a scratch.”
Finch didn’t look convinced, so I did a little jog on the spot to show him I was okay. “See. You know some troll isn’t going to get the best of me.”
That got a smile from him, and he ran ahead of me to the living room. I’d missed dinner, but I was too tired to think about food. What I really needed was sleep, but I wanted to spend some time with Finch first because he’d been alone here all day. We settled on the couch with a soft blanket and watched TV until I could no longer keep my eyes open.
I awoke late the next morning, tired, aching all over, and nursing a headache that wouldn’t go away, even after two cups of coffee. I prayed I wasn’t getting the flu. I didn’t have time to be sick. At least, my cut was healing nicely, and it didn’t even sting after I applied more ointment.
I spent the day napping on the couch. I had no appetite, which was just as well because I didn’t have the energy to cook. Thankfully, Finch was able to feed himself from the bowl of fruit on the table.
By late afternoon, I was alternating between sweating and shivering under my blanket and cursing the fates for giving me the flu. Violet texted to see if I wanted company, but I warned her to stay away. She was leaving in three days for a trip to China with her parents, and the last thing she needed was to get sick.
I dragged my ass off the couch around dinner time to try to eat something, but all I managed to get down was half a sandwich. I spent the next ten minutes retching in the bathroom and feeling sorry for myself.
Dizziness hit me when I stood, and I had to grab the edge of the vanity to stay on my feet. The face looking back at me from the mirror was ashen with purple shadows under tired eyes and a pinched mouth. Even my hair looked dull and lifeless. I couldn’t remember ever being this sick with the flu.
Holding on to the vanity with one hand, I brushed my teeth with the other. I felt sticky from sweating earlier, but I didn’t have the energy to shower. That would have to wait until tomorrow.
The hallway tilted like a funhouse room as I walked slowly to my bedroom. I used up what little energy I had left to change out of my sweaty clothes into sleep shorts and a T-shirt. I fell into my bed and barely managed to pull up the covers before I passed out.
Finch’s loud whistling woke me. I rolled to the edge of the bed and looked down at him standing on the floor beside my phone, which he must have dragged in from the living room.
“Thanks, buddy,” I mumbled, reaching down to pick up the phone. Suddenly, there were two Finches and two phones, and I had to grab a few times before my fingers closed around the phone.
I had a missed call from Violet and a text from her asking if I was okay. I tried to text her back, but my thumbs wouldn’t work properly and I ended up with a screen full of gibberish.
I decided to call her, but I dropped the phone twice and had to dig for it in the sheets. It felt like I was moving in slow motion, and there were dark spots floating in front of my eyes. What kind of flu was this?
I brought up my recent calls and hit dial. Violet’s voice came from a long way off, and it sounded strange through the ringing in my ears.
“Vi, I think I’m dying,” I slurred in a poor attempt at a joke.
She said something, but the ringing had gotten too loud to make it out. The phone slipped from my hands as the dark spots in my vision came together, and I sank into oblivion.
Chapter 16
Cool hands touched my face. “Jesse, can you hear me?”
“Mmmm.” I turned my head to the side to press my flushed cheek into one of the hands.
“She’s burning up,” said the voice.
A second voice spoke. “I see nothing suspicious. Do you think she’s been poisoned?”
The hands disappeared, and warm breath grazed my lips. Someone breathed in deeply, and then the warmth was gone.
“I detect something, but it’s too faint to identify.” The hand returned to my forehead. “We have to bring her fever down.”
The hand was replaced by a cold, wet cloth. It was a small relief from the fire blazing inside me.
“Humans are prone to infections when they are hurt,” said the second voice. “Does she have any injuries?”
“Not that I can see.”
Those hands ran over my arms. Cold air touched my skin as the bedcovers were pulled down.
“There. It looks like a knife wound, but it doesn’t appear to be infected.”
“Damn troll,” I mumbled.
Someone patted my cheek. “Jesse, did a troll do this to you?”
I smiled, or I think I did. “Yes. But I got him.”
“Kolosh,” the two voices said in unison.
There seemed to be a conversation going on between the voices, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“You’re going to be okay. Faolin has gone to get the antidote,” said the male voice that was starting to sound familiar.
“Faolin’s so nice,” I murmured sleepily.
The man chuckled. “Now I know you’ve been poisoned. Come on. Let’s sit you up.”
“Sleep,” I protested weakly as he picked me up.
“No sleep. You have to stay awake.”
I lifted my heavy eyelids and saw a masculine throat and the outline of a jaw. Lukas?
He set me down on the sofa chair in the living room. Only it didn’t look like my living room. A kaleidoscope of colors filled my vision, and the room was twisted out of shape. Across from me, where Finch’s tree house should be, a wall of vines undulated like snakes.
Whoa. This was the craziest dream I’d ever had.
Dream Lukas disappeared and reappeared holding a facecloth. He placed the cold cloth against my cheek and began moving it over my heated face.
I sighed and closed my eyes again. “That feels nice.”
He tapped my cheek. “Stay awake, Jesse.”
I groaned in frustration and forced my eyes open. Dream Lukas was just as bossy as real Lukas.
“How is she?” asked the other voice. Faolin. Why was he here? This was my dream, damn it, and I should be able to choose who was in it.
“Same,” Lukas said.
He stood, and suddenly Faolin was there crouching in front of me. Having him so close made me press back into the cushion.
Faolin held what looked like a small red leaf to my mouth. “Eat this.”
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. I wasn’t stupid enough to eat something he gave me.
“It will make you feel better,” he said brusquely, touching the leaf to my lips. “Eat it.”
I stared him down mulishly, which was a feat considering how hard it was to focus.
Faolin scowled. “Shall I get your sprite to eat some to prove it is safe?”
“You leave my bro-”
He pushed the leaf into my mouth. His other hand pressed up on my jaw, preventing me from spitting it out. I had no choice but to chew it up. It was almost tasteless, but I thought I detected the faint scent of citrus.
He waited until I swallowed the leaf to release me. “You’ll live.”
“Don’t sound so happy.”
If I had any doubts this was a dream, they were put to rest when the corners of his mouth lifted in a mocking smile. Wow. It transformed his entire face, and I almost didn’t recognize him.
“You’re cute when you’re not all grumpy,” I told him because I could say that to dream Faolin. Real Faolin would never smile like that.
A bark of laughter came from behind me, and Faolin’s smile vanished like it had never been. He stood and walked around me, out of my sight. I could hear him and Lukas talking in low voices, but I was too tired to
try to listen in. All I wanted to do was sleep.
“No, you don’t.” Lukas shook me gently until I opened my eyes. “You can’t sleep yet.”
“But I’m tired,” I whined.
“I know, but you have to be awake for the antidote to work.”
I let my head fall back to squint at the ceiling. It was the only thing in the room that wasn’t spinning. “This dream sucks.”
Hours passed, or maybe days, with me struggling to keep my eyes open and someone prodding me awake when I failed. Sometimes it was Lukas, and other times, Faolin. They gave me water to drink, and it felt so good to my dry throat. But when I asked for more, they said too much would make me sick.
Pink was tingeing the sky outside the window when heat blossomed in my chest. It spread rapidly to the rest of my body, growing hotter and hotter until it felt like I was going to combust. I cried out and tried to stand, but hands on my shoulders held me down in the chair.
“That’s it, li’fachan. The worst is over.”
As quickly as it started, the fire inside me burned out, leaving me as weak as a rag doll in sweat-soaked clothes. The room no longer swam before my eyes, but everything still had a dreamlike quality. Was I awake or still dreaming?
I shifted in the chair and grimaced at the feel of the wet fabric against my skin. I had to get out of these clothes. Grabbing the bottom of my T-shirt, I tried to pull it off, but it clung to me.
“What is she doing?” Faolin asked.
“Stripping, by the look of it.”
That made me giggle. Me stripping? Now Violet was another matter. That girl was an exhibitionist if I ever saw one. They must be talking about her.
“Violet,” I called. “Can you help me? My clothes are all wet, and I think I need to pee.”
“I’ll let you handle this one,” Faolin said. Was that a note of laughter in his voice? Yep. I was definitely still dreaming.
Lukas scooped me up and carried me to the bathroom, where he deposited me in front of the toilet. He left me there, and after I’d done my business, he returned carrying a small bundle of clothes.
“Turn around,” he ordered and I complied, presenting him my back. He grabbed the bottom of my wet top and pulled it off over my head. It landed on the bathroom floor with a wet plop that made me think of that day in his bedroom. Only this time, I was the one naked from the waist up. My stomach fluttered, but for some reason I wasn’t embarrassed at all.
“Hands up,” he said gruffly.
I grinned at the shower curtain. “Are you arresting me?”
“No, but I’m starting to think you’re more dangerous than you look.” He lifted my arms in the air and slipped a dry T-shirt over them. I let my arms drop and tugged the shirt down.
Lukas thrust a pair of dry shorts into my hands. “I’ll turn around so you can change your bottoms.”
I nearly fell over trying to get out of the wet shorts. “The last time I was in a bathroom with a boy, he tried to cop a feel.”
“Why did you go to the bathroom with a boy?”
I made a sound of disgust. “I didn’t go to the bathroom with him. I was at a party, and he followed me in.”
“Did he hurt you?” Lukas’s voice had an edge to it that wasn’t there before.
“No. But I might have overreacted a little. I blame it on my dad. He’s the one who drilled all those self-defense lessons into me.”
Lukas chuckled. “What did you do?”
I donned the clean shorts he’d handed me. “Let’s just say poor Felix walked funny for a week.”
“Sounds like he deserved it.”
“He did. But after that, no boy at school would come near me, except Trey Fowler.” I made a face, but Lukas couldn’t see it because his back was to me.
Lukas was quiet for a moment. “Trey is your boyfriend?”
“God, no. I’m not desperate.” Changing my clothes had worn me out, so I braced a hand against the wall. “I’m done.”
I wasn’t surprised when he swept me up in his arms again and carried me to my bedroom. It must be a Fae thing, this need to carry women around. I thought about him carrying other women this way and felt an unpleasant tug at my stomach.
Instead of placing me in my bed, he sat me on the chair in the corner. “Stay there.”
He left and returned with a warm facecloth. Kneeling in front of me, he used the cloth to clean my face and neck.
This didn’t feel like the way you treated someone to whom you owed a debt. It felt like something more, but my mind was still too muddled to figure it out.
“Are we friends?” I asked when he finished wiping my face.
He rested his hands on the arms of the chair, his eyes dark and unfathomable. “Do you want us to be friends, Jesse?”
“Yes…but don’t tell Violet.”
“You don’t want her to know we are friends?”
I swatted at the air. “It’s not that. Violet thinks I should hook up with you because…well, you know.”
“Know what?” He looked like he was fighting a smile.
“That faeries are better lovers,” I said as if he didn’t know. “I keep telling her it’s not like that, but you don’t know my best friend. It’s a good thing I didn’t tell her I thought about kissing you. She’d never let it go.”
Heat flared in his eyes. “You thought about kissing me?”
“I was curious about what it would be like.”
“And you’re not curious anymore?” His voice had gone low and husky, and the air between us seemed to crackle with electricity.
My gaze fell to his mouth, and I swallowed. I’d just told him I wanted us to be friends, but friends did not have the thoughts going through my head. One side of me said what I was feeling was just a natural human reaction to a Court faerie, and I had nothing to be ashamed of. The other side argued that acting on my desire was a bad idea because there could never be anything between Lukas and me.
And above it all, I heard Violet’s voice in my head, yelling at me to stop overthinking everything and just be impulsive for once.
Reaching out, I grasped the front of his shirt and tugged him toward me. My other hand slipped behind his neck, and I leaned forward until I could brush my mouth against his. The first taste of him made heat pool low in my belly and left me wanting more. I swiped my tongue across the seam of his lips, and that was all the coaxing he needed.
Lukas’s fingers threaded through my hair as he took possession of my lips and showed me why I was in way over my head with him. His kiss was slow and sensual yet demanding, and all I could do was cling to him, lost in sensation. No one had ever kissed me like this, and I knew that no kiss after this would compare.
I wanted to protest when he broke the kiss, but I was a little lightheaded and incapable of speech. He rested his forehead against mine, his breaths uneven and his hands still tangled in my hair. One of his hands moved down to tenderly stroke the back of my neck, and I almost melted into him.
“I was right,” he said roughly. “You are very dangerous, Jesse James.”
Disappointment filled me. “Is that why you stopped?”
He pulled away to look into my eyes. “I stopped because you are not yourself. I’ve done some questionable things in my life, but taking advantage of a female is not one of them.”
“But I like the way you kiss me. Will you do it again when I am myself?”
Lukas’s laugh sounded pained. “No, mi’calaech. But not because I don’t want to.”
His words took the sting out of the rejection. I leaned back and closed my eyes, feeling sleepy and content.
“Let’s get you to bed so you can sleep this off.” He picked me up and laid me in my bed.
“Thanks for taking care of me.” I curled up on my side. “You never answered my question.”
Lukas pulled the covers over me. “What question is that?”
“Are we friends?”
His knuckle grazed my cheek. “Yes. Now go to sleep.”
* * *
A loud banging pulled me from a heavy sleep, and I shot upright in bed. I stared around my room in confusion, until a wave of dizziness forced me to lie down again.
I put an arm over my eyes to block out the light from the window as I tried to recall how I’d gotten this way. I remembered having the flu, but beyond that, all I got was a jumble of foggy images and snatches of conversation that made absolutely no sense.
The sound of a pan clanging against the kitchen floor had me rolling out of bed and walking to the door on unsteady legs. I made my way to the kitchen and stopped at the sight of Violet standing at my stove, making scrambled eggs.
She turned halfway and wrinkled her nose as she looked me up and down. “You look like death warmed over.”
“I feel like it.” I sat at the table because I was feeling dizzy again. “What time is it?”
“Almost four.” She put the eggs on a plate along with some bacon and buttered toast. When she set the food in front of me, my stomach growled painfully, making me wonder when I’d last eaten.
Violet brought me a glass of orange juice. “Eat.”
I dug into the eggs and almost finished them before I asked, “When did you get here?”
She looked up from washing dishes. “Around two. You didn’t text me back last night, so I figured you were asleep. I tried calling this morning, but you didn’t answer. You were out cold when I got here. That must have been some flu.”
I laid down my fork and rubbed my temples. “Last night is a blur. I think I had a fever because all I can remember is bits and pieces of crazy dreams.”
“Are you sure they were dreams?”
I looked up at her through my hands. “I dreamed Faolin was feeding me.”
Violet snorted. “The angry one? You must have been tripping.”
“Yeah.” I ate a piece of bacon. “I’m going to feel terrible if you catch this flu.”
She waved a dish towel in the air. “I’ll be fine, but I feel bad leaving you here alone and sick at Christmas.”
“I won’t be alone. I have Finch, and I’m already over the worst of it.” I frowned as another dream fragment came to me, and I could hear Lukas saying, “That’s it, li’fachan. The worst is over.”
