Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  “Fine.” He gritted his teeth. “You can come home with me until we figure this out.”

  Katenia glanced around, confused. “This isn’t your home?”

  “It feels like it sometimes,” he muttered under his breath, before he raised a brow. “Will you be able to keep up with me?”

  She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know.”

  He nodded, and after a moment’s hesitation, flashed her what could only be described as a cocky grin. He hooked a finger in the breast pocket of his jacket and tugged. “Hop in.”

  She snorted indignantly, until she realized he was serious. Her mouth dropped open, and for the first time since she had learned to fly as a baby, she broke concentration with her wings. His hand shot out as she plummeted, catching her in his large, cupped palm before she could land on her face. He was grinning as he brought her back to eye level with him. “No need to swoon, woman,” he murmured with a chuckle.

  Her breath caught, because when he smiled like that, humor and mischief dancing in his dark, mysterious eyes, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

  Katenia was still trying to wrap her brain around the kind of trouble she’d be in with her people if they found out she was lusting after a giant when the beast dropped her into the pocket near his heart. “Hey,” she yelled, popping her head out of the fabric to glare up at him. “I’m a fairy. I have magic, and I can turn you into a toad!”

  He didn’t look at all impressed with her very serious threat as he glanced down at her. “Trust me, Thumbelina. No one else in this building is going to be as believing, or as accommodating, as I am. You are safer out of sight.”

  She snorted so hard at the accommodating part she lost her balance and landed on her butt. If this was what a helpful human looked like, she was in some serious trouble.

  TWO

  NATHAN HAD DONE a lot of weird, and sometimes messed up, shit in his life. He’d been arrested more than once as a teenager for a variety of things—reckless driving, stealing cars, starting fights to name a few. He owned those past mistakes, and instead of hiding them from the public, he talked openly about them. But nothing he’d ever done made him feel as awkward as walking through a building while pretending he didn’t believe that he had a hot, little fairy in his suit pocket.

  More than one employee stopped to stare at him as he strode past, making him think he wasn’t being as casual and nonchalant about it as he’d hoped. That was before tiny hands grabbed the edges of his jacket pocket, and a small blonde head popped up.

  “Get down,” he muttered, “or do you want people to see you?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I told you. My place.”

  “I need my flower. It’s my bed.”

  He let out a frustrated sound and pivoted, and while cursing under his breath, he headed back for his office. Looping an arm around the brightly painted flower pot, he lifted it then glared down at the tiny person in his pocket. “Anything else?”

  She shook her head and beamed up at him.

  “Good.” He started for the elevator again, disgusted at how easily his temper was simmering down with just a smile from her. “Now get down before someone sees you, and I have to explain something I don’t even understand.”

  She leaned back against the outside of his pocket, and crossed her arms over her chest. If she wasn’t the approximate size of his thumb, she probably would have been hot. His brow winged up as he hit the button for the elevator. “What?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Nathan.”

  She smiled. “I’m Katenia.” She glanced over her shoulder when the elevator doors slid open. “What is that?”

  “It will take us down to the lobby floor.”

  She shifted in his pocket, pressing her back against his chest. “It’s iron.”

  He stopped walking and glanced down. If he kept craning his neck this way, he was going to have a hell of a nasty headache by the time he made it home. Not to mention that with the looks he was getting from his staff for talking to himself, he was going to end up in a psych hold if this kept up. “Is it a problem?”

  “Fairies don’t like iron,” she whispered. “It makes us weak.”

  “We’re on the 10th floor. I’m not taking the damn stairs.”

  Someone cleared their throat from directly behind him. He grimaced at the secretary’s overly-sweet voice. “Excuse me, Mr. Alexander? Is everything all right?”

  Nathan’s teeth gritted before he glanced over his shoulder and pinned the woman with a look. “Why do you ask?”

  The blonde scrambled back a step in her mile-high shoes, generous cleavage bouncing in her low-cut blouse. “Sir, it’s just that we—none of us—have ever seen you talk to yourself before.”

  Hell shit fuck. One way ticket to the mental ward, here he came. “I’m not talking to myself. I have a fairy in my pocket who’s afraid of elevators.”

  The blonde—Amy, Angela, Abigail, he could never remember—giggled, and it took everything he had not to visibly cringe at the sound. In the year she’d worked for him, she’d done everything in her power to seduce him, while doing little to hide her ambition. She wanted to be a trophy wife, and she’d set her sights on him. “Oh, Mr. Alexander,” she purred, still giggling as she laid a hand on his arm. “Your sense of humor never gets old.”

  He raised a brow as he lifted her hand off his arm. “Good to know. You’re free to go for the evening, but be in my office by eight a.m. We need to talk.” He held her gaze as apprehension flashed in their depths, but he wanted her worried. She needed to know her job was on the line if she didn’t stop hitting on him.

  After she finally walked away, he turned his attention to the other employees standing around the office staring at him. He cleared his throat and slowly lowered his gaze to his watch, before making eye contact with them, one by one. That was all it took to have them rushing back to whatever they were supposed to be doing.

  He finally turned his attention back to the fairy who’d disappeared inside his pocket. “Stay in there,” he murmured. “It will only be a few moments before we’re out of the elevator.”

  “Can’t breathe in metal,” she said, her soft voice muffled through the fabric.

  Nathan let out a quiet curse. Without a word, he turned and headed toward the stairs. Her head popped up again. “Now where are we going?” she asked.

  “The stairs.”

  Katenia smiled, though she was confused. All of her life, the bedtime stories had warned her and the other fairies against the savage giants known as humans. Selfish and blood-thirsty, their quest for war and power and technology knew no bounds, and any respect they may have once held for the land and the earth that nourished them was long since gone. She’d been warned from the earliest she could remember that humans were not like fairies. They were a violent race, crushing everything smaller than them underfoot.

  But Nathan didn’t seem cruel to her. He seemed distracted, sad even, but not cruel. Even as he descended the stairs, he was careful not to jostle her too much. She knew she wasn’t imagining it, either, because his large hand was cupped around his pocket, holding her close to his chest.

  He was different than the males she knew, and not just because of their size difference. Fairies, even the warriors, were slight, nimble creatures. While there were males of her race nearly twice as tall as she was, and were stubborn, obstinate beings, they didn’t carry the kind of hardness and rawness Nathan did. He should terrify her. But with his long, black hair and vibrant blue eyes, he was every bit the mythical human warrior she’d always been fascinated with.

  When he finally finished with the stairs and pushed through another door, Katenia gripped the edges of his pocket and peeked at the new surroundings. Humans were everywhere, dressed in odd fabrics that didn’t seem to want to let the skin breathe, while the women wore shoes that looked like torture devices made strictly to help them appear taller. Even more confusing was though there were large, be
autiful plants decorating the airy space, not a single human noticed.

  She twisted her head to look up at him. “Are you truly a giant, then? No one seem to be as tall as you.”

  A chuckle rumbled through his massive chest. “Not a giant, no. I’m only 6’4.”

  “Oh.” She wiggled her nose as she thought about it. When he pushed through another set of doors, warm, humid air enveloped her. She tilted her face up to the sun and smiled. “How tall do you have to be to be considered a giant?”

  “Probably eight—” his words disappeared as a loud blaring sound came from the street in front of him.

  Katen bolted out of his pocket with a scream, the sound unlike anything she’d ever heard before. With her heart pounding violently, she shot around Nathan, diving for cover in his dark, shoulder-length hair.

  Instead, her feet hit the sidewalk, and she stumbled on legs that didn’t feel like hers, throwing her face-first into Nathan’s back. Staggering from the impact, she landed on her butt, her mouth dropping open as she realized she wasn’t fairy-sized anymore.

  He looked as thunderstruck as she felt. “Katenia?”

  She lifted a hand, just staring at it as she tried to process its sheer size. “What happened?” she asked, as she finally lifted her gaze back to Nathan.

  “I was going to ask you that.” He crouched in front of her, his dark blue eyes dazed as they made a slow trek from the top of her head, to her bare toes, and back to her face. A low, purring rumble reverberated in his chest, his voice tight when he spoke. “Ah, hell. You’re naked.”

  Her bottom lip quivered as she shook her head, afraid to look over her shoulder. “Are…” she took in a deep breath, and tried to keep the tears out of her voice. “Are my wings still there?”

  Even if she didn’t already know the answer, the look on his face as he shook his head would have broken her heart. Sympathy, along with something completely wicked, flashed in his eyes as he held his hand out for hers.

  “Let’s get you up,” he murmured gruffly, “before you get trampled.”

  Despite her new size, his hand still swallowed hers as she slipped her fingers into his grip. Once again, he was gentler than she’d have expected as he helped her to her feet, and when she swayed, not used to standing without help of her wings, his arm snagged her around the waist before she could fall again.

  His eyes were deliberately locked on hers, and Katenia was aware he didn’t have to go cross-eyed to do it anymore. While she barely came up to his chest, she was too big. “I’m a giant,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. “A wingless giant.”

  Nathan cleared his throat. The top of her head barely reached his chest, but he was not sure pointing out that what couldn’t be more than four-foot-eleven didn’t qualify as a giant would help her situation any.

  To make it worse, the tiny scraps of sheer silver fabric had vanished, and while she seemed to be less concerned with her nudity than her missing wings, Nathan’s head was about to explode. Sweet Jesus, the woman had a body wet dreams were made of, and he couldn’t remember ever being this goddamn hard in his life.

  It was ridiculous how perfectly built she was, from the soft white-blonde waves that fell to her waist, barely shielding large, full breasts, all the way down to her small toes, and everything in between. Her eyes were a startling shade of green, almost the color of moss, and there was a small mole just above the curve of her left eyebrow.

  He ground his teeth together. He was lusting after a fairy. Exactly when the hell had he taken the fall down the rabbit hole?

  Aware she was about to fall apart in his arms, and every man in vicinity was stopping to stare, he yanked off his jacket. “You are not a giant.”

  She snorted through the tears shining in her eyes as he pulled his jacket around her shoulders. “I’m human sized.”

  “I’m aware,” he muttered, sure he was being punished for something. “Has this ever happened before?”

  She shook her head, the first tear falling over. “No, but I have to find a way to change back. I have to get my wings back. I have to go home, and I can’t go home like this!”

  Because she was getting more and more worked up by the second, he wrapped his arm around her waist and started down the street. He was careful to move slowly in case she lost her balance, but what he wanted was to scoop her up and get her away from prying eyes.

  She moved gingerly, as if gauging each step to make sure she didn’t land on the ground again. Her beautiful face was screwed up in concentration when she looked at him. “Where are we going?”

  “My aunt’s. She sent you to me, so maybe she knows what the hell is going on.”

  She stopped walking. “What do you mean, she sent me to you? Did she take me from my garden?”

  Nathan felt his brain twitch in his skull, but he wouldn’t put anything past his aunt Mellie. She not only claimed to have ‘The Sight,’ she whole-heartedly believed the ends always justified the means. If she thought Katenia belonged in his life for some reason, or vice-versa, there was every damn chance she’d done exactly what he feared, and had Katenia plucked from her home.

  “It’s possible,” he admitted, his eye starting to twitch. It was a nervous tick he’d developed long ago whenever he couldn’t avoid being face to face with his flighty, irresponsible aunt. “If she did, hopefully she’ll know how to get you back home.”

  “And normal sized?”

  He nodded, his gut twisting at the hopefulness on her sweet face. Damn, the woman was beautiful, and hell on his senses.

  She peeked up at him. “Does your aunt live close?”

  “No.” He growled quietly as something else occurred to him, and his night went from bizarre to full-on Insanity Land in a single heartbeat. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever been in a car?”

  She shook her head slowly. “No, but they have windows, right?”

  He furrowed his brow in confusion as he nodded. “Yes, why?”

  “The enclosed space won’t bother me as much if there are windows for fresh air.”

  Nathan nodded again, relieved. It would have been a long-ass walk to get half-way across the state to confront his aunt, but at the moment, he was determined and pissed-off enough he would have done it. He dragged a hand down his face as he unlocked his car and opened the passenger door for her. It was time to confront the old bat with the damage she’d caused this time. Then, he promised himself, he’d strangle her for meddling in affairs that were none of her business, and kidnapping a goddamn innocent fairy.

  THREE

  KATENIA GRIPPED Nathan’s arm when he opened the door to the vehicle, and shook her head. “No. I don’t think I can do this.”

  He gently turned her around so she was facing him. “It’s safe, and I promise I’ll be careful.”

  She snorted at him before she could help herself. “It’s not natural.”

  “Maybe not,” he chuckled quietly, “but I’ve been doing it for a while.” He went serious as he bent over until he was looking right in her eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  Katenia wasn’t sure she believed him. Not that she thought he would deliberately hurt her, but the selfishness of humans was as legendary as their height. Sucking in a deep breath, she nodded to herself and threw caution to the wind. If her father or the rest of the Elder Council found out she was trusting a human with her life, she may never be welcomed home. Then again, if they saw how big she was, and that she no longer had wings, she’d be banished without question.

  She took a hesitant step closer to him, and narrowed her eyes. “None of that awful honking?”

  When he smiled, just a crooked tilt to his sensual mouth, it changed his face from tired and surly to something absolutely beautiful. “I promise,” he murmured. He held out his hand. “Trust me?”

  She curled her fingers into a fist. She’d touched him before, but since she’d become human-sized, the dynamic between them changed, and she was acutely aware of how handsome he was. When she f
inally slipped her fingers into his, she was sure she saw relief flash in the depths of his dark blue eyes.

  With her hand wrapped firmly in his much larger one, he set her flower on the top of the vehicle, and leaned against the door. He jerked his head toward the inside. “Hop in.”

  She exhaled slowly and ducked her head to slide in. “This is not natural,” she muttered again as she settled into the seat. To her surprise, he followed, leaning in after her and nearly crushing her with his body weight as he stretched a gray band across her body.

  She opened her mouth to ask what it was, but he turned his head toward her at the same moment, and the air between them thickened and grew heavy, electric. Heat flooded her body, her breasts tightened, and as she was about to give into the instinct roaring inside of her and arch into him, he let out a low growl and yanked back. He slammed the door shut, and she could see him talking to himself as he rounded the vehicle.

  Just like that, his mood went from charming and easy-going to annoyed. Then the car was moving, and she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the rapidly changing scenery long enough to find out what changed.

  It took several minutes of them not crashing and going up in flames before she was able to get words out. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m going to hell.”

  She bobbed her head, way past pretending she understood anything happening around her. Moving this way wasn’t natural, and she kept expecting each breath to be her last. So all she managed was a simple, “That’s nice. Do you always ride this fast?”

  “It’s called driving, and I’m not even doing the speed limit.”

  She swallowed hard, and when he pulled the car to a stop, she finally dared a quick glance at him. “I don’t know what that means.”

  “Never mind.” He dragged his large hand down his face and glanced at her again, his jaw tightening. “Do all fairies look like you?”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “You mean freakishly huge?”