Incorrect Spelling

by Candace Sams

  He shrugged. “There were some old odds and ends up in the barn loft, and Eartha and Windy are terrific workers. They love this idea so much that I think they’d willingly work into the night if we didn’t stop them.”

  “And…you did all this while I was in Barnsdale, bemoaning my fate and feeling sorry for myself?”

  He stepped closer. “You won’t feel sorry for yourself for long. You’re a fighter. I know you are.”

  She gave him what she hoped was her most brilliant smile ever. “I’m not going to let you do it all alone. I’m going up to change into some work clothes and we’ll all work together.”

  “Splendid. And tonight, you can go into the garden, light some candles and use some magic to bless our efforts. Not magic to cause harm, but to benefit. You’ll know the right spell,” he told her.

  She sighed. “It’s been a long, long time since I’ve conjured. And it’s about time I got back to my roots, and quit acting like I’m something I’m not. Just so long as I don’t exhibit any real magic in front of regular folk, I think this can work.”

  He grabbed her up into a huge hug and spun her around.

  When he suddenly stopped spinning and laughing, and put her back on her feet, Sky noticed an intensity in his gaze that hadn’t been there before. “What is it?”

  “I just want you to be happy.”

  She hugged him back, kissed him hard, and gazed deeply into his gorgeous green eyes. “I will be. Happier than I’ve been in a long, long time. And we’ll make the gift shop work. We will!” she firmly promised.

  “Go on, now. Get changed,” he advised. “I can use some help cleaning the barn, but I can’t finish the display cases without some glass.”

  “I’ll make a run into the nearest village tomorrow, and get whatever we need. Just have everyone make a list. Our funds will hold out for a little while longer.”

  With that, Rowan watched her happily leave. Her smile was brighter than at any time since he’d known her. Her spirit was freer. This was the way she was meant to live. Not beholden to anyone, but relying on her skills and her love of the elements and nature around her. Still, a sudden chill went through his heart. He turned and faced a window that had opened on the landscape. It was like a hole cut between two worlds—this one, and his.

  She’s calling me home.

  Too high-pitched for human ears, he heard the Queen of the Fairy Realm summoning him back. She couldn’t force him to leave this reality any more than Sky could have when he first arrived. However, the queen’s wrath could be exceedingly harmful if he didn’t submit.

  He’d already spoken to Eartha and Windy. As Sky had done, they promised to keep this land and the surrounding woods always free of human encroachment. No animals would be harmed. His first offering—one of a wild place in this world that no humans could ever encroach upon—would appease the queen slightly. The second promise would, in his opinion, allow him to be able to stay in this reality forever. But that promise had to be given by Sky alone. What if she wouldn’t do it?

  “Please, just a little longer,” he whispered, and let the breeze carry his request back to his queen. “Let me have just a few more days, and I’ll have an offering fit for your approval. An offering that will allow me to stay. I…I love her.” Moments after the words were spoken, there was a silence that his Faun ears could only interpret as acceptance of his soft plea, albeit a guarded acceptance.

  “Thank you…Grandmother,” he softly murmured.

  After supper that night, Rowan made his way back to the garden wearing Eartha’s robe again. All his clothing was old, so it needed mending after a long day’s work in the garden.

  He left the women making more plans, knowing that Sky would eventually come to him. As he’d vacated his place at the kitchen table, her meaningful nod had left him in no doubt. To stay near her, he’d offered to do the dishes, mop the kitchen floor, or learn to use the washer and dryer to clean his own clothing, but the two aunts had shooed him out of the house, proclaiming that he’d done more than enough work for one day.

  Feeling the need for the night air on his flesh, he hung the robe over a bush and settled into the soft grass at the edge of the forest. Having worked very hard that day, he found it increasingly difficult to stay awake.

  Waiting until her aunts were in their beds, Sky quietly crept out of the house so as not to disturb them. She searched for over half an hour before finding Rowan sleeping, underneath a giant oak tree. Fireflies hovered over and around him. He stirred, put one hand under his head, and carelessly draped the other on his abdomen.

  For a time, she stared at the muscled perfection lying there. Her body responded quite easily to all that masculinity.

  The thought came to her that he wouldn’t be there forever. That saddened her more than anything ever had, even more than losing her job. Without him, this place wouldn’t even seem like a home anymore. In these past days, his joy, his love of life, his laughter and hope were what made her world wondrous.

  She settled in the grass near him, content to continue watching him sleep.

  Suddenly, a small, blue light appeared from the depths of the woods. As it zoomed forward, the fireflies seemed to move aside, as if they were making way for this new glowing creature and whatever it represented.

  Enthralled, Sky was about to awaken Rowan and ask him what the light could mean. Soon enough, she got her answer.

  Within the glow flew an ethereal creature no more than seven inches in height. It was a nude, woman-like thing with wings that sparkled and glowed like crystal when illuminated. The tiny woman’s long hair was blue and flowed around her like waves kissing a shore. Completely enraptured by its appearance, something in Sky’s past teachings told her this was a Pixie; a smaller member of the Fairy race. She sat very still, hoping not to frighten the Pixie away, but the creature’s next actions quickly roused a sense of anger, jealousy and pettiness that she would have never believed possible.

  The Pixie hovered over Rowan’s sleeping form. It flew up to his face and put out its hands, barely grazing his skin. Then it flew backwards, down his body. It hovered when it was directly over Rowan’s crotch. The Pixie’s tiny head dipped down and she kissed the tip of his penis. Her hands began to stroke him.

  Infuriated by the advantage taken of a sleeping man, Sky spoke up. “Get off him, you little hussy! Is this your idea of saying hello to someone?”

  As if he was under a spell of some kind, Sky watched Rowan try to wake up, but he seemed incapable of moving more than just blinking his eyes. Perhaps the man had been under some enchantment for a while, since his keen ears should have heard a mere witch walking through the grass, toward him.

  “I said…get off him!” Sky angrily repeated as she swatted at the creature.

  The Pixie flew up about two feet, and begin to change to a bright orange, then to a flaming red.

  Awakening at last, Rowan shook his head and sat up.

  “Sky, don’t move,” he warned. “you’ve royally pissed her off, and she has the power to enchant you.”

  “She was touching you. Intimately. While you slept. She couldn’t keep her hands off you,” Sky angrily countered.

  Rowan glared at the Pixie. “Is that true, Glacia? Were you up to your old tricks?”

  The Pixie emitted an incomprehensible series of squeaks.

  Sky watch as Rowan dealt with the situation. She had it in mind to cast a spell on the little Pixie. Maybe a spell that would turn her into a bug. Something small enough to be plastered across the front of a car bumper or a windshield.

  Rowan’s next words placated her.

  “You’re dealing with me, Glacia, not one of your lazy Satyrs. If you ever again touch me while I sleep, I’ll let Sky turn you into a horrible old wart that no man will want or love. Your wings will fall off and you’ll turn a sickening shade of puce. You’ll smell of Sulphur and be covered with puss-filled boils. Be gone!”

  The Pixie screeched at the top of her lungs, lunged once at Sky, who q
uickly leaned out of her reach, then zipped back into the forest as a fiery little ball of flame.

  As the Pixie left, Sky noticed how the fireflies resumed their bright vigil over Rowan.

  She could no more harm another creature through the use of magic than she could harm herself, but Glacia didn’t know that.

  “What was that all about?” Sky angrily demanded, pointing at the retreating Pixie. “What did she think she was doing to you, and who was she?”

  Rowan pushed his hair back, crossed his legs and gazed at Sky. “That was Glacia. She was probably sent here by the queen, to find out if I was nearing the end of my stay. But she wasn’t supposed to have her way with me. I’m quite sure that was her own little idea. She’s done it to others.”

  Sky crossed her arms over her chest. “Did she have you under some kind of spell? You wouldn’t wake up at first.”

  Rowan suppressed a smile. “That’s what makes what she does so offensive. She makes sure her victims sleep quite hard.” He shook his head. “She won’t ever do it to me again. If she tries, I shall find a very large book and press her little ass right between its pages.”

  The thought of that made Sky smile.

  “Don’t laugh, Sky. You might break something,” he teased.

  She hung her head and gave way to mirth. She was actually jealous. Of a Pixie! But then she stopped laughing, pushed her hair back and scrambled toward him. “She meant to bring you back to the Fairy Realm. That’s why she was really here.”

  He gazed at her a moment before answering. “I heard the queen’s call this afternoon, and asked her for more time. She’s growing impatient. Yes, that’s why Glacia was allowed to come into your world. As I said, the Pixie was sent to remind me to get back home though there was nothing said about how she did it.”

  Sky stroked his freshly shaven cheek. He now had a habit of shaving after he saw an advertisement in a magazine, and she had admired the shaven male model’s face.

  “Rowan?”

  “Yes?”

  “Do…do you have to?”

  “Go home, you mean?”

  She simply nodded.

  “I can do as I please. Do you want me to stay, little witch? Have I won you over at last?”

  She gazed deeply into his spring green eyes. “Yes, Rowan. I want you to stay. I do. Very, very much!”

  He pulled her to him and kissed her, long and deeply. Then, he broke the kiss, though he kept her close. “There’s something you should know, Sky.”

  “I know. For you to stay here, there’ll have to be a sacrifice or offering of some kind. That’s what the legends say.”

  “Yes, but I already made up my mind what that is to be. You see, I’ve wanted to stay since I first saw you. I think I’ve made that obvious!”

  She smiled and kissed the place just under his jaw. “Tell me what we should do.”

  He smiled back at her. “Part of the offering has already been made. All I have to do is consecrate this ground…your woods…to the queen. When she sees the ceremony from her side of the Fairy Realm, she’ll know for sure that you and your aunts will never allow the woods or its inhabitants to come to any harm. That will please her greatly. The next part of the offering involves you. You and me, that is.”

  “I’ll do anything.” She pushed his long hair back and touched his cheek.

  “Why? Why would you make such a blind promise?”

  She lowered her head.

  “Sky?” He lifted her chin with the tip of one finger.

  “Because…I’m in love with you. I know it’s happened very fast, but I can’t imagine being without you,” she quickly added. “You…you make me happy. I smile when I’m around you, and you treat my aunts with grace and respect. I haven’t ever met a man like you. Faun or not. It’s like all this was meant to happen.”

  “I love you too, little witch. What you just said was all I needed to hear.”

  “Is that the offering, then? That I should promise to love you forever?” she murmured and hugged him hard.

  “It involves a little more than that,” he said while extracting himself from her bear-like embrace. He took a deep breath. “Would you promise to bear my child and name it after the Fairy Queen?”

  Stunned for a moment, Sky considered the request for a long moment. Finally, she gazed into his eyes again and slowly nodded. “Yes. I’d do that. If you love a man, you’d love to have his baby,” she whispered.

  Rowan jumped to his feet. “Do you hear, Grandmother? She’ll gift you with a grandchild, and name the baby after you! It’s been a long, long time since any human has made such a gesture. Please, let me stay with her. Let us be one with this land and dwell here in peace.”

  “Grandmother?”

  Sky jumped to her feet as quickly as Rowan had. “You never told me the Fairy Queen was your grandmother. You’re a Faun. How can that be? The Queen of the Fairy Realm is a Fairy.”

  Rowan took her hands in his. “The Fairy Prince is my father. But my mother is a Princess of the Faun race. Her blood is of ancient lineage. When I was born, I had the same characteristics as my mother. I am a Faun.”

  “The q-queen’s grandson,” Sky repeated in a trembling voice.

  He shrugged. “She dotes on me terribly. That was why, when your aunts opened the doorway between the worlds, she allowed me to satisfy my curiosity, and come into your reality. She was as curious as to why someone would summon a Faun. But then, I found you here. I wanted you then, and I’ve wanted you ever since. Magic might have been used to bring us together, but it is fate that sealed the bargain. We were meant to be united, Sky. There is no other way that all this could happen.”

  “I don’t know about any of that, but you could leave your world…your entire family…behind?”

  “Uh…not exactly.”

  Sky swallowed hard. “What does that mean?”

  He took a deep breath. “You’d better sit down and listen.”

  Finally understanding that she might have bitten off more than she could chew, Sky did as he requested and sat on the ground.

  Chapter Five

  Rowan knelt beside her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “My grandmother, and the other members of my family, would never let me come permanently into your world, and renounce them and the Fairy Realm. They know I’d never do that. By consecrating the ground of your forest, as a protected place, my family would have somewhere safe, away from prying human eyes, to enter into your world on special occasions. Midsummer Night’s Eve, Samhain, solstices and equinoxes, for example. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to keep them from seeing a new baby in the family, would it?”

  “A-all that can be done?” Sky shakily asked.

  “As easily as the snap of two fingers. But lately, there hasn’t been much of an excuse for an excursion into your world. In our case, a child breaching both realities would be the reason. It has been done in centuries past.”

  “Rowan, exactly how old are you?”

  “I’ve seen the passing of thirty-three winters.”

  “Will you age the same as me, if you stay in this reality? Will any child we have be healthy if it’s half-human, half-Faun? If your people have access to this world, will there be problems? I mean…what if…”

  He pressed two fingers to her lips. “As to my aging, I’ll grow old naturally, as any human would. The child would age the same way. When pairings of our people and yours took place in the past, the lifespan of any infant born of such unions was quite similar to any human child. They laughed, they loved, they grew old.” He shrugged. “Obviously, it will carry half my blood and half yours. In the distant past, whenever this kind of mating took place and produced offspring, legend has it that the children were always linked to both worlds. It was said The Lady of The Lake and Merlin were two such children, and they were very powerful indeed. I expect our child will be equally endowed, and it will be a significant challenge to teach our little one to hide its magical prowess as you hide yours. I can’t say whether our chil
d will be able to shapeshift as I do. If it can do so from birth, extra care will be needed to watch over its upbringing. That would mean that the child would also be required to spend some time of the year with my family, and the philosophers and teachers of my world. You and I would be expected to accompany the child to the Fairy Realm in that case, but we would return here together. And that brings me to speak of further desires my grandmother will expect to be fulfilled.”

  “Go ahead,” Sky tremulously encouraged. “I’m already having your baby!” she sarcastically blurted. He apparently ignored any other concerns and kept babbling on.

  “My grandmother has longed for a granddaughter. As a witch, you may be able to help conjure the child her heart would greatly love. She has sons, grandsons, great- grandsons and nephews. But no little girl babies have been gifted to the women of my family. Not as yet. If you could cast some white magic and give her a girl grandchild, that would be wonderful. If the baby should be a boy, however, I want you to know that it won’t make one bit of difference. Not to me or Grandmother. We’ll all love the child just the same.”

  “Rowan, what effect will us passing back and forth between this world and the Fairy Realm have on us? Exactly how long would you, me, and our baby have to stay…for it to learn its heritage?”

  “There is no known effect to traversing the boundaries of either world. As to staying, perhaps we’d be in the other realm no more than a few short weeks each summer, or in the early fall. But you can see that our mixed blood will make it difficult for the child to grow without support from both worlds. Such a youngster will need to be trained in my ways, just as someone trained you to be a witch.”

  “I understand all that, but what about my aunts?”

  “Sky, you have to learn to trust in their abilities. They will get by. Brilliantly, I think!”

  She thought for a very long moment, and was aware that Rowan stood patiently, waiting for her final response. She only had one to give, knowing her life had to include him. “What’s your grandmother’s name?” she asked.