Page 77 of Fire of the Fox

His face scrunched up, and he let out a heavy sigh. Turning away, he fell back onto the bed and draped his arm over his eyes. “I don’t understand at all. I hate not understanding something.”

“What don’t you understand?”

“There’s so much I don’t understand when it comes to you. I don’t understand why you’d want to defend Dax after everything he’s done to you. I don’t understand why I actually listened when you told me to stop. Stopping isn’t in my vocabulary when it comes to Water Fae. The last thing I don’t understand is how everyone around you is a Water Fae, yet you don’t appear to be one yourself.”

I furrowed my brow, confused by that last part. “What do you mean everyone around me is Water Fae?”

He moved his arm behind his head, and his eyes found mine. “Exactly what I said. Everyone around you is Water Fae.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

“DALLAS AND DAX are both Water Fae,” he started.

“Wh-what?” I asked, incredulously. The suggestion was utterly impossible that it made me want to laugh, but I fought against the notion, seeing as it would most likely be hella painful.

“We’ve mentioned it before, how Fae have a way of making their auras harder to pick up on. We didn’t realize it at first because the few times we’d seen them, Dallas and Dax had been concealing their magical auras for the most part to look human. You were the only one we sensed anything substantial from at the start. Dallas wasn’t able to hide hers tonight, most likely due to how drunk she was. Then, of course, Dax gave a demonstration of his true nature. Both are Water Fae.”

This was ludicrous. Dax I’d seen with my own two eyes, so I knew he had to be, even if it was hard to believe, but Dallas? She couldn’t be Water Fae. There would’ve been signs before now, signs I would’ve most definitely picked up on considering we’d been best friends ever since high school. The air felt like it had been punched from my lungs all over again. Wouldn’t she have told me? Wouldn’t I have noticed something odd after all these years?

Rune sat back up and leaned in close. My cheeks warmed at his sudden nearness. His eyes roamed over me, studying me closely. I didn’t know what he was looking for, but finally, he met my eyes again. “Are you Water Fae?”

Narrowing my eyes, I leaned back away from him. “No! We’ve already been through this. I thought after what happened on the boat, you’d know I wasn’t.”

He sighed and leaned back, running a hand through his white hair. “I know. I just wanted to ask point blank. You’re very hard to figure out, more so now than ever since all your friends are Water Fae.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Some are Land Fae, but does that make me a Land Fae, too? No, it doesn’t. I. Am. Human. I mean, if I were Water Fae, I’d theoretically hate you and all the guys, right?”

He looked at me sideways. “Theoretically.”

“Well, there’s your proof.” I looked down at my hands and felt my cheeks warm. I couldn’t believe I was about to say this. I swallowed hard and continued, “I couldn’t be Water Fae, because I actually enjoy being with you. All of you. At first, I hated it because I thought you were a blackmailing, douche canoe, but now, I—well I—”

“I get it,” he said, and I looked up at him through my lashes. He stared off away from me with tightly shut eyes. “You aren’t Water Fae.”

I looked back down at the comforter and silently cursed myself. Now was not the time to be discussing our feelings, but it was important that he understood what I was and what that meant for my feelings. He no doubt knew what I was trying to say, so he’d stopped me. They weren’t words he wanted to hear, especially not right now. We could figure out our relationship later.

“We’ll have definitive answers come tomorrow anyway, so there’s no point in trying to talk it out right now.” I gave him a questioning look, and he finished, “Your wounds. Like we’ve explained before, Fae heal much faster than humans. If your wounds are gone by tomorrow, no one will be able to deny what you are.”

I knew I had nothing to worry about. Even if Rune had his doubts, I knew I wasn’t Water Fae. I had never controlled water or healed extremely fast. I was an average Jolene.

As I sat there and thought about what he’d said, something dawned on me. In high school, Dallas had burned her forearm on her oven while baking cookies. I knew it was a really bad burn because I’d witnessed the whole thing. You could even smell burning flesh. It should have scarred or at least lasted for a few weeks, but by the next day, there was no sign of a burn. She was completely healed.

That wasn’t the only strange healing incident, either. Once, Dallas got in a fight at school with another girl, and since she was suspended for a week, I went to her house every day to see her. The day of the fight, she had a black eye. The very next day, her eye was fine. When I asked her how it had healed so fast, she’d laughed and told me it was magic. I thought her answer was her being witty, but now I knew that she’d been telling the truth.

Even more recently was her paper cut. Gone, mere minutes after she’d gotten it.

Rune could obviously tell by the look on my face that I’d realized something because he asked, “What is it?”

I met his patient eyes and explained, “Dallas has always been able to heal way faster than she should. I guess … I guess, she really is Water Fae.”

I squeezed the blanket tightly between my fingers as the burn of betrayal settled in my throat. Why had she never told me? I mean, I knew it wasn’t something you’d randomly tell someone, and it would’ve been hard to believe at first. Still, we had been best friends for so long. She knew she could trust me, and with time, I would have accepted it. It was such a large part of herself to keep hidden, and it made me question if she truly trusted me. It made me doubt if I’d been a good enough friend to her. That insecurity made emotion clog my throat, and I had to swallow hard to keep it from rising to the surface.

It also begged the question of why. Why was everyone I’d been close to Water Fae? What did that mean for me? Did I just happen to choose friends who were Water Fae? Or was there another reason? My head was spinning with all these questions, and they were only serving to make it hurt more.

While lost in trying to accept the reality of who Dax and Dallas were, something else occurred to me. Fear took hold of my heart, and I leaned toward Rune. “Wait! Even if they’re Water Fae, you-you aren’t going to hurt them, are you?”

He narrowed his eyes. “I’ve already told you I want all Water Fae dead. I don’t care who they are.”

Panic blossomed, sinking its icy claws in me. Shaking my head, I reached out and touched his arm. “No, Rune. You don’t need to hurt them. Th-they aren’t bad.”

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