Page 35 of In Love With the Leshy

Although anxious to see Em, chores came first. The morning passed smoothly enough. Before we ate, we collected a few eggs from the handful of chickens Masha keeps in a tiny shed in the back. She explained housing them is safer than leaving them prey for the hungry animals stalking around at night. Natural selection is natural selection, and there isn’t much Em can do about that.

Next, we cooked the eggs.

“So you cook meals over the fireplace?”

“To the best of my ability,” she said, scrambling the eggs in a cast iron pan. “It’s a good thing I paid attention in history when we were learning about how the pioneers survived.” She joked. “Of course, I have it a lot easier. I have luxuries they didn’t, like utensils and spices. And if there’s anything we really want, Em finds a way to get it for us. The only thing we don’t have is electricity and indoor plumbing.”

“Do you miss them?”

“Indoor plumbing for sure.” She said while plating the eggs. “Electricity, I’m not sure. It’s nice to not just plop down in front of the television.” She shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong; there are times when Ana is bounding around with energy, and I’m wiped out. But all in all, I think we spend more quality time together than if we had a television.”

As if to prove her point, after I devoured the eggs she made for breakfast, she put me and Ana to work. The three of us, along with our security detail, went in search of flowers near the stream, then brought them back to the cottage to wrap them with the bumpy vines, creating our loofah soap.

Once we had something to clean ourselves with, we went to the spring. I thought I’d want to rush out to get to Em, but as much as I couldn’t wait to see him, I needed to take a good, long soak first.

“It’s funny. The first time I was here, the water felt like it effervesced on my skin. Like I was a giant Alka Seltzer tablet. And now it’s hardly doing that. Does that mean anything?”

“It means you’re healing. You were scratched up the first time I brought you. The scratches you have are much better, and a lot of the smaller ones are gone completely. There are healing elements in this water.”

“Really?” I perked up. “Maybe we should bring some to Em?”

“He’s spent a lot of time here over the last three days.”

“Three days?” I asked, shocked that I was out of it for that long. She nodded. I was a little hurt that he could make it to the spring but not to Masha’s to check on me. If he’d come, I would’ve woken up.

We continue the rest of the way in silence.

*

“Uncle Emerald!” Ana rushes at Em as we approach his cave.

“Hey, princess.” He bends to hug her.

“You look much better,” she declares. “I mean, your skin is still too green,” she makes a face, showing that she’s not too fond of the color green.

The second our eyes meet, Em’s dart away. Not going to lie. This isn’t the greeting I hoped for, and it hurts. His green hair is only starting to grow and, in many ways, looks more like hair than what he had before. All in all, he looks good. Really good.

“I agree. You look much better,” I say, hoping for a scrap of Em’s attention.

“Thank you.” His head drops. “Thank you for coming to find me.” He offers a small, sad smile.

“Of course.” I take a step toward him.

Em takes a step in retreat. A little piece of my heart chips off.

“You shouldn’t have let her leave the cave,” he scolds Fang instead of me. “It wasn’t safe.”

The wolf lies at Em’s feet with a whine and lowers his head between his front paws.

“Don’t blame him,” I answer back, annoyed that he’d rather talk to the wolf than me. “He was hurt and couldn’t stop me. I had faith that you had the situation under control but needed help because of the knife lodged in your back. He made sure I didn’t leave without backup.”

Em crosses his massive arms over his chest. Arms that I wish he’d wrap around me. “You were right, the knife was poisoned. Nikolai won’t be a problem anymore. It’s safe for you to go back home.”

I feel Masha’s eyes looking from Em to me like she’s watching a ping-pong match. “How can you be sure?” She asks. “You can’t hurt the bloodline.”

He nods. “I didn’t. I just didn’t intervene when the coyotes did.”

Masha’s eyes water with unshed tears. I rub her arm, wondering why Em is acting like a cold, heartless jerk. Nikolai deserved what he got, but still, he was her brother.

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