Page 5 of The Art of Professing Love

“All right, I suppose I can live with that compromise. I hope you don’t mind a long walk.”

“How long are we talking?”

“Well…” I hesitated. “An hour or so.”

Irving grunted.

“The view is lovely,” I added quickly.

“It’s 8:00 at night, we can’t see the view,” he said through gritted teeth. “Ugh, never mind. Let’s just hurry so we get back to your cabin before sunrise.”

“Oh, it won’t take–“

“Come on.”

I cleared my throat and took a stride forward, Irving following me close behind. “You are a gem, aren’t you? I have no idea what my cousin saw in you, but there must have been something.”

“And what if there wasn’t? What if this is all an elaborate ruse to put one or both of us in our place?”

“My cousin would never do that. You may know them as your former student, but I grew up with them, and there’s not a tricky bone in their body. No, they saw something.” I shook my head. “I only wish I knew what it was.”

4

IRVING

The walk back to Sylvan’s house was, if I was being generous, nightmarish. It was too dark to see much of anything beyond the road directly in front of us, and halfway there, even that turned into a heavily wooded dirt path. The regret I had for not taking my car all but disappeared as I realized no car would make it through this trail in one piece. With each step I took, I put my life in my hands.

“Oh, watch out for the tree roots along the path here,” Sylvan said as we traipsed even deeper into the forest. “I really should thin the trees out along the path, but I simply can’t bring myself to. In fact –“

“Ow!” I stumbled over one of the aforementioned tree roots, my feet giving way underneath me.

With a decidedly ungraceful pitch forward, I landed face-first on the packed dirt road, getting a mouthful of moss and tree bark. A quiet crack told me that something had just broken, and if it wasn’t one of my bones, it was my glasses.

“That,” Sylvan said, “was one of the tree branches I was talking about.”

“Yes, I know,” I replied, my voice muffled by the ground. “Are you going to stand there gawking, or will you help me up?”

Sylvan sprang into action, pulling me up by my arms. My suit was covered in dirt and grass stains, and wiping it off did little good. I muttered a few choice words under my breath as I picked up my glasses, now snapped in two pieces along the noseband, but if Sylvan heard, he didn’t say anything about my annoyance.

Something tickled the top of my hand and I brushed at it, fingers hitting a large black blur along my knuckles.

“What is that?” I cried, shaking my hand vigorously.

“Oh, the thing on your hand?” Sylvan asked casually.

“Yes, that thing.” I continued to shake my hand to no avail, the dark blob hanging on for dear life.

“It’s just a spider. I think you startled him by falling onto his home.”

“Get it off of me!”

Sylvan grabbed my wrist, holding it stable, and scooped the spider into his other hand. “There, there, the poor thing is off of you now. I’m sure he’s as grateful to be away from you as you are to be away from him.” He looked up at me, or at least I was fairly certain he did, though his face wasn’t much more than a pale shadow. “Oh dear,” he fussed, setting the spider back on the ground so he could wring his hands together. “You got a scrape on your cheek. Fortunately, we’re close to my cabin, so I’ll clean it for you there.”

“I’m not a child,” I snapped. “I don’t need help cleaning up a cut.”

“But you do need help removing a spider the size of your thumbnail off of your hand.” Sylvan stifled a laugh. “Please don’t forget that I’m a fae. Of all the monsters in the world, a fae is the kind you want around to help out when you’re injured.”

I hated to admit it, but he was right. Faefolk knew all sorts of remedies and potions which they used with great skill, and with a notoriously gentle touch and acute understanding of biology, they were almost always the first choice for care at hospitals, clinics, and the like. If this entire situation hadn’t been his fault in the first place, I might have been grateful to have Sylvan here to take care of me.

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