Page 36 of A Wolf in the Garden

“I’m not going anywhere,” he tells me, and I make a conscious choice to accept it as truth.

Eight

ELLIE

We agree to meet Nerilina, the elvish witch Van used for the vineyard’s protection spell, at my place at noon. The ride there is a short but tense trip; we take Van’s car — a brand new black Porsche SUV worth a few years of my income combined — and I spend the entire time with my heart in my mouth, watching the roadsides for any sign of fae. Every time I glance at Van his jaw is clenched, and he grips the steering wheel with white knuckles. It’s a relief when we round the final bend and see a petite woman waiting for us at the gate, Van pulling in to park directly behind her little Japanese import on the road. Ifeelwhen her magic rolls over us; my lips part with a sharp intake of breath, and I play with my hair self-consciously. Today I’ve twisted the front strands and pulled them back behind my head after Van encouraged me to ‘wear my ears out’ for the first time. It feels strange after keeping them hidden for so long.

“That’s her, then?”

“Yes, that’s Nerilina.” He squeezes my hand reassuringly. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

“I still think I should be paying for this,” I tell him.

“Not happening.” He climbs out of the car before I can argue, and I roll my eyes, although I do have to admit that he does have the spare cash for it and I don’t. I just feel bad that he’s already spending money on me this way. This isn’t a new feeling; it surfaced every summer once I was old enough to truly comprehend the level of wealth the Livingstons had compared to everyone else. It’s hard not to feel like you’re using someone when you’re benefiting from their generosity without being able to give anything more than home-baked goods in return. I don’t like feeling like I can’t reciprocate, but when it comes to Van, it’s going to be impossible to ever match the dollar amounts he’s willing to spend on me.

I suppose, in some way, it’s the power imbalance that I don’t like. The feeling like I need to owe someone, even if I know they would never think that way. Do I enjoy the luxurious showers in Van’s bathroom, sleeping in a bed bigger than my entire kitchen and living area, and eating expensive foods? Of course I do. I’m never going to turn any of that down, but a small part of me will probably always feel guilty for it.

I feel guilty about today too, given that we were supposed to be working on the garden at Lost Moon. Van says it’s fine, but I know just how much he wants to get sorted in the next three weeks alone so that the vineyard is in a better condition for the slew of Christmas parties booked from mid-December onwards. His plans are highly ambitious, and there’s not that much wiggle room for delays, so it’s frustrating to me that something so far out of my control has derailed everything and inconvenienced us both. Then again, we probably wouldn’t have fallen into bed together so quickly had events not pushed us to the extreme, and I’m not going to start regretting that.

I’m nervous as I approach the small elf, who stands even shorter than me, looking so delicate that I get the sense that a strong breeze would just knock her right over. She tucks a strand of her red hair behind an ear that looks similar in shape to my own, and the sharp violet gaze she wields in my direction makes me falter for a moment, reminding me that looks can be deceiving.Maybe she doesn’t even look like this at all. Maybe she’s just like all those witches in fairy tales, who hide their true appearance.Van’s hand lands on the small of my back, heavy and reassuring, letting me know that we are facing this together.

“Evander.” I’ve seen enough elves in interviews on TV over the past two years to not be surprised by the softly lilting accent, nor the almost-seductive tone of her voice. It seems to be a very elf-specific thing; the sexy voice, the jewel-coloured eyes, and the delicately pointed ears that curve upwards, slightly longer than mine.

“Humans will probably start mistaking you for an elf,”Van had said, when we’d discussed the fact that I should just rip the bandaid off and stop hiding my ears, and I’d scoffed at the idea. I looked nothing like any of the elves I’d ever seen.“I know,”Van had added with a laugh.“But humans tend to make assumptions about what they know, which is really very little.”

“Just because I am the teensiest bit fae doesn’t mean I’m not human,”I’d grumbled back.“So be careful about how much you criticise everyone, because I’m one of those ignorant humans you’re talking about right now.”

“Fair enough.”

Now I found myself shaking hands with the elf witch, while Van made introductions. “Ellie, this is Nerilina. Nerilina, this is Ellie Harding.”

“Hi. Thank you for coming out here at such short notice,” I tell her. The wordslovely to meet youstick on my tongue but don’t come out. I’m relieved to be meeting her, but I wouldn’t call it lovely. There’s nothing lovely about this situation I’m currently caught in, with fae stalking me for seemingly sinister reasons.

“You’re more than welcome. Your situation is an interesting case, and I quite like jobs out of the ordinary. There’s only so many love potions one can brew before things get dull.”

I laugh, feeling my shoulders relax. With her full lips turned up in a smile, she seems a lot friendlier and less intimidating than she did a moment ago. This close, I can see the flecks of dark blue in her pretty violet eyes, sitting large in her pale face. “Love potions are actually a thing, then?”

“Well they’re not really forlove,” she whispers conspiratorially. “More for treating erectile dysfunction and other things. Not that you need to know; wolf males are notorious for their high libidos. If anything, you’ll have the opposite problem as the full moon approaches, now thatsomeonehas found his mate.”

I’m speechless, my cheeks flaming red as Van clears his throat beside me. “Can we please focus on the task at hand?”

Nerilina aims a closed-mouth smile at Van. “Alright then. Shall we get started?”

It’s only as I’m following the witch through my front gate that I fully process everything she said.His mate?

* * *

Van insists on stalking around my property’s perimeter, looking for any sign — specifically, any scent — of fae, so Nerilina and I make small talk while he wanders off, shoulders squared with determination. She lives on the less-populated eastern end of the island, on a five-acre block of land that she and her vampire wife recently purchased. Her laugh rings out like a bell at my reaction to the wordvampire, and she tugs at the chiffon scarf draped around her neck to show me the puncture wounds beside her throat. “It’s really not that bad, Ellie. Vampires have a way of making the whole feeding experience very pleasurable for their partners.”

“I’ve read that.” Vampires are one of the species that have willingly volunteered a lot of information, partly because it’s been necessary for them to emphasise thatno one has to diein order for them to eat. “How long have you and your wife been married?”

Her eyes twinkle with mischief. “Just shy of a hundred years. We were married in the First Realm, of course. It wasn’t possible for the two of us to have a ceremony in this realm, back then.”

“Oh,wow. And yeah, of course. Wow. That’s a long time that you two have been together,” I babble as internally I reel from that piece of information.Holy shit, I thought she was my age, she looks no older than thirty.

Van jogs back up to us. “I can’t smell anything out of the ordinary.”

“Well that’s a good sign, right?”

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