Page 113 of By the Fae

I shot a sceptical look at Bailey, who at that moment was encouraging Garth to add even more whipped cream to the top of his drink. “Don’t be stingy with the marshmallows now,” he whined.

“Take this stone,” said Denver. “Place it on her wrist, and she will . . . how best to say . . . steal your glamour. You will halve your remaining lifespan, and she will take it. Just like that. Just like you take her bruises or broken bones. You will both live as long as each other. So long as there are no more great wars, obviously.”

“Oh,” was all I could manage, my mind struggling to catch up to the gravity of it all. We didn’t need a Life Stone. I should have realised. I’d been sharing my magic with her all along, not paying a single bit of attention to what it could have meant in the grand scheme of things. I’d never healed anyone before Holly. Could I even heal anyone besides Holly? Or was that a part of my magic that was reserved only for my mate?

And her image had appeared so many times without my brain instructing my glamour to do so. On the pages of my sketchpad, in my fantasies when I was alone, while I slept in the room beside my brother. She had literally stolen my magic and she hadn’t even realised. Neither of us did.

If Holly would have me, we could be together. Half my lifespan. I had maybe a thousand years left. I would get five more centuries with her.

Five hundred years with Holly. Not fifty.

I wanted to kiss Denver. And slap myself for not realising sooner. “Um, thank you.”

“The power to share your magic has always been inside you,” he said, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling. “This is simply another Harness Stone. But this one is for her. You should try reading a book sometime.”

I laughed. For a solid minute. A cheat code. That’s what it felt like. Unlimited lives.

“Okay, I have to go now. I need to get back to my mate.”

My mate.

My little magic thief.

Mal’s arm came across my shoulder and dragged me to him. “Come on, Bailey!” he yelled. “Let’s go get your brother’s girl back.”

“Coming!” Bailey said, loading his arms up with bagels and cookies.

The trek back to my parents was much less burdensome, since it was all downhill and we had enough Ichor branded snacks to keep an army marching. And I was headed back to Holly. Heading towards my future.

Our future.

“So, I put this on and what happens?” Holly asked, holding the cord in one hand. The fingers of her other hand snaking up my shirt to rub soft circles on my hip. Under her touch, it was almost impossible to concentrate on what I was trying to tell her.

“I share the rest of my lifespan with you. We get half each.”

“What the heck, Goldie? But you’ll only have like five-hundred years left?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. A human saying things likeonly five-hundred years.

“I’d rather have five hundred years with you than a thousand miserable ones without you. But it’s your choice. If you decide not to wear the bracelet, then I will have the next sixty, seventy years with you. And I will be better off having known and loved you than if I’d let you go.”

Tears popped out of her eyes. I brushed them away with my thumb.

“You have to understand, if you choose to wear the Harness Stone, you will outlive your parents, and sister, and nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews, and so on. A life of loss.”

Holly swallowed, and after a few moments she whispered, “But I’ll have you. Loss is easier if there is someone to share it with.” She sounded so much like Mal.

“You don’t have to decide now. Whether you want to wear the bracelet. I want you to sleep on it. For however long it takes to make the decision that is right by you. It’s a fucking big decision. And know, I will love you no matter what you choose. It must be true. I couldn’t say it if—”

“If it wasn’t true,” she said, finishing my sentence.

I tucked the stone in the front pocket of her dungarees. “Hey, my phone!”

Holly pulled me down into another kiss, her face salty and damp. “I really love you, Goldie.” Her grip on my hip tightened, her fingernails scratched down my bare flesh, igniting small fires under my skin and sending blood south.

“I should also tell you that every time we’re intimate, you absorb a little more of my magic,” I whispered to her temple. “So, if you don’t want to live another five-hundred-years with me, you’d better keep your hands out of my pants.”

“Absorb?”

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