Page 14 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

“Just so,” Bridie said, and pushed me toward him. “I assumed she could see. Maybe ye can remedy the situation as yer father could, without…” She gestured toward his crotch and wiggled her hand. “Oh, blimey. I don’t want to know.” Then she fled back to the bedroom, holding her hands to the sides of her head.

While I waited for a beet-red Griffon to explain what was going on, I was vaguely aware that all hissing had ceased, Hank’s included.

“I don’t understand. She was showing me dresses—”

“My mother assumed we’ve been intimate.”

Caught completely off guard, I choked. “What has that got to do with picking out a dress?”

Griffon glanced up as if seeking divine help. “If…someone, anyone has been intimate with a Fae, or if they commit to or become enthralled, the Fae world becomes…visible to them. It’s not easy to explain. Better to just show you.”

He reached for me and I instinctively stepped back. He chuckled and a teasing glint in his eye made me retreat another step. His voice turned low and seductive. “Come, now, Len—Lucy. You know it’s inevitable.” He lunged and caught me, then laughed when I squealed. Daphne’s bedroom door slammed shut and he laughed even harder. When he couldn’t catch his breath, his grip loosened and I could have easily stepped away, but I didn’t try.

“You’re full of crap,” I said. “You’re making it all up.”

“No, he isnae,” Archer sang from the bottom of the stairs.

“Fine,” I said, calling his bluff. I started lifting the hem of my shirt. “Let’s get it over with. Or did you want Archer to do the honors?”

Archer sputtered and coughed as he fled, and we heard the screen door slam.

Griffon laid a hand on mine to stop my half-hearted striptease. “Not necessary,” he said, “though I reserve the right to revisit the subject later.” He pulled me tighter and kissed my lips briefly. “Your bravery is noted, but my mother was right. I can open your eyes without such…ceremony.”

I let neither my relief nor my disappointment show. “The question is do Iwantmy eyes open?”

He looked worried for a second or two, then his face cleared. “You do. You must. Someonelike you…” He meant a DeNoy. “Cannot afford any possible blind spots, not when we don’t know what we’re working with in the first place.”

“You mean…you don’t know either?”

“I know a little, but don’t worry. We’ll unravel it all soon enough.”

I sighed and laid my head against his chest. “I wish we could have a real conversation.”

He gave me a squeeze, then set me away from him. “Soon. When we’re away from here. But I’m confident this will help distract you until then.” He laid his hand sideways over my eyes. I heard him whispering in Irish, but I understood none of it. When he dropped his hand away, he was grinning. “Welcome to Fairy.”

I grabbed Griffon’s forearms to steady myself, sure I would fall. Unlike all those instances when I’d stepped out ofTimewith Wickham, I wasn’t going to another place—another place had come to me, slipping under my feet and surrounding me, replacing Bridie’s comfortable home with something wild.

“I…I don’t understand. We weren’t in a house?”

“Still in the house. Now you see it as it really is. You’ll be able to see all things Fae as they truly are, as we Fae see them.”

“And if I wanted to go back to the other version?”

“Impossible now.” He ducked to catch my attention. “Is it so horrible?”

I shook my head, half in answer, half hoping the world would right itself. “Sensory overload and all that.” I realized I was shouting over the shushing of the waterfall flowing away from us, alongside the staircase now made of stone, with ferns and flowers encroaching from both sides. My senses filled with the smells and tastes of grass and earth and moss. The railing I’d used coming upstairs was now a long smooth vine suspended in air.

I looked toward the other end of the hall, where another staircase used to lead to Griffon’s room. There, too, was a trickling waterfall that pooled before feeding into the stream that led to the one near our feet. More stone steps replaced the wood ones that led up and out of sight.

The only things that hadn’t changed were Griffon and me. He still wore his black jeans and pretty sweater. My clothes seemed inappropriate for this house made of nature, but I couldn’t imagine what appropriate would look like. Maybe something made of fig leaves?

“Ready?” Griffon nodded toward Daphne’s bedroom door. The white paint was now a slab of polished wood half-covered in ivy, a wall of shrubbery to either side. I remembered the star stones and couldn’t wait to see what they might look like in this new world.

“I’m ready.” I watched my steps and soon realized that the former hallway was still a straight path, and I never would have stepped in the water or on the plants because invisible walls would have stopped me.

He opened the door and stood back. A dark universe stretched away in all directions. Blue and yellow pricks of light floated in swirled purple galaxies and circled around white stars in their centers. The bed was in the same spot, less than ten feet away. But the bedding was much more impressive, including a duvet that might be an actual cloud. The violet rug had been there before, but the texture was finer.

Beside the bed, Bridie stood alternately wringing her hands and smoothing the skirt of her simple black dress that ended mid-calf. Her fluffy slippers had been replaced by sparkly black ones, and I remembered she was in mourning.

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