Page 14 of Whispers of the Dryad

I giggled, more out of relief than because what she said was funny.“I know, but that doesn’t stop it from being, like, the best thing ever.”

“I know,” Philippa agreed.I prepared a second cup, and Philippa watched in awe as the coffee trickled out of the machine and into the cup.

“This is magic,” she breathed.I laughed.“With everything all of you can do, you call this magic?”

“It’s amazing,” she said simply.“I mean, our magic is great, but it’s normal, you know?”

I shook my head.I guess in perspective I understood what she was trying to say, but it was still weird to think that Philippa could befriend anyone, Ash had magic that could be used to fight off bad guys and protect the forest, and they were in awe of a stupid coffee machine that didn’t even work unless I pressed the button.“Here,” I said, offering Philippa her cup of coffee.“I brought sustenance,” she said and produced a basket seemingly out of nowhere.“What is it?”I asked.When she opened it, the smell of freshly baked pastries filled the cabin.“Oh, where did you get that?”I asked, my mouth already watering.Philippa shrugged.“From the buffet on Mount Olympus.I figured no one would miss it since the food never runs out.”

She held out the basket to me, and I reached into it, finding a pastry.I bit into it, and it was like heaven in my mouth.“Whether they miss it or not, I’m not giving it back,” I said.Philippa laughed.“Let’s go outside,” she suggested.“The weather is amazing.”

I hesitated.I wanted to hide out in the cabin, just in case my nightmare had been real.Outside, we’d be wide open if something happened.“Are you sure everything is okay?”Philippa asked when she saw my hesitation.“Yeah,” I lied, and I took a step toward the door.“It’s great out.”I grabbed a blanket I left folded at the door to spread open on the grass, and Philippa and I walked around the cabin to the meadow behind it.The stream that ran through it babbled happily.We stretched out on the blanket and had our pastries and coffee, and it was the best breakfast I’d ever had.“Tell me,” Philippa said.I sighed and shook my head.“It’s nothing.It was just a dream.A nightmare.”

“Do you have them often?”she asked.I nodded.“Now and then.It’s everything that’s been happening, you know?It’s just riling me up, and I can’t always shake it, so it translates into my dreams.It’s really nothing.”

“Tell me what you dreamed about,” Philippa said.“It was just about Oscar.”

“Did you relive the kidnapping?”

I shook my head.“No.Usually it’s all about that, but this time it was him looking for me.First, at home, and then here.”

I explained to her what had happened in my dream, how it had changed locations, and how Oscar had found me.“It’s getting all messed up in my head because of where I am and everything that’s happening.You know how dreams can be.”

“I don’t really,” Philippa said.“Gods don’t really dream unless it’s a vision or something that has meaning or a message.”

“Oh,” I said.“Are you worried he’ll find you?”she asked.I shrugged.“Apparently I am.It won’t happen, though.Ash took care of it, so it’s silly.”

Philippa looked worried.“Now it’s my turn to ask what’s wrong,” I said.“Why do you look so spooked?”

Philippa forced a smile, and her worried expression disappeared as if it had never been.“There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Are you sure?”I was suddenly worried, too.If Philippa had something to be worried about—a goddess with no troubles at all—was there something I should be aware of?“I’m sure,” Philippa said, and her poker face was so good, I nearly believed her.Nearly.

The problem was that since this whole thing with Oscar had started, since the night he’d come into my house with his henchmen to take me away, everything in my life I’d thought was stable had been turned on its head.I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t anymore.I felt like Alice who’d fallen down a rabbit hole, and nothing was how it should be.Everything was wrong, everything was upside down, and I didn’t know how to fix it until I could leave here.That was a whole different story, too.Leaving Ash was one thing—I’d fallen for him, and I really didn’t want to leave him—but going home was something entirely different.What if nothing had been fixed and the danger was still there?What if I went home and it happened again, and Ash wasn’t there to save me?Could I do it all by myself, or would I just walk right back into trouble, without a way to escape it this time?Philippa put her hand on my arm, and I looked up at her.Her eyes were warm, the flowers woven into her dark hair bright.“It’s going to be okay, Lorraine.We’ll figure out whatever is going on, and by the time you go back, it will be alright.”

“How do you know?”I asked.Philippa shrugged.“I don’t know.All I know is that everything will be fine in the end, and if it’s not fine, it’s not the end.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.“Where did you hear that?”It was some quote a human had made up.I’d seen it online a million times.“I don’t know,” Philippa said with a giggle.“But I love the sound of it.”

I smiled at her.Philippa was sweet and childlike, and she had the best heart.She just didn’t understand how everything worked all the time, and in her world, nothing ever went wrong.She was trying to set me at ease, and I loved her for it, but it didn’t work at all.In fact, I was more worried now than I’d been when I’d woken up.

ChapterFourteen

Ash

Iwalked toward the cabin, feeling lighter than air.This bullshit arrangement with Dolus had had me worked up and pissed off without me realizing it.I’d had to make a serious decision, and subconsciously, I hadn’t even known how much it had gotten to me.Now that he’d told me he didn’t care what I chose either way, it felt so much better.I’d thought he was going to be pissed off that I’d wasted his time.It turned out that Dolus really was my friend, after all.He may have been the god of deceit, but that didn’t mean he was out to get me.A lot of us had been born with magic that didn’t define us in every way possible.We were still people with more sides to who we were, aside from the magic we wielded.I’d only really started realizing that with Lorraine in the picture.She had such a different view of the world, it had opened my eyes to different possibilities.Now, it was doing that to me again.I still had to decide if I wanted to stay here and lose her after All Hallows’ Eve broke our bond, or if I wanted to go with her and lose everything else, becoming mortal.It was a harder decision than I’d thought it would be.Not because I didn’t know what I felt for her—I knew exactly how serious I was about her.I was just worried about what she felt for me.A deer appeared, nibbling at the grass that grew around the tree trunks around me.I watched absently as her velvet mouth moved, searching for what was good and what wasn’t.“Ash,” a voice said, and Artemis stood before me.“I should have known the stupid deer meant you were coming,” I said.I’d been so deep in thought I hadn’t put two and two together.

“If you knew I was coming, would you have tried to avoid me?”Artemis asked.She was angry.Her face was twisted in rage, and her auburn hair looked like it was on fire, blazing in the sunlight that fell through the leaves.I frowned.“I don’t usually try to avoid you, even if I don’t want to spend the whole day talking about my feelings.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” she snapped.“You’ve been making a hell of a lot of effort not to hang out with me or any of the druses.”

I shook my head, confused.“Why are you so pissed off?”

Artemis laughed, but the sound wasn’t joyful at all.It was filled with bitterness and scorn.“When were you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?”I asked.I had the feeling that something was very wrong, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was.“I ran into Dolus a short while ago.”

My body ran cold.“I didn’t know you two ran in the same circles.”

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