Page 30 of Fairies Don't Fall

I swallowed hard. “Are you ready?”

He smiled as he emerged from the shirt, his teeth so sharp, so capable of piercing into my heart with one chomp. “Please fold,” he said, handing me the enormous white thing. I struggled to fold it and ended up rolling it and putting it with my things. When I turned back to him, he wore stretchy black bottoms that weren’t two inches down his thighs, leaving the bare skin, the dark dusky blue marbled with paler striations.

I blinked once at the shock of seeing him so clearly when no one saw a war beast this close. Unless it was the last thing you ever saw. I swallowed hard. “All right, then. Let’s give you a nice shower.”

It was cold, but he was warm. I found myself leaning against him in spite of myself as I lathered him up, rubbing all over, except for where his black shorts were.

“You’re cold,” he growled once I’d used up two bottles.

I was shivering hard. Yes, you could call me cold. “I-I’m fine.”

He picked me up, cuddled me against his extremely warm chest and started walking back down the rocks, following the curve of the stream.

“I’m not done,” I said with chattering teeth. “I have two bottles of shampoo left, and I didn’t condition you.”

“No, my deliciously delicate beauty. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t do it by freezing you to death.”

And now I was thinking about all the different ways he could kill me. So many ways. All the ways. And he was holding me so he could simply flex his arms and crush me into fairy dust. I shivered particularly hard.

He carried me to a spot in the sunshine that had a blanket spread out. A pile of books was on one corner of the enormous blue and green patchwork.

He sat down on the edge of the blanket, pulled the opposite side over me, and then carefully picked up a book. I tried to get out of his lap, but his arm was an iron bar over me, and his warmth soaking into me felt very, very good. It would be better to die warm.

He showed me the book’s cover, which didn’t have any pictures on it, and then started reading.

His voice was so smooth, eloquent as he read the story. Eventually, my shivers stopped, and I found myself relaxing. I shouldn’t have gotten cold by something like bathing in a waterfall. Before the death sickness, that’s something I could have done for hours without the cold touching me. I’d simply soak in the beauty and wonder of nature and forget about everything else. I never would have cuddled a beast, either. I guess people change.

“What book are you reading?” I asked when he paused to turn a page.

He held still for a long moment. “Catch-22. I wanted to read this part.” He pointed a long ebony claw to dark writing on the delicate paper. “It says, ‘I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life.’ You see?” he asked, peering around so I could look into those flickering golden eyes. “If being Queen would kill you, then it’s your first duty and responsibility to take care of yourself. You’re precious, like a drop of dew on the edge of a delphinium petal.”

“Oh my.” What big eyes he had. And he really, really looked like he was going to eat me. I cleared my throat. “Thanks. You’re eloquent, like a bell hanging in a tree that chimes in harmony with the silver leaves.”

He rumbled, and I stiffened up until I realized that it was a laugh. “I will read a little bit more, my ethereal beauty.” He continued reading in that silky voice with an undercurrent of rumble that gave me goosebumps.

I closed my eyes as his warmth soaked into me. He smelled nice, like woodsy shampoo, not bubblegum. And with my eyes closed, I could pretend it was Max, who wouldn’t ever eat a fairy. No, he fed us instead.

I woke up to the sounds of dragonfly wings beating the air. I was completely disoriented as I slowly struggled to wake up when every piece of me just wanted to stay sleeping in my warm, cozy cocoon forever. I felt so good, right, content, when I always had a lingering sense of aching misery.

Still, giant dragonflies shouldn’t be in my bedroom. I stirred and struggled to sit up, but my cocoon bed was more sticky than usual.

“Max, you have to—” The stranger’s voice was cut off by a low growl that ripped through me with the force of a tornado.

I gasped and was awake, struggling in the implacable grasp of a war beast with glowing eyes who glared into the lengthening shadows with his lips pulled back from his dagger teeth. I’d only seen him smiling before. This was…

His ears flattened, and he looked at me with big eyes and a slight whine. “I’m sorry they woke you,” he rumbled, more feel than sound to those words.

I swallowed, trembling. Fight. Flight. I was already in his grasp, helpless. I swallowed again because my mouth was still way too dry while I stared at the beast. “It’s fine,” I whispered. “Ishouldn’t have fallen asleep. We need an empty shampoo bottle to gather the sky I’ve been collecting.”

He finally released me and I slid out of his grasp, heart pounding as I backed away from him. He watched me for another beat of breathless certainty that he was going to pounce on me and rip me to shreds, but then he focused his gaze on the newcomer with the giant dragonfly.

When he looked away from me, I ran, darting up the rocks to the shampoo bottle and Ruin’s clothing. I dressed hurriedly and then opened the bottle, performing the spell I’d been setting up all day on our wild ride, and the shower, even the nap. The sky swirled for a moment before it spiraled into the bottle, as easy as that. I was screwing the lid back on when Max, the human variety, came up the rocks, fully dressed.

“We need to get back now, if you’re finished with your sky,” he said, concern in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

I grabbed the enormous clothing his beast had worn, the basket of shampoo and conditioner, and then hurried towards him. “What happened?”

He took everything from me while he frowned. “There’s been a mass poisoning in Song. They traced it to a factory where certain snacks are made that werewolves and goblins like to eat. The warehouse is full of sick wolves.”

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