Page 42 of Fairies Don't Fall

Max carried me into a pond beneath the moon outside of his big neon scribble house, sitting down in the shallows while I leaned my head on his strong shoulder, incapable of movement or thought while the water lapped around us. How had we gotten there? I had no idea, but the moon was above us, so it was all right. No, his arms were around me, so it was all right. At least, it would be.

“I’m poisoning your pond,” I finally whispered through my raw throat, but I didn’t move. I wouldn’t ever move again.

“I always wanted a poisoned pond. Think how cool the fish would be if they had sparkles.” He sounded so cheerful. He must really like bossing helpless fairies around. I was even more pathetic than the pixie dust addicts.

I sighed heavily and snuggled into him. He was so warm. “Fish already have sparkles. If I don’t get off you soon, I’m going to fall asleep. Then you’ll never get rid of me.”

“I appreciate the warning. You even have poison fairy sparkles on your scalp. The glitter really gets everywhere. Is it edible?” He licked my head.

I moaned. “Don’t eat the poisonous sparkles. You’re worse than the juvenile delinquents.”

“Why do you think I’m so good at anticipating them? Sleep, Princess Sparkles. Rest while the moon floats above the city, then when you wake up, everything will be better.”

Chapter

Thirteen

When I woke up, everything was not better. I mean, I had an ethereal glow and felt this floating happiness that I’d never experienced in my entire life, but that was a problem. The biggest problem.

Fairy Queens are tied to their country and their people emotionally, physically, and magically. It is too great a burden for one person, so she has her consort bound to her in a different way, giving her strength instead of taking it. Her magic returns to him, so it’s a positive energy cycle, but Max was a werewolf, and me becoming tied to him was absolutely unthinkable.

But there I was, wrapped up in his arms with my cheek against his chest, the sun soaking into his warm tan skin, my own pale and shimmery, such an obvious contrast that it struck home the point. We didn’t match. He was the sun, the earth, and I was the night, the unearthly. Literally, because Fairyland wasn’t on earth. Kissing him shouldn’t have been enough to bind him to me, but apparently I’d been closer than I’d realized. It was probably all the grooming. Fairy couples groomed like crazy. I shouldn’t have shampooed his beast.

No, I’d noticed feeling better with him, soaking in his warmth and energy, almost from the beginning, but it was the kiss that triggered my subsequent misery, leading to this most pleasant disaster.

We were on a cloud of softness, wrapped in downy delight. Was this what a werewolf bed was like? How did people ever leave?

I sat up, breaking the hold of his arms and feeling a correlating tear in my chest from losing the contact. I turned my head to look down at him, taking in his soft eyes, sleepy smile, and bare chest that was soft with relaxed muscles.

“Um,” I said while my heart pattered in my chest. I was wearing a gray shirt, something that would fit him, not me. I had no idea where my sparkly dress had gone. I also wasn’t covered in anything else. No toxic ooze on my skin.

His smile grew more amused. “You look horrified. Such a scandal, Princess Sparkles getting drunk in a bar and carried home by a no-good werewolf.”

I frowned and rubbed my forehead. “I got drunk in the bar? So the sparkly poison didn’t happen?”

“Oh, no. That was a side trip that went along with my dissolved shirt. How do you feel? Did you get all the death sickness out of your system, or will you be doing that again?”

I wanted so much to climb back into the bed and snuggle against him. It would be so easy to say that I still felt sick and needed to rest. And I was cold, so I needed him to keep me warm. But the truth was, I felt fabulous, absolutely alight, powerful, strong, and hungry. For him.

“I feel much better. Did you heal me, or was all of that just me?”

“You have been detoxing, which I’d consider healing you, but a slow, natural process. Do you feel better, then?” His smile wasa splendid thing, his pale teeth flashing behind those soft lips that I’d tasted. And wanted more of.

I pressed my lips together while my heart pounded and my stomach tangled. I wanted him so much. Had I ever wanted something in a way that consumed all of me? Something? Max wasn’t a thing that I could pick up and carry with me. He was the alpha of Singsong City. I needed distance before I got irrevocably fused to him. If it wasn’t already too late. I needed to go home and make Vervain or someone else my consort, because if I was turning to a werewolf, I needed to admit what I was and what I needed.

I needed to touch and taste him.

I curled my hands into fists and slid off the bed, landing with a thud because it was so high above the floor. The frame was massive dark wood, whole tree trunks with gnarled curves supporting the enormous bed, all white and downy. This was Max’s private bed. He didn’t take people here, because they’d never leave.

“Princess Sparkles?” he asked, sitting up to study me. “Are you all right?”

I stared at him, golden skin covering those shifting muscles lit by the sun’s glow. He was absolutely stunning, and his face was slightly darkened with stubble. I wanted to touch it, to feel his skin and hair and press against him until we melted together in one pile of happiness.

I had it bad. I absolutely could not afford to touch him again. “I need to go on an errand.”

“The bank?”

I blinked at him. “Yes. No, not the bank, your beast. Can I see him now, or is he still busy?” I’d forgotten all about Shotglass and the hat shop.

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