Page 5 of Forget Me Not

“Ray,” Callalily said again, his little wings fluttering and directing even more of his scent toward Ray. He put his hands out, palms up. “I took the warning very, very seriously.Keep breathing. How do I smell to you now? May I touch you?”

The wall was unforgiving, but it kept Ray on his feet when Callalily came forward again. Raywasbreathing. He was breathing too fast, and Callalily’s skin would be warm, and his hands would slide through Ray’s hair while Ray inhaled his sunshine.

“Please, Ray?” Callalily’s voice was nectar.

Ray did not have a sweet tooth. But he clenched his jaw and nodded once, jerkily, and stood with his head raised and his chest heaving as Callalily stopped directly in front of him.

Callalily had to stand on his toes and then stretch to place his hands lightly and carefully on either side of Ray’s face. Ray only had a moment to absorb the warmth he had expected and then Callalily reached up a little more to sweep some of Ray’s hair from his forehead.

“You’re colder than you should be,” Callalily whispered, which Ray didn’t understand, because he was burning up beneath Callalily’s hands. Callalily met Ray’s eyes, but tipped his head back toward Benny. “Whatever magic was worked here was strong. He looksexhausted, Bens.“ He captured a lock of Ray’s hair only to release it. “The grays are extra striking with you so pale right now. I don’t like that, but… moonlight becomes you, Ray.”

Ray gave in and took a breath. He wanted to shiver, as though he could feel Callalily’s sparkle on his skin. Fairy sparkle wasn’t real, they said. It couldn’t be felt or measured, only perceived. It flashed in and out of existence before Ray’s eyes, framing Callalily’s face with ephemeral light.

“You.” Ray growled the word. It traveled through his blood like sugar after hours of hunger. “You,” Ray murmured, then growled again, a rumble that would carry beyond the alley.

“Me?” Callalily echoed,worryandhopein his incredible scent. The scent that was as warm as the rest of him because it was heavy withaffection.

Affectionwas not strong enough. It was not the right label.

Ray tried to look away. “You’re…” Callalily stared back at him, pretending badly to be calm, his gaze intent on Ray’s face, loving and terrified. Ray didn’t know him. But he smelled like— “Who are you?”

Callalily’s eyes went bright again and he blinked quickly several times. “I’m your mate, Ray.”

Ray yanked himself out of Callalily’s hands. The back of his head hit the wall hard enough to make the world spin even with his eyes closed. Acid burned Ray’s throat before he swallowed it down. He waited, jaw clenched tight, for the sickness to pass. He did not open his eyes although he could feel greater distance between them, as if Callalily had given him room, but Callalily was still close. Ray could hear his wings, a zipping hum of panic and fear, as well as Callalily’s voice joined with Benny’s, calling his name with increasing worry.

Ray wanted to not be aware of their distress. He covered his ears, but even with that, Callalily’s voice slipped between his fingers the moment Callalily began to speak to him, quiet and low.

“Ray, please. Please. Just breathe and everything will be fine. I promise, and you know fairies don’t lie.”

“I don’t know that,” Ray argued, eyes still closed, head pounding. There was a shift in the air around him, and then the return of good things, raspberry and coffee andaffection.

Affectionstill was not strong enough. But whatever it was, Ray could have rolled in it. It was a cool cloth on the back of his neck and careful fingers across his brow. But no one was touching him. He’d scared the fairy away. He drew in a pained, shaky breath.

“Yes, breathe me in. Just like that.” The crack in Callalily’s composure was as disconcerting as learning a fairy could pretend, as learning that this fairy was….

“That isn’t possible.” Ray opened his eyes and dropped his hands. “You’re fairy.”

“Uh oh.” Benny was typing on his phone without looking at the screen.

“Half-fairy,” Callalily insisted after a small, stifled squeak. “And that is no sort of answer, Raymond.” He said it stiffly, disappointed, but nothing else about his manner changed, not his anxious scent nor the flutter of his tiny wings. “You might be literally backed into a corner now, but you weren’t the first time, and it wasn’t—oh shit, what am I saying?”

“I don’t know!” Ray snapped, baring his teeth, although, once again, Callalily seemed to have no healthy wariness with regard to wolves. “Why would I know what you’re talking about? I don’t know you!” Ray stared down at shining hair that smelled like his shampoo, and shimmering wings, and wide, sparkling eyes. The snarling anger left him, replaced with quiet confusion. “You… you can’t be mine.”

The wings froze.

“Two years and three days,” Callalily whispered. “Two years the first time. Now you just... say it.” He fell back a step.

Ray ached. If he had not been in pain, he might not have spoken. “Am I making you leave already?”

Callalily curled his hands into fists. His wings beat once. “Raymond.”

Only Ray’s mother called him that. But Ray didn’t protest. “What happened to me?”

Callalily made an inarticulate noise of frustration and threw up his hands. “I don’t know! We literallyjustfound you like this.“ He stopped to peer at Ray, then lowered his hands. He began to imitate someone calm again. “Okay. Just. Just keeping breathing in.” He scooted forward and held up his hand directly in front of Ray’s face, turning it to offer up his wrist to a predator’s teeth. But of course, he didn’t seem to think of Ray as a predator even though he made Ray feel like one. Callalily was not tiny, but even most humans were delicate compared to Ray, and Callalily’s wings and sparkle made it very clear that he was not entirely human.

He smelled of caramel and hot fudge and the dry sticks of bubble gum in packs of baseball cards. He smelled of sweat and Ray’s soap and soft, soft feelings. Ray wrapped his fingers around Callalily’s fragile wrist and pulled it closer.

The shiver that went through Callalily’s body made Ray want to lick, or hold, or bite. He cut off a growl and stood there, pained and foolish, whenthatsound, of all things, made Callalily’s wings move again.

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