Page 34 of Yearning For Her

Eleven

Willow leaned over the bathroom counter, raised her eyeshadow brush, and paused. She stared at herself in the mirror.

Reality seemed oddly…thin today.

Her encounter with Kian yesterday had tumbled through her mind over and over throughout the evening and well into the night. He was the first thing she’d thought about when she woke up this morning. And no matter how many times she told herself that what she’d seen had been a dream, that it couldn’t have been real, she couldn’t convince herself.

Kian was an incubus.

“No. It’s unbelievable. There is just…no way.”

She’d spent a portion of her evening yanking books from her shelves and flipping through pages, seeking any information she could find about the fae. At one point, as she’d cross-legged on her living room floor with a couple dozen paranormal romance paperbacks scattered around her, she’d stopped and stared at the scene she’d created.

It was ridiculous enough that she was now meant to believe supernatural beings were real, hidden everywhere in plain sight. But that her instinct had been to crack open some steamy novels to research the fae had added a layer of absurdity to the situation that left her laughing at herself.

Remy and Bebe, who’d been perched on the couch, had stared at her blankly, as though uncertain of what to make of her in that moment.

Loki, however, had offered no opinion. Her laughter hadn’t roused him from his comfortable slumber, which he’d fallen into while stretched out atop several of her books. She was sure she’d still find little pieces of orange fur sticking to the pages were she to look now.

Then she’d imagined Jamie walking in on her, imagined the look that would’ve been on her best friend’s face, and Willow had only laughed harder.

Most ludicrous of all was that she’d kept up her search for a little longer afterward, because what else was she to have done?

Unsurprisingly, humans are wrong about that.

Kian’s words had implied that the legends and myths humans had shared for ages were inaccurate. If those old stories were wrong, that didn’t make them any more reliable than the fiction they’d inspired, right?

In the end, Willow hadn’t been sure if she’d been searching for answers or trying to show herself that it was all foolish. If she accepted that faeries and demons existed, what else did she have to believe in? Vampires, werewolves, boogeymen? Where did it end?

It was all fantasy. Creatures conjured up while people sat around fires on dark, cold nights. Stories meant to explain misunderstood natural phenomena, meant to teach lessons, meant to entertain. None of it was real.

But Kian wasn’t human. She’d seen him with her own eyes—the real him. And every inhuman part of Kian only made him more gorgeous and irresistible.

She let out a huff and applied the final touches to her eyeshadow. “I’m losing my damned mind.”

A loud meow called her attention down. She smiled at Loki as he rubbed against her leg. He was the most vocal of her cats, and also the most affectionate.

After putting away her makeup, she crouched and slipped her arms around him. Loki immediately turned into her embrace, and Willow stood, cradling him to her chest. His body rumbled with his loud purring. She turned off the bathroom light and stepped into her bedroom. Setting Loki on the bed, she dressed in the jeans and dark blue halter neck blouse she’d set out.

Just as she lifted her hair free of her shirt, the doorbell rang. She glanced at Loki, who only blinked at her, his tail lazily flicking.

Smiling, she scooped him back up. “Love you too. Shall we go see who it is? Amanda isn’t supposed to be here for a couple more hours. Maybe it’s a package?”

As she reached for the doorknob, Loki stiffened and growled.

“What’s wrong?”

He wriggled in her hold, and she hurriedly set him down before he scratched her. Back arched, fur standing on end, and ears flattened, Loki stared at the door and growled again.

Unease filled Willow. He’d never acted like this before.

“I know you’re there, Willow,” Kian said from the other side of the door, startling her. “The cat will be fine.”

Willow’s brow furrowed. Her ears must’ve been playing tricks on her.

She hadn’t really heard his voice.

Had she?

---