“A lot,” Kailen said with a yawn. “I'll start teaching you tomorrow.”
“Teach me what? Kailen?”
Nothing answered me except his snores. I sighed, turned over in the bed for the second time, and tried to get some sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
When I woke at 6:00 a.m., my customary time, Kailen still lay on the sofa, a thin blanket stretched over his shoulders. Jane, too, was asleep on the table by the window. I grabbed the work clothes from my bag and headed to the bathroom. I took a longer shower than usual, luxuriating in the feel of the rain showerhead. When I was done I dried off, pulled my hair into a business-like bun, and dressed in a pair of black pinstriped pants and a green collared shirt. The pants were slightly wrinkled from their stay in my overnight bag, but I had no time to iron them. I’d left my phone on the nightstand. My car was still in the driveway at home, so I’d have to call a cab. It was probably close to six forty-five now, after the extra long shower. Breakfast would have to be in-office.
I ran through the list of things I had to do that morning as I bundled my pajamas under one arm and opened the bathroom door.
Kailen stood next to the sofa, dressed in jeans and a striped collared shirt. He had Jane in hand and he trailed his gaze over me. “I thought this might be a problem,” he murmured.
“What?” I looked down at my clothes, expecting to find a stain or a loose thread. Nothing. I looked back at Kailen. When he didn’t elaborate, I went to the nightstand. My phone was gone.
“Are you looking for this?” Kailen pulled my phone out of his pocket.
I narrowed my eyes. “Give me back my phone.”
“I will. If you call into your work and quit.”
If my eyes could have fallen out of my head, they would have. “Quit? Who do you think you are? Okay, so maybe I’m Fae, or whatever it is, but I still have to eat. I have to pay my mortgage. And if I want to get promoted, I certainly have to show up to work.”
“Hate to break it to you, but that isn’t your life anymore.”
I’d always had a long stride. Four swift steps and I stood in front of Kailen. “Like hell it isn’t my life anymore. The only person who gets to decide that is me.” I tried to snatch my phone. Kailen slid out of the way with maddening ease. Jane, sitting in his palm, wasn’t even stirred by the movement, not one hair out of place.
“I hope you realize you’re forcing my hand,” he said. He gave me a mock regretful look and then started touching the screen of my phone.
“What are you doing?”
“What you should be doing. We have a full schedule today, you and I, and I have a job to do as well. It doesn’t involve waiting for you to finish your workday.”
I grabbed for the phone again. He evaded me as easily as he did the first time, moving to the side and putting the coffee table between us. He put the phone up to his ear.
“Hello?” I heard a faint feminine voice.
“Who is that?” I said. “Who are you calling?”
Kailen put out a finger to his lips, gesturing for me to be quiet. “Ah, hello? You must be Nicole’s office administrator.”
I tried twice more to seize the phone. All I received were bruised shins. I almost screamed at him, but the last thing I wanted was for anyone at work to hear me being unprofessional.
“This is her husband. She’s not feeling well today. She would have called herself but”—he turned to the side, covered his mouth, and made a retching sound—“she’s a bit indisposed right now.”
I heard the administrator say something in a sympathetic tone.
“Yes, well, the doctor said these things can take a week or more to clear up.” Pause. “Thanks. That’s kind of you. Bye.”
When I reached for the phone this time, Kailen didn’t move out of the way. I snatched it from his grasp. “I can’t keep missing work like this,” I hissed.
Kailen shrugged. “In my opinion, you have more important things to attend to right now. You sell daily planners, right? I think that can wait.” He held Jane out on his palm. “You may not like this woman, and with good reason, but she has been a mouse for four days. I've had to use my elicitation Talent to help her stay calm. She has family and friends who are wondering what happened to her and are assuming the worst. You did this, Nicole. You have to undo it.”
He had a point. I looked at the mouse and felt really awful (after all, what had she been eating?), until a thought occurred to me. I pocketed the phone and waved a hand at him. “Why don’t you undo it?”
Calm, self-assured Kailen looked suddenly uncomfortable. He shifted from one foot to the next, his gaze going to the ceiling as if he’d spotted something truly interesting there. “I mean, sure I could, but that’s not the point. Are you hungry?”
I blinked at the quick change of subject. “I guess?”
“They have a great breakfast here. I think we got off on the wrong foot this morning.”
“Which could have been avoided if you hadn’t stolen my phone,” I muttered.
He continued as though he hadn’t heard this. “Come eat with me. We can talk over breakfast.” He hesitated. “This has probably been as hard on you as it has been on me. Maybe I haven’t gone about this the right way.” Kailen looked pained, as if getting this close to an apology physically hurt him.
I softened. Clearly the guy had issues. “Okay. Breakfast. I can do that.”
He dropped Jane into his breast pocket and opened the door for me.
The dining room of the inn was decorated in the same quaint Victorian way the room was, with its own little touches of modernity. Floral-patterned chairs contrasted with an LCD television mounted on the wall, CNN playing on mute, subtitles marching across the bottom of the screen. Although there were four other tables, we were the only people there. An elderly woman, probably the proprietress, took our orders for how we liked our eggs: me—scrambled, Kailen—hard-boiled.
As soon as she’d left for the kitchen, I leaned forward. “So what are you supposed to teach me?”
He only gave me an odd look. “You don’t need to whisper.”
“What? Isn’t the whole Fae thing a big secret or something?”
He shook his head as he unfolded his napkin and laid it in his lap. “No, not really. I told you already. The Fae world and this one have been disconnected for quite some time. People don’t exactly encounter it often. You can talk as loudly as you’d like. If anyone overhears, they’ll assume you’re a big nerd, or crazy. Trust me.”
I snorted.
Kailen ignored it. “You need to learn to focus and use your powers. Right now you’re firing off like a gun in a game of Russian roulette. No one knows when it’s going to happen, but they know it will, eventually.”
“So I’m dangerous?” I asked.
Again, Kailen’s gaze slid from mine. “It’s actually a lot like cooking.”
“I’m a terrible cook. I burn things. A lot.”
He laughed, a tight, nervous sound to it. “It’s just a metaphor. There are recipes, but the best cooks know how to improvise. You get an idea, you form it and focus it, and then you pack it with an emotional punch. Bam! You’ve done some magic.”
I thought back to finding Owen and Jane in bed together. “It can happen quickly,” I said.
“Yes. Just like in cooking, however, you need to clean up afterward. Doing magic leaves a signature. The longer you let this signature go without cleaning it up, the stronger it gets. If you don’t clean up, the signature will start to fade after a day’s time, but not before it attracts a number of unpleasant creatures. Believe me, hobgoblins are the tip of the iceberg.”
The proprietress reappeared, two cups of tea in hand. She set them down on the table, smiling at us in that grandmotherly manner that only the elderly can manage. “I hope you don’t mind my saying, but you two make such a handsome couple,” she said.
My hand went immediately to tug at my wedding ring, which I still hadn’t removed. Heat gathered at my chest, creeping up to m
y cheeks. “No,” I sputtered, “that’s not—”
“Thank you,” Kailen broke in. “That’s very kind of you. My wife is so modest, I’m afraid it embarrasses her terribly when she’s told that.”
She laughed and looked to me. “Don’t be embarrassed, dear. You’re only young and beautiful once.”
I only sat there, my face burning, as she turned and went back to the kitchen.
Kailen sipped his tea, his expression unconcerned. “Better than explaining that we’re both Fae, that I’m a widower, and that you’re freshly separated.”
I tugged again at the ring, only to find that it would not come off. I hadn’t wanted to take it off before, now I couldn’t imagine wearing it a minute longer. I'd bet Owen didn't wear his. I pulled and sucked in my breath. The ring didn’t budge. Instead, I could have sworn that it became tighter. I tried to nudge it back and forth and this time it unmistakably shrank around my finger. My ring finger began to turn purple. “Kailen!” I said, panicked.
He was out of his chair and at my side before I’d even seen him move. “Breathe,” he said, “slowly.”
I did as he told me, and the panic receded only a little. Nothing happened to the ring. “Now what?” I said.
“Keep breathing. Close your eyes. Focus on the ring. Imagine the jaws of a snake as it swallows its prey. It opens its mouth, wider, then its jaws unhinge. A tiny little snake can swallow something many times larger than its mouth. The ring on your finger is like the jaws of a snake.”
His voice passed over me like waves on a beach. The tightness around my finger eased. I didn't dare open my eyes yet. I kept breathing as Kailen's hand touched mine. He slipped the ring off. “You can open your eyes,” he said.
I did. Redness marked the area on my finger where the ring had been.
He shook his head. “Like Russian roulette. Now watch.” He dropped the ring onto the surface of the table. A smell began to build, dark chocolate, emanating from the table's surface. “Touch the table.”
I placed my palm flat against its surface. The smell disappeared.
“Clean-up work,” Kailen said. “The first thing you must learn is that you control the magic, the magic does not control you. If you run around firing off at every idea that crosses your head, you're going to get very tired very quickly, and you'll hurt yourself, like you almost did now.” He lifted the ring and held it out to me. “Here.”
I took it and moved it between my fingers. I felt lightheaded, as though I'd stood up too quickly after sitting for a long while.
Kailen put a hand out to my arm. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “This is just a lot to take in.” I dropped the ring into my pocket and rubbed the spot where it had once been. “I never thought I would get divorced, much less be running around with a guy I barely know, learning magic. And all this in the course of a week.”
“Hey.” He put his hand over mine. “I don't have a middle name. I was born in the Fae world and lived there until I was two hundred and seventeen years old. I hate yellow lights in traffic, raccoons, and water getting in my shoes. My favorite food is crème brulee and my favorite place is the muirwoods in the Fae world. I like my coffee black, but only when it's of good quality. I snore, but only when I sleep on my back.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“You said you were running about with a guy you barely knew.” He squeezed my hand. “Now you know me a little better.”
I couldn't help it. I returned his smile. For the first time, I thought, You know, he's not so bad. “Thanks. That helps. A little.”
“Maybe if you get to know me more, it will help more than a little.” His eyes crinkled at the corners and my heart jumped in my chest.
“Here you are, dears,” said the old woman. She set two plates in front of us, eggs surrounded with two slices of toast, orange slices and strawberries, two pieces of sausage, and two pieces of bacon. It smelled amazing.
I pulled away from Kailen. “Thank you,” I told her. She smiled, nodded, and turned away from us.
We ate in silence. I wasn't sure what to say to Kailen, and the way he'd made me feel for a moment unsettled me. I hadn't felt that way since I'd first met Owen, so many years ago. Maybe it had something to do with his magic. But why use it on me now? Or maybe he did it without even thinking.
I watched Kailen from beneath my eyelashes as I buttered my toast. Once in a while, he passed a piece of food to Jane, in his pocket, who accepted it with a squeak of gratitude. The breakfast tasted just as good as Kailen had promised. I usually picked up a bagel on my way into work. Owen liked to cook, but he seldom got up early enough to make me breakfast on a weekday. He made up for it on the weekends, though, with spreads almost as elaborate as the one before me now.
Why was I still thinking about Owen?
Something clicked and whirred. Both Kailen and I stopped eating.
“Is that your watch again?” I asked.
He lifted his wrist, his gaze intent on the face. “This morning? And here?” he muttered. He looked at me, then put his hand to the tube at his belt. “They've found us.”
My gaze drifted over the small dining room. There was the door to the kitchen, the door we'd entered through, three windows behind me, and one to the side, revealing the wrap-around porch. All windows were closed against the chill morning air. “Who is they?” I asked.
Kailen shook his head. “Back toward the window.” The watch beeped out a warning.
I rose to my feet, my knees bumping the leg of the table and sending water slopping over the tablecloth. On an impulse, I seized the knife next to my plate. I still remembered the dream I'd had two nights ago, where the hobgoblin had torn me in half. If I'd learned anything in my thirty-two years, it was that the only person I could always rely on was myself. Kailen was great with his sword and all, but if it came down to saving my ass or his, well, I wasn't going to count on chivalry taking the day.
Black circles formed on the maroon carpet of the dining room, spreading into oily puddles.
Kailen unclipped the tube at his belt and snapped his arm out. The sword unfolded. We moved toward the three windows on the far wall. “Only three of them this time,” Kailen said. “Well, they don't have much confidence in my abilities, do they?”
"Who is they?" I repeated through tight lips.
Three hobgoblins rose up out of the puddles, glowing eyes fixing on us. My fingers clenched around the steak knife. They started toward us, eighteen hands stretching forward.
“Stay behind me,” Kailen said.
The hobgoblins attacked. Kailen made quick work of the first one, slicing it through the middle. It dissolved. The next two approached more carefully. One engaged Kailen while the other reached around and tried to grab me.
I cut off its hand with my steak knife. As the hobgoblin's hand dissolved and the black specks flew over my arm, I stopped feeling afraid. I pushed past the protective reach of Kailen's arms, scoring a strike against the hobgoblin's face. It hissed, exposing a black, shapeless maw where its mouth should have been. More black liquid dripped onto the carpet.
One of its lower hands seized the side of my shirt. I couldn't seem to watch all of them at once. I twisted away, trying to break its grip. Another hand came around and grabbed my opposite shoulder. I sliced off the hand that held my shoulder first. It brought another hand up to replace it quickly, too quickly.
“Kailen!” I cried out.
I didn't see him move. The sword came up between me and the hobgoblin, severing its limbs. It swung out and then in again, taking off its head.
“I told you to stay behind me,” Kailen said. He sounded only mildly irritated. The oily hobgoblin blood spattered him from head to toe.
My heart drummed at the speed of the “William Tell Overture.” It was as if I’d just finished running a marathon—though I was tired, I was also exhilarated. I’d fought back. There was a certain satisfaction that came with defending myself.
“Come here,” he said. “Quic
kly.” He snapped the sword shut and clipped it back to his belt.
I took a step to his side. He put a hand on my arm. A tingle spread through my blood, the faint smell of honeysuckle in my nostrils. He released me, then brushed his hands over himself. The hobgoblin blood faded and disappeared. Then he knelt and put his hand to the carpet. The oily black spots receded into nothingness. Without another word, he grabbed my hand and led me to the table. “Back to breakfast,” he said, just as the proprietress walked into the room from the kitchen.
“How is everything out here?” she asked. “Okay?”
I raised my glass of water, still breathing hard. “Absolutely wonderful,” I said. “Your dining room is very peaceful.”
She smiled, clasping her hands together. “We pride ourselves on our proximity to Portland, as well as our woodsy setting.”
Kailen, across from me, choked. He coughed a few times and lifted up a hand. “I'm fine. Fine.”
The woman left us again. The kitchen door swung shut behind her, the hinges creaking. “What was that?” I hissed at Kailen as soon as she disappeared. “Am I going to have to run from hobgoblins for the rest of my life?”
“They must have sensed your signature,” Kailen said.
“Well, what about cleanup? Why don't you have to do it?”
He shrugged as he used his knife to pile the last of his eggs onto his fork. “Your magic and my magic, they're different. Mine leaves a faint signature, yes, but not the kind that attracts the Fae.”
I frowned. “Wait a second—why didn't you do that for my living room floor? Make it all fresh? I'm going to have to pay for a cleaner.”
“Because I was angry with you.” Before I could make any sort of retort, he spoke again. “You handled yourself well with those hobgoblins. Only the second time you've seen them, and you're fighting them. Impressive.”
I tried to stop the flush that rose to my cheeks; all my irritation melted away in an instant. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
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