by Dawn, Autumn
His face turned grave. “You've already paid for this semester. Regardless of what you do later, you'll regret not seeing it through.”
She snorted. “What can I do with one semester? It's a waste of time.” He'd struck a nerve, though. She was uneasy about her choice to drop out, and she'd always respected Eyrnie's smarts. Better yet, he had common sense, which was not a quality necessarily coupled with intelligence. Plenty of smart people did dumb things; Eyrnie was rarely among them.
Sensing her indecision, he patted the seat next to him. “It'll take your mind off things. Besides, I made popcorn.” He grinned slyly, assured of victory.
That sealed it. Eyrnie's Parmesan-dill popcorn was fantastic. Muttering about being bribed, she took a seat. “Just don't get used to it. I'm only here for the popcorn,” she warned him.
He smirked and slid the textbook where she could see it, too. “I feel so used.”
It was late when she got to bed. A glance outside had proved that Ash was still there, seated in the rocking chair on the porch. It disturbed her when he did stuff like that; she didn't want to see him as domestic, normal. Safe. He was not safe. Trolls were not safe.
Sighing, she changed into the shorts and tank top she wore to bed and gratefully closed her eyes. Thanks to Eyrnie, her head was full of homework. He might pretend to be casual about some things, but he'd known just what she needed to help her sleep. She would not be lying awake tonight, counting the hours until dawn.
When she closed her eyes and drifted off, she found herself back at the dark lake. Surprised, she stared at it. Eyrnie had summoned her here? Wasn't he supposed to be patrolling her yard?
The liquid metal lake rippled as a man's head broke the surface. Eyrnie opened his eyes as he cleared the lake, his dark gaze fixed on her. A gleam of red shown in his eyes, then sunk out of sight. He'd never come to her dreams in human form before.
Not that he seemed completely human tonight. His usual glamour was gone, revealing his true self. He seemed both older and wilder, a true reflection of his animal self.
As his body rose above the water, she could see he wore no shirt, leaving his well-muscled chest bare. His pants were dark, possibly leather? Hard to tell in the half-light, but she had no trouble noting the miles of abdomen revealed by the low rise. The boy was ripped.
As he stepped onto dry land, she noted his feet were also bare. “Dressed casual tonight, are we?”
He flashed a white grin and joined her on her rock. It was a close fit. A deep breath and his arm would touch hers. “This is what I usually wear. Haven't you looked? I didn't see the need for glamour here.”
She blinked. He wandered around in that? All year? How stupid would she seem if she admitted she hadn't looked past his glamour since childhood? “Bet it gets breezy in the winter,” she said weakly.
He laughed. “I'm not human, remember? Though I have worn a shirt a few times.”
She frowned at him. “Shoes? You kept complaining about outgrowing them.”
He cast her a slyly chiding glance. “I hate shoes. That was just cover conversation for the humans. Once I figured out you weren't paying attention, it made for a good joke.”
“Very funny.” She frowned at him. “You know it's easier to see things as everyone else does. I don't want to be the only one staring at shadows.” She'd been ignoring things since she was a child. It had become such a habit that she had ceased to truly see. That hadn't bothered her until now.
He looked out at the lake. “You don't see past Ash's glamour, either.” When she didn’t respond, he looked at her gravely. “He wants you, Bianita.”
She shook her head. “He was after Carrie.” She wanted to chide him on the use of her given name; it was too intimate, but he’d known it since childhood. She couldn’t easily take it back now.
“He forgot her the moment he saw you.” He turned toward her. “Remember what he is. Send him away.”
She sighed. “He said the Summer King wouldn’t approve of him courting me.”
“Believe me, he won’t let it stop him. He challenged me for you.”
She sent him a dubious look. “When was this?”
He frowned at her, clearly annoyed. “You were right there. Tonight, at the table? You got mad and tried to kick us out.”
“Much good it did me,” she muttered. “Not that I noticed any chest pounding.” Though there had been something in what they’d said…she couldn’t remember right now.
He shook his head. “Anyway, I can’t leave you alone while he’s here. He’ll think I’ve given up.”
The rock was no longer comfortable. Growling, she stood. “I’d like to get back to my regular nightmares, please. You can change the scene now.”
He stood, unimpressed by her pointed stare. “You can’t ignore this, Bianita.”
“Stop using my name,” she snapped. He was too close, and she couldn’t seem to breathe. She turned away, but he wouldn’t leave her alone. Faster than she could blink, he was before her again. In the realm of dreams, he was as fast as thought.
She was completely in his power, but she couldn’t believe he would hurt her. Not her best friend.
She stared at him defensively, but he ignored it. “I won’t leave you undefended,” he said, gravely tender. His fingers trailed down her arm, leaving gooseflesh. She flinched away, but couldn’t erase the sensation. It was just so weird; she’d never thought of him like this. She resented being made to see him as a sexual being. She didn’t want things to change, and he was forcing it on her.
He stepped closer. “You’re fighting very hard. You don’t have to. We could be very good together.”
Indignation saved her. Puffing up, she said with every bit of outrage she could muster, “Eirnin Donncha Gruagach! I know your mother. Don’t even think you’re going to make a move on me.” He could use true names; so could she. And pronounce them flawlessly. She didn’t even think he knew her full name.
He stiffened. Mentioning his true name was bad enough; bringing up his mother was playing dirty. He deserved it, though.
His jaw worked, but he took the blow like a man. “My mother likes you,” he said evenly. “She’d welcome you into the family.”
She had momentum now, so she stalked him, poking him in the chest. “Would she really? And did your mother tell you to pursue me? Has she been dropping little hints, Eirnin?”
“She is not in charge of my love life. Stop that,” he said in warning, catching her finger. “You’re trying to avoid this.”
“I’m going to avoid this,” Billy said confidently. She knew him now. “Take me back.”
He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t tell her no. “We’ll talk about this later, then. On equal ground.”
She didn’t say anything, unwilling to provoke him. That would come later, when she was back in the real world. She could defend herself there.
He looked at her, and the landscape changed. There was no drama as she slid into more mundane dreams, but there was an underlying theme of tension. By the time she woke in the morning, she was in a terrible mood, and eager to peel back the covers.
There were no gifts this morning, and she was grateful. She didn’t need any more mysteries at the moment.
The shower ran lukewarm, and she growled at it as she quickly washed her hair. If the hot water heater were going, she’d have to start warming water for baths on the stove. She couldn’t afford to fix it for at least another three weeks.
It would have been nice if she’d been able to fix the rusty beast with magic, but pixie dust didn’t work well on machines, and magic didn’t like metal. Her mother used to convince clay pots to stay hot, but it took a small toll on her energy to keep the magic in constant use. She’d said it was easier to gather firewood.
Billy was supposed to be stronger, but she didn’t want any drains on her energy with a banshee on the loose.
Mentally dividing her paycheck as she descended the stairs, she stopped short as she entered the kitchen. Someone ha
d left breakfast on the freshly polished table. Moving closer, she saw a plate of steak and eggs with fried potatoes neatly arranged at her place. A full glass of orange juice sat to the side, awaiting her pleasure.
She narrowed her eyes and looked around, but there was no sign of the cook or dirty dishes. Had the house brownies gotten more active? They’d never cooked in this house before. In fact, they’d done precious little while her mother had been in residence, only recently picking up a larger share of the chores.
Was Eyrnie apologizing? She’d seen him cook packaged cookie dough, but that was a long time ago. Mostly he reheated stuff his mom had cooked or made popcorn.
It could be the troll’s work, of course. She’d actually seen him cook, and she could see a troll courting with food. The idea that he might have made breakfast just to be nice never crossed her mind, of course. Trolls weren’t known for their thoughtfulness.
Well, whoever had done it, she was hungry. She pulled out her chair and sniffed the food carefully, but smelled nothing suspicious. Well, it wasn’t likely it was poisoned. With a mental shrug, she dug in.
It was nice not to have to worry about breakfast, and it gave her time to think. She hadn’t really talked to her boss yet about more hours, just accepted filling in for Mrs. Snider. Today she could do that. If she couldn’t get more hours, she would fill out applications around town, see if she could get part time work and save up some cash. At least she’d have a cushion then if things like the hot water heater broke.
She’d been toying with the idea of opening her own nursery someday, too. She’d need capital for that, even if she started small. She figured she’d start some seedlings and put out a sign along the road in the spring, see what kind of traffic she could drum up. Some of the plants in the back garden were unique; it wouldn’t hurt to take a few cuttings from them, either. It would take time, but someday she could be independent. The thought was very appealing.
A honking from the front yard disturbed her. She glanced outside and frowned at Eyrnie’s old truck. He saw her look and hopped out of the cab. His long legs ate up the path to the porch, and he came in without asking. “Hey. Ready to go?”
She frowned at him. He wasn’t her favorite guy right now. It didn’t help that she had to concentrate really hard not to see through his glamour. Jerk. “Go where?”
“Class. You’ve got to turn in your homework.”
She rolled her eyes and took her dishes to the sink. She’d wash them later. “I’m going to work. College is a money sink; I can’t afford it right now.”
He lowered his eyes to the floor. “About that. I made some arrangements. You now have sponsors. They agreed that you have potential and have covered this year’s tuition for you.” His eyes flashed up to check her reaction.
She was dumbfounded. “You what? You got me a loan? I can’t—”
“Not a loan, a gift,” he hastily interrupted. “The only hitch is that you have to get good grades. I convinced them that you’ll bring home great ones if you weren’t forced to work all the time.”
She opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say. No one had ever done anything like this for her.
Eyrnie took advantage of her shock to grab her backpack from the bench by the front door. “Come on. I bought coffee. I even got you that white chocolate stuff you like.”
Dazed, she let him tow her out of the house. They’d gone a couple of miles before she’d recovered enough to sputter, “I need to call my boss. I said I’d come in today.”
“I already talked to her. She agrees that you belong in school, but she’ll give you after-hours work when things pick up after Christmas. She said she could trust you to get things done. She’ll even let you help when she does the ordering, so you can get some experience with that side of the business.”
She stared at him. “Why? I don’t understand why you’ve done all this.”
He cast her a guarded glance. “We’re friends. Besides, my dad gave me the idea. He was upset when I told him you wanted to drop out. I thought, if he cared enough, others might, too. Turned out there were quite a few people who wanted to help.”
He looked forward. “Besides, you used to do homework just to spite your mom. I didn’t want you to let guilt stop you from doing something that was good for you.”
She sucked in a breath. At first she wanted to deny that guilt had any part in her decisions, but she wasn’t sure that was true. The fact that she couldn’t deny it made her prickly. “This is awfully elaborate for an apology. You could have just said you were sorry.”
He shot her a glance. “For last night?” They’d reached the campus, and he pulled into an empty parking space. Turning off the key, he turned to stare at her. “I’m not apologizing for that. You needed to stop pretending that we’re still kids. It’s a great foundation to build on, but there could be a lot more. I want you thinking about the possibilities.”
For some reason she wanted to cry. She looked away, out her window, to hide her reaction. She felt like she’d lost something precious and been handed something dangerous in return. She wanted her old friend, not this intense young doppelganger. Why did he have to choose now to complicate her life?
“You’re pushing too hard,” she said with quiet anger as she got out. She was actually eager to get to class and avoid him.
Men. Didn’t they have anything better to do than complicate her life?
12. Visitor
Ash was not in class. She was thankful for small favors as she bore the mostly silent ride home with Eyrnie that afternoon. Once again conscious of what he’d done for her, she still struggled with his intense courtship. Entering her dreams was over the top, a huge invasion of her privacy. She couldn’t think of a worse time for him to decide to change things between them, and she resented the hormones that caused it. Why couldn’t he just be her friend?
She glanced sideways at him, getting an eyeful of his bare chest before she managed to change her focus, to believe the glamour. She frowned out the window. How much of the Eyrnie she knew was real? How far could she trust him?
For that matter, why had he never spoken up before the troll came along? Did he even want her, or did he not want the troll to have her? Wondering was making her tense. It had to stop.
She finally decided that in spite of his good deeds, he was going to get a smack down if he didn’t lighten up.
She saw movement in the kitchen as they pulled up to her house, and a delicious smell met them as she walked onto the porch. Ash was preparing something elaborate that made her whole kitchen smell like an Hungarian grandmother’s. Since she hadn’t properly set the wards that morning, she couldn’t accuse him of breaking in. Still, “Am I going to get eaten if I point out that you’re trespassing?”
His glance was more controlled than not. “You could try and see what happens.”
She sighed and dumped her bag on the kitchen table. “I’m going to go feed my chickens.”
“Get some thyme while you’re out there,” Ash ordered. “The orange stuff will do.”
“Right,” she muttered. It felt surreal to have a troll presiding over her stove. She was more used to the pooka, but he’d never made a habit of doing his homework at her table before. Both of them were beginning to exhaust her.
She checked on her birds, noting that someone had already collected the tiny quail eggs and topped off the feeders. She hoped it was brownies and not the troll; she didn’t want him getting any more comfortable.
A whiff of garlic reached her and she sighed. Who was she fooling? Ash was already entrenched. Getting him to move now would be like pushing the sphinx into the sea. Unless the guys managed to kill each other in a territorial scrabble, she was stuck with both of them.
A soft breeze riffled her hair, and she stared out over the woods. She was restless, and the solitude called to her. The pull was so strong that she’d taken several steps before she realized what she was doing. She glanced back at the house, but decided rebelliously that Ash coul
d fetch his own thyme. She hadn’t invited him in, after all.
She felt freer for her little rebellion, and walked with purpose through the trees. The afternoon shadows cast a golden glow through the woods, and the wind had picked up. It tossed her hair about, leaving it wild. She trailed her fingers over the pines, caressing them like old friends. When she was in the woods, she couldn’t imagine needing a man. What pixie needed a lover when the trees filled her with such magic?
It didn’t take long to come to the end of her land, and she paused at the property line, sensing a disturbance in the wards.
Billy felt the urge to step across the line and investigate further, which made no sense. She could see from this side that the two ward stones nearest her were functional, though they’d been tampered with. The troll’s work? She started to examine them more closely when movement caught her eye. There was someone out there, just over the property line.
A shape took form, moving just close enough for her to realize that it was a woman. She seemed to be wearing a wispy, flowing white dress, possibly made of many layers. There was something about the face, the way she moved, that was familiar. Billy could almost swear….
Dread speared her. Had her mother found her way home?
As the thought formed, the woman moved a little closer, tilting her head as if to study Billy. The certainty that it was her mother grew, and a lump of ice seemed to form in her belly. How was she going to deal with this? What could she say? Billy was living in her house after having exiled her to sleep so deep not even a pooka could pierce it. Though it had been done in self-defense, she felt guilty. Did she owe her mother an apology?
“Let me in,” her mother whispered, her soft voice demanding.
Billy shook her head. The voice wrapped around her mind, clouding her thoughts. Or was that panic? Surely she could handle this. As many times as she’d rehearsed it in her mind, she’d never been able to predict how this would go. “Mom,” she said hoarsely. Tension was stealing her voice.