She wondered if she was drooling. Jane shifted her eyes all night to avoid looking into his so often.
When he returned her to the house, Jane wondered if he would try to talk his way inside. Surprisingly, he said goodbye without even kissing her, and she felt oddly disappointed. Jane looked at herself in the mirror that hung in the foyer. Her knee-length, fitted midnight blue dress hugged her in all the right spots. Her hair even did the thing she liked in the front, and the waves fell perfectly on her shoulders.
She looked so much like the woman she used to be, and yet Mark hadn’t even kissed her. Men were always trying to kiss her before. She’d been glad when she had her engagement ring and could point to it and shrug as an excuse to get rid of them.
As she slipped on her pajamas, a text message came in.
Mark: I had a great time with you tonight. Let’s do it again soon.
Jane looked at the phone and couldn’t help smiling as she sat down on the edge of her bed to answer.
Jane: It was a nice evening. Sure. I’ve been wanting to go to this new place in Wynwood if you’re up for that.
Mark: Sounds like a plan. Goodnight, sweetheart.
Jane: Goodnight.
She fell asleep feeling light as a feather that evening and almost forgot about everything that had happened the month before.
The sound of the doorbell ringing several times woke Jane up with her heart racing. She rushed down the stairs, wondering what in the world could be happening at—she looked at her phone—three o’clock in the morning. When she peeked through the window, she could see a woman with short black hair at the door.
Ugh. What was Genevieve doing here at that hour? Jane opened the door, and Genevieve bolted inside and closed it behind her.
“What are you doing?” Jane shrieked, and then she saw that Genevieve’s eyes were full of… fear?
“I’m not sure. I think I was being followed,” she said and went to the window and slid the curtain about half an inch.
“By whom? And why would you lead them here?” Jane felt like stomping her feet and ordering her out of the house.
“I don’t know. But I’ve seen him before. He was snooping outside my house a few days ago. He had a dog with him, and I figured he was chasing the dog around and that’s why he was on my grass. But then I recognized him at the grocery store and he followed me in his car for most of the way. I couldn’t go into the house where he’s seen me before.”
“Where’s Andrew?”
“Atlanta. Business trip.”
“He didn’t tell me anything about it,” Jane said, hands on her hips.
Genevieve stood tall to face her. “He’s not your concern anymore, is he?”
“I find it strange that he wouldn’t tell me about leaving the state when he’s been texting me to find out how the open house went.”
Genevieve rolled her eyes. “Shit. I forgot about that open house. Fine, he’s at a hotel nearby. I had to get him out of the house for tonight. I couldn’t tell him to come here, could I?” She gave Jane a dirty look.
“If you’re making my house your hideout, you have to tell me what’s going on.” Jane crossed her arms, trying to look like she meant business.
Genevieve sighed. “This is the night Axel and I had agreed with several other men from the homeland that they could come to return through the portal if they wished. They’re supposed to let themselves in through the backyard, wait for us there at three AM, and we would let them in to the mirror-portal. No one would notice them at such a late hour, we thought. But now I can’t go meet them and take them to a portal on the side of the road if I’m being followed, can I?”
“Come on,” Jane said, leading her to the backyard. “So how did you convince Andrew to go stay at a hotel?”
Jane noticed Genevieve actually looked sheepish. “You didn’t do mind tricks on him, did you?”
“Just this once. I swear it’s the one time I’ve done it to him. Well, except that first time we met you.”
Jane shook her head, wishing Genevieve would leave Andrew alone. That fairy was no good for him. Nothing would come out of their relationship, and Genevieve was toxic in so many ways. Maybe Jane could convince her to go through the portal and stay there.
The two women headed for the fence, and Jane recalled the last time she went over that fence. She tried not to remember Axel’s amusement as she landed on the other side, messing up her clothes. Focusing on the situation at hand, she helped Genevieve over the fence.
Jane stood up on a chair to look over, hoping this one would hold. Four men gathered around Genevieve, all greeting her with halloo’s and big hugs. She looked happy to be among her people—not her usual sour self. Jane heard her give the men a rundown on the situation. They had to find a way to get to the portal without being noticed.
“Why doesn’t everyone go out through the back street the way you came in. I’ll go around with my car and pick you up,” Jane offered. The men looked at each other, noticing her for the first time. They looked to Genevieve for guidance.
“That seems like a reasonable plan, boys,” she said.
“Who is she?” the tallest one asked. He looked about Axel’s age and build.
“She is your cousin’s ex-fiancé. Or something like that,” Genevieve answered and then led the men to the back gate.
“You mean Axel was going to marry a human after all? What happened? He chickened out?” the cousin laughed. A couple of the other men snickered.
“That’s not funny. He will be king soon, and the matter of your future queen is not a joke.” The sternness in Genevieve’s voice silenced them all. Jane took in a sharp breath and went inside to get her keys. Too bad Genevieve wouldn’t be ruling. She had a knack for sounding like queen of the world.
Jane grabbed her purse and looked out the front window cautiously. She didn't see anyone, especially not that man Genevieve was talking about. Still, she hurried out the door and ran into her car, feeling safer when the doors locked automatically. She turned down the street and went around the neighborhood to the where she saw the group of fairies. How was it she was involved with them again? Well, she’d simply drop them off and leave right away. Then she’d get a good night’s sleep.
The men were quiet in the car, and Jane wondered if they were suspicious of her. When they reached the point where they were to get out Genevieve leaned forward and said, “I’ll make sure to let Axel know you’ve moved on already.”
Jane whipped her head back. “What I do is none of your business. Or his. He chose to leave when maybe we could have worked something out.”
“He’s not the one that left first. And you know he has no choice on where he will ultimately live. But, anyway, have fun with Mark the Realtor. I’m sure it’s super hot how he can talk for hours and hours about the booming house market. What a panty-dropper.” She jumped out of the car and walked into the trees.
Jane tapped the steering wheel, taking deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. Why was she letting Genevieve’s silly words get under her skin?
8
Axel
He knew his friends would come through the portal that day. Axel had been the one to set up the time of their return over a year ago, and all five made it back, though none of them with wives. He greeted each man heartily as they stepped out of the tree. He begrudgingly gave Genevieve a hug. They weren’t on the best terms lately, ever since she’d told him about shacking up with Andrew.
“So where are the wives? Don’t tell me all you’ve been doing is partying?” Axel folded his arms in front of him.
His cousin Lon spoke up. “These half-wits couldn’t seduce a paid woman. I, on the other hand, am engaged.” The four other men began jabbing at him and arguing, each telling his own wretched story of failure.
“So when do we meet this woman?” Axel asked Lon, who remained uncharacteristically silent.
Genevieve stepped forward. “He hasn’t told her.”
“What?” Axel was worried fo
r his cousin. “You’re not thinking of staying with the humans are you?”
“No! No, I’m just waiting for the right moment,” Lon said.
“Chicken-shit,” Genevieve muttered and the other men snickered.
“Listen, Gen, it’s not that easy to tell someone who trusts you that you’re not who you’ve been saying you are,” Lon said.
“True,” Axel began, “But what do you think the right moment will look like? When she starts planning the wedding of her dreams that will never happen? It’ll go one of two ways. She’ll accept it and come here, or she won’t and you’ll erase her memory. You know the rules.”
“What about you? Do the rules apply to you? From what I hear, you have a human woman running around knowing everything about us and the homeland.” Lon, taller than Axel by a head, stood even taller now.
Axel raised his own head. “I promised her I’d never erase her memory.”
“I never promised her anything,” Genevieve noted. Axel’s sharp stare made her turn on her heel and head towards the village.
“Jane is no one’s concern but mine. She’s not a threat, and that’s all you need to know,” Axel announced to the rest of them.
“Too bad it didn’t work out with you guys,” Lon said, now putting his hand on Axel’s shoulder. Axel eyed him warily. “Genevieve tells us she’s with a new guy now. Some realtor. Mark something-or-other. Sucks.” When had his cousin gotten so blatantly argumentative? Why was he pushing his buttons? And why was this news so fucking annoying? He pushed away the urge to ask more questions.
“Go get some rest. We’ll talk later. A lot has happened since you left,” Axel told the guys. He watched them leave, but he couldn’t shake the strange feeling that his cousin was hiding something. They’d grown up as boys together, playing and joking and having great times. What had changed to cause this sudden rift between them?
Axel finished his shift at the portal and went to question his father. He tried the day before, after Tamus’s declaration of the existence of other portals, but his father was asleep and not feeling well all day.
King Hareld was sitting up in his bed looking out the window when Axel knocked lightly on the open door. Every day his father looked closer to the end. Pushing sentiment aside, Axel knew this might be his only chance to learn the truth from his father.
“I hear you loud and clear,” his father said, his eyes still focused on the sunny sky.
“Then tell me, Father. What do I not know?”
“There is a lot I myself do not know, but I will tell you everything I remember. I never knew what King Siloh did with his portals—what you told me about the humans and their blood. I knew he used his portal to take advantage of humans somehow, but my father told me he would abduct women to use as slaves. The women would work in the tower, give the noblemen sexual gratification, and yes, produce stronger-minded children. My father learned of this when he was offered his own slave, but he couldn’t force himself on the woman and refused to create a new portal when the old one stopped working. He made the deal with the king to create one last new portal in exchange for a small sovereign parcel of land.
By this time, my father had fallen in love with the woman who was to be the sex slave and brought her out here as his wife. She too had grown fond of him. But he did not know then she was a witch, having escaped to the human realm long ago to run away from a curse that bound her to sadness the rest of her life. She could not escape it. She told my father she was a witch after she got with child. He could not imagine having a witch-child, especially the child of a cursed woman. His prejudice was too strong, his fear too big. The child was born, and the woman raised her here, miserable as she watched my father bring my mother from the human world. I was born, and my father, afraid the woman would curse me, spread the news that everyone should shun the woman and her daughter, since the only way the curses would work was if the woman had the right information or piece of clothing or hair from the victim. But the woman never cursed me. The child however grew up isolated. She learned witchcraft from her mother and practices to this day.”
“Lili,” Axel uttered, bewildered.
“I tried approaching Lili’s daughter once after Lili had died, but her mother had poisoned her mind against all of us. I knew my father’s shortcomings, and I couldn’t blame her. But Lili’s daughter nearly killed your mother with that seeing potion of hers. I never sought her out again and warned you lot to stay away.”
Axel took this break in the story to say, “But she’s been nothing but helpful to me.”
“I hope she has let the past go, but I wonder if she can. I tell you this because you should know there is a source of information there that can help you if she’s willing. If you trust her. Her mother must have confided in her.”
“What do you know of other realms, Father?”
“I know only of the human realm, and I know Lili came from an entirely different realm. That is all I know, Son. I wish I had more information to give you.”
“Tamus is telling the truth then. A third realm exists. Why not a fourth, fifth, or sixth?”
“It is possible.” The king spoke softer now, and Axel held his father’s hand.
“Thank you for telling me. Is there anything else that I do not know?”
“You will never know just how much you don’t know. Even on your deathbed.” His eyes were glazing over, and he fell asleep. Axel watched the rise and fall of his father’s chest, afraid for the day when he would not see even that.
9
Jane
Jane couldn’t help but peek out her window the rest of the night. The man that had been lurking in front of Genevieve’s house was long gone, but she was still spooked. What if it was someone from the citadel that had somehow found their way there? Or was it a plain old human stalker? Amazing how her level of fear had shifted since returning. Human crime seemed much less scary now that she’d witnessed magic and blood-drinking.
That day at her new job was miserable, and no amount of coffee roused her enough to get any kind of work done. She went home early and took a nap, waking up around dinnertime. A text message from Mark made her smile. I’ve been thinking about when I can see you again, it said. Jane sighed and opened her laptop to finish some work before eating leftovers.
As she was sitting down to dinner, Jane heard a noise in her backyard. She grabbed her phone and started to dial 911 while turning on the lights outside. A figure froze in her yard and then headed for the backdoor. Panicking, Jane ran through the house, forgetting 911 and bolted out the front door. Realizing she forgot her keys inside, she ran next door, thankful that Andrew’s car was parked outside.
She was terrified, to say the least, and as she pressed on the doorbell repeatedly, Jane felt her heart was pounding uncontrollably inside her chest. When Andrew opened the door an inch, she ran through it, pushing him and closing the door behind her.
“What the” he started to say.
“Someone is breaking into our house.”
“What? Why didn’t you call the police?” he yelled, taking his phone out of his pocket. Jane slapped his hand, the phone sliding towards the door.
“Jane!” He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had. She was tired of this craziness. She remembered fondly how content she thought she’d been before she’d met any fairies.
“I don’t think the police can help,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” He reached again for the phone but she stepped on it lightly.
“Andrew, we can’t. It might not be a bad person. Or maybe it is. I just….” Jane’s eyes watered, and he shook his head. He ran from window to window, telling her he saw nothing and came back to retrieve his phone.
“The backyard,” Jane whispered. He sighed and silently went outside. Jane paced the living room, wishing she was a nail-biter because that would give her something to focus on. When a couple of minutes had passed, and he hadn’t returned, she couldn’t help it any longer. She tiptoed
outside and saw that Andrew was no longer there. A fresh wave of panic overwhelmed her, and her knees shook. Finally, she gathered enough courage to turn the corner, and she saw him standing on a chair, gazing at something over the fence.
“What do you see?” She whispered to him, feeling less scared now that they were in close proximity of each other.
“It’s a man inside the house. He’s searching for something, it looks like,” Andrew said.
“He knew I was in the house. I turned on the lights outside, and my car is parked out front.” The reality of what she was saying made her even more fearful. This person didn’t care if he was caught. Was this Genevieve’s stalker?
“I’m calling the police,” he said. He went inside to call, and Jane, taking comfort from knowing the man couldn’t see them in the dark of Genevieve’s yard, stood on the chair and saw him continue from room to room. She wondered at how he stood for a long period admiring himself in her foyer mirror. Then he touched it. She gasped. He must think the old portal is in her house!
Suddenly she heard sirens in the distance. As they approached, he turned around, looked directly at her, and then walked outside. Jane ran into the house, peeking through the window in case he should come into this house, but he must have left.
The way he found her eyes in the dark haunted her, but she left that out of the police report she and Andrew filed.
Jane couldn’t return home that night. In fact, she had decided she’d move out, regardless of when the house sold or where she would live now. She slept that night in Axel’s room, with Andrew in the next room, but it was a bad call. Too many ghosts of relationships lost in the same house. When daylight broke, she went back to her house and packed a suitcase. Andrew was outside waiting for her when she rolled it to the trunk of her car.
A Touch of Summer: Spellbound Series Book 2 (The Spellbound Series) Page 3