“You are giving me a reward, anything that I want?”
“Yes, anything you ask of me.” She glanced at my men again. She knew there was only one answer here. Their safe return to the human realm.
“You will return them back to the exact moment before they left. Same time, same day. They will remain as they were before they came here. Is that what you are offering me?”
“Yes, that is what I offer you.”
I bit my lip. They’d be back there as they should be. The magic in the air thickened, feeling the favor Faerie had opened and its desperation to complete that favor. It was astronomical. Huge. Something never offered before. I could feel it in the way all the fae dared to not breathe, not wanting to miss a single moment of our exchange.
“Then, yes, I want that.” I glanced at the guys again, preparing myself to say goodbye to them. Again, the chasm ripped open by the given favor pulsed, as if telling me something. I weighed it on my tongue, felt it against my body and realized something.
It wasn’t enough.
Her favor to me was not enough to make up for what I had just done. I didn’t just save her, I saved all the humans too. I should be able to ask for more.
It clicked then.
What this opportunity meant for me. What choice stood before me, waiting to be grabbed.
“Me too,” I whispered.
Faerie froze before her eyes narrowed.
In a steadier, harder voice, with more confidence than I felt, I repeated myself. “Me too. I want to return with them as I am now. No aging the years that I have lived here. To be with them as I should have had always before I was taken here.”
“You dare to ask me for such a favor. You think I can break the laws for you.”
“I know you can.” I stared her down, unwilling to step back. The open favor kept me and the guys safe since they were part of the fulfillment. “You are Faerie, you break your own rules every single day. You meddle. If you want something, you can have it. You can return me to the human realm as I am, without aging those years lived here. Feel it, Faerie. Feel the void that the magic demands to have fulfilled after you promised me a reward. This will fill it. I want to be human once more, living back in the human realm with all three of my human men: Jason, Waylon, and Foster. We want nothing to do with the fae and the fae will leave us alone.”
Her mouth clanked shut when she realized I’d outplayed her. She opened the favor between us. It was her fault that she never considered how massive it would have been. She only thought of herself, never about all the humans I had saved. How I also saved Earth. That’s a massive debt that would give me the universe. And I was going to fucking ask for it. For the impossible.
I no longer wanted to be Joslyn Naevana. I wanted to be Josie Evans once again and this was my chance to have it all back. Or die trying by the thunder that lit up her eyes.
Faerie tilted her head and released a massive scream that threatened to burst my eardrums. She jumped out of Foster’s arms and stalked toward me, ready to release her revenge. But the favor stood between us as the strongest shield. She smashed into it. Smacked against it. Shoved all her anger against it.
Nothing worked. Not even Faerie could go against this law. It was beyond her, something all the magic did on its own to help find balance in a dangerous world.
When she realized this, she tried to go after the guys, but realized since they were part of the debt returned, she couldn’t touch them. There was only one answer she could give and that was a yes.
It took her a while to figure that out as she railed against her own magic. It demanded a debt to be paid. She refused to pay it. It was a losing battle as the magic soaked up whatever she threw at it until she had nothing left. Her hair was wild, her eyes wide and unfocused. She growled.
“Watch yourself, Joslyn. You are nothing. You were nothing. And you will always be nothing.”
I smiled at her coldly. “From you, I shall take that as a compliment.”
She screeched as the debt forced itself to be paid. The air whipped around. Berry growled, sounding distant. I heard the guys screaming before my own joined them. It was as if everything in me were torn apart into nothingness.
Then everything went black and I was scared what I was going to wake up to—if I woke up.
Epilogue
I walked back and forth, my white dress swishing around my legs to match my nerves. My hands trembled and my heart pounded hard. I knew how today was going to go. There really was only one path. But there was always that tiny chance it’d all go to shit. I wanted it over. I wanted to move forward with my life. I wanted to finally get past this mile marker and move on to the part that had been robbed from me so long ago.
Three months. We’d been out of Faerie for three months and everything in the deal was upheld. I didn’t age those years in Faerie. We were returned to the same exact moment that we had left, and the guys were completely themselves.
I made them take extensive testing at the doctor’s to make sure.
And me? I was human again. I couldn’t feel the magic, I couldn’t use magic, and I looked as I did before I was taken to Faerie.
My heart pounded normally, my temperature was at a human level, and the emotions. It hit so hard. I hadn’t realized how numb being a fae had made me until I had woken up with the guys hovering over me with deep concern.
They had enough time to tell me I’d been out for a day before I broke out crying, grabbed on to all three of them and didn’t let them go until my sister showed up at my hotel room three days later. Then we cried together for another day while she tried to curse me out.
Then I lived. I loved. And I kept crying because it was like my emotions were set to on and then the switch was broken off so that I couldn’t turn them off.
“Dammit, Josie, stop!” Addie said from her chair. She wore a soft pink dress with some ruffles, but not too many. Frankly, I only wore a dress because she was making me. I wanted to wear pants. After all those fancy annoying dresses in Faerie, I wanted nothing to do with them. Only Addie talked me into one. She had always been good at getting what she wanted from me.
“Something’s going to happen,” I said, my words coming out as a wheeze.
She was on her feet in a moment and pushing me down into a chair. “Nothing is going to happen. Nothing. It’s over. You’re home. You’re safe. And we are never letting you go again. Never.”
I nodded as she cupped my face. She talked me through my panic attack, something that had become common in the last two months. I kept waiting for shit to hit the fan and each day, I kept learning about how broken I was.
But at least I was with the guys again, and shit, they were good at putting me back together every time I broke. They were patient, helping me through all the fears I had refused to let permeate my thoughts for the last hundred years.
“It’s time. Are you ready?”
I nodded.
She helped me to my feet and played with my hair a little bit, fluffing it up before taking my arm and leading me out the door. Most likely she was worried something was going to take me away again and that was why she was gripping me so tightly. Or she thought I was going to make a run for it. If there was any direction that I ran to, it was to the guys, never away from them.
About time. All that pacing was making me dizzy. Berry followed behind. I glanced back at him with a warm smile, still in disbelief that he was there and that he could still talk to me. He had shown up last month and bitched me out for leaving him behind. It had taken him a while to find a way back to me.
But he did. He was still determined to never leave my side. I loved him even more for it.
What fae followed a human back to the human realm?
We got to the doors and my dad stood there with a heartbreaking smile. Another thing in my life that had been repaired. Two months ago, Addie dragged them to me, and I spent a week crying with them. Explaining to them what had happened to me was impossible. They wanted me to go to the polic
e. I’d had to explain to them that it was fruitless. They still wanted me to go even now.
I wasn’t sure what they thought happened to me. I know I hadn’t given them any hints and Addie hadn’t either. Judah made sure she was incapable of speaking of the fae world with anyone who didn’t know about it.
Dad gave me a shaky smile, his gray mustache quivering. A new thing for me to see on him. I had always remembered the man as clean-shaven with a head of black hair. Now it was peppered gray, and he’d grown a mustache and beard but kept it nicely trimmed. He was also stronger. I always remembered him as a thin man, but he looked good. Fit.
Addie made it a point to tell me it was him working through his stress at my disappearance plus wherever he and Mom traveled in the world. He had to be strong to keep her safe, apparently. I hated that thought.
“I never thought I’d get to see this,” he said in a thick, gravelly voice. “To see you in a wedding dress, to be able to walk you down the aisle to your men.” He shook his head.
I grabbed his hand hesitantly, still feeling weird about touching him, and squeezed. “Let’s do this, shall we?” I asked.
He swallowed and nodded, eyes glistening as he smiled. The music started, the doors opened, and the lane before me was lined with flowers, friends, and family. My mother stood in the middle, taking a picture, crying. Her brown hair was away from her face, her cheeks flushed, her eyes blurry as she tried to fight against her emotions. I blinked furiously, still amazed that I was with them again. My parents. My sister. Berry.
And the men of my life.
Mom stepped back and behind her were the three guys I was never going to let go ever again.
All of them were drool worthy.
All of them reflected back at me the love I felt for them.
All of them were finally officially tying their lives with mine.
Finally. I got exactly what I wanted.
An ‘us’ with my loves.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading this standalone story. This was a fun story for me to write. Not everyone can embrace a supernatural world, and with all the stories of our amazing humans being forced into it, I wanted to try something different. And from that came this story, a story about a girl who wants out of it, who isn’t cut out for that kind of world, and what she goes through to find her HEA. The ending may or may not be what you wanted, but it was the ending that best fit what needed to happen. I thank you for giving this story a chance and I hope you’ve enjoyed.
On another note, I would like to introduce Jaye Ann. She’s my new pen name for books I’ll publish under the fantasy genre. I started publishing under her in September. Be sure to check out my books under her name!
Jaye Ann Books:
Reyna’s Blood Series
Faebound to Exist
Living the Faelore
Faebles to Pass
Rising to Faedom (Coming Soon)
From the Author
Adulting Not Allowed
Scalding Hot Chocolate
Sizzling Hot Apple Cider
Monster Academy
Lesson One: Finding Allies
Lesson Two: Staying True
Gifted Anomalies
Fate Foretold
Surviving Souls
Biomystic Security (Available KU)
Magical Intentions
Magical Temptations
Magical Attraction
Magical Seclusion
Magical Redemption
Magical Collision
From the Embers (Available KU)
Emergence
Transformation
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Faerie Kissed Page 28