by JS Harker
Flynn nodded. “I couldn’t hold the ice and go out on it, not without freezing the boy into the water too. I was amazed when you went out there.”
“Because I’m a coward?” Derek asked.
“No! Because you cared enough to try.” Flynn cupped Derek’s cheek and rested his forehead against Derek’s. “Not everyone would try in that situation.”
“I only have one more question,” Derek whispered. His warm breath teased at Flynn’s lips. “Do you love me?”
“Yes,” Flynn murmured. He brushed his lips against Derek’s. “Yes, I do.”
“I love you too,” Derek said.
Flynn grinned and kissed him again.
Another pot in the kitchen overran with water. Flynn hissed at it, cursed in his own language, and rushed to turn it all off. Derek followed him to the kitchen.
“I think we could save most of the food,” Derek said.
Flynn only saw a mess and disaster strewn in front of the man he loved. The man who hadn’t balked at his truth. Who longed for a life of adventures in a mortal world he thought wouldn’t share any.
“Or,” Flynn said, “we could slip through the portal and you can see my home. We should find you something to eat that isn’t this, because if you eat of the feylands, you belong to them, but we could cure my homeache, and you could see where I come from.”
“Is it far? Or do we have to fly or something?” Derek asked.
Flynn shook his head. “It’s about a half a mile through the woods.”
Derek glanced around the kitchen, but his smile was already growing wide. “Yeah, okay. Show me where you grew up.”
Chapter Seventeen
FLYNN motioned for him to wait, and Derek stopped. Traveling out into the middle of the woods in the cold, dark night seemed like a great idea until Derek remembered other creatures besides fairies lived in the woods. Like bears. Only the bears should be hibernating. That would be good.
Because somehow, of course, a bear attack was weirder than having a fairy boyfriend. Derek rubbed his forehead. The whole world was upside down, and yet it made perfect sense. Flynn was too perfect and too strange. A good strange, but suddenly every misunderstood word and phrase, every time he didn’t know the right way to behave—all of it made sense.
Flynn was a fairy. Derek had been sure he was different, but this was way out from his expectations.
Flynn waved his hand in a slow circle. He muttered, but the words didn’t make any sense to Derek. Then he spoke clearer, and while it was obvious he was repeating himself, it was definitely in another language.
The same one Derek had heard when he ate the candy cane. How many times had Flynn lied to him? Or had he? Had Derek failed to notice or ask the right questions? Or maybe he was just discovering the truth about a man he’d rushed into a relationship with.
The air grew colder around them. Derek folded his arms over his chest. He needed warmer jackets.
Flynn shouted the words and stepped back. A blue circle popped in the air before them and spun out to a larger and larger size until it was on the ground and taller than them. Flynn held out his hand to Derek.
Derek had to be hallucinating. Or dreaming.
Either way, he took Flynn’s hand and stepped through the blue circle.
One moment they stood in the woods not far from Flynn’s cabin, and the next they were on a frozen plain without a tree in sight. Off in the distance was a castle with three tall spires against the crystal-blue sky. It glimmered in the sunlight, sparkling a cold radiance. Derek took a step toward it out of reflex. He wanted to see it up close.
In a way, he already had. The sculpture in Flynn’s yard was a perfect replica.
Derek turned to Flynn.
A subtle shift had happened to him when they stepped through the portal. Flynn’s hair was powder white with blue tips, and his pale skin had a blue tint—just like he had when Derek had been exhausted.
Only Derek had been tired most of the last month and never saw the strange vision. The difference between that time and the rest was the candy cane.
“Why do you look different?” Derek asked. He touched a lock of Flynn’s hair.
“It has something to do with physics and thought and belief,” Flynn said. “Humans think we aren’t real, for the most part, so it changes us some. Changes what we can do. Remember the snowflake I made?”
Derek nodded.
“That was hard in your world. Here?” Flynn snapped his fingers.
A hundred giant snowflakes filled the air. Each had a breathtaking shape, but the ones Derek could see closely all had hearts in their crystal structures.
He grinned and nudged Flynn’s shoulder. “See, you are special.”
Flynn snorted, but his blue eyes were bright with happiness. “Everyone can do that. It becomes boring.”
“Not everyone does it for me.” Derek kissed him. They stood in a new strange place, and all he wanted to do was kiss Flynn and explore. He suddenly understood Flynn more than he ever had. “Where are we going next?”
Flynn grinned wide and interlocked their fingers. “Come. I’ll show you.”
At first glance the icy expanse seemed to go on for eternity, but not long after they started, the ground sloped over a hill and into a valley of snow mounds. Gentle winds carried the sound of voices, though the words were too foreign and muted for Derek to understand. The wind also brought the scents of a good meal. Derek’s mouth watered. As they worked their way down into the valley, he spotted a long banquet table between the snow mounds. All kinds of food decked it out. He’d scrounged through Flynn’s freezer before they left so he wouldn’t be hungry. Despite the microwave pizza in his stomach, growls clenched his stomach tight.
“Is this that big night you mentioned?”
“Solstice,” Flynn said. “One of the times we’re most powerful.” Flynn suddenly stopped. He gripped Derek’s hand tightly, and a fearful look was in his eyes. “You can’t eat any of the food.”
Derek frowned. “Um, okay. Why?”
“It’s part of the old stories. I don’t know how it works, exactly, but if you eat it, you’ll never get to go home.”
“Okay. I won’t eat anything.”
“Don’t accept any gifts from anyone either unless you can give them something in return right away. They might try to keep you,” Flynn said.
“No food. No presents. Anything else?”
“If anyone acts offended, apologize, but no more than three times, or they might get offended by that.”
Derek blinked at Flynn. “I suddenly understand why rules matter to you.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you here because I failed to prepare you,” Flynn replied.
“We’ll have to do our best to keep me safe, then.” Derek squeezed Flynn’s hand. “I’m not worried.”
Flynn flashed him a tight smile before leading the way into the valley.
Eventually the beings around the long banquet table became visible. Flynn was obviously one of them, so much so that Derek wondered how he’d ever confused him for human. The people around the table appeared human enough at first glance, but their clothes were made from fabrics Derek didn’t recognize. Some of them seemed to be dressed in actual ice and snow. Most had the same pale-blond hair and sharp blue eyes Flynn had, no matter their skin tone, which ranged from dark brown through ice blue. There was one fairy with bright orange hair who wore green, but only the one.
All eyes turned toward them, and Flynn came to a halt a few feet from the end of the table. His ear twitched. Okay, he must not have expected the attention either. Derek held on to his hand and wondered how he should introduce himself to a village all at once. But then maybe they didn’t speak English, and maybe this was a bad idea and he wasn’t even supposed to be in the feylands. Flynn crushed his hand a little, and Derek winced.
Derek leaned closer to Flynn and whispered, “Ow.”
Flynn relaxed his grip and murmured, “Sorry.”
“Everyo
ne’s kind of staring at us,” Derek said.
“I should have snuck you in. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Flynn closed his eyes. He was freaking out.
Not that Derek blamed him. The strange curious looks being shot his way, especially by the smaller fairies, threatened to undo his own nerves.
“Are your parents here?” Derek asked.
“You want to meet my family?”
“You met mine.”
Flynn smiled and nodded. “I did.”
He seemed to gather more courage from that, and he turned toward the group. Whatever he said, Derek didn’t understand it. But he had definitely heard Flynn using words like that before. He had thought he was dreaming.
When they got done with this tour of a fairy village, they needed to sit down and figure out exactly what Derek had made up and what was the truth about Flynn. He was getting the feeling his last couple of weeks were way more magical than he’d realized.
Conversation at the table started again, and Flynn led the way down the table. Most eyes were still on them. Wait, not Flynn but Derek.
“Why are they staring at me?” he asked softly.
“You’re the first human in our village since before I was born.”
“When were you born?”
“Many solstices ago.”
“Flynn, please stop ducking my questions.”
Flynn pursed his lips. “I don’t know the exact number. We don’t have the same relationship to time humans do.”
Because immortal creatures in their own realm probably didn’t go around judging how old something was in comparison to anything else. Derek figured it had to be the same way he saw height. People were either taller or shorter than him. No reason to note a difference unless it was an extreme one way or the other.
“Oh. Okay.”
“You accept such an ill-defined answer?”
“Is it the truth?” Derek asked.
“Of course!”
“Then yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
Flynn kissed his cheek. “I really do love you.”
Before Derek had a chance to ask what he’d done to inspire the affirmation, Flynn waved, and a male down the table waved back. Derek would’ve guessed Flynn and the other male were roughly the same age, except the male had way longer points to his ears than Flynn.
They exchanged words in their language, and the male rose from the table. They went toward one of the snow mounds, which Derek realized was a house of sorts, but they didn’t go in.
A sudden blur of multicolored lights flew at Derek’s face, and he pulled away from Flynn as he tried to swat at the buzzing lights. He missed them.
They were tiny fairies. Pixies. Like Lulu.
“Don’t,” Flynn warned. “Don’t hit them.”
Derek closed his eyes and stood still. He could feel tiny hands in his hair, and one of them yanked. “Then get them off.”
Flynn and the male got into it with the pixies, and there was a whole series of words Derek didn’t understand. The pixies spoke their own language, which sounded like bells, whistles, and somehow like hiding in shadows. Not knowing what was going on wore on Derek’s nerves.
When he could open his eyes again, Flynn motioned at the male before them. “My father. He speaks English and a few other human languages when he’s not being an ass.”
Derek’s eyes went wide. He’d never imagine calling his dad an ass in front of Flynn. Well, not in front of Flynn and his dad.
“That is the word for a stubborn, rude person, yes?” Flynn said.
“It’s the right word. But, um, manners?”
“There are worse words in both our languages,” Flynn replied with a wave of his hand.
“He’s upset because I lectured him instead of embracing you,” Flynn’s father said. His language had a stronger accent, as if the words were thick in his mouth, particularly the consonants. “We had only noticed Flynn was gone earlier when we were preparing the feast. Then he suddenly appears with a human. Now we know where he went. The ways of luring humans to our realm for our own pleasure are supposed to be behind us.”
“I wasn’t lured here,” Derek said.
Flynn’s father scowled, and there was no doubting the family connection between them.
“I wasn’t,” Derek repeated. “Flynn and I are dating. He offered to show me.”
“Did he promise to take you home again?”
Derek blinked. “Um, no.”
That launched another discussion in the language Derek didn’t know.
“Derek, I promise to take you home when you wish,” Flynn said suddenly.
“I never doubted you wouldn’t.”
Flynn shot his father a self-satisfied smirk. It was one Derek had gotten used to seeing, especially in the bedroom.
Which… Flynn’s prowess in the bedroom suddenly made a lot more sense, unless Derek was making a generalization about fairies. Maybe they didn’t go around having sex all the time like they did in novels. Only maybe they did because they were immortal beings with not too much else to do. Derek didn’t really know anything about their way of life.
His head began to ache from the warring thoughts.
“You should take him home,” Flynn’s father said. “You’re drawing attention. Some of it may become unwanted.”
“No one will hurt him,” Flynn said.
“At least take him out of sight before someone thinks you’ve brought him for good,” Flynn’s father replied. “You know how some of them can be when they believe there’s a new toy for their amusement.”
Flynn’s cheeks turned blue. “Yes. We should probably avoid that.”
Flynn led Derek away without even a goodbye to his father, and he was so caught off guard all he could do was wave. He stumbled over the chunky, snowy ground while Flynn kept on top of the snow with unnatural ease. Probably a side effect of being a fairy, which explained so much more and was completely unfair.
“Slow down,” Derek said when he struck his foot for the third time. There wasn’t much space between some of the snow mounds, and he used his free hand to balance himself against a wall as he climbed over the ice stones. “Why are you so worried?”
“Remember how we talked about orgies?” Flynn said. “It wouldn’t be hard for you to star in one here.”
Derek fell right off the slippery ice stone he’d balanced on and would have fallen straight to the ground if Flynn hadn’t caught him. He took a second to catch his breath, happy for the feel of Flynn’s arms around him again.
“Wait, me?”
“Many fey have kept humans as pets, and they probably think that’s what I want to do with you.”
“Like a sex pet?”
“Not always. Your kind is a curiosity to us.” Flynn stroked Derek’s cheek. “You’re warm. Different. Expressive. Soft. And you, oh, you they would devour in a heartbeat.”
Flynn was hard, or getting that way. Derek could feel his erection pressing up against him, and his own dick decided it liked Flynn’s voice and cock too. Out in the cold, strange land, he was getting a hard-on and apparently plenty of fairies at the banquet table wouldn’t mind helping him enjoy a release. His cheeks were on fire again.
“Just because I’m human?” Derek said. His voice felt loud, but he barely heard it himself.
Flynn wrapped his arms around Derek’s waist, nuzzling against him. He nibbled on Derek’s earlobe, drawing it in and licking it. Derek gasped and clutched Flynn’s shoulders. Despite the cold, his cock was definitely hard. Flynn held on tight, and Derek stuttered a moan.
“Because of that sound,” Flynn murmured. A lustful gleam brightened his blue eyes. “Because you give yourself entirely.”
“Only to you,” Derek said. “It’s easy to give myself to you.”
Flynn ravaged his mouth in a passionate kiss. Derek hung on to him and pushed back. Flynn wanted him. Loved him. He was an amazing, mythical man, and he chose him. Derek groaned into the kiss and ground his groin against Flynn’s. There wasn�
��t enough friction for them, and everything around them was ice and snow.
Derek broke the kiss. His panting breaths made small clouds in the air. “You live around here?”
Flynn smirked. “Two houses over.”
“Please take me there before I strip you right here.”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. But I don’t need frostbite on my dick.”
Flynn laughed and wormed his way out of Derek’s hold far enough to walk.
They entered a snow mound. Inside was a small fireplace, some kind of apparatus over it, and a few other things along one side to denote a kitchen area. There were a dresser, a few wooden chairs, and a large bed. A rug dominated the floor.
The walls and floor were the most astonishing. Tiny ice crystals glimmered from the glow of a set of soft lights as Flynn went around the room. The lights weren’t connected to anything, not even bulbs. They had to be magic. A fire whooshed to life in the fireplace. Flynn moved aside what had to be cooking equipment and tended the flames while Derek marveled at the walls, the floors, and then onto the rugs and blankets on Flynn’s bed.
What Flynn had done to his cabin in the human world made sense. He’d been trying to recreate home in whatever way he could. The room was cool, not as bad as the outside, and the fire was warming the space faster than he would’ve thought possible.
“It won’t melt the walls?” Derek asked.
“Not a bit,” Flynn replied. He turned toward Derek.
Flynn was absolutely breathtaking. Even after seeing the other fairies, Derek would’ve chosen Flynn out of them. There was something about him, about the way he looked at Derek, that he could never get enough of. Derek wasn’t scared of being boring. He was in a magic realm where he didn’t understand the language or the customs, and he wasn’t scared at all because he had Flynn with him.
“Is it warm enough for you?” Flynn said.
Out of the wind and elements, Derek was feeling plenty hot before Flynn stoked the fire. He shed his coat, hat, and gloves, dropping them onto the small table. “We could warm me some more.”
“I don’t have nearly enough wood, then,” Flynn said, frowning at the pile beside the fireplace.