“Well... I was. Before you had to go and ruin it.”
He cocked his head, a small smile growing on his lips. “We can always go back to that if you want?”
“Now that you killed the mood?” Mia pouted, glancing away.
“Mia, come on. I needed to know... I needed to know where we stood.”
Those words hit a chord inside her. Mia gasped, blinking as a memory resurfaced. They had had this conversation before. The lake and woods all around them melted away. They were suddenly in her backyard facing each other and looking a lot like how they looked now. Serious and confused and Mia looking frustrated.
“I need to know where we stand,” Rhett was saying, throwing his arms out. “I can’t keep doing this... this little dance with you. I risk everything coming and going through the portal, I don’t think you understand that.”
They looked the same as they did now which was unnerving. This whole not aging thing was going to take some getting used to for Mia. Past Mia shot him a glare. “Do you really think I don’t understand that? It’s dangerous for you. I get that. You’re the prince and you have responsibilities and if anyone found out you were sneaking to the human world to see a Halfling they would freak. I understand.”
“Then why are you being like this? I just told you I love you, and you... you act like that’s the worst thing in the world I could have possibly said. Why?” Rhett raked a hand through his hair, hurt flashing across his face.
Past Mia glanced down, biting her lower lip. Mia could see tears brimming in her eyes. Tears of frustration and hurt. She threw her hands up and let out an irritated breath. “I don’t know,” she said at last, sounding like all the fight had left her. “Maybe because I don’t want things to change. You’re my best friend, and what if this,” she said, gesturing between the two of them, “changes that? What if we don’t work out and our friendship falls apart? I don’t think I could survive that...”
Rhett shook his head, bridging the gap between them in a single stride. His hands cupped both her cheeks. “Mia,” he whispered, earnest and serious. “That could never change. I will always love you, and you will always be my best friend. Nothing will ever come between us.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked, gripping his wrists.
“Because I love you enough to know I will never get over you. And I know you enough to know you’re too stubborn to ever give up on us.”
That awarded him a small chuckle from her. Mia ducked her head and then glanced back up at him. “I do...” she whispered. “I do love you.... I just don’t want things to change.”
“Not even for the better?” Rhett whispered, his head already leaning down toward her.
A small smile tugged on Past Mia’s lips. “I don’t know...” she muttered.
Rhett grinned now and his lips touched hers. Past Mia caught her breath and melted into his embrace. They shared a soft and tender kiss. Not the wild and passionate and hungry kisses Mia and Rhett had shared before that she could remember. When they parted Past Mia’s smile had widened and she leaned her head against his chest. “I don’t know,” was all she said again. “Maybe we can take it slow?”
Rhett laughed and wrapped his arms around her. “As slow as you want. I’ve got all the time in the world, and I will love you forever Mia.”
“We both do,” Past Mia murmured.
“Yes,” he agreed, “we both do.”
Mia blinked and suddenly she was back in the lake with Rhett. She lurched backward, needing space between the two of them. Rhett frowned, concern creasing his forehead as he reached for her. “Mia? What happened? Are you OK? You like zoned out there or something.”
“I had another memory,” she whispered, glancing up at him and unable to take her eyes off his face.
He frowned, his hand going to her elbow. “What was it of?”
“Us...” He had been so genuine... so sweet and tender in that memory. Earnest and truthful about his feelings for her. Rhett had said similar things to her since she arrived in St. Croix Falls the second time. Mia had never thought of the fact that he hadn’t moved on, fallen for anyone else in the ten years she had been away. He had never expected her to return... And yet Rhett would have gone on for another ten years still loving her. Still waiting for her. She didn’t know what to say to that kind of devotion.
Rhett cocked his head. “What were we doing?”
“It was... the first time you said you loved me,” Mia said, meeting his gaze to gauge his reaction.
His eyes widened, and a small smile touched his lips. “Oh yes... that makes sense that it would surface now. We had a similar argument. Only then, you weren’t so stubborn.”
“You told me you would love me forever. That we had all the time in the world.”
Rhett grinned. “I still do, and we still do have all the time in the world. We can take things as slow as you want.”
Mia shook her head. “How can you say that? You’ve been waiting for me to come back for ten years, not knowing if I would come back at all, and now, you’re just willing to take it slow?”
“Mia,” Rhett said, a look on his face like she was dumb. “I didn’t throw myself at you the instant you walked into town, did I? As I recall... I wasn’t the kindest person to you.”
“You were a jerk,” Mia agreed.
Rhett cringed. “Yes, I was. So, yes, I am willing to take it slow. As slow as you want. I just... I just want you to know. I can’t live without you. I don’t know what I would do without you, and I will love you forever Mia. I know you don’t have any proof of that, that you don’t understand why yet, but when you get all your memories back it will make sense, and until then... I am more than happy to continue to prove my feelings to you.”
Mia just stared at him for a minute. Taking him in. He was dead serious about this. Rhett really would wait for her. Like he had said before, he was a patient guy. Mia opened her mouth to say... something, she wasn’t exactly sure what, when a scream ripped through the air, cutting her off. They both whipped around to the shore as another scream pierced the air.
With a shared look of panic, they both bolted out of the lake and toward the sound of the screams.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mia got there first, and she wished she hadn’t. A small group of girls all in track shorts and tank tops huddled around a body. Lilac was on the ground, cradling the fallen girl’s head in her lap. The girl looked hollowed out... Another victim of the curse. Her eyes were nothing but black holed out sockets, and her skin was pasty white. Small horns stuck out of her head. She had a dash of freckles across her face and pointed ears. She must have been a shifter.
“What happened?” Mia breathed, stopping to take in the scene.
Rhett came to a stop at her side as Lilac glanced up at them. Tears streamed down her face. The other girls hugged each other as they stared down at their fallen friend.
“Aina went ahead of us,” Lilac managed to get out. “She... she was a deer shifter and went ahead of us.”
“When we got here, we found her like this... Dead,” one of the other girls said, a hand resting on Lilac’s shoulder. Lilac sobbed and hugged Aina’s body closer to her.
“Did you see what happened? Did anyone?” Rhett asked, his hand sliding around Mia’s waist.
Mia leaned into him, staring down at the girl’s body and listening to the heartbreaking sobs from Lilac. She’d believed Lilac when she had said the Fae in this town meant everything to her. But it was one thing to hear it and another to see the devotion she had for them.
One of the girls, a Sidhe with sleek black hair, and sharp pointed ears shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “We got here after it happened.”
“You know what it is,” Lilac said at last, her head rising to glare at Rhett.
Rhett’s jaw set. He straightened when the rest of the girls’ gazes fell on him. “I do. There’s... a curse that’s spreading across the town.”
A collective gasp filled the air. Everyon
e shared shocked glances. Lilac’s eyes narrowed on him. “How long as this been going on? How did this happen?”
“It happened when Ryker and Joelin forced their way into this world... The door didn’t like that. The curse is kind of like a failsafe...” he explained
Mia didn’t miss the way Lilac glared at her as if this was all her fault. “Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you inform everyone?”
“Because we didn’t want to cause a panic and we’re working on a solution.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Lilac shouted, getting to her feet.
Her eyes flashed to the piercing blue of a wolf and she bared her teeth, showing off fangs. She let out an inhuman growl as she lunged for Rhett. Mia jumped away, just getting out of her reach before Lilac grabbed hold of the front of Rhett’s shirt. Rhett remained perfectly still and calm, a cool anger simmering beneath the surface of his eyes. “Lilac,” he said calmly. “You need to calm down.”
“One of my girls is dead,” she howled, becoming more animalistic with each second. Gray wolfish hair sprouted from the pores of her skin, and her fingernails elongated into claws. “A shifter. One of my kind. Because of you.”
Rhett looked like he was about to argue, but before he could, the Sidhe with black hair stepped forward. She folded her arms. “Aina’s death is a great tragedy Lilac, but it wasn’t the prince’s fault. He’s right. If word had gotten out that there’s a curse killing people, there would have been panic. People would have turned on one another. We would have resorted back to the paranoia we had had ten years ago.”
Lilac’s eyes flashed and she shot the Sidhe a glare over her shoulder. “Are you siding with him, Tanya? With the man who locked us out of our home and abandoned us?”
Tanya’s face remained cool and collected, unphased by Lilac’s temper. “I’m just saying you shouldn’t take your grief out on the person who’s been trying to protect us. He said he has a solution. He said they have a way to stop it.”
That seemed to enrage Lilac even more. With a shove, she let go of Rhett, who stumbled back a step but kept his composure. He nodded at Tanya. “Thank you. We’re working on a way to stop this. It’ll just take a little more time for Mia to have enough power to stop it.”
Tanya bowed her head in respect. Mia had never seen anyone treat Rhett like an actual prince. With such... reverence. Seemed Lilac hadn’t seen such a thing in a while either because she bared her fangs at Tanya. “Traitor,” she growled. “Leave.”
Tanya merely scowled at Lilac, glanced at her supposed friends who looked anywhere but at her and then walked off without a word. Seemed she knew how to pick her battles too. Smart girl.
As if realizing Mia was there for the first time, Lilac growled at her. She jabbed a finger at her. “This is your fault,” she said. “If you hadn’t come here, those two idiots would never have come through the portal. You’re the reason Aina is dead. People are dying, and you’re taking your own sweet time gathering your power or whatever to do anything to stop it!”
Rhett opened his mouth to defend Mia, but Mia stepped forward, prepared to defend herself. “I didn’t do this Lilac. I’m sorry about Aina’s death. It’s horrible, but I am doing everything I can to stop this. This curse will end as soon as I can stop it.”
Lilac wrinkled her nose at Mia. A tense silence fell over the entire group as Lilac prowled toward Mia. Rhett discreetly took a step toward them in case he had to break up a fight. Mia had no intention of fighting. As much as she would like to get pay back for Lilac’s little stunt at sending her cronies to throw Mia into the lake, she wasn’t going to resolve that right now. Lilac was grieving. She had just lost a friend. Mia wouldn’t do that to her, even if she couldn’t stand the girl.
“You,” Lilac whispered, her voice a growl, “don’t get to make orders or tell me what to do. I am in charge here.”
Mia straightened, unfazed by her. “No, you aren’t. Rhett is the prince. Rhett is in charge here. You may have gotten away with taking over control of the entire Fae community for the past ten years, but Rhett is the rightful Unseelie heir and he calls the shots.”
Murderous rage flashed in Lilac’s eyes. “You’re nothing. Just a halfling. You know nothing about Fae politics.”
“I know enough. I plan to open the door again, soon,” Mia said, raising her voice so Lilac’s group of friends could hear. All eyes were on her now, wide and surprised. “And I plan to make sure every one of you gets to go home. And guess what? That is only because of Rhett. Rhett and I have been training. If you think that Lilac will still be in control when you get back to Faerie, then you have another thing coming. She is nothing compared to the Unseelie royals there. So I suggest you pick your side now before it’s too late. You can tell everyone that too. I will stop this curse, and I will open the portal again and you all will go home.”
“Mia,” Rhett warned, taking hold of her hand.
Mia shook her head, glancing at him. “No, I’m not going to hide it anymore. I will open the door, and I think right now, they deserve to have hope that they’ll get to return to their home. They deserve to know that you are making things right. We both are. We’re making amends.”
Murmurs ran through the small crowd of girls. Lilac seemed to realize she was losing control because she glanced around at her friends and then back at Mia. For a second, Mia legitimately thought she was going to lunge at her and gouge out her eyes. But then, with a snarl she whipped around and picked up Aina’s body with a gentleness Mia had never seen from her.
She whipped back around to face Mia and Rhett, venom in her eyes. “You’ll get what you deserve, I promise you that. Come on girls,” she called, before marching off.
Her friends all hesitated, glancing at Rhett and Mia before hurrying after her. They watched Lilac and her group of girls disappear down the path.
Once they were gone, Mia let out a breath and turned to Rhett. “What happens now?”
“Now... now I guess you really do have to open that door because no way are Lilac’s friends going to keep that information to themselves.”
Mia gave him an exasperated look. “I know that. I mean, what are we going to do right now?”
“I guess we go tell Ryker the curse has struck again and then... get back to training.”
Mia grimaced. The last thing she wanted to do was tell Ryker. But what other choice did they have?
So, still wet and dripping, they ran all the way back home, Mia’s heart no longer in it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maybe they should have stayed in and enjoyed the quiet of the morning. When they got back, Mia went inside to change and was bombarded with crying from the kitchen. She stripped off her soggy tennis shoes and ran to the kitchen, half expecting to find her mom sobbing for some reason. What she found instead was almost worse. Angie sat at the kitchen table with her head in her hands crying. Her pink hair fell around her shoulders limply and when she glanced up, all the sparkle and light in her eyes was gone. Mia stopped in the threshold of the room, glancing at her mom who gave her a pitying look.
“What happened? Did someone get hurt?” Mia asked, her thoughts still on the body of Aina.
Angie shook her head and swiped under her eyes, smearing her mascara. “N-no. Well... yes... Kai he... he broke up with me.”
As horrible as it was, Mia couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief. No one was dead or dying. Just heartbroken. She did her best to hide her relief and rushed over to embrace her friend in a hug. “That’s horrible. Why would he do that?”
“He... he said his family had a big falling out over him, and he can’t... he can’t be the thing that rips them apart. I always thought,” Angie sniffled, “that he would choose me over them. I guess... I guess I was wrong.”
“Honey,” Mia’s mom said, setting a cup of tea down in front of Angie. Mia scooted a chair next to her so she could sit by her friend. “Goblins are very family oriented. You know how they are. Kai comes from a very different culture than you.”
“I know that,” Angie said, taking a sip of her tea. “I knew that when I asked him to go to the dance with me and I knew that when we started dating. But... but I thought he loved me enough to at least fight for us.”
“He does,” Mia said because how could she not? Kai was one of her closest friends. She had to defend him. Mia couldn’t imagine he would do something like this. He had been pining over Angie for forever! Something awful must have happened for him to give up on them like this.
“Obviously not,” Angie said, her lower lip sticking out in a pout. “If he did, he wouldn’t have dumped me.”
“I’m sure this is a misunderstanding,” Mia insisted, getting to her feet. She couldn’t do anything right now about the curse or Aina. But she could fix this. She had to fix this. After seeing yet another dead body, Mia couldn’t handle her two friends being so miserable and sad. This morning had started out amazing, Mia thought she and Rhett were going to go somewhere and then... it was like everything was falling apart.
“What are you going to do?” Mia’s mom asked. “And why are you all wet?”
“It’s a long story. Ask Rhett. He’ll explain. I’m going to go get changed and go see Kai.”
Her mother frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. All the goblins live in the same neighborhood. They won’t appreciate you being there.”
Mia scowled. “I don’t care. I have to hear the whole story from Kai.”
“Mia... don’t. It’s not worth it,” Angie sniffled, reaching out for Mia’s hand.
Mia stepped back. She loved her but... she had to do this. Not just for Angie but for herself to. She had to do something. Fix something. Take action. “It is worth it. I’ll be back soon.”
Before either of them could talk her out of it, Mia ran up the stairs and changed into a pair of shorts, a graphic tee and flip flops. Mia headed back downstairs and went straight to the front door, leaving without checking on her mom or Angie again.
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