1. Lorraine

Chapter One

Lorraine

M y life sounded like something out of a movie. I’d been sold by my ex-boyfriend to pay off gambling debts. I’d escaped and somehow run into a different realm where a drus—a protector of the forest, a tree sprite, if you will—had saved me and kept me in a cottage surrounded by barriers of magic for my protection. I’d fallen in love with this guy, only to find out that he’d tricked me into being trapped here. My current best friend was a Greek goddess. Literally. This was my life now. At least until All Hallows’ Eve was over, when I could finally go back home. “You can’t be upset forever,” Philippa said, outstretched on the grass next to the cottage that had become my home—albeit my temporary home. “It’s not forever,” I said. “Just for another two weeks or so.” It better not be forever, I thought darkly. “He didn’t mean it, you know.”

I sighed and looked at my new friend. Philippa had been there for me when I’d had no one to talk to other than Ash. I’d been trapped in the cottage, hiding out from the human traffickers Oscar had sold me to after I’d escaped from the back of their truck, and they’d been trying to find me again and again. The fact that they’d finally found me was still a big question mark—how had they known where I was? And how had they had magic to wield and fight Ash? I shook off the questions and focused on Philippa. She was a sweet person, and I’d liked her immediately when I’d met her. I guess it made sense, knowing now that she was the goddess of friendship. She twirled her long, dark brown hair around her finger, and I studied the flowers in her hair. They always looked like they’d gotten tangled in her hair by accident, but they never fell out again. She looked like she’d escaped from a spring carnival, but one for the gods. Everything about Philippa was about sunshine and rainbows, and she was always perfect and blemish-free. Perks of being a goddess, I guess. “What do you mean he didn’t mean it?” I clapped back. “He knew exactly what he was doing and what the consequences were, and he did it anyway. He was only thinking about himself.”

Philippa eyed me. “I don’t think that’s fair.”

I bristled, glowering at her. Just talking about Ash pissed me off—he’d seduced me, and we’d slept together, and because of that act, it had created some kind of magical bond between us. It had something to do with the magic in the air the closer we got to Halloween—or All Hallows’ Eve, as Ash kept referring to it—and I couldn’t leave or I would die. Right, that was exactly the kind of thing a guy told a girl on a first date: I’m a tree sprite, I like coffee, if we fuck, you’ll be bound to me and die if you try to go back home. I groaned and fell back on the grass next to Philippa. “I can’t go home because I’m forced to be here with him, and you’re telling me I’m being unfair?”

Philippa shook her head and turned it to face me. “I mean, you’re being unfair saying that he doesn’t care about you. He cares a whole lot about you. You’re alive because of him, after all.”

I sighed. That was true. The human traffickers would have found me that night after I’d escaped if not for Ash. They would have succeeded in taking me away if not for Ash. He’d been looking after me, making sure I was safe, since the moment he’d grabbed my ankle and dragged me through the forest to safety that night. It wasn’t that he didn’t care. He just cared about himself more than anything else.

“That’s not that surprising,” Philippa replied when I said as much. “He’s been alive for a very long time, and the last person he fell for ripped his heart out and stomped on it.”

I rolled my eyes. The infamous ex-girlfriend again. Ash had fallen for some human a long, long time ago, and his life was still a mess because of it. I didn’t know details—he didn’t like talking about it, and neither did anyone else. I didn’t care, though. I didn’t want to know. Call me old-fashioned, but fussing over something that happened three centuries ago wasn’t my style. Just get over it already, am I right? But what did I know? Maybe it was a big deal to Ash because when you live that long, the heartache lingers that much longer. I had heartache too, though. My boyfriend, a gambling addict and the only person my sister and I had left after we’d lost our parents in a car accident, had sold me to settle his gambling debts. That had happened just a couple of weeks ago—in human time, anyway. It felt like a lifetime ago in some ways, and it felt like yesterday in others. It wasn’t only because time was strange here in the vale, either. So much had happened since Oscar had betrayed me and sold me off; I felt almost like a different person. Not so different that I’d forgotten about it all, though. I had heartache and troubles regarding an ex, too. Ash didn’t seem to think that was as important as everyone being very aware of his smarting heartache that seemed to never go away. “He should have told me,” I finally said. “Would that have changed things?” Philippa asked. “Would you not have slept with him?”

I thought about that. Ash was a magnetic force of a man. I didn’t know if it was his magic that drew me to him automatically or if it was something else, but I couldn’t stay away from him. Even now, in my furious state, when I saw him, the air became thick with sexual tension, and despite being so damn angry, I still wanted him to pin me to a wall, a couch, a bed… hell, the floor and have his way with me. “I don’t know,” I said. “But that’s not the point. The point is that he didn’t give me a choice. He should have told me so that I knew what was going on. I nearly died because of him!”

You were also saved because of him. I ignored the small voice, determined to hold onto my anger. “Look, you still have some time here. Two weeks isn’t long, but it’s plenty of time to work things out.”

“In this place, two weeks can be an eternity.”

Philippa shrugged, but I knew she knew what I meant. I’d only been in the vale for about two weeks. Not much time had passed at all since I’d been sold to human traffickers, but it felt like I’d been in the cottage for months. I expected it would be the same for the next two weeks, which meant I had a long time to still deal with Ash, to see him all the time, to have to face the fact that I was a prisoner here because of him. “All I’m saying,” Philippa went on, “is that you should consider forgiving him for that part and getting along, because the next two weeks could be great, or it could be miserable. You do have a choice there.”

She was right about that. It had only been a few days since I’d found out about Ash’s deceit, and it already felt like I’d carried this burden of anger for weeks on end, furious with him, tense, upset whenever I saw him. “I don’t know if I can just let it go,” I admitted. “It’s a big deal.”

“Just focus on all the good he did for you,” Philippa suggested.

“Everyone has flaws, but they also have redeeming qualities.”

I nodded. That was true. Everyone made mistakes, and everyone had parts of them that made them worth loving, nevertheless. It was the part that made us human. But Ash wasn’t really human, was he? Did these things apply to him? I tried to figure it out—he was a tree sprite, a drus who lived forever, and lived by a different set of rules. He had magic; his life was riddled with it and with the responsibilities that came with looking after the forest, and he wasn’t human. Except, in a very big way, he was. He loved fiercely, he had issues, he fought to protect what was important to him—I’d recently fallen into that category, too—and he cared. Even if he had a screwed-up way of showing it. I sighed again and sat up. “I don’t like it when you’re logical when I’m trying to sulk,” I said to Philippa. Her face split into a smile. “It happens to the best of us.”

“You’re right, though. He did do some good things, too.”

“And he’ll keep doing them,” Philippa said. She stood, dusting her perfectly crisp white tunic. “You can either see the good or you can see the bad in someone.”

I shook my head. “Now you just sound like a fortune cookie.”

Philippa tilted her head. “A fortune cookie?”

“Never mind,” I said and stood, too. I brushed grass off the hunting dress I’d found in the closet and hugged Philippa. “Thank you for being here for me.”

“Of course,” she said, and I heard her smiling over my shoulder. “It’s literally in the job description.”

I laughed and let go of her. “I’ll see you around,” she said, and in a flash, she was gone. I smiled and shook my head. It had taken a while for me to get used to what it was like with Philippa around. She was a great friend, but she didn’t do things the way humans did. She was a goddess, and she saw a lot of what the humans did, but inherently she just wasn’t the same. Her sudden appearing and disappearing had become normal, but sometimes her view of the world was a little off-balance because she hadn’t ever lived in it. Still, I valued her opinion. I was still upset with Ash, and I doubted that would go away just like that, but what she’d said made sense. Ash had screwed up. Badly. But he’d done so much that made it right again in a lot of ways. Just not right enough. Not yet. I turned toward the cottage and walked to the door. It had been my home for the last two weeks, and I’d grown fond of it. Even if it was very archaic and had no modern features like running water and electricity. It turned out in a world laced with magic, those things weren’t really necessary. Nothing worked here the way it did in the human world, and even though I was mortal, just a human caught up in a realm of gods and other creatures, a lot of things were different for me, too. The cabin lay in a clearing between the trees, with a stream running behind it and a large orchard beyond that offered the sweetest fruit I’d ever tasted. I’d come to see the cabin, as well as the clearing and the orchard, as a haven, and when the sun shone down like this and illuminated everything, I felt like I was in the middle of a fairy tale. I stood on the porch and gave a deep inhale, breathing in the smells of the forest around me and the magic that laced it. Someone appeared through the trees, and I tensed until I realized it was Ash. He came toward me, tall and upright and proud. His blue eyes locked on mine, and my stomach twisted into a knot.

My heart skipped a beat before I remembered I was furious with him. “Hi,” he said, stopping in front of me on the porch. “Hi,” I said tightly. I was determined to let him know how angry I still was with him. “How are you doing today?”

“Just fine,” I said. Ash nodded. His eyes were impossibly blue, and his dark hair was a mess, like he’d spent a lot of time pushing his hands into it. He was so handsome, it was hard not to stare at him. I knew this was a disguise—he used magic to look human when he wasn’t, but it worked. He was drool-worthy. Six feet of pure muscle sculpted and stacked and delicious. His face was perfect, too, like the face of a model. High cheekbones, sharp ears that were the only sign he wasn’t human, and a nose straight like an arrow. And those lips… I shivered just thinking about everything those lips had done to me. Heat washed through me when I stared at Ash, and lust threatened to push away my anger. “Can I come in?” Ash asked in a sultry voice. I grabbed hold of my anger with two hands and yanked it firmly into place. I wasn’t going to let my lust for him take over and stop me from punishing him for what he’d done to me. “You can do whatever you want,” I said, my words clipped. “This is your cabin.”

Ash nodded. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking—he had a great poker face. I hoped he felt bad for what he’d done. I hoped he understood that I was furious with him, because the longer I was around him, the more my lust for him took over, and I felt all kinds of things for him I wasn’t supposed to feel for someone I was pissed off at. “I want to show you something,” Ash said, and he gestured toward the cabin. I frowned, curiosity trumping all my other emotions, and I turned to the door.