Chapter 9

Nine

WESLEY

I scrambled up the embankment, hoping to find my way back to the cabin though full dark left little light to illuminate my path. Blood dripped down my face. The previous shift more glamour than physical, hadn’t healed the cuts from the fall. Everything hurt. Ankles, back, head, and my left elbow. Had I landed on it on the way down?

I’d need rest and food to heal, but since I was only partially human, infection wasn’t something I’d ever worried about. My clothes were stained and wet, adding to the icy chill already expanding in my gut. Instinct demanded I change to my other form and abandon the weak mortal skin, but I wouldn’t.

The man followed. I didn’t tell him not to. I could have enacted the fae demand: a life for a life. I’d saved his, now he owed me eternal servitude. But I hated those old rules and hoped the new kings would break them.

I tripped over a log, missing the tip of it jutting from the ground. The mortal caught me, arm wrapped around my waist, holding me in a half hug. I steadied myself and pulled away.

“I could use some fucking light!” I shouted at the forest, fixing my hoodie which rode up at his touch.

“I have a lighter,” the mortal said.

I gazed his way and saw him holding out a small cigarette lighter. He flicked it and the flame bounced to life. Tiny, useless to illuminate the dark, but exactly what I’d needed to light the damn twigs I’d stuffed in the wood stove.

“Follow me,” I told him. “Save the lighter. We’ll need to use it when we get to the cabin.”

“You have a cabin here? Did you make it with magic?” He followed close behind. I watched my feet, trying not to focus on his warm body radiating heat inches from my back.

“I didn’t make it. The world did. I told you I’m just as lost as you.”

“But you’re fae.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m meant to be here,” I said.

“I was wondering about that.”

“About what?” I asked. Were we going in the right direction? I tiptoed through a thick area of brush and found mushrooms glowing to light a path. “Fuck me,” I growled at it. Nothing like the world rolling out the welcome mat.

“Why there are so few fae here. Since you said it’s a fae world and all that. All I’ve seen here is you and the ghost wolf.”

“I’m pretty certain that ghost wolf is some kind of fae.”

He thought about that for a minute, following me through the glowing path. “Should we be following the creepy glowing mushrooms or running the other way?”

Observant fuck. “Sadly, this world seems to like me. It’s been gifting me things, like the cabin, food, and now a way back to the cabin.” I paused to glare at the path that screamed fae intervention. “I hope.”

He stayed close, letting me lead and occasionally reaching out to touch the back of my hoodie. I don’t know if he knew he was doing it, like he had to make certain over and over that I was real, but since he didn’t hold on or pull me back, I let it go.

The cabin came into sight with a welcome wave of relief. It looked the same, though the glow of mushrooms surrounded it like a beacon in the dark. Those hadn’t been there. But the kitten vanished, too. Had it followed me into the woods and gotten lost?

I approached the door, praying it really was the same place and not some dupe filled with an otherworld witch wanting to cook a tasty stag up for an evening meal.

Something launched itself out of a tree above us. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye and turned, throwing myself backward, but the mortal was the focus of the attack. The kitten, now back to its leopard self, landed with deadly precision on the mortal, knocking him on his ass and snarling in his face.

“Who are you?” I asked the man out loud, wondering just why everything in this world was out to get this particular mortal.

“Uh,” the mortal gasped, frozen beneath the sharp claws and deadly fangs of the leopard.

“Come on, kitty,” I called the cat. “Let the frat boy go. He’s got a lighter. Remember I asked you for one of those?”

The cat glanced at me, then back at the mortal before bouncing off him and to my side to rub up against me and give that little rumbling growl of warning. I petted its head, and the cat leaned up into my touch to gain a good eyebrow scratch.

“I totally knew you were a Disney Princess.”

“What the fuck?”

“You talk to animals.”

I glared at him, but continued to pet the leopard.

“Is it your pet?” The mortal asked.

“Nope. Pretty sure it’s some kind of fae. Like the cabin, it came to me.”

“Seems protective.” The mortal started to get up, but the leopard growled at him. He held out his hands. “Not doing anything bad, kitty. Not going to hurt your pretty friend.”

Pretty friend? I tilted my head, wondering if he realized what he said.

“Anyway, my name is Finley, everyone calls me Finn. I already told you the rest of my story. I was ghost hunting with friends. Got separated, and somehow ended up here. What about you?”

“Did you walk through a portal?” I ignored his question, needing answers. Why him? Why in this vast empty world of wild magic, had it picked him? Fluke? Probably not.

“I don’t think so. I mean I’ve heard people talk about portals, but never seen one.” He stared at the cat, keeping still, but let his gaze flick to my face. “I was running,” he admitted. “From the ghost wolf.”