Chapter 14

Fourteen

WESLEY

W hen I exited the bathroom, clean and dressed, my stomach growling with hunger, I hoped to open the door to a place in the Summer realm, but it was the cabin. The fire blazed, radiating warmth, and Finn sat perched on the edge of the only chair, his shirt back on. The cake and tea, untouched. No sign of my kitten friend.

“You can have the shower,” I said. Maybe I could make something else with all the beans that had appeared in the cupboard. I opened the door to study them, hoping for cans with recipes on them, only to find a brick wall where they had been. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah, they are gone,” Finn said as he got up. “I thought I’d throw together something before I went outside to get wood for the fire, but all of the cabinets are like that now.” He waved his hand at the row of storage. “I hoped maybe it was your magic that made them appear or something.” His gaze wandered to the cake.

“We can share it,” I offered, thinking maybe it would trigger a way back to Sebastian’s court, or at least out of this world.

“I can’t touch it,” Finn admitted.

“What?” I reached for the plate and picked it up. The waves of magic pulsing off it a beacon of otherworldliness that made me salivate. Strange as I wasn’t one who needed to eat magic to survive. I generated it, much to the bane of my existence.

“I wondered if it was real and tried to pick it up. But I can’t.” Finn carefully touched the tip of his finger to the plate, but it went right through, as if the plate wasn’t there, or Finn was a ghost of some kind. “I can’t touch it. Not the cake or the tea.”

I set the plate down, mind churning through a thousand thoughts and worries. If it was a way out, it meant leaving Finn behind. Why did this world want him?

“It’s okay,” Finn said. “Eat. I’ll go jump in the shower as long as the water still works for me. Maybe you can show me where you found some of that food from yesterday. We can forage.”

Wait… “Did the food yesterday have a taste to you? The beans and carrots and stuff?”

“Yes. I mean the beans. The other stuff not so much.”

“Did you still feel hungry after you ate?”

“No.”

If only the beans had flavor…

“What?” he asked.

“You follow ghost lore, but did you ever read fae lore?”

“Outside of the occasional romance novel, no.”

“You don’t seem the romance novel type.”

“Why?” Finn asked. “I do a lot of traveling. Reading is a good distraction. Romances are easy to find.”

“I thought you’d be more of a travel guide or non-fiction how-to-become-a-millionaire guy.”

“I do read travel guides. The millionaire stuff not so much. Why? What about fae don’t I know?”

“Mortals can’t eat food in a fae realm. Well, they can, it just won’t satisfy their hunger. I suspect someone from outside the realm sent the beans.” Mainly Sebastian or perhaps his wizard wolf mate. And now the realm had blocked the beans. Only the cake and tea left behind because it pulsed with otherworld magic. What about the kitten? From this world or outside influence?

Finn stared at me a few more seconds then said, “So we will starve if we stay here.”

“I’m part fae, the food from here works fine for me.” I felt bad admitting it, but he had to understand what it meant to be mortal in a fae realm.

“And you can’t make outside food appear?” he asked.

“No. Someone sent the beans, maybe they will send more?” I could eat the cake and escape, maybe tell Sebastian about Finn and see if he had ideas. Not that the Summer king had reason to do anything for me. It was part of why I still hesitated to accept his help with the cake, if that’s what it was. Why would he want to get me out? To punish me for helping Zephyr and capturing the wolf?

“But the world, realm, or whatever this is, is blocking it now. Why?” Finn folded his arms across his chest, frown deep on his handsome face. He looked tired, and I wondered if he had gotten any rest or simply suffered my nightmares. “You can touch the cake. Does that mean the world likes you?”

“I don’t think the cake is from this world. I think it’s someone’s outside interference. Does this world like me?” I shrugged. “It gave me this cabin. I’ve been able to find food in this world and escape the wolf each time I’ve seen it.” Equating like to those things was a stretch, but I didn’t seem as cursed as poor Finn. I refused to mention the wolf bringing me dead animals as though trying to woo me.

Finn lingered a few seconds more, a war of emotions on his face which made me think not only was he younger than I originally thought, but also respect his willpower to not shout or scream about the unfairness of it all. He glanced once more at the cake, then headed to the bathroom, leaving the door open. I heard the shower turn on, and made my way to sit on the bed.

He popped his head out the doorway. “I’m going to leave the door open…” He hesitated as if embarrassed. “I feel safer if I can hear you out here.”

“I don’t think the world is going to eat you while you’re in the shower.”

“Well, that’s one of us,” Finn grumbled vanishing back into the bathroom.

I had to work to not think about him naked a dozen feet away. My stomach grumbled with hunger, the cake tempting, the tea wafting with steam, somehow still hot after sitting there for who knows how long. The sounds of Finn in the bathroom, moving around under the water, and faintly, his heartbeat, added a level of comfort I couldn’t recall experiencing in my long life. I wasn’t alone.

It was a dumb thought. We were all alone. Everyday always until the very end of our life when we died praying we’d done something important only to find it didn’t matter at all. The curse of a seer meant knowing too much and having little control over anything.

I sucked in a deep breath at the wave of melancholy, stronger than my normal depression, and wondered if it was the world adding to the darkness or the circumstances. The cake beckoned. Sweet tempting strawberries, plump and red, juicy like a siren song. A simple plate of spongy cake topped with delightful berries, no cream, which most would have found odd, but I thought maybe the Summer king might recall what I enjoyed. Or heard legend that eating things with animal products in it like eggs or real cream could trigger the Stag’s bloodlust.

Did Sebastian have a sponge cake recipe without eggs?

The water turned off, and I stared at the doorway, watching for Finn, gaze drawn back to the cake, time and again. When he appeared, dressed again, still in sweatpants that were far too revealing, he followed my gaze to the cake.

“Eat it. It’s fine. No reason for both of us to be hungry.”