“Hi, Sage.” I glance from him to Damon and back again. “How was your break?”
“Lonely. I wish I could’ve done more than just call you. I would’ve loved to have met your parents.”
My eyes widen. The idea of my parents meeting the fairy I gave my virginity to isn’t something I want to contemplate or experience. Then again, I’m sure Dad will have a wonderful reaction to my bringing home a half-demon. I can completely understand why Bay isn’t in a hurry for our parents to meet Zoth. Mom will freak, and Dad very well could too.
“Ah, my parents aren’t that important,” I say.
“Nonsense. They made an incredible fairy in you.”
“So incredible that you mistook her for her twin?” Damon interjects. “And then what did you do? Forgive her? No, no, you hung it over her head, didn’t you?”
“No one asked you, Damon,” Sage spits out.
“Maybe there’s a reason why she isn’t with you,” Damon continues.
“She’s not with you either.”
The two fairies face each other, chest to chest, and I spy Damon’s right hand curl into a fist.
That’s it. I push my way between them, a hand on each of their chests. “Boys, grow up.”
Damon’s glower that he’s shooting around me to Sage softens as he looks at me. “I hope we have a few classes together this year. Regardless, I’ll see you around.” He touches my nose then my lips and flies off.
My heart is still beating hard and fast as I turn around to see Sage. He holds my hand in much the same way Damon had, but then he interlocks our fingers.
“I’m sorry about that,” he says sincerely.
“It’s all right.”
On impulse, I lean forward and kiss his cheek before withdrawing slightly, forcing our hands to be held loosely instead of tight and close.
“Why don’t I get one on the lips?” he asks. “Or have you made up your mind then?”
Flustered, I open and shut my mouth a few times before I shake my head.
“I can explain that,” I say. “I didn’t mean to kiss Damon. It just… It’s not what it looked like.”
His green eyes show how hurt he is, which makes me feel even more terrible than I already do. His hair is longish but about the same length it always is. For once, he's cleanshaven. Normally, he sports the slight stubble look that, ironically, Damon has going for him right now. Both of them can pull off that look and be almost too hot to handle.
“What do you want?” Sage asks point-blank.
I gape at him.
“Who do you want?” he presses.
“I… I don’t know. I’m sorry. I just don’t have an answer for you.” I bite my lower lip, worried about how he’ll react.
Sage stares at me and then nods. “I guess he and I aren’t exactly helping matters.” He chuckles.
“Not really, but that’s on me.”
"No, what we do is on us. I mean, I hate the guy, but I can't blame him for being attracted to you, and I hate myself for being so petty at times. I don't like that side of me. Worse, I hate myself for how I reacted to everything. I just… You mean a lot to me. Yes, I was surprised to realize there were two of you, and I…" He stops and stares at me.
“What?”
“I never did tell you about the nightmare I had, did I? I only told Bay. If you want to know, I’ll tell you.”
“It’s up to you,” I say, but I have to admit that I am curious.
He blows out a breath. “I dreamed that I was a young fairy again, that I was abandoned. That no one in the world could see me. No one could hear me. And then I started to get tinier, smaller, shrinking, and soon, I was the size of the head of a nail. I couldn’t even hear myself talk! And then I was nothing at all. I was gone. No physical body. Just a mind, a consciousness, and I felt so utterly alone that I woke up crying.”
“Oh wow,” I murmur. “You told Bay all of that thinking she was me?”
“Well, I didn’t tell her the crying part,” he admits with a sheepish smile.
I can't help smiling back. "I kind of felt that way at times before, that no one would see or hear me if Bay was around, and maybe that's why I never brought her up to you. I don't know if it was a conscious thing or unconscious, but I liked you, and I did want you for myself. I… I was afraid that if you met her, you would want her over me. It's happened before. Not her fault," I rush to add. "She doesn't try to make guys like her. They just do."
“Guys like you too, Rosemary. Clearly.” He touches beneath my chin.
I smile up at him. This is the Sage I fell for, fell hard for right from the start.
“I have one more thing I need to confess,” he says.
“What’s that?”
“I… I might have come across as too overbearing last year when I called you Nancy Drew and tried to discourage you from looking into the murders. I never intended for it to seem like I was telling you what you could or couldn’t do.”
"That's exactly how you came across," I say softly. I hate that he's bringing this up because his words made me feel so small that it almost got me to stop liking him that way. Almost. I was still drawn to him even then.
“It’s just… My mom left me. I know it wasn’t her choice, but she died, and I didn’t want anything to happen to you. I didn’t want you to leave me too.”
“Oh, Sage.” My heart aches for him.
“And then to learn that the killer did all of that just to try to be close to you…” His nostrils flare. “If I had been there, Rosemary…”
“I’m glad you weren’t.”
He lifts his eyebrows.
“If you killed him, they might not have allowed you to continue to attend
