A very large female with silver hair and a matching silver coat and tail raised a bow towards me, and I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t know what to say to keep her from shooting me after everything that had happened.
“Kasia,” Enivyn said quickly, “this is Rose. She’s a good fairy. I trust her.” The centaur looked at me and then at Sebastian. Then, she finally looked back at Enivyn.
She snorted softly but then said, “A friend of Sebastian and Enivyn is welcome here.” She slowly released the bowstring, putting the arrow in a quiver at her side. She slung the bow she carried over her shoulder.
“That was good.” Enivyn’s voice seemed more nervous than I’d expected. “Kasia likes to shoot first. Then she asks questions. Especially now. Babies do that to mothers.” He patted my leg and smiled up at me. “The rest are easier. Don’t worry.”
Kasia walked back into the village, and her foals followed her, but they kept looking back at us. I didn’t feel nearly as confident as I had before arriving. My nerves were so frazzled at this point that it didn’t take much to make me lose what little confidence I’d found.
Surprisingly, the first non-centaur to get to us was another half-gnome. He looked nothing like the other two. Clean-shaven, he wore a relatively nice coat and normal shoes. He was still just as small as the other two, but other than that, he looked just like any other man. Under heavy eyebrows, two dark brown eyes that seemed to smile like the other gnomes watched me with a twinkle.
“Rose, this is John. He’s my other brother.” I raised my eyebrow in surprise. “John? That’s… that’s a human name.”
“I know that all of you full Fae think of the half-bloods only by their Fae side, but some of us have embraced the human side. After my mother raised my two brothers, giving both of them proper Gnomish names, she demanded that I be given a human name. And a human upbringing.”
He smiled then. “My brothers are like most of the half-bloods who have embraced their Fae side. I have decided to do the harder thing and embrace the human inside me.”
He bowed to me and said, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Rose. A friend of Sebastian and Enivyn’s is a friend of mine.”
“And any brother of Enivyn’s is a friend of mine,” I replied with a smile. He was so well-spoken compared to his brothers. It made me question many of the assumptions I’d already made.
Until now, I’d met Fae who embraced their natural gifts and done the things that their race was best suited for. It made me think that maybe there was more to the Fae than I’d given them credit for.
John turned and headed back to the village. The rest of the members of the village saw us, and as soon as they noticed Sebastian, they retreated, making space for Sebastian to walk through the center of the huts.
Enivyn led us to a small hut in the corner. The door had no lock, but when Enivyn opened it, I could smell Sebastian’s faint scent everywhere. This was his home within the village, and no one bothered it. Even though he’d been gone for a long time, nothing and no one had disturbed it, and so his scent still lingered.
Sebastian immediately moved to the small bed that had been made for him. For a village so far removed from both worlds, the hut seemed luxurious. The bed was made of solid wood with a feather mattress. A fireplace sat in the corner with chopped wood sitting next to it. There were even paintings hanging from the walls.
He was loved here. This man who snarled at everyone and anything. This murderer. A man who embodied the darkness was their hero. Their savior.
Enivyn left without a word, closing the door behind him. Sebastian tried to get his cloak off but couldn’t manage it. I moved to help him get it off, and when it was over his head and lying in a heap on a chair, he sighed, taking slow breaths.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“What can I do to help you?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, Rose. I just need to rest. And eat something. Please bring me a plate of food when you find some.”
He pulled his silk shirt off. The entire front of it was burned. His chest and stomach were still pink where the new skin had grown over the burned flesh. I’d watched it happen. It had been terrifying to see it, to know how badly it had hurt him.
He reached to untie his boots, but he seemed to struggle. I squatted down in front of him and undid the laces. “Sit on the bed. I’ll get your boots off.” He nodded and hobbled to the bed to sit down.
I pulled his boots off along with his socks. He seemed to hesitate and then said, “Thank you, Rose. Please let me rest until you find food.”
“I will. And I’ll tell Enivyn to spread the word not to bother you. I’m sure he already has.”
Sebastian nodded and crawled under the blankets with some difficulty. I turned and with just one glance backward at him, I left the hut.
Enivyn stood outside the door and gave me an odd look, his thick eyebrows bunching together. Then it was gone, and he was back to being his generally excited self. “Come on fairy. You can help with dinner. Not the cooking part. That’s Andryn’s job.”
“Okay, Enivyn. Show me what to do, but can you do me a favor first? Sebastian wants to be left alone. Can you let everyone know?”
“Everyone knows to leave him
