“Come on, fairy.” He still refused to call me Rose, but I guess I could get over that. At least he wasn’t scowling at me anymore.
I followed his happy little steps as he brought me to the cookfire where a gorgeous man stood butchering a deer. “Yum. Look at all those potatoes from Helena’s garden,” he said pointing at a basket taller than him that was overflowing with different colored potatoes.
It was going to take some getting used to looking at all of these oddly-colored plants. I truly hoped that the potatoes tasted like the potatoes from home.
“Here’s where you help, fairy. That basket of potatoes needs peeling. Andryn is going to cook them. You get to peel. It’s a good thing to do for everyone. Fairies peeling potatoes is odd. An odd fairy could be good. If you sat and pointed at people. Do this. Do that. Then you’d be a normal fairy. Normal fairies are bad. Don’t be normal.”
He handed me a small knife, and I stared at the mountain of potatoes that I got to peel so that I could be odd enough for him. I blinked a few times as Enivyn walked away.
The handsome man butchering the deer said, “It’s okay to use a little magic to help with that if you want. I promise I won’t tell.” He winked at me, and it was hard not to stare.
Where Sebastian was rough and dark and brooding, this man seemed to be his exact opposite. He was beautiful. Golden blond hair that seemed purposefully messy. A face that looked like he’d never seen hardship. And eyes that pulled you in.
His body was nothing like Sebastian’s. Where Sebastian was big and strong, this man was lean with tight muscles. His movements were graceful. Even something as simple as trimming the fat off a piece of meat seemed to be beautiful.
He wore a dark green tunic without any sleeves that had golden embroidery over the edges. His pants were made of leather that had been dyed an even deeper brown than natural.
“I don’t know how to use magic yet,” I confessed. I guessed that honesty was the best decision in a place that was already skeptical of my intentions.
“Your wings still glisten,” he said as though that meant something to me. “How long have you been in the Immortal Realm?” I thought back on everything that had happened. All the odd day and night changes.
“Two days? Maybe? I’m not exactly sure. It’s hard to keep track.”
He smiled at me and said, “Well, if you can’t use magic, then you’d best get to work. That’s a lot of potatoes.” He looked at a smaller bucket and said, “That’s where the peels go. The potatoes can go in the soup pot. Quarter them before you drop them in.”
“I think I can do that.”
“I’d hope so. If you can’t peel potatoes, then what can you do?” He meant that as a joke, but it got me thinking. What could I do to help these people? What good was I to them? I knew nothing of farming or sewing or building or even of magic. This was probably one of the only things that I could actually do to help these people.
I set my jaw. I was going to live in this world. I wouldn’t let my human upbringing keep me from being successful in this world of magic and assassins. I looked at the bag of potatoes again. And lots and lots of potatoes to peel.
Today, I would peel potatoes, but tomorrow, I would learn how to do something more. Something more valuable.
Chapter 22
Sebastian
I tossed and turned on the bed as the sweats set in. I was dying. Starving to death. It began as a fever like this. My energy was dangerously low. I doubted that I could stand at this point.
Food would help. It would be slow to help, but it was better than nothing. I didn’t dream of food, though. I dreamt of Rose. Fever dreams of the mists surrounding us.
My dreamscape. Her naked under me. Screaming in pleasure. A violent and passion-filled dreamscape. For once, I was lost in the sensations just as much as my prey was.
A fantasy that had never happened.
The dreamscape was not a place for my pleasure. Only for food. Only for survival and strength. A place where I never failed in my hunt.
It was a wonderful fantasy. To enjoy the process of feeding beyond the power, beyond sating the constant hunger. To be able to find someone who could drive me to madness just as I drove them towards it.
My eyes snapped open as the door to my hut opened with a rattling sound. I sat up, groaning in pain as I did so. A beautiful mature woman with a stately presence wearing a robe of silk. Probably the only silk in the entire village. Long red hair the color of autumn leaves that flowed down to the center of her back. A lithe face and thin body.
An elf. Cara.
“Did Enivyn not inform you that I didn’t wish to be disturbed?” I said and almost winced at the gravel in my voice. My throat was swollen already. I needed the food to be done.
“I did not need to hear from Enivyn to know that you were starving, Sebastian. Everyone knows how weak you are, and they all question why your friend has not satisfied your needs. She is a full-blooded fairy, surely she can survive a trip to the dreamscape.”
I lay back down, letting my body relax as much as it could. “I haven’t asked her. I don’t plan on asking her. I’ll survive on food just fine.”
“Then why have you not asked for me, Sebastian? I have never refused you. I believe it
