Her lips curled in a real smile and said, “Come on. You’re going to have to get out of bed on your own.”
I groaned as I pushed myself off the bed. “You carry the tray, and I’ll do my best to get to the fire.”
“You need to get healed up so that you can be chivalrous again. It might be worth crawling into bed with you just so that I didn’t have to carry heavy things anymore.”
She grinned at me, and I tried to smile back at her, but the pains that ran through my body were almost too much to take. She saw through my façade and didn’t joke anymore as I hobbled out to the bonfire that had been prepared.
There were two spots on the logs that had been made into benches around the fire for us, and I tried to smile at everyone as they waved to me. I sat down on the ground, needing something to support my back, and I sighed as some of the pains receded for the moment.
Even though everything hurt, it felt just a little bit better. Had that kiss actually given me a touch of power?
John the half-gnome stood up and said, “Tonight, I’m going to tell the tale of how Sebastian, Prince of the Dark Court and only son of the late Dark Queen Catarina, saved my brothers and myself from slavery under the Court of Light.”
Chapter 23
Rose
Something stirred in my mind. Something that I should remember but didn’t.
“My brothers and I lived in the Mortal Realm at the time. My mother refused to go to the Immortal Realm, and my father accepted this.” He began walking around the fire as he talked, drawing the eyes of the listeners.
I pushed myself a little closer to Sebastian, picking food off the tray and eating it slowly as we listened to the story. Sebastian wrapped his arm around me, and I shivered at his touch. Even now when I knew that there was no way that he was using magic, his touch made my body crave more.
“We were happy for the most part, living in a small town outside a larger city.” He nodded to me and said, “A suburb is what the humans call it. We weren’t able to live underground as my father wished, as all gnomes desire, but we lived near a forest. My father would take us through the forest nearly every day foraging for food. Mushrooms, nuts, bird eggs, and the like.”
“It wasn’t because my mother couldn’t provide food for us. She was a nurse at the local hospital and made plenty of money. No, gnomes need to hunt and find their food. At least part of it. It’s as important to them as gold is to goblins or running is to centaurs. They cannot ignore that side of themselves.”
“This wasn’t a dangerous thing because my father had already taught us how to hide in the forest. We foraged in places that we weren’t supposed to go, but gnomes are excellent at staying hidden.”
His voice, even as human as it sounded, still had a rhythmic quality to it, and his movements matched it. It made John’s story entrancing.
“We were happy even as odd as it sounds. My father was able to teach us about being gnomes, and my dear mother taught us about the human world. We all learned to read and do mathematics as human children did, though we did it at home. As humiliating as it sounds, she dressed us up as children even after we were nearly adults. It was the only way to let us walk around in the world without fear of someone noticing us.”
“We all shaved every day, and we kept our voices high pitched. It wasn’t unusual for us, though. It was all that we’d known, and a person will do what it takes to be able to walk outside their door without fear.”
“My father was the only one of us who refused to act like a human child. He had no desire to go to zoos or shops. He never wanted to get into any of the human vehicles. He was content to forage and come home to tell us stories of a world where magic was real.”
“Until the day that everything changed.” John’s voice became more somber, his words more staccato.
“We were riding home from a shopping trip when we were in a car accident. This was many many years ago, and Sinivyn ran to the nearest pay phone to call for an ambulance. He also called our father.”
“The ambulance took my mother and us to the hospital. She was hurt badly. The car door had crushed her arm, and the doctors thought that they would have to remove it due to the excessive damage.”
“They wanted to give her the option, though, so they didn’t operate immediately. My father arrived at the hospital before she’d woken up, and he did the one thing that he’d told us never to do.”
John the gnome paused, building a tension in the air. Then the words came flying out. “He took her arm and healed it. Gnomes can heal wounds, though it takes almost all of their power to do so.”
“We had lived safe and simple lives for many years at this point. We’d enjoyed everything that humans and gnomes enjoyed. We’d never drawn attention to ourselves, and our ability to hide what we were kept us safe.”
“Now… Now, my father had risked it all to save my mother’s arm. I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Neither would my brothers. We didn’t have access to our magic yet because we’d never been to the Immortal Realm to claim it.”
“We were released from the hospital as her arm had miraculously been healed. No one could explain it, yet no one tried to question it either. When we arrived home, the soldiers were already there waiting for us.”
“So was Sebastian.” John glanced at
