It hadn’t been long since I’d come to the Immortal Realm, but now that I was here, I knew that I could never go back to my old life. I’d been an outsider there. This place, this village, this entire world made more sense to me. I may not have known very much, but every bit of information seemed to slip into place without any trouble.
I understood why the unicorn had attacked me, and I wasn’t afraid of seeing another one. I understood the pecking order within a shifter pack. I understood the centaur’s society and culture. Things just made sense.
The Mortal Realm was still a mystery to me even though I’d spent my entire life there. I still didn’t comprehend why Sasha had dated Tony. I didn’t understand why people made such a big deal about turning twenty-one. I still hated the idea of watching TV.
The only things that had actually made sense were the things that were closer to what happened every day in the Immortal Realm. Plus, I had magic here, and magic was awesome. I could fly! I could dig a hole in seconds. I could ride a freaking centaur.
I saw Cara pulling her robes away from the shifter pups in front of their hut. She’d been asked to take care of them while their parents were hunting with Sebastian. She looked absolutely miserable.
I smiled. I got to play with shifter pups.
My wings began to flutter with excitement. This was going to be fun. My feet lifted off the ground as my wings sped up. Silently, I floated through the air. The pups were facing Cara, and Cara was trying her best to keep them from destroying her robes.
Rushing through the air, an ear-to-ear grin on my face, I landed right behind them and pulled two of the four’s tails hard, and they yelped, immediately turning around and trying to bite my hands.
I saw their faces light up as soon as they saw me. I leaped backward, fluttering a foot above the ground and said, “I’ve got them Cara.”
“Thank you, Rose,” she said, her voice filled with exhaustion. All four of the pups raced towards me, and I began to throw slow moving bits of shadow at them as I fluttered backward just a little slower than them.
They dodged the shadows which wouldn’t have hurt them even if they were caught by it. Yipping at me as they ran, their tiny paws tore at the ground. A pack of miniature wolves chasing me as I flew through the air laughing.
Yes, this was the definition of a fantasy turned into reality. I’d never have found it in Mortal Realm. I was meant to be here. This was home. Finally.
Chapter 28
Sebastian
“We’re doing what?” I asked as I took off my cloak, draping it over the chair in our hut.
“We’re giving Enivyn a birthday party.” I blinked and cocked my head.
“What’s a birthday party?”
Rose grinned. “It’s a human thing. How many candles do you think the village has?”
“How many candles…? I don’t know, Rose. I don’t live here, and I definitely don’t do inventory for them. Why do we need candles?”
“For the cake, of course.” She dug through the pack of clothes that she’d brought from London. “You need candles for a birthday cake.”
“What are you talking about?”
She shook her head. “Nevermind trying to explain important things like birthday cakes to silly fairies. Just watch and don’t try to do anything. Just be pretty. You can do that, right?”
“I can just be pretty. Eventually, you have to explain yourself though.”
“Just watch and learn, old man. Sinivyn’s got Andryn working on the cake. I hope he doesn’t screw it up too badly. John’s teaching the village the song. Kasia said that she’d make crowns since nobody keeps birthday hats on stock here.”
I gave up trying to understand what this woman was talking about. Why would anyone need a crown for their birthday? And what did any of that have to do with a cake?
I watched as Rose took the necklace that I’d paid for with a dagger out of the bag that held her dresses. “Any idea if my dagger will cut this metal?” she asked.
“No idea, Rose. I don’t even know what that metal is.”
She shrugged and pulled her dagger from its sheath at her side. She set the necklace on the ground and slammed the dagger’s blade against it. The metal snapped with a clinking sound. Over and over again, she cut pieces off the necklace, and I watched without trying to help. I had no idea what she was going to do with it.
Then she put two ends together, and I saw light flare between her fingers. She held the two pieces together as the smell of burning metal filled the hut.
“Fuck,” she murmured, dropping what was left of the necklace and holding her finger. She winced as she pulled a droplet of the metal out of her skin. “Haven’t ever tried melting metal before. Maybe I should have done it a different way.”
She picked up the necklace that looked nothing like the original now and smiled. “What do you think?” she asked.
I hopped off the chair I’d been sitting in and walked over to her, taking the necklace in both hands. She had cut all the dangling bits off and shortened the chain until it was much smaller. Almost too small to fit around a neck.
“Kind of a strange necklace now. Why take off the sapphires? They were pretty.”
“Wouldn’t work for a crown. I didn’t have much else to work with, so this is the best I can do for a real crown.”
I blinked again, thoroughly confused. How could this woman confuse me when I was fifty times older than her?
“Alright, time to gather everyone together. If I teach you a song, will you sing it when it’s time?”
“I’ll do what you ask me to do,” I
