“Hey, cheer up. It might grow back…”
Ivy shakes her head. “Goat horns don’t grow back.”
Goat? Is she serious?
I chuckle. “Are you calling me a goat?”
Despite my poor attempts at humour, a sweet laugh still spills from her lips. “Maybe.”
“Well, you did a splendid job. Thank you.”
I go to tap my bandage, but she bats my hand away, and I guess that’s the end of that conversation. Silence passes between us, and when she chews her lip, I raise a brow. “What is it?”
She settles those enormous eyes on me again, and they really are big. I’m convinced she has faerie blood at times, yet it’s only human blood I smell pumping through her veins. Ivy is all human. Just a ridiculously beautiful one.
“Thank you. For saving my life.”
And there goes my heart again, skipping its beat. Yes, I saved her life, and I would do it again and again. I’d take a thousand rocks to the head if that’s what it took to keep her alive. What is this sensation I’m feeling?
Love?
Faeries rarely love, but when they do find their fated soulmate… Well, they would move entire mountains.
Sometimes in the literal sense, too.
I push the silly notion aside, watching her curiously. Her eyes are shut, as if in prayer.
“Ivy?”
She sighs. “Tegwyn? There’s… something you should know.”
I smile lazily, dozing off once again. “Yes?”
“I’m… I think I’m the missing princess, Ivora. The one from the poster,” she finally whispers.
I take a moment to contemplate. “I know.”
I mean, it was pretty obvious. The resemblance was justtoouncanny. But am I surprised that I’ve been harbouring a princess this whole time? Quite frankly, I couldn’t give a shit. It doesn’t change a thing. She will still always be Ivy.
Her breath stutters. “You…you do?”
My shoulders shrug. “Lucky hunch. Imean…Ivy?”
“Yes?”
My lips stretch with a wicked smirk. “I’m PrinceCharming…in…in disguise…”
I don’t get to hear her response as sleep consumes me at last, and I’m going to be out for a while.
Still, let her mull over my words for a while. Might give her something to think about.
25
Ivy
Ishiverbeforethehearth, bundled up in several furs.
Winters in the north are truly something else. Hoarfrost coats every rock and tree; lakes and rivers are laden with ice; and animals have disappeared for hibernation.
