“What are youdoing?” Delmare asked.
Jonah’s eyes glanced to the side. “Uh… I heard if you don’t believe in faeries, they lose their magic and can’t hurt you.”
Odette, Kiara, Delmare and I glanced between ourselves. Then we burst into uncontrollable laughter, wheezing so hard until our sides hurt.
“Do you… really… think wecare… if you don’t believe in us?!” I gasped between laughs.
“Oh, gods. That’s fucking funny.” Delmare wiped a tear from her eye.
“Your belief or non-belief isn’t going to do anything,” Kiara commented humorously. “Sorry.”
Jonah gave an elaborate wail, and collapsed dramatically. Even on his knees, he was almost eye-level with me.
“Ancestors! You’re going toeatus!” Jonah shouted. “And I won’t even taste that good, because I went back to carbs!”
“Jonah,” the other man said in aggravation. He stirred his arms in a circular motion, and I felt the wind in the area pick up considerably, forging a protective shield around him and his partner.
They wereAir elementals. What was with all these Elementai coming to Malovia lately? Didn’t they check the supernatural news and see there was a crisis going on here?
“Calm down. We aren’t going to eat you. We just ate,” I said.
“Yeah, a bunch of dessert,” Delmare said. “We’re full up on witch eyes and mermaid scales. Don’t have room for elemental legs.”
I elbowed her, to tell her to stop picking on them. Jonah got to his feet and wiped his brow. “Whew, that’s a relief!”
His partner… Jake, I think it was... commanded the wind to die down, though his eyes were still suspicious. “What are you doing out here?”
“Hey, you’re onourturf. We should be asking the questions,” Delmare said. “Who are you, anyway?”
“I suppose if you aren’t going to attack, introductionsarein order,” the taller man said. “My name is Jakob Weatherby. This is my husband, Jonah.”
“I’m Emma. This is Odette, Kiara, and Delmare,” I introduced kindly. “And sorry to ask, but why exactly are you prancing about Malovia?”
It was the right word to use. Jonah practically danced with every movement he made.
“It’s our honeymoon,” Jonah sang. “We just had our big wedding. We’ve been touring the country, though we haven’t been to Dolinska yet. We got a hotel in the countryside, and decided to go for a walk in the woods, before we…”
Jonah gave me a very obnoxious wink. Jake shook his head.
“Okay, so you two ran off into the woods to fool around,” Delmare finished.
“And got lost promptly after,” Jake replied gruffly.
“I am notlost,” Jonah purred. “I know exactly where we are! We’re east—”
“West,” I whispered.
“— West of the city!” Jonah finished with an elaborate flourish. “So there!”
Jake didn’t look impressed. Kiara crossed her arms and said, “But why Malovia? It’s certainly a beautiful place to honeymoon, but not typically a holiday spot for elementals.”
“My former professor, Elliot Baine, said it’d be a wonderful place to travel,” Jonah said with a shrug.
Ah, that explained it. These guys knew Professor Baine, who clearly hadn’t learned his lesson about avoiding the fae.
“I actually ran into Baine a few weeks ago,” I said. “He and his wife were nearly killed by cultists.”
“We heard,” Jake said. “But Jonah convinced me it would be a good idea to come anyway. Until our plane landed, and we found out the fae were in a time of war… which Baine failed to mention, I might add.”
