Page 23 of Casting Butterflies

I recoiled. “Fuck off.”

The mighty scowl on Misha’s face indicated his displeasure at the cat outing him. “The dryad is telling the truth. My people aren’t originally from this dimension.”

The term dimension, one I’d recently learned about because of Charlie opening that door to Infernal, had me blurting out, “What dimension do you come from? Ever heard of Infernal? Me and bestie and Cedric here recently met some Shadow Elves who came from there.”

His brows knitted together. “What do you know of the Umbradriad?” Ooh, he knew their formal name.

“Not a ton, despite the fact my bestie married one of their princes.”

He stood and paced, not very well I should add given we only had limited space. “The demon incursion in Ottawa a short while back, you were involved.” Stated, not asked.

“You could say that.” I then offered an abbreviated version of what had happened. Two drunk and stoned women playing with an old spell book, opening a doorway to another world, accidentally allowing entry to demons, and a pair of elf princes, one of which hunted the other. How Charlie ended up in Infernal, defeating the bad elf, meeting her father, returning to Earth, and then getting roped into being queen with her hot pointy-eared babe.

When I finished, Misha stared at me but said nothing, so I directly asked, “Are you from Infernal or some other dimension?”

His lips pursed. “Infernal originally, but in the eons since we departed, my people tried settling on many worlds before choosing Earth.”

“Why Earth?”

“Because it proved the most hospitable for my people.”

“If it’s so friendly, why is your home hidden?”

“Humans.” A single word answer that actually covered a wealth of reasons.

“They hunted you?”

“What do you think?” his sarcastic riposte.

“Since you’re from Infernal, does that mean you’re a shadow elf? Cause you don’t look like one. Wrong skin tone for one.” He lacked the grayish pallor of Ulseere and Gryvak and lacked the ebony locks.

“I am not an Umbradriad,” he muttered before sitting down hard.

So much for me finding my own dark prince. “Then what are you?”

“Light elf, or as they call themselves, Luxalis.” Cedric might have his eyes closed as if he slept, but he apparently listened.

“Quiet, dryad,” Misha snapped.

“She would have figured it out soon enough,” Cedric drawled. “Your pointy ears are bound to show eventually.”

My brows lifted. “Are they really pointy? Can I see?”

“No.”

Given he looked constipated with irritation, I didn’t press the point and chose to switch subjects. “The butterfly necklace. You claimed it was stolen.”

“Not the jewelry itself but rather what it contained.”

“The spirit thing.”

A simple nod was my reply.

“How did it end up in the necklace?”

“Through vile perfidy. Someone we sheltered betrayed us, and before we realized their intent, they’d stolen Anivivi, the soul of my people.”

“Yikes. That sucks. No wonder Papillon kept herself hidden. She didn’t want you finding her and taking it back.”