Page 116 of Fae Farewells

“I think that’s why no one told you,” I whispered.

“Would I have needed to hide? Leave them behind to stay alive?” he continued, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t have been so obsessive. I know that. All those quirks and compulsions I picked up so I was ready to run at a moment’s notice… None of that would have happened.”

“I haven’t seen many of these quirks,” I admitted.

“Oh, Trouble,” Novak sang. “Fuck up his bed after he makes it. Or better yet, just toss his shoes into his closet without putting them exactly where they go.”

Vaughn grinned. “Novak fucks with my shoes. Briggs steals my candy.”

“That’s enough to drive anyone insane,” I muttered, glaring at my guys in warning. “Don’t do that to me.”

“Palmer likes to unmake my bed and take the pillows out of the cases…” he added, glancing at my smug demon. “Stone went through a faze where he unscrewed all the lightbulbs once a week, and I kept replacing them until I could get an electrician to our flat.”

“Apartment,” my demon corrected.

“One time, we turned all his clothes inside out,” York confessed. “Then we put them back on the hangers and in the drawers.”

I chuckled. “That’s not funny.”

“Why are you laughing?” Briggs challenged.

“Because it’s funny when it happens to someone else. I would literally throw everything away and start over.”

Vaughn released a heavy sigh, blowing all his stress away. “Holy shit, she’s dead.”

“She is,” I affirmed.

“We’re free.”

“You are.”

“Gods. That’s been a long time coming.”

I bumped his shoulder with mine, grinning as I nodded at his family. “They seem to think so, too.”

Reagan held Freya and Tilly back, a hand on each of their shoulders as he studied them for a moment. A sad smile tugged at his lips.

“You’re so dull, my girls. Where is your color, your magic? Why are you starving?”

My back snapped straight as I tilted my head. I had wondered if they were unhealthy myself, but I hadn’t known how to ask.

“She was starving you?” I questioned, my voice low as I pushed down the surge of anger.

“Not of food,” Vaughn calmly told me. “Of magic. The only way I can explain it is with an analogy… The same way you did in the Underworld.”

I nodded for him to continue.

“Think of a fae’s power like food. When I left this realm, I had to count calories, watch how much magic I used. I’m sure Ruby did the same.”

“I did,” the bronzed beauty agreed. “I’ve not heard it explained like this. It makes sense, though.”

“What’s happening here—” Vaughn motioned around us. “—with Freya and Tilly is that Alania was eating all the food. She was starving them of magic, gorging on calories while they got none.”

“Okay. That does make sense,” I conceded, holding up my index finger. “But question.”

He smirked. “Naturally.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re pale. Have you been starving yourself instead of counting calories?”