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The mattress dips behind me.
I twist around and gasp. He looms over me, one hand flat against the pillow near my head. I never heard him move. But his nearness isn’t what causes my breath to catch in my throat. This close, the scents of pine and citrus tease my nose. Stunning blue eyes shine from his pale face.
“You’re the man from the woods.”
His slow smile nearly stops my heart. “You were terrified. Fleeing someone or something. I… I had to protect you.” He looks away. “Keep you safe this time.”
This time? My brows draw together.
Long fingers stretch toward me as if he might run their backs along my cheek. “You look so much like her, and yet—”
I flinch, and he pulls his hand away.
“Who?” I ask.
A flash of something, maybe pain, crosses his face. “Does it matter?”
“I…” It might, but the only thing I’m certain of right now is that he doesn’t want to talk about it. “Thank you for saving me.”
The words rush out. I’m still dubious. Seriously, what kind of bonkers house is this? But whether he did help me or not, the words might earn me some favor. Or help this dream wrap up sooner.
“Who were you running from?” His tone turns hard. I’d swear the temperature in the room drops as a sudden gust sends the curtains flapping out onto the balcony.
What can it hurt to tell him? I manage to sit up against the mountain of pillows, bringing the fur up with me. “Well, I was closing up at Jolene’s. Derrick left early because of some debacle with his wife and the chickens.” His brows rise, but I ignore him, focusing instead on the silver birds embroidered on the lapels of the jacket buttoned up to his neck. Weird fashion, but whatever. “Anyhow, I heard the door open and thought he came back to help me close, but it was two men in masks instead. They held me at gunpoint and forced me to open the safe.”
“They threatened you?” he asks, as if that wasn’t obvious from my story.
I purse my lips and dare a glance at his face. Mistake. My chest grows warm even as my mouth goes dry. “Yes. Pay attention.” I stare out to the balcony instead. It’s far less distracting. “I recognized one of the men, and he realized that too. Thankfully, he got distracted for a moment, so I hit him and ran.”
“You fought back.” Not a question this time, but the awe in his voice stirs up something way too visceral for a dream.
I clear my throat and continue. “Anyhow, I didn’t have my car keys, so I ran toward the woods to get away. They shot at me, but I kept going.” My lungs hurt just thinking about it. “It started to rain, and I fell. Then you…”
Hesitantly, I glance back at the man. He’s leaned in, hanging on my every word.
My tongue is suddenly thick in my mouth, but I continue. “Well, you were there.”
And had wings, I thought. But he surely doesn’t now. It must have been something else. And the glow…
Well, who knows. I reach for my necklace and rub the smooth metal between my fingers. “Then I passed out.”
“Humans.” He taps a finger on his cheek, drawing my eye. “You were running from humans.”
“Uh… Yeah?” Who else?
“And you chose to flee to Faery?”
“Yes, to—” I lurch up from the sheets. “Wait, no. Where?” My voice cracks at the end. I’ve had some pretty trippy dreams before, but fairy? That’s a thing, a myth, not a place.
“Faery. You must have run straight through a door,” he says, almost to himself. “But then how—”
“A door? No, I never saw a door.” Honestly, I couldn’t see much of anything in the dark, much less the rain, but surely I’d have noticed that.
This strange man inches closer, leaning over me. A lock of his dark hair slides down his face to reveal a pointed ear.
Pointed. Like freaking Spock but longer, more angular, like a…
“Fairy.” My body goes numb. The fur slips away, and I can’t even figure out how to pull it back.
