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“What?” I said, tearing my eyes away from the drops of water now dripping down his bare chest.
“Shorts too,” he said.
I looked at him incredulously.
“Or keep wearing wet clothes,” he responded to the look in my eyes. “But I’m going to lay my clothes out to dry.”
He began to walk toward the edge of the water. I stripped off everything but my bra and panties and handed them to him. He trudged over to the grass and laid my small clothes over a branch. Then he peeled his shorts off, revealing a pair of short navy boxer briefs, and threw his clothing over a branch as well. The muscles in his thighs were so huge that his briefs were forced to bunch up at the top of his legs.
I was sure that he could feel my eyes on him as he waded through the water back to me. I noticed a long silvery scar along the inside of his thigh just before his lower half disappeared beneath the waterline. It looked new. I knew that the silvery nature of the scar, like the one I had under my chin, meant that the cut had been made with an iron blade.
“What happened to your leg?” I asked.
“Someone tried to relieve me of my femoral artery,” he replied nonchalantly.
I wanted to ask more questions about the battles in the north.
“So, what do you think?” he said, changing the subject. He held his arms out and turned around in the water, gesturing at the alcove of the forest around us.
“It’s beautiful,” I responded, looking at the canopy of trees. “From here, you can’t even see that there’s a city out there.”
“I know. That’s the point,” Cass replied.
But I was distracted by the tattoo I spotted on his back when he turned around. I swam up to him and began to trace the outline of the tattoo that covered the entirety of his back and worked its way down his muscular arms. It was a set of wings. But not just any wings. They looked just like the dark set of feathered wings I knew his father donned.
Cass was proud of his father and his wings. His dad used to be able to retract and recall back his wings at will but, as the magic began to fade, his ability to do so also faded until one day he could no longer make the wings disappear. His father had always said he was thankful that when that day came, he was stuck with his wings, instead of without them. But Cass had grown up envious of his father’s wings and his ability to fly. Cass had felt that the dying magic had robbed him of his birthright—his own set of wings.
“How’s your dad?” I asked, pulling my hand away from his skin.
“Good. I stopped through for a minute on my way here. He says you haven’t been home since you left,” Cass replied.
Cass laid back, floating in the water and closed his eyes. Guilt coursed through me, just like every time I thought of home, my mother, and everything I left behind.
“Yeah, you know…” I equivocated. “I’ve been busy,” I finished, lamely.
He opened his eyes, cutting them toward me.
“It’s not as bad as you remember, Mand. People miss you there,” he replied, closing his eyes again.
But even the sound of him calling me by the name I went by back home—Mandy—struck a chord of existential dread within me.
“Speaking of missing people. Why’d it take you so long to come visit me?” I said, changing the subject.
He didn’t push. He knew I had mixed feelings about everything to do with our childhood home.
“Someone has to fight their wars,” Cass replied.
And I knew that he meant the high fae by “their.”
I shivered again, this time from being cold.
“I’m going to go lie in the sun for a minute,” I said, swimming toward the shore.
As I walked out of the water, I remembered I was wearing a thong. But it wasn’t like it was that much more revealing than the bathing suits Cass had seen me in a million times before. The fact that my bra and panties were white was the bigger problem. They were practically see-through when wet.
I decided just to lie on my stomach for a bit. A few minutes later, I heard Cass getting out of the water. Then I felt him settle next to me. We sat in silence in the soft green grass, allowing the sun to dry our bodies and our clothes. I flipped over to lie on my back, peeking one eye open to stare up at him.
Despite the fact that I was laid out in front of him nearly naked, he was staring at my face. I gave him a small smile and closed my eyes again, thinking of our kiss the last time I had seen him. And then Luke popped into my mind. But it wasn’t like that with Luke. It wasn’t like we were…exclusive. He had been on other dates. He was going on a date with Karina Dempsey tonight, and that would kick off his “courting” of her, as he had promised his parents.
