Page 50 of What did you do?

“How lovely,” I grumbled and rolled my eyes. The two of them together seemed frightening.

“Come on, get dressed. I want to take you to town. Please, please, please, Calypso,” he begged, the most compelling puppy-dog eyes I could imagine accompanying it. “I made a deal with a unicorn keeper to see his mob. You’ll love it.”

“Sorry, did you just tell me you’re taking me to see a unicorn?” It made me realize I hadn’t seen an animal since I’d been in the Seelie castle. “You know, for a family that has these wild animal blessings, I see no pets in this whole castle,” I bemoaned, resting my hands on my hips.

“We have the blessing to be able to shift; we don’t need animals,” Eli said, looking a little sheepish. “Artemi are the only ones that animals are drawn to. It’s a part of you that stayed with the part of your heart you still have. Now let’s go to town and get you some books and new clothes. Sometimes the merchants have pets for sale.”

15

PRESENT DAY

Caly

Wide-open fields speckled with trees and flowers stretched along both sides of us. The frequent orange-and-black movement of the monarch butterflies that trailed along Eli only added to the unbelievable view. It looked like something from a hyperrealism oil painting. A breeze took the hair off of my sun-warmed shoulders while we continued down the dirt pathway. The small crunch under my feet and the pleasant scent of warm, fresh grass was hypnotic.

Eli really did know how to make me feel better. He always had.

“If we can’t touch them, then why are we going?” I asked for the second time.

“I told you. There are several different kinds of unicorns. Some are battlecorns for the chariots of the Fates, some are for admiring their beauty, some for their magic, and many others.The unicorns we are about to see are the floricorns. They magically pollinate the stonopolis—the flowers used in our mead—and they can be quite mean.”

“Wait. We can’t pet the floricorns because they are mean?” I laughed so hard, I had to stop in the middle of the path.

“They are much more daunting than they sound, I assure you. They are respectable creatures though. Generally calm and mellow when left to their flowers or their mob, but they are the most ill-tempered, curmudgeonly, crabby, fierce lot when disturbed from their flowers. Not even the unikeeper likes them, but they get the job done.”

“A group of floricorns is called a mob?” I was struggling to keep a straight face, but Eli’s sharp, gold-speckled eyes told me it wasn’t a laughing matter.

“I’m serious, Calypso. Do not try to pet one, or I promise, you will regret it. I just thought you might like to look at them,” Eli said.

So onward we went to look at the scary, angry, flower-loving unicorns.

Small stone houses began to pop into view more and more until we came to an old stone fence. Bits of moss had started to climb around the edges of the sharp-looking gray stones. The fence was short, only coming up to about my thighs. The rocks had been formed into the shape of a large vertical circle in front of us. An old but clean-looking wood door stood inside the tall circle. I could easily see over the short fence, so it seemed silly to have a door in place; all that would be needed to get over the fence was to lift a leg. It was so odd and nonsensical, as so many things in Seelie were proving to be. Then it occurred to me.

“Is it a ward of some kind? Spelled?” I asked Eli.

A wide smile broke over his face. “I was just thinking of what silly things I could tell you it was.” He let out a laugh, tipping his head back until he was facing the sun entirely. “But yes, theland and cottages on this side of the fence are protected by the Seelie court and its powers. Most of the houses are those of court members or employees of ours anyway. This is warded to keep everyone safe and protected. Fae villages can be dangerous and unpredictable. Suns knows the elven villages are overflowing with mischief, as are the Unseelie, and don’t even get me started on Itäre. I’m sure the human villages have their own dangers.” He watched as a monarch butterfly landed on his hand and crawled around with a slow fold of its wings.

“Will it hurt me to go through it? How does it know I’m allowed to pass?” I asked, looking at the round door with curiosity. I didn’t fully understand the concept of magic. Unlike science, it didn’t make sense, it was unpredictable, and there was no real explanation for it.

“Of course not. Your tie—” Eli flinched a little before continuing. “You’re tied to me. We can go anywhere the other can safely as far as magical guards are concerned.” He walked toward the door like a puppy about to be scolded. “Let’s go. We don’t have a ton of time.”

“You want me to go through the magical door? Make me, SunTamer,” I stated stubbornly. The fresh air had invigorated me, maybe a little too much, and I couldn’t help but want to play around a little. I crossed my arms and planted my feet with a grin. Truthfully, I was still a little angry and had stored up too much restlessness in the room the past few days. I wanted to get a rise out of Eli.

He sighed, dropping his arms at his sides to let his head fall back dramatically. “How old are you, Calypso?” He moved in front of me and put his hands on his hips, then looked down at me with a small smile.

“For someone so smart, you’re severely miscalculating the situation,” he laughed, and I swear I could see it brighten the gold flecks in his eyes. “I thought you tired of me beating youyears ago. You don’t want this heat.” He chuckled, but then his face fell. “It’s been a long time since we played together, Cal. We’ve grown up a lot since then,” he whispered. The energy between us had somehow shifted.

His frame was so large this close, he completely shadowed me from the sun. He was right—things had changed since we had last seen each other. He was strikingly different from how I remembered him. I couldn’t help but admire how handsome he was standing there.

The thought felt weird, so I moved my hands up to push him back, ready to catch him off guard and show him he wasn’t really as grown up or as tough as he thought. In a blur, his hands shot out to hold my own in place against his chest, and he took a final step into me.

I inhaled sharply but couldn’t seem to look away as he pulled his lower lip into his mouth. I could feel his heart beating faster and faster under my fingers. My eyes took him in, from his bronze cheekbones down to the slight opening of his shirt.

A softthrapsounded, startling me. The cool silhouette blocking the sun grew as Eli’s feathered wings spread wide, broadening the shadow.

“You better stop looking at my mouth that way, or I’ll never be able to walk through town, Cal,” he whispered with a grin.

My face flushed with his words. The dancing flutter of my stomach with his closeness was undeniable. I unfroze myself and tried to move to the door, but Eli gently kept my hands in place.

---