Page 17 of The Fae Menagerie
He sniffled against my neck, and I ran my fingers through his dark hair. He didn't use product in it anymore, and the blue had faded so it was icy instead of bold like mine. It was soft between my fingers.
I cuddled him and petted his hair for a long time while I waited for the light to dim again. When it didn't, and Parker's shoulders tensed, I released him.
He flopped onto his back and stared up at the canopy of interlaced curtains.
"Would it help to talk about it?" I asked.
"It was the same old dream," he said.
"This is the first I'm hearing of it," I reminded him. "Humor me."
He rolled onto his side facing me and studied my face, as though judging how receptive I would be to his tale of woe.
"You brought me here hours before the most important meeting in my life."
He'd already told me about the app he wanted to develop, but I listened as he shared it with me again. Before I met PrinceDrummond, I'd owned a cell phone and spent most of my time in the human realm.
Despite the ages I'd been here, I kept up with Parker's pop culture references. During one of our discussions of human television, Parker shared his favorite show had just wrapped its last season. It was also one of my favorites, and I'd missed the final episode because of my trial. What had been millennia to me was no time at all for Parker, or anyone else outside the menagerie enclosures.
"The dream was different this time," Parker said. "After I failed my pitch, it changed. Grew darker. A shadowy creature with glowing golden eyes told me to stay away from his chosen." Parker tried to laugh it off, but it sounded more like something was stuck in his throat.
"Oh no."
He swallowed hard and met my gaze. "What?"
"I can't protect your dreams, but I can contact the source."
"Protect my dreams?"
I felt a strange trickle of power ripple over my skin again, giving me yet another directive from the coin. I'd agreed to take care of Parker, and saving him from the Unseelie Prince, no matter how misguided his intentions, was now my prime directive.
"Prince Drummond is a dream walker. He's trying to give you nightmares. They can lead to madness, even for the fae." I couldn't let that happen to Parker, especially not for something entirely my fault.
Still, I had no desire to meet with Prince Drummond. I hadn't respected the power of his court and station, and here I was, in a prison of my own hubris.
I deserved whatever punishment the prince wished to bestow upon me for dragging Parker with me to my own version of hell.Once the lights dimmed in my room, I waited for the prince to invade Parker's dreams again.
Prince Drummond was drawn to my presence as I covered Parker's sleeping form with my wing.
"You shouldn't be here." Though I knew Prince Drummond was a million miles away, safe in his castle spire in the Unseelie Court, he could make himself appear corporeal in the shadows of my bedroom. He poked at my wing, trying to get me to move.
"Neither should you."
"A human." He sighed. "You chose him over me."
"I didn't choose him. The fae luck coin bound me to take care of him."
"Take care of him." He chuckled. "How have you been taking care of him?" I couldn't protect Parker from Drummond's mind invasion as he took a deeper dive into his subconscious. I only hoped my human charge wouldn't notice, since he was asleep.
When Prince Drummond returned his attention to me, it was with profound concern. "Is there something wrong with him? He doesn't … he's never … you've never … you've changed," he settled on the last with a stiff nod of his head.
I had to agree with him. "I have changed." I knew apologies would get me nowhere after everything I'd done, but I offered one, anyway. "I'm sorry I led you astray and gave you the impression I wanted more than a casual relationship. That wasn't my intention."
He frowned. "I didn't know I wanted more until you said I couldn't have it. It seems childish to say out loud." He smirked. "I was also living under my parents' outdated rules. My betrothed was a giant whore before they met me. I bet they could show you a thing or two in the bedroom."
"The wedding is back on?" I hadn't gotten any news beyond the little tidbits Aidan shared about my mother and grandmother.
"We've worked it out in our dreams. We're getting married on the winter solstice in two years' time, when the moon eclipses the sun at noon on the shortest day of the year."
