Page 120 of Beyond the Faerie Gate

I should’ve asked Titania to go as soon as I saw the horse getting nervous.

Hindsight is a bitch.

“Riding lessons are cancelled until she’s got her powers under control.” Drystan winces as he pulls himself to his feet. “Even then, we need to approach the stable about breeding a smaller horse for her, or training them to kneel so she can mount without difficulty. She’s too short for fae horses.”

“Rose is the perfect size,” Lore says, grinning as he tugs me up after him, and then strokes a piece of hair away from my face. “Now, if you’ve cancelled her horse lessons, that makes her fair game.”

“No.” Drystan prods lightly at his ribs, grimacing. “It doesn’t. We still have lots of—”

Before he can finish, Lore has blinked us away.

When we reappear, we’re standing in the middle of a forest I don’t recognise. If the golden leaves are any indication, then we must be in the autumn court, but there’s nothing else here besides the trees and dozens of strange, square stone posts protruding from the ground around their bases.

Some of the posts have been there so long that the trees they’re surrounding have started to grow over them. Giving the impression that they’re part of the tree. At the top of each one is a small recess where a candle sits. Some are lit, but the majority aren’t.

I wonder what they’re for, but I don’t get a chance to ask before Lore pulls off his knitted cap, reaches inside it, and draws out a blanket.

I forgot Jaro said that redcaps could store things in their hats. What else does he have in there?

My curiosity banishes any lingering concerns I have about leaving Drystan alone with his broken ribs as he spreads out the blanket on the floor, then reaches back in for a plate of steaming food.

“You were going to miss dinner,” he complains, pulling out another meal, and then a bottle of some kind of wine and arranging them on his blanket before plopping his hat on my head. “All work and no play makes Rose a very silly queen.”

So he made sure I ate.

I melt a little inside.

Lorcan might be a little… mad, but he’s taking care of me.

It should feel ridiculous, but instead, it’s oddly romantic.

This is our second dinner together like this, and just like last time, he pulls me into his lap rather than letting me sit opposite him. My cheeks must be redder than his cap, but I’m growing to quite like this side of him.

“I didn’t bring my dagger,” I mumble, feeling oddly nervous.

I’m also not prepared for another massacre.

“Did you plan on needing it?” he asks, picking up the bottle and frowning. “Danu’s tits, I forgot the wineglasses.” He shrugs, digs his teeth into the cork, and drags it from the bottle before spitting it away into the bush. “Ah well, I’ll share spit with you.”

“Our last dinner had a high body count,” I murmur, looking around for any hidden bodies of water and thankfully coming up blank. “And why not just blink them to us?”

Lore shakes his head. “I can blink me, and whatever I’m holding, but I can’t blink objects to me.” He raises the bottle to my bottom lip. “Danu had to stop me from being all powerful.”

Obediently, I tip my head back and accept the sip of sweet, berry-flavoured wine he offers me. It floods my mouth with an almost syrupy flavour, and I smile.

“I like this one.”

“I should hope so. I liberated it from your rather swanky wine cellar,” he admits shamelessly.

Tipping the bottle back, he gulps his own larger mouthful. His Adam’s apple bobs with each swallow, and I find myself riveted to the motion before he replaces the bottle on the blanket and picks up the plate of food instead.

“What do you want first?” he asks.

Chewing my lip, I look at all of it. “Can you tell me what they’re called?” I ask, pointing at the small purple potato-like vegetables which have been hollowed out and filled with some kind of mixture which I think might be cheese, but I’m unsure.

Lore goes one step further, naming everything on the plate as he feeds it to me. By the time we’ve finished eating, the sun has gone down.

Just in time for the redcap’s second surprise.

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