He laughed. “This is true. A bit of advice.”
I waited.
“Stay out of the Dark Woods. There are things far worse than myself.”
“I’m not afraid. Of you or anything else. I have proven time and time again that I am more than capable of handling myself.” I turned to glare at Gary and Tiggy lest they decide to speak and make me a liar. They both just stared blankly back at me.
Dimitri flew up close. He reached out and put his hands against my cheek. “Chaos always rises from complacency. I like you, Sam. You are not like the others. I’ve always been able to see that. There is something inside of you that burns differently than anyone who has come before you. I thought to harness it for myself, but I won’t be the one to force it. But remember. The Dark Woods are known to you now. And you are known to them.”
He flew up above us into the swirling mass of the other fairies. They shimmered brightly in the afternoon sun. The tree holding Ryan released him, and the fairies disappeared into the woods, almost faster than the eye could follow.
We were left in the silence of the forest, and I felt the gold and green all around me.
I looked over at Tiggy and Gary. “What the fuck is going on?”
Gary looked into the forest. “I suppose there is a bright side. You didn’t have to get gay fairy married.”
CHAPTER 13
I’ve Got Wood and I’m Ready to Masticate
WE MADE our way back to the main road before I thought to use the summoning crystal. I pulled it from the pack on Gary’s back, the others standing around me. Ryan’s eyes looked pinched and I wondered if we were friends again. I didn’t think I was mad, but I didn’t want to admit that it took a tiny naked man to help me get over it. I didn’t say that out loud because it sounded all kinds of wrong.
It didn’t help that there were too many questions I had for him. Why he seemed so keen on defending my honor. Why had he intimated he’d grown up in the slums. Why he was the way he was (meaning why, out of all the people in the world, was he my cornerstone). Granted, these were questions I was never going to ask, knowing full well my expectations would make the reality that much more crushing.
I told myself we were friends. Anger can turn to bitterness, and we couldn’t have that between us. Not when we needed to trust each other to stage a rescue from a dragon.
“Not a word from any of you about being in the Dark Woods,” I warned them. “Morgan can be a bit… touchy.”
Gary snorted. It was green this time. “Touchy. Right.”
“Maybe because you can’t take two steps inside before something bad happens?” Ryan said.
“I’m so glad you’re with us,” I told him. “Because of the way you point out things.”
There was a small smile on his face that my heart absolutely did not trip all over.
I held the crystal in the palm of my hand in front of me. I thought of Morgan and felt something pull in my head, like a hook had
lodged itself in my brain and tugged. It was borderline unpleasant and I felt itchy all over.
The crystal flashed in my hand, a dull pulse as it grew warmer.
Then it was almost as if Morgan was standing right next to us, his voice loud and clear. “Sam?”
I opened my mouth to say how awesome it was, that this crystal was the coolest thing ever, to assure Morgan we were okay and most definitely traveling on the Old Road like he instructed us to. Instead I said, “We went into the Dark Woods and I almost had to get gay fairy married again and now I feel really bad and Ryan got bad-touched by trees and Fairy King Dimitri was cryptic and annoying and apparently has a size kink.”
Silence. Gary, Tiggy, and Ryan stared at me with wide eyes.
Morgan sighed.
“I feel better,” I told everyone. “Do you all feel better? I do. Honesty is like a balm to my beleaguered soul.”
“I don’t even know why I tell you what to do,” Morgan said.
“Because it makes you feel special?” I guessed. “Because you are.”
“You think I’m special,” he said flatly.