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I showed him the study I hardly ever used and another unused room full of spare furniture I’d collected over the centuries. That was back when I ventured out into the human world more frequently. Before it got so loud, so busy, and so overwhelming. I kept it in case my manor decided to grow another room for me.

“How about we go outside for a bit? It’s such a nice day. We could take the cake I made. And maybe some coffee?”

“That’s a great idea. Maybe we can say ‘hi’ to the chickens again?”

“Of course, Bunny.”

“Youreallydig that nickname, don’t you?“ Chuckling, Nikolai followed me down the stairs to the entrance hall and into the kitchen.

“I do,” I confirmed.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Nikolai asked me, leaning his hip against my kitchen counter.

“Yes, you could cut up the cake, if you want? The strawberries come from my garden.”

I showed him the drawer with the knives and where to find the cake I had baked this morning.

“Oh my God, Jules! That smells fantastic!” Nikolai inhaled the scent of the fresh strawberry cake and popped a few crumbs into his mouth. “Sorry, I can never resist.” He gave me a cheeky grin. I had only known Nikolai for a couple of weeks, but even I had noticed a change in him. When I had first met him he had been grumpy and downcast. These days he showed me a more relaxed version of himself. Had that been a mask, too? Or had his life changed enough to allow himself to be happier? I brewed coffee with the old-fashioned drip filter made from white porcelain I found next to a bin for recycled glass on one of my outings.

Barnabas always looked at me funny when I returned from one of my adventures into the outside world laden with spoils. I simply couldn’t resist urban foraging. Once the coffee was done, I poured it into the beat-up flask the wanderer left all those years ago. It kept my drinks warm for hours. This was especially handy in winter when I stayed outside in the forest for hours at a time, or when I cut firewood.

Nikolai grabbed the coffee, I carried the tray with the cake, plates, and forks as we made our way outside into my garden. Barnabas joined us but disappeared between the bushes, probably to hunt for bugs.

“Oh, wow!” Bunny put the plates and the tray down on a little wrought iron table next to my garden swing and cautiously sat down. I couldn’t quite remember why I hadn’t shown him this the last time.

“I love this, Jules.” He pushed himself back with his foot, still handling the swing as if it was going to break at any moment.

“It’s okay, Bunny, I built the swing myself. It can hold your weight.” It could probably also hold both of us while we engaged in frisky business, but I didn’t say that.

“You built that thing yourself? Wow, you’re so talented.” Nikolai looked at me as if I had hung the moon.

You are too vain for your own good, Jules.

Part of me wanted him never to stop looking at me like that. I wanted to be worshipped by this beautiful human.

This is dangerous, Jules.I knew I should tell him to go and never come back, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t go back to the old life I had led, to what I now knew had been emptiness and a bleak, lonely existence.

Twenty-two

Nikolai

Timeslippedawaylikewater that we tried to hold in our cupped hands. One minute, we sat down on the swing and had some of that delicious strawberry cake Jules had baked for us and that fantastic coffee I still didn’t know how he could have, and the next minute the sun had set. With the darkness, fireflies rose out of the bushes. But it wasn’t only their eerie green glow that illuminated the air around us. There were pink, white, blue, and yellow lights, smaller than my thumbnail. Fairies. They danced around us like moths around a flame.

Jules felt like that. I couldn’t even try to explain how, but he glowed like a beacon in the dark. Perhaps it was his magic that made me certain I could look at him for all eternity and never tire of how beautiful he was.

“I’ve been alone for most of my life.” He exhaled and swirled his glass of dark summer wine around. “One day I will tell you everything I have done. But for now, I need you to believe me it was for the best that I came here.”

Oh Jules.

“Not for you, though.” It wasn’t a question.

His eyes met mine, colourful lights reflected in them.

“I don’t know.” The sadness in his voice was palpable.

“No, Jules. I’m sure it wasn’t the best for you. You’re amazing. You don’t deserve to be alone all the time.”

Jules’ eyes hung on mine for a long moment.