Page 41 of Bewitched by the Werewolf (The Bewitching Hour #5)

Larken calls out for Ryder and me as she jogs up the gravel path waving and smiling at us.

“There you are. I saw your truck in the parking lot but wasn’t sure where you’d gone to. Hi Tess, lookin’ good.”

She compliments the outfit she picked out for me, minus the tights. It would have taken me too long to put them on and I didn’t want to waste any time that I could be seeing my first real fairy.

Larken, of course, has far more fashion sense than I’ll ever have.

Her long black hair is slick as oil over her shoulders.

She’s wearing a pair of high-waisted purple and black plaid wide leg pants, purple crop top and beret.

A few buttons affixed to her beret in a way that proves she’s far cooler than me.

“Thanks. Some chick who is way cooler than me picked it out.”

I separate myself from Ryder, his fingers only momentarily clinging to me before letting go. Larken notices and smiles but says nothing.

“I don’t know about that, I think you’re pretty cool.”

“Then you’re the only one,” I quip. I haven’t had many close female friends through the years, and I really like Larken, she’s easy to talk to and now that I know she’s also a fairy, it just makes her that much more awesome.

“Not the only one,” Ryder interjects.

“I can see that.” Larken looks us both up and down similar to the way Tobias does.

I tilt my head watching her trying to figure out what she’s looking at. Larken catches me staring at her in confusion. Her expressions shifts and she looks to Ryder.

“I thought you told her?”

“I did tell her, I just didn’t tell her everything. I guess I forgot the whole aura thing.” Ryder waves at her and shrugs. Larken grumbles.

“Okay so what Ryder forgot to tell you is that Fairies can see people’s auras, for lack of a better word.

It’s a,” She purses her lips and gestates with her hands around my body.

“Like a bubble, I guess, surrounding a person. It changes colors based on many things, mostly emotions. But…have you ever been to a carnival and had your fortune told by someone looking into a crystal ball?”

“Uh no, not that I can recall.”

“Okay well, either way, think of it like that. Like a psychic looking into a crystal ball. We see things in your aura that only we can understand. Such as, I can tell you two have been mixing auras, quite a lot recently.”

I blush and try to hide it under the brim of my hat. “I thought you said they would smell it, not see it?” I whisper shout at Ryder.

He doesn’t look one bit embarrassed and actually seems to be standing taller and puffing out his chest. Men.

“Oh, I can smell it too,” Larken giggles. “I was just trying to be polite.”

Great. Not only can they smell it they can see it. “How do you keep anything private?”

Larken sighs and shakes her head. “It’s not so much keeping things private as just not talking about it. We all know things; we just keep them to ourselves. It makes life much easier.”

“Okay, well from now on, let's do that.”

“Not a problem. Why don’t we talk about what you really came here for?”

I perk up and forget all about being embarrassed that she knows basically everything that’s gone on between me and Ryder behind closed doors. Because I’m about to see my first fairy.

“Yes, please.”

“Ryder told you what kind of fairy I am?”

“He said you were a moon fairy but that’s all. He’s not very descriptive, other than you have wings.”

Larken gives Ryder another disappointed glare but continues. “Yes, I have wings, and for the most part, I am physically the same. Just a few minor differences.”

“Like what?”

“It’s easier to just show you.” Larken looks over her shoulder to check if anyone is watching. There’s no one around and when she’s satisfied no one is watching who shouldn’t be, she turns back to face us.

Like rippling water over the surface of an image, her body shimmers and slowly her creamy skin shifts.

Black sparkling blotches like ink blots appear, moving and growing on her skin.

Some moments the black consumes more of her than the white but the next second shifts like shadows and sunlight.

The black of her hair becomes even darker, absorbing the light rather than reflecting it.

Tiny flicks of starlight twinkle in the bottomless black.

Those grey eyes darken to a liquid silver matching the shifting stars in her hair.

Finally, the pies de resistance of all fairies, her wings, blink into existence behind her. Fluttering softly and almost gossamer, black dotted with silver. Their shape is somewhere between a butterfly and a dragonfly, stretching at least a foot taller than Larken.

My mouth drops open in admiration. I thought seeing a shifter was cool, but this is so much cooler. She’s beautiful in her glittering darkness.

“Wow. That’s amazing.” I sound like a child seeing Santa for the first time. That’s how much in awe I am.

“Thank you. Compared to some others I’m rather boring. I don’t have any horns or a tail, flowers don’t grow from my hair, and I can’t speak to fish. But I think I’m pretty cool.”

“You are definitely cool. Even without being a fairy,” I tell her, wanting her to know it’s not her being a fairy that makes her cool to me.

“I know.” She smiles at me, and I pull myself together and stop drooling over my new friend’s secret identity.

“What kind of powers does a moon fairy have?” The other type of fairies Ryder told me about were pretty self-explanatory, earth, animal etcetera, but I couldn’t figure out what a moon fairy is.

“Do you see how my skin shifts between black and white?” I nod and take a closer look at her outstretched arm where the black practically engulfs her entire skin.

“I can control it and completely cover my entire body in the black, which allows me to disappear into the shadows and darkness. But I can also do the opposite, shifting my skin to white and reflecting the light creating a blinding starlight affect and when done properly I can even become practically invisible. I can also see perfectly at night, fly, of course, and I always know the astrological positioning of the sun, moon, stars and planets.”

“And I thought being able to distinguish north from south without a compass was a talent,” I joke.

“It’s not the most useful of talents, but I guess it’s okay.

” Larken shrugs and in the blink of an eye her human glamour settles easily back in place and she’s once again the stylish cool human I met at the Closet Carousel.

“I also have the ability to know exactly how to style a person’s clothing.

Some think it’s a fairy ability, I just think I have good taste. ”

I laugh because I would agree with those who consider it a magical ability. My fashion sense is made of up black leather and combat boots.

“How exactly does this glamour thing work?” I wave one hand at her now original human appearance. “You just think ‘turn back into a human’ and it happens?”

“Basically, yeah. Some have more trouble with it than others, ones with less magic.”

“Like Daisy,” Ryder adds. He’s been quiet through Larken’s whole show and tell but slips easily back into our conversation. Even if he acts like he doesn’t like to talk, he has plenty to say once he gets started. “She’s half human, half earth nymph and can’t hold a glamour for very long.”

“So, she looks like a nymph all the time?”

“Half, yes. She has a lot of human characteristics that make it a little easier for her to blend in, in a crowd. But places like Snowberry make it even easier for her to live without fear, since she can’t conceal herself at all times.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Since there are so few sightings of non-humans, I figured they were just really powerful or good at concealing themselves.

Perhaps it’s that they’re also good at hiding in towns like this.

Places where others help conceal them from the rest of the world.

One more reason not to reveal Snowberry.

“Can non-humans see through the glamour, or do you see her human form too?” I ask Ryder, curious to no end about how it all works. I suppose there will be things that have no explanation. Until he answers with I don’t know , I’ll keep asking questions.

“If I want to, I can see her human form, but otherwise I see her as she truly is.”

“And there’s no way for me to always see her true form? Like a magic potion or spell or something? Maybe a special candy I can eat?”

Ryder shakes his head and stifles a chuckle. “There is no magic candy, but there is a way to allow you to see past our glamours.”

“Can we do that? I would love to see the real world beyond my own. You have no idea how many times I wished I could see the things I read about and believe in. When you have so many people telling you, you’re crazy and you didn’t see what you thought you saw, being able to finally see it and know I was right, makes me feel a little less crazy. ”

Ryder reaches out and gently grips both of my shoulders, turning me to face him, his expression serious and tender all at once. I feel a little exposed under his gaze. My unplanned confession exposing more of myself than I intended.

“You are not crazy Tess. You never have been.” He pauses taking in my vulnerability and stroking a finger across my cheek. “However, I can’t let you see past our glamours yet. That’s something you have to earn.” His tone becomes playful and sardonic.

“I think I’ve earned it at this point. Don’t you think? I mean I have fully accepted you as a shifter after all,” I sass back at him. I took his fucking knot for fucks sake, doesn’t that earn me something?

“It takes more than that Tess,” he deadpans.

“More? How much more is there?”

Larken laughs behind me, and I notice Ryder’s cheeks pinken. Aww he’s embarrassed, how cute. Should I push it further? Yeah, I think I can get away with a little more.

“It was so big it got stuck. I should get a reward for taking it all. Don’t you agree? I mean—”

Ryder’s hand covers my mouth, and his glare is almost strong enough to shoot laser beams from his eyeballs. “I think that’s enough. We’ll discuss it more later.”

Larken laughs harder behind me. “I think she deserves it just for being ballsy enough to talk so casually about taking a shifters knot.”

Ryder shifts his glare over my shoulder, I’m guessing to try and spear Larken with his laser eyes.

I hear her trying to muffle her giggles before clearing her throat.

My own giggle is muffled against his hand still over my mouth.

When he doesn’t remove it, I lick the inside of his palm.

His pupils dilate as he refocuses on me and the anger shifts to something more devious.

I smile even though he can’t see my lips.

“I think that’s enough for now. Larken, thank you for your assistance. I hope I can trust in your discretion in this matter, at least until things are more…settled.”

Ryder finally drops his hand from my mouth, and I step back out of his reach but keep my lips shut for now.

Larken nods and seems to have finally worked through her laughter. “Of course. If you need anything else let me know. I like Tess,” she looks over at me and her lips twitch. “She’s fun. I think having you in town would help liven the place up a bit.”

She winks at me, and I grin back at her, but don’t make any smart-ass remarks like I normally would. I think I’ve pushed Ryder to his limit for inappropriate comments today.

Larken says her goodbyes and heads back towards the parking lot and her car. I expect Ryder to lead me in the same direction, but he steers me towards the greenhouse instead.

“Since we’re here, why don’t we go say hi to a few others?”

I perk up in excitement. More non-humans? Hell, yeah, I wanna meet more.

“Really? More fairies?”

“One fairy and two earth nymphs.”