Page 49

He approached, fell to his knees on the damp, rock-strewn dirt before her.

“If you wish me to, I will return you now. Even if you do not listen. I… I am not always well behaved. I am impetuous, and naughty, and a terrible trial to all who encounter me. So my parents have said many a time, and those I have encountered on my travels. But I will return you to your mother’s side and leave forever, if that is your wish. ”

Leave forever. Poppy’s chest constricted.

Did she want him to leave? Looking at his face, familiar and strange, his jaw determined and his eyes wide and stormy, her first instinct was to deny, to beg him not to leave, but she held herself back, forced herself to think, to try to wrap her brain around the implications of this revelation, not just for their affair, but for everything she had thought true about the world.

Because if the world truly held purple people with wings, then… then she knew nothing.

And she would never know anything if she didn’t let him speak.

“You’re going to regret kneeling on those rocks,” she said at last. “Get up and start talking.”

He smiled, wide and bright, and rose, taking her hands in his. “The rocks are as nothing.”

Poppy could not keep from quirking her own lips in reply.

“You really are a liar.” She looked at his jeans-clad knees, the slight indentations the sharp stones had left in the snug fabric.

If she aimed her eyes just right, between their joined hands and below his waistline, she could almost pretend he didn’t look any different.

That it was just Rai, toilet paper salesman from Brazil, in his lethally tight jeans, and they had gotten here the usual way instead of by air .

But no, that was cheating herself. She needed to see the truth. She raised her head and met his intent gaze. She wanted to look calm, reasonable, in control, but against her will she shivered.

His fingers tightened. “You are cold.”

“Well, duh. It’s fucking freezing up here.” Another shiver wracked her. “And I’m soaked.”

“It is not cold enough to freeze,” he said, tugging her to standing and running his hands over her shoulders and back.

“Whoa,” she said when his hands curled around her ass. She tried to step back, but the bench blocked her way. Which was probably for the best, given that they were on a mountain. “You are so not authorized for sexytimes yet. If ever. I said you could talk. ”

He huffed out a faint laugh. “I am not seducing you. I am drying you.”

She blinked and twisted to look at her backside. Which was no longer damp. Her knees weakened, and she almost sat right back down on the puddly bench. “This is crazy.”

“I am of water,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone, studying her as if she were a half-finished sculpture. He bent and swiped at her calves. Now that she was paying attention, she could feel the dampness dissipating in the wake of his fingers, all the way down to her toes.

“‘Of water?’” she managed to say as he stood.

“That tells me exactly zip. You—” She broke off when Rai reached out into the air beside him, his fingers giving a little twist and plucking his white dress shirt out of midair.

“Fuck. Can we stop doing new magic tricks while I’m still processing the last one? ”

He draped the shirt around her shoulders. “It is not a trick.”

Poppy fisted her hands, planted them on his chest. “ Stop. Just stop with the one-liners that make no sense and the…the rainsplaining and the acting like I’m the crazy one for freaking out when you’re abracadabraing clothes out of thin air.

And do not ”—she covered his open mouth with a hand before he could speak—“tell me that the air is thin because we are up on a mountain because that is not the point. ”

Rai gazed at her sadly, and she jerked her hand away from his mouth before her traitorous fingers could turn it into a caress. He didn’t say anything, just stood there breathing and watching her, wary and penitent yet also intense, as if looking at her was a religious experience .

It was enough to make an atheist believe in god, that expression. Enough to make her think that staying, that listening, was the right thing to do. She rubbed her hands on her dry leggings and marshaled her thoughts.

“So,” she said at last. “Wings. Call me crazy, but I’ve been hanging out with you, drawing you, fu— hanging out with you for almost two weeks now, and up until twenty minutes ago, I had never seen wings coming out of your back.

Let’s start there.” She felt another shiver coming on and slipped her arms into the sleeves of the shirt he’d lent her.

She was still cool, but the extra layer canceled the bite of the wind, at least.

He glanced over his shoulder; his wings crackled with energy and beat twice, as if he were trying them out for the first time.

“We hide them,” he said at last. “When we walk among humans, we use magic to…” He twisted his hands in the air as if he were crumpling an invisible piece of paper.

“We put them into the elsewhere, into faerie.”

She caught her breath. “Faerie. Is that what… who you are? A faerie?”

Rai nodded. “A fae, yes. I am of water. It is my element, my sustenance, the source of my strength.” He hesitated, then gestured past her. She turned her head and watched the puddles on the rough stone bench froth up in bubbles, then still, then disappear.

Poppy reeled as puzzle pieces shuffled into place. “Water.” She sat back down on the bench. It was cool, but no longer wet. Convenient, that. Rai remained on his feet before her, his wings quivering in the breeze.

“There are fae for all the five elements,” he continued eagerly. “Water, wood, metal—”

“No,” she interrupted. “No faerie…fae science lessons. Let’s stay focused on you. You’re a water fae. So I’m guessing you don’t sell toilet paper.” She glared at him, stuffing down a flash of disappointment. She really had been hoping for some free samples.

“I do not.” His eyes lit up. “Ah, but the world of salesmen is fascinating! I have been Googling every day to learn more, and there is much that is inspiring. Did you know that ‘a goal is a dream with a deadline?’ That was said by Napoleon Hill. It has made me consider what my goal should be in life. And I—” He caught her eye and broke off.

“I am sorry. I must answer your questions first.”

Poppy nodded slowly. “What do you do? Do fae have jobs?” She felt like a fool, remembering.

Rai pulling a roll of hundred-dollar bills out of thin air.

Skillfully distracting her when she’d questioned how he could afford to pay her ten thousand dollars on a sales rep’s salary.

She almost wished he’d been a drug dealer, after all .

“I have no job.” He shrugged. “I travel where the storms are. They sustain me, and riding them is…” He turned and gazed off at the storm clouds that were skirting them. “Exhilarating. An adventure.”

A stab of jealousy sliced through Poppy’s stomach. “Must be nice. No bills, no bosses… No bills.” And apparently endless supplies of money. She shifted uncomfortably.

He returned his gaze to her, brow furrowed. “It is not admirable,” he said after a moment. “I do not… I am important to no one.”

Except me, Poppy managed not to say. “And are you from Brazil?”

“I came here from Brazil,” he said, looking down again. “But it is not the place of my birth.”

She thought back, connecting more dots. Water. Storms. “God, the floods.” What had she seen on the news? Record-breaking rainfall, landslides, there had been deaths… “Did you cause… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ask that.”

“I did not cause the flooding,” he said slowly. “But I did… I ride the storms, and when I am in their midst, I have some measure of control. I can build them higher, slow them, change them. It is…more entertaining to make them fiercer.”

Poppy looked at the circle of clear sky. “And you can stop them.”

“Sometimes. It is more difficult.” Rai straightened his shoulders, His wings stilled, spreading somehow wider. “I am sorry.”

“About Brazil?”

“No.” His face settled into confusion and his wings drooped slightly. “I am apologizing to you.”

Poppy regarded him with suspicion. “You already apologized to me.”

“I apologized for the lies,” he said. “Yet they are but the beginning of my wrongs.”

She closed her eyes, heaving a sigh. “Well, spill it.”

“The night that we met,” he said. “I was…not kind.”

She opened her eyes, peered at him. “That’s not how I remember it. You made me laugh. Smiled a lot. Told me stories.” Made me feel like a human being again, instead of a worker drone.

“I set the rain upon you,” he said. “I trapped you.”

Ah. Poppy swallowed. “Why?”

Rai paused, his expression growing thoughtful. “At first,” he said, “I wished to…to amuse myself.” A grin flashed across his face like lightning, there and gone. “You cursed the storm. It made me want to torment you. To laugh at your discomfort.”

“Well, okay. That was shitty of you.” She bit her lip. “But you said at first .”

His eyes flickered back to her, somehow shy and sly at the same time. “After we had met, I still wished to amuse myself. You amused me. I did not want you to leave.”

“So you made it rain harder.” She looked up again, at the moon almost centered now in the round clear space, remembering how their interlude had ended. If I’d known monsoons responded to positive thinking, I’d have tried to get home sooner. “And…you stopped it. It wasn’t positive thinking at all.”

“It was not.” A smug smile teased at his lips.

“Or when you wanted to look at my car…” Her eyes followed a ripple of lightning along the edge of his wings. “My car.”

His smile vanished. “I did not speak a lie then. I was most careful not to—”

“No, you jump-started my car with your…” She gestured at his wings.

“I am sorry.” He started to go to his knees again.

Poppy caught at his waist and stopped him. “No, no. I’m just… I’m processing this.” She took a deep breath, then let it out. “It’s a lot.”