Chapter 14
Dream Team
“ M y name is not Fayette, you know,” the cat said indignantly, sitting in the faerie ring with her pointed nose in the air. “Why should I wish to be known only as a little faerie? And it seems I’m not so small for you not to recognize how much you need my help.”
Tabitha, kneeling by the ring with her skirts growing damp at the knees, was so grateful to see the cat that she almost forgot herself and apologized.
She might have even thanked her for coming.
But faerie creatures could see even those small things as an acknowledgment of a favor granted, and she couldn’t mess this up, making the cat think that merely showing up and responding to a name she did not prefer was all that Tabitha required of her.
“I do wish to return to the Fae Realm. I want to help Tom.”
The faerie cat only blinked at her in acknowledgment. “Yes, I assumed you might. So why were you so quick to leave him when he was in your sights? Don’t tell me that you didn’t know what one of your errant wishes could do, because I won’t believe it.”
Tabitha felt hot and cold, seeing the scene again. Having to explain. “I was just . . . surprised. When I saw him last, he wasn’t alone. He was with the Fae Queen, and she was kissing him. He was kissing her.” And she couldn’t say the words without feeling it as a betrayal.
Human hearts were not always the most logical things.
But the cat only looked confused. “Of course she was. I told you he was a thrall, that the high fae feed off of human emotions and dreams. What did you think that would look like?”
Tabitha frowned, but in every matron story she knew, faeries rarely fought with blades alone. Instead, they used magic, trickery, even seduction. It was only natural that a fae queen would be a master of all of those skills. The Queen would be desired by all who saw her, and she would use that desire to her advantage.
Tabitha couldn’t blame Tom for falling for that kind of manipulation.
And as if she could see Tabitha coming to that conclusion, the cat continued. “Should he have to be screaming for him to merit your sympathy?”
Tabitha had already felt sorry and low, but this was a blow she hadn’t been expecting. The night the guard had cornered her in the alley, Tom had jumped in without hesitation. He had known something was wrong even as a cat. But what if someone else had seen her and thought of her mother? Would they have assumed her a willing participant, happy to trade away her virtue for some momentary comfort?
She hadn’t screamed.
She hadn’t fought.
She hadn’t even run until Tom came in to help. And if the man had been handsome, rich, and at least appeared a little closer to her age . . . why would anyone think to pity her?
But it still would have been wrong.
Tom was wrong , his eyes so often clouded over, and he couldn’t properly consent to anything in his current state. She owed it to her friend to put him right and see what he wanted then.
That was what she had decided before she reached out to Archie and returned to find the faerie cat. But . . . “I did not imagine that he would enjoy it. I expected . . . Or rather, I hoped he would accept my help and return with me.” She had hoped that he loved her as he said he did and would not be tempted to stray so quickly, even for a fae queen. And when those high-minded dreams had been disappointed, she had been far too quick to think the worst of him. “But I realize that it was wrong and that he would have been unable to control how he responds to her.”
Admitting her harsh judgment of Tom had been a harrowing of her soul, but the cat was still unimpressed. “So your prince is weak, and you are willing to forgive him. I’m sure that is very noble of you and would serve you well enough in evaluating the hearts of men in the Mortal Realm but let me see if I understand this all correctly. You were with your prince, doing everything you could to persuade him to return with you, and he ran off to be with the Fae Queen? Is that correct?”
“Yes. I spoke to him. I kissed him. And then it seemed—at least for a moment—like he might have remembered everything.” Or at least, he hadn’t seemed as confused as he had before, and Tabitha had some reason to hope that he had remembered. He had behaved in ways that took her breath away but still seemed only natural for Tom, a human version of her feline friend. “But then—”
“The Fae Queen appeared?” the cat guessed.
“No. Another man came first. A fae prince with antlers on his head and emerald eyes.”
This answer seemed to fill the cat with satisfaction, as if it was the answer she had been waiting for. “And what did this prince do?”
“Nothing. Tom told me to go.” Tabitha said the words quickly, dismissively, but then she remembered something else. Something important. “The fae prince wasn’t happy to see us together. He said he might be interested in me, so Tom. . . he . . . put himself in front of me. He said I wasn’t interesting, and that he would have no trouble forgetting me. He protected me.” There really was no other way to interpret Tom’s actions, now that she knew who that fae prince was.
The prince with emerald eyes.
And with Tom’s memories at least temporarily restored, he would have already known who the fae prince was and what would be wanted of him—even better than Tabitha had at that moment. Tom had known that the fae prince wanted him to spy on the Fae Queen and what that would require. But instead of fighting and potentially putting Tabitha in danger of the fae prince’s wrath, he had gone along with it.
She had returned ready to forgive Tom for his weakness, but he hadn’t been weak at all.
He was still the heroic prince of her dreams.
But Tabitha never believed that she deserved such a hero. Perhaps that was the true reason she was so quick to condemn Tom for his actions. She knew she wasn’t a princess and never believed she could be loved by a prince (or even a goodman of any class or trade), so part of her seemed determined to make him a rogue instead. And it hadn’t been fair to either of them.
It seemed that there were some dreams she couldn’t grant for others without first granting a dream of her own; she couldn’t see and love Tom fully without accepting and respecting the love he showed for her. That was the power it took for two dreamers to meet as one.
“I just wish he would have told me that was what he was doing.”
The faerie cat scoffed at this. “You know this prince? And you expected that he should wish to burden you with his pain and tell you exactly what was being done to him?”
No, Tom would never do that. It might be the only fault she could still find in him. He had the stubborn pride of a prince. The pride of a cat. But how she admired it some days.
What she wouldn’t give for a fraction of that man’s confidence.
What she wouldn’t give to have him at her side again. And even when she struggled to make herself believe that she deserved a partner like him, she couldn’t seem to stop wanting him.
Tabitha quickly reached for the bundle she had brought, needing the distraction. “I know I was wrong, and I will apologize to him when I see him again, but I have no need to apologize to you. Only to ask you if you will accept my bargain. Will you escort me back to the Fae Queen’s palace if you are able to make that journey in the fabulous pair of boots I have brought for you?”
She showed off the offering she had left inside the faerie ring (a small pair of shoes that had been made to match the cat’s dress), because in all the chaos, it seemed the most logical thing to do.
And before she knew it, she was standing before a faerie cat wearing high-heeled boots.
The cat smiled. “Well, at least you have learned to make a proper bargain.”