Page 18 of WitchBorn

Fourteen

WESLEY

When I exited the bathroom, clean and dressed, my stomach growling with hunger, I hoped to open the door to a place in the Summer realm, but it was the cabin. The fire blazed, radiating warmth, and Finn sat perched on the edge of the only chair, his shirt back on. The cake and tea, untouched. No sign of my kitten friend.

“You can have the shower,” I said. Maybe I could make something else with all the beans that had appeared in the cupboard. I opened the door to study them, hoping for cans with recipes on them, only to find a brick wall where they had been. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah, they are gone,” Finn said as he got up. “I thought I’d throw together something before I went outside to get wood for the fire, but all of the cabinets are like that now.” He waved his hand at the row of storage. “I hoped maybe it was your magic that made them appear or something.” His gaze wandered to the cake.

“We can share it,” I offered, thinking maybe it would trigger a way back to Sebastian’s court, or at least out of this world.

“I can’t touch it,” Finn admitted.

“What?” I reached for the plate and picked it up. The waves of magic pulsing off it a beacon of otherworldliness that made me salivate. Strange as I wasn’t one who needed to eat magic to survive. I generated it, much to the bane of my existence.

“I wondered if it was real and tried to pick it up. But I can’t.” Finn carefully touched the tip of his finger to the plate, but it went right through, as if the plate wasn’t there, or Finn was a ghost of some kind. “I can’t touch it. Not the cake or the tea.”

I set the plate down, mind churning through a thousand thoughts and worries. If it was a way out, it meant leaving Finn behind. Why did this world want him?

“It’s okay,” Finn said. “Eat. I’ll go jump in the shower as long as the water still works for me. Maybe you can show me where you found some of that food from yesterday. We can forage.”

Wait… “Did the food yesterday have a taste to you? The beans and carrots and stuff?”

“Yes. I mean the beans. The other stuff not so much.”

“Did you still feel hungry after you ate?”

“No.”

If only the beans had flavor…

“What?” he asked.

“You follow ghost lore, but did you ever read fae lore?”

“Outside of the occasional romance novel, no.”

“You don’t seem the romance novel type.”

“Why?” Finn asked. “I do a lot of traveling. Reading is a good distraction. Romances are easy to find.”

“I thought you’d be more of a travel guide or non-fiction how-to-become-a-millionaire guy.”

“I do read travel guides. The millionaire stuff not so much. Why? What about fae don’t I know?”

“Mortals can’t eat food in a fae realm. Well, they can, it just won’t satisfy their hunger. I suspect someone from outside the realm sent the beans.” Mainly Sebastian or perhaps his wizardwolf mate. And now the realm had blocked the beans. Only the cake and tea left behind because it pulsed with otherworld magic. What about the kitten? From this world or outside influence?

Finn stared at me a few more seconds then said, “So we will starve if we stay here.”

“I’m part fae, the food from here works fine for me.” I felt bad admitting it, but he had to understand what it meant to be mortal in a fae realm.

“And you can’t make outside food appear?” he asked.

“No. Someone sent the beans, maybe they will send more?” I could eat the cake and escape, maybe tell Sebastian about Finn and see if he had ideas. Not that the Summer king had reason to do anything for me. It was part of why I still hesitated to accept his help with the cake, if that’s what it was. Why would he want to get me out? To punish me for helping Zephyr and capturing the wolf?

“But the world, realm, or whatever this is, is blocking it now. Why?” Finn folded his arms across his chest, frown deep on his handsome face. He looked tired, and I wondered if he had gotten any rest or simply suffered my nightmares. “You can touch the cake. Does that mean the world likes you?”

“I don’t think the cake is from this world. I think it’s someone’s outside interference. Does this world like me?” I shrugged. “It gave me this cabin. I’ve been able to find food in this world and escape the wolf each time I’ve seen it.” Equatingliketo those things was a stretch, but I didn’t seem as cursed as poor Finn. I refused to mention the wolf bringing me dead animals as though trying to woo me.