Page 21 of Demure
Sierra quickly stood, glancing around to ensure he wasn’t playing a joke on her, but her apartment was too small to really offer anywhere to hide. After a moment, she said, “You can just disappear, too?”
Nothing but silence reached her ears. She reached into her pocket to pull out her phone, only to find it wasn’t there. She turned back to her messenger bag, only to nearly jump out of her skin at the sight of Aodhan’s large frame leaning against her door.
“What. The. Fuck.” she gasped, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of her. “Tell me what you are,” she demanded, her voice dripping with vinegar.
He tapped his chin with his finger. “Hm. No.” Then he disappeared again.
“Get back here!” she yelled, knowing that she probably looked and sounded like a crazy person right now. “Aodhan!”
Sierra nearly growled at her frustration with the man, or whatever he was, but before she could lose her composure entirely, she took a deep breath and stepped toward her messenger bag. Aodhan was infuriating, but she was smart, and she knew she could figure this out without him.
Chapter Thirteen
Without another word, she grabbed her phone and sank into her couch, opening up the web browser to begin her search. She knew Aodhan was wearing his beanie for one reason or another, so she would start with that.
She typed in ‘creatures with strange ears,’ and the results came through almost instantly. There were six possible answers: elves, fairies, pixies, hobbits, vampires, or orcs.
Sierra quickly memorized the list and cleared the search bar. Aodhan had said he wasn’t an elf, and for some reason, she was inclined to believe him. So, she searched ‘fairies’ first, scanning through the first few web pages in the results. Fairies had a human appearance except for their ears, so that was a definite contender. Pixies were similar to fairies; except they were often depicted as smaller than humans. While she wanted to eliminate them, she kept them in mind because their mischievous nature did sound a bit like Aodhan, especially based on the very recent developments within her apartment. She quickly eliminated hobbits, vampires, and orcs, mostly because Aodhan didn’t have what seemed to be the basic characteristics.
Sierra looked up from her phone and looked around theroom. Although she couldn’t see him, she had a feeling he was still hanging around, “So, fairy or pixie, which is it?”
In an instant, Aodhan materialized on the couch next to her. Sierra might have been startled under any other circumstances, but after the events of the past hour, nothing he could do would surprise her right now.
Aodhan sighed and leaned back. “No one calls us fairies anymore. We are just known as the Fae.”
Now, Sierra had been expecting some big confession to come out, but hearing the words come out of his mouth wasn’t the same as theorizing in her head, and she suddenly found herself not knowing what to say.
“Fae…” The word came out of her more as a gasp, but Aodhan could hear her.
“Yes.”
Her heart was pounding in her chest. “So, you’re really…?” Her thoughts were one big jumble, and she touched her hand to her forehead, pinching her eyes shut as she tried to come to terms with the realization that Aodhan wasn’t human.
“Yes,” Aodhan repeated, removing his beanie with his left hand. As soon as it was off his head, Sierra could see his pointed ears poking through his long brown hair.
Sierra reached up as if to touch them, but before her hand reached his ears, she realized how rude it was to touch someone without their permission and yanked her hand back.
“It’s okay.” He lifted his chin in the direction of her hand. “I don’t mind if you touch my ears.”
Sierra nodded but kept her hand in place, trying to think of what to ask next. “So…Fae…”
Aodhan let out a short chuckle. “Yes, we’ve covered that.”
Sierra tried to swallow, her throat feeling dry. “I…uhh…want to ask some things, but my throat is dry. Do you want water?” She stood up and walked to the kitchen. “Wait, can you even drink water?”
For the second time in the last few minutes Aodhan laughed;a new record in Sierra’s eyes. “Yes, I can drink water. You humans always say the darndest things.”
Sierra grabbed two glasses out of the cupboard, filling them with water from the tap before walking back to the couch and handing one to Aodhan.
She folded her legs beneath her, situating herself so she was facing him. “So, do you eat food too?”
“Of course. Food in our land is a bit different, but we can eat human food all the same.”
“And can humans eat your food?” Sierra asked, thinking of one of the articles she had skimmed, which said humans who ate fairy food would be trapped in fairyland.
“Yes. I’m not sure where the rumor came from that humans couldn’t. Our food is different, but it won’t enchant or trap you.”
“Ah, okay.” Sierra sipped her water, her heart racing, as Aodhan took a sip of his. “And can you do magic?”
