Page 2 of Green-Eyed Monster
“No, no, no, no. Oh, no! I’ve got you!” Her voice was soft but urgent, as if she was whispering to someone, and I almost lost her words among the crashing of falling rock.
My heart leapt into my throat when I spotted a sylvan woman crouched in a campus garden patch, casting frightened glances between whatever she was gathering and the stone wall teetering precariously over her.
“Watch out!” I yelled, trying to get her attention as the wall leaned farther. It was too late. She tried to scramble out of the way but tripped and fell on her back, clutching a bundle of something red and white to her chest. I threw my weight against the wall, bracing against the leaning stones as she scrambled out of the way. Once she was clear, I dropped the wall, and she winced as it slammed into the place where she’d just been laying. She wasn’t moving fast enough. My adrenalin was still dumping into my veins, telling me we needed to get out of here, so I hefted her smaller form into my arms and took off jogging to get away from the building.
If I kept my arms wrapped securely around her, unable to set her down or look away from her lichen-colored skin or her deep hazel eyes, it was simply because I wanted to make sure she was safe. Not because she was beautiful, or fascinating, or felt good in my arms. Even though I had to admit to myself that shewasbeautiful.
Sylvan were forest people, cousins of the dryads and high-fae, and this one bore the characteristic darker colored extremities that faded up her arms and legs to a soft pale green, with dove-white hair. Tiny white and yellow flowers bloomed among the waves in her hair and trailed in little patches down to her shoulders. As my eye followed them down, I saw what she clutched in her arms, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Mushrooms?”
My voice probably came out harsher than I meant for it to, but my mind was reeling.
“You risked yourlifeformushrooms?”
Chapter 2
*Solandis*
I was being bridal-carried by the most handsome man I’d ever met. His face had strong, angular lines with a jaw that looked like he could bite through steel. Thick, full eyebrows rested over startling green eyes. He kept both sides of his head neatly shaved, and the rest of his long hair was gathered in a high, tight knot.
His enormous frame and the two adorable little metal-capped tusks that peeked out from behind his bottom lip hinted at some orc bloodlines, but the unique white patterns dotting his dark green skin reminded me of the dappled camouflage markings of my own people. Huge ropes of muscle girded the enormous arms wrapped around me. I probably should have been more concerned that he didn’t seem interested in setting me down, but I was too busy swooning to care about that yet.
Until his words finally sank in…“risked your life for mushrooms?”
I gasped at the impudence. “They’re not mushrooms! Well, not justanymushrooms.” I wiggled and started to squirm, and the orc immediately startled, seemingly just realizing that he was still holding me. He set me down swiftly, only it was perhaps a little too swift and my ankle protested, making me flinch.
“I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?” His eyes were so wide that it was impossible to miss that they seemed to be luminescent. It took me a few blinks to remember that I was supposed to answer him.
“No, I think I twisted it when I fell earlier.” My stomach turned at the knowledge that I definitely would have been smashed if he hadn’t caught the wall.
I tested a small step and winced. “I don’t think I can walk on it.”
A small frown marred his handsome face. “Can I carry you?” he asked, reaching out toward me but hesitating before he touched me.
“Sure.” I didn’t hesitate at all. I couldn’t really hold on to him and hop with my arms full as they were, and now that he’d asked permission I didn’t mind being carried around like a princess. I knew I had a silly grin on my face, but if a giant, hot guy wanted to schlep me around, sign me up. “I’m a little heavier than a briefcase though.” He seemed like the business type, with his button-up shirt and thick-rimmed glasses.
He rolled his eyes with a little smirk. “I could bench press you with one hand. Where to, my lady?” Even though I wasn’t small, I still only came to his chest. He’d affected a stuffy accent with the last sentence, and I was so enamored with his playfulness that it took me a beat to realize I didn’t have an answer.
“I’m not… actually sure.” I picked up one of my little sentinels and studied the damage I’d done to its tiny network of hairlike roots. “I need to get these back in the ground, but I don’t have anywhere proper to put them now. I was growing them here at the school because there was plenty of shade in the biology center’s gardens, and my own yard is communal and gets too much sun.”
“I was thinking we should probably take you somewhere for your ankle first. How about the school clinic?” the big orc said.
“No! They’ll dry out! I can just ice my ankle,” I protested. I was wracking my brain trying to think of a place that would be not only shady enough, but protected and safe. I’d been fortunate that I happened to be close by in time to save them from getting smashed… and that this nice man had been close by in time to savemefrom getting smashed.
“I have some plant pots you could use,” he said tentatively, interrupting my thoughts. “I’ve got a little house off campus that I’m renting, and the yard is pretty shady, I guess. I haven’t really paid attention. I’m Hyrak, by the way,” he said, looking a little sheepish. I guess it was pretty silly that we were standing here in the middle of a campus walkway with me clutched against his chest when we hadn’t even introduced ourselves.
“Hi, Hyrak. Nice to meet you,” I said with a bright smile. “I’m Solandis, and I really appreciate you saving us from getting smooshed today. I’d love to see your pots!” A sweet, handsome, buttoned-up orc man who grew things in pots? Be still my beating heart.
“Us?” he questioned as he started forward, walking carefully, as if trying not to jostle me. “I don’t mean to be rude, but why are you so attached to some mushrooms?”
I couldn’t help but giggle at his baffled expression. “These are not mushrooms,” I reminded him, stroking the cap gently of the one closest to my hand. “They’re mushroom sentinels, and they’re such adorable little guys. My entire focus within the botany program is on researching their interaction with surrounding flora.”
Hyrak was still staring at me like I had two heads.
“They’re a type of low-fae,” I explained further. “They’re notjustfungi.” I cradled the largest one, easily now as big as my hand, and turned it so Hyrak could see its face.
“It’s got little eyeballs!” he said too loudly, and I flinched. “Sorry,” he said, dropping into a whisper. “I’ve never seen a plant with eyeballs!” I gave him a side eye, considering some people might considermeto be a plant with eyeballs. Sylvan were pretty closely related to dryads, after all.
