Page 83 of Bane Bloom

He just seemed more Thomas.

I wondered how long he would stay in this form. I wondered whether he had control over the change. So many questions I hoped for answers to.

“The two of you have become inseparable, it seems.”

I straightened at the sudden voice, heart jumping, and Phantom danced to one side.

Nyv was approaching, stepping quietly along the water’s edge. The bottom tip of one pearly, scaled wing dragged in the shallows, leaving a sinuous wake, as if the lake were filled with mercury rather than water.

Phantom gave a snort, his body movements jerky as he stepped between us. I recalled the fallen cowslip crown with dismay.

“Now that you see the way of things, outlander, perhaps you’ll go back where you belong.” The fairy queen had stopped a couple of yards from Thomas and now eyed me over his back. Her gown had changed from the blues and greens of the bluebell glade to the polished silver of the moon’s reflection in the lake. The swirling markings over her chest and shoulders almost seemed to have movement to them, as if inked in flowing water.

Frightened as I was, instinct told me the worst thing I could do was let her see it. “I’m not sure I follow, lady. Do you mean to suggest that now I’ve seen what Thomas is, I will have no more use for him?”

Her expression was stony, eyes like twin ultramarine flames in the darkness. “Do you deny it?”

I swallowed thickly. “I think that is your hope. I don’t know why you’d be using reverse love charms unless you were afraid I’d take him from you.”

A cruel smile twisted her dark lips, raising the hairs at the back of my neck. “As if you could be more than a passing fancy to him. A kind of pet. As if a creature of such power, magic, and beauty would ever choose a fragile, lost little thing like you. Look at him.” Her gaze moved over his majestic form. “He wouldn’t have you even if he could.”

Her words had their desired effect, piercing my heart and raising doubts. Yet something in the last line seized my attention.

“What do you mean, ‘even if he could’?”

Her eyes seemed to grow larger, and I could see that, unlike Thomas, she was quite eager to enlighten me. “Perhaps he has neglected to tell you he can never leave Pine Cottage? He is a creature of the Elfbloom. They are both of the house, and they are both tied to it.”

“What would happen if he left?”

Again she smiled, a predator sensing weakness. “He would remain locked in his human form. It’s not his nature, and he would waste away. He has nothing to offer you.”

Now I began to be truly afraid. Thomas believed the Society wished to sell Pine Cottage. I had asked him where he would go if that happened, and he had answered, “Nowhere. I would stay.” But what if the new owners didn’t choose to keep him on?

I looked at him. He stood at an angle between the queen and me, and his big, clear eyes were focused on her. His nostrils flared as he blew out a breath.

The two of them certainly shared an otherworldly beauty, and I couldn’t help admiring hers—the gleaming cascade of blue-black tresses, shimmering mother-of-pearl wings, and moonglow gown. How fine they’d look, her upon his back, riding along the lakeshore, like in the tale of Mary Robson. I began to feel it would be a shame for that vision not to come true.

Phantom gave an uneasy nicker, and his ears flicked. His head turned, eyes meeting mine.

What has put that in my head?

Glamour. No wards here, and no cowslips.

I needed to get away from her so I could think clearly. I wished to be at home with Thomas, so we could talk all of this through. But I wasn’t sure how to do the former, and I didn’t know how long it would be before the latter could happen.

Courage, Cricket. You got through the meeting with the Physic Garden’s curator, and you can get through this.

It was almost laughable that Mr. Harding was the scariest obstacle I’d faced up to that point. And he’d just become even scarier. Which got the rusty gears of my mind turning.

“You’re in love with Thomas?” I said.

Frowning, she studied me. Perhaps trying to assess whether her enchantment was having the desired effect. Her voice was deceptively even as she asked, “How is it you feel entitled to ask me such a question?”

Prudence’s voice sounded in my mind. “Careful, Catherine.”

Squeezing a hand around the corners of Prudence’s shawl, I replied, “Well, it’s convenient, isn’t it? I mean, I understand that Elfame and the Banes have had a bit of a tussle over Pine Cottage, with Thomas Bane currently in possession. If Thomas married you, that might change things, mightn’t it? I’m only thinking of how things work among my kind.”

Nyv’s eyes flashed, wings unfurling with a snap like sheets in a stiff wind, beating the air and lifting her a couple of feet from the ground.