Page 115 of How Does It Feel?

My mouth hung open as I looked back to see Earl leaning against the white wall toward the foot of my bed. His demeanor was completely different. Suave confidence replaced the shakiness and feeble nature, and his voice had a familiar smooth tempo.

“What did you say?” I asked, shaken.

“You didn’t think I’d just leave you to this enterprise all alone, did you?” Earl asked as he smoothly pushed off the wall and took a lazy step toward me.

He was like a man possessed. Not Earl at all.

“Who are you?” I asked, glancing at the closed door, feeling more and more unsure of everything by the minute.

“I was shocked when you didn’t figure out it was me,” he laughed, and the sound caused a flash of memory to dance in my mind.

It couldn’t be.

He stepped closer to the bed, his face still old and haggard, but the most charming and boyish smile overtook it. “I couldn’t let you do it alone. I was worried you wouldn’t find the portal if I didn’t help and . . . and it’s lucky I did. Fuck, Cal. If she knew I had meddled, she wouldn’t keep her end of the agreement.” Earl’s voice sounded so young now as he shrugged boyishly and tucked his hands into his jeans pockets bashfully.

“Wh—” No. It couldn’t be. There was no way.

“She’s irate about him killing Langmore. The queen will probably give you the other half of your heart just for killing Mendax after what he did to her son. If you ask me, you’ve more than proved your allegiance,” Earl whispered as the edges of his face grew blurry.

I pushed back farther on the steel bracketed bed. My head pounded like a drum as my tongue flicked through the empty space of my missing wisdom tooth.

There was only one person—

I gasped as Earl’s blurred body quickly shifted to a much taller, more handsome man. Tan skin and tapered muscle made the contrast from the frail man that much more shocking.

Prince Aurelius of the Seelie court stared back at me, his eyes brimming with emotion.

“You tricked me, Aurelius,” I said through gritted teeth feeling none of the bite I forced into the words.

His handsome smile dropped instantly. “Come on, Aurelius?” he pleaded. “Call me Eli like normal. You know Mom couldn’t find out I was helping you, or we would never be able to prove your allegiance and get her to return the other half of your heart. It’s the only way she would let you, a human might I remind you, come live in Seelie with us.” His charming smile beamed for an instant before his looks grew more serious. “It’s a good thing I did help you too, remember?”

I crossed my arms, full of anger. For a few moments, I had prayed that maybe none of this was real. That maybe I could wake up and actually be a scientist that worked for a park in Willow Springs.

“What I remember is that a fox tried to stop me from going to the portal in the forest,” I said, suddenly feeling a barrage of feelings I was uncertain of.

He ran his hands over his face and mouth. “What do you want me to say, Cal? The thought of my best friend—my very mortal human best friend—going to the darkest, most evil side of the veil had me uncomfortable. Sometimes I don’t have the best control over myself in my animal form around you.”

Heavy silence filled the sterile room.

“You finally got to see what animal I shift to though.” He chuckled hard, and the sound almost relaxed me. Almost.

“It wasn’t that impressive,” I said, fighting a grin.

When I was ten, Aurelius made the mistake of telling me that because he was Seelie royalty, he could shift into other forms, and an animal was one of them. I begged and pleaded for years, frustrated that I wasn’t allowed to know what it was. Royals shifting in front of humans was a big no-no and severely punishable.

“Was it not that impressive when I stopped your mortal heart from ending after that piece of shit killed you? Some garbage training my mother gave you. You weren’t even on the other side for five minutes before you were dead.” His voice suddenly lost all laughter. The seriousness of it was unsettling. He seemed so much . . . older than I remembered him. He continued, “Had I not—”

A loud knock sounded at the door, and we both froze.

“You doing okay, Callie? Need anything?” The small nurse popped her head through the crack of the door, and her eyes immediately roamed over Eli’s larger-than-average human frame full of muscle and golden skin.

I held my breath, waiting for her to ring an invisible alarm that would have the entire hospital coming to take Eli away from me again.

“I’m good, thanks,” I said, smiling a false smile. I was so good at them now.

She winked at me and gave the barely passable-for-human Fae a longing once over before she closed the door again. My face steeled once more as my eyes shot to Eli’s.

“What do you mean he killed me? I thought I was just injured? Did I die? What did you do to save me?” The memories were foggy but still there. “You licked me and cried on me!” I said with the initial intention of finding out what had really happened but also teasing him.