Page 37 of My Fae Lady

She rubbed at her chin where fresh color blossomed. “It doesn’t hurt, though. I think I might be ready to forgive him now. Did you see how thin he was?”

“At least spit in his pies before you give them to him.”

Giselle chortled demurely. “Could I convince you to . . . Oh, never mind. It was a silly thought.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” I scolded her. “Now you have to tell me what you were about to say.”

Her cheeks darkened in color as she nibbled briefly on her lower lip. “I was just thinking that I don’t always mind your company.”

“I don’t always mind yours,” I admitted.

“I suppose—if you wanted to—that it might be nice to have you over to the manor a couple of times a decade or so . . . If you aren’t too busy in your tree.”

I felt my brow furrowing, the frown tugging down my lips. I blew out a breath and fixed my face quickly, worried she’d read my growing guilt on my face. “Twice a decade?” I teased. “If you’d like to see me two whole times, then you’re not the proper recluse I assumed you were. You’re practically a socialite.”

She chuckled. “Perhaps you’re right. Once then.”

“Dinner. Once a decade. I can do that,” I said.

“It’s a date,” she declared, and my stomach dropped.

Thankfully, she changed the subject, regaling me with more stories of her childhood in Rook Manor, her passion contagious. All the presents and artifacts the house had led her to gave me a brilliant idea, and my steps were less heavy as our destination finally came into view.

Fae mushrooms had sprouted around the windows. They were large enough to house a pixie and varied in color depending on how toxic they were. A nearby staircase disappeared into an oak tree, and in our absence the house had grown a small turret.

“You can put me down here,” Giselle said. “I’ve been away for a while. It’ll take me a bit to coax the door open . . .”

I scratched my claws down the side of the wooden frame. Dark leaves sprouted across the lintel, and the wide door opened for me.

Giselle blinked in surprise. “Oh . . . How on earth did you manage that?”

“I’m the Lord of Rook Manor,” I murmured, and I took her up in my arms again and carried her inside. It was not lost on me that the humans had a wedding tradition about carrying the bride across the threshold on her wedding day . . .

“Ha ha,” Giselle groused. “Very funny. Lord of Rook Manor indeed.”

I didn’t think it was very funny either, but I clung to the solution in my head. No, I couldn’t just throw Giselle out. Not empty-handed. Not destitute. There was a right way to do this for a woman who deserved better.

The house had opened up into a lower chamber: a sitting room full of stuffed chairs, no windows, towering bookcases, and an ancient stone archway that seemed to open into nothing but darkness.

It was exactly the room I wanted, and I hadn’t even had to speak the wish out loud. My connection to the house had been renewed, but it was not without its challenges. There was a strangeness to the connection. The flow of magic at my feet had slowed since the last time I’d been here, and the air in the house felt thick and heavy.

“This is an odd choice, House,” she said as I laid her down gently on the settee.

“I’ll be right back.” I headed for the archway.

“Oh, don’t go in there!” she called. “House won’t let you and won’t like it!”

“It won’t let you.” I kept my back to her. I didn’t have the stomach for the feelings my words would instill in her. “This archway was designed to keep out mortals.”

“And I have mortal blood,” she whispered, like a long-held puzzle had finally clicked into place for her. “I had no idea . . . but how do you know this archway?”

I knew it because I’d built it.

Instead of answering her, I hurried through it. Had it been possible at the time to refuse entry to Seelie, I would have, but because of my age there was too much shared blood in me to make that an option. Unless I wanted to lock myself out, I could only keep the heart of the house free of mortals.

The shroud of darkness was not unlike the foggy magical barrier that separated Faerie from the human realm, except here it felt as though I’d passed through running water but was somehow perfectly dry on the other side.

The ground was earthen and the walls were rocky like the inside of a cave. Between my feet, magic trickled in a slow stream. The stream had thinned greatly over the centuries. I followed its path until the narrow tunnel widened into a cavern.