Ingrid came over the following evening to see if the fee follet truly left us. Just to be sure, she came back every night that week, each time with a different group of paranormal beings. Mostly witches and warlocks, but one called herself a seer, one a druid, and another a leprechaun. Gabriel snickered under his breath for that one, but given the company we were keeping, it didn’t seem that far-fetched. On the last day, instead of heading out to the swamps, Ingrid handed us a tiny envelope, smiled and left.
“That was odd,” Gabriel stated, waiting for me to open the envelope.
“There’s a party in the quarter tonight to celebrate the end of the disappearances. She wants us to go, even if we can’t be the guests of honor.”
“Not a good idea,” Gabriel argued.
“It’s in the alley in front of her shop, which will be protected by every means possible to meet our stringent requirements,” Embry continued reading from where I left off.
“Who else is going?” Gabriel asked.
“Please find enclosed the list of attendees,” I handed him a second sheet from the envelope.
“I wish we had more time to make sure it would be safe…” Gabriel struggled with the decision.
“I’m pretty sure that’s why she didn’t give you any,” I pointed out, completely understanding her smile and quick exit now.
“I don’t have a choice in the matter, do I?”
“Of course you do. As long as you don’t care whether or not we do what you choose,” Embry teased.
“We’re not staying long and you’re not leaving my sight,” Gabriel warned.
“Of course,” I agreed.
We left the villa at five so we could be at Ingrid’s shop by six. It really wasn’t that far distance-wise, but they liked to take precautions. The dress I brought was coming in handy in NOLA. I paired it with Ingrid’s shawl in case it got chilly. The last time I got dressed up pretty to go somewhere was prom. I was no longer under any illusions about magic, or life working out for me, but I was excited at the prospect of spending a night out, where we could pretend my life wasn’t extremely complicated and dangerous at the moment.
As soon as I walked into the alley, I felt that horrible, yet familiar feeling of someone trying to get into my brain. I pushed him out immediately and heard Mr. Fraser’s “Ow!” before Ingrid came over.
“I’m so glad you came,” she took me in for a hug. “Come, there’s food and drinks and people to meet…” she brought me through the party, where we were the last to arrive.
“This is my niece, Beth,” Ingrid winked to me as she lied, introducing me to a man who lost his father to the fee follet weeks before.
“You’re very good at that,” I pointed out once we were away from the crowd a bit.
“Talking to people?” she asked.
“Lying to them.” Her face went dark, so I made an attempt to get my foot out of my mouth. “No, I mean it as a compliment. You didn’t miss a beat when he asked who I was. You said it so seamlessly that I nearly believed you.”
“You need to mix a little truth with the lies and commit,” she advised. “Always remember what you tell people, because they do. Not all of them, but the day you mess up, they’ll remember, and then it’s over.”
“Is everyone who’s here…”
“Gifted? Of supernatural inclinations?” she finished for me. “No, some are friends of mine, others are people who’ve lost someone to the fee follet...It’s not a magic party, it’s a community party. It’s very important to have friends from all walks of life.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Beth would be proud,” she said out of nowhere. “I’m amazed at how well you’ve adapted to your powers. From fearing them to controlling them and experimenting...that’s no easy feat.”
“I wasn’t experimenting,” I argued.
“You needed to save them,” she gave me a knowing smile.
“Thank you for being here and helping me through it.”
“Of course. It’s not every day you get to nearly go back in time and fix a mistake.”
“What mistake?” I asked.
“I was so jealous of Beth when she was figuring it out that I was useless.”
“I’m sure you made up for it.”
“I think so. She was the best friend I ever had.”
“What about Mr. Fraser?” I asked.
“He was a very different kind of friend.”
“Who ran his course?” I guessed.
“Are you implying he got old?” she played offended.
“Potion or no potion…”
“I was head over heels in love with that man, and he offered me all of it. His heart, a house, kids...but I knew what I was, what I could never be to him…”
“You turned him down?”
“I let him marry a woman instead of an eight-year-old girl,” she still sounded upset by it.
“What happened?”
“He married Mrs. Fraser. Had children. But never stopped loving me.”
“Are you together now?”
“Of course not. We keep each other company and pretend there’s nothing there.” Her words painted a sad and lonely existence of never getting what you want, but she said it in a no-nonsense manner.
“That sounds terrible.”
“Love is strange, my dear. And it makes you do ridiculous things.”
“Do you regret it?”
“I regret not having a happy ending,” she sighed. “But I don’t regret letting him have one. I would rather see him happy than sad, even if he isn’t with me.” She looked out onto the street, where there was some kind of a parade going on. “They have parades for everything here,” she sighed after the bride came into view, but I heard a yearning for her own marriage procession before the party slipped away…
I was Annabelle, nervous with my heart beating out of my chest, possibly because of how small my gown was. I looked down and saw it was a wedding dress that bound me so tight.
“It is quite an elaborate affair,” Annabelle teased, as the hands fumbling with the back of my dress stopped.
“I’ll figure out the corset,” Henry said with determination. “I was transfixed by this,” he ran his fingers over the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine.
“It’s a birthmark. I’m told it is a perfect half-moon,” she said, trying to look back, to read his expression. All I saw was the top of his head, the perfectly coiffed hair suffering from the sweat and exertion of unlacing the dress.
“A half-moon crescent,” Henry agreed, kissing the mark before going back to the dress.
While he unlaced the dress, occasionally planting a kiss as he worked his way down my back, Annabelle’s hands twisted the wedding band around her finger. I could feel her excitement at starting a life with Henry, and her gratitude that he loved her in spite of her magic and other flaws. But there was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that was telling me this was a terrible mistake. I couldn’t tell if it was her heart or mine that beat faster at the thought of Gabriel, but Annabelle struggled to push all other thoughts from her mind as the dress finally fell free, and she turned to face her groom…
“Are you okay?” Ingrid asked, her hand on my shoulder when I woke up.
“Did I pass out?” I asked.
“No, mostly stood there playing with your hands,” she shared as I looked around to make sure people weren’t staring. “You had a memory?”
“The wedding dress triggered something,” I agreed, grateful I didn’t have to explain it to her.
“It was a beautiful wedding,” she gave me a smile, thinking I saw Beth with Embry, before Mr. Fraser came over. “I’m sorry about earlier. I’ve been scanning everyone to make sure you would be safe. I didn’t know it was you.”
“It’s okay,” I assured him, his earlier intrusion the last thing on my mind. “I’ll go check out the food.” I made my exit so they could keep each other company.
I went over to the food table, sorting through my thoughts to figure out what the memory was for, or if it was a fluke brought on by the dress. I decided Henry noticing the birthmark was worth a mention to the guys, before someone came up behind me and said, “Charlie brought the crawfish, so it’s to die for, but the scallops have sand in them.”
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I turned to face Eric and took him in for a hug.
“Charlie and Ingrid go way back,” he shared. “And he loves parties.”
“I was referring to you being in school.”
“Oh, that?” he shrugged it off.
“I was under the impression you only spent the summers in New Orleans.”
“Usually,” he agreed, getting me to blush again.
“Did you already eat?” I brought the attention back to the food.
“I did. But the crawfish…” he brought his fingers to his lips and kissed the air.
“Is to die for,” I repeated his words back to him.
“You get it,” he smiled.
“Is this your first of Ingrid’s parties, or can you tell a newcomer what to expect?” I looked around, trying to see if anything other than eating, drinking and talking was going on. Gabriel was laughing with Charlie and Embry, the three of them looking like they didn’t have a care in the world, until Embry used two fingers to point to his eyes, then back to me. I rolled my eyes at him before coming back to Eric.
“I’ve been to a few,” he told me. “One was in the streets and absolutely crazy, and the other was above her shop, with maybe five people and twenty courses of fancy dishes with food.”
“So no idea what to expect tonight,” I concluded.
He sighed before looking at me and shaking his head slowly. “Not with the party.”
“But with other things?”
“I maybe have an idea,” he sounded more resigned than excited.
“Of something bad?”
“For me, yes. For you...I’m not sure yet,” he tried to figure me out.
“Is it something with Charlie?” I looked over to the three men again, but they all looked like they were having the time of their lives.
“I think you’re awesome Lucy. You’re probably the fiercest, most badass woman I have ever encountered, and I like you. As friends, sure, but also as a lot more than friends. If I didn’t think Embry and Gabriel would kill me for it, I would want to kiss you right now.”
I could feel myself flush and got nervous. Terribly nervous. At first because I thought he was going to kiss me and I wouldn’t be good at it, but then because I didn’t think I wanted him to. That’s when I looked at him and realized he had no intention of kissing me tonight.
“I would want to, except that I have no interest in kissing a girl who doesn’t want to kiss me.”
“I think you’re amazing Eric. You’re nice and funny and helpful…”
“But I don’t make you swoon,” he understood.
“You do…” I remembered how much I blushed when he took me riding for the first time.
“Not like he does.” It was a weird role-reversal where I felt like he was the one letting me down easy. “And it’s okay… I see the way you look at him, mostly when you know he isn’t watching, how jealous he gets about us hanging out, that fight he had with Embry…”
“What fight?” I was about to argue with his previous comments, to defend myself, but the guys were finally friends. I didn’t want to have to wait another three hundred years for them to make up.
“The big fight that had them refusing to talk to each other for at least a week.”
“That was about Annabelle. Gabriel thought Embry was trying to insert himself in based on loving Annabelle, but it was because he loved Beth,” I explained, but Eric looked at me like I look at Clara sometimes when she doesn’t understand things that are so obvious to everyone else.
“Maybe Gabriel was upset about that, but the storming off was because of you. Embry saw it too, so he told him not to hurt you like he hurt Rosie, and Gabriel said he didn’t understand, and it wasn’t like that.”
“You remembered all that?” I tried to process what it meant.
“It didn’t make sense until you told me about the ones that came before you.”
“None of it makes sense,” I argued, getting a look from Eric to stop arguing on this. “I’m sorry,” I said, for not liking him like that, for liking Gabriel, who I’m pretty sure will break my heart…
“Don’t be. Proximity doesn’t equal love. It doesn’t even guarantee friendship.”
“But we are friends, right?” I asked, worried it might be cruel, but I couldn’t deal with the alternative.
“If you want to be.”
“I do.”
“Then we’re friends.”
“Is that mean?”
“If you had let me kiss you and I had to wait for you to come clean about your feelings, that would have been cruel,” he said, but he was smiling.
“You’re really awesome. You know that?”
“I do,” he assured me. He took one of the crawfish from my plate and ate it with a huge smile that told me we were going to be okay.