We drag Erick through the storm for nearly an hour before we find a safe place to rest. The rocky alcove is smaller than my cave and not nearly as hidden, but it's dry aside from the deep stream running down the center, and more importantly warm, especially after we light a fire. He's safe, for now. We are too, I hope, though I know my sister won't be at ease until we're back on the other side of the protection spell, on faerie lands once again.

I look through the entrance toward the sky. It's still dark, but dawn can't be far off. Time already seems to be rushing through my fingers, and Erick hasn't even opened his eyes.

"Can we go now?" Nymia asks. "He'll be safe in here."

"He hasn't even woken up yet."

"All the more reason…" She trails off pointedly.

I glare at her over my shoulder.

Nymia rolls her eyes and plops down to a seated position on the mud, crossing her arms indignantly. That's fine with me. While she pouts, I kneel beside Erick, unable to quite believe he's real. After watching him in the scrying water for so long, I thought I knew him, but as I look at him now, he feels like a secret I can't wait to uncover.

I've never been this close to a human.

I've never been this close to a man, either.

He's so much bigger than I imagined. When I first saw him from the tree, he didn't seem nearly so tall, but now I feel as small as a pixie sitting beside him. I need both my hands to hold one of his. Yet he's thin, with wide shoulders and a tapered waist. When I press my palm to his chest—just to make sure his heart is beating—the muscles beneath my hand are solid. I can't help but remember the sight of him in the lake, half-naked while he swam. My cheeks flush and I pull away, focusing on his clothes instead. They're strange, with so many buttons and clasps and seams I can't imagine how they're comfortable, but I guess that's a human thing, like his odd skin. I'm so used to faeries, to the silver-and-gold glitter always glowing beneath our skin, that his seems miraculously dull in comparison. Yet when I press the backs of my fingertips to his cheek, there's a spark, as though he's got a power all his own hidden somewhere underneath.

"Leave me alone," Nymia grumbles behind me.

I turn, grinning at the sight of the hound busily sniffing the ground around her, occasionally pressing his wet nose against her arm, then her hair, then her dress. She pushes the dog away, but it only serves to make him more intrigued if the riotous tail-wagging is any indication. This time, he shoves his snout right in her face, forcing Nymia to lean back as far as she can without falling over.

"Shoo," she orders. "Shoo!"

He doesn't.

So my sister flees instead, rolling to her feet and jumping over the stream to the other side of the cave. The hound seems about ready to follow despite the static prickle of my sister's magic warming the air, as though she might send a lightning bolt down at any moment.

"Come here, boy," I call, stealing Erick's words.

It works.

The hound turns and races over, this time pressing his nose to my neck to smell the power thrumming within. A scratchy tongue licks my cheek and I giggle. As though he likes the sound, the dog repeats the gesture, eliciting another soft laugh from my lips as I reach up to scratch his neck.

"Is this real?" a deep voice whispers.

I go still.

The hound, on the other hand, barks and spins, uncontrollably happy as his bum wriggles excitedly in my face. He presses his front paws against his owner's chest and leans over his face, licking and barking away.

"Okay, okay," Erick whispers joyfully as he pushes the hound away and sits up. His gaze slides to me while he absently scratches the dog's ears. He blinks and shakes his head a little, as though he doesn't quite believe what he's seeing, yet at the same time can't look away.

I don't know what to say.

I'm not used to not knowing what to say.

Instead, I reach up and twirl my crimson hair into a spiral that cascades over my shoulder, cursing myself for not thinking to dry it before he woke up. I must look a mess. Though the way he's staring sort of makes me feel beautiful regardless.

I pull my lips into my mouth to hide my smile.

"Is this real?" he asks again. "Or am I stuck in a dream?"

"That depends," I tease lightly. His eyes widen at the sound of my voice. "Do you want this to be real? If not, simply close your eyes and I can vanish like a spirit in the night."

"No, don't," he answers quickly, reaching out his hand. He stops short of touching me as though worried I'm nothing more than a vision. "Please stay."

"Okay." I smile and shrug. "I guess I'm real then."

"I guess you are," he murmurs as the edge of his lip quirks into a grin. Then he closes the distance between us to wrap a strand of my hair around his finger, the red hue bright against his skin. Shocked recognition jolts through him and he lets go. "You're the faerie in the tree!"

"I am a faerie," I answer, unable to stop the playful words. "And I have been known to sit in trees, though I much prefer a cushy bed of moss or a buoyant lily pad, especially on a hot summer day."

The corners of his eyes crinkle as a warm current flows into his blue irises, so they glitter like the surface of the ocean beneath the sun. The sight thrills me in a way nothing has before.

"Is that so?" he asks, tone amused. "Why?"

"Have you ever sat in a tree?"

"I can't say that I have."

"Well, I don’t recommend it." I shake my head and wrinkle my nose. "Very scratchy."

He laughs outright, and a spike of heat shoots through my chest, so hot the rest of me tingles with the burn. "And where would you rate the bumpy floor of a damp stone cave?"

The intensity of his gaze makes me draw in a sharp breath.

"Adequate, I suppose," I whisper, lungs pulled so tight I can hardly find the air to speak. "Though in the right company, it has a certain charm."

Nymia makes a sound under her breath.

When I turn to glare at her, I find she's gone, though she can't have gone far. The lily scent of her magic hangs like a weight on my shoulders, reminding me that my time is running out. She must be watching from the shadows, out of sight but still here.

Erick doesn't seem to have heard. He glances down toward the hound, rubbing the dog's head softly. "You must be talking about Ru."

"Ru?"

"Oh, that's his name," he explains, finding my eyes again. I can't help but jolt a little at the contact. "He was born without a leg, the smallest in his litter, so the handlers didn't even bother naming him. They just called him 'the runt.' The Master of Hounds was going to put him down, until I brought him to the castle. By then it was too late. He only responded to runt, but I eventually managed to make Ru work instead."

I don't know what a handler or a Master of Hounds is, but I don't want him to think I'm a fool, so instead I say, "Nice to meet you, Ru."

The hound looks at me with his tongue lolling out the side of his snout.

"Do you have dogs where you're from?" Erick asks softly. Then he scrunches his face and shakes his head. "Sorry, I must sound like a fool. But I've never met a faerie before. I've never even seen one."

"You're not a fool," I say, smiling because his thoughts were so close to my own—he's just the only one who had the courage to speak them. "I've never met a human before."

"Really?"

I nod excitedly.

"We're not so interesting," he mumbles with a shrug. "No magic. No common sense, either, apparently, to get lost in the woods in the middle of a storm. I hope you're not disappointed that I'm the human you stumbled upon. I think I would be, if I were in your shoes."

Does he really think that? "Of course not."

"Can I—" He pauses, frowning.

"What? Go ahead."

"Well, it's just—I don’t know how magic works. How'd you find me? The last thing I remember is being hit in the head by a tree branch, and then I woke up here. Did you get a vision? Did a tree tell you? Can they talk?"

"No." I giggle softly. Talking trees? "The phoenix found me and bid me to follow. It used its tears to heal you before it flew away."

"And how'd we end up here? Did we fly?"

I shake my head with a smile. He says the funniest things. "Nothing quite so exciting. We—" My throat closes around the word and I pause, thinking of Nymia hidden in the shadows on the other side of the cave. I'm not sure she wants this human to know she exists. "I mean, I brought you. I had to drag you through the storm on a leaf, but it wasn't terrible."

It's a slight fabrication. My arms still ache from the journey, but I don't want to make him feel bad.

"A leaf?" Erick jumps to his feet, turning to look down. With a mystified expression he runs his fingers over the waxy pad he'd been sitting on, tracing the raised edge of a vein.

"I stretched it out a little…" I murmur, unsure what he's thinking.

"You did this?" He finds my eyes.

I nod.

"It's amazing." He grabs the leaf by the stem and holds it up as a sudden laugh escapes his lips. "It's as tall as I am!"

"Oh, that's nothing."

A wicked grin curves my lips. Nymia's magic prickles across the air in warning, but I ignore it as I draw on my own power. Stretching out with my senses, I focus on the saturated pores of his clothes, the droplets speckled across mine, the rivulets carving paths down our arms, the heavy weight clinging to my hair, using the magic to connect to every ounce of water that I can. Then all at once, I yank.

In an instant, we're both dry.

Erick gasps and steps back as his gaze sweeps around the cave. Liquid beads hang suspended in the air around us, twinkling like gemstones as they catch the firelight. Even my breath hitches. It looks as though I brought the entire night sky down around us, as though a whole universe of stars shines for the two of us alone. Our eyes meet across the distance, which seems impossibly vast yet entirely too close all at the same time. We're from two different worlds, but right now, none of that seems to matter. The only thing I see is him.

"You're amazing," he whispers.

I'm not. This is simple magic, yet something about the wonder in his eyes makes me feel special in a way I never have before. "Just wait."

With the gentle strum of my fingers, I urge the water to spin around us, slow at first, then faster and faster, until we're in the center of a burning cyclone, standing in the middle of a bright flame. Erick pokes a finger into the circling wave, laughing as flecks of water splash against his cheeks, then looks at me. My cheeks flare with heat. My skin feels on fire. All I can think about is the need to cool down, so I gather a frigid wind within my chest, and blow. Immediately, the temperature in the cave drops. The water crystallizes, turning to snow. White flecks fall gently around us, disappearing as soon as they touch the rocky floor.

Erick's gaze doesn't leave my face again.

I don't want to break the moment, but there's something I desperately want to know. "Why'd you risk so much to free the phoenix?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I guess I couldn't bear to think of it living the rest of its life in a cage," he answers, open and honest in a way we've been told humans never are. "There are animals we train, like Ru here, or the horses, or the falcons, who we can teach to come back, but I knew the phoenix was different. It was like a stallion found in the wild—needing to be broken before it could be caged. I've never much liked the thought of that, of breaking spirits rather than saving them."

"Then why'd you help catch it in the first place?"

Something akin to shame passes over his face. "My father doesn't like having a hound around that he thinks is of no use. Ever since Ru was a puppy, I've been training him to track magic, and what you witnessed was his first test. If he failed, they would've put him down"—I gasp—"so there was no choice but to succeed. We've only found items before, lost in the woods, not living, breathing things."

"You didn't mean to find it?"

Erick shakes his head.

A spark of relief warms my heart.

"Why were you there?" he wonders.

"I've never seen a phoenix molt before. I just wanted to witness the magic."

"I would've been happy with that as well." His voice is edged with apology. "But my father and brother are different. They only value things they can possess, a trait I'm sure is shared by a lot of men raised to believe they're better than everyone else simply because they were born with the right blood."

I tilt my head to the side, confused by these human notions I don't understand. "Is it not your blood too?"

"Only half," he murmurs, dropping his gaze to the ground. "And the other half is the only one that matters, because it whispers that I'll never be king. A fact for which I'm eternally grateful."

"Well, if I were a human," I offer, trying to decipher all the hidden meanings in his words, aching to bring the light back to his eyes, "I think I'd prefer the wrong blood, if it meant I could appreciate the beauty of the world without feeling the need to conquer it."

He retreats from his memories and returns his focus to me. The wonder leaves his gaze, replaced by something deeper, as though for the first time he's truly seeing me—not a faerie, not my magic, but me. "What's your name?"

"Aere—ow!" I break off with a jolt as an electric zap pricks my bum. Nymia. I'd recognize the sting of my sister's magic anywhere.

"Are you okay?" Erick crosses the distance between us, concern coloring his features as he reaches out to steady me, palm warm on my arm.

Take that, I think toward my sister as though she can hear me. All she served to do was bring us closer together. "I'm fine. It must've been an annoying little gnat or something, not to worry."

He relaxes, and loosens his hold, but—I can't help but notice—doesn't let go. "What did you say your name was? Ariel?"

"No." I wrinkle my nose. "You can call me Aeri."

"Aeri," he repeats, testing the word on his tongue. Then he smiles, as though he likes the way it feels. "I'm Erick."

"By the Mother, Erick." I murmur the faerie greeting. Normally, we'd press our palms together and exchange a little touch of magic, but I don't think I could move if I tried.

His mouth rises into a lopsided grin and he slides his fingers down the side of my arm, gently skimming my skin so it feels on fire before coming to a stop on my palm. My heartbeat drums so loud I fear it will echo against the walls of the cave—a fear that only strengthens when he bows, lifts my hand to his lips, and softly kisses the topside. All the while, his eyes hold mine, smoldering brighter than the fire by our feet. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Aeri."

We stay like that for I'm not sure how long.

Ru's bark is the only thing that pulls us from the spell.

"Is something there? Is someone coming?" I ask as I jerk my hand away and turn toward the entrance of the cave.

"No, that wasn't an alarm call," Erick says as he walks over to the opening. I can't help but notice the sky is the slightest bit lighter, and the clouds have cleared. Dawn is fast approaching. "I think he wants to go home. The storm has passed."

Has it?

I can’t fight the sense that it's only just begun.

"We need to go," Nymia calls from behind me. I would laugh at the way Erick jumps about five feet in the air, face going pale with fright, if my heart weren't sinking with the truth in her words.

"Who are you?" Erick asks.

"None of your business," Nymia blurts and grabs my hand, ignoring him. "Aeri, we have to go."

"Has she been there the whole time?" he asks, still confused.

I toss him a sorry look, then meet my sister's eyes. "Can't I just— I mean, can't we just—"

"No." She shakes her head, adamant but also sympathetic as she gently squeezes my fingers. Lowering her voice so Erick can't hear, she whispers, "The priestesses will be waking up any minute. They'll wonder where we've been. We need to get back onto faerie lands. We've already been here too long."

She's right.

I know she's right.

And yet—

"Let me say goodbye," I murmur, sliding my gaze to the man I've only just met. How could I ever have been so stupid as to think one night would be enough? Why did I make that promise? Why, why, why? "Please."

"Goodbye?" Erick questions, stepping away from the entrance and toward me.

"I have to go," I try to explain. Nymia drops my hand and leaves us, granting my final request.

"Meet me here again," he urges.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just— I can't."

My throat clogs, choking on my frustration. There's still so much I want to know, so much I want to ask. What's that room in his house? How did he collect all those things? Why does he sleep some nights in a room full of horses instead of a comfortable bed? Why is he always alone?

"What's the name of the trinket you left for me?" I ask suddenly, question spilling from my lips before I can swallow it back down. I need one answer, just one.

"My pin?"

"A pin!" I exclaim, emotions as wild as the storm last night, unruly in a way I can't explain, sad and elated and desperate all at once.

"Aeri!" Nymia's sharp voice calls. I don't like the way she says that nickname, full of anger, when I'd like to remember it filled with awe instead.

"Coming!" I shout back, not looking away from Erick. "I'm sorry."

I turn to run, but he takes my hand.

"Wait, please," he begs, tone as unhinged as mine, frantically trying to find some shred of hope to cling to. I give in, finding his deep blue eyes one final time, trying to memorize this moment and the sensation of feeling so wanted. "The full moon is in eight days. I'll be here waiting, until dawn if I must. If tonight has meant anything to you, please come. I want this to be more than a dream."

"I—"

"Aeri!"

"I'll try," I finally blurt.

When he smiles, my heart sings like a bird to the rising sun, filled with the promise of what's ahead. As soon as I step outside and take my sister's hand, it plummets. With each step toward faerie lands, it falls further still, growing more and more distant, until I feel hollow and empty inside. Then all at once, I realize what's happened.

I left my heart back in that cave.

I left it with him.

And I'm not sure how to get it back.