“Okay,” the fairy, Ren, said.  “He can stay in the guest room for now, we’ll give him some time to see if he can open up to us.  Are you staying, Nathan?”

Nathan shook his head, reluctantly.  “You don’t have the room and I need to check in with my family.  I have work first thing in the morning, I didn’t take off.”  He came over and knelt in front of the couch, looking directly into my eyes even though I tried to squirm backwards and escape.

“Miles,” he told me, “you’ll be safe here.  Trust me, nothing can get in a fairy house unless allowed.  Ren and Riven won’t let anything happen to you.  I’ll be back tomorrow, we’ll try to figure out this mess together, okay?  But don’t worry, you’re safe here.  So please stay put until we get a chance to talk about this, okay?”  Then he reached out and very gently petted my head.

I hesitated.  My instinct was to run, but…it did feel safe.  Riven – whatever he was – he made me feel safe, I just knew somehow I could trust him, and he was looking at me expectantly, hoping I’d agree with Nathan.  Ren, he seemed kind of neutral about the whole thing, but when I glanced over at him he gave me a smile, so…maybe.

Against my better judgment, I nodded once.

Nathan’s shoulders sagged a little and he looked so clearly relieved I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it.  Why was he that worried about me?  After what he had told Nathan about me and after the last time Nathan and I had talked, which hadn’t exactly ended well, I didn’t understand why he’d bother at all with me.

“Thank you,” he told me.  Then he stood up and looked at Ren.  “He won’t be a problem, I promise.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ren chuckled softly.  “You wouldn’t bring someone here if you thought he was a wild, dangerous shifter.  Plus Riven likes him so that’s good enough for me.”

“He’s so tiny,” Riven enthused, smiling brightly at me.  “And he’s not aggressive at all so I don’t know why anyone would claim he’s vicious.  And – well, he reminds me of me.”  He finished, a little more subdued in tone.

I didn’t know why that last bit was a bad thing, but both Nathan and Ren seemed bothered by it.  Nathan kind of smiled stiffly, went to the door, then paused and looked back at Riven.

“Thanks for the advice, by the way.  I think you were right.”  And then he was gone.

“Advice?”  Ren asked Riven.

“Um-hmm.  I told him he should let himself be loved.”

“Ah.”  Ren’s face softened a little.  “He’s giving up on Sorrel?”

Riven sighed.  “You know, if he realized like your whole family knew about his feelings, he’d probably have given up a long time ago out of embarrassment.”

Ren shrugged.  “Nathan’s a great friend of all of ours.  We didn’t want to see him hurt, even by accident.  I don’t know what you said, but if you got him to let go after, what, 15 years?  About?  That’s magic of its own, babe.  Thanks for helping him with that.”

“I didn’t get him to.  I just gave him a push to think about it.”  Riven was frowning.

Ren just laughed.  “You say that a lot, you know?  You claim you did nothing much but you move mountains.”  He leaned over and kissed Riven’s forehead.  “You’re amazing.”

Riven mumbled something that sounded like “you’re too ridiculous” but then turned his attention to me and paused.  “Oh.  Whoops.  Um…didn’t mean to say all of that in front of you.”  He suddenly looked anxious.  “Um, please don’t say anything to Nathan?”

I’d already known about the situation, although he couldn’t have known about that, but I suddenly felt glad that he was looking out for Nathan.  Nathan had good friends.

I nodded once, and Riven seemed relieved.  Then, he hesitated and came back over to the couch.  “Can I pick you up?”

I mean, I can walk.  Just because I was small didn’t mean I need to be carried places.  I probably would have protested it if were anyone but Riven, but somehow his soothing presence and calming touch just made me relax, instead, so I nodded.

Gently, he scooped me up and carried me upstairs.  When he reached the top of the stairs, he opened a door to the right, which turned out to be a bedroom.  He gently deposited me on the bed, then disappeared across the hall and reappeared surprisingly quickly, carrying some clothing.

“You can sleep in here,” he told me.  “I’m not sure what size clothes you might wear since I don’t know your human size, but you can try mine or Ren’s, I brought some of both.  There’s a bathroom next to this room,” he pointed in the direction, “you’re free to use it, it’s just for you – Ren and I have one of our own.  There’s towels and shampoo and stuff and there’s a new toothbrush in the cabinet if you want.  We’ll have dinner soon if you want to join us.  You can stay in shifted form if you’d prefer, that’s fine, or shift back, whichever you want.”

I kind of wanted to shift back, but mostly just so I could ask questions.  Why – why did I feel so safe with him?  What was his deal?  And what did he mean by me reminding him of himself?

Riven hesitated at the door, then came back and sat on the bed.  “I know how you feel,” he said slowly.  Had he heard my last question?  Could he read minds?

“I grew up thinking I was human, but I have Vist powers – which mean I can see all the supernaturals.  Like, for Nathan, I see his rabbit head, I don’t see his human head.  It’s kind of weird, I suppose, but back when I thought I was human, I had no connections to the supernatural world, no one to tell me what was going on, and when supernaturals realized I knew what they were,” he paused.

I suddenly guessed what he was going to say and felt my blood run cold for him.

He suddenly tugged on the collar of his turtleneck, revealing what several deep, vicious looking scars.  Those had been made by some sort of animal teeth, I was pretty sure of it.

“I had a lot of trouble with supernaturals,” he explained.  “I have a large collection of scars to show for it.”  He rolled back his right sleeve, showing a series of claw marks along his upper arm.  “Pretty much have some all over, but we don’t really need the full show-and-tell.”  A ghost of a smile on his face, but it was a sad smile.  “Until I met Ren and he protected me, I spent most of my life trying to hide from supernaturals and running from them when I saw them.  I know what it’s like to be afraid.”  His eyes met mine.

He did know.  He knew what I was feeling.  He understood the feeling of being hunted.  Maybe that was why he made me comfortable, because I recognized in him someone who understood that terror that could haunt your every moment, waking or sleeping.  He’d probably been through a lot worse than I had, because I only had one person who had destroyed me, and it sounded like he’d had a lot.

But he understood, that was the point.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  If he understood, then he wouldn’t send me back, surely.  And he and Ren – well, they weren’t prey shifters, so maybe they would understand my story?  Maybe they would even believe me?

Maybe, instead of being delivered back into certain death, Nathan had actually brought me to people who could help.

~~~~

After Riven went back downstairs, I took the clothes he’d lent me – his, not Ren’s – and went to the bathroom.  I shifted back and took a shower, relieved to feel the stress and sweat from the last – how long?  Less than 24 hours, I guess, but it felt a lot longer – and then climb into clean clothes.  Riven’s clothes were a little big on me, but I didn’t even care.

I felt really nervous about going downstairs in my human form because, despite my miniature size, I felt safer in my shifted form, so I hesitated at the top of the stairs.  Then I felt something touch the back of my knees and yelped, nearly falling down the stairs as I turned around.

A white fluffy cloud looked at me with a happy smile on its face, wagging its tail.

A dog.  It was just a dog.

“Ah, sorry, that’s Sapphire,” Riven said from the bottom of the stairs.  “Forgot to warn you about her.  She, um, really likes attention.  She’ll probably come bug you while you’re sleeping if you don’t close the door.”

I gave the dog an obligatory pat and then hesitantly came down the stairs.  Riven had already seen me in my human form, so…it didn’t matter anymore, right?

He seemed a little surprised when I got down the stairs and looked at him anxiously.  “I thought shifted forms don’t have anything to do with size of human forms.”

I looked at him blankly, then realized he was talking about my height.  “I’m just small in both.  It’s not related.”

“Oh.  Huh.  Well, welcome to the short club,” he smiled brightly.  “Everyone is so tall,” he explained in an exaggerated whisper.  “Except the girls.  And even then they’re mostly taller than me.  Beatrice is short, but she makes up for it in personality, so you forget she’s petite.”

“Everyone?”  I asked cautiously.

“All our friends.”  He motioned towards Ren, who was setting food on the table.  “I’m kind of pleased we have a new friend more my height.”

I cautiously followed him as he led the way into the kitchen, feeling inexplicably happy about the idea that he was describing me as a friend.  I hoped that would happen, he seemed like the kind of guy I would like to be friends with.

But I was still very much on edge about this whole situation, still worried I was going to be sent back.  After all, he did have an arrest warrant.  Would they really be willing to ignore that?

Ren looked up with a smile.  “Hope you’re hungry.”  He paused, looking startled when he saw me.  “Ah – you’re kind of younger than I expected.  I guess I assumed you’d be closer to Nathan’s age since he said you’re friends.”

I sighed deeply and sank into a chair Riven pointed out.  “I’m older than I look,” I told him, resigned.  Maybe I should grow some facial hair so I didn’t look so young, especially considering my height?  “I’m 26.”

“Ooh, you’re close to my age then,” Riven volunteered.  “I turn 25 soon.  Ren’s 22.”  He offered me a dish, and I felt my mouth water as I looked at the food.

I’d forgotten I hadn’t eaten in a while, but suddenly I found myself very hungry.  I reached for one of the dishes and then paused.

“Um, does any of this have meat in it?”

Ren seemed flustered at the question.  “Oh, no, sorry, I didn’t think of it.  I’m vegetarian, pretty much all fairies are,” he explained, “and Riven eats vegetarian for me.  Um, we can, uh, get you something, I guess.”  By his expression, I was pretty sure he really didn’t want to do that.

Thankfully that wasn’t an issue.  “No, I was asking for the opposite reason.  I, uh, don’t eat meat either.”

That seemed to startle both of them, but thankfully they didn’t ask.

I took the first bite of the vegetable casserole offered to me and closed my eyes, savoring it.  Food.  Not just the stew Susanna liked to cook, but real food.  The vegetables tasted fresh, everything perfectly seasoned.  It was amazing.  I hadn’t something eaten like this since –

I shouldn’t have thought of it.  Shouldn’t have remembered that one time he’d taken me out.  It had gotten so bad between us that I’d actually started thinking of leaving, and then he took me out to a nice restaurant where they made amazing food.  I’d forgotten, in my bliss, that it was all a trick, that he wasn’t really like that at all.  I’d thought he must have really cared for me to take me out and apologize like that.

The memory brought back new waves of nausea and suddenly I needed the bathroom.  I wasn’t sure if there was one downstairs so I bolted back upstairs, leaving them behind in shock at my sudden exit, and ran for the toilet.

I’d only eaten the one bite since, what, some time yesterday?  And I’d thrown up whatever I’d eaten then, too.  Well, most of this last week, really, I’d hardly kept anything down.  I felt the tears start to fall.  It had tasted so good, but I couldn’t even enjoy it, couldn’t even eat any more without feeling the fear.

How was I supposed to keep on living now?  Food was kind of necessary to live, but if I couldn’t even keep food down anymore….

I felt a gentle hand rub my back and looked up in surprise to find Riven there.  He seemed concerned, and somehow I found myself relaxing a little in his presence.  Normally I’d probably have freaked out to have someone follow me here and see me like this, but with Riven, things were somehow different, even if I didn’t know why.

“Ren can help with nausea,” he said softly.  “Fairies have healing magic.  If it’s a bug or something, he can heal it.  If it’s a psychological thing, well, he can at least help blunt it.”

He knew.  He realized what it was – I could see it in his eyes.  He knew it wasn’t something physical.

I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them.  “I can’t help it,” I admitted.  “I liked the food, but then I remembered, and…I haven’t been able to keep anything down in a while.  I try to eat, but then something hits me and I just – it all comes back up.”

Riven sat down next to me.  “You want to talk about it?  You don’t have to.  I know it’s not always easy talking about stuff like that.”

I thought about it, then shook my head.  “I don’t know if I can yet.  I want to, but – it’s just a lot.”

“I get that.  You don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready, even if that means never, okay?  But if you do want to eat, which sounds like you probably could use it if you haven’t really eaten anything in a while, Ren can probably help you.  Or,” he snapped his fingers, remembering something, “fairy tea.”

“Fairy tea?”  I questioned.  I hoped it wasn’t made of fairies.  That sounded disturbing and also confusing as to why Ren would be okay with it being in the house.

“Fairies make a lot of medicinal stuff from plants,” Riven explained.  Oh.  That made much more sense.  Right, of course – they wouldn’t be okay with eating fairies.  What was I thinking?  Maybe it was just the fear, exhaustion, and lack of food.  Yeah, I’d blame it on that.  “They have patients that don’t like to see traditional doctors.  Ren’s dad runs a clinic for them, and his sister helps out some.  They’ve helped me out a couple times.  I’ll bet they have something for nausea, let’s go ask Ren.”

He stood up and offered me his hand, which I accepted, then pulled me to my feet and brought me back downstairs.  I let him, feeling strangely warmed by his interest in me.