She lowered her hand, breathed out. “It’s yours. It’s for you. I see now, what I asked. What I could ask because of you.”
For a moment he couldn’t speak, and had to fight to find his voice, to steady it. “I’m honored. It is a great gift. It blesses what has become my home.”
“Is it? Home for you?”
“I’m content here, to live and to work when I’m not needed away.”
And he’d rest there, he thought, in the earth, under the tree, when his time ended in this realm.
“Now there are eggs to gather and a cow to milk. When we’ve done what must be done today, you should begin to make your good-byes.”
“Good-byes?” Surprise had her head jerking up. “We’re leaving? But I’ve got more than three weeks left.”
“Leaving will take time. Friends you’ve made here will want to fete you, make gifts. You should make gifts for those friends you’re leaving here. But our time here is ending. This tree is not only a great gift but a sign. You are ready.”
“You said just yesterday my form was sloppy and my defenses reckless.”
“So they were. And still, you’re ready. Get the eggs.” He picked up the bucket he’d set aside, walked out to milk the cow.
“I’m going home,” Fallon whispered. Then with a laugh, spun in circles. “I’m going home.”
Mick proved the hardest. He sulked, picked fights, stomped off.
“Be patient,” Mallick advised when she complained—again—about Mick’s attitude. “It can be hard to leave. It’s also hard to be left behind.”
She didn’t want to be patient; she wanted to punch him. Instead, she ignored him, as Mallick had been right about leaving taking time. There were parties and feasts and gifts. Last swims in the faerie pool, last races with the elves. And new revelations.
“If Mick keeps avoiding me, he’s never going to see me run all the way to the top of the tallest tree in the woods. And I won’t have to thank him for teaching me how to scale a tree in the first place.”
“You will thank him for his help, and his friendship, when you see him.”
“If I see him.” It hurt her heart she might not. “I guess I’ll thank him. I wouldn’t be able to run up a trunk, flip, and dive from branches, if he hadn’t shown me.”
Mallick sighed. “Think, girl.”
“About what?”
“Do you think such an ability can be taught to one who doesn’t have it already in her?”
“Well, he showed me how to … and I can sort of boost with … Wait. Are you saying I have elfin blood? My mother doesn’t. She never said my birth father did.”
“Are you The One only for witches?”
“No, but—”
“You carry all in you, in your blood and spirit, and so you hold all.”
“You mean I can run nearly as fast as some of the elves because I have … But the faeries? It’s not like I have wings.”
“You found their glade, swim in their pool. They come to you. You hear the voices of their smallest.”
“Yeah but … I don’t shift. Do I? Can I? If I can, why didn’t you tell me, help train me, help me find my spirit animal?”
“Think.” He sighed again. “You did find them.”
“The quests? But I can’t—” She broke off, understood. “I could—or will if I need—shift into those forms. But more, I can merge with them, all three, see through them. You did train me, in all of it. I just didn’t know. It’s why we came here, so I’d live close to the others, spend this time learning their ways, their people, their abilities. Free time, I called it.” She rolled her eyes. “I was still in training.”
“That doesn’t diminish your enjoyment. Go now, find Mick. You know very well you can find him. Say your good-byes to him. We leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? You never said—”
“I just said.”
“It’s almost a week early. They won’t be expecting me. Oh!” She beamed. “Oh, that’s even better. I’ll surprise them. Thank you.”
She flung her arms around him. He let himself cup a hand to the back of her head as he thought, Yes, yes, it is hard to be left behind.
She didn’t find Mick so much as lure him. She rode Laoch with Taibhse on her arm and Faol Ban pacing her, taking a meandering route to the faerie glade.
There, knowing his weaknesses, she set out a picnic of little cakes, fruit tarts, and sweet tea.
With the owl on a branch, the horse at his ease, she propped her head on the wolf as he curled behind her. And opened a book.
It didn’t take long.
When she sensed him, she turned a page, picked up a cake to nibble. “I could share, I guess, but not if you’re going to be mean.”
“I don’t care about your cakes. I came to swim.” He stepped out of the trees, and in the green light kicked off his boots, pulled off his shirt, and dived into the pool in worn and baggy shorts.
“You don’t own this place, you know. I was swimming here before you came, and I’ll swim here after you go.”
She turned another page. “I’ll miss swimming here. I might even miss you, if you weren’t such an ass.”
“You’re not going to miss anything or anybody. That’s all bullshit.”
He dived deep, and when he surfaced, she’d put the book aside. Sitting up, legs crossed, she met his angry eyes. “You know it’s not, just like you know I have to go. I was always going to have to go. My family’s waiting. And the rest, all the rest, but my family first. I miss them so much, but it was easier being away like this because you were my friend. You’re still my friend even though you say mean things to me, things you know aren’t true. Even though you’re just stupid and we could’ve had the last couple weeks to hunt and swim and just be friends. Now that time’s gone. Mallick says we’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.” He launched himself out of the pool. “Why?”
“He says it’s time. He says I’m ready. Don’t go,” she said quickly when she realized he was braced to run.
“You are. You don’t care how I feel about it. You don’t care how I feel about you.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. I never had a real friend before you. My brothers, and some of the girls from the other farms, the village. But not a real friend, so I never had to say good-bye to one before. I want to go home, but it’s hard to say good-bye. It’s harder when my friend’s mad at me for doing what I have to.”
“Just because you have some magick sword …” He trailed off, tired and disgusted with his own venom. “Screw it.” After muttering his new favorite phrase, he dropped down beside her. “I can fight. I will fight.”
“I know.”
“My dad says not yet. I said I could go with you, fight, but he says not yet. When?”
“I don’t know. But I know I’ll see you again. I know it.”
He picked up a cake, frowned at it. Ate it. “I never felt about anybody the way I feel about you.”
“You’re my first real friend, and you’re the first boy I ever kissed.”
“But you don’t want to kiss me again.”
Going with instinct, she laid her hands on his cheeks, touched her lips to his. “You’re going to kiss a lot of other girls after I leave.”
“Probably.”
Laughing, she jabbed a finger in his ribs. “But you’ll still be my friend.”
They sat quiet for a while, shoulder to shoulder, facing the pool.
“When it’s time to fight,” he began, “when I see you again, will you kiss me?”
“Probably.”
Now he laughed, bumped his shoulder to hers.
“I made you something.” She reached in her pack, took out the gift. She’d braided strips of leather together to form a wristband and attached protective stones.
“It’s really nice.”
“See, you wrap it around …” She put it on for him. “Then you just loop this. Like that.”