Magically Delicious (2 page)

"Arn, at ease," a new man said as he approached from a narrow tunnel to the south. The queen's advisor nodded at the two creations, sending them back to their corners to await their next task.

"Why are you having them attack me?" Arn growled at him.

His mother's advisor gave him a small shrug. "The queen has gathered the court." He wiggled his fingers at Arn, indicating him to follow as he led the way through the narrow underground passages. Arn bit back his angry snarl at being commanded by the much smaller man but came along anyway, curious to see what his mother was up to now.

The tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Above his head, tangled vines stretched over the ceiling and fae lights sparkled along the walls, illuminating the gathered menagerie of guests.

"Arn, my son," the queen called to him from her flower-laden throne. "You've returned from the human realm."

"I have," Arn said, stepping away from the small man and making his way through the crowd to come before the pale woman. As usual, she was dressed in layers of gossamer silk that glittered like spider webs dusted with morning dew. She was almost too beautiful to look at, but he forced himself to hold her steady gaze anyway.

"You have come back to me different than you were when you stepped out of my realm," she accused him. "Do not deny it."

Arn squared his shoulders. He didn't know how his mother had found out about his night with Luke. But really, it didn't matter. "I wasn't planning on it. I have found love in the bed of a human male." He paused, a frown playing on his lips. He hadn't thought about love before, not once in all the centuries he'd been alive. But it had just slipped out and somehow it felt just right.

There was a gasp from those closest to him. They weren't shocked at the idea of him bedding a human; they were often the creatures of choice for many Fae when it came to sexual partners. But loving one was a completely different idea altogether.

"This cannot be," she hissed, the shadow of her dangerous beauty cracking for just a moment before she smoothed the mask back together. "You must make a decision. Stay here and never go to earth again or be banished from us for eternity."

Murmurs rose up around him. There had been rumors that he'd been getting preferential treatment for years and as the queen's son, he couldn't really deny those tales. But now it seemed his relation to the woman was going to cost him dearly. He took a deep breath as he considered his mother's words.

"You could still use the scrying pools to see this human lover of yours," his mother reminded him. The way she said what Luke was, made his lips curl back from his teeth. She spoke of humans as if they were so far below something like her. And he supposed that they were when someone had seen as many creatures come and go as his mother had.

"It wouldn't be the same, mother," he said quietly. "I've lived enough of my immortality without love and I choose to live that way no more."

"The love you speak of is a delusional, misguided, ignorant—"

Arn growled, instantly stopping his mother's tirade. He wasn't sure what love was at that moment either, but he wasn't about to deny what he was feeling for Luke. He knew that it was far more than lust and he'd spent enough time watching humans to know how they described love. It wasn't delusional or anything else that his mother wanted to call it.

"Mother, I am sorry but I cannot be as I was," Arn whispered, his voice nearly breaking as tears gathered in his eyes.

The queen nodded, her dew drop veil sparkling as she ducked her head to hide her own tears. "If you truly cannot, then I shall remake you as another. You must make your own path in this new life. These humans, they are finite, fragile creatures. You must take care with them and with yourself. I fear that you'll not enjoy most of it. You're too old now to remember being a child. But though I loved to call you my son, those years were none too pleasant."

"A child? You cannot mean—"

His mother's small mouth turned up into a smile. "Oh yes. Your spirit will be put into the body of a child. There is much death in the world of humans, especially ones so small as newborn babes. I already have one selected and he is perfect—a loving family, a mother that won't have to mourn as she stands over the grave of her stillborn son. Her son has died but he can live on, through you."

Arn shook his head. This wasn't right. "But I'll be a child while my lover grows old. And I'll never know him."

His mother rose from her ivy throne and walked to him. "No Arn, you'll remember everything. And that will be your curse, I'm afraid. You'll be an adult inside the body of a toddler. At five you'll know more about the universe than any of your friends can comprehend. But, and here's the part you'll like, you'll find your human lover again in thirty years when he comes to the land they call Ireland. I'm sending you back in time to the exact moment of this newborn's death. And I think you'll have an entirely different take on the Seventies as a small child than you did as a leprechaun."

"Can't you simply release me back on Earth? Just as I am?" Arn begged her. "He'll never know me as a human. He must know me or this will all be for nothing."

His mother looked at him pityingly. "Humans in this century are particular about their pasts. Four hundred years ago I could have easily dropped you back into the human realm and told you to make the best of it. Now humans have numbers and plastic pieces with their pictures on them—as if their world isn't complicated enough without these systems. I cannot just simply create these things for you, as you well know. You must live them for yourself. And as for the human knowing you, you'll have to make him. You'll have your memories. Use them to show him who you really are. He attends a small university just outside of the town they call Dublin. Find him there after St. Patrick's Day thirty-two years from now. He'll be there. And you'll have still visited him the previous night. Time is a fluid garden; you know this. Use it to your benefit and you will win him."

She paused, taking a breath. "Do you still want to do this? You still have time to turn back and spend eternity here, among your friends. With me."

Arn swallowed thickly There was so much hope expressed in his mother's request. He didn't want to hurt her. But he couldn't just turn his back on love, on Luke, now that he'd found him. For humans, love meant something different than to the Fae. He wasn't even sure if the man would accept him once they met again. But he had to try. "I need to be with him, mother. I'm sorry."

She nodded and placed one eternally pale hand on his cheek. Arn leaned into the warmth and deeply breathed his mother's scent in one last time. She'd always smelled of lilacs waving in the summer sun. He closed his eyes. "I love you, my son," she whispered to him. Arn remembered the warmth of her lips on his forehead as she kissed him one last time before his world burst into a rush of white light and deafening noise.

* * * *

Luke stretched languidly in the bright sunlight. Already bangers were being fried on the stove and he could hear voices coming from the kitchen. He struggled to slip his jeans on and get out of bed. He felt so tired, even though he'd had a good night's sleep—and a great dream. Thinking about Arn brought an instant smile to his lips. Trust him to think up some sex god of a man in his first month in Ireland.

He entered the kitchen and looked up, startled, as the laughter seemed to cease around him. "Uh… hey?" he said uncertainly, as he grabbed some toast and spread some beans on it.

Mitch, the oldest of them, gave him a strange look. "Hey, yourself. I didn't hear the front door open. Have a guest over last night?"

Luke frowned at the man and shook his head. "No. I didn't. What are you talking about?"

"You were moaning rather loudly," Mitch clarified, causing Luke's face to flame. He'd known he'd probably made too much noise. But now he just wanted to go curl up under his covers and hide for a while. He tried to slink back to his room but Vic's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Probably just a dream. We all get 'em. Sit," the man told him, trying to reassure him as best he could.

"But there be bruises on his hips," Mitch pointed out, waving a wooden spoon in Luke's general direction.

"No, there aren't," Luke protested loudly as he looked down. "Oh." Vic showed him to a chair and helped him sit down as Luke dropped his head into his hands. "So last night… he… and then I… but we… Oh."

Mitch handed him a glass of milk. "Sounds complicated."

Vic tsked at Luke as he got a plate and began piling it high with food. "It was. He didn't heed me when I told him not to keep the gold coin. A leprechaun got to him."

Luke's head shot up and he rushed to his room. He checked the nightstand, knowing he had put the coin there, right by his phone and his wallet, but when he didn't see it he very nearly trembled—until he caught sight of it on his backpack. He picked it up but almost dropped it with a yelp when his fingers met with warmth instead of the cool metal he was expecting.

"Still have the coin, I see," Mitch said from the doorway. Luke turned to also see Vic with him.

Vic walked forward and took the coin from his fingers before he could stop him. "Give that back, it's mine."

The man snorted at him. "It's a leprechaun coin. Those marks on your hips prove it. You were visited by a leprechaun last night. And now that you've been visited, there's no harm to me."

"Oh, yeah?" Luke retorted. "Then why didn't he take his coin back?"

Vic stopped walking and turned the coin over in his palm. "Huh. It's got writing on it. Didn't see it there yesterday."

He handed it off to Mitch, the expert in the house of all things old. "Rune, right there," Vic said, pointing. Luke craned his neck to see what they were talking about but all he saw were a few scratches along the edge.

Mitch pushed it back into his hand and took a step back hurriedly. "It's yours. You keep it."

Luke frowned at him. "Why? What's that rune?"

Mitch shook his head and pulled Vic back. "Wynn. It's the mark for wishes. You've been claimed by a leprechaun."

Luke was about to laugh when he saw the serious faces of the other two. "Oh shit."

"That about sums it up, mate," Vic told him with a cheeky grin. "On the other hand, the sex last night must have been pretty great for him to want to keep you around."

Luke laughed and slipped the coin into his back pocket. Being claimed by Arn didn't sound half bad.

They ate breakfast in a hurry then rushed off to their classes with Vic driving the old sedan. Luke had never quite gotten the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road. There was barely enough time for Luke to run to his first class when they parked in a small lot just a few blocks from the small campus.

He slid into his seat, sweaty and panting, just before his history professor walked in. "Luke Arrington?" he called, a piece of paper waving in his hand.

"Yes sir?" Luke answered, even as he slinked down into his seat. He'd never been called out for anything. And he hadn't broken any school rules. His mind started to race as he wondered what could be on that little slip of paper as his professor approached him.

"Professor Trendlehoot has requested your immediate presence," the man told him, placing the paper on the well worn desk in front of Luke.

The unfamiliar name snapped him out of his thoughts. "Who?" He'd never heard of that professor and certainly hadn't had him for his class.

"Trend-le-hoot," his professor pronounced for him, as if he hadn't heard. "Go out of this building, go right, walk down three buildings and you'll find him."

Luke nodded and folded the summons. He was slipping it into his pocket when his professor cleared his foot. "What are you waiting for? Go, now. The professor said that it was urgent in his note."

His mouth fell open. "But can't I just wait until the end of class?" he asked quietly. The other students were starting to get restless around him and he felt a bit odd being on display for their amusement.

The professor shook his head and pointed toward the door. Luke didn't try to argue a second time as he gathered his things and made his way out of the class, his cheeks flaming red as he stepped into the hallway. He took a deep breath, ignored the voice in his head that kept wondering what he must have done wrong to attract an unknown professor's attention and followed the directions to a building he'd never even noticed before.

"All right… well… I'd better just do it," he mumbled to himself as he went in. The first door on his left had a large brass nameplate on it proclaiming it to be the office of Professor Edgar Trendlehoot. Luke took a breath and knocked.

"Enter," a deep voice boomed from beyond.

Luke pulled his backpack up higher on his shoulder and went inside. He was surprised to see an attractive man only a few years older than himself sitting behind the large, mahogany desk. The door closed loudly behind him and Luke flinched at the sound.

"Professor? I'm Luke Arrington. You sent a note for me to come see you, sir," Luke said. The man slowly rose from his desk. He hadn't stopped staring at him and began to slowly walk toward Luke. Luke was beginning to feel uncomfortable, as he backed against the door. His fingers found the cool knob and he began to open the door just as the professor's lips came crashing down against his.

"Sir, I—" Luke stammered, as soon as the professor let him up for air. His heart was beating madly and he felt himself beginning to shake.

"It's you," the man whispered, as he began to trail his fingers over Luke's cheek and down the length of his neck. "I've been waiting years, nearly a lifetime for humans, but you're finally here."

Luke pressed himself against the door as much as he could. "Sir, I don't know what you mean. I'm not who you think I am. I'm Luke—"

"Luke Arrington. Transfer student from the United States. You've lived in a small town most of your life. You live with a group of men in a small, stone cottage on a hill," the professor supplied.

Luke nodded and continued to stare at him mutely.

The professor's full lips turned up into a grin. "You sleep on your side and you prefer to sleep naked. And last night you took a man to your bed, which you thought was a dream. But then you woke up and the coin had been moved."