I don’t know if Finn and Stace would’ve died if I hadn’t gone down to heal them, but Atropos did give me a pointed look and snip her scissors: that particular Fate’s way of saying ‘Hurry up’.

I do know that if it weren’t for Finn and Stace, Simon never would’ve won the fight with Stephen Anthony. I admit the man was more deeply disturbed than I’d guessed-- I’d known he was violent, but I’d never predicted he would try to murder his wife-- but as far as I’m concerned, Simon LaCroix isn’t a prize either. But, conversely, Finn, Stace, and Geneva Anthony would be dead if it wasn’t for his help.

So perhaps it was for the best that Aphrodite won our bet and forced me to help the mortals; for the best that she supported the idea of Finn and Simon and Stace traveling back to the settlement of Chalet together.

If so, I won’t mention it. The day I say, ‘Aphrodite, you were right’ is the day I smile when Zeus starts flirting with some silly mortal girl.

This entire situation with the Calypso has made everything even more insane here in Tavali. Bringing the spaceship to our section of the universe was Selene’s idea, but we all had something to do with bringing the humans safely to our planet. If we hadn’t interfered, the crash probably would’ve killed everyone. And since not even Hades is that cruel-- usually-- we ensured the survival of the future colonists of Chalet.

Sometimes, I think that was the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever done. For one thing, we have to keep an eye on what the mortals discover, and try to keep them from doing something stupid. We became much more vigilant after a woman died when she ‘stopped to smell the flowers’-- one of the flowers was poisonous.

The name of our world is Storybook. My husband gave the suggestion to people who wanted to name the world, as he also gives quiet ‘hints’ when it’s time to name new creatures. Keeping track of things is easier for us that way. Some Deities still argue that we shouldn’t be involved with any of this. While I can see their point of view, I don’t agree. After all, the mortals do provide amusement, and ample discussion material. So I suppose I can’t truly regret my actions.

If Aphrodite keeps grinning like some lovesick fool, however. . .

I do have a feeling she’s going to have to stop soon. She has far too much faith in the humans’ ability to adapt to new situations. Or rather, adapt well. I would like to believe, as Selene and Aphrodite do, that a group of humans who’d wanted to leave Earth and all its mistakes behind would be able to handle a new situation with emotions other than hatred and fear. But that would be overestimating human nature. Stace and the other fae won’t find a warm welcome in the human settlement, I’m sure of it. Especially since some of the fae are bound and determined to worsen the situation.

Which means Aphrodite will want me to interfere. She’ll want to make another wager, but I’ve learned my lesson on that. I’m not going to make another bet for at least two mortal months.

Hera

He wanted to run away again.

Looking around at all the warmly lit homes, Finn sighed as he remembered past Christmases. Back when his father had still been a part of his life-- before his mother had finally given him the ultimatum, told him to make a choice. Patrick had left and Finn had been angry at the world for a long time after that. But looking back on it now, he knew that between his father’s gifts and expensive clothes and his mother’s honest caring, he’d gotten the better end of the deal.

He remembered the first Christmas he’d spent with Jeremy Bates, on a Friends of the Environment ship in the middle of the Adriatic Sea; and later holidays, when Jeremy’s mother, Rosemarie, had made elaborate holiday dinners and he’d stayed up with the entire family almost all night, talking. The Bates had welcomed him, taken him in after his mom’s death. Even though he was old enough by then to be on his own, they’d made him a part of their family. And because of one stupid mistake, he’d lost something he’d probably never find again.

Staring at the lit-up windows, he was overwhelmed with regret.

When I have kids . . . he thought, but he cut off the notion as abruptly as it had started.

Why couldn’t he just live in the present, enjoy each moment as it came? Why couldn’t he just go back to climbing mountains and roaming from one place to another, no cares, no responsibilities?

Because, he answered himself, you’re not a kid anymore. You’re a man and it’s about time you started acting like one.

“Hey,” a quiet voice next to him said, and he turned to Stace. She was hovering a short distance away, the soft blue glow of her fae light surrounding her. “I know it might not seem like a lot--” She glanced down at herself and smiled. “--literally, but I’m here.”

He nodded once, and then he paused when he saw her rub at her arm again. “You sure you’re all right?” he asked.

“Yeah. Stephen’s hand didn’t connect very hard,” she said.

Hard enough to swat her out of the air, Finn thought, but didn’t say. All of them were basically fine; that was the important thing. And it was more than he’d been expecting out of this night.

The latter half of their trip back to Chalet had been plagued with worry over what they might find-- most of his darker thoughts had centered around seeing a headstone with Geneva’s name on it in the community’s tiny graveyard. Instead, they’d made it back in time to help. Geneva was safe now, and--

And she was probably going to marry Simon.

He sighed. Best not to think about that too much. Even if he hadn’t known the full situation when he’d left, he’d still known that she’d moved on with her life. He wasn’t part of it anymore, at least not like he’d been when they were teenagers, growing up together on Earth.

Probably not a part of it at all, he thought. After all, she had a child to focus on, and her work, and that wouldn’t leave much time for. . .

Oh, cut it out, he thought. If he wanted to be depressed, he could be depressed later. This wasn’t the time for it.

He reached out for Stace and she smiled, settling on his palm. The touch of her tiny feet on his hand made him relax, and he took a deep breath and smiled, then continued up the hillside toward his lean-to.

“Is that the . . . what did you call it, ‘spaceship’?” Stace asked a moment later, pointing back. The enormous remains of the Calypso could be seen in the distance, a jagged black mountain on the horizon.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Finn said. “We’ll take a closer look at it later.”

“All right. After I meet everybody you’ve been talking about.”

“I take it Livana and Niabi won’t want to come with us for that?”

“Livana, maybe. Niabi, definitely not,” Stace said. Then she sighed. “I’d like to be able to avoid her for longer than tonight.”

“You can,” he answered. “It’s not like you have to start up a new fae village.”

“I know,” she said. “And I wouldn’t mind a fae village if Teeart was here, too, but as is . . . never mind. I’ll worry about all that tomorrow. Is there another part of Chalet up here?”

“Nope,” Finn said, heading across the brook, stepping from one rock to the next. “But in the meadow, there’s a place we can spend the night. If it’s still standing.”

They fell into a comfortable silence as they continued upward. Finn’s depression had lifted. Even though he wouldn’t be spending the holiday in a warm house with a big, noisy family, he did have a place to go, and someone to share it with. Several moments later, they saw that the lean-to was indeed still standing. Heaving a tired sigh of relief, Finn pulled open the door and slipped inside.

Stace darted around the small room, and Finn watched her as she took in the general sparseness of the place, the shedding tree boughs on the floor, and the bins against the opposite wall. Finally, she turned back to him. “I like it,” she said. “It reminds me of the cabin.”

He raised his eyebrows, thinking of that place, which had a kitchen and a fireplace-- definitely more than one room. “The cabin was a lot bigger than this.”

“Well, true. But still.”

He rummaged around in one of the plas-steel containers and came out with a couple of blankets and some dishes. The blankets he spread on the floor, the dishes he filled with the dried fruits and vegetables that were stored in another container.

When they were done with their meal, Finn pushed away the empty dishes and sighed in contentment over the fact that his belly was actually full for the first time in ages. He stretched out on his stomach and smoothed a place on the blanket to lay his head, watching Stace, who was sitting on a corner of the blanket. Technically, he realized, she should be at the twisted tree with the other fae. Niabi would certainly be looking for her. “You sure you don’t want to go by the tree?”

“Definitely.”

Stace smiled, untying her ponytail and shaking her dark hair loose. She’d lost her needle in the fight earlier, and so she’d untied her other dress from around her waist, since she didn’t need it for a scabbard anymore. The dress he’d made for her a few months ago in the village was starting to go the way of the first one. It was fraying around the edges, and there was a growing-steadily-wider slit near her waist where she’d gotten caught on a thorn bush. Soon she was going to have a shirt and a skirt instead of a dress.

Stace’s self-appraisal made Finn glance down at himself, truly noticing how battered and filthy his own clothes were. He wasn’t surprised about not fully paying attention before-- he’d definitely had other things on his mind.

“Hard to believe we’re not traveling anymore,” Stace said.

“It’s hard to believe half the stuff we’ve been through getting here,” he whispered in agreement. He took hold of the blanket and tugged it gently, pulling her closer. “Tell me about the other fae,” he continued. “Not Dragonfly or Rainbow, but the others.”

“There were a few other kinds in the forest where we lived. We met some of them at Celebrations. There are the Moon fae-- I wish you could watch one of their fae rings. They’re beautiful dancers. They can cast Sleep spells. And Sun fae are the ones who can cause Fire.

“Both of them are kinds of Butterfly fae-- that’s how their wings are shaped. Kadar taught us about Water fae, but I’ve never seen one. And Leaf fae. Their spells only work on animals and plants.”

Finn closed his eyes while listening to the sound of her voice. “I think we should talk to Courtland tomorrow. We could tell him about the fae.” If people knew about them, then there might be fewer misunderstandings between the races.

“All right. But I’m not going to blink in immediately in front of people I don’t know. Not that I don’t think your friends are trustworthy,” she explained, “but even decent people can react strangely when they see fae.”

“Human reactions probably aren’t going to be the worst of it,” Finn said. “Niabi isn’t going to like your giving information to Courtland.” The other fae had gotten angry enough when she’d discovered that Stace had taught him and Simon how to speak some of their language.

“No, she isn’t. There might be kinds of fae I don’t know about, though,” she said. “It’d really help if our village teacher was here. Anyway, I might be able to talk Livana into visiting him with me; maybe she’ll remember things I don’t. As for Niabi . . . I don’t suppose she’ll mind being kept in the dark for a short time about this, hm?” she asked, giving him a conspiratorial wink.

Simon came back into Geneva’s laboratory to find her carefully moving through the room, picking up papers and avoiding the broken glass. He watched her for a moment, and then he bent down to help.

“I can’t believe he escaped,” Geneva said. “We’re going to have to talk to the Council, ask them to send searchers out . . . oh no. Ian! What if Stephen went to the Bates’ to get Ian; they’ll think it’s all right to let him leave--”

Simon caught her arm as she ran for the door. He couldn’t tell her the truth: that he’d used the Neritye bracelet to capture Stephen in a stasis crystal, a crystal that was temporarily hidden in a supply closet down the hall. If she knew, she’d want to release him so he could stand trial before the Council. Though he was sure that Stephen would be jailed for what he’d done here tonight, he wasn’t prepared to risk letting him out at all.

He wasn’t sure what the Council had decided about the crystals in his absence, but he was certain that keeping a human inside one indefinitely would be frowned upon. Too bad for Stephen that they wouldn’t ever find out.

“Geneva,” he said quietly, “you didn’t see the fight. Stephen was injured. He ran out of here bruised, bleeding, and wild-eyed. If he does go to the Bates’, they won’t let him leave with Ian. Neither Courtland nor Rosemarie are idiots.”

Geneva nodded, trying to calm her ragged breathing. “But what if he--”

“He won’t do anything. He knows he’s beaten.”

“He’ll never know that.”

Which was precisely why he was never going to get out of the crystal, Simon thought.

“He thinks I’ve betrayed him,” she said, closing her eyes. “He . . . he was going to murder me. Oh, what am I going to tell Ian?”

“The truth. At least parts of it,” Simon answered, leading her over to a chair and gently pushing her down into it. “He already knows some of it, doesn’t he?”

“I don’t know. I tried to keep it from him . . . but I don’t know. I should’ve left so much sooner,” she said, slamming a fist down onto her thigh. “Dammit!”

Simon knelt down in front of her. “You’re not the precognitive one, remember?”

She smiled faintly. “Yeah.”

“In the morning, you can tell Courtland Bates what happened,” he said, getting to his feet. “Right now, you need sleep. Where’s your home?”

The visions that had warned him of the danger she was in had shown him the location of her laboratory, but nothing more, and before his sentence of exile for stealing the Neritye ship had been put into effect, he’d been imprisoned in a small section of the battered Calypso. He knew almost nothing of the village he was now in.

“I don’t think I can sleep right now,” she said, but she followed him out of the room.

He shut the door to the building behind them, and then turned around to see Geneva picking up the backpack that he’d left at the start of the path to the laboratory. It had originally been Finn’s, but soon after they had started traveling together, Simon had commandeered it.

“Did you find any crystals out there?” she asked. “I think I opened all of them, except for the one the Neritye was in.”

“I think you did, too,” Simon muttered, thinking of the creatures he and Finn and Stace had encountered on their way back to the village. “No, and I didn’t find the Neritye crystal either. You know the code to bring it back to the lab?”

“Yes. But we have to be careful.”

Simon nodded. Many of the people in Chalet wouldn’t agree with the idea of releasing a Neritye, and he was certain the fae wouldn’t. He could understand the reasons behind their dislike of them. They’d been captured, held in the stasis crystals, and inadvertently brought here. And since the Neritye had played a key part in the Calypso’s crash-- attacking the ship soon after it had evaded the Earth Border Guard-- he could also understand his fellow citizens’ misgivings. But just because he understood didn’t mean he agreed. And neither did Geneva. The two of them saw possibilities in that Neritye captive, possibilities of communication and of finding a way back to Earth.

He returned his attention fully to the auburn-haired woman in front of him, recognizing the expression on her face. “Geneva, no.”

“Work would be better than sleeping right now. As I said, I don’t think I can sleep anyway, and--”

“Even if you bring the Neritye back, we don’t know the code she used to lock herself inside the crystal. She’ll wait another day or two.”

“But--” Geneva sighed. “All right. But tomorrow. . .”

“Believe me, I know,” he said, an amused smile quirking at his mouth as he took the backpack and walked with her down the lane. He remembered working with her on the Calypso, when she’d thought him a fellow scientist and nothing more-- before his affiliation with The Agency had been discovered. Remembered her dedication and tenacity, and her enthusiasm when a particularly tangled problem was solved.

Truth was, he was looking forward to working again almost as much as she was. But now, they both needed rest.

Well, she would rest. He would go back to the laboratory, retrieve Stephen’s crystal, and then bury it somewhere in the forest.

Finn stood up and stretched, carefully stepping over Stace, who was still curled beneath a corner of the blanket. Blinking in the sunsshine, he made his way through the meadow to the brook for a drink. Back at the lean-to, he unhooked a scythe from the back wall. Then he went about cutting some of the long meadow grass. If they were going to be staying here, he needed a comfortable mattress.

He was just lugging back a bundle of the freshly cut grass when he heard a dog bark and saw the top of someone’s head coming up the path.

It was Ian and True.

The boy stopped dead still when he saw him and then, like a rocket had fired beneath his feet, he charged forward, the black dog bouncing along behind him. “Finn!” he shouted happily. “I knew you’d come back, I knew it!”

Finn grinned and patted the boy’s back as Ian threw his arms around him, nearly toppling him with the force of the hug. “Easy there, kiddo.”

Ian practically jumped up and down all the way back to the lean-to. He talked a mile a minute at first, but then he abruptly stopped, crossing his little arms over his chest, expression indignant. “Where were you, anyway?”

Finn didn’t quite know how to answer that. “I was . . . on a Kora,” he said finally. He set down the scythe, collecting his thoughts as he picked up a bundle of the grass. Ian clearly didn’t know yet about what had happened last night, and Finn wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. He needed to hear about his father from Geneva.

“What’s acora?”

“Not acora, ‘a’ Kora. I learned about it back on Earth. There’s a place there called Nepal--”

“I know that!” Ian interrupted. “It’s where the highest mountain on earth is, and you climbed it!”

“Yes,” Finn said, “I did.” He reached out and tousled the boy’s hair before continuing. “A Kora is a sacred walk.” He twisted two long stems of grass together and tightened them around the sheaf. He picked up another handful and began attaching it to the first.

Ian hadn’t answered. “Do you know what ‘sacred’ means?”

The boy shrugged, but he stepped closer. “Special?”

“Sort of,” Finn said. “Some people believe that mountains are sacred. Because they’re so high, they’re closer to God-- they think walking around one, or climbing one, can cleanse the soul of sin.”

Ian reached out, helping Finn hold a sheaf so it could be bound tighter. “Did you climb any mountains when you were gone?”

Finn nodded. He turned and pointed toward the snow-capped ridge behind them. “I started here, then followed the Calypso River to another mountain range.”

“Did you talk to God?”

Finn smiled again. “No, I didn’t,” he said. “But I learned a lot of things about myself. And I met someone. Someone very special.”

“Who?”

“Her name is Stace.”

Ian wrinkled his nose. “A girl?”

“Not exactly,” Finn said, chuckling as he stood up and peered inside the lean-to. The spot Stace had occupied on the blanket was empty. “You can’t see her right now because she’s blinked out.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You’ll see.” Finn said. He picked one of the meadow flowers and held it out. “Stace? I’d like you to meet my friend, Ian Anthony.”

Stace blinked in, smiling and carefully keeping her balance on the flower. “Hi, Ian.”

The little boy’s mouth dropped open. “Wow! She’s a faery! Just like in the stories! Do you have any magic dust?”

“Hold out your hand,” Stace said. Once he did, she sprinkled a handful of fae dust into his palm.

“Wow!” Ian exclaimed again. “Can I keep it?” Not waiting for an answer, he quickly crammed his fingers into his pocket. True woofed and gave his arm a nudge with her nose. “Shhh! No telling!” he said, looking back over at Stace. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody about you. I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“It’s all right. I’m not a secret.”

“But I don’t wanna tell anyone about you,” Ian said. Then he tugged on Finn’s shirt. “And I can’t tell anyone you’re back. If Dad finds out he really will make us move, and then I’ll have to run away! Cause I won’t move!”

“Hey,” Finn said quietly, as he knelt down next to Ian. “You don’t have to tell anyone about anything, okay?”

Slowly, the fear drained from the little boy’s face and he nodded. “I’ve been coming up almost every day. I kept the gliders away and I even dried the berries just like you showed me. Did you find them?”

Finn smiled. “Yep. We had some for dinner last night. You did a great job, Ian.”

The little boy beamed, then looked at Stace. “Are you gonna live here with Finn?”

“Yes.” Then she blinked and looked over at Finn. “I mean, I won’t take up too much room. If you don’t mind.”

Finn stood up, grinning when he noticed Stace’s expression. “Hmmm. I dunno, what do you think, Ian? She’ll probably eat me out of house and home. And that fae light of hers-- absolutely blinding! Then there’s the snoring . . . I mean, have you ever tried to sleep in the same room as a snoring fae?”

Ian giggled.

When Finn knocked on the Bates’ door, Stace hovered off his shoulder, ignoring the twinge her wing gave out. She glanced back at the fading tear. Niabi’s Healing spell had long since worn off, but her wing was almost better; while she couldn’t fly for long periods of time yet, at least she wasn’t fully grounded now. Then a smiling red-haired woman opened the door, and Stace blinked out.

Judging from her appearance, this was Rosemarie-- Finn had mentioned her often when talk had turned to people in Chalet.

Rosemarie stared at Finn for a few seconds, and then she laughed. “Oh my! Finn! I almost didn’t recognize you with that long hair! Come in.”

A tall, white-haired man-- probably Rosemarie’s husband, Courtland-- stepped into the doorway beside her, and Rosemarie took Finn’s hands and half-pulled him through the doorway in her excitement. The noise level in the house sounded like most of Chalet was crammed in the main room.

She heard, “Let me by, let me by!” and then a little girl was racing down the hall, throwing herself into Finn’s arms. He hugged her, messed her hair and then put her back down on the floor. Taking a deep breath, he grinned as a boy about Ian’s age caught sight of him and made his excitement known with a loud yell, and then another man was there, too, pounding him on the back and calling him ‘Shrimp’.

Courtland laughed and guided him out of the melee, down the hall and into a large room with a stone fireplace.

Stace hovered above the chaos, grinning. Everybody seemed to be talking at once. Then she caught sight of the room and looked around in surprise. It was decorated very oddly-- a tree in the corner and socks hanging from the mantelpiece. Probably another aspect of ‘Christmas’, she thought.

Rosemarie moved closer to Finn and spoke. “You look half starved, and-- I don’t mean to be rude, but would you like to take a bath?”

Finn blushed and didn’t have to look down at himself to agree. He nodded and let Rosemarie lead him away, choruses of ‘don’t drown yourself’, and ‘don’t forget to wash behind your ears’ following him into the hall.

They went up some stairs and down another hall and into a large bathroom with a stone tub. Rosemarie started the water and then disappeared, returning quickly with an armful of clothes and two pairs of shoes. “Jeff’s,” she explained. “See if any of these fit.” Then she showed him where the towels and washcloths were and swept out of the room, telling him that dinner would be waiting when he was done.

Finn sighed and sat down on the edge of the round tub. “Stace?” he whispered. “You still here?”

“Uh-huh,” she murmured, trying to recover from the whirlwind. She’d never been around so many humans before, even on the occasions when she’d ventured inside a human’s home. She blinked back in.

Finn grinned and dipped his hand in the warm water, then pulled his shirt off. “This is going to feel so good!” he said, standing up.

Stace turned the other way, focusing on the sounds of talking and laughter coming from the lower level. “They all seem really nice.” Meanwhile, she tried to recall whom the woman who had left the room a moment ago reminded her of. Then the answer came and she smiled softly. Teeart’s mother, Noelani. She had a kind face-- and auburn hair-- as well.

She’d loved spending time with Noelani, and her husband Elan. She’d felt comfortable in their home, joking around with her best friend as Elan told stories and Noelani tried without much success to sew in peace. She almost turned back around to tell Finn about her, but then she remembered and kept herself still.

“Courtland says that when they lived back on Earth, a friend put a sign on their door that said ‘Welcome to the madhouse’,” Finn said. “They ended up keeping it there for years.”

Stace smiled. “I’m amazed they haven’t put a replica on their door here.”

“Well, they still might.”

“The woman who was just in here, that was Rosemarie?”

“Yes.”

“I take it all of their children are here?”

“Uh-huh. The oldest one’s Jeff. Well, now anyway. Jeremy was their firstborn.”

“I remember,” Stace said, recalling Finn’s story of how he and Jeremy had been caught in an avalanche on one of their many climbing expeditions. Then she quickly continued, because she knew he wouldn’t want to get into that story again right now. “And the kids?”

“Jake and Khelsey. And I can’t believe how much bigger they’ve gotten,” he said. “I know I was only gone for a few months, but it seems like they each grew half a foot. Anyway, you want me to run you some warm water in the sink?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking forward to a bath herself. Once the sink was full, she dove into it. She resurfaced and wrung out her hair, twisting it back as best she could. She set her first dress to the side and blinked out to take off her other one. Putting that one next to her other garment, she blinked back in, just her face showing over the rim of the sink as she glanced up to make sure that Finn wasn’t watching.

He was still toweling his hair, which was standing straight on end. “Man, do I need a cut or what?” he exclaimed, peeking out at her and grinning. “Need some help?”

She put her hands on her hips, even though she was standing shoulder-deep in water and he couldn’t see the gesture. “No, but if you don’t turn back around right now you’re going to need some help,” she said, trying to keep her voice solemn.

He responded by turning around-- in a full circle. Stace laughed and splashed a handful of water at him, then dove under again.

They were interrupted by a knock at the door. “Finn?”

“Uh, yeah?” he asked, glancing quickly at her ‘tub’. “Gimme a sec.”

Startled by the man’s voice, Stace blinked out and quickly got out of the sink.

Finn opened the door and Courtland stepped into the room, his eyes darting here and there. “Were you talking to someone?” he asked, his bushy white brows drawn together in tight line.

Stace noticed that the man’s gaze had come to rest on what was left of her clothes, which were sitting on the opposite edge of the sink. She whispered a curse and started to head over there, but then Finn quickly cupped his hand over them and shoved the scraps of material in his pocket as he pulled the plug on the sink.

“I . . . uh . . . sometimes I talk to myself,” he explained.

Stace smiled. That was something she could testify to, after the short time she’d followed him without showing herself. Then she sighed. Now how was she supposed to get dressed?

Courtland leaned back against a cabinet, watching him silently. “I wanted to catch you alone for a minute,” he said finally. “Lord knows we won’t have a chance to really talk at the dinner table.”

Finn sat down on the edge of the tub to try on the shoes. “I feel a little weird being here now,” he said. “Interrupting the holidays with your family like this.”

Courtland held up his hand. “No more of that talk.”

Finn nodded. He found a pair of shoes that fit and snapped the bindings over his ankles.

“Geneva came to see me this morning. You know that Stephen was on the Council. I’d worked with him countless times; I never suspected. . .” He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then sighed and continued. “Anyway, she told me what happened. We’ll be watching for Stephen.” He cleared his throat and then changed the subject. “I assume it wasn’t coincidence that you and LaCroix were there at the same time.”

“No,” Finn said. “We kinda bumped into each other out in the woods.”

“Did he give you any trouble?”

“Well, yeah and no. I got myself hurt. Broke my ankle. He set it for me, and took care of me while it healed. Sort of.”

“I have a feeling there’s more to it than that. But it can wait for later. I’m glad you came here today. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

Stace had several questions she wanted to ask, and she wanted to say that Simon wasn’t the only one Finn had ‘bumped into’-- but she certainly wasn’t going to show herself like this. Not unless she really wanted to startle him. So she hid behind the large metal fixture that the water came out of at the front of the sink. “I hate to interrupt, but. . .” she began, peering out to give Finn an indignant glare, “could you give me back my clothes?”

“That’s one way to introduce yourself,” he answered, grinning as he pulled the material out of his pocket and dropped it on the sink top. “Uh, sir? This is my friend, Stace.”

Stace quickly got her still-functional dress on and blinked back in as she tied her hair back with what remained of her first dress. She smiled as she finished getting her hair into a ponytail. “Hi. Sorry about the odd entrance, but. . .” She trailed off as she looked up and realized that her smile was definitely not being returned. She glanced at Finn uncertainly.

“Finn,” Courtland said. “May I have word with you, alone?”

“Why?”

“There’s been trouble here in Chalet with her kind.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“An . . . alarming incident in the forest.”

The small happiness Stace had felt at the news that there were more fae in Chalet was promptly banished by what Chalet’s Leader was saying. She would’ve immediately bristled at what he was suggesting if she wasn’t so confused. Alarming incident? Had the humans done anything to prompt it? After all, she’d participated in a few incidents herself that could be termed ‘alarming’. “What happened?”

Courtland didn’t look at her. “A man died, Finn. According to the rest of the logging team, the fae had been threatening them, and Esau Huntley panicked, running off into the woods. She gave chase, and by the time the others caught up, he was dead. The autopsy said it was a heart attack, but he was a healthy young man. And some kind of red glittering dust was found on his back.”

Finn ran his hand through his hair. He spun around, then faced Courtland again. “Are you suggesting we had something to do with it? Court, I’ve known you for years. You don’t actually think I’d bring someone dangerous into your home?”

Courtland held up his hands. “I’m just saying that in the incident reported, something akin to your . . . friend was involved. Finn, not only am I concerned about my family, it’s my job as Leader to look out for this community. You must understand--”

“No,” Finn said. “I don’t ‘understand’! I told you, she’s my friend. She’s not going to hurt anyone. So are you going to keep standing there calling me a liar?”

“Son, I don’t like your tone.”

“And I don’t like yours!”

The two men held each other’s gaze. Finn didn’t look away. He’d definitely had enough stare-downs with Simon to be good at it by now, Stace thought.

Finally, Courtland sighed. “I trust your judgment, but that’s not the point. A man is still dead.”

“Through no fault of ours.”

“Maybe not, but the fact remains that you’ve brought one of these creatures into my home without telling me first.”

Heavens, why didn’t the man just call her a bug and get it over with? Stace cursed silently and tried not to remember Simon’s mocking question about what Finn’s friends would think of her.

“Well, we can fix that right now, can’t we, Stace?” Finn retorted. “Come on.”

“Finn, this isn’t necessary.”

“Yes, it is. She’s obviously not welcome here and I won’t stay without her.”

Stace smiled despite the discussion, and then looked over at Courtland. “Listen . . . Simon didn’t get along with me at first. We came to an understanding, but the day he met me he almost stepped on me. On purpose. He tried to kill me-- that doesn’t mean I avoid all humans,” she told him, physically proving that by hovering up to sit on Finn’s shoulder. “I know not all of them would try that.”

Courtland was silent for a long moment. When he spoke again, his expression was contrite. “I apologize to both of you.” He held out his hand to Finn.

Finn hesitated, and then shook it. “Accepted.”

“Accepted,” Stace echoed quietly, not sure what else to say, or what was going to happen now. She’d always known that humans could be dangerous, but she’d never really thought that humans could have much to worry about from fae. She smiled. She supposed Simon had something to do with that-- he’d never backed off when she’d threatened him, just threatened her back. But if humans around here had good reason to fear the fae, then maybe it truly was as Finn had said last night. She’d just have to help change that. She and Livana and . . . well, the two of them. Niabi wouldn’t be interested.

Courtland went to the door, then glanced back at both of them and smiled. “I think Rosemarie and the others are waiting.” He opened the door and they found Rosemarie standing there with a worried frown on her face. “Everything’s fine,” he told her, taking her hand and drawing her to his side.

Rosemarie smiled at Finn, then blinked as she caught sight of Stace. “Oh dear. Am . . . am I seeing things?”

Courtland laughed and pulled her close to his side. “No, you’re not. I believe Finn has quite a story to tell us over dinner.”