Jennifer was elated beyond belief. She flew faster than she ever had before, invisible and soaring through the air like a shooting star. If she weren't painfully aware she was in the human world, she would have laughed out loud and shouted in jubilation. She did more than one flip in the air, twisting herself around and making fantastical patterns in her flight, all while keeping herself as silent as possible.

Really, she shouldn't have been this overjoyed. Nick was not the first man she'd ever kissed. Not by far. Well, he was the first human man, but that didn't really make much difference. Other than the wings and the magic, fairies and humans weren't all that different. At least not in any way that Jen had noticed. And Nick was a wonderful man, at least as much as she could tell so far, and she had no real reason to being so giddy like this. But oh, she could not help it! That kiss had been wonderful. Jen felt wonderful. She felt happy and beautiful and light and full of starshine.

In the back of her mind, she wondered if she should have stayed at his house, stayed invisible and continued to watch him. But all she could do was fly like this and work out all this electric energy that kiss had given her.

The flying certainly did the trick, however. She was sufficiently tired out by the time she reached the woods. And as she went through the portal, Jen had regained her composure. It wasn't like her at all to be like this, and she certainly wouldn't let anyone see her. The last thing she wanted was for her fellow fairies to start asking questions she did not want to answer.

Jen walked calmly through the fairy realm to the palace. She'd promised to report back to Sir Terry, and she would. She could give her report, and then she could go home. She'd not slept very well in that tree last night, and she'd done quite a lot of flying, between following Nick on his strange run and then flying as she had back to the woods. Jen could certainly use a nap. A bath and then a nap, certainly. And then the rest of the day, she could start planning what to wear on her date with Nick the next evening.

"What have you got for me, Jane?" Sir Terry asked without any introduction. He had had been walking through the grand foyer and must have known she was coming to see him.

As usual, she ignored him calling her by the wrong name. "Should we go up to your office?" she asked, not knowing whether this discussion should happen in the company of others. Not that there was much of anyone else around, but still. The walls have ears.

A beautiful cry sounded above them, interrupting Terry's response. Jerry was circling. Jen smiled to see the bird. As annoying as he could be, she was sort of used to his presence. He usually joined her when she went out into the woods in the human world. It had been odd watching Nick without the death watcher nearby.

Jen held out her hand, and Jerry fluttered down to land on it. She brought him close so he could nuzzle her face the way he did sometimes. "Hello there," she greeted affectionately.

"One in the hand worth two in the bush!" he replied.

A very typical response. She had to laugh.

"I don't know how you can stand that bloody thing," Terry noted with disdain.

"He might be a bit odd, but he's sweet," Jen defended.

Jerry cocked his head and looked very pointedly at Terry. "All who wander are not lost."

"See? Stupid damn thing," he grumbled. "If you've got something to say, you prophetic pigeon, why don't you come out and say it?"

Sparing them all from Jerry saying something else to annoy Terry, Jen chose to stroke his shiny black feathers and answer, "He's a death watcher and this is what they're supposed to do."

"I don't care," Terry grumbled. "Put him in his cage and come on up to my office."

Jen lightly kissed Jerry's beak and sent him away. She followed Terry up the stairs and through the winding corridors of the palace. "How's the queen?" she asked, making polite small talk.

"Fine. She's off…" Terry waved his arm in a vague expression.

"Holding court?" Jen supplied, as that was usually what Queen Bernice was doing when Terry was avoiding her.

"No, visiting the sick," he answered with a slight tone of disgust.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Bloody depressing."

And that was the end of that conversation. Jen didn't mind. Terry let her walk into his office before him and closed the door behind her.

"Right, what's the story of that human of yours?"

Jen could not immediately decide if she liked that or not, having Terry refer to Nick as 'her human.' He wasn't hers, not really. But he was more hers than he was any other fairy's. And after that kiss…well… "He's interesting," she said quickly.

"How so?"

"He runs."

"He what?"

Jen explained, "First thing this morning, he left his home and just…ran."

"Ran where?" Terry asked. He was as confused now as Jen had been experiencing it.

"Just ran. Down the street a ways and then eventually back to his house. I followed him, flying invisibly. He was going quite fast."

"Nothing was chasing him or anything?" Jen shook her head. Terry scoffed, "Nutter."

"And I don't think he's magic. Or if he is, he's got no idea. I couldn't sense it on him. But he always seemed to know when I was close."

Terry frowned. "If he's got no magic and you were invisible, how did he know?"

Jen couldn't help the small smile playing on her lips. "He said he could smell me. Said I smell like a garden." She did not specifically include the part where he told her she smelled like dirt.

"What do you mean, 'he told you?'" Terry asked, his voice low and dangerous.

She knew that tone. She knew she was about to see the volcano of Sir Terry's anger erupt. "I talked to him," she confessed, steeling herself for his inevitable explosion.

"Are you out of your bloody mind, Jane!?" he shouted.

Yes, there it was. She should have known better.

"You are going to get yourself found out and put us all in danger! You're a warrior! You're supposed to protect the realm, not bring it crumbling down!"

"I am getting close to him so I can learn more!" she shouted right back. "There wasn't any way I could observe him without being found, and that would have been even worse. He's curious about me, curious enough to keep talking to me. I'll find out what I need, and I'll keep him away from us."

"You'd better be damn sure," Terry warned, pointing threateningly at her.

Jennifer stared right at him, her turquoise eyes boring into his pale blue ones. "I'm sure," she insisted. Though she projected strength, her heart was racing and she was holding her breath.

Terry hesitated for a beat before he acquiesced. "When are you seeing him again?"

"Tomorrow evening."

"Fine. Go home and get some rest. You look like hell."

Jen nodded curtly and turned to leave. As soon as she was clear of his office, she let out that breath she'd been holding. She was lucky, and she knew it. And she certainly wasn't going to tell Sir Terry about anything else, the way she and Nick had kissed and the excitement she felt for getting to go to dinner with him the following evening. She needed to be careful around Nick of course, and she needed to have some sort of plan in mind before she saw him again. That much was certain.

But as soon as she started walking through the corridor, smiling and nodding politely to the stationed guards, the full wave of her exhaustion overtook her. She walked back home—too tired to concentrate on trying to fly—and ended up stumbling over her own feet. The amount of adrenaline she'd gone through today alone was enough to make anyone dead on their feet, what with the terror of being discovered, the elation of the kiss, the stress of being yelled at by Terry, all of it. And add to that all the flying? Certainly too much for one day. Though maybe the fact that she'd not eaten anything today was part of that too. Maybe she should try to make something for herself before falling into bed.

No such luck. Her eyes and her limbs were too heavy. Her hunger was not the most pressing of her concerns. As soon as Jennifer crossed the threshold into her beautiful home woven into the honeysuckle vines, she fell right into bed and was asleep before she knew it.

Strange as such a thing was, Jen dreamed during her nap. She dreamed of a dress. A perfect dress that she would create and wear to her dinner date with Nick. When she woke up, she'd work on it. Yes, when she woke up. But not just yet. She allowed herself to keep sleeping, to feel safe in her home and enjoying all the possibilities that lived only in her dreams.