Jennifer led Nick though the twisting paths from the palace and through the realm till they got to the little clearing where her house was. She hoped he would like it. It was different than anything he'd ever seen before, she knew. It wasn't like the palace or other places in the fairy realm. And it certainly wasn't anything at all like Nick's house in the human world.
"This is it," she said, revealing her home to him.
Nick's jaw dropped. He'd assumed that all fairy houses were like the palace, carved into a tree. But Jen's house wasn't carved into a tree. It was woven. It was an enormous bush, it looked like. But it was, in fact, hundreds of green vines all woven together to create walls and a roof with an opening for a doorway and windows and such. And for being made of vines—all living and blooming, in fact—it was enormous. It was the proper size of a house.
"I hope it'll be alright for the night," Jen said nervously.
"It's incredible!" he told her earnestly. "Really, it's…god, it's beautiful, Jen."
Her beaming smile was response enough. She really was proud of her house and more pleased than she could say to know that Nick liked it. She was so pleased, in fact, that her wings beat joyfully and she let herself be lifted a few inches in the air so she was at eyelevel with Nick. And she kissed him, smiling against his lips. His arms wrapped around her waist, and she allowed her wings to still so Nick could support her weight, which he did quite easily. "Come inside," she whispered.
Nick put her down gently and followed her into the house. It was filled with shadow, hidden from the sunshine outside. He watched Jen go around the huge single room and blow on what looked like bubbles the size of a basketball. Her breath—more likely her magic—caused each one to glow with a pale yellow-pink light to illuminate the space. They floated in midair at various levels. And when they were all lit, Nick could see the whole space.
The first thing he noticed was the simplicity of it. She had a table and a couple chairs of wood. She had a large bed on the back wall with soft white pillows and blankets. She had a sink basin and cabinets on one side. On the other was a large tub presumably for bathing. And that was all. The floor was soft dirt beneath his shoes. The walls were unadorned except for the flowers from the vines. It was at once exactly what a fairy's house should be and yet nothing like he might have expected. He'd not known what Jennifer's house might look like, but this certainly fit her.
"It's beautiful," he told her.
Once again, she looked elated. "I'm really glad you think so. It's home," she replied with a shrug. "Can I get you something to eat or drink?"
"I take it you don't have tea or beer," he teased.
Jen looked at him with a playful smirk. "You figured that out, did you?"
He nodded. "Things are starting to make sense." And it was true. As he was starting to calm down and accept the realities, his mind was making the connections where he'd had questions before.
"I have wine and water," she offered.
"Wine, maybe? We can just have a drink and talk, since I'm not allowed to go home," he reasoned.
Jen paused. "Is that…is that alright? I really didn't expect Terry to say you had to stay. Do you want to go back?"
Part of him did indeed want to go back. He'd not planned on spending the night anywhere but in his own bed. But if he had to be anywhere else, Jennifer's bed seemed a nice consolation. At least, he assumed he'd be sleeping in her bed. He couldn't imagine she'd make him sleep in the dirt. And they had just had sex in the woods earlier today. Christ was that just today? It felt like so long ago. Quite a lot had happened since then. His whole perception of the world had changed. But perhaps for the better. "No, I'm alright. I'm okay if I'm with you."
All the tension left her face at his words. She had a little wrinkle between her brows that smoothed out as she relaxed and smiled again. "Alright, good. Make yourself comfortable and I'll get the wine."
Jen had to turn away from him to get things out of her cupboards and to calm herself down. She'd been so preoccupied with what she was supposed to do—keep Nick comforted, bring him to Terry, follow instructions—that she'd hardly gotten a moment to think. Tomorrow he would meet Bernice, which was as important to Jennifer as it is for some people to introduce someone to their parents. Bernice wasn't her mother, of course, but she served something of that purpose in Jennifer's life. And Nick was…well, Nick had become everything to her. It had happened so quickly, this connection that had grown between them. Now that he knew the truth and had embraced and accepted it as much as he could, everything seemed so much bigger. He knew she was a fairy. He was in her house in the realm. And he was just so wonderful. Jen had no idea what was going to happen, what would become of them, what the death watcher was trying to tell them in bringing Nick and Jen together, but she felt in her heart those words he had just said. She'd be okay if she was with him.
Soon enough, Jen had poured them each a glass of dry fairy wine and took a seat at the table with him. "Here we are. And now that we're alone and safe, I think I can answer whatever questions you've got left, if you want."
They clinked glasses and Nick took a sip. It was wine, alright, but it was unlike any he'd ever tasted. There was a sweetness and spiciness that were unexpected but rather good. He could add that to his list of questions. "Yeah, I've got questions," he began.
Jen nodded. "Go on, then."
He took a moment to decide what he wanted to ask first. He decided on, "Are you really thirty-six?"
She started to laugh. "I can't believe you started with that!" She gave him a small swat for his slight impertinence.
Nick laughed as he tried and failed to dodge her. He defended, "I mean, aren't you lot immortal or something? Fairies have been around since the dawn of time or whatever. Or does time work differently here? Like you're thirty-six but those thirty-six years for you were more like two hundred years or something in the human world."
"No," she explained. "Fairies age the same way humans do. We live just as long. Usually anywhere from eighty to one hundred years. But we heal better than humans. We don't really get injured or sick ever."
"Is that why your cut wasn't that bad by the time we got to mine that first day we met?"
Jen nodded. "Another ten minutes or so and I'd have been fine. But you obviously didn't know that, so I had to sort of play along."
"I was really worried about you," he admitted with a frown. Nick now felt a bit stupid for being so concerned about her injury.
She put her hand on his arm. "I know you were. That's what made me trust you so much. That and Jerry, of course."
"Yeah, what is he?" Nick asked, moving on to his next set of questions.
How to explain Jerry… "His name is Jermuth. He's a death watcher. There's only one death watcher at a time. When one dies, another hatches from the nest of eggs that's kept in the palace. And when a death watcher hatches, it tells us its name. The females lay more eggs to replenish the eggs nest while the males build up and repair the nest itself. I don't actually know why we have a death watcher at all, but we've always had one. Jerry's been around my whole life. I don't know how long they live, but Jerry is getting quite old. And the death watcher just does exactly what you've seen. They talk in riddles to guide and protect the fairy realm. So the fact that he led you to me is a very, very big deal. He must know something about you and your importance to the realm that we don't really know yet. Bernice thought it might be that you're just important to me rather than the realm as a whole, but that tattoo of the palace makes me think it's more than just me you're here for."
Nick pondered that one for a moment. That bird had led him very deliberately to Jennifer more than once. Was it because of his tattoo? He wished he could remember how he'd drawn that tree that was tattooed on his skin. He'd just always liked trees. "Terry said something about hearing the trees?" Nick suddenly remembered.
"I don't know if you can or not. But it's part of fairy magic," Jen told him. "We can hear the trees. They sort of…sing, I guess is the way to describe it. There's a sound that tells what they're feeling. Like their mood, I suppose. It's good for a warning, if the trees are frightened or upset. That's part of what fairies do. We tend to the trees. I'm a warrior, so it's not my particular task, but there are lots more who plant gardens and grow food and tend to the trees."
The makeup of fairy society was something he was quite interested in, but he was still stuck on the singing trees. "Is it just the trees in the fairy realm?"
A slow smile spread on her face. "You can hear them, can't you? You heard that table in your house."
"Yes!" he exclaimed.
She nodded. "I thought so. They're louder when they're cut like that. The wood still sings even after the tree isn't alive anymore."
"I thought I was going mad. I could hear it. It was like it…like it possessed me or something."
Jennifer nodded again. "They can be quite insistent sometimes. But from the way it was singing when I saw it, that wood wanted to be brought to its proper beauty. You were in the process of revealing it, and it wanted you to finish the job. And when you did, it was happy."
"I could tell it was happy. How could I tell that?" Nick asked in slight amazement.
"Just what Terry said. I kissed you and you got some of my magic."
"Will it go away?"
"I don't know. I've never kissed a human before."
They continued to drink their wine and talk. Jen got some food for them to share, some bread and jam she had in the cupboard. Apparently magic kept it fresh.
Jennifer told him all kinds of things about magic and about fairies. She told him that yes, her blood did sparkle. That was the source of her magic; it made her skin glow and it flowed through her body.
She told him that fairies were born one of two ways, either by blooming as babies inside giant tulips every fifth full moon as Jennifer had, or else born from a female fairy conceived with a male fairy, just like humans were born. Apparently Jen herself had no parents and was raised with the other bloomed fairy children in a group. There was absolutely no difference between bloomed children and born children though born children had magical properties blended from their parents and bloomed children had more unique magic.
The last thing she told him, before her yawning reminded Nick of how late it had gotten, was that fairy magic had some rules and etiquette universally agreed in the realm but the actual limits of magic did not seem to exist. Jennifer knew there were plenty of things she didn't do simply because they weren't done, but she did not know if there was anything she simply could not do.
That last point was something Nick wondered if he was supposed to be upset by. Perhaps some people would be upset at that unlimited potential power. It's hard to trust anyone with unlimited power. But in knowing that there were these agreed upon rules that everyone seemed to follow, Nick felt only immense curiosity and respect for the magic. He wanted to explore more of what Jen could do, the way she lived her life her, the things she did with magic that were as ordinary to her as an electric toothbrush was to Nick. And knowing that she had kissed him and given him some of her powers, he wanted to explore his own new abilities. But for now, it was late. They were getting ready for bed together. He'd be with Jen all night and probably a lot of tomorrow. They'd have time to talk more later.