I eyed the bag warily. “We have plenty of food.”
“Human food.” He loosened the drawstring and took out various Fae fruits, a few of which I recognized, along with a bottle of green juice and two small, round loaves of dark bread. The juice looked like the same stuff Faris had drunk during his convalescence.
Faolin finished his task and looked at me. “Your father said you have barely eaten since you came home.”
“Did he?” I shot Dad an accusing look. He hadn’t been at the door long enough to discuss my eating habits, which meant he’d talked to Faolin before his unexpected visit.
Dad leaned his shoulder against the wall, not looking the least bit contrite. “You have certain nutritional needs you didn’t have before, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to buy.”
“Faeries can eat human food,” I reminded them.
“Yes, but we also require Fae nourishment.” Faolin picked up something that resembled an elongated pink pear. “Fruits and juice will be the easiest for you to digest until your body adjusts to the change. You can have Fae bread but only in small portions at first.”
“What? No crukk steak?” I quipped. Crukks were the main source of meat in Faerie. They looked like a shrunken version of a wooly mammoth and they were raised domestically like our cattle.
He gave me a mocking smile. “You can eat crukk if you don’t mind it coming back up an hour later.”
I made a face. “I’ll stick to beef.”
“As long as you make sure to include enough Fae foods in your daily diet.” He waved a hand over the food. “You can get any of this at the local Fae market, or you can call us, and we will bring you what you need.”
“Thanks,” I said without much enthusiasm.
“Do you need anything else?” he asked.
Yes. I want to know why Lukas didn’t bring the food, and why he is the only one who hasn’t called me, I thought, but all I said was, “No.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
Dad stepped back to let Faolin pass. “Thank you for coming by. We appreciate everything you and the others have done for us, and when my daughter gets her manners back, she will tell you the same.”
I scowled at my father. What was he talking about? I’d thanked them. Hadn’t I?
“You’re welcome,” Faolin said. His back was to me, but there was no missing the note of laughter in his voice. At the door, he turned to face me. “Don’t think your new status means you no longer have to train. We will resume that after you build up your strength.”
“Oh, joy. I can’t wait.”
“Neither can I.” He flashed me a devious smile as he left. “See you soon, Jesse.”
Dad followed me back to the kitchen. “It was nice of him to bring you food.”
“He’s a real boy scout.” I opened the bottle of juice and sniffed. It was the same stuff Faris used to drink. I capped it and put it in the fridge then grabbed a basket from the cabinet for the fruit.
“You’re not going to eat any of it now?” Dad asked when I was done.
“Not hungry.” I picked up my mug and gave it a longing look before I poured the coffee down the drain. After rinsing the mug, I placed it in the draining rack to dry. “Well, I guess I’ll save a lot of money on coffee.”
He came over to put an arm across my shoulders and gave them a small squeeze. “There’s the Jesse I know.”
I heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry I’ve been so hard to live with this week.”
“You had a good excuse, so I’ll let you off easy this –”
The floor vibrated beneath our feet, and a rumbling sound filled the air as if a plane was flying low over our building. I clung to Dad as the windows rattled, and car alarms started to go off down on the street.
It was over as fast as it had started, leaving the two of us staring at each other in stunned silence.
I was the first to find my voice. “Did we just have an earthquake?”
Chapter 2
Before he could answer, flashes of colored lights outside drew my gaze to the window. I ran over to look up at the sky and saw the familiar light display. We weren’t having an earthquake. It was a Fae storm. Only, this time, it was over land instead of the Hudson.
I twitched as static electricity moved across my skin. That was new and not at all pleasant. Shaking it off, I said, “Dad, come look at this.”
“Jesse!” Dad’s voice held a note of alarm that had me spinning to face him. Or I tried to. It’s a little hard to turn when you are suddenly weightless and floating a foot off the floor.
“What the hell?” I grabbed for the window ledge, but it was out of reach as I drifted upward like a helium balloon. My head bumped gently against the ceiling, and I put my hands up to brace against it. I fought to keep the panic out of my voice. “Dad?”
He had barely taken three steps toward me when the door opened, and Faolin burst in as if he expected to find us under attack. He came up short, and his serious expression relaxed into one of amusement at the sight of my predicament.
I glared at him. “Don’t just stand there. Get me down from here.”
He made a sound suspiciously like a laugh as he came over to place his hands on my waist. Pale blue magic poured from his fingers, and the uncomfortable tingling sensation disappeared. Seconds later, gravity took over, and I floated back to the floor.
“Thanks,” I said, too happy to be back on solid ground to care about the smirk he wore. “What was that?”
He stepped back and gave me a once-over. “Your body reacted to the storm. Humans can’t feel a storm’s energy. Faeries feel it, but it doesn’t affect us. You, on the other hand, are newly converted, and you have barely developed your magic. That makes you susceptible to it.”
“Great,” I muttered. “I hope I’m not outside the next time there’s a storm, or I’ll be the first faerie in orbit.”
Faolin actually chuckled. “I think we can give you something to carry with you when you go out that will suppress your magic until you can control it.”
“Like a dampening ward?” Dad asked.
Faolin nodded. “We can’t ward Jesse, but she should be able to carry something on her person. It will allow her to feel other magic while not reacting to it.”
Dad folded his arms across his chest. “I thought the storms were supposed to get weaker now that the ke’tain is back in Faerie.”
“It’s taking longer than we expected,” Faolin said. His phone rang, and he walked away to answer it.
“I can’t wait to see how the Agency tries to spin this one with the public.” I glanced out the window and saw that the lights were gone from the sky. The Hudson storm had been passed off as a freak tornado that had happened at the exact same time as the aurora borealis. I still couldn’t believe people had accepted that explanation.
“I don’t think they can.” Dad turned to the hallway. “I’m going to check on Finch and Aisla. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Now that I was alone with Faolin, snatches of his phone conversation reached me. “She’s okay. I was outside when it hit.”