A Midsummer Night's Fling

Two

Chapter Two

I waited eagerly for the night to come. A daze overtook me during the day and caused me to stare at nothing as I remembered the feel of Emilee's soft touch. Her perfume stuck in my nose, and her laugh played over and over in my head. When the suns last rays slowly faded from the sky, I practically ran down the magical path which led from The Glen. I felt the edges of several mortal dreams tug at my consciousness, all of them much more promising than what I saw during my perusal the night before, but they were all pushed aside. I wanted a whole night with Emilee again.

As I approached the line of thinning trees at the edge of the forest, I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind to feel for her. I fervently hoped she wasn't one of those people who stayed up until midnight, and I was happy when I found her almost immediately, already sweetly dreaming. I relaxed and slowed my breathing as I carefully merged with her mind and found her dancing in the ballroom again.

Tonight she wore a Spanish style red and black ballet dress. There was a normal skirt that reached to her knees in place of a tutu, swaying perfectly with her long legs. She wore red pointe shoes, and her hair hung curled and free as the night before.

She is so beautiful. I smiled at my sudden thought. Normally, I only favored my own species with that description, but it was true—she looked divine. I couldn't remember a time I'd seen anyone, human or Fae, look like this. I wanted to touch her again and feel the fire, which had rapidly spread between us. I altered my own appearance to match her chosen apparel, wearing pretty much the same thing as the night before, and stepped out into the light once more.

Emilee continued dancing with the fast pace of the music as if nothing had happened. She turned more towards me—concentration etched into her perfect features—but still did not give any sign that she saw me there. A crushing wave of defeat slammed into me.

Can she no longer see me? It seemed like a cruel punishment my mother would inflict upon me. I had been granted one amazing night with the only woman I'd ever wanted to spend an indefinite amount of time with. Curling my hands into fists, I turned to leave. I needed to punch something.

I couldn't understand what was happening. Why did I feel this way? Why was I so upset that one mortal couldn't see me when none of them were supposed to in the first place? The threads that held our minds together began to slip away, and I wished I could jump right out, but I didn't want to cause her unnecessary pain or to wake up because I was careless. Each piece of her that separated from me left invisible scars of pain.

"Raith?"

Every thread snapped into place, the ground shook, and my breath was knocked away. I was in trouble and I knew it. I should not have felt the way I did when she said my name.

"I'm here," I said coming into the light. She looked a little dazed. Guilt seeped into me as I realized I'd come back in too fast for her. Doing so agitated her subconscious and made it hard for her to focus. "Uh . . . I thought you hadn't seen me, and I didn't want to interrupt," I somewhat lied as I gave her time to gather herself. Finally, she shook her head and smiled sweetly, making my insides churn.

"I almost didn't see you," she admitted.

"Oh." She was all I thought about and instead of feeling the same, she seemed to have forgotten me. Great. Calm down. It's no big deal. Besides, she doesn't even know that you're real, I reasoned.

"I was caught up in my dance," she explained after an awkward pause. An apologetic grin spread across her face and she shrugged, running her fingers through her hair.