The Autumn Prince

33. Forces of Nature

The following dawn drifted unhindered through the warehouse skylights, passed beyond the smaller panes of Becca Novak's cottage, and its warmth kissed her bare back as she pulled up and fastened a pair of comfortably baggy overalls. A lacy, white bra followed, and she slipped her arms free one at a time to accommodate it, then repeated the procedure for her shirt. It wasn't a deliberate process, she simply identified a task and completed it with no concern for minor inefficiencies.

The right sock didn't match the left, but each had lost its mate somewhere and since they were both white and approximately the same length, she felt no need to throw them away. She spent a few minutes picking a knot out of her shoelaces, having kicked them off the night before without untying. It was a bad habit. It never occurred to her to break it.

She had more than a few of those but she kept them in perspective. Some were part of her, annoying but harmless. Others were defense mechanisms that she was only vaguely aware of. Mom had tried to fix her. Becca Sofija! she would say, rolling her eyes so hard they threatened to leave her head, but her irritation was always tempered by concern, and concern by love. She missed mom. She missed rock climbing and swimming in the lake behind the old house. That was before dad left. Before...

Abruptly, she remembered where she was. That wasn't the right word, but a sudden awareness of her surroundings made old memories dormant and colorless, replacing them with something brighter. Embers of excitement stirred as she savored the rare knowledge she'd been given: the existence of magic and storybook lands and the beings that inhabited them. She even had her very own prince, though that part was complicated.

She didn't mind that he had a girlfriend, but she was sorry that her joy had cost Katherine some of her own. It hurt Tom too, which was even less bearable, but when they kissed there was nobody else, just him and a shy, Midwestern girl who read too many books and liked the color purple.

The magic was almost as grand. She had held it in her two hands, called to it, and it had answered. It was terrifying, of course. Her only instruction came from a tome that whispered its secrets in wandering riddles. Instead of filling her mind with words, it planted ideas and watered them with paragraphs that pulled together concepts in exactly the right order. She couldn't pry knowledge out of it, but it helped her understand, even if the process was slow.

Once dressed, she passed the vanity mirror without a trace of interest and left the cottage, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Katherine and Rachel were already in the kitchen, sorting through the meager contents of Meridian's pantry.

"Sup girl?" Rachel asked, regarding the food with clear displeasure.

"Good morning," Becca beamed at her. "Is this what we have for breakfast?"

"This is what we have period. Fairy generosity didn't extend to grocery shopping."

"Don't listen to her, she's already had two cold bratwursts," Katherine said with a hint of disgust, picking at dry cornflakes left over from the campground. "I had higher hopes for magical food than burgers from Fatty's and cold cereal."

"The books all say if you eat while you're in the fairy lands, you can never leave."

Rachel snorted a laugh. "I think we're way past that, don't you?" Katherine shot her a lidded glare and smacked her arm. "I'm just sayin' it's not the food that's keeping us here."

"Keep it to yourself around Thomas. It's not his fault, and he's just as stuck as we are."

"I didn't say I wasn't grateful." Rachel shrugged and helped herself to what was left of the grapes. Katherine's demeanor shifted instantly.

"Mornings are still hard, aren't they?"

"Always. Feels like I'm splitting down the middle."

"Oh gosh," Becca reached toward her, then hesitated. She lacked the skills to offer comfort. "Should we get Tom?"