Enchanted Summer Read online

  The bell chimed and she was gone.

  Mimi rubbed her eyes.

  “That was weird …” she muttered. “I need to get more sleep. Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I would be sure this girl was just a figment of my—”

  Her eyes flew open, and she slid across her seat to look out the window. The parking lot was empty.

  Mimi cast a glance over her shoulder at Ryan, who was peacefully wiping the counters.

  “Hey, did she take the mug with her?”

  Ryan looked up and blinked at her. “What?”

  “That girl who’d just been here.”

  A look of puzzlement crossed Ryan’s face. “You mean those girls who were there before you came? But they didn’t order anything in a mug. Wait, how did you even see them? Did you pass them on the way here? Was one of them carrying a mug?”

  Mimi stared at him for a moment, and then she turned back and took another sip of her milkshake.

  She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  Twenty-Four

  Even if he did notice some differences in the way she appeared, Ariadne insisted everything was fine, and Nate tried to shove those concerns as far away as possible.

  Still, each night as he returned home and she greeted him at the door, Ariadne looked tired or sleepy. She explained that by having taken a nap just before his arrival, but he could sense that was not the truth. His worst fears had settled deep within him.

  Nate washed them away by playing to her every night. The piano no longer brought back unwanted memories. He approached it with confidence now, and without a hint of self-doubt. Not that he was sure that his any endeavor would be successful from now on—quite the opposite. He no longer cared if it was or not. It was as if he’d found a deeper meaning to what he was doing, and a motivation stronger than any he had before.

  He didn’t play for himself. He didn’t play for the others. He played because it was a part of his being. As vital a part as breathing or eating.

  The fact that Ariadne enjoyed it so only made it more pleasant for him. She was his endless source of inspiration.

  That night, she leaned against the piano and closed her eyes, listening to the music. At one moment Nate was almost sure she had fallen asleep. He wrapped up the melody and got up, thinking he should probably carry her upstairs. Maybe a few extra hours of sleep would give her more energy.

  But as he gently touched her shoulder, she shivered and looked up.

  “Why did you stop playing?” she said in a weak voice.

  Nate’s heart sank at hearing it. She looked even more lethargic than usual.

  “You look so tired.” He leaned closer to her. “I thought maybe you wanted to go to sleep.”

  “I don’t want to sleep.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I want to listen to you play.”

  Nate took a breath, thinking.

  “I could make you a cup of herbal tea,” he suggested. “Maybe it would freshen you up?”

  “Mmm, yeah,” Ariadne murmured, closing her eyes. She could barely keep them open, it seemed. “Tea sounds nice.”

  “All right, then I’ll go and make it.” Nate kissed her ear gently. “Call me if you need anything else.”

  She murmured something indecipherable and seemed to doze off. Nate let out a sigh and, casting a worried glance at her, walked over to the kitchen.

  He set the kettle to boil and found Ariadne’s favorite herbal blend. He was pouring it into a teapot, wishing that he could consult someone on Ariadne’s wellbeing, when he heard a loud thud coming from another room.

  The tea blend slipped out of his fingers.

  “Ariadne?” Nate called. “Is everything fine?”

  But no answer came. His heart racing faster with every second, Nate took off and ran to the living room.

  The fear nearly paralyzed him as he saw her lying sprawled on the carpet by the piano. Nate fell to his knees by her motionless body and pressed two fingers to the vein on her neck. He released a breath he’d been holding as he felt it throb faintly.

  “Ariadne,” he whispered, brushing her cheek.

  His mind raced along with his heart. What was he to do now? How could he help her? He obviously knew nothing about fairy first-aid and was ignorant enough not to even ask Ariadne about it.

  Gently he picked her up from the floor and carried her to the nearest couch. He laid her down on her side, careful not to damage her wings. Then he crouched by her side and racked his brain for any kind of solution.

  Should he call Ray and Hanna? But what would they do? They were as unknowledgeable about fairy health as he was. Hanna knew something about the fairies. Maybe she could have any ideas.

  Or maybe he should carry Ariadne to the portal and bring her down to the Forest? But knowing her story, he could only bring more trouble to her that way. Besides, he he would not be able to open the door by himself.

  In any case, his panicked mind prevented him from thinking clearly. Nate got to his feet and paced the living room. Maybe calling Hanna was really the best he could do at the moment. He needed help—any kind of help.

  Just as he was about to pick up his phone and dial the number, the doorbell rang. Nate nearly jumped at hearing it.

  Who could it be at that hour? He certainly hoped not his neighbors. Maybe Ray and Hanna decided to pay him a visit, so he wouldn’t have to call?

  Casting one last concerned glance at Ariadne, Nate walked over to the door and opened it.

  He nearly stumbled back at the sight of the stranger. It was definitely not his neighbor. And not someone he knew. It took him one glance to realize where the stranger came from. They were wearing a cloak made of shimmery green fabric, with the hood drawn low enough to hide their face.

  Before he could say anything, the stranger spoke in a female voice.

  “I know she’s here. Please, let me come in.”

  Nate didn’t move.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  The stranger hesitated for a second, and then she pulled the hood back from her face.

  It was indeed a woman, or at least she looked like one. Her hazel hair, braided on top of her head, had a golden hint to it. Her eyes were deep blue, and they gleamed like gemstones, just like Ariadne’s. Her ears were slightly pointed. She looked to be in her late thirties—early forties maybe, although Nate couldn’t be sure about that. As she untied the straps of her cloak, it slid from her shoulders, revealing a pair of dragonfly-shaped wings. The dress she wore underneath was the same color as her cloak.

  “I am Lady Bronwyn, Ariadne’s tutor,” the dryad said. “I don’t know what she told you, but I am a friend. I do not wish to bring her any harm and only want to help. If you could let me in and let me talk to her—”

  Nate stepped back and held the door for her.

  “If you promise you won’t hurt her in any way, I need your help. Ariadne fell unconscious, and I—”

  “What?”

  Shoving him aside with unexpected strength, Lady Bronwyn rushed inside and started looking around frantically, searching for her ward. As soon as her eyes fell on Ariadne, she hurried to her side. Nate shut the door and followed after her.

  She knelt beside the couch, brushing a strand of hair away from Ariadne’s face. Just like Ariadne, she smelled of honey and wildflowers, although her scent was slightly different.

  Nate heard her draw in a breath.

  “Your Highness …” she whispered.

  His heart skipped a beat.

  “What?” he stared at her—then at Ariadne—his eyes growing wide.

  Lady Bronwyn cut a quick glance at him. “So, she didn’t tell you, did she?”

  “Didn’t tell me what?”

  “That she was the princess of the Enchanted Forest and the heir to the throne.” There was something so gentle and motherly in the way Lady Bronwyn treated her ward. It left no room for Nate to doubt she only wished her well.

  Nate found himself at a loss of words. “I … She hinted at coming fro
m a noble family, but I never … I had no idea she was …”

  Lady Bronwyn closed her eyes and sighed. “She probably didn’t want you to treat her any differently because of it. But she must have known she couldn’t stay here forever.”

  “She’s been feeling tired for the past few days. And before that, she’d almost fainted once.”

  “Haven’t she told you that a dryad can’t survive long outside of the Forest?”

  “She did. But she also told me she didn’t want—or maybe couldn’t—go back.”

  Lady Bronwyn shook her head. “I saw your garden. She’d spent a lot of her power on making it that way. I can only guess how much of it she’d spent on you.”

  Nate’s eyebrows rose. “On me?”

  She eyed him. “Are you perchance an artist? Lost the meaning of life, and depressed? Have you felt any sudden bursts of inspiration lately? Have you been feeling better overall since she came into your life?”

  “Yes; that’s true. But I never would have thought it was—” Nate closed his eyes and released a breath. “I thought I was feeling better because she was with me. Because I …” He didn’t dare to finish the sentence. “So she’s spent all her energy on me?”

  “Not on you exclusively, but she did give you a lot of it. Her Highness is a powerful dryad, but no dryad can survive long outside of the source of magic, especially if she uses her powers so generously. If I hadn’t come soon enough …” She shook her head again, clearly not wanting to even consider what would happen then. “I’ve been on the lookout from the moment she disappeared. She’d probably come to the Forest once to replenish her resources, although it obviously wasn’t enough for her to recover. But it got me a chance to catch a trail of her aura. And it led me into this world. We’ve been here before, so I knew it well enough. Now I’ll take her home.”

  Nate stepped closer.

  “I know I probably have no say in that … and I only wish that she would feel better … but Ariadne said that she ran away after having some conflict with the rulers.”

  “Yes; with her father, precisely.” Lady Bronwyn nodded. “They’ve been in conflict over many different things for a long time.”

  “She told me about the consequences,” Nate said, “of breaking the Forest law.”

  Lady Bronwyn watched him silently for a moment.

  “I obviously won’t tell His Majesty or anyone else about what I saw here. I love Ariadne with all my heart, and will always protect her. I won’t let them do any harm to her, even if I have to pay with my own life for it.” Her gaze slid aside. “But you should not worry. As far as they know, Her Highness hasn’t broken any laws, so she should not be punished. The King and the Queen are worried about their daughter. They want her to be back—alive and healthy.”

  There was nothing Nate could say or do to stop her. It wasn’t even that he wanted to prevent Ariadne from going back home—he wanted her to get well. Nothing else mattered.

  But still, even a thought of having to let her go forever made him desperate. Made him want to beg Lady Bronwyn to take him with her—even though he knew she never would. Even thinking about it was silly.

  Lady Bronwyn observed him for a moment. Then she looked back at her ward.

  “One more thing,” she said. “I don’t know whether there was anything between you, but as a dryad, I can sense auras. I know how you feel about her.”

  Nate’s heart stammered. He absolutely forgot about that ability of theirs.

  “There’s something you need to know.” Lady Bronwyn’s gaze was distant as she held Ariadne’s hand. “Her Highness is engaged. She was about to be married when she disappeared.”

  Nate’s knees nearly buckled underneath him.

  “What?” he gasped.

  “She never told you, I see,” Lady Bronwyn cast a glance at him. “Well, I expected that.”

  She rose to her feet and carefully picked Ariadne up from the couch. Ariadne’s body hung limp in her arms. Her iridescent wings brushed the floor.

  Nate took a staggering step forward, looking into Ariadne’s face. How many more secrets had she kept from him?

  He gently took her hand and pressed the back of it to his lips.

  “Goodbye,” he whispered, feeling a lump in his throat.

  Lady Bronwyn examined his face, then threw a quick glance at the piano.

  “You’re a musician?” she guessed.

  “I am,” Nate replied. He barely recognized his own voice.

  “What is your name?”

  “Nate.”

  Her eyes creased. “And it is short for …”

  “Nathaniel,” Nate finished for her.

  A strange look crossed Lady Bronwyn’s face. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but then she dropped her eyes and bowed her head.

  “Thank you for taking care of Ariadne,” she said. “Goodbye.”

  Before Nate could reply, she turned herself and Ariadne into bubbles of light and flew out the living room. Nate held the door for them to exit.

  “Goodbye,” he whispered into the night, watching the trail of luminous pollen melt in the air.

  Just like that, all the magic was gone.

  Twenty-Five

  Mimi drove home with Ryan.

  All the way back to their house, he kept telling her funny stories that happened to him and Ray at the diner. Mimi only half-listened to them, her mind churning.

  For the first time this month, she wasn’t thinking about Nate, or about how miserable she felt. Her thoughts had taken another direction. She wanted to get home, dig out her notebook, and jot down some ideas that came to her. Maybe even do some brainstorming.

  She hadn’t felt that way in a long time. When did that shift even occur? It was as if she’d come to the diner and left it as two completely different persons. The feeling was exhilarating. Everything else, even her one-sided crush, paled in comparison.

  As soon as Ryan turned into the driveway and stopped, she was leaping out of the car and heading to the door. Ryan called out, asking her to wait for him, so she paused with one hand on the door handle, keys jingling in another. A couple of moments later, they were entering the house together.

  Mimi crossed the threshold and froze.

  Nate was there. Sitting on the couch in the living room, Ray and Hanna with him. There was no Ariadne in sight, and Nate looked … different. As if something bad had happened. Ray and Hanna watched him with concern.

  All the excitement evaporated from Mimi’s mind. A moment later, she and Ryan were rushing to join them, asking what happened.

  “It all makes sense.” Ryan scratched his head. “She was a fairy princess. I should have guessed it from the start.”

  “And engaged!” Hanna added. “About to be married!”

  “She never told me any of that.” Nate’s voice was hoarse, even though he had no traces of tears on his face. “Never even hinted that she had someone back in the Forest. I asked her about it.”

  “You asked her that?” Ray raised an eyebrow. “If she had a boyfriend, or a fiancé, or something?”

  Nate shook his head, clearly not in the mood to talk much. He looked devastated. Crushed. His body was in the room, but his mind was clearly elsewhere. He stared unseeingly at the coffee table before him.

  “Now I can finally see the whole picture.” Hanna jumped up from the couch and paced the room. “Ariadne had a strained relationship with her parents. That I can understand. Everyone gets into conflict with their parents from time to time, and she was fighting with them for years. They’d probably wanted to marry her off to some noble or something, and she clearly wasn’t happy about that. She would not have run away if she truly loved him. Oh, how I get it! If it was me, I would be mad! I could never understand how girls in the past endured such treatment. Those fairy laws are probably very strict. You could only marry a dryad, and the one your parents choose for you. So, of course, she couldn’t take it any longer and ran away. Maybe even from her own wedding, or the night b
efore. That’s how I see it.”

  “I had no chance …” Ryan moaned from the other end of the couch.

  Ray shot him a glare, then turned back to Nate. “If Hanna is right—and I think she is—then Ariadne was to be married against her own will. She probably will be pushed into it now, too, as soon as she recovers. If I were you, I would have stopped that.”

  “What?” Both Nate and Hanna looked his way.

  “If Hanna was forced to marry some jerk, I would go to the end of the world to stop that from happening.”

  “Aww, that’s sweet,” Hanna giggled. “But you wouldn’t do that.”

  “Why?” Ray looked at her questioningly. “You think I don’t love you enough? I would do anything to get you back.”

  Hanna walked over and kissed him on the cheek. “That’s really sweet of you to say that. But I’m not sure you would actually be brave enough to go to a fairy realm to stop me from marrying someone else.”

  “Wha— What are you trying to say?”

  Nate dropped his eyes. “I don’t know how to get there. Ariadne showed me the portal, but I’m not sure I would be able to open it. The Forest is protected by powerful magic. It may not even let me in. And then, even if I succeed, interacting with humans is against their law. If the king finds out Ariadne and I had contacted in any way, she will be punished. That’s the last thing I want.”

  “Hey, aren’t they tiny?” Ryan said. “You can just threaten to smash their whole kingdom if they won’t do what you say.”

  “The whole royal family can turn the size of a human, just like Ariadne. And I would never threaten something like that. Other dryads did nothing to deserve that, not to mention the whole place is protected by magic. Nobody has ever attacked them in the entire history of their world, and I think there’s a reason behind it.”

  “But you must do something!” Ray argued. “Or do you plan to sit around and feel miserable?”

  “I don’t know what I can do,” Nate said. “All I want is for her to feel better. She fainted because she spent too much of her energy on me. I don’t know why she did that. I never deserved it. If only I knew …”