Magically Delicious Read Free Page A

told you to make the best of it. Now humans have numbers and plastic pieces with their pictures on them—as if their world isn't complicated enough without these systems. I cannot just simply create these things for you, as you well know. You must live them for yourself. And as for the human knowing you, you'll have to make him. You'll have your memories. Use them to show him who you really are. He attends a small university just outside of the town they call Dublin. Find him there after St. Patrick's Day thirty-two years from now. He'll be there. And you'll have still visited him the previous night. Time is a fluid garden; you know this. Use it to your benefit and you will win him."
    She paused, taking a breath. "Do you still want to do this? You still have time to turn back and spend eternity here, among your friends. With me."
    Arn swallowed thickly There was so much hope expressed in his mother's request. He didn't want to hurt her. But he couldn't just turn his back on love, on Luke, now that he'd found him. For humans, love meant something different than to the Fae. He wasn't even sure if the man would accept him once they met again. But he had to try. "I need to be with him, mother. I'm sorry."
    She nodded and placed one eternally pale hand on his cheek. Arn leaned into the warmth and deeply breathed his mother's scent in one last time. She'd always smelled of lilacs waving in the summer sun. He closed his eyes. "I love you, my son," she whispered to him. Arn remembered the warmth of her lips on his forehead as she kissed him one last time before his world burst into a rush of white light and deafening noise.

    * * * *

    Luke stretched languidly in the bright sunlight. Already bangers were being fried on the stove and he could hear voices coming from the kitchen. He struggled to slip his jeans on and get out of bed. He felt so tired, even though he'd had a good night's sleep—and a great dream. Thinking about Arn brought an instant smile to his lips. Trust him to think up some sex god of a man in his first month in Ireland.
    He entered the kitchen and looked up, startled, as the laughter seemed to cease around him. "Uh… hey?" he said uncertainly, as he grabbed some toast and spread some beans on it.
    Mitch, the oldest of them, gave him a strange look. "Hey, yourself. I didn't hear the front door open. Have a guest over last night?"
    Luke frowned at the man and shook his head. "No. I didn't. What are you talking about?"
    "You were moaning rather loudly," Mitch clarified, causing Luke's face to flame. He'd known he'd probably made too much noise. But now he just wanted to go curl up under his covers and hide for a while. He tried to slink back to his room but Vic's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
    "Probably just a dream. We all get 'em. Sit," the man told him, trying to reassure him as best he could.
    "But there be bruises on his hips," Mitch pointed out, waving a wooden spoon in Luke's general direction.
    "No, there aren't," Luke protested loudly as he looked down. "Oh." Vic showed him to a chair and helped him sit down as Luke dropped his head into his hands. "So last night… he… and then I… but we… Oh."
    Mitch handed him a glass of milk. "Sounds complicated."
    Vic tsked at Luke as he got a plate and began piling it high with food. "It was. He didn't heed me when I told him not to keep the gold coin. A leprechaun got to him."
    Luke's head shot up and he rushed to his room. He checked the nightstand, knowing he had put the coin there, right by his phone and his wallet, but when he didn't see it he very nearly trembled—until he caught sight of it on his backpack. He picked it up but almost dropped it with a yelp when his fingers met with warmth instead of the cool metal he was expecting.
    "Still have the coin, I see," Mitch said from the doorway. Luke turned to also see Vic with him.
    Vic walked forward and took the coin from his fingers before he could stop him. "Give that back, it's mine."
    The man