The Tales and Tellings of Hallows' Grove (MLM)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

                "Bring someone back?" Charlie frowned over his cup of tea. He sat beside Adele who gnawed worriedly at her nails, for Simon had yet to come back or answer any of her calls. She'd only been slightly reassured by Henry's promise that she and her brother were protected when away from him, and would only calm when told that Edward was sitting at her side.

Henry was grateful as the story he was about to share was, albeit short, very awkward to bring up in front of a lover. "About six years ago," he said, "a man came through Hallows' Grove. His name was Richard Clarke. He'd called himself a tradesman of magic, but he'd seemed no more than a handsome merchant to me."

"Handsome," Edward raised a brow. "That's some detail to remember."

"Yes, well," Henry looked down. "We . . . spent a night together. Oh, don't look at me like that, Edward, it was just for one night and I never even thought of him again until I'd read about that cloaking spell!"

"Your completely nonsensical relationship with a ghost aside," Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose. "What about this cloaking spell?"

"Well," Henry said with another glance at Edward, "Clarke had seemed convinced that faeries hid all around us, and that the only way to see one was if you were invisible from even their sight."

"That's ridiculous," said Charlie. "No one could hide from a faerie's eyes."

"Are there really faeries?" Adele gaped. "With glittering dresses and big butterfly wings that ring like bells when they fly?"

"Oh yes," Edward scoffed, "you should meet Mr. Cross. Suggest he wear a dress and you might just get your hand bitten off."

Henry grinned but did not repeat the joke. "Anyway, Clarke was raving on about topaz imbedded into the skin. All gemstones come from nature, and he said he'd been studying the effects and powers of various ones for years. Said he wanted to go into the forest and look for faeries."

Adele was on the edge of her seat, her nails forgotten, eyes wide. "Wow, and what did you do?"

Henry shrugged. "Not much, to be honest. I couldn't expose myself, and no matter how much I disliked the idea, I didn't get involved. But it reeked of dark magic. Real magic never asks you to harm yourself."

"And the man?"

"Never heard from him again," he said. "I just assumed the faeries had gotten him and weren't letting him go."

"You didn't go to save him?" Adele looked appalled, but it was Charlie who answered this time.

"We don't get involved in magical affairs or wars or anything to do with government," he said. "It's how we've stayed safe and sane for three hundred years."

"Besides," Henry said, "it turned out he wasn't made to dance for eternity because a week later, Vera was gushing about some magical merchant she'd seen off. That was really the first time she started coming to visit me at the shop every day. Before that, she'd been too shy to say two words to me."

"That didn't stir your suspicions?" Charlie raised a brow.

"Why would it?" said Henry. "He was clearly a flirt and he'd found someone else to tangle with before he'd left. He had a joie de vivre attitude, I suppose, and Vera never spoke of him again. There was no reason to think of him."

"Bad in the sack, was he?" Edward asked, and Henry ignored him.

"I still don't understand," said Adele, "why she would try to get closer to you, Henry. You're an Everwood, if there was any risk of anyone stopping her, it'd be you."