If I Know You

Chapter 4

Regardless of how poorly Jo thought of me after our first encounter, they certainly looked impressed upon seeing how quickly I scarfed down the food. Being seen a glutton was still better than being an inert lump; I would take it.

Once my stomach felt like a miniature boulder inside of me and the dishes were empty, Jo stood up and looked over the mess. A tiny smile hit the side of their mouth before they snapped their fingers.

When the plates vanished, they pumped their fist victoriously and said something about hating dishwashers. I was too distracted by the sound of my screaming heart. My last distraction from going and waking up Pippa was gone, resting in my belly.

Time for more love and wooing.

I groaned as I got to my feet. And when I was standing, I kept groaning.

"Hold up, I want to talk." Jo held their hand out to stop me. "We need to get on the same page here, and I need some coffee."

Another finger snap and a steaming mug appeared in their hands. "You want some?"

My blank stare didn't change shape. I didn't think I could physically fit another morsel of anything inside me without popping like a little boil. Even breathing was threatening to make me explode.

"What's your name?" Jo asked.

"Roran."

"So, Roro, you seem to be a little lost," they observed before taking a sip from their cup.

I nodded. Lost was one way to describe it. I was a day's ride from home, trapped in a giant stone circle that was covered in murderous creatures, sitting in a tower with a fairy and a woman in an eternal sleep that the gods said I had to marry. Nothing about this situation made sense in the least.

"You're not supposed to be here," I answered after a few seconds.

"Maybe not, but that tattoo on your chest summoned me back. That's the sign of the protector. When the Sun meets the symbol on the Day of Light – the summer solstice -- it brings together a protector and the one to be protected. And if you didn't know that when you got that tattoo, then bro, you just got pretty frickin' lucky."

I made a very strongly worded mental note to never get a tattoo from a book without reading the text again. With how this day had gone, it would be just my luck that the rose on my neck would accidentally summon a shadow-troll or something.

I shot them a skeptical look. "That doesn't make any sense to me. The fae don't help humans. They don't protect us. Everybody knows that."

"Now that's a lie. We're the guardians of the humans. That's our whole purpose. I lived here in this world for the beginning of my life, but we were cast out when I was younger, so I've spent most of my existence on Earth. How do you not know that?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Cast out? By who?"

"I don't know." They brushed their curls out of their face and shrugged. "We always assumed it was someone here who kicked all of us out. Some angry royal or wizard."

Jo's eyes made me believe they were genuinely clueless about everything, just like I was. They had no idea what had happened in this land. They didn't know about what had happened to the other fae.

I toyed with my lip ring, trying to find the best words to say. Speaking to others wasn't my strong suit, nor was delivering news like this, but better to be out with it. It was like getting pierced. Driving the needle in slowly never made it easier, only prolonged the pain.

"Jo, I don't think it was all of you," I said finally.

They frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe a few you went to that other realm, but there are still fae here. They've been here for hundreds of years. Doing evil stuff."