“I have no qualms about staying out of Harlipren,” he agreed.
I blinked at the ellyll. “Your lord and lady?”
“The ellyll of Harlipren are ruled by a pair of higher ellyll,” Tristan informed me.
The little ellyll nodded. “Yep, and they want to invite you to a feast in your honor!”
I sheepishly smiled and shook my head. “I-I didn’t do that much-”
“Of course you did!” the ellyll countered as fury replaced glee. “You saved the Harlipren from that nasty golem! Even if you were to save the rest of the world, we couldn’t think better of you for what you did!”
My face softened as I smiled at her. “Then we’d be glad to-”
“We refuse.” Tristan walked up to us and frowned down at the ellyll. “We thank the Lord and Lady for their kindness, but my apprentice would not be able to resist their temptations.”
“Temptations?” I repeated.
The ellyll flew above my shoulder and glared at Tristan. “My Lord and Lady do not ‘tempt’ anyone!”
“They would merely wish for us to remain for all eternity within their haven,” he retorted.
She crossed her arms over her chest and sneered at him. “Only one of you would be welcome, dierth.”
I looked from one to the other. “What about tempting? What’s going on?”
The little ellyll flitted up to my face and pecked a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll make sure you come, just you wait.” She flew off back into the woods.
I turned my attention to Tristan. His gaze lay on where the ellyll had gone, and there was unease in his expression. “Why didn’t you want us to go?”
He looked to me with pursed lips. “The lord and lady of Harlipren have a bad habit of keeping their guests indefinitely.”
I shook my head. “Indefinitely? You mean they wouldn’t let us leave? But why would they want us to stay? We’re not ellyll.”
“As athrylis we are considered like kin by some of the ellyll, though not all,” he explained. “Both of us are granted the ability to use the elfennau and we are both long-lived. Therefore, we are considered as children of the elfennau like they are.”
“Children?” I wondered as I watched an elfennau float by.
“Because we are granted their powers, the ellyll consider the elfennau to be the parents of us,” he revealed. “We are their children and so they grant us leave to use magic.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” I mused as I looked out toward Harlipren. “So the lord and lady would just want us to be together like a family?”
He nodded. “Yes, but we would be unable to return. Or rather, our forms would be so changed that we would no longer be welcomed in the mortal world.”
“Changed? Changed how?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “The change is different for everyone, but mortals who wander into the realm and were adopted by ellyll have been known to turn into centaurs and other partial woodland creatures.”
“But we didn’t change when we went in there last time,” I pointed out.
“So could we visit them?” I wondered. “Even for a little while?”
He nodded. “Yes. The risk is only if we remain.”
“I see. . .” I mused as I bowed my head.
Tristan studied me for a long while, and when he spoke his voice was soft. “Would you wish to see them?”
I shrugged. “A little, but not if I’m going to be stuck there and turn into some sort of were-turtle.”
He arched an eyebrow. “A were-turtle?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Never mind.”
“If the ellyll returns with a promise from the lord and lady not to keep us, we will reconsider,” Tristan suggested.
“I’d like that.”
Movement from the direction of the road made me look there. A young woman in a worn traveler’s cloak walked down the stone path toward the house. She was about eighteen with short bobbing brown hair, and she stood a little shorter than me. In her hands she held a small wooden box with strange wooden strands plastered over its surface. She looked left and right, and her teeth bit her lower lip.
I waved to her. “Hello there!”
The woman lifted her beautiful brown eyes to us. “H-hello.”
I walked over to her and Tristan followed behind me like a shadow. “Are you looking for someone.”
She nodded. “Y-yes. I’m looking for the dierth, Lord Cernunnos.”
I nodded at Tristan. “He’s Lord Cernunnos.”
She turned to him and bowed her head. “I’m sorry to intrude on you, My Lord, but my family and I are in urgent need of your help.”
“Help with what?” he asked her.
She hung her head and held out the box in her hands. “It’s. . .it’s this box. It’s cursed.”
Other series by M. Flynn
Contemporary Romance
Being Me
Billionaire Seeking Bride
The Family Business
Loving Places
Trapped In Temptation
Demon Romance
Ensnare: The Librarian's Lover
Ensnare: The Passenger's Pleasure
Incubus Among Us
Lovers of Legend
Office Duties
Sensual Sweets
Unnatural Lover
Dragon Romance
Blood Dragon
Dragon Bound
Dragon Dusk
Fated Touch
Maiden to the Dragon
Ghost Romance
Phantom Touch
Vampire Romance
Blood Thief
Blood Treasure
Vampire Dead-tective
Vampire Soul
Urban Fantasy
Death Touched
Werewolf Romance
Alpha Blood
Alpha Mated
Beast Billionaire
By My Light
Desired By the Wolf
Falling For A Wolf
Garden of the Wolf
Highland Moon
In the Loup
Luna Proxy
Marked By the Wolf
The Moon and the Stars
Moon Chosen
Moon Lovers
Scent of Scotland: Lord of Moray
Shadow of the Moon
Sweet & Sour
Wolf Lake