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silent hands and knees, hoping the closeness might provide insight.
    As I drew near he thrashed to the side, all but flinging himself from his little bed, and moaned regretfully as if his beloved had forsaken him. Ever so gently, I brushed my fingers against his arm.
    His eyes popped open.
    For a moment we spoke only in breaths, his sharp and ragged, mine hissing and long, as we searched, in our own ways, to bring our hearts relief. I was the first to part my lips, yet he was the first to speak.
    â€œWhat happened?” His eyes traveled the length of the bedchamber, and I realized that in his dreamy state, he believed I’d come to warn him of some danger.
    Nothing , I thought to myself, but the word caught in my throat and shied away from my lips. “You cried out,” I said, staring at the strands of hair that clung to his forehead. “I heard you.”
    â€œSorry,” he mumbled, turning away from me.
    â€œWhy?” I asked. His back was soaked with sweat, seeping through the fabric of his shirt, and I placed my hand upon it, to cool him.
    â€œFor waking you up,” he said.
    â€œIt seems I have returned the favor. But I require little sleep.”
    â€œOkay … ” He twisted around to look at me.
    I couldn’t help but wonder, berating myself all the while, what would happen if I let the glamour slip for a moment. Would he be able to see? It wasn’t a terribly disturbing thought. The disingenuous nature of my disguise would cause any faerie unease. Sure, we were tricksters, but playing a human for this duration was a flat-out lie. And yet my desire to be revealed ran deeper than this. I wanted to show myself to him , specifically. It was a desire originating not from my body but from my spirit, and it went ricocheting through me, igniting my heart, my mind, everything.
    All my life, I had been warned of faeries who lost their minds in the wasteland. Is that what was happening to me now?
    â€œI didn’t mean to wake you,” I said. “I know you have trouble falling asleep.”
    â€œYou’ve been watching me?”
    â€œNo more intently than you watch me.” The rogue words defied my guarded lips.
    Bad faerie .
    â€œSorry.”
    The sincerity in his voice surprised me. So much of what the Dark Court said about humans seemed untrue of this one. Perhaps I was not losing my mind. Perhaps I was simply reacting to him empathetically, the way I did with so many earthly creatures. For a moment I missed my train of ravens, flying around my head like a dark veil. Even my mother’s wolves could be sweet, and playful, when the Dark Lady’s moods did not make them surly.
    â€œI should be the one who is sorry,” I said. “You’ve done much to help me feel comfortable here. Isn’t there some little thing I can do for you?”
    Clever girl, limiting the terms of the bargain.
    After all, he had been content to offer me room and board for nothing. I was the one who had promised him his heart’s greatest desire. Why had I done that? The words had just slipped past my lips, as if I w ere possessed.
    Or under a spell .
    Did humans have a magic all their own?
    Taylor was watching me. His hair had fallen into his eyes. I had a sudden vision of him dancing in the moonlight, his body adorned in leaves and vines: the ritual for a faerie child entering into maturity. “Remember what I said to you at the park?” he asked. “About wanting you to be safe?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThat wasn’t the whole story.”
    My breath caught in my throat. Here, he would divulge his true intentions. Here, I would be proven right about humanity.
    But he did not look evil in the darkness. He looked broken . “I moved out of my parents’ house over a year ago.”
    â€œAny particular reason?”
    â€œIt’s just better this way,” he said quickly, hiding his bitterness. Three days and I was already learning his