hours?
“Princess,” I offered with a cautious look.
Her eyes closed as she yawned, her soft pink lips making a cute shape before she sat up still looking at me. I had no idea what to say to her now, considering I was pretty certain she knew I’d killed someone. I inhaled thinking about how furious I’d been when I heard her scream. Small and panicked.
This was why I had stayed on her property despite being told to leave and why my brothers had stayed so close for all these years. You never fucking knew what these assholes would pull. I had to give my brothers this, how they had convinced Denise that they were no threats was beyond me. I think that she was so caught on in her own bullshit, she couldn’t see the truth right in front of her.
“So,” she leaned into me, “you aren’t imaginary, which means last night…”
“Happened,” I whispered against her temple, my large arms surrounding her.
“Thank you.” She swallowed, looking up at me with large eyes, a streak of trust in them that I hadn’t expected, and vulnerability.
“You don’t need to thank me for killing some asshole that tried to hurt you, ever,” I mumbled as she relaxed into me.
“Wait,” she sat up, “do you need help burying the body and shit? I didn’t even think about that, I mean I don’t know a lot of great…”
I pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth as her rambling cut off and she melted against me. I had honestly meant it as a fairly innocent gesture, but she turned her head slightly molding our lips together in a way that had me letting out a low rumble from my throat. Her spring rain scent surrounded me as I groaned, her tongue sneaking out to trace my bottom lip. Hell. Ophelia was absolutely dangerous to my sanity. I pulled back with a small grin, cocky because of the kiss, and her flushed cheeks but also because the woman had just offered to help me bury the bodies.
Maybe she was a bit crazier than I assumed. Breathing in she sagged against me. I ran a thumb over her soft bottom lip as her darkened eyes kept on mine, looking through my very soul.
“Why does this feel…”
“So natural?” I offered as she smiled. Apparently, she thought finishing her sentences was cute.
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Well, I think it may be easier to explain to you about fae first, do you want to wait until later or are you awake enough now?”
Her eyes moved over to the bed but then she curled further into me with an expectant look. So I began talking and the information easily came out, recited practically in my head. I kept the details regarding her absence but explaining what Underside was… well, that was easy.
“Where I come from,” I start, almost saying ‘we’ instead of I, “Earth is called Topside. So the part of Earth that you’ve seen on maps from the time you were in primary school, that is Topside. Within the United States, there is a ‘gate’ of sorts that leads to Underside. You can think about it as if the world was turned upside down. So the continents are the same, but the entire realm is filled with…well people like us.
“That’s not to say Topside is absent of supernaturals, obviously, but at one point it would have been more of a vacation spot.” I didn’t include that humans have and will always be oblivious to this because it’s pretty obvious they’d yet to see the truth. How they hadn’t fully caught on yet was beyond me.
“The explored world of Underside consists of the Americas. While we know that obviously more exists, no one has traveled into the dark lands, well, no one has returned back to report about the dark lands.”
“Ominous sounding,” she mumbled.
“Very,” I sighed, “but we can talk about that at a different time. Underside has a fair share of its own problems that have resulted in where we are today…with the gate being closed.” I continued silencing her curious looks because if I started with questions we would never get through this. “Fiefdom is the capital city of Underside, think of it as your Washington D.C. but it is…well, right below us, if that helps you think about it in easier terms? It is geographically in the same spot we are, but in that realm.”
“Okay.” She nodded, her fingers twitching as she circled a spot on her leg absently,