Never (Never, #1) (32)

She chimes again and zooms away.

“There.” Peter shrugs. “Problem solved. The fairies will make you a bathers.”

I give him a look. “If you’d told me, I could have just brought my own and saved them the time.”

He swipes his hand through the air and yawns.

Right as breakfast is finishing up, Rune zooms back in and drops a bikini made of tightly woven together daisy chains.

“Oh my goodness!” I stare down at it. “It’s so beautiful.”

She chimes.

“Will it fall apart?” I hold it delicately in my hands.

She shakes her tiny, gorgeous head, because I’ve misunderstood.

“Oh!” I blink, delighted. “It’s spelled!”

And she tinkles again.

“Yeah!” Brodie nods, agreeing with her. “Put it on.”

Peter gives Brodie a cross look, but it only lasts for a second, because down a slide I didn’t even know was there slides Calla, and I frown immediately.

Rye tumbles down a second after her and gives me a little wave.

Calla straightens herself up, standing tall, brushing the dirt from her hands, and when I tell you that she’s beautiful, I want you to imagine with me a dark-skinned Raquel Welch. There’s a film that came out last December, maybe you’ve heard of it? One Million Years B.C. She’s on the poster in a fur bikini? Well, that’s essentially what Calla is wearing, and she looks every bit as gorgeous as Raquel Welch.

Rune lets out a sigh.

I glance down at myself—at the same little frilly, baby-doll shortie pyjamas I arrived in. White.* My favourite pair, and I used to think I looked quite pretty in them until bloody Raquel bloody Welch appeared.

Peter’s staring over at her, almost like he’s unsure of what to do, like it’s too much—too much hotness—and she knows it. She knows she’s beautiful; you can’t be that beautiful and not know it, and I know she knows she’s beautiful because she’s wielding it around in front of me like a terrible weapon that she knows might be the end of me.

Kinley nudges me with his arm and tugs me down by the hair so as to whisper to me. “Perhaps you should change now.”

I leave the room—not that anyone notices except for Rune, who comes with me.

I’m happy to take off my clothes though. I haven’t really since I got here.

I think I’ve showered?? Showering seems like the sort of thing one might forget about doing here.

Daily to-dos are done here, but they’re not oft remembered.

The things I’ve noticed I’m able to recall are the way things make me feel if I feel them with enough gravitas.

I try to remember when I last showered and if I just put back on my old pyjamas afterwards—I suppose I must have? I brought nothing else with me, and Peter’s honestly done a rather terrible job of living up to what he said about being all I need.?

Nevertheless, I put on the fairy bikini, and Rune ties the daisies off at the neck and flits around excited, clapping her hands.

There’s no mirror here, so I can’t see how I look, but I try to peer down at myself.

“It fits like a glove,” I tell her.

She shrugs. It’s magic, she tells me, and then she kicks me back out towards them.

“Whoa!” Percival yells dramatically when I walk back in.

Rye pulls back, blinking, surprised. Calla rolls her eyes and looks away, but Peter—his mouth falls open ever so slightly, and then he swallows heavy. He says nothing, but his face has gone serious, and I can’t decide whether it’s a wonderful feeling or a horrible one, being stared at like this. Somewhere in between maybe.

“Should we go?” Rye asks a bit uncomfortably.

I nod eagerly before I turn to Rune.

“Thank you,” I tell her, and in turn, she claps her tiny hands, and a rose petal appears. She swipes it across my cheeks, my nose, and then over my lips.

She jingles and gives me a wink.

I walk out into the woods, and Rye walks after me. “Are you trying to kill him?”

“Just trying to get a look in with your sister about.” I roll my eyes.

He rolls his eyes back. “You got a look in, all right.”

Peter and Calla walk out after us, and Peter’s still staring. We catch eyes, and he stares at his hands immediately.

I walk over to him, catching his eye again. “Are you okay?” I whisper.

“Fine.” He nods. “Yeah, of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

I shake my head a lot. “I don’t know. You just seem—”

“I’m kicked,” he tells me with a nod. He says it so unemotionally, just like it’s fact.

“Oh.” I nod once, trying not to float away with that. He sees it anyway, the delight in my eyes, and he squints at me playfully.

“Are you kicked?”

“Not yet.” I hold my chin in the air, and he frowns immediately. “Maybe when you take your shirt off.”

He grins at me and laughs before he takes a running leap and soars for a bit.

I turn to look at Calla, who’s just staring at me. Staring is the wrong word. It’s more of a scowl—a murderous, hateful scowl.

“I don’t feel like we’ve had a proper chance to meet. You’re the only other girl I’ve really seen here, besides Rune—that’s the fairy,” I clarify for her because she’s still just frowning at me. “And she’s a girl, of course, but she’s not a human girl, and you’re the first human girl I’ve seen, besides one in the village who’s actually—well, she’s sort of rude, so I’m glad to—” I shake my head nervously and give her a big, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I’m wafting—”