Jayce frowned. “It felt like a gust or . . . maybe the edge gave . . .” He shook his head and proceeded to do what mortals typically did when confronted with the impossible: he created plausible explanations. Then, he added, “It doesn’t matter.”

One of the faeries waved at Rika, and she tensed. Jayce’s back was to them; all of his attention was fixed on her. There had been days during which she was invisibly at his side and wanted this very thing, but now that he was looking so intently at her, she wanted to flee. Behind him, the faeries watched too attentively, not actively threatening her or the humans but observing everything so carefully. It had been selfish of her to let on that she cared for the mortals; she saw that now.

And it was selfish of Keenan to come here.

It didn’t matter though. Solitary faeries could not strike a king, but they could strike her or the humans. As calmly as she was able, she told Jayce, “I’m not angry; I’m not hurt. I just need to go.”

“Let me give you a ride. We can get you checked out. . . . I fell on you.” Jayce was trying to comfort her, even though he was the one bleeding and injured. Much like he cared for meandering tortoises or wounded birds, he tried to nurture her too. “Please wait?” he asked.

The gentle tone in his voice made it impossible to resist. He was injured because of her attention, and even though she feared that her presence there beside him would make it worse, she couldn’t refuse the plea in his voice. She took a step toward him, but almost faltered when he smiled at her. Seeing that smile actually directed at her was more heart-stopping than she could’ve imagined.

Quickly, she forced her gaze downward, but then blanched at the sight of his injury. He was ignoring it because he was more concerned with her well-being, but she couldn’t tell him that she was completely uninjured, that it would take far more than catching a falling boy to hurt her. Instead she said, “I’ll wait if you bind that. Sit down.”

“What’s your name?” He was still standing, as if he was unsure whether she’d dart away or not. “I’m Jayce.”

“Rika,” she said as she walked over to collect the rucksack that Del had tossed down.

Several of the fairies on the cliff scrabbled down; others stayed at the edge, kicking their feet in the air. Maili had apparently joined them on the cliff while Rika’s attention was on Jayce.

“What do you think he’d do if he saw us?” Maili taunted. “What if he knew what you were?”

A few of the faeries pelted Rika with rocks, mostly small, but a few larger stones were tossed at her.