But the real reason they were going back to their room was because Siobhan couldn’t wait any longer to hear about Lizzie’s latest encounter with the fairy-tale world. They sat down on Lizzie’s bed, backs against the headboard, while Lizzie repeated her conversation with Grey in as much detail as she could manage. Siobhan was a stickler for the finer points of a story and kept interrupting to ask how Grey had looked when he said a certain thing, or had he used just those words?

“But in the end he said he liked the tunes you dedicated to him?” Siobhan asked when Lizzie was done.

Lizzie nodded.

“I think maybe he likes you.”

“No, he doesn’t give off that kind of energy,” Lizzie said. “I mean, he’s about as sexy as you can imagine, but he’s also got this wall up about anything that doesn’t relate to his own people. I get the sense he’s very insular.”

“With a big hate-on for Irish fairies.”

Lizzie gave a glum nod. “Although I don’t think it’s just Irish fairies. I think it’s for any kind that aren’t native to this part of the world.”

“Even the Indians emigrated here at one point.”

“I know. But apparently Grey’s ancestors were already here when the Indians arrived.”

“If not Grey himself.”

Lizzie gave her cousin a surprised look. “Do you think?”

“Well, fairies are supposed to be immortal, aren’t they?”

“I guess.”

Lizzie hadn’t considered that. Grey looked so much like a regular person, it wasn’t until he did something impossible—starting up her car with a laying on of hands, stepping away into nowhere—that she’d remember he was this magical being. He wasn’t like Walker with his antlers and deer head, which left no question as to what he was.

“Still, if he has been around that long,” Siobhan said, “that’s a long time to carry a feud.”

Lizzie smiled. “Like the Irish aren’t any better.”

“We have excellent reasons for our feuds.”

“Judging by these bogans I had the run-in with,” Lizzie said, “I think he’s got a pretty good reason, too. They really were horrible.”

Siobhan shrugged. “That doesn’t mean all fairies are going to be like that. There’s always good and bad, and consider the source. Of course Grey is going to resent them. People always resent something new, especially when that something new is taking their land or their jobs or whatever. Remember Pappy’s stories about what it was like when his dad moved the family from Ireland? There’d be signs up that said ‘No Irish,’ just like there were for the blacks. And while maybe some of the Irish were hooligans, he wasn’t a bad person.”

“I suppose.”

“There’s just a period of adjustment.”