Fairy Gifts: A Between the Worlds Anthology Read online

  Fairy Gifts

  A Between the Worlds Anthology

  By Morgan Daimler

  All rights reserved. This book and contents may not be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems without permission in writing from Morgan Daimler. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination; any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, locations, or incidents are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2016 Morgan Daimler

  Novels in the Between the Worlds Series:

  Murder Between the Worlds

  Lost in Mist and Shadow

  Into the Twilight

  Heart of Thorns

  Non-fiction by Morgan Daimler:

  By Land, Sea, and Sky

  A Child’s Eye View of the Fairy Faith

  Where the Hawthorn Grows

  Pagan Portals Fairy Witchcraft

  Pagan Portals The Morrigan

  Pagan Portals Irish Paganism

  Pagan Portals Brighid

  Fairycraft

  Pagan Portals Gods and Goddesses of Ireland

  Contents

  Halloween Surprise

  1 – October 26th

  2 – October 27th

  3 - October 29th

  4 - October 31st

  …And a Turkey

  5 A.M.

  7 A.M.

  10 A.M.

  12:30 P.M.

  6 P.M.

  10 P.M.

  Do You Believe?

  Three Days Before the Solstice

  Two Days Before The Solstice

  The Eve of the Solstice

  The Solstice

  Halloween Surprise

  1 – October 26th

  “Wow, you really do go all out, don’t you?” Hannah said, her voice caught somewhere between amused and cynical as she surveyed the transformation consuming the front of the old Victorian. After an hour of effort the bushes in front of the house were covered in fine netting that gave the impression of webs and the grassy area in front of the living room’s big bay window had been turned into a mock cemetery with some resin tombstones and a fake wrought iron fence. It was really plastic of course but Allie thought it looked pretty realistic as long as you weren’t touching it.

  Before she could frame a reply to Hannah, Jason was answering for her, “You have no idea. Allie is a nut about the holidays.”

  Allie felt herself blushing at the gentle teasing and resisted the urge to smack his leg, looking up instead to make sure he was hanging the decorations the way she wanted them. After all she thought, only a little bit waspishly, if he’s going to lean off the ladder that far and risk breaking his arm again it better be worth it…Jason had only just gotten his arm out of the cast it had been in since he’d broken it the previous month in a car accident and although Allie appreciated the help decorating she didn’t want him to hurt himself again for the sake of some cloth ghosts and fake spider webs. Hannah was sitting on the steps watching the decorating process while she drank her morning coffee, and as tempting as it was to make use of the extra help, Allie wasn’t quite willing to draft the newest roommate for her project. Instead she said to Jason, “Maybe you should get down and let me do that…”

  “Absolutely not,” Jason said immediately, as Hannah made a disapproving noise in agreement.

  “Oh come on guys-“

  “No way Allie,” Jason said firmly, hooking another cloth ghost so that it hung down, fluttering against the side of the house in the slight breeze. “No heavy lifting and no heights.”

  She made an exasperated noise in protest, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re being ridiculous. I’m like barely six weeks pregnant and I’m not an invalid-“

  Jason cut her off before she could really get going, having already heard all of her arguments on the subject several times. “I know, I know, self-sufficient, blah blah blah-“

  “Hey!” Allie tried to cut back in as Hannah giggled into her coffee cup.

  Jason kept going, tossing his head to get his black hair out his face, the ladder teetering precariously, “But while you might be a kick ass modern woman full of self-righteous sass your fiancés are both really old fashioned about this kind of thing and I’m like 90% sure if you take a header off a ladder over Halloween decorations one or the other of them will horribly murder me for letting you do it.”

  Hannah was beside herself now, trying to smother hysterical laughter with one hand and keep her coffee from spilling with the other. Allie couldn’t stop herself from giving the other woman a dirty look, annoyed that the two were ganging up on her about this. Catching the look, Hannah quickly managed to swallow her laughter although her dark eyes still danced with it, and clearing her throat she said, “No offense Allie, because the decorations do look very, ah, festive, but I can’t imagine you guys get many trick-or-treaters out here so what’s the point?”

  Allie felt her cheeks heating up as she blushed, “Well, no we don’t. Get trick-or-treaters, I mean. And I realize it’s really late at this point with Halloween only a little more than a week away…but it’s been so hectic lately I kept forgetting to get the decorations up…and I always decorate for Halloween.”

  “Well, okay,” Hannah said, still bemused, “I can see the enthusiasm, that’s obvious. But I’m just wondering why? Why all the effort that no one but us will see?”

  Allie stammered, not sure how to explain and before she could find the right words Jason decided to answer for her again, “She just loves it because it’s her birthday.”

  “Jason!” Allie, snapped, even more embarrassed.

  Hannah’s expression transformed instantly from amused to excited. “Oh! It’s your birthday! And it’s a Friday this year…”

  Guessing the direction this was going in Allie started shaking her head before the other woman was done speaking, ignoring Jason’s wicked grin as he climbed down from the ladder. She spoke quickly into the pause at the end of Hannah’s final word, “No, really. I mean yes it is my birthday, but I don’t usually do anything for it. Not as my birthday I mean.”

  “No,” Jason snorted, walking over to drape his arm across Allie’s shoulders, his suspiciously good mood filtering through the energetic shields she used to protect herself from other people’s emotions. “You don’t celebrate your birthday, you just over celebrate Halloween which happens coincidently to be the same day.”

  She tried to shove him in the side, but he tightened his grip so that she couldn’t turn enough to get any leverage and he laughed. Hannah looked genuinely puzzled though. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you celebrate your birthday? Because it’s on a religious holiday?”

  Allie fought to keep from letting her annoyance show on her face, wishing that Jason hadn’t brought the subject up at all. “No it’s not that – although yeah it is a religious holiday for the witchcraft tradition I belong to and for the elves. Its just, well, this may sound kind of silly but elves don’t celebrate birthdays, and so I didn’t grow up celebrating it and when I moved here because it was on Halloween we ended up focusing more on that than on me.”

  “Elves don’t celebrate birthdays?” Hannah said, sounding as if that was one of the strangest things she’d ever heard, then quickly sipped her coffee, obviously embarrassed to have implied the cultural difference was wrong. That was one thing Allie especially liked about Hannah, the way she tried so hard not to judge people who did things differently from herself.

  “It’s oka
y, I know it seems odd to many people, many humans,” Allie said, embarrassed herself to have slipped and said people, as if elves weren’t people too. “But when you live for hundreds of years, usually at least two or three thousand, well, celebrating the day of your birth every year seems a bit silly I guess. So they don’t bother except for a few special ones.”

  “Really?” Jason was curious now, stepping away from Allie to pick up some more decorations as they talked. “Like which ones?”

  “Well, like your first birthday is a big deal. That’s when a child has their Naming Ceremony and is officially accepted into their mother’s clan. Usually anyway,” Allie said, suddenly wondering how that would work with her child and if he or she would be Named into Jess’s clan instead. Of course they will silly she chided herself moving over to a box of decorations and pulling out more fake webs and spiders to hang on the small trees in the front yard. I’d be surprised if they didn’t want the child in their clan even if it was a boy…ugh his mother will love that. She’ll get to plan everything and be the center of attention, since it’s her clan and not mine…

  “Allie?” Hannah’s voice snapped her back to reality and she realized her roommates had kept talking while she’d wandered off into her own thoughts.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, trying not to look too flaky. “I guess I got a bit distracted there. Did you ask me something?”

  “I said that makes sense, about them not celebrating birthdays,” Hannah repeated patiently. “But why don’t you now? Birthdays are a lot of fun. We could get a cake and do something small here if you don’t want a big party.”

  “Oh, I just,” Allie stammered, caught off guard. “I mean I don’t know. I don’t want to put anyone out-“

  Jason laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding! When has a party ever put anybody out?”

  Allie felt her cheeks flushing again, remembering years’ worth of failed attempts at parties when she was in school and a family that was too busy with the religious holiday after she’d moved in here to do more than get her a card and small gift. “Well, it is Halloween after all. People don’t want to go to a birthday party. They want to have good spooky Halloween fun or serious religious holiday fun.”

  Jason and Hannah exchanged a long look as Allie turned away to the closest tree and began strewing fake cobwebs over every branch she could reach. Jason joined her at the tree, adding large plastic spiders as Hannah drifted closer sipping her coffee. “But didn’t you ever want a party?”

  “Sure.” Allie said, shrugging. “When I was younger I wanted one because everyone else had parties, you know? But that was a long time ago, and now…I’m kind of old to start having birthday parties.”

  Her two roommates exchanged another long look and Jason said, “That’s it then we’re having a party.”

  “Jason-“

  “Nope,” he said, refusing to look at her. “My mind’s made up. We’re throwing you a birthday party. We’ll make it Halloween themed if that’s what you really want, and we’ll keep it small, but this year, you’re getting a party.”

  “But-“Allie tried again weakly to argue. Glancing over her shoulder Allie saw Bleidd’s car pulling up to the curb and was unexpectedly glad that Jason had volunteered to climb up on the ladder. As much as she’d argued about being willing to do it herself Jason was right that her two partners wouldn’t approve of her doing anything that might be dangerous, especially given her track record for random mishaps. At least this way she could honestly say Jason had been the one risking life and limb to get the decorations up on the house.

  “We’re definitely having a party,” Hannah agreed, backing Jason up. “Don’t resist the inevitable. Unless you want us to make it a surprise party? No, well good then. Don’t worry about anything, Jason and I will plan it all. And it will be super fun. You’ll have a great time.”

  “That’s…I mean…you guys don’t have to…” Allie stammered, feeling tears pricking her eyes. “It’s only five days away, don’t go crazy.”

  “Go crazy over what?” Bleidd asked, walking up behind her and sliding his arms easily around her waist.

  “Allie’s birthday – we’re throwing her a party,” Jason said quickly as Hannah nodded in support.

  “Truly?” Bleidd asked, his voice nonchalant, but his arms squeezing slightly. A moment later she heard him speaking directly into her mind, “Is this alright with you? Or should I help you put a stop to it?”

  She tried not to smile as they both gave half an ear to Jason and Hannah defending the party idea. After ten years of friendship prior to becoming romantically involved Bleidd did know her fairly well, well enough to immediately realize that she usually avoided any sort of party like the plague and had never in the time he’d known her had a birthday party for herself. Silently to him she replied, “Its okay. I guess any excuse for cake is fine with me at this point.”

  “…and we’ll keep it small but it’ll be fun,” Hannah was saying with obvious enthusiasm.

  “I’m sure it will be an interesting experience,” Bleidd agreed, “since Allie has never had a birthday party here before.”

  “Yeah, see its way past time then,” Jason said, tossing a spider up at the tree where it somehow caught and hung on a branch just above where the webbing started.

  Allie felt her eyebrows going up in appreciation. “You couldn’t do that again if you tried.”

  “Well since that was our last fake spider the world may never know,” he grinned back at her. “And since I’ve done my duty and you have your fake haunted graveyard and imitation mutant spiders taking over I’m going to put the ladder away then go watch some tv and relax.”

  “Thanks Jason, everything looks great,” Allie said, smiling at her friend. Jason smiled back, his feelings warm and relaxed.

  “No problem, it was actually kind of fun,” he said. “But there’s a horror movie marathon on – speaking of Halloween themed things – and since I’m off today my plan is to watch as much of it as humanly possible.”

  Allie rolled her eyes at her friend’s obsession with the kind of movie that she liked the least. “Ugh you and gory movies I swear.”

  “Hey I’m not the only one who likes them. Speaking of that, when Jess gets back let him know I’m in the den – tell him they’re playing all the Night Whisper movies – and he’s welcome to join me,” Jason said, turning and heading towards the house.

  Bleidd chuckled low in her ear as she sighed. “Sure I’ll tell him but don’t expect me to join you guys. Slasher films are not my speed. I’m more the Halloween Heroes type,” Allie said referring to a comedic movie about children who magically became the things they were dressed as and saved Halloween.

  Bleidd hugged her against his body, his feelings gentle, “This is an impressive amount of work for such a short time.”

  Hannah bounced on the balls of her feet a couple times, her hair bouncing with her, looking thoughtful. “It does look pretty good. I think I’m going to go get more coffee and start making a list of party ideas, if you want to join me in the kitchen we can talk cake flavors?”

  “Oh you don’t need to make lists or anything,” Allie said. “Simple and easy, really.”

  “Lists are in my nature,” Hannah said smiling, “if I don’t write it down I’ll forget, so I stay organized with lots of lists. It keeps me sane. And even simple parties need some basics.”

  “I’m afraid I won’t be much use with planning,” Allie mumbled, still worried that she was somehow putting everyone out, despite the birthday party being their idea. “I…well, this may sound silly but I’ve never actually planned a party before. I wouldn’t know where to start...although I do think I might have a book at the store…”

  Hannah laughed, already turning to walk into the house. “Don’t worry so much. I love this kind of thing and if Jason likes baking as much as he likes cooking we’ll be all set. All I need from you is some rough ideas for what you’d enjoy food-wise and what your idea of a fun party is. Then leave it up
to us. It’ll be awesome.”

  “That’s…that’s really nice of you Hannah,” Allie said, truly touched. She’d only known Hannah for a little over a month and she hadn’t expected the newest roommate to go out of her way to do something like this for her, although she knew that Hannah was a genuinely nice person.

  Bleidd had turned his head to watch as Jason took the ladder down and started carrying it back around the house and Allie shifted slightly, expecting an accusation. “I wasn’t the one up on the ladder, I swear. Jason did all the climbing-“

  She was stopped by the laugh that vibrated through his chest. “Relax Allie, I might have suspected you of taking such a risk if you were alone but I trust Jason not to stand by and watch. He’s familiar enough with your history of tripping over curbs and empty air to know that the idea of you on a ladder is certain disaster.”

  “Hmph,” Allie murmured disagreeably as he turned her around gently so that they were facing each other. “I think he would have let me if he wasn’t so worried about you or Jess killing him if anything happened to me.”

  Bleidd laughed again, kissing her softly, “He’s a wise man.”

  She sighed and tried to look put out but it was hard not to smile as his good mood washed over her. Although she’d gotten much more control over her empathy in the last few months when it came to her two bondmates she still struggled to block their feelings especially when physical contact was involved. “Whatever,” she mumbled, stepping away and grabbing a now empty decoration box. “So what are you up to today?”

  “It’s Sunday so nothing,” he said, moving to pick up the other empty box; together they walked into the house. He slowed and shortened his long stride to match her uneven limping one. “Though perhaps I should go out and find you a gift.”

  “You don’t need to get me a gift,” she said, suddenly uncomfortable again. It had been years since she’d gotten more than a store bought card for her birthday. “I mean I appreciate the thought but I’m turning 38 not 8, I don’t expect anybody to go crazy over my birthday.”