A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(21)

“What’s that?” she asked.

Rook looked at his feet and kicked a rock near his foot. “The truth is, you’re different from any other fairy I’ve ever met. You’re not all sparkles and bubbles, and you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty. I really like you and I’ve been thinking about you an awful lot since I saw you at the farm.”

Alex could feel her heart start to beat a little faster, but she ignored it, not wanting to get her hopes up. Where was he going with this?

“You can say no and I would understand, but I was wondering, would you like to take a walk or something with me sometime?” Rook said. He was scared to ask the question and terrified to hear her answer.

Alex stopped completely: She stopped breathing, she stopped thinking, and she was pretty sure her heart stopped beating. She forgot about everything on her mind—the Fairy Inaugural Ball, Jack and Goldilocks’s wedding, her name, who she was, where she was, and everything else important. All she could think about was the attractive boy in front of her, his floppy hair, his hazel eyes, and how he wanted to take a walk with her.

With every second that Alex stayed quiet, Rook’s face fell a little more into a frown.

“That’s all right, I understand,” Rook said. “You’re a fairy and I’m just a farmer’s son. I should have known better than even to have asked.”

He turned around and headed out of the field, muttering to himself how stupid he was.

“No, wait!” Alex barely regained control of her senses before it was too late. “I would love to go for a walk with you sometime.”

Rook jerked his whole body back toward her. “You would?” he said with a goofy grin. “Well, that’s… that’s… splendid!”

The two stood silently for a moment with giddy smiles frozen on their faces.

“When will you be free?” Rook asked.

“Is tomorrow evening good? Same place, same time?”

“That would be wonderful,” Rook said. “I’ll meet you in this field tomorrow.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Alex said.

“Enjoy the rest of your day—wait, what’s your name?”

“My name is Alex,” she said. “Alex Bailey.”

Rook was smiling from ear to ear. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex.” He jogged out of the forest with a confident jump in his step.

Alex finally understood what people meant when they said they had butterflies in their stomach. She felt a jittery tingling sensation sweep through her whole body as if a thousand butterflies were migrating inside of her. A huge smile appeared on her face.

Cornelius got to his feet and walked to Alex’s side. He blew a gust of air in her face and bared his teeth in a flirty smile.

“Oh stop it, Cornelius,” Alex said. “We’re just two people who have decided to go on a walk together, that’s all. It’s nothing more than that.”

Cornelius neighed; Alex wasn’t fooling anyone, especially herself. This was a much bigger deal than she wanted to admit.

“Oh my gosh, the wedding! We better get going or I’ll be late!” she said. “It’s crazy how fast time goes by when you’re—”

Cornelius batted his eyelashes and sighed, teasing her to no end.

“No, when you’re running late,” Alex said.

Alex climbed onto Cornelius’s back and the two headed west to the Dwarf Forests as the sun began to descend. Galloping across the land at Cornelius’s magically enhanced pace made the trip go by fairly quickly, and the thoughts percolating in Alex’s head made it seem that much faster.

After all the tribulations she and her brother had gone through in their young lives, until this moment Alex had never had any head space to think about boys. She’d always assumed one day she might meet someone and fall in love, but as she got older it never dawned on her that one day could be getting closer. And now she couldn’t help but ask herself if that moment had arrived already.

Was Alex at the beginning of her own classic love story or just entering a stage of adulthood? Was she about to experience romance for the first time in her life or just a mild case of puppy love? Did Alex even want to be invested in someone this early in her life or should she put all her energy into her fairy training?

She couldn’t believe how much excitement and mystery one boy had brought into her life so quickly. Was it too early to say she was enjoying this newfound excitement? Would it lead to more exciting experiences? Could Rook Robins be the love of her life or would there be other boys in her future? And if there would be others, did that mean Rook would break her heart?

Alex knew she of all people needed to protect herself. She had been working too hard to let a silly boy come in and ruin everything she had achieved. She couldn’t let him hurt her, distract her from her goals, and—most important—if things went askew she couldn’t let him turn her into something or someone she wasn’t: She couldn’t let anything turn her into Ezmia.

Since he had caused her head to spin in so many directions just by asking her to go on a walk, she realized how deeply a bad experience might affect her. The purer the heart, the easier it was to scar, and Alex’s heart was as pure as they came.

“Alex, get ahold of yourself,” she whispered under her breath. “Just because you’re a fourteen-year-old girl doesn’t mean you need to think like one. He just wants a walk, not marriage.”