Forgetting about Beatrice, that was it.  Forgetting about Beatrice was crazy.

     Thanks to the enjoyment of hanging out with Ren, I’d completely forgotten about Beatrice after we’d left the café last night.  And I’d forgotten to be worried about her while I was in Ren’s company.  But now I’d just arrived at the café, about to go in the back door, when I felt her fingers around my throat and found myself lifted into the air, her cold eyes glaring at me.

     Yeah, just because she looked petite and delicate didn’t mean she wasn’t strong enough to hurtle me through a wall if she wanted.  I knew that better than most people.  Never underestimate how strong they are.

     “You,” she hissed, an actual hissing sound echoing in her words, “I see through you.  Jenny said you’re quiet but that’s not it, is it?  You just think you’re better than us.  You talk just fine when you want to, I saw it.”  Then her eyes narrowed, remembering something.  “And you’re keeping secrets of your own, aren’t you?”  Her fingers on my throat tightened and I felt her nails dig into my skin.

     I couldn’t answer even if I wanted to.  Her hand was cutting off my air and probably my blood flow, too, since I was starting to see dark spots dance in front of my eyes.

     But she didn’t seem to really want answers – and wouldn’t have believed whatever I said even if I had answered her – so it was probably just as well that I couldn’t speak.

     She shoved me against the wall, hard.  Hard enough I knew I would bruise and was a little afraid she may have fractured my scapula.  At least it was the one for the left shoulder, not my right.

     “You stay out of my way, do what I want, and I might let you live.  Understand?”

     Normally, here is where I’d nod or say whatever they want.

     This time it never got that far because the café’s back door suddenly opened and someone started to come out.  Just as abruptly, I found myself alone in the alley, gratefully gulping down air while trying to catch my balance.

     Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that some of the bricks she’d thrown me against were cracked.  Must have been a lot of force.

     “Riven?”

     Of all people, it had to be Honey.  Wait, maybe that was a good thing.  Beatrice would leave me alone while I was with Honey, right?  Maybe?

     Then Honey rushed towards me and I instinctively froze a moment before she threw her arms around me.  “Oh Riven, I’m so glad to see you!  I’ve been so worried!  You didn’t come in after that night and then Ren said something about you going job hunting?  I was afraid you’d disappear.  I didn’t mean to scare you – none of us did.  Please don’t leave, I promise it’ll be okay here.  Please?”

     I was still frozen with her hugging me tight, unable to answer in part because I discovered that while I was becoming okay with Ren touching me, I was not okay with anyone else doing so, including Honey.  Also she’d managed to press right against the spot where Beatrice had thrown me against the wall, so I wasn’t sure I could even get words out at the moment.

     Honey finally seemed to realize that hugging me might not have been the best choice.  “Oh, I’m so sorry, I forgot you might not be okay with that.”  She backed up a step, but was beaming at me so strongly I could feel it even while I wasn’t looking directly at her.  “Are you here to work?  Are you staying?”  She asked hopefully.

     I wondered if I could say anything successfully given how my throat felt after my encounter with Beatrice.  I decided not to risk it and just nodded.

     Honey squealed in delight, making me wince slightly.  “Yay!  I’m so glad, and now we can be friends too, I hope?  Maybe we can talk during break?  Ren said you’ve been hanging out a lot, he seems really fond of you.”  Chattering away, she half dragged me back inside as if she was afraid I’d disappear if she took her eyes off me.

     I didn’t speak much the entire day – which wasn’t exactly abnormal for me anyway – and kept my scarf on to hide the bruises I was pretty sure would be starting to paint my neck.  I could get away with that this time of year, as long as I wasn’t working in the kitchen, and thankfully today I just was making drinks so that was fine.

     Tomorrow I was back in the kitchen so I was going to have to figure out how to hide the bruises.  Maybe I should buy a turtleneck, but that cost money.  Experience had taught me how to use concealer, anyways – I’d had to come to work bruised many times before and always did my best to hide any signs of injury from Molly or anyone else.  I just didn’t want them to ask where the injuries came from and deal with any follow-up questions.

     It was best to keep it a secret.

     Strangely, the rest of the week was relatively quiet.  Beatrice overlapped shifts with me on Thursday and Friday but she seemed to be deliberately ignoring me, which I was honestly fine with.  Oddly enough, Honey worked the rest of the week with me, although I knew when I checked the schedule on Tuesday that she’d been scheduled for other shifts, so she must have changed them.  I wasn’t sure if it was for her own schedule or if it had something to do with me, but since she didn’t seem inclined to hurt me – at least for now – I decided to leave the issue alone.

     I was leaving the café Friday afternoon after my shift, grateful that Molly had randomly stopped by and I’d been able to ask her about the website since my assignment needed to get done soon – she was thrilled about the idea – when I spotted someone waiting for me outside.

     At least it was a good surprise visit this time.  Ren didn’t make me nervous anymore.  Well, that wasn’t entirely true.  I did feel a strange flutter when I saw him, maybe excitement?  But not the bad kind of nerves.  Like, even my mind wasn’t yelling at me anymore with warnings whenever I saw or interacted with him.  It was like my mind, heart, and body all had figured out he was safe.

     Wait, heart?  When did my heart get involved with this?  We were just…friends, kind of?  Getting there?  But surely the way my heart skipped a beat when it spotted him was just excitement about seeing a friendly face.  Nothing else.  It couldn’t be anything else, I’d only started actually talking to him a week ago.

     When I got closer, I could see Ren was agitated, which surprised me.  Apart from when I’d first met him and he’d been scared and exhausted, Ren usually seemed so calm and happy, but now he was almost pacing and when he spotted me, his expression didn’t change.

     I came almost within arm’s reach before stopping, planning to ask him what was wrong if I could get my voice to work properly.

     I wasn’t given the chance.  Ren took a step forward, reached out, and slid his fingers under my scarf, along my throat, until the dark bruises were fully visible.

     I had frozen the moment he touched me, not sure where this was going.

     Ren sighed deeply then took my face in his hands and made me look at him.  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

     I stumbled through several things in my head.  “Well, for one, this is the first time I’ve seen you since this happened, and second,” I paused.  I almost blurted out that I wasn’t used to asking people for help, wasn’t used to there being an option for that.  But no, that was too embarrassing to say, so I went with something else.  “It’s not that big a deal.”

     He groaned, releasing my face, and started massaging his temples with one hand.  “Not that big – okay I’ll give you the first one, but not the second.  It is a big deal.  You could have been seriously injured or even killed.  It’s a good thing Honey – ”  And then he shut up, but the damage was already done.

     Honey?  Honey…Honey must have done something.  Honey had come outside right after this happened, it was possible she’d heard something and that was why she’d come out.  I also wasn’t sure what supernaturals saw – or smelled?  Sensed?  Whatever?  – so Honey may have realized what happened and just never said anything since I didn’t.

     But I needed to know.  I reached out and briefly touched his shoulder until he looked at me again.  “What does Honey have to do with this?  Did she do something?”

     He bit his lip, apparently reluctant to answer, but did so anyway.  “She realized something happened and saw enough traces to figure out who it was.  She had a, uh, word with Bianca and basically threatened her.  Like I said, fae can be scary if we want, plus most naga don’t like to get involved with us much since we tend to have closely knit families while naga often live alone unless it’s wartime – basically just means if you get involved with one fairy, you’re gonna have a bunch more show up on your doorstep, too, which isn’t a smart move unless you can handle them all.  And she can’t.”

     “Beatrice,” I corrected automatically.  I couldn’t picture Honey threatening Beatrice at all.  Like, I knew Honey was dangerous because she was one of them, but I still couldn’t picture it.  She was so nice to everyone and sweet and she’d never let on at all to me that she’d realized something had happened and had done something about it.  Maybe she didn’t feel like she could say anything since I hadn’t said anything?  Maybe that was also why her shifts had suddenly changed to correspond to mine?  Had Honey been trying to look out for me?

     “Whatever.”  Ren shrugged, clearly not caring one bit about whether he’d misnamed my attacker.  “Point is, she should leave you alone now.  I’d feel happier if she just left the café, though.  You know if you reported her to your boss, she’d fire her, right?  Even without saying anything about what she is, just that she attacked you?”

     I blanched.  “No, no, I don’t want to get anyone into trouble.”

     He groaned again.  “You’re too nice for your own good,” he grumbled.  “This is the perfect time to get someone in trouble.”

     I shook my head, adamant.  “It’s just some bruises.  It’ll heal in a few days.”

     He frowned at me, crossing his arms.  “So, if it was more serious, would you say something then?”

     I opened my mouth, couldn’t find the right words, and shut it again.

     “That’s what I thought.”  Ren nodded, more to himself, then reached out his hand much more gently again and laid it on my shoulder.  “But that’s not okay, Riven.  If someone hurts you, you need to say something.  If not to your boss, to me, at least.  Or Honey.  But please don’t let people hurt you and get away with it.  Please.”

     His tone was begging, but I didn’t dare look in his face now.  I couldn’t promise him what he wanted – I didn’t know if I’d ever be comfortable running to someone for help like he wanted.  It had been so long since anyone had even tried to help me, it was hard not to feel like it would be a trap if I asked for help.  Like it wouldn’t just turn into something worse.  Like whomever I reported wouldn’t just wait until I was alone and make me pay for saying something.  It just all sounded like a bad idea.

     He squeezed my shoulder lightly, trying to get my attention.  “I don’t want to push you before you’re ready, but if you’d accept my offer of protection, it would also prevent stuff like this from happening again.”

     I shook my head automatically.  “I don’t know yet,” I told him.  I didn’t.  I mean, I wanted to believe him, wanted to accept his offer, but it still seemed far too good to be true.  I was trying to just let myself enjoy whatever was going on with us for however long it lasted, but it sounded like protection was some sort of contract and I didn’t know if it was permanent.

     This probably was the perfect time to ask him that, ask him any questions I had about this whole protection thing, like how long did it last, could it be ended if I wanted, what did it mean to other supernaturals, what would they see when they looked at me if I was protected, how did it work, were there any side effects, how did it affect him?  And most importantly – what was the catch?

     But I didn’t ask him any of the questions bubbling in my head, just stood there awkwardly, scuffing my toes against the ground as I thought of an even more important question that I really did need answered.

     “Are you mad at me?”  I finally blurted out.

     “No, no I’m not mad, just frustrated.”  He dropped his hand from my shoulder.  “Not at you, more like at this whole situation.  Okay I am mad at Bianca – Beatrice – whatever her name is, but not you.  I’d never be mad at you.”

     I glanced up at him just in time to see a brief – but a little sad – smile cross his face.  Then he shook himself slightly, reached out his hand again, and gently touched my neck the same way he had at first, his thumb resting close to my collarbone and his fingers ever so lightly circling around and pressing against the back of my neck.

     Then I felt that warm sparkle again, the one which I’d learned to identify with fairy magic.  I couldn’t see the golden glow, but I could almost feel it as it seeped into my skin and suddenly the ache in my neck and throat eased and then completely disappeared.

     My expression must have been something weird because Ren laughed a little as he removed his hand.

     “Healing magic,” he explained.  “One of the things us fairies are good at.  And another reason to tell me or Honey if something happens – we can help you heal, too.”

     I got the impression he was going to keep bugging me until I promised to come to him if something happened, but I could be stubborn, too.

     But even if I was stubborn, I was still polite.  “Thank you.”  I meant it.  The bruises Beatrice gave me weren’t really that big of a deal, but not having to worry about hiding them anymore was a relief.