IT TOOK US ALL day to hunt down and destroy three swarms. The fuel almost ran out, so we had to return. Ricci had told us he could bring some gas from his car and then go to the nearest gas station to refill. This was a much easier weapon to recharge than all those guns we had.

How much did it count, though? I went over the numbers again and again. We had killed twenty-four hundred fairies. If Lord Dralik brought them in a season ago, he would’ve had to bring thousands for them to grow to such numbers. It didn’t make sense.

“Would radiation make them reproduce faster?”

Ricci, Jill, and Seth shook their heads in unison.

“Radiation can do the exact opposite,” Jill said. “We use it in medicine sometimes, and we always have to be careful not to let it near the reproductive system because it can make you sterile.”

“Do they have a queen? Maybe Lord Dralik shipped a whole bunch of queens over?” Seth asked.

I shook my head at that. “No, about two-thirds of them are female.” I had checked all the bodies before we had burned them. So many of them were pregnant when we killed them, but what choice did we have? We couldn’t let them destroy this continent.

“I’d say we need to start hunting them in a few teams, but we can’t do it without someone to hold the shield, and we only have one Nasi.” Ricci picked at the baked potato. “We need to kill them already. Not having meat sucks.”

“We’ll keep doing it every day to at least stop them from spreading too much.” Jill stared into her steaming mug of coffee. At least we had milk, although without pastures, keeping cows had become increasingly difficult. If things didn’t change soon, we might have to slaughter them and rely on the less picky goats. “Ricci and I will take turns going back to our world to get gas. We can do this.”

“Come on, beautiful, it’s time you got some sleep, and maybe you’ll figure something out in the morning,” Seth said as his hand squeezed mine for comfort.

He was right. The long day had exhausted all of us. Even though I had found many ways to do the same or even greater magic using a lot less energy, casting shields all day exhausted me.

Seth and I got up, but before we could get much further from the table, Misavan stepped up and bowed his head. The pink and green hair had faded to a much duller color now, and his nails had turned pink since he had stopped using mulberries to dye them.

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“Forgive me, Nasilain, I have not had the chance to thank you properly for saving my life.” He gave Seth a nervous look. “I owe you everything. Thank you for believing such an imperfect creature as myself could have hope of redemption and a chance to see the glorious future you and your people bring.”

Last time I checked, I had almost killed him. “That’s alright. We all make mistakes. Even though none of us is perfect, we can achieve greatness by building a society that forgives and moves forward.”

Seth smirked but didn’t say a word.

Misavan bowed again. “Thank you for letting me be a part of it.” Then he came to the table where the rest of our group still sat and began thanking them too.

Our brainwashing worked a little too well to have Misavan change so quickly. Usually, it took at least a couple of weeks to get to this. Had it been that long? How long had we stayed in the other world?

Seth put his hand on my waist and walked with me back to the castle. More than a few heads turned at the unusual display of affection, but Seth was used to a different culture where people didn’t shy away even from kissing in public. Perhaps I should’ve been embarrassed by this, but after the conversation we had the night before, I was too happy to think of propriety.

As always, Seth opened the door for me, making me feel special, not at all like a common, nameless girl. If I gave myself to him, it would be different from anything Lord Dralik had done. If I could have a do-over, have my first time with Seth instead, I’d never regret it.

Feeling bold when we were alone in our room, I decided to broach the subject. “Seth, what is it usually like in your world when it’s the girl’s first time?”

He turned to face me, then stepped closer to wrap his arms around me, but instead of answering my question, he asked, “Was your first time with that Dralik asshole?”

I nodded, not wishing to even give voice to it.

“Was there anyone else after him?”

“No.” I put my head on his shoulder to hide my blush and discomfort.

He kissed my hair and hugged me tighter. “If you decide you wanna do it with me, let me know ahead of time. I’ll make sure it’s special.”

I forced the painful lump out of my throat. Why did Seth have to be so perfect?

“I want to,” I said. If he could make me feel this way by just hugging and kissing me, I wanted to know what the rest of it would be like. “I don’t know if we should go to your world for anything until the fairies are gone, so if you need something from there, maybe we shouldn’t.”

“I have an appointment in my world tomorrow morning. I don’t know what day it’ll be here. Maybe if you can set up landing bays in this room and in my house, we can move a few things. You’re right about my bed being more comfortable.”

I smiled into his shoulder. If he wanted to move his bed here, then he wanted to spend most of his time in this world. With me. Naturally, he would still have to go back a lot, but even if I don’t see him for over a week while he was at work, I would still have the rest of the time.