Chapter 20

• Wilder turned off the TV and sat in his dark living room. There was no reason to leave it. The Melodycle that happened in the spring was no longer talked about, but he knew Siam was recovering well. Nobody mentioned him in the news stories, just the young woman who woke from a coma after two decades. It was enough to see her awake and know every part of his life was resolved. He hadn’t left his house at any point since the night the fairies left. There was no writing, cooking, or anything, but he kept Fergus on to make sure the fairies were taken care of.
• As far as Wilder was concerned, he was done and waiting for the end, however long that took, and he sunk into a far deeper depression than he had ever endured before. His mother worried about him, so he put on a show for her that he was fine and happy when she came around, but when she wasn’t there, he barely moved from his favored chair in the living room.
• He ate while his mother visited, but had no appetite in between, wishing his misery to end as images of that beautiful fairy filled his thoughts. In only a few days, she did her damage to him, and it wasn’t her fault. Knowing the only woman who might have ever loved him was entirely out of his reach did it. He drove her crazy? She had no idea what she did to him.