"Hey Ash, can you tell me if my wing looks better?"

The vampire stared at her blankly. "How exactly am I supposed to do that?"

"It should be mostly healed by now so if everything is as it should be the tear will look like nothing more than a faint gray line," Ruby told him before removing the glamour from her wings so they were visible.

Ash examined it very closely for a moment before responding hesitantly. "…I think it's fine. Can you move it?"

She gave her wings a few experimental flaps. It didn't hurt anymore, which was a good sign. She had been using her feet to walk instead of hover all this time and they ached from overuse. Testing whether or not she could hover again would be a good idea.

Ruby fluttered her wings so lightly that she barely left the ground. That didn't hurt either. Finally! The pressure on her feet from actually having to walk had been terrible. Walking in midair involved moving her feet but not bearing her body weight up so it was much more natural.

Ash looked at her with a glimmer of curiosity in his dull red eyes. "…are you doing anything?"

"I'm hovering," she admitted sheepishly. "It's a fairy cheat. We all do it. Our feet are close enough to the ground that humans don't notice. You have no idea how hard it's been for me to actually walk the past couple of weeks!"

"Walking is difficult for you?"

"Yes! Wings are a lot stronger than feet and can bear our body weight better. But I suppose you wouldn't understand that because feet are all you've got."

Ash let out a short laugh. "Feet are all I've got, huh? Fairies truly are fascinating creatures. I regret not learning more about them earlier."

Ruby was pretty sure that was a compliment. Even if it wasn't, she would let it slide for now. "I can hover again but I shouldn't push it. I need at least a few more days before I try flying any higher than that. Do you mind?"

He shook his head. "Not at all. I wouldn't want to rush your healing process and hinder it in any way. You should go get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright. Goodnight, Ash."

"Sleep well."

Ruby smiled to herself as she headed back to the bedroom, reminded of something. The first time she said goodnight to him he had been so shocked. That wasn't something that vampires said to each other.

Because they were nocturnal, "good day" was the vampire equivalent of "goodnight" and "good evening" meant the same thing as "good morning." He had been so weirded out by this language difference that he had been responding to her parting words with "sleep well" ever since.

Ash didn't know what a lot of human objects were but the way he spoke was fairly modern most of the time. He must have picked things up from the witch covens where he got his blood pills.

As Ruby got into bed, her last conscious thought was that he wasn't what she had expected a vampire to be.

===

Her wing finally healed enough to fly normally two days before the last of the furniture was set to arrive. They decided to wait until then to head out so they could accept the delivery first.

Ash gently removed the spider silk from her wing and she was so happy to have full function again that she did a backflip midair. He grinned in genuine delight at the spectacle.

"Ooh, what else can you do? Show me!"

Ruby was in a good mood so she indulged him by doing an aerial acrobatics show for a few minutes. Exhilarated from her flight, she beamed and gave a dramatic bow about a foot off the ground. He applauded her rather enthusiastically and she briefly wondered where he had learned to do that.

"Thank you, thank you," she said loftily before laughing at herself. The only other person she really got this silly with was Flora.

"Do you still want to test how high you can go?" Ash asked, eager to see more flying.

She had ordered the measurement device she would need over a week ago online with two-day s.h.i.+pping so everything was ready to go. "Sure! Let me go get what I need. Be right back!"

Ruby opened the door that led out to the garden and zipped through the castle at top speed. It was so wonderful being able to fly properly again! Being grounded made her feel like she was missing a limb.

She zoomed back outside and screeched to a halt midair in front of Ash with a bright smile on her face. "Alright, are you ready to watch me disappear?"

He put on a pair of sungla.s.ses so he could look up without feeling dizzy and wore a bandanna over the rest of his face so no skin was exposed under the hood of his cloak. She had bought both of those things for him during one of her trips into town.

Ash gave her a thumbs up—she had taught him what that meant a few days ago—and she shot straight up into the sky. The feeling of the wind in her hair and the fresh air in her lungs was wonderful.

After a while her ascent slowed a bit. If she went too high too fast she might give herself vertigo.

Once Ruby was far above the redwood trees she felt herself relax. It had been ages since she let her glamour slip completely. It wouldn't hurt up here where n.o.body could see her, would it?

She didn't have a mirror so she couldn't tell what had changed today other than parts of her skin and hair that she could see but that didn't matter. She felt completely free up here with no judging eyes.

She continued drifting lazily upward, enjoying the journey as the world beneath her grew smaller and smaller. The trees were all a greenish blur now. The nearby mountains were below her too.

According to the meter in her hands, Ruby had pa.s.sed 10,000 ft and was still perfectly fine. As she continued on she began feeling a bit lightheaded but she didn't run out of oxygen and have to stop until she reached 12,362 ft.