by Zoe Parker
Suddenly he stops and turns to me. Oh yeah, the mind reading thing.
“I made you strong,” he says, then without another word he turns and continues walking.
He isn’t wrong. His training did make me strong. His words no matter how harsh made me strive to be more so, but I’ll be damned if I let him take all the credit. I made myself strong too.
Physically, I can hold my own in a fight—thanks mostly to Ciar— with most creatures. I’m not powerful—at all—magic wise, but I have a little at my disposal. Enough to do simple things, move something or shut/open a door. Honestly, I don’t want more. Magic means attention, strong magic means a lot of attention and Awakening means that everyone will be looking at me and whoever my unfortunate Triad is and, I don’t want that. I don’t want to Awaken and have a Triad and all the wahoo that goes with it.
I’m fine without any of that mess. Staring at the dark hair of the man in front of me makes me think maybe not totally fine. If he were in my Triad I might not be so upset about having one. Not that I’m completely upset as it is.
What the heck, Keri? Inner me yells at the other inner me.
What’s so different now than two days ago when I was calling him every name in the book and laughing at his dislike of me? Why now? Have I ever been attracted to him before? I search deep within myself looking for the true answer not the one I want to lie to myself with.
Yes, I did start feeling attracted to him but it’s a very recent thing. Up until the last few minutes it was the idea of him versus the physical him. I eye the butt in front of me. That’s apparently not the case anymore. I’m definitely attracted to the physical him.
It isn’t like I’m a virgin or ignorant about sex. I’m Fae, sex is big part of our lives. Heck, I’ve been having sex since I was sixteen. Not a lot but enough to have a relatively broad knowledge of it. In fact, I just had sex three—
Ciar stops again and turns to look down at me.
—weeks ago, with a Fae that came to get his fortune told by Mada.
I give Ciar my brightest, most innocent smile. I can tell by the look on his face he doesn’t believe it. I’m not ashamed of my thoughts or actions concerning sex, I’m a healthy woman with needs. But I don’t want him to be able to read my mind He’s making me self-conscious snooping around in my noggin so freely. Especially when I think about anything related to him.
Ciar himself told me about shielding. I guess it’s time to put that knowledge to use.
“Hello! You must be new here, I’m Sierra.” The sultry—I’m not so insecure I can’t admit it’s sultry—voice states from behind Ciar. I peek around him and laugh. A human Mage. Ciar hates humans, no matter how pretty or magical they are.
This should be entertaining.
‘There is way more Sluagh in you than people realize, monster girl,’ he says, in a voice laced with amusement.
My smile broadens, I like this comparison. I’ll freely admit I love stirring up a bit of mischief, especially on humans. They’re so easy to mess with.
Look at this Sierra person, for example. She practically drips arrogance. Some magic wielders like her are under the false impression that having magic makes them better than everyone else. That’s especially an issue with human Mages. Honestly, being able to toss a fireball should only make you arrogant if the thing you throw it at dies on the first hit.
I grew up around things that will simply eat it and then eat her. Ciar at the front of the line. Speaking of him, Pucas like mischief even more than I do. I see the sparkle in his green eyes that are staring at me right before he turns around to face her.
“Can I help you with something?” His tone isn’t welcoming.
Her beaming smile dims, his response to her is unexpected. Women like her are used to being adored by all.
“I haven't seen you around here before, so I wanted to welcome you to the Menagerie.” She watts her smile back up and waits expectantly.
Ciar, bless him for entertainment value, looks at her like she has shit on her shoes and brushes past her. I shrug when her eyes fall on me and I follow him.
“Your brother is rude,” she says to my back. I turn my head to look at her.
“My brother,” oh, this is just too much fun, “likes to keep it close to the family. You know the closer the kin the tighter the skin?” I say barely keeping from laughing at the look of disgust that crosses her face.
Her mouth falls open in shock and I tuck my chin to hide my smile. Ahead of me Ciar snorts.
‘Naughty Keri, talking about having sex with me,’ he teases.
‘I still think you’re an asshole.’ At my, tactful for me, opinion his laughter floats behind him.
‘Liar,’ he accuses.
Maybe a little, but mostly not really. He’s totally an asshole.
And though you should live in a palace of gold, or sleep in a dried up ditch. You could never be as poor as the Fairies are, and never as rich. ~Rose Fyleman
After grabbing some food at the cafeteria, we head back to the room. Well, I head back to the room and Ciar walks quietly behind me, staring, because the hair on the back of my neck keeps standing on end.
I’m eating fries out of the bag of food I’m carrying, mostly his fries because food like this isn’t common in the forest, greasy, fattening goodness. I lick my fingers and smirk when I stick them back into his fry bag to find the bottom of the bag holding only crumbs. Whoops.
He has some raw burgers in there, he’ll be fine without the rest of it. The burgers must weigh two pounds apiece. That’s more than enough to fill up his stomach for a little while.
Unexpectedly he steps ahead of me and opens the door, waving me forward like a gentleman. I nod my head in thanks and debate on eating one of his burgers too. Mine is small in comparison. The flash of green in his eyes dissuades me. Fry theft is okay, burger theft not so much.
For a split second the temptation strengthens. The bag is snatched out of my hands and I’m nudged towards my bed. Flopping down on it I laugh as the bag unceremoniously hits me in the chest. Digging my own burger and fries out of the bag I dig in.
I wish I was part Moss Fairy or something similar because they have the metabolism of a marathon runner so then I could eat all I want. Unfortunately, I’m something else and the calories go straight to my ass. I have to work out, daily, to keep in shape. It seems I have a penchant for chub especially in certain areas.
I look down at my chest. Some places it’s not such a bad thing.
“Why are you so against Awakening, Keri?” Ciar asks, and of course in my eloquence I choke on my mouthful of burger.
After clearing my throat, I chug some water out of the bottle that Ciar hands me and compose myself. “People like me clean toilets or park cars and sometimes we even get to trim the shrubs. We don’t have proper Awakenings,” I answer, taking that last bite of my now cold burger. “And the whole Triad of stranger’s thing throws me off.”
It’s nothing more than the truth. The entire point of this place is to gauge, groom and sell people to the Higher Fae or the rich humans. As janitors, maids, drivers, guards, occasionally tools and in rare cases, breeders. I’m not pure enough to be a breeder so I figure that until I get bored or have had enough playing by the rules with this plan of Mada’s I’ll get stuck as a maid or something similar.
“The people that encouraged your mother’s actions are threatened by what you’ll become when you Awaken.” His words send me to my feet.
Why in the world is he talking about her? I hate talking about my mother. Yes, it’s been years and she’s dead and gone but it’s a sore spot for me. Restlessly I start wandering around the room and snooping through the dressers.
I don’t want to talk about her and what happened but Ciar isn’t someone you tell that to and expect him to listen.
“Eventually you will accept this truth.” As he speaks, I feel his presence move closer to me.
So, like a scared bird I flutter away from him and open the closet door ju
st to look busy. Frowning I lean forward and pick up the old dusty violin that’s leaning against the back wall.
It’s a strange color of blue with faint lines etched into it. The strings on it are broken and curled at the base. Lightly I run a finger down the neck of it. With a flare of heat the damn thing comes to life. The strings curl up and connect to the top and the lines lighten with red light.
In shock I drop it and it twangs in complaint.
“What the hell is that?” I demand, pointing at the possessed violin.
“That is your Conduit,” Ciar answers calmly, stepping around me to pick it up off the floor. He holds it out to me with a smirk on his face. Rolling my eyes, I take it by the neck and gently put it back on the closet floor and slam the door.
No, no and triple no.
“Keri, you can procrastinate about it all you want but it’s going to happen. Stop being a child about it,” he says, using that tone that makes me feel like the naughty child he’s accusing me of being.
Turning to face him I cross my arms, mutinous.
“Procrastination works for as long as I want it to,” I say in a very mulish tone. Go me, being a mature adult and all.
“This place will bring out what needs brought. Secure in the forest you will never spread your wings, monster girl,” he explains, turning away to cross to his dresser.
He starts putting things in the dresser from his bag, like all of this is completely normal. It takes me a minute to notice that I’m staring at his butt. Disgusted with myself I decide to follow suit.
At least if I’m busy I’m not staring at him like a lust hazed teenage girl.
His chuff of laughter makes my face heat. Gods bless it he’s snooping again. Frustrated, I start the very detailed slow process of building up my shields again. It’s something that can be done while doing other things because it’s all mental magic. And it’s a magic that I can do. Not so much some of the other stuff.
Which they’ll notice right away when I start their stupid classes. I’m so going to get my ass kicked if they actually do things like I’ve heard they do. Maybe if I suck enough they’ll throw me out and I can go home?
“Don’t even think about it, Keri,” Ciar warns without pausing in his task.
There goes that idea. Pouring more energy into building my shields I start humming a song that Nagan taught me. It’s a Centaur lullaby he used to hum to me when I was a kid. Ironically enough, it’s about war and killing enemies but the melody is sweet and soft.
My voice isn’t bard quality, but it doesn’t sound like a mule getting strangled, so I’ll take what I have gladly. Smiling at my own stupid thoughts I keep humming and straightening things up.
Before I know it, I find myself with my sleeves rolled up, cleaning the bathroom. I’m only half surprised when I realize that Ciar is in there with me, pink rubber gloves on his hands as he scrubs the shower. When he realizes I’m staring at him he smirks and flips me off.
The most amusing thing about the gloves? He looks freaking good in them.
Buttercups in the sunshine look like little cups of gold. Perhaps the Faeries come to drink the raindrops they hold. ~Elizabeth T. Dillingham, A Faery Song
I’m not sure what I expected from this place but the very first class is Familiars number one-o-one. A cliched name for a cliched class. Not sure where to sit, I pick a seat towards the back. Ciar walks in the door a second after my butt hits the chair. Oh, my gods he really is taking classes. The damn man is as older than dirt after all, he doesn’t need to be at this place.
That’s what I get for having any assumptions about him.
‘Bodyguard duty, remember?’ he says, his voice full of amusement.
Cutting a dirty look at him, I set to work again on my mental shielding. I started it yesterday but at some point, I got sleepy and took a nap instead of finishing it. Apparently, that’s something I need to remedy now. Piece by piece I work on the three layers of shielding that will hopefully keep him out. Making sure to add a little alarm to each layer as I go. More than likely he’ll get through, but it’ll take him awhile. I feel his eyes on me and his displeasure, he doesn’t like it. I smirk a little.
Anything I can do to annoy him is a plus in my book.
“Good morning. We have a few new members today. Here let me see…”
I look up dreading what’s about to happen. I abhor attention from people and this teacher is about to make me a target. Who in the hell introduces new students anymore?
This antiquated place obviously.
“...right then. Keri Nightshade and Ciar Nightshade. Ha. Ciar did you know that there was a mythological figure with that name?” The teacher states, with a smile on his face.
I snort because I can’t help it. Not only does Ciar know, he is that ‘mythological figure’.
“Are you two brother and sister?” The man then questions.
I bite my lip to keep from laughing. Ciar completely ignores him and stares out the window. The teacher clears his throat uncomfortably and moves on. He’s smarter than he looks because pressing Ciar isn’t the best option. Ciar shifts in his seat and I see something poking out of his back pocket.
“When did you get a cellphone?’ I ask him curious despite myself.
‘Weeks ago.’
Weeks ago? He knew that far ahead of time about this? I chew on my lip debating if I should be angry about it or not. I don’t like that I left—was made to leave really—my home and my family. I also don’t like that my gut tells me this is just the beginning. I really dislike the fact that he chose to come with me for some unknown reason he won’t tell me about. The guard bit is a load of hoopla.
Something is afoot here.
Wait—I look over him and he meets my eyes. Lying to myself isn’t something I normally do so I quickly reevaluate. Maybe I do like the fact he’s here, too much. I force my gaze away to the surface of my desk.
Really, Keri? You’re getting a crush on the creature who beat you bloody on the practice field? Who has never once had a nice thing to say to you or about you and pushed you until you collapsed?
Then my subconscious takes over.
The man who bandaged and fed you when you were first brought to the forest, dying. Who sat beside your bed every moment while your body raged with fever. The one that lay his furry body against you while you cried for the loss of the mother who hated you.
Ciar, who gave you your first sword and showed you how to swim.
Okay brain, I get it!
And also stupid subconscious, he didn’t teach me how to swim so much as throw me in and say swim or drown. After swallowing half the lake and flailing around like a headless chicken, I figured it out.
“Miss Nightshade, are you ready to join the rest of us?” I jerk my head up, hearing my name and realize the teacher, Mr. Sputen—really?—is standing right in front of my desk.
Apparently, he’s spoken to me more than once and I wasn’t paying attention. Oh, well.
“To what?” I ask suspecting that I need to know the question.
“Do you have a familiar?” he asks, clearly exasperated with me.
“No.” I’ve never tried to call one. Nagan told me when I was a kid and failed miserably at trying to light a candle, that I will get a special one. Yeah, sure.
“Well then, we will go to the arena today and do the summoning for those of you,” he looks pointedly at me, “—who do not have familiars.” He studies me a moment. “Typically, I am quite good at figuring out the heritages of my students. But you are a puzzle Miss Nightshade. Ciar is a Selkie, obviously. But you… you are not.”
Neither is Ciar, moron.
“A half-breed,” someone mumbles, under their breath.
It isn’t a lie, so I say nothing. Mr. Sputen continues to stare at me expectantly.
“I have no idea.” That’s about all he’s getting out of me. He stands there a moment longer staring and then turns towards the door dismissing me. Good, I’m not worth the aggravation.
>
“Come along class,” he encourages, waving towards the people in the class as he walks out the door.
The room echoes with the shuffling of feet and chairs as the class files out the door behind him. Ciar and I are last. He brushes against me with his arm to get my attention so I look at him.
‘Have you ever tried to summon a familiar?’ He asks. Has his voice always sounded this… deep and soothing?
Pulling myself out of my weird thoughts I respond, ‘When I first came to the forest, Nagan tried to teach me but I failed at it horribly.’
Which is nothing less than the truth. I can’t light a candle, how in the fudge do they expect me to summon a familiar? That takes more juice than I have. Nothing to be done about it though, this human teacher is still going to make me try—call it a hunch. I follow slowly behind the rest of them while feeling a little nauseous that I’ve got to participate in this fiasco.
Our destination is exactly what its name implies including sandy floors and stone coliseum seats. There’s even a dais for a royal to sit on high above us. A blatant display of arrogance.
“Those of you who have familiars, please go ahead and summon them. As for those of you who do not—who wants to go first?” Mr. Sputen doesn’t waste time at least. A Sprite holds up her hand and it begins.
I glance over at Ciar when I feel his familiar magic in the air. Beside him stands a sleek black wolf about double the size of its natural relatives. With extra teeth and claws thrown in because Lancelot is a Sluagh, not a wolf.
“Lancelot!” I call his name and he runs to me. Kneeling I allow him to cover my face in slobbery kisses. “Breath mint buddy,” I tease.
Giving me a toothy canine smile, he sits back on his haunches. Even in this position the big butthead is still taller than me. Digging in my pocket for a piece of Berry Drop candy and I smile as I feed him a few pieces. It’s my one candy weakness. Berry Drops are Fairy-made hard candies that are filled with strawberry gel. Nagan keeps boxes of them for me.
