Page 35 of Beginnings

Som’s beady black eyes widened. “Yee gods! Where ya been, girlie? Ya stink like shit and death.”

I snarled. Of course I did.

I changed back and stood as naked as the day I was born in front of Som.

Yeah, I was way past being embarrassed about my nakedness. Plenty of people had seen it now—and I didn’t care.

Som raised his brows, but I knew he wasn’t in the least bit interested in my human female form. Bogwarts didn’t have sexual reproductive organs. They could not reproduce, they were a freak of nature said to be born from the womb of the Bogwart Queen herself, birthed into the mud and sludge in the darkest reaches of Orth, the dark realm of Faerie.

I didn’t care where Som came from. All I knew was that I was safe with him; well, from sexual attention, anyway. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him otherwise, and that wasn't far. He was about four feet tall and about the same in girth. His face was squashed and his teeth black. He wore an old, stained Queen T-shirt and trousers with braces to hold them up, and he reeked worse than I ever could, no matter what I’d rolled in.

He smoothed his wisp of greasy grey hair into his comboverstyle and frowned at my naked body.

“Why d’ya stink of shit, blood and death, girlie?”

“I need a place to crash and work. Can you fix me up?” I sidestepped his question. Like most fae, Bogwarts could smell a lie a mile off. Som had told me the fae couldn’t lie, or rather that the high fae couldn’t, but it seemed many other castes were learning to—or at least learning to twist the truth very well. Thinking of Walker, I wondered if that stretched to betrayal, too. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t said much. Not speaking had meant he didn’t need to worry about lying.

Som rubbed his triple chin with his long spindly fingers. His attention narrowed in on my bag. “Depends how long you’re going to commit for. And remember who you’re dealing with.”

I cocked my head, ready for this negotiation. My family was gone. I was on my own again. Even if I wanted to go back, or was stupid enough to go back to that holding prison, Connor and Rawson would be gone. I armoured my heart against the pain that squeezed it and concentrated on my future. If I was going to survive, I needed help, money and anonymity. And if I was going to find Walker, I needed access to Faerie. “Depends what you're offering.” Striking a deal with a fae was binding. If I broke it, I’d belong to Som forever, and according to faerie law that would mean I’d have no rights whatsoever.

Som grinned, looking like the greedy fae he was. He could use me—earn money from me–and we both knew it. But I was using him just as much. “You sure you wanna do this, girlie?”

I swallowed and nodded.

“Fine. You can have a place to stay and I’ll give you paid work—plenty of it. But you have to be my mule; my little digitalis dealer, with my own kind.”

My mouth dried out. Not with fear, but with anticipation. “You want me to go through the gates? Into Faerie?”

Som grinned. “Sure do, buttercup. And you have to take an oath. A faerie oath to keep this quiet from the authorities. If you ever get caught—by either side—you cannot tell them who you work for. You cannot inform the authorities how you enter Faerie, nor who you get the merchandise from that you will sell. If you break this oath, you will belong to me until I am willing to dissolve my claim on you.”

I wanted to laugh at that, but I didn’t. That threat didn’t hold anything over my head, not anymore. The only people who had ever given a shit about me were gone. Violently. Doherty was dangerous. He had an agenda that had nothing to do with the SBI and all I could do now was lay low and hope he forgot about me.

“Sure, Som. I’ll be your Yellow. But you have to pay me fifty percent of the take from any deals there.”

“Fifty!? No way!”

“Come on, Som, you can’t go into Faerie. They’d sense you straight away. I can get through your gate because of what I am, and I know Blue does it. She can teach me. You know it’s getting risky for your customers to send people here to pick up their stash. And the SBI is looking for illegal portals to Faerie, so unless you can send us and then close the gate after us, they’ll track you down.” I had no idea if that was true, but I needed to give Som a push to strike this deal with me.

Som continued to stroke his triple chins and he was silent for long enough to make my heart race.

I kept my face impassive.

“Fine, but ten percent.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t insult me, Som. I’ve known you too long, and I know how much I can earn you. Forty five.”

“Yeah, but you're more desperate than I am.” He inhaled. “I can smell it.”

I cocked a brow at him. “Really? Like I can’t survive on my own? You’re not the only dealer I know, Som.” I infused an edge of warning in my voice.

“Fine. Twenty percent.”

Hands on my naked hips, I shook my head. “Come on now. Forty.”

“Twenty five.”

“Thirty five. And I’ll use this to sweeten any deals in Faerie if our clients get awkward.” I gestured to my body. I had no intention of prostituting myself, but Som didn’t need to know that. Fae loved to lose themselves in human lovers. It was some kind of dominance or hormone thing—or something. I didn’t care; I just knew that no fae was getting me. Any potential clients didn’t need to know I wasn’t totally human, and I knew Som would keep my mixed blood quiet.

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