Page 77 of Shadows and Flames
They did not tell us the names of the meat sliced thinly on a ceramic plate, nor the vegetables, but they resembled asparagus, carrots, and radishes if they were unnaturally bright. The bread appeared soft, but I had no desire for any of it.
Tomás was about to cover the food, but Fenix appeared beside him, knocking the cloche away so he could smell it even more. Back turned toward the window and fingers forming a dome around his nose, the Vyrkos pulled down his mask. Just slightly, but enough for him to take a pointed inhale of our supper.
He was the one to cover it before stepping back beside Tana. “Smells fine to me. More appetizing than our mortal food back home, which is…strange.”
I watched Tana’s gaze swim somewhere between us, running over this new piece of information. Because of their dead state, Vyrkos were removed from their mortal reliance on food to the point that consuming such yielded no nutrition. From the few I’d talked to, they described food as dead, spoiled.
“Do you think that difference has something to do with you being a changed mortal?”
“Ah, I think it’s likely.” The Vyrkos startled at Tana’s attention, clearing his throat and stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Considering our race differences, that seems the likeliest of explanations.”
Tomás gave a long eye roll, wherein his irises and pupils disappeared completely. Meline’s snort shook us both. “So, they are born immortals and have shit food. We’ve packed enough dried meat and fruit to last us a week at most. And that’s if we are bordering on starving. Unless you want to hunt us their version of a deer,” she nudged me gently with the back of her head, “we have that long to find Francie.”
“And this schoolmarm could be anywhere,” Fenix concluded.
TOMÁS
What a shit place with disgusting food.
The buttery sunlight finally died a few hours after the staff at the lodging house brought that wretched supper. I could still taste it in the back of my throat, like they were choking me with it. Or, perhaps that was the cloying aroma permeating every nook and cranny of the city.
Pyrestan, they called it.
Wherever we were, it did not sit well. The tree they constructed their home out of was magnificent, yes, a true feat of engineering. The rich yet airy fabrics they used to dress their tall and slender forms ought to have been painted. Recorded in artwork that would still not capture the celestial beauty of it all.
But I’d been alive long enough to know when I was being presented with lip color slapped on a hog.
“They do a good bit of staring here, don’t they?”
“We are from a different world. Would you not be staring?” Now that darkness had descended, the Vyrkos boy did not have to cover himself from head to foot. He waved affably at a set of female Folk, and they giggled in response. They both had wings that fluttered behind them, throwing the light of the lanterns hanging on the shopfronts.
Nogón’s queen and her cousin were speaking quietly as we walked, heads together, and my brother was on my other side. We had no true destination, other than to explore and see if we caught a whiff of a Lylithan named Francie. One who another mercenary suspected was kidnapped to this realm.
Instead of cursing myself again for going along with this fool’s errand, I sniped back at the Vyrkos. “Perhaps a bit of flirtation would bring us closer to finding her whereabouts, but before you go and fuck one of them, perhaps decide if that will bringyoucloser toyourend goal.”
Elián snickered, or his version thereof, and the Vyrkos turned a curious shade of white tinged with pink. Almost like some of these Folk, here. His fangs dropped like an ill-trained child. “I’ve no end goal aside from making you gossiping schoolgirls pay for what you did to me.”
“Oh, please, spare us.” I lowered my voice because I wasn’t a complete arse, “You want a taste of the witch there because she saved your hide from meeting the Mother. You’ll be getting no apologies from any of us.”
He grumbled more insults, more denials, but I quickly lost interest. Music was playing in the streets, some Folk ate outside, drinking honey-colored liquor from elegant glasses. My stomach rumbled, but I pushed my hunger out of my mind. After slyly chucking our supper out the window to join whatever awaited at the bottom of the mountains, we mutually decided to not eat what was given to us.
Of course, upon checking ontheiremployer, Meline and Tana found he was retiring early after ingesting all of his supper and his ordered seconds. The Vyrkos boy said to his formerly mortal senses, the food smelled pleasant. To the very mortal Walter Blackwood, that appeared to be the case as well.
Curious.
We proceeded past stores, past places for dancing, but aside from cursory looks, we didn’t indulge in what these people had to offer. But I did notice more of the staring. Outside of a tavern where patrons drank and laughed jovially like the plucking of a harp, they also cut glares at us as we walked past. Wrinkled their noses or grimaced before hiding it with a smile or turning away.
Fenix, on the other hand, garnered a different sort of interest.
His way, these Folks’ smirks took on a note that could only be labeled as rapacious. They leaned forward, wings tightening. Some even approached, introducing themselves by names such as Clover or Sebastian. Blushing and taking drawing inhales too close than was proper.
To Fenix’s credit, he didn’t incite a predicament for us by insulting these creatures who may or may not have been powerful enough to pose a threat. But I’d wager those fangs weren’t for appearances. Whilst we browsed a small shop, he glanced at the witch with longing glazing his red eyes. At the same moment, a particularly handsy Folk with a gossamer slip of a dress placed a hand on his shoulder. He politely declinedtheir offer of spending time with him, but as he worried about an unaware Tana’s reaction, I saw the Folk apply pressure to their hold on him. Their nostrils flared with something other than lust, and their charm slipped. “Well, how about your name, handsome? May I have at least that?”
Fenix’s brows furrowed as he used a bit more force to wrench his shoulder out of their grip. He opened his mouth, but I pulled him along with us before he could answer.
“They looked as if they wanted to eat you, mate. And not in a manner that yields release.”
He twisted his neck, looking back with no finesse at all, and the Folk waved, eyes crinkling and dimples showing. “I think they were just interested?”
