Page 29 of The Fae Menagerie
"We don't have any pixies in the menagerie. If we did, the wasps would have attacked them first."
I released Chani, and they rubbed their throat with two of their spider-like hands.
"You're right," I admitted. "I'm sorry. I got carried away."
"You really like him." Chani winked the three eyes on the right side of their face. "It's sweet."
"Hush. I am not sweet."
Chani giggle-snorted. A large canvas bag and a pair of gloves appeared at their feet. "Here. These gloves will counteract your cleaning curse." They handed them to me. "Put the wasps in the bag. I'll check on your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend."
I shivered as I pulled the first glove over my fingers. For a moment, I felt my magic again, but then it was gone. It wasonly the counter spell washing over me. The spell allowed me to shake open the bag and toss the wasp in it, careful to grab it by the wing so when it twitched in death, its stinger was nowhere near me.
I had the living room and kitchen bugs collected when Chani met me in the library.
"He still needs a lot more heat," Chani said.
"I'll throw him in the shower when I'm finished."
"Bath. Hot bath. I'm running it now."
I stared at them. "I don't have a bathtub." Before the inner contents of my cottage moved to the menagerie, I'd hired a fae crafter to rip out the bathtub and replace it with a shower. I'd also removed the fountain in the back yard. I had a strong aversion to large pools of water just lying in wait for clumsy fae like me.
"You don't have a bathtub." They crossed two of their arms over their chest and gave me the full focus of all six eyes. "I'm letting you borrow the laundry tub. If Aidan asks, this never happened." They leaned forward and patted my shoulder. "But you can keep the gloves. I made them especially for you."
They disappeared into the kitchen, where I heard them scrubbing wasp guts off the tile floor.
I was stunned into speechlessness. Chani had been my cleaning fae for millennia, and this was the most we had interacted. I couldn't decide whether to rejoice or fear for their life. I didn't know who was behind the attacks, but I didn't want Chani, Horace, or Parker harmed for their proximity to me.
As I continued disposing of wasp carcasses, I thought back to my mother's gossip about my relatives. She'd mentioned a couple feuds, a misunderstanding over land rights, and a boring ball where my cousin Dominique had gotten engaged to a member of the Unseelie Court to smooth over relationsbetween our family and Drummond's. None of that would have warranted sending wasps after me.
With the library cleared, I continued to the viewing room. Wasps littered the floor, but I made quick work of their carcasses, thanks to the lack of furniture besides the uncomfortable viewing couch and the two end tables. I'd smeared wasp guts into the couch cushions, though. Chani came in behind me and snickered.
"This should be all of them." I handed them the sack.
"I'll work on that mess while you take care of your boyfriend. The tub should be ready."
Tub. Right.
Parker was already naked beneath the pile of blankets. After I'd suggested it the first night, he slept naked. I didn't know whether to be pleased at how well he followed orders or worried that he was too eager to please.
I'd gotten the impression he wanted to please me, even if my pleasure made him uncomfortable. Before, I wouldn't have cared. Pleasure was pleasure.
Parker was different. I wanted him to relax around me. I'd gotten him into this mess without fully disclosing my intentions. I'd called Parker to the spell circle with this purpose in mind, to bring him to the menagerie. Though his ex had shoved him through the portal, I was still to blame. Now, we were both stuck here with no way to answer my mother's riddle.
On top of that, someone was trying to kill us. Or maim us, at the very least. A sting from a live wasp would have left a welt on my body for weeks, and then it would have formed into a hard bump beneath my skin that discolored into a black blotch. A wasp blotch scarred the little toe of my left foot. I'd stepped on a wasp's nest when I was a child. They burrowed into the ground and laid in wait to sting surface walkers. I learned my lesson and flew everywhere after that.
A small red mark marred Parker's pinky finger, but it was nothing like I'd expected. Maybe humans dealt better with wasp venom than I'd first thought.
I removed the blankets and pillows I'd draped over him and carried him to the bathroom, where Chani's tub sat in the middle of my shower enclosure. It wasn't a large basin, but it was big enough to tuck Parker inside with his back against it, knees bent, and his hands in his lap. He had become more comfortable in his nakedness over the past weeks, but I didn't want him to think I'd been ogling him while he was unconscious. I was not ogling him while he was unconscious. Nope. Definitely not.
Still wearing the waterproof gloves, I dipped a clean cloth into the steaming water and wiped his forehead with it. When I ran it over his nose and mouth, he sputtered awake. He thrashed around with his hands and opened his eyes. It took him a moment to focus on me.
"Doyle? What the hell happened?"
"You were stung by a wasp."
