Page 65 of The Fae Menagerie
I met his gaze, and I watched the dawning horror as he realized what he'd just said. "Fuck!" He hopped to his feet. We had moved the viewing couch, so it was now closer to the chandelier. He hopped up onto it. "Hand me that sheet."
I tossed him the long piece of cloth I'd taken from the canopy over his bed in hopes we could use it as a tent. Doyle had rejected that idea because the viewers still needed to see us, but now, the cloth came in handy.
Doyle wound the sheet into a rope and tied one end. The other, he tried to loop around the chandelier above, except it kept hitting a wall of nothing and bouncing back. After ten tries,he shouted, "Damn it all!" at the top of his lungs and collapsed to the couch.
"We're here together," Doyle reasoned. "That's why we still can't leave."
"Wings?" I asked.
He stood in all his magnificent naked glory, but I was only interested in whether his feet left the floor when he tried to fly. They did not.
"I'm so sorry, Parker." Doyle hunched over my shoulder and wrapped his arms around me. The blanket I'd been using to hide my nakedness fell to the floor as I hugged him back, trying to give him some semblance of comfort.
We hadn't said the words, but I knew Doyle loved me, and I loved him. We were bonded in every way possible, but it still wasn't enough to leave the menagerie.
A knock on the glass snapped us both back to the present. Doyle stepped between me and the prying eyes of our viewers while I scooped up my blanket and wrapped it around me once more.
"Holy shit, Parker, look at this."
I handed Doyle the sheet he'd wrapped around his waist earlier, but I almost dropped it when I saw the crowd outside. Cuddlebugs, everywhere, and above them, anthousai hovering in the air, looking put out that there was no standing room available. The red cap had brought his entire retinue to section off an area around Prince Drummond and another very well-dressed, beautiful fae who held his hand. He was Drummond's opposite in every way, light where he was dark, and the two made quite the pair. It was even more shocking that, instead of staring at them, the crowd gawked at us.
"Who are all these people?" I asked.
"My people." Doyle pulled me to his side and turned so we could both see the full display of fae watching through ourviewing windows. We were the final enclosure in the line, with both south and east-facing windows showcasing the open fields and high banked walls that hid additional rows of enclosures from view.
"The anthousai, cuddlebugs, pixies, and other light fae who fall under our rule."
"And Prince Drummond," I reminded him.
"Right. The redcaps, shadows, and incubi are his." Doyle waved to Aidan, who stood beneath a tree with a few other gorgeous horned fae. The incubi left the tree's shade where it was, for once.
"Incubi are called vampires in your realm for a reason," Doyle said when I asked. "He burns in direct sunlight. He's standing beneath the tree and keeping his own shadow close."
"How much of our superstitious folklore is true?" I asked.
"Most of it." He knocked on the wooden arm of the viewing couch. "Just don't let the wood sprites hear you say that."
To the east, more cuddlebugs and anthousai filled the lawn outside our enclosure.
"Why are they here?" Doyle wondered.
I spotted his mother at her usual bench, though she hovered over the bench to see us over the crowd.
"Congratulations," she signed to us. "Today is your day of reckoning."
"What does she mean?" I asked Doyle.
"That last sign — I'm not sure I know what it means."
"That's a lie. You taught me what it means."
"I'm mostly self-taught!" Doyle believed his lie, at least. He wasn't suffering any ill effects besides whatever omen his mother meant.
"It means exactly what you think it means, Doy'al'ini." We both turned to the door between the viewing room and living room behind us. A beautiful fae with white hair and butterflywings gracefully descended from above us. She wore a bejeweled gown that covered her from head to toe but left nothing to the imagination.
"Grandmother."
"Doyle." She measured him with her stare. "Put on some clothes. I wish to speak to you over breakfast. I'll have it served in here in five minutes. Go."
