Page 11 of The White Stag
I didn’t think I would ever eat again after last night, but I was hungry again. Everything they told me about the Unseelie Court and its customs sounded amazing, but I had many questions. I could start with their food since I couldn’t really go there yet.
“Your mum wants to meet you after you’ve eaten,” Oisin said.
“I thought I couldn’t cross the border yet. Isn’t it dangerous for her to come here?”
I really wanted to meet her, but now that it was happening, I was nervous. I thought I had more time. Everything they told me about her sounded terrifying. After everything Alastair did to me and how easily he did it, I was pretty scared of him. My mother wasn’t. He pissed her off, and she had him chased out of her kingdom.
That wasn’t me. I didn’t grow up in the Unseelie Court. I never had foster parents for longer than a few months. So I wasn’t really raised around strong women. Every single one of Alastair’s servants were male. I didn’t question that before, but he probably didn’t want to risk a woman asking questions about some of the shit that was happening in that house and calling someone. So he handpicked people who wouldn’t.
I didn’t want her to think I was defective. I felt defective. I knew there was no logical way for me to know the sealed bottle of tea a man handed me when I was thirsty was going to start all of this. I wouldn’t have taken it if the seal was broken, but it wasn’t. That one mistake cost me so many years of my life.
“Hey, dinnae look afraid. Your mum isn’t angry with you. Estrella wants to get to know you and doesn’t want to wait longer than she has to. She needs to hear from you that you’re okay. Her Fae form is a Nemean lioness. They are fiercely protective of their young. She’s been worried sick since she sent you to the mortal realm, and it only got worse when you went missing,” Finnan said.
“Is that what I’m going to be when these pills wear off?”
I changed the subject because I wanted to talk about anything but that. Of course, they’d never force me to either, so they just went with it.
“Nope. I know it seems that way, but it isn’t. Both of my parents are Seelie, but neither one of them is a white stag. They are other Seelie creatures.”
“Much of it is based on what the stars were doing when you were conceived. For example, Estrella is a fire sign, and you’re an Aries, so you are too. Youcouldbe a Nemean lioness too, but the rest of your natal chart is totally different. We’ll get an idea when your tattoos start appearing,” Cyrus said.
“I’m sorry, what?”
I always thought tattoos were cool. One of my foster fathers, who I actually liked, was covered in them. I remember I asked about them once, and he sat on the couch with me for hours, telling me the stories behind the ones I could see. Every piece of art on his body memorialized an important person or event in his life. Then, when I said I wanted them too, he reminded me I pitched a fit when his wife wanted to pierce my ears because I didn’t like needles.
Oisin peeled his shirt off and showed me his back. There was a black outline of a beautiful set of antlers with a crown hanging off them. It was beautiful.
“I’d show you mine, but it’s on my thigh. Estrella would have ma bawsack if I dropped trou in front of you,” Finnan said.
“It’s painless,” Cyrus said. “It might itch a bit when it’s coming through. Most Fae have a human form and their Fae form. Some of us are more humanoid than others, and the rest have to use a glamor. Oisin has his antlers, and Finnan and I are what we are. We can put our glamours up if it makes you more comfortable.”
Why would they think I even wanted that? I’d never been uncomfortable around them. And now that I was older, I realized how beautiful they were. Oisin looked like a pale, horned god. Finnan’s skin was this rich, warm gray, and he had this mischievous beauty about him. Cyrus just had this air of danger about him. His full mouth could curl up in a way that looked downright cruel. It was never directed at me, and I was kind of into it.
I was furious about Alastair all over again. When he snatched me off the street, I was pretty young. I was still of the opinion that all boys were gross and wanted nothing to do with them. Then, when puberty hit and the possibility of me being interested would have come up, he made it impossible. There wasn’t a single redeeming quality about any of the men he hired.
Even the doctors he took me to weren’t that great on the whole do no harm thing. I understood everything they told me about my blood being different, and human doctors would have had no way of knowing those pills were poisoning me. It was the gynecologist he took me to when I started my period because he didn’t want to deal with it. That crusty old bastard told me all kinds of horror stories he probably got straight from Alastair. I really needed a woman to talk to about those kinds of things. I doubted my monsters knew how periods worked, and if they wouldn’t even sleep in the same room with me last night, I doubted they wanted to clear up some of the shit I was told about sex.
“What makes you think I want to see you as anything but what you are?” I asked. “You’re all beautiful like this.”
They all cleared their throats and started focusing on breakfast. Was I not allowed to say that? They were never like Alastair. My monsters always told me to say what was on my mind and never hesitate to give my opinions. So I couldn’t share my views on what they looked like? They changed the subject really fast. I wasn’t going to make them uncomfortable, so I asked what we were eating.
“It’s kind of like an egg frittata with asparagus, feta cheese, and shaved truffles, except I used wyvern eggs and centaur milk. Wyvern eggs are easy to come by. They lay a ton of them and make a lot of money at the market selling them. Centaur milk is rare and a delicacy. They use it for nursing their young, and there’s not usually extra to sell. It’s unlike the dairy industry in the mortal realm, where cows are inseminated to keep the milk flowing. We brought animals over when we were dealing with the mortals, but we take nothing that doesn’t happen naturally.”
I loved cheese, and Alastair never let me eat it. Even if I hated the foster home I was in, it was always a massive treat when they brought home a big greasy cheese pizza because they didn’t feel like cooking. On the other hand, I was a little iffy on centaur milk, no matter how rare and expensive it was. Did we need to milk everything with nipples? Everyone I knew in the mortal realm seemed pretty opposed to drinking human breastmilk. They must have seen the look on my face while I was thinking this over.
“It’s like the taste of feta. Do you remember when you ended up at the foster home with that guy with the tattoos, and he brought home Greek takeout one day? You tried feta, and you loved it,” Oisin said.
“Pity his neighbor was an uppity asshole who thought bikers shouldn’t be foster parents. You were safe there, and we liked him,” Cyrus said. “We didn’t have to do a damned thing to protect you except keep an eye out for Alastair. She kept calling until she had you removed from his house, and the home they moved you to after that was terrible.”
I remembered that. He was the one who told me about his tattoos. He worked nights. His wife took care of me in the morning and got me off to school. He was there when I got home with a snack, dinner, and a bedtime story. I was happy there and hadn’t really understood why I’d had to leave.
I remembered the Greek food he brought home. It was the first and last time I ever ate it. I knew he would have done it again because I liked it, but the state came to get me a few days later. I had to keep in mind this world was completely strange to me.
Until a few days ago, I thought I was human, and I couldn’t remember these men at all. If I did, I thought they were my imaginary friends. The concept of centaurs was utterly foreign, much less cooking with their milk.
I needed to keep an open mind, even if it meant putting something in my mouth that I thought was a little weird. I trusted Finnan.
“Hit me with the centaur cheese,” I said, slamming my hand on the table.
