Page 41 of The White Stag
I thought I was done. My hands flew to my ears. They were still the same size and rounded instead of larger and pointed. My monsters and Tucker were the only things keeping me from losing my shit, and my mother helped, but my shit was officially lost.
“What if I’m defective? What if taking those stupid pills when I was a kid andsupposedto get my magic did something to me, and now I can never go home because I’ll never get it?”
Oisin swooped me up and set me in his lap. He squeezed me so tightly that I could barely breathe.
“Not possible. Do you know how Iknowyou’re going to get your magic? Because history was one of my favorite subjects in primary school. The Unseelie and the Seelie fought an endless war about this.”
“Primary school wastorturefor me,” Finnan said. “There were signs I was going to end up a Bauchan, but everyone still expected me to behave. I also paid attention during that lesson because it was so horrible. Our science has always been more advanced than the humans because we also use magic.
“The Seelie did the unthinkable. Their king had a team of scientists experimenting on his subjects. They were trying to find a way to steal magic from a Fae to give it to another. They started by experimenting on prisoners, then moved on to abducting poor people they thought no one would miss.”
“Everyone knows that story. They teach it in the Seelie realm too. The Seelie poor rose up and fought with the Unseelie to overthrow that king and capture his scientists. The Seelie teaches it like a one-off mad king that led to many deaths. The Seelie are ass-backward in many ways, but they found that horrifying.
“It’s impossible to permanently remove something given to you by the stars. The stars are more mysterious and powerful than any of us. They gave us one weakness in iron. Diluted and cut, it can temporarily suppress our powers, but once it wears off, they come back. There’s been great and powerful Fae in history that they’ve made several movies and television shows about. Not one of them is more powerful than the stars,” Cyrus said.
Oisin kissed the top of my head.
“Not weird and not defective. Fae puberty is a strange thing, even without iron poisoning. I had my mark before I had my ears, and it took another two weeks for my antlers to start growing. It’s magic, not science. Despite all the study done, it’s utterly unpredictable.”
“It really is,” Tucker said. “Some of my classmates dismissed me and made fun of me, assuming I’d be a weak Fae because I’m not a large man. Especially since it took way longer than they did for my magic to show up. I was seventeen when I fully got my magic. After that, the stars just needed time to marinate the magic to make me fabulous. It’s the same for you.”
“You aren’t really Fae unless you have some horrific puberty story about getting your magic. If someone tells you it was easy, they are lying. The stars are fickle. They are always going to give you magic. It might not be what you wanted, but they are going to make you earn it,” Cyrus said.
“Getting your magic is a major thing, and everyone freaks out about it,” Oisin said. “We just have to wait at this point, but we can do the fun stuff too. You have a massive tattoo on your shoulder. That meanssomethingis coming. Let us see it so we can all guess.”
Tucker shrieked and clapped his hands.
“That was my favorite part of any party as a teenager. We’d show our marks and try to guess. But, of course, most of us were completely wrong unless the mark was super obvious, and it hardly ever is.”
Cyrus yanked me away from Oisin and set me in his lap. He nuzzled my hair with his cheek, and I never realized how much his smoke smelled like sandalwood.
“We need to apologize, Reagan. We’ve been making you feel bad. Every time someone you care about gets their magic, it's this massive thing. Everyone loses their mind, us included. We didn’t mean to make you feel defective.”
Finnan’s tail curled around my wrist. I missed that. He did it all the time when I was younger, but not so much now that I was an adult. I loved it. I didn’t know what happened when they all disappeared and returned more affectionate, but I wasn’t complaining.
“When it comes to getting your magic, you want to be as weird as possible when it’s in the process of showing up,” Finnan said.
“Totally,” Oisin said.
Finnan’s tail unwrapped from around my wrist and snuck around my waist. The next thing I knew, I was being yanked into his lap.
“Yoink!” Finnan yelled. “Gotta hold her harder than that if you want to keep her.”
“Dick,” Cyrus growled.
Before anyone could say anything, a blur whipped into the garden. Dirt kicked up as a petite, orange-haired Fae stopped in front of me. She fell to her knees and held a messenger bag out to me over her head.
“I have a delivery for the princess from the queen.”
Oh, this was awkward. She was kneeling, and she wouldn’t even look at me. Was it going to be like that once I got home,ifI could even get home?
“Seriously, Fern?” Tucker said. “You don’t even pull the groveling shit with Estrella. Get up.”
“Fuck you, Tucker. Penelope may have forgiven you, but I haven’t.”
“Excuse me? Penelope was in the wrong in that situation.”
“Take a load off and then go home, Fern,” Cyrus said. “We have water and snacks inside, but you have to leave. It’s not safe here.”
