Page 42 of The White Stag
Cyrus would never tell Tucker this, but he didn’t make Fern leave because of Alastair and his assassins. Tucker shared a deeply personal story about realizing he was gay that involved that girl, Penelope. I wasn’t sure how Fern fit into it, but I didn’t like how she was speaking to my friend. If Cyrus hadn’t sent her away, I would have.
I couldn’t really see my shoulder, but I also didn’t want to get out of Finnan’s lap to get a mirror.
“Exactly what is on my shoulder now, and what do you think it means?”
Finnan
Strange and unusual was my jam. Iadoredit when shit got weird. Cyrus and Oisin were deep in their research because that’s just what every Fae did when someone was about to get their magic, but I was just reveling in it. Fire sneezing iron out your body was weird as fuck, but I was so here for it.
The tattoo on her shoulder didn’t make a damned bit of sense either, and that was totally fabulous. It was massive, which meant she was going to be powerful when her magic came in, but fuck if I knew what it meant. She had feathers in the shape of a mandala covering her entire shoulder and reaching towards her back.
Which wouldn’t have been unusual in the slightest if she was an Air sign. There were plenty of feathered bastards who were Air signs. There were Fire signs that could fly too, but they tended to be scaly, so they didn’t burn all those nice feathers off and end up looking like a plucked turkey. I didn’t knowwhatit meant, but I knew something.
“Fairly certain you’re going to be able to fly, hen.”
“Seriously? What does it look like?”
Tucker whipped a small hand mirror out of his back pocket to show her.
“You fuckers arewaytoo vain not to keep a mirror on you at all times.”
“Any clues?”
“Dragons and wyverns are types of flying Unseelie Fire signs that usually have marks that big,” Cyrus said.
Yeah, Reagancouldbe a dragon or wyvern. It was the only thing that logically made sense in the history of everything Unseelie, but that was ignoring every badass thing Reagan had done since we got her here that wasn’t remotely logical. She was going to surprise everyone.
“It would be so fucking cool to be a dragon! Dragon stories were always my favorite. All of you used to tell me dragon stories when I was scared at night. Were those about Fae?”
She didn’t say it aloud, but I’d told the best dragon stories when she was younger. The three of us were totally different, but we all loved our hero stories and fairy tales. Oisin was kind of a geek and actually paid attention in school. Cyrus and I were all about the movies. We didn’t have to wait for special effects to make realistic dragons and magic. Ooh, we needed to show her an Unseelie movie with dragons.
“We need to show herThe Legend of Fernyiges.We can stream it to the T.V.”
“Is that the story you told me once about the King of Dragons?”
I stuck my tongue out at Cyrus and Oisin. Iknewshe liked my stories the best. We could sit out here all day throwing out theories and letting Cyrus and Oisin stew about everything that made little sense. It was just going to worry her. We needed to pass the time until the rest of the iron was out of her system, and we could get her home. We needed toshowher other Fae and our history.
“That’s actually a perfect idea,” Cyrus said.
“Shut up.Allmy ideas are good.”
“I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count out all your bad ideas.”
“Let’s watch movies, but I have a request,” Reagan said.
“Anything,” Cyrus said.
We’d always give her whatever she wanted, but Reagan had this mischievous look on her face like this was going to be an adult ask. I hoped it was. She grabbed Oisin and just went for it. I would never do anything without a woman’s consent, but if she wanted to share those kisses, I wouldn’t complain. She was giving us bedroom eyes like she did.
“I’m not sure why you all disappeared, but you acted differently when you returned. Ido notwant to be the only nineteen-year-old Unseelie who has only kissed one man in her entire life. Now that I’ve done it once, I want to do it again. So, ifyouwant to kissmetoo, we should just do it.”
That was just so adorably awkward, and now she was purple and hiding behind that beautiful blue hair. That had to be the sweetest way anyone had ever asked me to kiss them before. My first kiss was kind of like Tucker and Penelope’s story. She didn’t get totally naked, and I didn’t run out of the room screaming and have a gay awakening, but I thought we were just skipping class to smoke this herb that made you wacky. She just jumped on top of me and went for it when I was too high to fight back.
I wasn’t going to leave her hanging when it probably took a lot for her to even ask that after living with that repressed fuck, Alastair, for so long. Not when she was sitting right in my lap. I might not be herfirstkiss, but I was going to make damned sure the second one was special.
I gently turned her and pressed my lips to hers. I took it slow because I didn’t want to scare her, but Oisin clearly awakened some kind of monster. Unseelie women tended to be aggressive and know precisely what they wanted. Alastair hadtriedto groom that out of her with Sin Eater’s tea and had spectacularly failed.
I started out controlling this kiss, and Reagan quickly stole it from me. If this went further—and I knew it would—there would be plenty of things we’d have to teach her, but kissing wasn’t one of them. She picked that up really quickly. I groaned as my cock got so hard that it hurt.
