Page 28 of The White Stag
“We have cows, sheep, and goats in our realm, Reagan,” Oisin said. “Some people make it with cow’s milk, but Finnan uses sheep. The Seelie have a similar soup that my Ma made. She used cow’s milk.”
“You can make this one that way too, but I think it tastes better this way.”
“It does.” Cyrus grunted, picking up his bowl and drinking the rest of his soup.
“If Cyrus is ever crabby pants, he’s less grumpy if you make this soup,” Finnan said.
“Don’t make me break your face when you’ve cooked my favorite.”
“You never follow through with that threat, big guy,” Oisin said.
Cyrus sounded like he fully intended to punch Finnan, but I saw the corner of his mouth quirk up like he wanted to smile. I’d missed this. I didn’t get to enjoy Finnan’s cooking when I was a kid, but he’d poked at Cyrus all the time, and Cyrus would threaten to assault him, but never did.
“I missed all of you, even if Alastair made me forget you. And I’m glad Tucker is here.”
“I should make bitching cocktails, and we should make toasts,” Tucker said.
“Girl, yes!” Finnan said. “I know the shite is about to hit the fan, but we haven’t gotten properly blootered to celebrate finding Reagan again.”
“Maybe we should hold off on getting Reagan properly drunk until she feels better. She puked a lot last night,” Oisin said.
“You can hold her fucking hair back this time.”
I expected Cyrus to have an opinion. I didn’t know if angels and devils were real and were some kind of Fae, but if they were and sat on people’s shoulders to whisper to them, Finnan would be the devil tempting me to cut up, and Cyrus was the little angel trying to talk me out of listening to the hobgoblin. Oisin could go either way, depending on how wild Finnan’s idea was.
“How do you feel, Reagan?” Cyrus asked. “You’ve tried some Unseelie cuisine. Want to try our alcohol? You might want to go easy on it, or you’ll be puking again. I’ll hold your hair back too.”
“You aren’t even fully Fae yet, and you have three hot men offering to hold your hair back when you get messy drunk. Girl, that is some magic pussy power right there,” Tucker said.
“If you want to stay in this house, you willnevertalk about her private parts again,” Cyrus growled.
“Seriously?” Oisin laughed. “Tucker has four boyfriends. I doubt he’s interested like that.”
“I’m not. I find vaginas scary and a little gross. No offense, Reagan. Penelope Shadowbrook had a crush on me when I was fifteen, and I had no idea. I thought I was just going to her house to study. I went to the kitchen to get us something to drink, and when I returned, she was totally naked, spread eagle on the bed. It was right there, just looking at me, and I thought it was going to eat me. I’m pretty sure it winked at me too. I’ve never been more traumatized in my entire life.
“I ran into her brother as I was fleeing the scene of the crime. Anyway, he was my gay fairy godmother and helped me figure it out. We never dated, but he’s still one of my best friends, and we do brunch all the time.”
Did I want to get drunk? Alastair drank, and so did some of my foster parents. They weren’t very nice when they did and could barely stand up. One of them punched holes in the walls and trashed the living room. I generally hid with my monsters when that happened and didn’t see the point of it. They remembered because they protected and soothed me when I was scared.
“Not everyone drinks because they are miserable and want to forget their shitty life,” Oisin said. “It doesn’t make everyone angry either. You won’t necessarily get sick either. When it hits you, you’ll feel nice and loose. You can just stop there and not take it to extremes like you saw in your foster homes. We know our limits, and we can help you learn yours. You don’thaveto, and after what you experienced in your foster homes, we’d understand if you don’t want to.”
“You don’thaveto have a shitty hangover and take it out on everyone around you, either. We have remedies for that. Mine is famous,” Finnan said.
I didn’t have a good go of things in the mortal realm. I was going along with the whole missing Unseelie princess and feeling as terrible as I was right now because I was hoping things would be better for me in the Unseelie realm. I wanted to activate my Fae side, cross the border, and forget everything that ever happened to me in the mortal world. Every time something good happened to me, it quickly got torn away.
They said Fae lived a long time. Some of my experiences were so etched into my psyche that forgetting them might be impossible. Some of those experiences just needed to be reclaimed with better memories. Drunk people used to scare me, but I trusted everyone in this room.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
Finnan
Reagan needed this, but we could have put it off until she was back home and feeling better. We needed to pass the time and distract her until she detoxed and could go home. Estrella just wasn’t going to let her stay, and we didn’t have some fabulous plan to save the day.
I was counting on Tucker to make us some amazing drinks. Cyrus was all about the mead, of which we had plenty, but I was all about the sparkling purple shite with mangoes and a little firework in it when they brought it out. Yeah, mead was good and all, but it wasn’t like one thousand proof and definitely didn’t burn away any harmful bacteria in your gut. Humans and their shitty beer didn’t really seem to get that when they were trying to label beverages as homosexual.
I wasn’t a slouch with the cocktails either, and I was hoping to share recipes with Tucker. IlikedTucker. I loved the way he poked at Cyrus and always had Reagan’s back. I knew Cyrus had issues because Tucker was backing her on literally everything, but he would be grateful for that when we were home.
I left Reagan with Cyrus and Oisin and moved to the bar with Tucker. We were too far away to hear them so that they couldn’t listen to us. Tucker was mixing something neon green, so I started with this fruity cocktail I was sure she’d enjoy.
