After Puck had accepted the deal, we all agreed that’d it be better to finish our conversation in the morning. They then suggested that we should all share a room in case we were attacked in the middle of the night but I quickly vetoed that idea. I made them get their own rooms because the absolute last thing I needed right now was an audience to the shit show that was my sleep cycle. While I did owe them the truth about certain things concerning me and Mab, my personal issues weren’t up for discussion. 

So as they slept the night away, I ventured out into the woods behind the tavern and practiced calling on the abilities I wasn’t supposed to have. Metal was by far the element that came the most naturally to me, I could bend it to my will with very little to no effort. Earth and fire were more complicated to control as the Seelie were the only ones who knew the techniques to commanding these elements. Unlike the others, they had a will of their own with almost no interest in following someone else’s. 

For the first two hours or so, I practiced weaving red flames into a barrier encircling the space around me leaving burn marks in the earth. They rose only as high as the top of my head before my right temple began to pulse in pain. A tell that the element was fighting back, that it wanted to follow its own course and not be directed by another’s. It was at that point that I switched over to earth trying to coax it from its shell to follow my will.

Between the two, earth had always responded much easier to me than fire. It was more willing to bend and follow my direction if I was gentle with it. Instead of bending it sharply to my will like I would with metal, I used soft whispers and nudges to get a response from it. Put simply, I enforce my will upon the elements in three different ways. Metal needed absolute domination, Earth needed a lover’s gentleness, Fire required patience and Water...I didn’t think about water.

With a swish of my hand in a motion much like you’d use to twist a bottle cap, the flowers transformed rapidly. The white petals drifted softly to the ground while the stem thickened and overlapped the top. Bumps covered the newly formed vines until finally the thorns broke through with a gentle caress of my will. Bright green vines covered in black thorns, making them a bitch to pull from your body, twisted and intertwined like a nest of Lamia. Dropping my hand, I urged the vines to grow until they whipped around in the air a couple of feet above my head. Whispering words of fear and protection, I watched with a laugh as the vines turned and began ripping into the air in front of me. 

Urging them back into the ground, I shook my head and patted the top of them like you would an obedient dog before they returned to the soil. Standing, I flipped the cloak’s hood back over my head and started towards the tavern. Waist chains bumping my hips as I went, I was just about to exit the treeline when the soldiers from last night came through the back door. It slammed shut behind them as they chatted about making it back to base before the midday drills began. The young male I felt a strange sense of familiarity to was there nodding along to what the others were saying. 

Pastel green eyes flickered over his surroundings before they locked onto my royal blue ones. Eyes narrowing, I stared back at him while trying to grab onto the thought that danced just out of reach. I knew this boy from somewhere but where? His own eyes grew warm before his pale lashes lowered following the slight bow of his head. The exchange only lasted a couple of seconds before he flashed a boyish grin to his watching friends and then they all winked out of existence. What the fuck was that? I’d say he was trying to flirt with me except it felt more...platonic and revered but even that didn’t make sense. 

He was a Unseelie soldier, he should have disgust and hate for me on behalf of his queen. Why hadn’t he alerted his comrades? There was no way he didn’t see my face, the hood of my cloak was barely sitting a few inches over my hairline. Unless it was just a ploy and they planned to travel back with a squadron of soldiers but he couldn’t know who I was. I’ve never had my portrait commissioned in Tir Na Nog and in prison I’d had a haze spell making my features unrecognizable. No one but fae my own age or older should be able to recognize me by looks alone. And even then, it wasn’t like my features were extoic, there were others with the same hair and eye color as me. Unless they caught sight of my tattoos…

“There you are! Come on, let’s eat! My stomachs eating itself.”

Dani’s shout snapped me out of my thoughts and had me moving to where she stood inside the back door. “Yea, yea.”

“Have you been out here all night?” 

“Nah, I came out here an hour or so ago. Couldn’t sleep.” 

Pink eyes sparked, “Feel weird sleeping alone?”

I’m always alone these days. I flashed her a impish smile, “I wouldn’t know, Babes. I never sleep alone.”

She laughed before spinning on her heel and walking into the tavern with me following at her back. Sighing, I smoothly made my way through the crowd without touching anyone. Once we reached the table we occupied last night, I sat down and scooted over until I was directly to the side of the window. A perfect position if I needed to make a quick escape. 

Across from me was Dani and between us sat Puck, all of us in our clothes from last night although they went without the cloaks this time. Before any of us could speak, a waitress swung by and dropped three steaming bowls onto the table. Puck slid a few coins her way that she quickly snatched up, long turquoise hair streaked with bright orange swaying as she walked away.

“I’m so glad me and Calvins hair color go well together. The pink streaks in his black hair look really cute.” Dani announced, sliding a bowl towards herself. 

Taking a bowl as well, I asked, “What’d you gift each other?” 

“I thought you were mad about not coming?”

Raising a brow, I said, “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know.”

When a fae pair mated they held a ceremony underneath a great oak tree ringed with white mushrooms. Words spoken out of true love inside the ring between the two fae caused their souls to intertwine. However, if the words spoken in the ring were not true love but something else then the mating wouldn’t be completed. That was always a very embarrassing experience for both the couple and thoses who attended. If it worked though, then steaks of the others hair color would appear on their heads first while their magick reached out to each other. 

The fae couldn’t share power but they’d always have a sense of their mates’ well-being. A fae could pick out his or her mate blind folded in a sea of thousands with no problem, the magick inside of them constantly calling out to the other. Lastly, a gift from the heart was given to each other. It wasn’t a real part of the mating but more of a tradition and most of the younger fae tended to skip it nowadays.

Dani’s smile was huge as she reached down to fiddle with something before sitting up and placing it on the table. “Isn’t it just gorgeous?” 

Huffing out a laugh, I carefully picked up the blade. It was a short throwing knife with a wicked looking curve but it was the handle that caused my laugh. A black and white panda with huge eyes and a bamboo stalk hanging from the corner of its mouth was painted on it. It warmed my heart to see Dani with Calvin, it was now even more obvious that he was the one for her. As the most profound painter in all of Tir Na Nog, Calvin hated nothing more than painting peoples pets or cartoons. He was a bit of snob about his talents but it worked out because Dani was just as snobbish about them. She never asked him to draw her favorite animal even though she really wanted him to. 

“I can’t believe he actually did it.” 

“I know,” She replied, dreamily. “He said if I was going to put myself in danger then I could at least do it in style.” 

Shaking my head with a small smile, I placed the blade in front of her and shoveled a spoon full of porridge into my mouth. It was bland and a little on the chewy side but it was better than anything I’d eaten in a long time. If it had been rich in flavor my stomach wouldn’t have been able to handle it, not after eating prison food for so long. 

A tan hand reached out, fingers gliding over the blade, “What did you give him?”

“A brush set hand-crafted from a Trolls cane.” 

Puck let loose a low whistle, “Must have cost a fortune.” 

Dani grabbed it and then leaned down to tuck the blade safely back into her boot, “It was worth it to see his paintings come to life.” And she meant that literally, anything crafted using a Trolls cane had the power to bring things to life. Nobody really understood why, it was just another quirk of living in Tir Na Nog. 

Using the wooden spoon, I flattened the top of my porridge before digging in and taking a bite. Something about the action just felt extremely satisfying and made the food taste better. Flawed logic, yes. But it never tasted as good if left unflattened. Repeating the action, I was steadily making a dent into the bland food when Puck started speaking. 

“So, what happened after you escaped?” 

Glancing up, I flicked my eyes from Dani to Puck, “And that’s important to future plans, becauseee?”