Page 10 of Milk and Honey

Jerid sneered in recognition. “So it is. We should have killed him, honestly, despite father’s wishes. We didn’t end up needing the leverage after all.”

Victor raged at the casual cruelty, hissing at them both. “Why? Why tear asunder two Fae families just to place your own on the throne?”

Jerid growled in anger. “Because the Courts are made to be pure! Seelie and Unseelie do not intertwine, ever, and your siblings have threatened thousands of years of that purity. Everything would have been fine if your whore sister Alette hadn’t spread her legs for Perikar. When our oracle told us that a half-blood Fae existed, father tasked us with hunting it down and eliminating it before word spread that it was even possible. Perikar was killed for fathering the abomination, and the only reason your sister did not follow him to the soil was because we needed the power of the throne before we could raise up a conquering force to your Court.

Vanor stalked closer, gesturing dangerously with his iron-edged blade. “We couldn’t kill Glade outright while Elim held the throne, our people’s forces would have risen against us for murdering a child, halfling or no. But Elim’s disappearance left a chaotic situation that needed to be remedied. A doting uncle stepping in to secure his great-neice’s safety through a political marriage is only natural, even if a midnight stroll gone wrong is about to cut her reign short. It’s a shame you won’t be able to attend her wedding—and funeral—you waste of Fae fles-”

Vanor was cut short as a chair slammed into the back of his head, sending his knife skittering across the floor, dangerously close to Victor and I. Vanor groggily rose to his knees, clutching the back of his head as my warrior-Queen stood over him, gaze darting back and forth between my cousins. She held the broken remains of the chair leg aloft like a weapon, baring her teeth at a startled Jerid when he moved towards her. “Watch your mouth when you’re talking to my fiance, fuck face. We might just be humans here, but you should see what we do to people that marry off children.”

I darted forward to head off Jerid’s attack and found myself brusquely shoved out of the way by Bailey, who tossed a steaming mug of liquid directly Jerid’s face with a battle cry of her own. “That’s for what you did to Mat, asshole! Fuck off!”

Jerid howled, clawing at his face, the back of his flailing hand catching Mel’s tunic and yanking hard. She stumbled over Vanor, who managed to struggle to his feet and grab her around the waist, stumbling backwards towards the magical doorway that Matcha had just repaired. With a strangled curse in Unseelie, he awkwardly shoved Mel against the solid door, which melted into a liquid wherever she touched it.

Before I could reach her outstretched hand, Jerid, Vanor, and my intended all fell through the gateway in a heap of limbs at the same time, the metal snapping back to a solid wall the second Mel vanished from sight. I slammed my palms into the door, calling her name frantically, talons scraping at the metal as if I could reopen the portal through force alone.

I spun, wild-eyed, to find Matcha, Bailey, and Victor looking as devastated as I felt. Matcha spoke up, correctly determining that I was moments from violence. “Elim. The portal magic recognized her contribution, it opened for her—I had no idea that was- that it could happen. The bonding magic is adding a layer to the spell that I don’t recognize.” He held up a hand at my enraged expression. “..and it’s going to take me some time to redistribute the energy, but I can do it. Please, your grace, stay calm and let me find you a path to her. To them.”

It took every ounce of faith I had in the seven soils, but I managed to nod, my talons threatening to piece my palms out of helplessness for my little spore, and the human woman that was, against all odds, claiming my heart right alongside her.

MEL

Once, when I was all of seventeen, a group of friends had gotten a hold of a bottle of peppermint schnapps from someone’s parent’s stash. We went to the playground of the town’s abandoned middle school, passing around that vile bottle and taking shots like we had any idea what the fuck we were doing. Eager to prove myself, I’d taken more than a few generous slugs of the cloying liquor and, at the height of my drunkenness, decided going down the twisty slide upside down was the coolest thing ever.

The nausea and vertigo from that alcohol-drenched core memory didn’t hold a candle to whatever the fuck was going on right now. When I hit something that felt like the ground long after I expected to land, I promptly rolled to my side and threw up half of the damned latte that had gotten me into this mess in the first place.

Spitting irritably before taking stock of my surroundings, my pounding head was yanked sharply up via a merciless grasp of my hair, which I swatted at ineffectively. “Ow! Fuck! Let go!”

“Put her in with the whelp. They’ll all die together, if things work out.” I was shoved into the chest of some man in leather armor, looking up to see a bleak stone tower that tilted and swam in my vision behind him. I straightened to glare back at the one they’d called Vanor back at Second Steep, who was rubbing the back of his head with a murderous expression aimed right at me.

His brother, the one they’d called Jerid, looked like he had acid thrown in his face. Angry red divots and pits stretched across his skin, with one long drip that seemed to be keeping his right eye sealed closed. “That mangy cur and his bitch threw purified salt at me. Ugh, it burns! I need to see a healer immediately. You! Send word to Lord Shadowcourt that his sons have arrived home and the plans have changed.”

The other armor-clad man hustled off towards a group of tethered horses, while the one I’d been shoved at steered me aggressively into the tower. I pulled out of his grip, intending to run, when a sharp point at my lower back made me still. “Even humans can bleed. Move, woman, or else your blood will join the soil beneath your feet.”

I swallowed thickly, tugging on the hem of my tunic as I shuffled forward, sneakers poised on the first step of a stone staircase that spiraled into a dark basement. Wherever I was, it had all the warmth and cheer of a condemned, abandoned renaissance faire, and I suspected I’d ended up wherever Elim and Vic called home. An impatient poke at my back had me reluctantly climbing downwards, where a dirt-floored cell waited. The guard pulled a key from his waist, unlocking a heavy, barred door caked with rust at the bottom edge, shoving me inside before slamming it closed again. I let out a string of choice human phrases at his retreating back, letting him know exactly how I felt about the situation.

The fucker had the nerve to whistle as he ignored me and climbed back up, leaving me in surprisingly large cell, heavily shadowed at the far corners. I sank onto the edge of a rickety wooden cot, cradling my still-aching head in my hands as I tried to plan what the hell to do next. A muffled sneeze caused me to jerk my head up, which I immediately regretted. Even though I’d experienced my very first portal today, I decided they really sucked. “Hello? Who’s there?”

A young girl of 8 or 9, small even for her age, emerged from the darkest part of the shadows, clad entirely in some kind of ornate, rubbery lace. She held a chunk of rock in her grasp, looking like she was ready either to hurl it or use it to bludgeon me, at least if we didn’t have more than two and a half feet of height difference. She tried to growl, but her pretty golden curls kind of took the wind out of the effect, as did the petulant stamp of her tiny booted foot. “I am Glade Shadowcourt, firstborn of Perikar-First-Heir, given back to the seven soils, and you’ll never take me alive!”

I sighed in relief. “Glade, oh honey, I’m glad to see you. Your Uncle Elim’s been worried sick.”

The poor thing looked absolutely crestfallen at the mention of Elim. “They got Uncle Elim? But I ran away so he could escape! I was- I was supposed to go to father’s grave and get- but, but they found me and-” Her blue eyes welled up with tears and she sobbed miserably. Wincing, I reached out and pulled her into a hug, patting her back and whispering. “Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay. He’s back in the human realm, that’s all. They didn’t get him! He and your other Uncle, Victor, they’re probably working on a way to save us right now. Don’t you worry.”

She sniffled, pulling one of the strange lacy sleeves across her face and blinking at me. “But I don’t have an Uncle Victor. I only have my Uncle Elim and my awful uncle and my awful cousins, but I don’t like them at all.”

I brushed her hair back from her face and attempted a reassuring smile. “I’ll tell you a secret: I don’t like them either. But you do have an Uncle Victor, and he’s wonderful, I’ve known him for a long time now, you’re really going to like him. And guess what? You even have an Aunt Mary—she’s a human like me and she’s the best cook ever and hoo boy is she going to love you. She’s been trying to get your Uncle Victor to have kids for a while and I think it might just happen once he meets you.”

Glade sniffled again, the barest hint of a smile peeking out, her courage visibly returning as I told her about her surprise family additions. I just had to keep her spirits up and keep her safe until Elim either found us or I figured out an escape plan. My stomach plummeted as I squinted at her strange outfit and realized the significance of the rubbery lace. “Glade, sweetheart, is this your wedding dress? Is this for the ceremony tonight?”

Anger twisted her delicate features. “Yes! Uncle Gretvir forced me to wear it, forced me to let the awful ladies braid my hair, too.” Her expression turned impish and she leaned in, whispering. “They were so mad when they found out I didn’t have the necklace anymore. The wedding can’t go on without the pretty sparkly necklaces—both of them—and I told them I threw it over the mountains. But really, I gave it to Uncle Elim! “

I blushed as I realized I’d seen the necklace she was talking about firsthand, back when it was lighting up the walk-in as Elim gave me the railing of my life. A clang on the distant cell door made us both jump, and I hugged Glade into my lap protectively. The guard that had escorted me in had crept back down at some point, and he was grinning like the cat that caught the canary as he called over his shoulder. “My lords! The shard-of-night is around the neck of your cousin! The little whelp just said so!”

Glade stared at me, wide-eyed, and started crying all over again.

This wasn’t good.

The guard returned just as I’d managed to get Glade calmed down and curled up on the cot for a rest, the blaze of sunset outside the tiny window telling me time had almost run out for both of us. “Get up, woman. The Lords Shadowcourt have questions for you. Move.”

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