Page 51 of Cry for Help

I needed to get my mind out of the gutter.

“So, Maddie.” Caim sipped his wine. “Want to tell me what the screaming was all about?”

Had I screamed? I wondered. I thought I’d handled seeing Malphas’s cock demurely, silently, if anything.

“The scream when you saw the dead body.” Caim clarified, giving me a look that told me he was thinking about taking me to the hospital to check for a head injury.

Maybe I did have a head injury.

I shivered, wrapping my arms around my chest.

Did I want to tell them? I’d buried the secret like a box in my backyard, sucked down by the earth, and decomposed until there was no longer a line between the box and the dirt. Did I even have a secret? Perhaps it was more like a disability.

“I am a Bean Sídhe,” I said aloud, grabbing my wine and draining it before filling my glass again.

“Banshee?” Caim perked up. “Stolas told me what the Tailor said, I thought he was being sarcastic. Because of your silence.”

“It’s spelled differently, but the origins are the same.”I winced. “We scream in the presence of death. My family hails from the Aos Sí—where the Fae were born. We came to the Human Realities many years before the demons, fleeing persecution.”

“Your kind is hunted?” Malpha’s gaze darkened.

“Yes.” I rubbed my hand over my mouth. “When we are young, Bean Sídhe will alert to any death in their vicinity. Most of my kind don’t even leave their homes until they reach their teenage years. There is too much of a risk. Too much sensory overload, and if someone dies within a mile radius?” I shook my head in horror, not having to imagine the situation; I’d lived it. “I’ve been silent most of my life. I used to wear a special mouthguard.” I leaned back and showed the demons the roof of my mouth and the scarred ridges from the retainer I’d worn. I’d never taken it out, and it had damaged my back teeth and torn my mouth to bits, but it had kept me alive—so I couldn’t complain.

Both demons stared at me, but I couldn’t read their expressions.

“Our powers grow more discerning as we age.” I shrugged. “There is a right of passage amongst the Bean Sídhe. We call it the claiming.”

“The claiming?” Malphas echoed.

“When we settle down and find our home, we claim the land. But we can’t leave it for long without growing sick.” I explained. “I’ve never claimed anything, but the claiming is why my kind is persecuted.”

“You’re not claiming land that isn’t yours?” Caim joked.

“Nothing like that.” I bit my bottom lip. “Once a Bean Sídhe claims their land, they own the very air of it. Every inch of it. They can sense a bug dying, sickness, and the emotions of the people living on their land. They become God, in a way.”

“How much land can a Bean Sídhe claim?” Malphassipped his drink.

“Depends on the Bean Sídhe.” I shrugged. “But my kind hides because people want that kind of protection. Humans, demons, other Fae. We were imprisoned by Kings of the Aos Sí to guard their strongholds.”

“I can imagine why someone would want that kind of protection.” Malphas kept his emotions from his voice. “And you have been in hiding? Is that why you were in prison?”

I grimaced. “Not exactly. Something was hunting my family line. They didn’t want us for protection. Honestly, I’m not sure what they wanted. It took my mom. Then, it came for my foster parents. They weren’t Fae or even Bean Sídhe, but they were tortured. I think the thing that hurt mom was hunting me. Searching for me. Torturing them for information.” Bile rose up in my throat, and my eyes burned. I swallowed convulsively, but the sensation didn’t go away.

“There is a creature in Hell named theTumbi’ka.” Malphas rubbed the corner of her eye. “They are protective of their lair. Once they claim a lair, they can never leave.”

“What happened to them?” I asked.

“They were eaten.” Caim interrupted with a smile.

I covered my mouth with my hand. That felt too close to home.

“TheTumb’ikaor the Tums, as we called them, made camp at the edge of the forest of Greed. Unfortunately, they were too close to gluttony, and the Purgers came.” Malphas explained. “Purgers gather food for the King of Gluttony, Beelzebub. His royal court is insatiable. They cannot satisfy their hunger. It is their curse.”

“The Gluttony demons just ate another species of demon into extinction?” My voice hitched. “That’s awful.”

“We all have relatives we don’t like.” Malphas shrugged.

Our conversation devolved to silence, and Caim struttedpast me, grabbing the wine bottle and bringing it to his lips. He grinned around the lip of the bottle as he drank. “You’re not so scary after all, little Murderer.”

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