Page 43 of Prey It Ain't So

Fitz moves to criss-cross his legs, bending over them to put his elbows on the ground in a pretty impressive display of flexibility. “Alright, Perching Poet, lay it on us. We can’t decide if you’re busted until you spill it. So let’s hear it.”

My lips twitch, but I nod in agreement. “I agree. I can’t make a judgment until I know the facts.”

The gargoyle grabs a pillow and wraps his arms around it, his discomfort obvious. “After our conversation aboutma petite, I began putting a lot of pieces together in my mind. Memories, flashes of the past, things I hadn’t thought about in so long that I was surprised I remembered at all. Adding them up, it occurred to me that we had always lived near some sort of magical group before the Treaty. In fact, the reason I could fall in love with myamour passéwas because her ‘tizzy’ of fair folk were settled mere miles from our nests.”

Dolly frowns, rolling to her side as she looks up at him. “So? What significance does that have?”

“A lot,mon amour. I had to lie awake thinking most of the night, but I also remembered that before the Treaty, many mythical groups had strong relationships with magic users—griffins were friendly with mages and witches, gargoyles with the Fae, chimera with djinn, dragons with wizards, unicorns with pixies, and so on. That all changed, obviously, but why were the rest of the preds and shifters so distant while the powerful mythicals were not?”

Chess snaps his fingers, grinning broadly. “Because something ties them together! Right?”

Ren nods, his expression serious. “Oui, Chester. Perhaps the origins of those species are tied to both shiftersandmagicals? It made me remember the plant charts in the Charles vault and how they used genetic engineering to make Fae plants grow here, then cashed in. And of course, my imagination went wild, but… perhaps the mythicals have always resulted from inter-species breeding.”

“Holy shit, man.” The possibilities whirl through my mind and I look up to the loft where the dragon hasn’t come back from his shower yet. “That would make sense, but… what does it have to do with the bridge? And why the fuck would the mythicals stay here rather than follow the others into the Veil?”

He shrugs. “That, I do not know. Perhaps the mysterious Society offered them something they could not refuse? Maybe the magicals had alienated them? I wasn’t quite old enough to be told the entire truth before I was exiled, as you’ve seen, nor was Flames. However, my deceit on the bridge was my way of testing my theory.”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you testing on animals iswrong?” Dolly grumbles at the gargoyle. “Especially fluffy, white bunnies who love you?”

The flush creeps up his neck, and Renard coughs. “Vraiment?2, my mate. I feared that if I told you, and they could read it on any of your faces, we would violate their laws. But yes, I suspected that perhaps the way our clutch could hide from everyone, the amulets that allow our shifts without damaging our clothes… all the little things I grew up thinking were normal for gargoyles are normal because…”

“Because the Fae gave them those things,” I finish for him. “That’s why you assumed that there would be some sort of alarm to let them know if they were entering their territory. You think mythicals made deals with the shifters to fight alongside them and consorting with their old allies could get everyone killed. Plus, I’d assume they weren’t sure if any slipped the hunts after the Treaty, so they’d leave those in place.”

“Oui.” He sighs as he shrugs. “Maybe there were rumblings about the tide turningbeforethe Treaty. That could be why they were so against us dating or being in love. It may be what saved the mythical shifters from getting caught in the middle for a bit—they limited the interactions even before the shifters lost their minds.”

“Um…”

We all look at the princess as she bites her lip and raises her hand like she’s in one of our classes. I laugh, waving at her to stop it. “What, Princess? Why are you looking so unsure all of a sudden?”

“Well, I get that the stupid bug thing means I have Fae blood. And we think maybe Lucille went off-book to have me because sheneededan heir…”

“Right.” Fitz leans over further, putting his palms over hers. “Go on.”

“It leaves alotof questions, Fitzy.” Dolly sits up, mimicking his position as she looks at us. “One, doesn’t that make me, like,illegal? Two, if so, does her pappy know and if he doesn’t, is that going to be a problem? Three, is this whybothsides seem to be after me? Like, do they think I’m some mystical impossibility that can save the world? Four, can I opt out of that shit?”

Aubrey finally makes it downstairs, dropping to the ground with a thud as he pins her with a firm stare. “I could hear you all, you know. And to answer that torrent—probably, probably not, definitely, abso-fucking-lutely, maybe, and I’m afraid not.”

She sticks her tongue out, scrunching her features up brattily. “That was not helpful, big guy. If you’re right about all of it, then we have no other option than to fight this shit from the middle. Otherwise, one or both of the fucking zealots are going to kill me to prevent… something. Right?”

“I hate to say it, but I think we just figured out why everything in our world is so supremely fucked, and it’s not just rich people,” I drawl wryly.“It’s power-hungry wealthy eugenicists waging a species war in secret.”

And somehow, our mate is the key to everything.

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me

Delores

I haveto say that I’m not super excited about feeling like I’m the ‘Chosen One ’.

My life has been planned and plotted meticulously by other people ever since I can remember, and when I left for Apex, I felt like I was grabbing my future by the balls to make it my own. Sure, I wasn’t completely unentangled from my grasping, shithead parents, but my fate was definitely being left up to me. Live or die—only I could make a difference in that scenario, because they made certain I knew they wouldn’t save me.

When Fitz and the guys came along, I made choices then, too. Every person I let into my tiny circle wasmydecision. As time went by, I built a real family from the ground up, and I’ve been spreading my metaphorical wings wider ever since. But this? It feels like some corny fate that I can’t escape and I don’t like it. Obviously, I can’t actually refuse to help save people who aren’t in the position I was with money and privilege behind me. However, I also can’t help but feel resentful that the mindful choices about my future have suddenly been made void by some stupid bullshit decided before I was conceived.

It’s the cherry on top of a shit sundae that I’ve been forced to eat over and over since my bunny emerged.

Despite my snarky joke earlier, I realize that I can’t simply reject this stuff. If our test and speculation are accurate, Iamthe product of a well-orchestrated bio hack to some and a pawn in a bigger chess game to others. Being pissed about it won’t change that reality, nor will sulking about losing my freedom to choose yet again. Even in this world where women hold positions of immense power like Lucille, the game is still played like it’s been orchestrated by men. My genetics weren’t my choice, my future was planned without thought to my needs, and the people in charge see me as either a broodmare or a sacrifice.

Feminism really shot over their heads and landed at the feet of their own internalized misogyny, I guess.

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