Page 22 of Wishing Upon a Monster
“Only when my bride seems to be thinking thoughts tooheavy for her to carry alone. Do you want to be ‘cured’?” he asked.
Kenton asked me something like that years ago. I remember being soangrythat he would ask me such a question. Now, I feel like rotted wood floating in a pond.
“Is there anything to be cured?” I questioned, needing to know if this great being thought I was defective, too.
“No, wife, there is not. I am pleased with you, this is why I was willing to be registered with your foolish ECCM. Is this perhaps about––” he brought a fist up to his chin to think, staring out the window with me as if the window’s outlook could show him my point of view, “you said you wished to have children.”
“I did, and I do, not that it is up to you to provide them,” I added, suddenly feeling a bit nervous.
“Oh, but I would so enjoy the exercise of making them,min skat.I do not enjoy the thought of someone elseprovidingthem to you,” he grumbled, the gravelly sound making me shiver.
Mistaking my shiver for cold, Olan waved a lazy hand in the air towards a basket of blankets in the corner of the room. A shadow rose from within the basket and brought it to me.
“Thank you,” I said, followed by a soft laugh. “While that is still up for debate,” I giggled out right at Olan’s creaky harrumph, “You said they would have a mixture of our essences. What if the children are... like me?” I whispered, letting one of my longstanding fears free.
“Mmmm,” Olan said, his red eyes looking into mine like... like what I had to say mattered. “What if they do? It matters not to me if they cannot control the shadows as I do or grant wishes. Are they happy? Do they feel cared for and loved? Is this not what a parent’s chief concern should be? Having a mother such as you, brave and strong, they will learn from the both of us how to survive,min lille skat. They do not needmagic to flourish. You do not need magic to be loved for who you are, and neither will they.”
Hearing that, from not only a male intent on having a relationship with me, but from a god, healed a little piece of me I wasn’t aware was broken. I scooted up, bringing my blanket with me, so that I could rest with my cheek against his chest.
“Thank you for that,” I said quietly, looking out the window at the fireflies.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before we left?” He asked, gently playing with my hair.
“Did you see you in front of the ECCM?!” I teased. “Do you think having this knowledge then would have made any of that easier?”
“Fair point,min skat,” he laughed, scratching my scalp, “my wife is wise.”
I all but melted under his touch and his praise. “Don’t you forget it,” I sighed, content.
10
Aurora
The weekend was calm compared to our visit to the ECCM. Olan researched and asked me questions. I showed him how to work my oven and other kitchen appliances, though he didn’t like the microwave and wouldn’t tell me why. He used the new well to bring things for his room. I asked if he needed help, and he smirked at me and conjured the biggest ass bed I hadeverseen and said I was welcome to help him in bed anytime. With thatsmirk.
Males! Cue eye roll.
He had asked my permission before enchanting the guest room—his room—with a spell that would enlarge it without structurally messing with my cottage. I’d reminded him that, since that was the case, he hadn’t really needed to ask. He’d just hummed and kissed me on the head and vanished like a magician in a puff of black sparkly smoke, taking the bed with him.
I wish I could fucking teleport.
So the weekend was good, but today was still Monday. I was grumpy, on my period, and I had to do a shift with the nonmagical humans.
If you could pass for a human, it was required a few times a month, for enforcers to serve a day shift giving tours and manning the front desk of the section of the preserve we used as a cover. Nonmagical humans believed the Eastwood River Preserve was protected land that the local university used a small portion of to study wildlife. Ten acres of the land were reserved for that purpose. It was part of the deal Palmer’s family had made with the nonmagical human government to maintain control over the land housing all the ‘undesirable supernaturals’ in the eastern part of the state of South Carolina.
I understood why we did it; it helped us keep an eye on things and created a barrier between the preserve proper and the outside world. There have been quite a few instances where supernatural beings have declined to stay within the other one hundred and fifty-six acres. I’ve been told humans are delicious. It’s my job to make sure that if a supernatural entity goes wandering and gets a craving, they get a terrible case of indigestion for their trouble.
I finished lacing up my hiking boots, stood up, and checked out my uniform in the mirror. Instead of my forest camo, I was wearing a gray polo with the Eastwood River Preserve logo, three embordered trees with a pale blue squiggle below them, khaki cargo pants, and my boots. I couldn’t go all out with my accessories like I’d like, so the small wolf heads howling at my earlobes from my hook earrings would have to do.
I clomped down the stairs from my attic room, passing the office and Olan’s room on my way to the kitchen. I could smell something wonderful, and I hoped I wasn’t hallucinating that Olan had made breakfast. I also hoped he was willing to share.
Sashimi greeted me just before the kitchen with a cute little meow and a quick twirl around my ankles, “Is Olan not giving you enough treats, my littlefloof?”
“I am giving her a reasonable amount,min skat,but I do not wish for her to get sick,” he said seriously from the kitchen.
Leaving my beautifully spoiled princess at the door, I stepped into the kitchen, giving an appreciative groan to the smells of bacon, eggs, and biscuits.
“I will cook for you every day if you promise to make that sound,” he teased, sliding fluffy eggs onto one of two plates.
