Page 13 of Wishing Upon a Monster
I should move. We haven’t even known each other for twenty-four hours. Is this one of the perks of being married? I’m not sure––
“Min søde skat,do you want me to tell him instead?” He whispered in my ear.
I heard a squeak on the other end of the line. “No, uh, please tell him that there is a well on Ignatius Avenue; I can send you an email with the coordinates to your email address on file?”
“Yes,” we both said, which elicited another sound of discomfort from the man from the ECCM.
Olan’s hands slipped from my shoulders, briefly brushing my shoulder blades on the way down.
The line went quiet, and I realized the toad had hung up on me.
“Idiot,” I mumbled, sliding the phone in the pocket of one of my favorite corset dresses. It had little mushrooms embroidered along the seam of the skirt.
“Mmmm, he did sound brainless. Moreover... what is talentless?” His voice continued with that low, reverberating quality.
I wiggled my shoulders, walking away from him and towards the Goddess’ altar. I raised a finger, tracing the fierce face of our magical Goddess. “Talentless refers to a person born of two Magic User parents, who are born without the ability to access magic.”
“Like humans?” Olan asked.
“No, not like humans.” I expelled a breath, pulling my hand back to my side. “There is a common misconception encouraged by Magic User society that humans don’t have magic. Only Magic Users marrying other Magic Users can make magical offspring. This is not true. Magic loves humans. It hasalwaysfavored mankind. If a regular human devotedthemselves to learning magic and the practices used to access it, they could, with time, wield it in lower levels. Warding mirrors, making food that seems to enhance health, cleansing spaces, being able to locate water or gaps within the earth, accessing the Ether to divine the future using the proper tools, simple magic like that.
“If a Magic User married a human, it would dilute the magical access future offspring would have. However, with time, and careful matches between more powerful Magic Users, their children could be as powerful as any full-blooded Magic Family’s children.
“But I am notjusthuman. I am a Talentless, as in not a drop of magic resides within me. I cannot access it even with devoted practice. There is something in me, something fundamentally damaged that cannot receive magic. What’s more, the Talentless cannot typically produce magical offspring, even if mating with another magical being or Magic User. Only five percent of Talentless have produced children that can access even the lower levels of magic like most humans can.”
I turned around to face him again, my chin stubbornly set like I expected him to clip me in the jaw and was daring him to do so. “We are not wanted. We are other. They treat us like our inability to use magic is catching. I have had to work three times as hard as my siblings to get anywhere in our society. I am useless to everyone because I am tainted, and there isnothingI can do about it, and it'snotmy fault.”
My chest heaved, and I stood tall, still waiting for Olan to say something placating, to agree, to knock me down further, like so many people have done my entire life.
He stalked forward, his eyes slanted and his cheeks purpled with emotion, “You arenotuseless, Aurora.” His voice whinged like a rusty hinge, sharp and unappealing.
Yet what he said was the kindest thing a stranger born of magic had ever said to me.
“I know I am not, but this is what society thinks. This is why we would have trouble even if I had chosen you. I am useless, and you are a monster, and they just proved they will not accept this––”
“I do not care what these limited beings think about us. I do not care,” he said, advancing, “if I have to smite every mention of this abhorrent phrase from every Magic User’s text. You are mine, Aurora, and I am yours; even the gods themselves couldn’t keep me asleep once you wished, and these creatures will not keep us apart now that I am awake.”
He gently took my hands and tugged me towards his chest. “The gods found you worthy, Aurora Aurum, and that is why I woke up. That is why I am here, and that is why I will indulge your foolish Magic User registration, for you, because of you.”
When I ended up in his arms this time, I was not dying of red cap poison and was very much aware of the tingles his skin against mine created. I wasn’t really a hugger; I couldn’t remember the last time anyone in my family had embraced me.
I didn’t even want to think about Kenton and how he only showed me physical affection during sex. The mighty elemental mage would have probably died if I hugged him.
Thank the Goddess, I respect myself now.
My eyes fluttered closed as he continued to hold me, filling my nose with his bracken scent. I relaxed further in his arms.
“You are precious to me,min søde skat,and I will not hear of you parroting things that you know are not true,” he murmured, his voice reaching that low rumbly timbre I was beginning to find comforting.
“You don’t even know me, Olan,” I whispered back, snuggling into his coolness. His core temperature ran colder than the rest of us, and I found I liked it.
He scooped me up then, and my eyes opened as he walked us to my couch and settled down with me in his lap. Aware that I had been taking advantage of his obvious good nature towards me, I moved, only to be stopped with a hand along my cheek.
“You did not sleep well last night. I heard you wandering your space.” He pulled me back onto his chest. “I learned a lot on Magi Tube last night. I have questions.”
I relaxed again, not wanting to look a gift hippogriff in the mouth. “What do you want to know?”
“The first thing I am concerned about is the evolutionary change in vampires. What happened to make them...” he trailed off, clearly thinking, “sparkle?”
