Page 38 of The Deer and the Dragon
I popped off the lid to ensure the liquid was still dark. I could barely spot the brownish hints of coffee amid the pale swirl of liquid toothaches. I looked up at Fauna, intent on scowling, but struggled to muster the expression against her frustrating beauty.
Fauna’s ball cap and sunglasses only added an air of mystery. Instead of camouflaging her, they seemed to confirm the suspicions of workers and patrons alike that she was, in fact, someone worth hiding. I chewed on my lip as I considered the implications. Perhaps that was part of its charm. Her poor attempt at a disguise acknowledged their deeply rooted intuition that she was somethingotherwhile giving them the excuse of believing she was a famous actress or singer who happened to be getting coffee with a tired hag.
She was clever. I’d give her that.
I slid the sugary drink toward her.
“More sweets for me.” She positively twinkled as she accepted the offering. “Okay, you pick the topic. What should we cover first? Your sigil, or—”
“I want to know how you know me. I want to know what you have to do with any of this. Why would you intervene? Why—”
“Yikes, I got it.” Her eyes flared dramatically. She wiped her hands on her pants, then drained the last sugary dredges of her coffee before switching to my still-full cup. “Go get yourself a new drink first. You’re unpleasant. I hope it’s just morning grumpies and caffeine deprivation. I’m going to be really bummed if I swooped in to save a wet blanket.”
I bottled the irritated quips as I stood, extending my handfor the return of my credit card. If I hadn’t already felt the blooming headache of sleeplessness and caffeine withdrawal, I would have fought her on the issue. When I ordered a black coffee with a side of honey, the barista quietly asked me who my friend was, and I told her that I was on a breakfast date. She blinked in disbelief, which offended me. I was half-tempted to give her my pen name when she asked for a name for the order, if only to give myself a sprinkle of credibility. Instead, I offered her something in a moment of bitterness. I waited impatiently by the counter until she slid a coffee over, saying, “Divine One?”
“That’s me.” I lifted a finger.
I slid across from Fauna just as she finished the last of her goodies.
“Spit it out, nymph,” I said.
She snorted. “Maybe you do have some of your great-grandmother in you. Honestly, it would be better for all of us. Let that inner warrior shine. I saw the picture of her. The one on your fridge?”
I scalded the roof of my mouth with the far-more-acceptable coffee while my mind flashed to a black-and-white photo in a small magnet frame on my refrigerator. It was one of the few images of my grandmother before she’d left Norway. It was grainy, but I loved that they’d been in the traditional woolen dresses worn only on special occasions. The heirloom had been passed down my maternal line, though I hadn’t seen it in years. The red-and-blue bunad was probably still in a cedar chest somewhere in my mother’s storage.
I expected I wouldn’t see the heirlooms again unless my mother died or stopped being a bitch long enough to apologize.
The former was more likely.
In the image, my great-grandmother Aloisa held the tiny bundle that would grow up to be Grandma Dagny, the sweet, agoraphobic, first-generation immigrant on North American soil. The fjords behind her had always been my favorite partof the image. It looked like it had been taken from something written by Hans Christian Andersen.
My memories faded into the present as the black-and-white picture dissolved into the bricks, the coffee shop, and the nonhuman in front of me. “You met both of them?”
She glowed, apple-round cheeks alit as she said, “Aloisa’s a spitfire. We all understood why Geir fell for her. He loved her and his kid—your grandmother, that is.”
“Geir?” I repeated the name quietly. Was that supposed to be my great-grandfather?
“Do you want to meet him?”
My heart dropped, then bobbed somewhere in my entrails. I looked over my shoulder as if she were surprising me with a setup on this coffee date. The lost organ continued anxiously beating somewhere between my intestines, keeping me alive while sending me into surefire sickness. Suddenly the coffee smell was overpowering. The morning light hurt my eyes. Was it just me, or was there less oxygen than there’d been a minute ago?
Fighting anxiety-induced nausea, I asked, “Why did they leave?”
Fauna leaned back in her chair. Mouth downturned, she said, “Salem wasn’t the only place that had witch hunts, you know. Aloisa may have been human, but a lot of Europe was going through some religious shit pretty much side by side in the timeline. Ask Silas and his asshole of a master if you want more details. Aloisa thought it would be best to keep Dagny safe by leaving the country. This is supposed to be the land of religious freedom, right?” She gave a dark, humorless chuckle. “The angels fucking love it here.”
I drank deeply from my cup, then asked, “Why are you here?”
“Oh.” Fauna blinked. “In this country? I am and I’m not. We can go anywhere. We just generally…don’t. Most of us spend our time in our respective realms because they’re objectively better. You have some fun things here, don’t getme wrong. I really like your croissants, and your ridiculous shows are worth the visit alone. The Nordes don’t make sour gummy worms. Plus, mortal sensations are extra tingly. I’ll explain that later. But, thrill seekers love coming to the human realm.”
“So you’re a thrill-seeking fae.”
She swirled her cup. “Listen, I have no incentive to be on dead land. Your so-called angels and demons just use the mortal realm as a neutral battleground so they don’t fuck up their own kingdoms. It’s kind of brilliant, in an evil-genius sort of way.”
I stared at her in horror.
“Come on,” she pushed. “You write fantasy and have spent years fucking a demon, right? Shouldn’t this be an easy pill for you to swallow?”
Fauna was just a smudge as my vision blurred. I tried to repeat the word, but my mouth had dried. It came out as little more than wind over dust. “Caliban…you said…demon…”
