Page 22 of Veil of Monsters

“They aren’t free. There will always be slaves if fae rule. There will be people that are suffering behind closed doors. It’s just how the world is at the moment, and I do not agree with it.”

“I was nothing more than a slave to the witches. Used and abused. Perhaps if this works out for you and Emerson, you can change things.”

She has a point. I would love to free all mortals in the world, but saving it from Louie might be a good place to begin. Posy clears her throat. “I’m not saying I like the bats, but they’re fair and kind to their people. There are laws that prevent murder and females being treated badly, although there are only three Wyern females in that city.”

“There’s few of them born. They take generations to breed females.”

“How are there so many males and few half breeds then?” she muses.

“I read a book on this, and apparently mixing Wyerns with other races is difficult,” I explain. “Therefore, Emerson and his siblings are rare. As for the Wyern’s, they live for thousands of years like fae. Most are old. Many of the issues with breeding with other races comes from the difficult births not conception but perhaps there are fae like Ailen who can research new ways to safely deliver babies. I think the Wyerns have cut themselves away from the world and the advances that come with it. I’d like to change that, one day, if I get a chance. Maybe more Wyern will find mattings with fae if their king mated a fae.”

We keep our voices down, because talking about Wyerns in a fae city is probably not the best idea to stay low and quiet. We twist around several of the sandstone streets where sand is literally blown everywhere. It must come in from the sea. It takes us a good half an hour to get through the city and down the main part of the hill that leads to the pit of the city. “I sense him the most around here. He is this way.”

I suck in a deep breath of the humid, warm air. “Do you think he’s gonna come with us easily?”

“Oh, absolutely not.” Posy dodges around a woman with a cart, who glares at us both like she wasn’t in our path. “He feels as stubborn as me. He’s not going to come with us without some persuasion. Plus, I sense he’s very fearful of us already because he senses me. In fact, I feel like he absolutely does not want anything to do with us.”

“Awesome, so we’ve got to convince a kid that we’re not kidnapping him, but we are taking him to complete a deal,” I mutter.

“Plan B is knocking him out and then taking him. Mother never said he had to be awake when we brought him to her.”

My mouth parts. I really hope she is joking. I know she has been a bat for years, but she has to know that’s wrong. “We are not knocking out a seven-year-old boy, Posy!”

Posy rolls her eyes like I’m crazy, when in reality, she needs to work on her people skills. Or just general life rules. It feels like we walk for a good hour before Posy stops, turning down an alleyway. We come to a big house nestled within trees and taller buildings. A hanging metal sign rests above the door, the wordorphanagespread across it, but theOis missing. Ethereal City didn’t have fae orphans but there are far more fae here. The stones are broken across the tiles and splattered with mud and sand, and the smell is not so great.

Posy knocks on the door. No one answers for so long that I’m considering just opening the door, when a fae female opens it and glares at us both. She’s tall, thin, with soft greying fae hair, but her eyes seem young. “And what do you want?” I go to answer, but she carries on. “Unless you’re here to adopt some of these fae bastards, we’re not interested. We don’t have money or spare rooms if you’re pregnant and want to get rid of your kid.”

She goes to shut the door, but Posy slides her foot in to stop it. “We’re here to adopt one of them.” She purposely takes my hand. “We’re a new couple. Just moved into the city, and all we want is children. So, we’d very much like to adopt a child who needs a loving home. We have money.”

It’s like we have answered her prayers, with how her eyes light up. “Oh, that’s brilliant. Come in, come in. Thank the goddess you came to me!” She opens the door wide. “The other orphanages would have given you a sick kid or a troublemaker, but all my children are angels. I only let the best in here.” I suspect she is lying. Her entire demeanor changed the moment Posy mentioned money. “As you must know, we’ve really struggled with the orphans in the city. So much sex goes on behind closed doors. No one thinks of the consequences of these poor bastard children.”

She shuts the door behind us, and the house is filled with the noise of many, many kids. I look at Posy, raising my eyebrows. She gives me a look that says, “What else are we meant to do?” I don’t let go of her hand, and I keep up this pretense with her. “I can imagine it’s very difficult for you to feed so many children. What’s your name?”

“Madam Esis,” she answers as she walks to the stairs. “And you are correct. There’s only five orphanages in this entire city. This is a fourteen-bedroom house, and we currently have forty-two fae children living here. It’s too many. We don’t get many donations anymore, and after the king being killed…” She gasps, looks up at the ceiling. “Goddess above. Please, please look after his soul.” After the dramatics, she sighs. “Well, we suspect the trust fund of money that was coming out of the royal family to keep this city running is going to run out quickly.” Several children dash past me at speed, and a toddler waddles around the corner, barely walking. She grins at us as she chews on her rose-colored hair. Madam Esis follows my gaze. “What age group were you looking for? If you want a baby, I only have one, born a few days back. As for toddlers, we have—”

Posy cuts her off. “Older. A boy.” Madam Esis looks surprised. “We very much like to go hunting in the forest, so we feel that teaching a boy those skills would be beneficial for when he’s older. A baby wouldn’t be safe on the travels we take.”

She claps her hands. “Oh, I understand. I used to travel when I was younger. I have the perfect boy for you. We actually only have one older boy here.” She pauses. “Girls are often born more frequently than males in the city, especially among the bastards.” She leads us up the stairs for three flights before coming to a room. She knocks only once before stepping in.

There are six old rotten wooden beds spread across the room, and at the very back is a boy with earthy, dark green hair. Eyes are like the forest themselves, and he has the look of a god. I didn’t know with Posy; she can pass as a mortal so easily, but this boy… he could never pass as anything other than different. His skin is like gold, he is flawlessly beautiful like his cousin, but everything about him sings earth, like he was born from the mines themselves.

In his lap is a little girl. He’s cuddling her tightly as she naps. She’s only a baby, an infant, not more than a year old. Her sweet face is sticking up through curly orange hair. “There are adopters here to see you. Be nice to them.”

The boy narrows his eyes on us. “I’m not interested. Leave.”

“That’s okay,” I begin, letting go of Posy’s hand and walking over. The room creaks and shakes, and I pause.

“I am not too friendly to strangers myself, but if you hurt Calliophe here, we will have a big problem,” Posy warns. The boy turns to watch her with interest just as the ground shakes hard, hard enough to nearly knock us all over. I can taste the forest in the air as the boy watches us. Madam Esis begins to panic, muttering about the boy being strange and how there have been so many earthquakes since he got here. She adds that she won’t charge us much to take him off her hands. Posy holds her hand out at her side. A bitter cold breeze of air flows around the room from Posy, making the room grow cold. The boy smirks.

“Oh, my. It’s gotten awfully chilly in here, and the flames have gone out. Thank goodness it’s the middle of the day. These old houses are a nightmare. I’ll leave you for a moment to get some matches and new fae lights made.”

She walks out, shutting the door behind her. Posy and the boy are glaring at each other. I clear my throat. “Do you both have names? We are not here to hurt you.”

The boy pulls his glare from his cousin to me. His voice is lovely. “Paxton, and this is Emily. I’m not leaving without her. So, if you came here to take me, then you take us both.”

“Stubborn seems to be a trait for your family,” I murmur to Posy, who snorts, and I look at Paxton next. “Is she related to you? You look alike.”

“Not by blood. My mother’s best friend took me in for a while, but she got sick a few months back and died. We were sent here together,” he explains.

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