Reaching Answers

by Erin R Flynn

  Then I went to meet up with the Courtenays, and they weren’t the ones shocked.

  I was.

  “Yes, I’ve known you’re a fairy,” Mrs. Courtenay chuckled. “I was there the night you were born, Tamsin. Your mother and I have long been friends. I’ve missed her so much. Now that you’re telling me, that means she’s coming back, right? How much longer?”

  “You knew of my birth?”

  She frowned. “Of course. Didn’t Meira tell…” Her eyes filled with tears as her hand moved over her heart. “No. No, please don’t say it!”

  “Queen Meira fell protecting all fairies,” Iolas told her gently.

  I felt the painful wail she let out in my soul, knowing the friendship they had shared was true and more than casual. It made me feel… Well, I knew that loss and was currently experiencing it, even if Mel was still alive.

  “I didn’t know, and I’m so very sorry for your loss,” Mr. Courtenay said as he comforted his mate. “Your mother was a wondrous woman. She will be mourned by many. This is a travesty.”

  I simply nodded. I felt a fraud accepting condolences for a woman I despised. Maybe one day I could understand what she’d done if I had more answers but right then… I couldn’t feel anything for my mother other than hate.

  “I’m sorry, but we have to lock this knowledge away,” I whispered as people gathered around the barrier, anxious and worried their queen was so upset. “You have to understand that—”

  “Of course,” Mrs. Courtenay agreed, between sobs. “Of course. Do it. I will do anything I can to protect Meira’s daughter. She was—I loved your mother like a sister, Tamsin. We will always be here for you. For all light fairies.”

  “Thank you but I’ll be there for all fairies, not just the light ones.”

  Her eyes filled with more tears as she gave a firm nod. “Meira would be so damn proud of you for that. She hated the divide. She hated it. Her mother…” She glanced around and saw the crazy before holding out her arm. “Lock it away. Quickly. We will speak more later when there is less confusion. There is much to tell you now that I know you were in the dark.”

  “Thank you. I need—” I swallowed loudly. Yeah, I needed information, but not right then. Later.

  It seemed that was always my answer, and maybe that made me weak… But there was always a lot of fucking information too.

  Some days, I just needed a fucking break instead of more bullshit.

  I quickly put the magical locks on what they knew and checked the other fairies were cloaked before lowering the barrier and heading out. I knew they were going to hide themselves from everyone besides the royals, but it was always smart to double check given how often I had eyes on me.

  And it was smart to assume, more than I ever realized. That had kept me alive more times than I could count.

  I left Iolas and Taeral to handle coordinating the fun of helping get hobgoblins out and handling the recovery of stolen fairy belongings as I headed back to enjoy my delayed Valentine’s Day celebration.

  Only to find a cotton candy burrito filled with ten scoops of ice cream and tons of toppings. Two of them. Just for me.

  “I love this fucking holiday,” I whispered as I took in the monsters Darby had waiting for me. “Can we make this like, a monthly thing?”

  Lucca snorted, the others trying to hide their amusement. “We can definitely have a day a month we spoil you, kitten, but I’m not sure we can top this every month. We’re only mere men.”

  “Fair enough. But I can get stuffed like this?”

  “Of course your mind goes to the food,” Hudson grumbled, pulling the first one closer. “Yes, we’ll make sure you get a day of buffet and nummies.” He waited until I was moaning with my first bite before moving in closer. “But we’re going to spend all night stuffing you with other things besides food.”

  I took another few bites before smiling brightly at them. “I get sex toys as a present too?”

  The list of names they called me as they cursed and adjusted how they stood was amusing. And two ice cream-filled cotton candy burritos that large was too much sugar even for me. I was practically bouncing all over the kitchen.

  Luckily, they had several plans on how to use all that energy.

  And they involved sore muscles, lots of moaning, and the need for healing runes afterwards.

  My favorite kinds of plans. Valentine’s Day was worth the wait if it involved them.

  25

  The win with getting all the hobgoblins out of Africa was huge. Alpha Berman was oddly quiet about the whole thing and we knew why. He’d “acquired” crystals of mine “illegally” and paid a hefty sum for them. He thought he’d fooled us all and was sitting pretty to get what he needed to keep his people safe, looking the hero.

  For the next few years at least. So, he basically told them it was the cost to keep their castles safe and let us have the win while his contact stayed in my camp and kept smuggling out crystals.

  All while we were intentionally selling them to the asshole so we could have complete access to their security when the time came. Sometimes, I almost felt sorry for the assholes when they were so damn egotistical, they couldn’t see how stupid they were being.

  What did shock me was that some people actually had the balls to report the thefts of what was taken, even making up bullshit paper trails of how they’d legally acquired it. Some were real and it gave us everything to go after bad people later.

  But all the royals and those who had helped were ready, giving the brush-off and statements to the press that they should check their own houses. It was amusing to see how fast it got turned around when the hint that guards so lacking in morals as to help estates holding hobgoblins as slaves would steal during the chaos.

  Ignoring the fact that those families were the ones giving the orders. So there was internal fighting and a lot of everything blowing up. It was great, and I wasn’t the only one sitting back and wanting popcorn to watch it unfold.

  What wasn’t great was the next wave of them demanding women get back to their places and all of this turmoil in the supe world was because women were stupid enough to believe they should have any sort of equality or freedom. People were doubling down on that and pushing harder, as if thinking that was the only way to put the stopper back on the progress being made.

  It wouldn’t, but it was making my eye twitch more and more from stress and the need to beat the shit out of some people.

  Several.

  Okay, a fuck ton.

  I was so going to end up in jail.

  I hit my limit just over a week after my belated Valentine’s Day celebration. I finished classes for the day to find some of the most pompous master’s students gathered around, listening to one of the biggest windbags give another interview. They all looked at me with smirks, and the timing worked out I’d had my telepathy on, so I heard everything they were thinking.

  All their bile.

  All their bluster.

  Their absolute concrete beliefs the their side would win and women would get shoved back into corners to be quiet, into kitchens to cook their meals, and pop out their sons like we were bitches to birth their pups and nothing more. More and more were coming to their side, as no one had the balls to step up and fight against sense and knew the truth was being spoken.

  It was simply a matter of time before all of us wild women were handled and the havens were found and shut down, as they should be. And all of those women given back to their husbands and the men of their families, as was right.

  Given back to. That was the actual phrases in their minds and being used in the interviews.

  I blew my lid. I was shocked the top of my head didn’t pop off like in a cartoon. My eye twitched so badly, it actually distorted my vision as I headed right for the guard station.

  Another day, I would have been amused at the confusion coming off of them when I signed out to go off campus and didn’t have my bike or a vehicle. One of them was smart and radioed for Zack or
Ray, but they were two late. I left my bag with one of the guys I trusted and took three steps off campus before opening a temp portal to where the asshole was giving his press conference.

  “Tamsin, don’t!” someone bellowed from behind me.

  Too late. My temper was full out blown. I stepped through and arrived somewhere I didn’t recognize, glancing around and finding my target.

  Carson Leisser. Fox shifter, and one of the loudest voices who’d started most of this bullshit about women staying in their places with their families and doing what their betters, their male betters, told them to. And how everything bad that happened to them in their lives was their fault for being weak.

  And he was Councilman Leisser’s eldest son, up for the seat one day.

  Only if he lived until then.

  “I have had it with your lunatic rantings,” I stated as I walked over to him. I vaguely drew something on my hands before shooting out barriers to contain his security and posse. “You bark and bark and bark like a rabid dog about being better. Well, it’s time to put your money where your frothing, hysterical mouth is.”

  I moved my fingers along my forearm after pushing up the sleeve of my sweater and launched my attack, breaking his hips and shoulders right there in front of all the cameras.

  “Arrest her!” Carson howled as he crumbled to the ground.

  Predictable. I moved closer so we were about ten feet apart, smirking at him. “Isn’t this your fault for being weak? Isn’t that what you say about the lowly women? Are you saying you can’t be held to the same standards as weak women? You rant and rant about how it’s their fault for being weak when they get hurt or abused, but one little rune you’ll heal from and you want me arrested? Do you need a bra, Miss?”

  His eyes filled with rage, his fox moving behind them, and the idiot took the bait. “I’m no woman and you are all weak. I’m tired of you not being shown your place and causing problems in our society.”

  “I feel the same way about you,” I purred. “You’re a hysterical relic that the humans would look down on as outdated as you bark about idiot ideas they’ve long moved past. Is the world still flat to you? Do you want me to be sold for two goats? Traveling by train can cause instant insanity? I mean, even you can learn like the humans, right? Or do you believe I’ll be reborn as a vampire because I’m redheaded?”

  “You need to shut your mouth and learn respect,” he snapped as he healed, yanking off his jacket while pushing to his feet.

  “Respect is earned and you’ve done nothing to earn mine,” I jeered glancing at his groin. “Your tiny penis certainly won’t help you here. Let’s be honest about how small it is. We both know that’s why you bark so loudly about how great you are. Humans compensate like that too. Normally, it’s with obscenely big trucks or tiny red sports cars, but we all can recognize what you’re doing.”

  Someone from the media snickered and my eyes went wide as I heard her thoughts.

  He had an array of tiny red sports cars.

  “Well, well, I guess you’re just like the humans in some ways,” I mocked. “Tiny red sports cars are your thing, huh?” I eyed him over. “Yeah, that still wouldn’t get me near you. Your poor mate.” I snapped my fingers as he finished healing. “I bet you have a lot of hot security or staff she hangs out with at home while you travel around barking women are so stupid and beneath you, right?”

  I didn’t get anything off of his security, but I glanced at them and laughed like I had, snapping the final thread of Carson’s temper as well. He launched at me and I easily deflected him, throwing a quick jab to his face.

  “That’s it? Weak. Guess your daddy needs to take care of you too, huh? We can’t have you off-leash walking all around to cause trouble for your family.” I ducked as he came for me again. I realized he’d still been healing because then his third hit actually had something behind it.

  But nothing like mine.

  I gave him an uppercut that knocked him off his feet, his eyes full of shock as he pushed back up. “See, this is what happens if you don’t intentionally keep women weak. We’re not. You cheat and don’t give them the same training as men and then bark and rant how they’re useless. You engineer it that way by keeping them in kitchens and teaching them fucking knitting and then they can’t fight.”

  I spun on my foot and landed a beautiful kick to his stomach that made him double over. I changed legs to give him enough time to get a breath before slamming my knee up in his head, blood spurting all over for the cameras to catch.

  “But clearly all your bitching and hysterics were a front to hide how weak you are and that women scare you.” I studied him. “You sound like a closet case. One of those crazy ass humans who are so far in the closet, they lose their minds from denying who they truly are and try to hide it by going so ultra conservative and prudish in the hopes no one will notice that it’s insane.”

  Steam about came out of his ears at the suggestion he was gay and he tried to punch me. I grabbed his wrist and yanked it behind him, hurting him but careful not to break his arm or dislocate his shoulder.

  I wanted this fight to last a while. I had a lot of issues to work out with this asshole.

  “Pathetic. Someone even suggests you might be gay and you flip. Seriously? You’re that fragile you take it as an insult? I think everyone in the LGBTQ community just fucking cheered you’re not one of them.” I shoved him away and smirked at him. “How’s that respect you’re teaching me? Going well?”

  He rallied, kicking it up a notch for the next series of hits.

  Well, attempted ones. I blocked them all with ease which severely pissed him off from the way they kept coming faster and faster.

  I reached past one block and thumped him in the forehead with the heel of my hand, smirking at him when he couldn’t hide his shock I’d gotten the drop on him. “Come on, deep down we both know you won’t win this. You can’t seriously think you have a chance, right? I mean, you bark and bark your nonsense because you assumed my guards wouldn’t let me walk into this.”

  “I assumed you would know your place and never be so insane as to come after an adult male.”

  I snorted. “I train with Nathan Larson. I beat him all the time. Everyone talks about it. I’m sorry your ears don’t work, along with your brain, but it’s also well known I train with Trigger Rothchild because I’ve worked up through all the levels of the Rothchild clan’s training program. I’m at the level of the big boss. The head of the clan. You were never going to be a match for me. I’m not even breaking a sweat.”

  And he was. A drop of it ran down his cheek in that moment just to prove it and set off his temper to another level.

  Carson was trained though. He wasn’t the normal rich slouch. I was fairly sure he went to Artemis and Coach Khan had probably paid attention to him as a male shifter. But the elites had been badgering everyone to go easier on them, give them breaks, and with that meant lowering the bar.

  Setting the new standards well below what they used to be.

  So Carson still didn’t make the cut compared to who I was used to squaring off with.

  Every few times I blocked his attempts, I threw out a hit of my own that actually landed. I fractured a rib or his cheek. I grabbed his hand and broke a finger instead of simply blocking. Little things he would heal from as a shifter.

  Until his energy was completely wiped and then he wouldn’t. A few more hits there, a broken arm there, and we went longer than human prize fighters could without all the dancing around. We also didn’t take breaks.

  It took that long for more people to show up, the fox elders… Including his father who was just as much of a pain in the ass. I bit back a smile when I saw them all come pouring out of the building we were by, like dogs smelling something they needed to come check out.

  Actually, that was insulting to my dogs. They had better sense than these men.

  I kicked out Carson’s knee, snapping it and breaking a few bones just for good measure.

&n
bsp; “You are feral!” Elder Leisser roared. “You’ve done it now, you trash. You attacked my son and will be finally controlled as you should be.”

  I smirked at him as I punched his son hard enough that blood went everywhere. “I’m trash? According to you and your vile son, this is all his fault for not being strong enough to defend himself against me. He’s so weak that he’s a burden on our society and must be managed accordingly. Isn’t that the argument you and your minions keep spewing?”

  “That is for—”

  “Women, yes, I know,” I drawled, giving a hard kick to break the whole side of Carson’s ribs when he tried to get up. “My ears and brain work just fine, no matter what your outdated and delusional mind thinks. I know you say it about women. As I asked your son—are you saying he’s too weak to be held to the standards of women? Or are you willing to admit your whole rantings are bullshit?”

  And just like that I had them, all of them, and Councilman Leisser knew it from the way he looked at the cameras catching every second of this.

  “Your choice, Leisser,” I taunted as I stepped on his son’s broken knee that wasn’t healing it. I ground my foot to shatter it into tiny pieces, several people around us wincing. “Admit it’s all bullshit and this is wrong, that it’s assault, and no one ever deserves it, and you can call the police. Hell, you’ll be a hero for finally having a valid reason to take me into custody.

  “I’m doing it live on camera. But others can’t file the report. You or your son have to. That’s the law. The others can call the police as to a disturbance, but it’s on tape that Carson agreed to this and said he would teach me respect. So now you can stop this. All you have to do is admit it’s bullshit. Just say the words. It’s not hard. I’ll do it for you.”

  “You can’t—” he tried but I kept talking.

  “Women are equal to men and it’s not about them being weaker than men, but there is always someone stronger. There are always people out there who will hurt any of us, and that’s not their fault. They are not property or slaves who deserves what happens to them if they disobey the men in their families. They do not need to be controlled so your society runs well. Say it and have me arrested.”