by Erin R Flynn
“That’s a lot to think about.”
“Isn’t it always?” she teased, nodding past me. “I believe your next course is ready and people are noticing us.”
I immediately took down the barrier and accepted more containers of food, muttering a thanks to her under my breath. I didn’t just mean it for the warning, but the talk. I didn’t really care much about Meghan Markle or the drama. I didn’t really have an opinion one way or another besides people could be jerks and liked to criticize everyone.
I thought discussing the topic with someone like her would be insightful and I was right. She was balanced and her advice smart, something I would absolutely listen to and take to heart.
And I would also say something to Hudson later that his watching me was getting him busted. Maybe we needed to have a discretion charm as well. Yeah, probably.
“Agra?” Darby murmured, cupping my face.
“Hmm?” I blinked up at him.
“I was talking to you,” he worried.
I remembered where I was and my character, blinking at him some more. “Sorry, I still feel spacey. I think I need to sit down.”
“That’s what we were trying to tell you,” Professor White muttered. “We’re ready to go.”
“Okay,” I mumbled, letting my eyelids flutter closed.
“I’ve got her,” Darby snapped, before swinging me up in his arms. “She’s my girlfriend.”
“I know. People just move for me faster,” Hudson grumbled.
I listened to what had been going on as we made our way to the portal. Apparently everything had been brought to the Vogels’ castle for storage and from there it was going to be redistributed since Mrs. Vogel, Tanesha, and the Rothchilds were the only ones I trusted with the undisclosed haven locations.
Plus, apparently loads more had been purchased from other stalls after seeing what I’d been picking. I hadn’t even known all that was going on behind the scenes. Izzy had also helped a group of aides get on veggie shopping after taking pictures of the fish places.
Yeah, that made sense. Raw meat—and certainly fish—wasn’t her thing. She liked it all cooked or in sushi form or it far away from her. Still, it made the outing way more productive than I’d thought.
But still really, really cheap for the cost of those three hundred crystals that were now tier seven.
“She’s out,” someone said quietly after we passed through the portal, and while I wasn’t fully out, I wasn’t really conscious either.
“Hold her, please,” Darby whispered. I was shifted and the scent of Mel’s favorite Winter Candy Apple Bath and Body Works lotion she used all year round filled my nose. “Going forward, if she is to continue, things need to change.”
“Oh, and you are speaking for her on this?” Mr. Gui challenged, clearly the royals having quickly gathered or waiting for the results.
“No, but as someone who treasures her, I will fucking physically bar her from the next time if that’s what it takes to keep her safe,” he shot back, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat. “You all slipped extra crystals in over the deal. Professor White collected thousands of extras. Not again. It could have killed her.”
“Nonsense, she just has to—” a male argued.
“She doesn’t have control,” Darby snarled. “It was an accident. An accident we’ve repeated. She has no idea how she does it. She can’t do it on purpose without those exact circumstances. Most wouldn’t dare have tried again without waiting until reaching fourth year where we get the training but yet, she’s doing it over and over again to help everyone else. No, not if it costs us her.”
“Everyone vows now or the deal is off,” Mrs. Courtenay demanded. “We made a deal with her and we risked her. I’m ashamed. We’re better than this. I know we’re desperate and scared, but she is nineteen and alone and we were greedy with her. No more.”
“Agreed,” several people muttered, relief filling me when they all swore it wouldn’t happen again and no more tricks.
“Mrs. Courtenay, while I appreciate all you taught Tamsin—and I’m sure she did as well—it impeded the goal,” Darby lectured.
She sighed. “I realized that later. I thought it gave her a break, not too so much longer for her to ramp back up.”
“Going forward, I will drive the outings.”
“You will, will you?” someone challenged.
“Yes, as I know my girlfriend better than you do,” he snapped. “You had the right idea and I even applaud your goals, but you put too many into one day, overwhelmed her, and didn’t finish anything but your crystals so now she’s got unfinished stuff.”
“How do we complete what she needs?” Mrs. Vogel asked.
“First, if you could send people back and hit the butchers she didn’t get to,” he answered. “They need meat and lots of it without too many bones for the dogs. Your people saw how Izzy took the pictures and what they did. They need that part for the stalls. The restaurants they can go back and get another time quickly at their leisure, but this will help them with the legwork.”
“That’s easy enough,” Mrs. Diaz agreed.
“I’m glad you think so because even with my quick calculations, rounding up what I believe you spent today you did not even hit a million when you’re getting thirty million of crystals. Tamsin might not worry over that, but I won’t let her be taken advantage of like that because once she is or if anyone hears she let herself be—”
“We understand, darling, we do,” Mrs. Diaz cut in. “Which is why we were already discussing doing another shopping trip for her like this on off weekends.”
“Good because I was going to say the same,” Darby sighed. “They were talking about having Mel’s cousins go and do this and that and you all have aides and are paying for the crystals. Make this part of the deal to take it off her shoulders. It doesn’t always have to be Barcelona, but this is always something she has to keep doing because everyone needs the dust. Rotate it up, get in more flavor, but help her.”
“Done, that’s easy enough if once in a while she guides us like she did today,” Mrs. Courtenay accepted. “That was very enlightening. What else?”
“I will speak with your aides and plot out where next, rotating areas but keeping away from Australia and Africa. You had a great idea, but you also let her see the dark side and worry. You need to show her the sparkle and fun.”
“Yes, yes, give us an example then,” Mr. Courtenay pushed.
“Street food and vendors,” Darby said.
“He’s right,” Hudson agreed as a few people said the same.
“She watches Irma and the hobgoblins cook with wide eyes and the magic they use fascinates her. Even when we’ve done cool food challenges, she’s always watching them put it together or excited how it comes out.”
“You’re right,” Izzy agreed. “She was showing me ideas about going to Bangkok and doing all the street food. She kept texting me links of videos showing all the neat ways they cook food asking if we could figure out if it’s all spicy in advance so she didn’t die or if I would try it first.”
“She’s also always wanted to go to New Orleans during Mardi Gras and eat every King Cake, donut, and beignet she can to try them all,” Mel told them quietly. “Oh, and a tour of every Po Boy. You need to up the food intake. She’s normally a garbage disposal because she went so many years without getting anything she should. It’s a miracle she’s okay as a supe given how undernourished she was.”
“That actually might explain why she cannot equalize now,” Professor White commented, sounding concerned. “How bad was it? We might need to speak with Dr. Salzman on this more.”
Mel sighed. “She was under a hundred pounds when I met her at fifteen. I mean, skin and bones, living on the street and completely starved. I’ve seen pictures from her foster care file, and she was always skin and bones to the point it’s hard not to hurt the people in charge that they didn’t flag her as being abused.”
“Not to defend the monsters
she ran from, but that is common with unknowns,” Mrs. Diaz said sadly. “They do not know they aren’t human and need to eat so much more. Still, we know two who went through such hardships. It might help Dr. Salzman to speak with them. They spent the first five years adjusting their diets as well.”
“Yes, that would help greatly,” Headmaster Edelman agreed. “He’s never cared for an unknown before and has been killing himself trying to quietly find all he can to help her but not scare her that she could still be stunting herself or face problems later.”
Well, I hadn’t been until right then… Fuck.
25
Darby had a promising future as a businessman for sure as he negotiated a tough deal on top of the auditing already agreed upon for Cherrywood. And it was only for the next outing. He was going to reevaluate after that if everyone behaved that time and things went better.
Damn. It was kind of hot to see my prickly pear go into battle for me.
“How much did you hear?” he asked once we were in my garages with our group, everything brought over, and the portal shut down.
“Enough to know you’re one of my favorite people right now,” I answered honestly as I went over to one of the storage shelves we had out there. I didn’t even have to look at him to know what he wanted from me then. “We’ll get to that later. There’s something to handle first.”
I slid on one of the prep gloves from the boxes we kept out there to feed the dogs as it was just easier that way. Then I went over to the stack of huge coolers someone had managed to swing and we were going to be reusing. I lifted the lid and pulled out a whole fish, tossing it over to Chief who sensed my upset, snagging the snack with more savagery than normal.
While focused on who I was upset with.
“You’re off the team,” I told Edelman, noting my display had its intended effect as the warlock swallowed loudly before his gaze snapped to mine. I nodded when his eyes flashed shock. “Time to separate church and state. I’m tired of this shit. I’m not your pet unknown or anything else. I appreciate the shielding you’ve done, but you cannot seem to separate roles here.”
“That’s not—” he started to argue.
“I agree, Kyle,” Geiger said quietly. “I’m sorry, my friend, but I do.” He gave Edelman a sad look when that seemed to hurt the warlock. “I know you want to help and do good, but take a breath after all you’ve been through. The school isn’t even done being audited. You’re buried under your family trouble. That was a misstep today. Those people broke her trust and then you gave them ammunition.”
“And Melody did not, telling of Tamsin’s mistreatment?” Edelman threw back.
“They already knew,” Mel explained, gesturing between us as I tossed more fish to my dogs. “We discussed this. They would be idiots not to look into Tamsin. Of course they knew she was abused or like Mrs. Diaz said, mistreated because they didn’t know she was a supe. We’ve talked about what we wanted to test they knew or pump them for information.”
“But what you said was confidential and protected, making it seem as if you’d sell me out for your benefit,” I added, meeting his gaze. “You’re off the team.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” he argued.
“I hope you wouldn’t, mate,” I muttered, softening my tone a bit. “I hope it’s what Geiger says, I really do, because I get safe Santa trust vibes from you, but this isn’t the first slip-up and the stakes are too high for slip-ups. So, for now, you’re demoted to the minors and we need to separate church and state. You trust Professor White enough to be the real magical adult in the room or whatever?”
“Yes, of course, she’s more than capable,” he agreed.
“Good, then if she’s willing, she’s boss, but this stays separate from the school.”
“And not just because of this but Von Thann cannot be trusted,” White worried. “And he has been on campus more this semester already than second semester last year since she’s been doing more with the school and the crystals. He wants answers and won’t stop. I agree there needs to be a separation. I was going to bring this up as well.”
“I understand.” Edelman cleared his throat and once again I felt a bit like I was kicking a puppy no matter how much I knew it was the right decision. “I’ll leave you to finish your discussions and meeting then. Have a wonderful rest of your weekends.” He quickly set the portal and activated, gone moments later.
“It’s like a punch to the gut to deny that man what he wants,” I grumbled once the portal powered down.
“Because for all of his faults, his aura is mostly pure,” White explained. “He has tints of corruption from his family, but Kyle Edelman is one of the kindest and most decent men I’ve ever known. He truly is. The problem is he’s also been tied in so many knots, that sometimes he forgets he’s been spun around blindfolded and tries to pin the tail on the donkey without thinking.”
“Sort of like your power assessment problems,” Geiger added. He waited until I nodded. “Well, we’ll be off then too. I’m a bit too old for these late nights but even with the expected hiccups, I believe this was a fruitful and productive first step.” He gave Darby an approving look. “You have a bright future ahead of you, Mr. Moore. If you ever decide law is a field you’re interested in, I insist you consider my firm.”
Claudia said her goodbyes as well, the dragons collecting their belongings and few purchases before heading out.
And my boyfriend stood there the whole time looking like he might be pushed over by a soft breeze. Yeah, I was pretty sure most anyone would react that way to one of the biggest lawyers in the supe world at the most prestigious firm saying that to them.
I nodded towards him while looking at Izzy, glad when she got the point.
“Okay, Darby, let’s get upstairs before you faint so the adults can talk,” she grumbled and dragged him off.
“You said there was more to-go food?” I asked Mel quietly.
“Yes, tons,” she muttered, searching around and finding what she wanted.
I quickly pulled off the prep gloves and about whimpered when I saw the boxes of pizza. I started inhaling it, moaning it was so good even if it was cold.
“What are we missing here? I thought you were playing it all up for them?” Ray asked me as he opened a box and moved it over by Professor White. “They don’t like it when shifters feed them.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize,” she muttered, reaching in and pulling out cucumbers and tossing them over to the dogs. “Yes, why are you so hungry?”
“I wasn’t overselling it too much,” I said with a full mouth. “Just the dizzy and tripping but yeah, I could have zonked out standing and eaten all the food at those stalls.” I held up my finger while scarfing another slice. “The up and down was much more killer. There were a few small eye roll kind of speed bumps at the Vogels’ party. No big. This was—this was a lot and a lot of pressure. Not so many eyes next time.”
“The stress made it so much worse,” White muttered, nodding her head as she tossed over more veggies.
“Don’t give them all of those,” Mel warned. “They won’t just overeat like regular dogs. Put the boxes along the wall and take off the lids. They know we’re gone during the week and that’s their food. They’ll handle it. You give it to them now and they’ll assume there’s more.”
White frowned. “That’s a higher level of intelligence than the one I grew up next to had.”
“Or did the fairy let you see it?” Zack challenged as he started doing what we needed. “They were so secretive you can’t wonder if you just missed so much or I’ve wondered if some of the fair folk haven’t had to evolve from two decades on their own. They learned this world in a way they didn’t in Faerie.”
“Maybe both,” I answered with a shrug, reaching for more pizza as I looked away. “Can you not talk about this around me?” I swallowed a flinch when I felt the tension around me shoot up. “It makes me feel like a bad fairy that I tell everyone too much or betray my people. I worry I’l
l figure out what happened and they won’t want me because I broke a list of rules so then I’ll really be alone.”
“Fairies would never treat you that way, Tamsin,” Professor White whispered in horror. “Never. You know no better and are in danger every hour of every day while still helping so many. If any others are left, you will be a champion of your kind.”
“She’s right,” Zack agreed. “If you’re not of noble birth, the light queen will knight you and have the Royal Performers write a ballad in your honor.”
I looked at him. “The Royal Performers?”
He nodded, giving me a sad smile. “I saw them perform once. The most talented light fairies… Think of it like Juilliard. The best dancers, singers, musicians, and performers are invited to learn more and study at the highest level and then perform all over Faerie, all of it patronaged by the queen. It’s like the old type of troupes like Shakespeare but so much better.”
“To have the Royal Performers allowed at your gathering was a blessing and favor of the light fairy queen most would give anything for,” Professor White added. “I believe the Courtenays were the last before the war. Yes, their mating ceremony. The queen had a vision and wished to give her favor on their mating and allowed the Royal Performers to sing to blessing ballads in Faerie.”
“My cousin attended and said it cleansed his soul,” Mel told us. “It was like nothing he’d ever been around and the closest thing he could compare it to was the first time his dragon flew through the skies.” She gave me a wink. “They wouldn’t blame you if you spilled all the secrets, Tams. They would scorch the ground around you for any who pushed you to tell them. That’s who fairies are.”
I nodded and kept eating, glad at least that was the answer, relieved because I had been worried and hadn’t even realized it. They started talking about how to organize the haul and maybe getting more fridges and freezers, but Irma came over to me, making me realize she and Craftsman hadn’t said much of anything.
“I need to get back, but I wanted to say as a fair folk, born in Faerie and knowing more fairies than I could name in an hour, it would hurt their hearts you ever had this as a worry on your shoulders, child,” she said gently, softly as she rubbed her hand over mine. “Think not on it again. Promise me. When you find those answers and the other fairies, they will help you heal from every hurt it took you to get through this journey, not judge you for how you did it.”