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Chapter Text

These events take place 20 years after the Earth Elemental attack on Manhattan.

It’s happening again…. 

And the wailing of my alarm will not stop. My head is pounding and I can barely open my eyes. I use my hands to grope the sheets in the dark for its hidden location. I find its thin body and press as hard as I can on STOP. I pinch my forehead. Fuck it’s never been this bad . I feel a familiar pang in the depths of my stomach and I know I have mere minutes before I need to have my head above the toilet. I’m there in an instant and heaving for what feels like an eternity before bile floods the bowl. I clean myself up and half heartedly put on my academy uniform. Someone in the main office must have been heavily influenced by a preparatory school with how childish it looks. Matching black button up with pleated trousers or skirt, red tie, and the BPRD emblem affixed to the left breast of our black blazer. I try to hide my nubby horns in my coiled hair to no avail and In 30 minutes I'm outside the door of the lab, 15 minutes late. I try to open the classroom door as quietly as possible with the hopes that I can find an empty seat without disruption, but as soon as I walk in, all heads swivel towards me. 

“Ah Miss Sherman, I presume. ” Declares Dr. Agnarsson, who is the professor for this class, Intro to Fae and Human Communication. I’ve never met him before but from what I’ve heard, he’s made former students burst into tears. He transferred in from our Swedish counterparts and plays the part in his brown fisherman sweater and pleated khaki pants that hit just above the ankle- no socks. I begin to hear a few people whispering in the back of the class. 

“Yea, sorry, I had a bit of a rough morning. ” I vaguely hear someone whisper “She sucks the life right out of your dick.” Dr. Agnarsson flashes them a look and they quiet down. 

“Well I would expect better timeliness from the daughter of our esteemed ‘World Destroyer.’”

 I give a weak shrug and apologize since it’s not really appropriate to chime back with “Well, I am adopted.” 

“ Here take this,” he hands me a syllabus. “and take a seat.”

Prof. Agnarsson begins to continue going over the syllabus and I slide into an empty desk a couple rows from the back. As I’m trying to catch up I begin to have the feeling like someone is staring at me. I turn my head slightly to my right and witness a man in a priest costume sneering at me with disgust behind me. no jesus fucking christ there is not a fucking priest in this class?!

“Alright now that everyone is here and up to date with what we will be covering in this class.” Agnarsson shoots me a knowing look. “Let’s do introductions.”  

There is an audible groan from several people. 

“I don’t want to hear it. Look around you, these are the colleagues that are going to be out in the field with you, you’re going to want to know and trust them as you would your own hand.” 

“ Wouldn’t trust some of these things to know how to read.” I overhear the priest not so quietly whisper. A couple people near him snicker. 

“He’s gonna get someone killed. ” I say under… maybe over my breath. 

“ Come on now. In our new era of our organization we are focusing on melding the relationships between humans and fae. We are about to only scratch the surface of how different communities are formed and come together. How Trolls choose their bridges, how Elementals can cause destruction and growth. We must learn to work together to maintain harmony.” 

“What about the abominations that feed on humans? Are we supposed to live ‘harmoniously’ with those that see us as food?” Shoots back the priest. What a dick. 

“ Some Fae do see humans as a good source, but we have come far in medicine to help find what you would call a more vegan friendly alternative. And we are still working to help all types of fae to achieve this. It’s not a perfect science and we are still working with lots of different physiologies, but that’s why we have this class, to learn more and since you have been so vocal, why don’t we start with you sir. Name, and what you’d like to get out of this class.” 

“ I am Luther Mather, and I want to use the blessed power 

 our Holy Lord has bestowed upon me to vanquish the darkness inhabiting our promised land! And because it was a requirement.” 

Ah figures, a human supremacist. 

“Right. Well hopefully this class will shine a little light on the complex situation that is cohabitation with humankind and Fae alike.” Agnarsson directs the next person in his row and on. We get through 2/3rds of the class before the bell tomes. 

 “Let’s pick this back up tomorrow as we have a quiz on the reading, A Social Hierarchy of Sprites .” 

Jesus Christ when I said I wanted to explore the BPRD special agent training school for a year, I definitely thought it would be less quizzes and more interactive work. 

As i’m walking out of the class, I get shoulder checked by the fucking priest followed by a fresh set of cronies. 

I hear “ Succuslut” under his breath. Not even original. 

I hate going to the doctors. I don’t know if it’s how sterile and cold everything is or how embarrassing it is to continually talk about curbing my sexual hungers every time. Dr. Fogg, my PCP you could say. He finally enters after a 20 minute delay. 

“So Sabine, I’ve discussed it with my colleagues and I think we should up the dosage. I know this isn’t the desired outcome we were hoping for, but it’s what we can do as a placeholder as we research some other options. We are hoping we will have some promising results with these new tests, but right now they’re too unstable. I can only offer to prescribe an anti-inflammatory, and anti-nausea for the migraines to supplement it and make sure you’re getting enough water everyday.” 

“Ok.” 

“Do you have any other questions or concerns?” 

“No.” Well that sucks. 

Ever since I moved to my studio apartment in the old housing wing I've had to pass by the old prison. The administration is too fearful to renovate it. Something about the old wards that keeps the prisoners in check that would not survive a remodel. Supposedly a lot of them are very old Fae. Some have been living on this earth for almost a millennia, and I lament for them. Usually fae who find themselves under the hammer of the BPRD are just doing what’s natural to them or angered by human contact. Unfortunately it’s always the Fae that are under scrutiny. But I’m hoping to change that when I become an Integration agent. Hopefully they won’t find themselves behind those glass walls. 

“Hi babies.” I coo as I walk through my front door. Juniper and Beez zig and zag between my legs. My own cats  from Pop's last litter, the very last litter finally. Glad Mum put an end to that because we were quickly becoming a biohazard to have that many cats at the same time. Thankful they paired it down to just seven. As I refill their water bowls and set out their food I see I have a saved voicemail on my landline. Yes I know it’s weird to still use a landline, but it’s Pops' preferred method since phones have gotten “stupidly tiny”. His words not mine. I press play:

“Sabine, it's Pop.” Duh.  “Can you stop by Abe's? He’s supposed to bring the wine for tonight.” And he whispers this next part “Come soon you know how your Mum ge- Ow! Don’t hit me.” Now I hear Mum on the line. 

“Sabine, don’t worry about that, just stop by Abe’s. He was supposed to be here at 5 but I’m sure he’s lost track of time. Love you!” Pop chimes in before hanging up, “Love you pumpkin!….. don’t forget.” 

They’re a lot but I love them too, and they’re the only parents I've known… so far. They sent this 10 minutes ago, so I change out of my uniform, scroll on my phone for a bit, and get my shoes on again to head out. 

Right as I’m slipping my bag over my shoulder,  my bedroom door shuts abruptly. 

“Beez, come on.” He does this sometimes… but when I go to open the door to let him out I notice he’s on the couch with Juniper. That’s odd. I slowly open the door… “Hello?” I shout into the room and turn on the light, but I see nothing out of place. Maybe it was the air? Weirder things have happened; I decide not to dwell on it. 

I love Abe’s apartment. An enigma to me to have centuries old texts right next to man-sized fish tanks, and it smells like it. I find Uncle Abe in his tank, reading two waterproofed electronic tablets and one book that looks surprisingly bone dry. Eventually he finally notices me and splashes out. 

“Oh dear have I lost track of the time?” 

“Yup, I’ve come to collect you” 

“Collect away” 

“Oh and the wine.”

“Right, of course.” He motions to a small wagon with two full cases of a variety of reds and whites. We have to get half of them sent to Abe’s apartment because of a drunken incident that happened a couple decades ago. Something about loud music, dancing, and endangering the facility. 

We stroll down the corridors to my parents, wagon in tow. 

“When does Nuala return” 

“In a fortnight. The Old Fae appear to be just as hard headed and stuck in their old ways as we are.” 

“Yea it’s troubling.”

“Very much so. I fear we are all in for a reckoning if they can’t come to an agreement.” 

“What happens if they can’t?”  

“‘Contra spem spero’. I hope against hope.”

“You’re beginning to sound more and more like gramps. At least from what I've heard of.” 

“He was an exceptional man. Kind and stoic. Truly remarkable.”

“Wish i could have met him.” 

“I know, Sabine.” 

We let ourselves into my parents' apartment. 

“Hello Pumpkin!” Pops bellows from the kitchen. Cigar in tow, smoke billowing from the kitchen. 

“Hi Honey, thank you for fetching Abe.” Mum says as she kisses our cheeks and gives us warm squeeze on our arms.

“No problem.” I say and head to the kitchen to give Pops a hug. 

“Whatcha makin” I ask Pops. 

“Bolon-ahze, and Liz is making something called Sale-aide.” I love the way Pops jokes around. 

“But I don’t trust that green stuff. Red stuff is what’s good for me. Red on Red.” 

“You need vegetables, You aren’t going to be young forever! ” Mum hollers from the other room. 

Pop grumbles what’s supposed to be under his breath “Been young since the Great war and haven’t had to eat this bunny shit.” 

“I heard that! you know it’s good for you!” She yells again. 

Pop gives a defeatist bray. 

He barely looks like he’s aged in 20 years.  

“Yknow i think Mum is right. I think I see a grey back here.” I chime in. 

“WHAT, Where? Show me!” He almost drops the enormous stock pot of sauce on the ground to scramble to a mirror on the opposite wall. 

I burst out laughing. Still the same as ever. 

“Oh you little trickster!” He bellows as he embraces me fully. 

“Oh you’re too vain.” Mum says as she finishes setting the table. 

“Gotta keep the looks up for my two best gals!” Pop says as he gives a little wink and mimes slicking back his hair. 

“I find aging to look dignified. Shows wisdom physically.” Uncle Abe states. 

“Yea well I don’t care for that. I want to look young and hot forever.” 

“And you will, you big lug. You’ll outlast us all.” Mum gives him a big smooch on the cheek. Pop takes it in stride but gives her a firm slap on her behind as she walks away. 

“Oh come on, not with me here!” I whine. 

Dinner is surprisingly good. I guess Pops has been actually cooking more. 

“How was your first day Pumpkin? Did you show them up? They couldn’t believe they are taking a class with BPRD royalty and want our autographs?” Pops asks. Mum smacks his arm playfully. 

“Uh… it was good. Mainly introductions, a couple of essays. Nothing really noteworthy.” I refrain from talking about my “moral enemy”. I didn’t mind Pops stepping in when I was younger because it’s wildly inappropriate to talk to a child about how they’ll become sex hungry fae, but I feel as an adult I should start to fight my own battles. Plus we do have a small connection to the Vatican. Don’t want to make one of their good ole boys in red mad. And I think I've made the wise choice but… well, I love Uncle Abe but not during moments like these. 

“You should tell them about that man who made that disgusting remark to you. Called you a very foul name.” Uncle Abe interjects…unprompted and unwanted. My face begins to feel hot. 

“I know you don’t want me to say anything but they should know. It’s deeply unkind an-.” He…continues !

“WHO SAID THIS? WHAT DID HE SAY!?” Pops jumps out of his seat and taking the table with him. Wine, spaghetti, sale-aide ending up everywhere. 

“ Sit down Red! Sabine, if you don’t want to talk about it we don’t have to, but I’d like to know about these things?” Mum tries to be reasonable. 

“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m 20 years old. I don't need my parents jumping in to save me from some douchebag with no sense.” I whine. Pops sets the table upright as if it shared the same weight as a sheet of paper. 

“He said he doesn’t think fae can read! Despicable! He should know i’ve read more in 15 minutes than he’s read in a lifetime!” There’s no mystery with Abe when he’s had half a glass of wine. 

“And he called her a…” And he blocks the side of his face for some reason and whispers “Succuslut.” 

“Great.” Cats out of the bag. 

“He called you a what!?” Mum exclaims, steam literally rising from her skin. Smoke slowly coming off of her cloth napkin where her hand rests. 

“Succuslut.” Abe whispers again for some reason.

Before I can even put my hand over my face to hide in a feeble attempt. The whole tablecloth catches on fire. Mum is fully enflamed.

“THAT BASTARD! I’LL KILL EM!” Pops roars and completely crashes the table with his big hand. If there was anything left on the table it’s fully on the floor now. And as if this was a sitcom, right on cue, the fire alarm goes off, then sprinkler system. Just a normal Friday evening. 

Mum lets me pick some clothes from her closet. I choose a very vintage old Siouxsie tee and a peculiar pleated skirt. 

“I want those back eventually.” She chimes as I hand her back the towel from my head. 

“Okay ! eventually it is. ” and any smart daughter knows that “eventually” means “mine”. 

She shoots me a look, keen that these might be the last time she has these items. 

Pop pops his head into the room. 

“Wanna get some fresh air?”. I know what this means; the code for smoking on the roof. 

“Thought you would never ask.” 

“It’s late! Don’t stay up there too long.” Mum kisses my cheek and Pops on the lips as she heads back to clean up. 

“Want a nightcap Abe?” Mum asks. 

“I think i’ve had my fill but i’ll sit with you.” 

“Just us cool cats then.” Pops gives a wink and I tell him I'll be up after I change. 

I pull out my joint and Pops pulls out what can only be described as if a blunt was the size of cigar. We smoke separately because I once took a hit off of his and shit you not, the left side of my body stopped working. It was not fun. 

“I’m sorry about tonight, Pumpkin, you know we just worry.” 

“It’s okay, I appreciate it, I really do. I just feel like i’m getting too old for you all to step in for minor shit like that.” 

“It’s pretty disgusting, what he said.” 

“Yea, I know. He’s not going to try anything, He’s all fluff and no bite. Probably shit himself the first time we’re out in the field.” 

“Well we are always here if you need us to step in Pumpkin.” 

“Thanks Pops.” 

I give him an earnest embrace. I love my family even if they are exceedingly overprotective at times. 

I snuff out my j and take a moment to look at the skyline. 

“Now I know it’s embarrassing your pop asking you this, but how have the new meds treating you?” 

“Daaaaad ew stop.” How embarrassing to have your parents ask you if the sex hungry suppression pills have been working. 

“It’s fine, okay!” It’s actually not fine, but it’s even more mortifying to tell your parents, even if they are the famous Hellboy and Liz Sherman, that your anti-sex pills tolerance has been increasing with every year. 

“Oh I wanted to ask about something I've been curious about.” Trying to desperately change the subject. 

“Shoot.” 

“Are there any tenets in the old prison?”  

“Oh yea there are true monsters down there. The worst of the worst…..” Pops takes a pause and then unexpectedly says, “Do you wanna see?” 

I never expected him to go along with this but it’s a curiosity I cannot curb. Maybe I’m worried about the worst possible outcome for us. Maybe I just want to see if I can help them reintegrate. 

“Are we allowed in here?” I ask as Pops fumbles with the key card. 

“‘Are we allowed in here!’ I’m Hellboy! I’m allowed everywhere!” He states as he finally finds the right key and trips on the way in. “Just don’t tell anyone we were down here, okay.” 

So are we or are we not allowed down here. 

It’s a dark hallway. Blue light illuminates the floor as we enter. It doesn’t look like much is down here but as we move forward I notice that the glass on either side of us. In the dark it’s hard to see but each block of pane is an individual cell. Not all of them are occupied, but the ones that do, appear to have different interiors. 

“Wow. I wonder what you have to do to make it down here?” I ask. 

“Try to end the world.” Pops states. He then channels an inner zoologist and starts detailing each prisoner, their crime, and how he “kicked their ass”. His words not mine. 

We make it three quarters of the way down before the pager he’s had for over 40 years goes off. 

“Damn! Code yellow!” He complains. “Sorry Pumpkin gotta be a hero” He throws his arm up to flex it, kisses my forehead, and races out. Code yellow is pretty serious in the BPRD emergency scale. But it’s probably just some fae doing something completely natural to them, that accidentally caught the eye of some trigger happy agent. 

I sigh. “Poor thing.” I mutter to myself. 

“‘Poor thing’ indeed .” My skin turns to gooseflesh. Who the fuck said that? Where did it come from? To my right? The cell is so dark, at first glance I thought it was empty, but now I see a dark silhouette. And It’s actually fully furnished. With a bed, desk, small table, art, and… so many books. It’s just everything is pressed up to the far side of it. There’s a soft light back there. I take a step forward to peer in. 

“Wouldst you like a closer look at the ‘zoo animal?’”   He sneers as he steps so close to the glass. 

“Oh shit!”   Was he that close! I take a second to adjust and realize he looks just like the spitting image of Aunt Nuala. 

“But I thought… “ I say out loud. 

“Thought I was dead.” 

“Yea.” 

“Lots of secrets kept down here.” 

“Does Aunt- your sister know?” 

“Of course, who do you think begged for my mercy. I would have happily died then and there.” 

He looks wild and somber. 

“So you know of me, my story, and my sister. Come closer.”  

“Uh… I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Remembering that the twins shared insight. 

His eyes shift behind me quickly, and then there’s a BANG! Someone smacks the glass cage behind me. 

“Ah!” I scream and fall forward in surprise. My hands accidentally hitting the glass to cushion my fall. 

Fuck . I try to step back as quickly as I can but the mistake has already been made. His hands are placed on the glass where mine were in anticipation. He throws his head back in concentration. 

“Hmm…” 

“Fuck!” This wasn’t supposed to happen. And then reads me.  

“Hmm you feel young, lots of curiosity. Oh and.. upset.. anxious too. Towards me… but also towards.. oh many people. Embarrassed…yes, shame. Oh and lustful… wait, hungry. Hm you feel like a Succubus. Oh and what else, human, a half-breed. And something more quiet, no, dormant.”

 “Jeez, why don’t you just read my diary..wait. Did you say something ‘dormant’? What the fuck does that mean?” 

“Place your hand back.” 

“Yea I’m not doing that again.” 

“Well I can’t tell you unless I know. It seems like you don’t know anything about your lineage. I can’t tell with this ‘glass’ between us. It dampens my insight.” 

“I’m scared to know what you can do without it.” 

“I’m surprised my sister hasn’t told you anything. Considering you’re so close to her.” His breath stinks of sarcasm. 

“Okay, well i'm gonna go now.” I feel like this situation is deteriorating quickly. 

“If you don’t believe me, ask your ‘Aunt’. Ask ‘Abe’.” he sneers at the word “Aunt”.

I can’t shake his words. What he said infects my mind. He can’t be telling the truth… this is a fabrication.. But what if…no. I need to make sure it’s a lie.

Chapter Text

“Tell me again the story of how I came to be yours.” I ask Mum over a half finished breakfast as she flips through a dossier. 

“Hm..?” She eyes up and half puzzled asks, “What a strange request to something you already know.”

“I was just wondering if you had remembered anything new or different.” 

“We have the case open, Sabine, but you would be the first to know if anything new came in.” She says emphatically.

“I know..” I'm now feeling guilty. “I was just wondering about my Fae or if there was anything unusual with me?”

She cocks an eye. “‘Unusual’?  It’s pretty unusual to find a nearly one year old in a locked half-burnt empty apartment. No identification, no furniture, no food. Nothing but the clothes on your back. What do you mean?” 

“Uh… “ I feel the suspicion rising. Not what I intended to do. 

“Uh It’s actually for one of my classes. I want to do an essay on my background. A study on assimilated fae.” I hate lying to her. 

“Is it cheating to do it on yourself?”

“It’s just a snippet.” 

“Well after 20 years my memory is not getting better, so it would probably be best if you go talk to your uncle. He’s a walking computer like that and he’s actually the one who found you so he would have better insight.” 

“Oh.” How did I not know that?

After a couple sleepless nights, I pussy up and catch him in the lab. He’s mixing a weird glowing blue solution when he is aware of my presence before I can knock. No surprises for him. “Hi Sabine, what do I owe this pleasure?” He’s so jovial in his restrained, knowing way. 

“Hi Uncle Abe.” I try not to appear nervous. 

“Come in!” He motions to the chair next to him. I follow suit and take out a notebook and pen to commit. “What’s up? That’s what the kid say right?” I chuckle slightly. 

“Yes ‘the kids’ do say ‘what’s up.’ Um… I wanted to ask you a couple questions.” I pause and he looks at me slightly puzzled. “For class.” I interject. 

“Oh of course! What kind of subject? What class is this for? You know I applied to be a professor myself, but they said I didn’t have the right relatability for it and that my time out in the field was too consequential for them to relinquish my duties.” 

“Right… uh it’s for my Human and Fae Communications class. Uh, I wanted to ask if someone could be two separate Fae ethnicities and have there been any examples of that?” 

“Multiple Fae ethnicities, you say….” Shit did I blow my cover? “That is an interesting thought. Well, in my experience it is complicated and quite rare, if not almost impossible. You see, usually the offspring does not last long in our world. Perhaps take the situation of a Selkie and a Harpy, nearly impossible to breed, but even if they did I doubt that child would possess both of their parents attributes, nor would it be able to successfully live in either’s preferred habitats.  It helps when the genes are more compatible with each parent. Take Nuala and I, she is High Elf and I am Ichthyo Sapien, but we both have intuitive powers and if we, and I don’t know if this is her desire with I, but there is most likely a 67.7% chance that the child would not make it past infancy. Now I'm not quite sure all of its potential genes or how its complexion would transpire, but it is an interesting idea to think about. Would they have higher intuitive powers, have her golden hair? Would it have gills!? Or her..”

I cut in, he’s losing the plot a bit. 

“What happens if the powers are not compatible? Would one edge out the other? Would that child have both?” I sputter.

“There are few texts on Fae of multiple races. But in my reading, usually whatever is the dominant gene is the one that prevails. Incompatible Fae abilities sometimes are what lead to offspring not surviving. Say myself and Liz. She is made of fire and my flesh is too sensitive for her flames. There would be a less likely chance for our offspring to survive, and oftentimes what is produced is a grotesque form that does not reach maturity.”

“What if they are not compatible but not opposite? Has anyone tried Fae eugenics?”

“I had read of a man back in the 16th century who captured Fae men and women and forced them to copulate in the hopes of creating a Fae with immense power. A lot of his experiments ended in failures and he was eventually brutally murdered by a Minotaur he had been torturing.” 

“Oh… that’s horrific.” 

“Yes, cruelty is not in short supply. But Sabine, it is peculiar that the human race can withhold Fae genes better than others. A scientific mystery. Maybe something beyond what we know. Oh sorry for the rambling. Did that answer your question? 

“Uhhh yea thanks.” It did not. I pack up my untouched notebook and sling my bag around my shoulder. 

“Auntie Nuala has been away for a while now. When is she supposed to return.” 

“Ah she told me by the 15th. Did you need something from her?” 

I look at my phone.“Oh look at the time, got to go Uncle Abe!” And book it. I hear him say “bye” as I run off. 

Why would they keep something secret about me? What’s more embarrassing than being a succubus. It worries me. Makes me fearful of myself. I’m sick to my stomach. I’m weighing my options of how to find the truth. If Uncle Abe found me and I assume touched me with his insight, he would know what was wrong, right? Would he have kept that a secret from Mum and Pop? What could be so terrible that he would neglect to reveal that information. My head begins to pang. Should I return to the cells? They’ve been down there for years, it’s not like me being down there will let them out somehow. Nuada does seem to have some sort of control down there which is worrisome. And how would I even get back in? 

As I'm detailing a potential break-in to the most secure prison on this side of the hemisphere, my phone begins to ring. Its Auntie Nuala. Damn you Uncle Abe. I hesitate to answer, but it's not like she can tell if I’m lying from a phone call. She has no insight over the phone… I answer. 

“Hi Auntie Nuala! How are you?” I force a smile and try to remain calm. 

“Hi Sabine, I am well. Abe called to let me know that you might have a question for me?” 

“Ohhhh..” I stutter. “Hmm no, I was just wondering if you could bring me back some Connemara Toffee?” 

“Oh.” She pauses for a moment. “Of course. Is that all?” She sounds apprehensive. 

“Uhhh yep! Um I’m actually in the middle of something Auntie, but can I call you back later?” 

“Certainly.” 

“Okayloveyoubye!” I push out in a single breath and hang up. I can't keep this up. 

“Alright that’s it for today. Just a small reminder that your paper on the mating rituals of Arthropods is due in a week. Please don’t wait til the last minute to turn it in.” Agnarsson pleads. I’m lost in thought as he’s relaying this and I overhear that priest again.

“So Luther, what are you going to do when you get your badge?” Asks a dirty blond haired boy with blue eyes and too much bravado to hold him. 

“As you all know I have a riotous journey to strike down the evils that plague our land. Mark fear in the unholy creatures that feed off of us and destroy our virtuous morals. I must admit I am buzzing with the excitement to be able to carry out our Lord’s will with justice. Just thinking about those evil creatures makes my blood boil.” Fucking hell, he’s the worst. 

“Have you heard of what kinds of things they keep in the basement? I bet there’s some pretty evil things down there. They say they’re the worst of the worst.” Another voice asks. Wait, I know this guy. 

“Disgusting things, I say, just you wait till we graduate and I can show you the fullness of his holiness!” Sounds like a euphemism for his pencil dick.  

“What if you could show us sooner rather than later?” The boy asks.

“Explain.” Uh oh this does not sound good.  

“I swiped a key card off my dad. Basically the skeleton key to this place, probably even opens the cave they keep Hellboy in.” He snickers. Oh fuck that’s Agent Tom’s kid, Dean Dumbass Manning.  

“Yesss!” Two girls squeal with delight. Shit, that’s not good. Should I even intervene? On one hand, what would they possibly do? Open a cage? Get themselves killed? Release some sort of hostile Fae into the world again? Maybe it’s what we deserve? I could also report them, but I feel like that’s also going to end poorly. The fucking nepotism that runs this place. Or could I kill two birds with one stone?

“We should do it on a night when everyone is out on a mission to not gain suspicion.” ohmygods they really are going to get themselves killed. 

“Lets discuss this in the group chat later. I gotta go study before my next class.” They begin to pack up their materials and file out. My phone buzzes. I glance down at it to see a BPRD Infirmary notification. Not now. But not a bad idea. I quickly dig through my bag and pull out my old prescription. I’m pretty sure it’s just lexapro without the good bits. Well it either works or… well let’s just hope it works. I down what’s left, dry and in my split second of inattention, I almost miss Dean on his way out.  I follow him out of the class and down the maze of corridors. This is a stupid plan. I’m going to get caught. I can’t just-  He stops at the end of a hallway and takes out his phone. Bingo. Privilege does lead to a certain ambivalence. I move quickly and put my hand on his shoulder. 

“Hey Dean, can I ask you something?” He turns to me and in that moment I shift. I kiss him and my black eyes turn into a gold halo. There’s almost a glimmer about me as I inhale deeply. I haven't fed in a while, and with my growing resistance to my meds I need it. He tastes like sourdough. Plain,  but satiating enough. I feel the fog of fatigue lift and I inhale a little deeper. Oh, gods please. He begins to sink, loses his balance and accidentally kicks my shin. I snap out of my hungered trance and take a second to look at him, slowly letting go. He immediately falls. 

“Fuck! Shit.” I grab him before he completely collapses. I go to check his pulse. Thank god it’s faint but it’s there. I have enough strength to hold onto him as I am looking frantically around me. Okay no one is around. To my left is a custodial closet. Wow, my lucky day. I drag Dean over and go to turn the handle. Fuck, it’s locked. Who locks a closet? What else can I do? The other side of me is an unmarked room. I carefully place Dean on the ground to check. This time I have better fortune, the handle moves. When I open the door it appears to be an empty classroom. Trulys gods’ favorite. I go back to collect Dean and swiftly move him into the room. I turn him over and immediately start rifling through his pockets looking for the key card. Nothing in his coat, or bag, but when I turn him over and reach into his back pocket, there it is, just loose. How men don’t lose anything is a surprise to me. I have no idea what I'm gonna do with him now. He’s not dead, but he’s weak. I have only fed a couple of times in my life and most of the time they have not ended this relatively well. 

“Hey!” I hear a voice from behind me. 

“Hey you! Close that door!” I feel a compulsion and immediately shut the door. 

“Oh. Okay.” That was fucking weird . The room loses its light, and my eyes adjust to a cozy storage room filled with camera equipment and accessories. The room is L-shaped with a couple computers and printers stationed. Next to those by the door is a bookcase filled with what I presume to only be photography books. In front of me is a checkout desk. Stacked with paper and one of those vintage bank lamps. And then finally off to the side a room filled with red light. A darkroom, this is the academy’s photography lab. 

“Didn’t you see the goddamn sign in bold on the door?”

“I honestly didn’t.” I finally get a good look at them and I see a soft iridescence to their skin. Their hair is braided down and then forks off into 4 singular long purple toned braids that reach down her back. 

“Cool thanks.” They open the door to return to the darkroom. 

“Wait!” They stop and turn. “Uh…” I hesitate. “Uh, actually can you watch him for a bit?” They look down at Dean. 

“Is he going to get up and leave that door open?” 

“Probably not. ” They shrug. 

“Fine.” They go back into their room. 

“Thanks?”  

I fly back down the hall to the cells. 

“Hey!” I knock on the glass of Nuada’s cell. He’s in the back left corner of his cell surrounded by stacks of books, flipping through one of them. He looks up with an initial glance of annoyance, but his scowl turns to a sinister smile when he sees me.

“Good evening Sabine, nice to see you again.” 

“Yea great to see you too” I respond with sarcasm. “I talked to Abe.” He gets up from his book and tucks a lock of his hair from his face, behind his ear. 

“Oh, and what’s the verdict?” 

“Why do you think I'm here? He’s the one who found me.” I put my hands on the glass. Nuada smirks and walks slowly over and mirrors me, as he places his hands on the glass as well. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, concentrating. 

“Hm, it’s faint. But stronger than before… and feels sharp, no, hot. Like a heated coal… oh.” He carefully pulls his hands away from the glass and they look red. 

“‘Oh’?…. ‘oh’ what?” 

“I can’t read it clearly. The thickness of the glass doesn’t help either.” I touch the glass and it does feel irrepressibly warm. I touch my hand to my cheek, but feel no difference. “It’s not that you feel hot. It’s something else, it feels like something was placed upon you. Something in you is slowly burning and getting hotter.” 

“Like what? A parasite? Or a disease or something?” 

“No… it feels almost like a curse.” 

“Well that’s extremely fucked up. How do I know this isn’t just a ruse? I feel like someone would tell me if I was cursed. I don’t feel or look any differently.” But then I remember that’s not entirely true, I have been feeling iller in the morning, but I thought that was a side effect of the pills…

“It’s not like that. There are lots of different types of curses, some that are temporary, some not, some that appear like something else, and even some that take time to develop. Like a seed growing inside of you.” He points to my stomach. 

“So… what do I do? How do I get rid of it?” 

“Well, you need to know what the curse is to lift it, but I can’t even read it because it’s either too young or too hot for me to see it clearly. My sister might not even know what it is either. We can wait for it to develop and see what happens… but you might not like that outcome and we don’t even know when it’s done manifesting.” 

“So I'm just supposed to walk around like nothings wrong with me now? Like I don't probably have a mysterious burning curse that is growing everyday until an undetermined amount of time and then something , most likely BAD will happen to me?” 

“Yes, that is correct.” He says it so frankly. 

“Well fuck me.” 

“I can’t help you with being locked in here, but.” His words turn sour. 

“What if I look into this? This is old magic but not unknown. Perhaps Abe has a book that speaks about curses like this in his library?” And this must be how he takes me for a ride. 

“Oh! And why would you want to help me? What do you get out of this?” 

“Take it, I'm feverishly bored being trapped in here for over 20 years. It’s been too long since I’ve had anyone to converse with. My sister rarely visits me anymore and I haven’t seen her in 3 moons.” 

“So I'm just supposed to trust you on your ‘goodwill.’ This all sounds like a ruse to somehow grant your freedom.” 

“I won’t say that I haven’t thought about it. But if no one else has told you, not your family, doctors….friends? It seems like you don’t have many other options.” 

“Hmm. And you don’t want anything out of this?” 

“Well I didn't say that per say. How about if I figure it out you grant me a favor.” I don’t like this one bit. 

“How do I know that this isn’t just one big lie? You could be making all of this up. Maybe you placed some enchantment on your cage.” 

“Of course, that could be true but this glass cage.” He knocks on the glass and it illuminates a multitude of magic canceling sigils. “I am not incapable of lying but I am restricted from using anything against you. You can believe my words or don't, it matters to me not what your outcome is. I have nothing to lose anymore.” There sounds like some sorrow in his last words. 

“ If, and this is a big if. But if it is a curse, what should I do?” 

“Now I'm not sure how it’s manifesting, but from the size of it, I presume that it’s already started to cause some physical symptoms that maybe you’re aware of?” 

“I still don’t trust you.” 

“As you shouldn’t. Come closer, just let me feel it with you once more,” he says. I walk closer to him and he follows me with his yellow eyes. I feel no malice from him. As I touch the glass. He puts his hand out as well. 

“It’s getting hotter.” He closes his eyes. “It’s radiating. Pulsing almost. I doubt it would even register for Hellboy or Mrs. Sherman.” 

“But… Abe and….” He opens his eyes. 

“My Sister would.” So they have been keeping secrets and maybe not just from me. 

“What would they be so scared of that they wouldn’t tell Hellboy and Liz?” 

“I’m not sure.” He removes his hand from the wall and it’s a dull red once more. “But there is a tome upon your Uncle’s shelf. I’ve seen it before and know it contains old writings of ancient curses. Maybe this one is written in its pages.” 

“What’s it called?”  

“De Umbris Idearum.”

Chapter Text

And as I'm walking back up, I come to a clarity moment. 

“Oh shit Dean!” I have no idea if he's woken up by now, I’m not even sure how long its been since I left him. I’m completely out of breath and wheezing when I arrive back to the studio.

“Oh you’re back, jeez what happened to you?” The fae that I had left him with was sitting at the main desk with her legs up and a book in hand. 

“Where is he? Is he dead?” I squeeze out. 

“He’s in the darkroom, still sleeping…?”  

“Oh thank gods!” We head back into the smaller red lit room. When I see him breathing, I nearly collapse onto the floor. “Thanks for keeping an eye on him.” And I look at them a little puzzled. “And without asking what this is all about?” 

“Weirder things have happened.” they shrug. “He sure is out cold.” She lifts his arm by his wrist and uses it to touch his face with his own hand. 

“Uh yes. Um I actually have another question and this is obviously a big if, but you wouldn’t happen to know how to wipe like two hours of his memory? You have the power of compulsion right?” 

“Hm yes, I mean no, not me personally, but I can get someone to do that for you.” 

“Wait forreal?” 

As she led me to the Science wing we had some time to chat on our walk. I learned that her name was Mina and she is a Siren. She had grown up off the coast of Qatar in the Persian gulf until she was 14, before her mom was kidnapped by pirates dealing with trophy hunting of aquatic fae. Her dad passed away when she was five from a rare disease that attacked his nervous system. She had run.. I mean swam to Kuantan, before getting picked up by some fishermen who noticed a large serpent trailing her. I mean what are the odds?

“Here we are.” She waves to a blue figure in a lab coat mixing two very green substances into a beaker.

“Hey Roger!” She yells through the glass. “Roger is an Undine, very knowledgeable.” She whispers to me. He waves back and moves to let us in. When I see him fully I am mesmerized by his beauty. He’s an unholy bright blue. Vibrant starry eyes and teal locks. “This is Sabine and she has a ‘little Mard problem.’” He nods to me and then he begins to speak in a language completely unknown to me. Mina casually responds to him in the same and then turns to me; “He’ll give us the tincture but…” 

“But what?” Everything comes with an asterix. 

“He wants saltwater taffy.” 

“Oh… wait, that's it?” I eye him and he says something back to Mina. 

“Sorry, he specifically wants the Green Apple flavor.” 

“Okay, done.” 

“And he wants 500 pieces.” 

“Uhh that’s a lot but, I can probably get it to him by next week if that’s okay?” I turn to say to him. He gives me a thumbs up. 

“Awesome!” Mina exclaims. He rifles through a drawer to hand me a vial and says something I don’t understand at all but holds up 3 fingers. Mina translates, 

“He says to give him 3 drops, no more if you’re only looking to wipe out about…” He clarifies and she says, “four to six hours. Anymore and you risk wiping everything.” 

“Cool three drops is pretty easy to remember. Thank you so much Roger, really I truly appreciate it.” He gives me two thumbs up and I give him one. He then gives us a big wide smile as we are headed out and I notice how black his teeth are. 

“He’s pretty nice.” I tell her. 

“Yea he’s great, first Fae I met when I came here who really understood me. He’s like family. We Fae gotta stick together right. I hear they’re letting in more of the Clergy. It makes me so uncomfortable walking by them. They always stare as if they’re waiting for us to do something.” 

“Yea.” 

We make it back to the photo studio and thankfully Dean still hadn’t woken up from our little excursion. I carefully open up his mouth and drop three black drops of the solution into his throat. He stirs a little but stays unconscious. Mina and I lift him into a chair behind an empty desk, lift his head and prop his mouth open while I carefully drop three exact drops into it.

“Do you think this will work?” I ask her. She has a contemplative look and goes “almost.” She rummages through his bag to pull out a textbook, notebook, and pen. She stages it to appear that he was in the process of studying. “There, perfect.” She takes a step back and admires her handiwork. “I mean if he truly believes he just randomly fell asleep in the photography room then he’s an idiot.” 

“Well good luck for us.” I say. She chuckles in response. 

“I’m starving, would you want to go to the cafe?”. 

“Yea i’d love that.” I give a bright grin

“Also not that it’s any of my business, but why did you need the Glawackus gland?” 

“What the fuck is a Glawackus?” 

It’s been two days since the Dean incident and i’m still feeling woozy from the whole ordeal. One pill usually makes me a little nauseous once I take it, but  ⅕ of the bottle… yea i’m not doing too hot.  I’m in gym class doing my third rep set when I feel eyes on me…. I take a moment and slowly turn. I almost drop by weight when I see the pure white ombre blonde hair and then notice the soft features. It's Auntie Nuala. I give her a small wave, she mimics and then motions for me to come out. I feel my heart start to quicken as I walk over to her. This is ridiculous. I’ve known her my whole life. She would not purposely lie to me. 

“Hi Auntie.” 

 “Hi Sabine.” There is an unspoken rule that her and Abe refrain from touching me. It would be pretty fucking uncomfortable to sense how sexually hungry your niece is all the fucking time. So one win for me…yay.  

“You’re back early.” 

“Yes, we finished the Council session quicker than I expected.” 

“It was good?”

“Yes, a happy agreement from most members. Just waiting for them to finalize the ink on the paper…. But who knows how long that will take.” She gives a little giggle. “Old Ailill is writing it up and forests grow faster than he moves.” I snicker. “But I wanted to check on you and give you this.” She picks up a tin from the bench behind her. I look at it blankly. “The toffee…?” 

“OH! Yes! The toffee! Sorry classes have just been keeping me so busy, I can’t catch a break.” 

“That’s alright. We’ll see each other at dinner next week.” “Yes! Sorry, I have to get back to class.” 

“Of course.” I go to turn and she stops me. “Sabine?” 

“Yes?” I say warily. 

“I just wanted to ask, is everything alright?” I pause. Does she know? “ Abe told me what happened.” I hear my heart in my ears now. “With the boy in class….the one who called you that awful name.”

“Oh! That!” I let the relief come to an end before leaning into this gift. “Yeaaaaa. It just sucks, you know.” I shake my head. “I’ll talk to my professor if he continues.” She rests her hand on mine holding the tin for a moment before I pull away. 

She smiles and nods before sending me off. Did she see anything?

I just take the book from Abe’s library while he’s out of office. I feel bad for not asking, but I doubt he’d notice with the overflowing collection. I also decided to keep the key card. It’s probably safer in my hands anyways. 

“Hey Blondy!” I shove the 1000 page tome against the cell wall. “Here’s your little book.” He looks up from his desk in disgust at first but then when he sees me his face lights up. 

“Oh Sabine, you returned! And with my gift.” 

“Just take it and tell me how to fix this.” His cage has a completely transparent contraption on its side. Like a complex mail slot to dole out each prisoner's food, medication, etc. I slide the book into the compartment. Close the door and turn the knob to open the small door on their side so he can retrieve it. 

“Certainly.” He says cheerily and picks up the book. 

“You’re happy today.” 

“Well it’s been a while since you visited. I almost lost hope.” It’s true. I hadn’t come back in about a week and a half. But between classes and trying to lay low from drugging the Director’s kid.

“Well I wasn't sure if you were telling the truth.” 

“Oh and what changed your mind?” 

“I ran into your sister.” He grimaces.

“She’s back is she. And what did my dear sister tell you.” He begins to flip through the book. 

“She didn’t, but she seemed very cagey around me.” 

“She does not like to reveal much.” 

“Apparently not… and…. she did something strange.” He looks up with a bit of bemusement and confusion. “Nothing specific, just… she surprised me at class to drop off toffee…. And… she touched me.” He looks disappointed and returns to the text.  

“Oh. Now that is odd.” He continues to flip through the book absentmindedly. 

“What’s up with that by the way?” 

“Hmm?” He looks at me quizzically. 

“I mean… you have the same insight right? Cause you’re twins?” 

“Not exactly. We do have a bond. I can hone into how she feels more so than anyone else and feel when she is close, but we are like yin and yang I suppose. We each have a half. I have insight of the emotional self. I feel and know what one is feeling. She has the insight of the physical self. She knows what one is. Physical ailments, the knowledge of someone’s past. She could tell you your name, where you were born, what you do for work. I can tell you your emotional state, what you dislike, who you love.”

“So…. what does it say?” I am impatient. 

“There seems to be a few options. I’ll have to consult with some other literature I have. You’re welcome to wait here if you’d like, but it might take some time.” 

“Oh thanks for the invite.” I say sarcastically. 

“I would like for you to stay a little while. And you can make sure I'm not up to anything nefarious. I feel your worry.” 

“I mean… you are in a jail cell.” 

“Semantics.” He pulls a couple large books from his desk and comes to sit on the floor by the cell wall. I decide to sit opposite from him and just take advantage of the quiet to finish some school work. 

“Uh… Do you mind if I play some music? Silence kinda makes me anxious.” 

“Please.” He doesn’t look up but gestures to me as if I'm a guest in his home. I put on a soft soul playlist. After the first two songs he asks “Who is this singer?” 

“Oh.” I turn my phone over to reveal the screen. “It’s Sade. Have you heard of her before?” 

“No. But she has a nice voice.” He doesn’t even look up from his text. We sit like that in the atmosphere until he breaks the silence again. “Ah, I think I've found something.” 

“What is it?” I sit up straighter. 

“This author talks about an ancient magic from the 3rd century where a maid bewitched her Lady out of resentment from years of abuse. She tricked her lady to swallow a Aglaophotis seed and it slowly grew inside her until on the day of her son’s wedding it bloomed from within her, destroying her body and creating a lethal pollen that infected the entire wedding party.” 

“That’s…horrible.” My voice quivers. 

“Yes… but I don’t think that is your malediction. Since this took weeks and not years to blossom.” 

“Oh. Great.” Well that’s a small relief. “Uhm Nuada?” 

“Yes?” His head is back into the tome.

“It's getting late, I have to go.” He looks up in surprise. I put my work back into my crossbody bag. “But i’ll be back tomorrow, same time.” 

“If you wish. Let me give you back the tome.” He gets up and slides the book into the door contraption. 

“Okay, see you.”

I hear a slam and I jolt up in bed. That’s the second time I’ve had that dream. In the dream I am surrounded by darkness, and I can’t see anything. But I can hear something. It’s like a low whirr that all of a sudden disappears and then I hear someone screaming my name, and then I wake up. But  look around. Did the dream wake me or…something’s off…. Did I close my door?…no. Maybe Beez did it? Where is he? I turn on the light and get up. “Beez?” I call his name. Nothing. I open my bedroom door. I hear something. I quickly move to turn on the lights and pause… it’s.. growing. I turn to face the living room and see Beez is by the couch, and he’s crouched down in a defensive stance. Growling… at something under the it. My blood turns cold. What is in my apartment? I go to grab the katana Pop’s got me for my 16th birthday but keep it sheathed. I take out my phone and with one hand holding the sword and the other shining my phone on flashlight mode, I move quietly to the side of the couch. I place my phone, light side out leaned up against the coffee table's leg and towards the couch. In one hand is my sword and the other my hand on the skirt. In one swift move I lift the skirt and jolt the swords under the couch. I see…nothing. No, I notice movement and press the swords towards it as it scurries to the other side. 

“Ohmygod it’s just a spider, Beez.” He cautiously walks over to inspect it but my patience has run thin this evening. I quickly place a cup over it and find a stray piece of mail on my counter to slide under the cup and spider. I go to the bathroom and open the lid to the toilet. Plopping the spider into the bowl, and flush. I keep my bedroom door shut the rest of the night.  

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe I’ve lost it already!” I hear Dean’s annoying whine. 

“Where did you last put it?” 

“If I knew that Madeline don’t you think I would still have it.” 

“I’m just trying to help, god!” 

“Hush!” Luther sure knows how to shut up his cronies. “Madeline, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain and keep your voices down. We don’t want any undesirables overhearing.” I can feel Luther’s eyes boring a hole into the back of my skull with his eyes. In a quieter tone they continue. 

“I’ve already torn my apartment apart looking for it.” 

“Is there a way you can get another one?” 

“Uh no. I’m not even supposed to have one.” 

“That suckss! I wanted to do it this weekend.” 

“I even bought an outfit for it.” 

“Omg I picked up a cute switchblade from this guy who sells them on the down-low in the Armory.” 

“Wait, from who? Josh Smith?” 

“Yea! How do you know him?” 

“Cause he sold me a dagger too!” 

“Omg Knife Besties!” I want to vomit. They are both so equally nauseating that I can’t even tell them apart. 

“Can we get another one?” I think this one is Madeline. 

“You can’t just get a fucking skeleton key card! They only hand those out to top operatives. There’s probably only like 10.” 

“So how did you get one?” The less nasally one must be Adrienne. 

“Well…  I’m not supposed to have one, but my dad, the Director, has two. One he keeps on his person and then a back up. And well, when I graduated from Prep school me and my buddies wanted to have a little celebration. And I knew he kept the second one in his sock drawer so I just kinda borrowed it. I knew they had just picked up a few Scottish pixies and we wanted to see 

what we could make them do for a bottle of (what pixies like) And well, pretty much anything. You will not believe what we got one of them to do to their friend, damn those things are ruthless.” This is disgusting. 

“Patience friends. We will all get our chances for holy cleansing soon.” And he didn’t take his eyes off me for the rest of the class. 

“Sabine! Welcome back.” He says it so jovially. 

“Hey Nuada, how are you?” Is this weird talking to him like this? 

“Well not much has changed here.” He sarcastically motions to the inside of his cell. 

“Oh Lol.” He cocks his head at this. “Do… you not know what ‘LOL’ means?” 

“Ehlowehl?” He mouths. 

“Like the letters. L-O-L. It’s an acronym for laughing out loud, but it doesn’t really mean laughing out loud… and this is kinda insane. There were cell phones 20 years ago.” 

“Oh that horrid thing. Never had one.” 

“Did you ever use the internet? Be online?” He makes a disgusted face. 

“No. What’s the point of staring at a screen all day? See this is the problem with Humans these days. They miss what’s around them. What about the birds' song, the smell of air, the..” I cut him off. 

“Yea yea yea i’ve heard it all before, grandpa. Kids these days with their whatchamacallits. But unfortunately this is the world we live in now. And there are some cool things online like Netflix and Reddit. Although…. those are kinda shit too.” He cocks his head again obviously not understanding anything I'm saying. “Uh give me a sec.” I pull out my laptop and sit down with my back to the glass so that he can see my screen. “Hmm what would be good.” I mutter to myself. Something funny and lighthearted. “Oh!” A lightbulb goes off in my head and I pull up HBO and press play on the episode called “Scaffolding”. 

“What is this?” He points to my screen. 

“‘How To with John Wilson.” 

“Why are we watching this?” He seems a bit annoyed. 

“It’s good, shush. See what the humans have made without your war.” He shuts up then and we watch and in the corner of my eye I see him smirk at a few moments. When the episode ends he asks, “is there no more?” 

“There are other episodes, but about other things. Did you like it?” He crosses his arms defiantly, but then says “it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Not better than other things.” 

“No, but it’s sometimes nice to just see people as weird as you are living their lives fully.” This seems to strike a chord with him and he uncrosses his arms and says “Well let’s get back to researching. Unless you want to keep the curse?” 

“No Thank you!” 

I completely forgot I had this follow up appointment…. 

“Hi Sabine, how are things?” Dr. Fogg asks. 

“Uh good.” There is a pregnant pause. 

“Good! So the dosage is helping?” I completely forgot they upped it. Wait… 

“I’m just a little skeptical because the pharmacy says you haven’t picked it up yet.” OH shit. 

“Ohhh right I completely forgot.” 

“Are you seeing someone?” 

“Wha!? No! I’m not.” This catches me off guard so hard I almost fall over. 

“And I only ask that because you should have run out of your original dosage.” 

“Oh. I mean, I went on a date with someone,  but it didn’t work out.” Lying through my fucking teeth again. 

“I see…” She pauses again. “Well sorry to hear that. Maybe this is a good opportunity to pick it up before the hunger spikes again.” 

“Right.” 

I’m in class, surprisingly alone. Where is everyone? I check my phone, it’s definitely 15 minutes past when class should have started. I hear my name in Nuada’s voice behind me and when I turn to look, he’s gone. When I turn back, everyone in the class is there and they are writing profusely. On my desk is a tray of different items and a piece of paper. We have a test today? I can’t understand what it’s telling me to do. Our professor is at the head of the class pacing, balefully. I want to ask a question, but I feel that something truly terrible will happen if I do. Someone takes one of my objects from the tray and throws it across the room. I'm in my apartment, it doesn’t look like my apartment but I know it is. There’s a man and woman here and we are chatting and laughing. She puts her hand on his shoulder and I know they’re married. They’re my neighbors. But when the woman turns away the man gives me this look, like there is some tension here. And he’s eying me in a way I know too well.  I’m sitting with the man, but in the library lobby. It’s a little too familiar now and we are chatting, but I have a compact in my hands. I open it and the makeup’s consistency is soft like jello. The man asks me to put some on him and I dip my applicator into the one that’s a soft yellow as the base, but it has these cubes of bright yellow, green and brown. He closes his eyes while I place it on his lips and it goes on like the pattern of a ripe banana. I have the feeling that I should not be hanging out with him without his wife. 

“Should we blend it more?” And he presses his lips together and the colors turn a sickly putrid green and it becomes all stringy. I’m at the train station and he’s there again but he’s completely naked and he’s asking me to come with him. That something is very wrong right now. “Don’t you see it with everyone? They’re all off in some way. Please come with me” He’s begging, but I tell him I do, but I can’t go with him. I’m in the hallway leading up to my apartment, but the front door is open. I walk in cautiously, feeling a sense of dread. As I’m making my way through I see a shadowy figure in the doorframe of my bedroom. I know he is malevolent and I turn to run, and out of the corner of my eye I see him run after me, but I’m moving in slow motion and he catches me in an instant. 

I burst awake in a cold sweat and in my after dream haze I see a figure sitting on my bed, I hit my bedside light, my heart pounding and legs ready to make a run for it, but when the room illuminates nothing is there. Jeez scaring the shit out of myself . I leave a light on in the corner of my room for the rest of the night.

I wake up to a barrage of texts. It’s my birthday, my 21st in fact. One of them is from an unknown number, and a missed call too, at 3:10am. The text message was nothing special, a generic  😀 

Happy Birthday. Nothing else. I google the number and nothing really pops up. Strange, maybe someone from one of my classes? But I haven’t really given my number out. I get ready for class. The day was mostly uneventful. It’s only been a month into the semester, but I haven’t really made a ton of friends in the program. No one in a relationship wants to be friends or allow their significant other to be friends with a succubus. It's a mix of depraved stares and disgusted sneers, from Humans and Fae. And on top of that, everyone knows who my parents are. Its fucking intimidating and who would want to get on their bad side. I’m glad I met Mina. We’ve been texting everyday since that whole Dean fiasco and it’s like I truly have a friend. My last one gave me a note from their parents back in Primary Teaching for the Paranormal Kind, or “Freak K” as the Mard’s who got sent to a preparatory boarding school in upstate NY called it. Its nice to have someone who empathizes. She texts that she wants to take me out to this cool Fae Club in the city next weekend. 

Very down! I message back, put the date in my calendar, and begin to get ready. 

This has been a birthday tradition for 10 and it hasn’t gotten old, though I think Pops loves it a little bit more than me. He almost never gets to use talismans in the field anymore. Fucking beaurocrats treat it like a liability. Well, more like a liability to their pocketbooks with all the weapon manufacturing lobbyists. It’s funny because half those guys are vampires, really. We gotta meet at 9 so I slip on my favorite pair of black jeans; they’re distressed with a white stars down the sides. A Rasputina graphic tee and a black and red striped mohair cardigan. I slip on my favorite pair of green Solovairs boots, grab my keys, and dump them into my grey leather crossbody and head out. 

They’re already at the Vehicle Hangar and I catch them right as they’re signing out the keys to a Range. 

“Pumpkin!” Pops envelops me for a bear hug and lifts me off the ground like when I was small. Plops me down and grasps his back dramatically. “Maybe I am getting too old for this shit.” I notice he’s started to dress less in the leather these past few years and has picked up more dark brown canvas pants with his signature black t-shirt. 

“Well you’re for sure not getting any younger.” I quip. He fake scoffs and blows a raspberry. 

“Happy Birthday Honey.” Mum gives me a warm hug. Uncle Abe and Auntie Nuala right in tow give a bow and a curtsy, also tradition, and wish me happy birthday as well. We pile into the Range as Mum helms the wheel and we take our drive out and down to St. Peter’s. It’s a slightly local cemetery and the owners know us after we got rid of a rather cantankerous adolescent Shambling Mound. In return, we get to use it for private parties for the past eight years. We pull up to the open gate and see Mr. Konopka waiting to meet us. My mom stops and rolls down the left side windows. Mr. Konopka sticks his head in, “Happy Birthday Sabine!” 

“Thank you Mr. Konopka.” I chime. 

“Big one this year. Wow how time passes. Gosh it flies by and then they’re adults.” 

“Think about how we feel.” Mum chuckles. “How's Maria?”

“She’s good, she’s good. You know she’s been experimenting in the kitchen, making Lumpia. And you know I do love lumpia, but it's every week with the lumpia. And I ask her, why, it's the fifth, sixth, seventh week of lumpia and she tells me it's not perfect. And I want to understand, but the lumpia is… pretty good. I mean I don’t know if it's perfect, but it's damn good. But I ask her, when will it be enough? And she tells me not yet. And I’m drowning in it. I’m drowning in lumpia. And well I just think she is unsatisfied after retiring.” 

“Thanks Mikolaj.” Pops retorts. 

“Well I just wanted to say Hi. Wish you a fun night, and let you know there’s a container full with some of the most recent batch of it”

“We appreciate it, Mik.” Mum touches his arm lightly. Before pulling away and putting the car in drive. “Give our love to Maria!” She yells as the gate begins to disappear into the background. 

“I wish he would just tell her when something’s bothering him,’ voices Abe. 

“I know, but you know it's hard for him.” Mum replies. 

“It's not right.” Pop asserts. “And when did you start calling him ‘Mik’?” 

“When he and Maria were going through that rough patch and they were taking care of his mother.” 

“When was this?” Pop interrogates 

“Last June, Red. What’s with the third degree?” Mum retaliates. 

“Just wondering, damn.” 

“Afraid I’ll have an affair with the cemetery owner?” She teases. 

“No, just forget I even said anything.” He pouts. 

We park in the lot, gather our supplies from the trunk. “Lead the way.” I give a little salute and take a path to the left. After 15 minutes of perusing the headstones, I find one that catches my eye and alert my followers. Pops passes Uncle Abe a shovel and they get to work. Mum, Auntie Nuala, and I get to work to set up shop. We place a couple of blankets out, a picnic basket, a large cooler, and some lamps. Once settled Mum then proceeds to take out a few plastic cups, a charcuterie board, a veggie tray, and a bottle of red wine. She begins to pour a generous amount into each cup and passes them about. I usually got a child’s size amount in the past, but she doesn’t skimp now that I am turning 21. Pops and Abe finish, dust themselves off, and join the rest of us. Pops raises his glass, “To Sabine, my dearest daughter. Not by blood, but spirit.” 

“And a mighty one too!” Mum interjects. 

“Yes! I remember when you were barely 4 and your favorite thing was to demand to be tossed with my stone hand.” He begins to get choked up. “And now…” He sniffles. “My little girl.” 

“Aww Pop.” I get up and give him a hug. Mum gets up and hands him a tissue. 

She whispers to me, “I knew this would happen.” 

“Anyways.” Pops collects himself and lets me sit back down. “Let’s raise a toast to you, Sabine. 21 sweet years.” 

“Here here!” Shouts Abe. 

“Slaìnté!” Says Auntie Nuala. We cheers and take our sips, Pop takes out his amulet. Plops into the grave and says the enchantment. We hear a rasp and a groan and he lifts out the animated corpse. She “eyes” around warily and then stares at us. What’s left of her dress barely clings to her. 

“What in the dickens are you?” Moans the corpse.

“Hi Dorothy, I'm Sabine!  Today is my birthday and I have some questions for you.” I pull out two children’s microphones and hand her one. 

“Okay…” She takes it and looks at it with suspicion. 

“So,” let’s start with an easy one, what do you regret from your life?” 

Chapter Text

“Hey Killer brought you something today.” I say while giving his cage a light knock. 

He looks like he was in the middle of tidying up and he gives me an annoyed look. 

“I don’t appreciate that name.” He says matter of factly. 

“Oh….” 

“I have never killed for my own enjoyment, only necessity.” I feel a pang of guilt. 

“Yea, sorry about that. It won’t happen again.” But then he eyes my little white parcel and changes his mood completely. 

“But what have you brought me?” He says with a contagious smile. 

“Ohhh this is just some leftover cake.” I place my bag down and untie the twine, opening the box towards him to show him the two pre-cut slices. 

He claps his hands together, presses them to his mouth, and says sweetly, “well I'm very excited for this. Unfortunately I have a soft spot for sweets.” I place them on a couple of paper plates and put his in the glass container with a plastic fork and napkin. 

“Now I know I haven’t done anything to deserve this, so what’s the occasion?” 

“Nothing really, just had extra from-.” 

“It was your birthday.” He cuts me off. “This is your birthday cake?” 

“How did you know?” I thought he could only see emotion. He flips his cake share to me to show his piece has a Y SAB.

“And some objects have a resonance to them. If someone puts a lot of emotional value into something. A watch, a toy, a wedding band.”  I watch him eagerly stab the piece of green and pink layer cake and take a bite. He closes his eyes in enjoyment, licking his lips from the frosting. Time seems to move a little slow.  

“Guess they don’t bring many desserts down here.”

“The provided meals are sustainable, but not as delightful as this. Thank you, Sabine” 

“Don’t mention it.” I guess I never thought about what they feed them down here. He takes his plate to the small kitchen table he’s moved to the front of the cell and takes a seat. 

Savoring each bite he tells me “I don’t usually like these human treats. Much too sweet for my palate, but when I was a young elf-ling I spent many late summer days in the court's kitchen watching them prepare many of the feasts for Lughnasadh . And I would always try to sneak out one of the baked goods off before the festivities, but I would always get caught. One of the cooks, Fanon, would give me one when the head chef wasn’t looking, she always had a smile on her face. I miss her fondly.” 

“What happened to her?” 

“She died 40 years later, from an illness called Creeping Lung. Not too pleasant, usually brought on by excessive air pollution, and there was no remedy for it at the time. I would visit her often in the infirmary, when it progressed past the point of return. And bring her baked treats just like she did for me. She wouldn’t take a bite unless I shared it with her, and by the end, that’s all she would eat.” 

“Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss.” 

“Thank you. I wonder if things would have been different, if she were still here today?” She died from human industrialization. I don’t excuse what he’s done, but it makes a little bit more sense. It feels a little bit more personal.  

“I know this isn’t ideal, but it might be to our benefit if I could observe the manifestation when it comes on.” He suggests. 

This is starting to become a habit. Classes have been let out for holiday break and I’ve come back down to see Nuada. “Yea, but it happens spontaneously.” 

“You could catalog when it happens and then maybe we can pin point if there’s a specific catalyst.” 

“Yea…. There is one thing though, but it might not be related.” 

“Oh?” 

“Well, and this is silly, but I had this strange dream a few nights ago.  And I mean more like a nightmare. Which I do have sometimes, but this felt different. It didn’t feel completely like a dream.” He’s honed in.I decide to omit the part with hearing him call my name, but keep pretty true to what I can remember. “When I woke up, I could have sworn there was someone in my room with me. Sitting on my bed.” 

“Did you see what they looked like?” 

“No it was dark but it just looked like a figure, I couldn’t make out anything.” 

“It’s possible.” 

“Do you know what it means?” 

“I can’t say for sure. Dreams are tricky, so easy to be premonitions, but could be nothing at all. This definitely helps. Maybe the curse is trying to manifest into a person, something physical to attach itself to you. Next time write down everything about your dream. Maybe see if the figure tries to reach out.” 

“I mean it was terrifying, I don’t want to see it ever again.” 

“I understand,although it might be an echo of the curse. Let's try something. Place your hands on the glass.” I am reluctant to do it again after how invasive he’s been. And he notices. “Please Sabine. I promise I won’t do anything you don’t consent to. I just want to see if I can feel it.” I place them and he moves to mirror me against the wall. I notice his features appear much softer than the last time this occurred. “Try to think back on it.” I close my eyes to focus and a silence falls over us. I start to reimagine it. The strangeness, the man, the shadow. Nuada doesn’t say a sound. I lose focus for a second and slightly open my eyes. His reading of me feels different this time. He looks immersed. He opens his eyes, and it catches me off guard. I remove my hands quickly. 

“Sorry. Uh that’s all I can remember.” I try to save myself from the embarrassment of staring.  He doesn’t lead on like he knows and says “that’s okay, I didn’t get much from it.” He takes a seat and I do the same on my side of the wall. I’ve brought down a foldable lawn chair from Mass Storage to make our meetings more comfortable. 

“I definitely felt your anxiety, the guilt, all pretty normal.” 

“Okaaaay.” Rude, but I am waiting for it. 

“But the fear. It’s cold. Terror…. is that normal for you?” He asks. 

“Umm not usually. I had night terrors when I was younger, but I grew out of it by 13, 14, I think. And I smoke a fair amount of …weed and usually don’t dream that often.” 

“It’s odd. Come to me the next time this happens.” 

“It's super chill, good music, cheap drinks, and the best part is the DJ is also a siren. Mina convinced me to go dancing with her in Bushwick. I’m nervous to be out with my meds not really working anymore. I don’t come to the city often, but it’s nice to be out of the compound. We get off the Montrose stop and walk 4 blocks to the venue. When we presumably arrive, I'm surprised to see us at a normal looking house. All the lights are off and the only sound I hear are cars going by on the adjacent street.

“Uhhhh…..” I start to say. 

“Trust me” She finishes. 

She goes up to the door and there’s a sign on the front that says “Knock, don’t ring the doorbell.” She rings the doorbell. 

“But, the sign says knock.” 

“That’s just a ploy for all the people who don’t know.” We wait about a minute and then quietly the door opens and it’s an older woman. 

“Hi dearies, how can I help you two young ladies?” She sings. 

“Jake told us to meet him here,” Mina responds. The old woman smiles and opens the door to us. We walk inside and she tells us he’s in the basement. I still hear no noise. Mina thanks her and in the corner of my eye I see the old woman shift slightly becoming larger. The basement is led down by a dark set of stairs and as I head down I turn back to tell her thank you and see her eyes bulging as she gives me a sharp smile. I smile back warily but continue to descend down the stairs. When we reach the basement door, Mina opens it and it opens to a large dance space. There’s lights, a fog machine, and loud pumping music. The space is immense and it has two levels with a balcony along the edge overlooking the dance floor. “You can pick up your jaw now.” She muses. We glide through the people in the crowd and make our way over to the bar on the right side of the room. The bartender, who must be over six feet tall with skin the hue of an evergreen, gives us a quick acknowledgment before moving to take someone’s order. I take the moment to look over the drink menu and while reasonably priced I find myself a complete novice to most of the ingredients listed. And I’m familiar with the basic liquors and mixers , but it’s just that a fair amount of them also have things like Socotra sap, or whipped Cockatrice egg white in them. The bartender returns to us to ask us what she can get started. Mina orders a Fainting Willow and I plead, “make that two.” I take a moment to eye the sea of people. Some I notice to be Fae but others humans. 

“Pretty cool, huh.” She says. 

“Yea.”

“You can also take off your glamour. It’s a safe house.” 

“Oh, right.” I run my hands over the crown of my head to reveal my small coiled horns and drop the barrier. The bartender, who I now notice now has protruding lower canine teeth, brings us our drinks. She takes a look at my horns and gives me a little wink and tells us to enjoy. The liquid is a soft icy blue and glows softly. We cheers and take a sip. It runs down smooth but then I feel a slight jolt of electricity, like the drink literally shocks you from the inside out, but in a good way? Mina gives me a quick side hug and says “Well Happy Birthday! Glad you could come out and see what’s going on outside the compound and feel normal for once.” 

“I feel normal….ish.” She gives me a side eye. 

“Really? I know BPRD likes to act like they’re all for Fae and Humankind, but they definitely seem to prioritize one of those.” 

“Yeaaaaa…” I admit. “The BPRD loves to claim that Hellboy and Liz Sherman are their poster children, but they still treat them as a dirty secret.” I rant.  

“They keep all the Fae at bay, none in actual positions that matter.” 

“It’s true, and they say they want to integrate, but our success rate is barely over 20%.” 

“They keep bringing in people who have no idea how to run the place. Manning has been in charge for far too long.” 

“They care about their reputation too much. Don’t want to look too Pro-Fae for the donors.” 

“Yup! Anything to get another ‘work retreat to Bali.’”

“Fucking right!”

“Well here’s to us just figuring it the fuck out.” We both take another swig. “Well, we are definitely going to need more alcohol to get over our abandonment issues.” She jokes. 

I feel eyes on me and I look up to the balcony to see a strange man with slicked back hair staring at me, smirking. 

“Wanna dance?” Asks Mina. 

“Abso-fucking-lutely.” I suck down the remainder of my drink and follow her to a cut out on the dance floor. They’re blasting something from the new Doechii x Paramore collab and for a second I completely lose myself in the moment. I get to be me and I get to feel invisible. Nobody knows who I am and I'm light as air. And that's when I notice everythings a little different, like a fiter over my eyes and I remember the edibles we took right when we got off the train. About three songs in I start to notice someone looking over at me periodically. I look over and he's cute in a 1998 Benicio del Toro in the cult classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas kinda way. We catch eyes and he smiles and points to himself and then me. I’m feeling uninhibited. Aww fuck it. It’s harmless, so I nod and he makes his way over. He doesn't have the best moves, but he seems carefree in his motion, or maybe he’s drunk? When the song ends he asks me “what’s your name?” I can barely hear him over the french techno blaring in the room.

“Sabine, what’s yours?” 

“Miles. Can I buy you a shot?” We’re close and I can smell the cologne and sweat mixed on him. 

“Uh sure, but you have to buy my friend one.” I point to Mina and give her a little throwing back shot pantomime and she mouths OH YEA. 

“Okay! What kind?” 

“Uhh-” I freeze.

“TEQUILA!” I hear Mina yell. He gives us a thumbs up and finds his way out of the crowd to the bar. Mina joins me. 

“He’s cute.” She says. 

“Yea, but he’s a Mard.” 

“Do whatever you’re comfortable with. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Someone yells Mina’s name from the staircase and she recognizes them. She motions for them to wait and tells me “I’m just going to say ‘hi’, text me if you need anything, or if he turns out to be a creep.” 

“I will, I’ll be fine.” She scrambles out of the crowd to her friends. Miles finds me again soon after her departure. 

“Where’d your friend go?” He asks. 

“She stepped out.” I pull out my phone to let her know, but she’s already messaged  “enjoy 😉” Sly bitch. 

“She said we can have hers.” 

“Oh okay.” We cheers and take our shot. It surprisingly doesn’t burn at all. I suggest we split the last one and he takes a little swig before handing it to me to finish the rest. He then holds out his hands and we find ourselves dancing for three or four songs. Honestly kinda fuzzy on the rest of this night after that. They’ve slowed it down and I think it's a song from Anti, Rihanna’s last album. We’re really close. I had my head on his shoulder… or maybe he’s behind with his hands on my hips. But all of sudden he leans in and kisses me. I taste him and it’s like tomato leaves. Fuck, its good. We had made it to the edge of the dance floor closest to a stairwell leading up to the balcony. Not a ton of foot traffic, unfortunately. I felt myself completely slip and I couldn’t resist. He’s kissing back, unaware, and I'm ravenous. He’s has one hand through my hair and another on my ass and I'm gorging myself and he tastes sooooo good. He loses ferocity, and he tastes so good. When his hand on my behind falls, but he tastes so good. And his weight begins to fall on me, but he tastes so good, he tastes so good, he tastes so go-. Immediately I am pulled backwards. I come to and there’s a cane across my chest and someone is grasping me from behind. 

“Naughty little succubus. I think you’ve had your fill.” A slick voice whispers in my ear. Miles slumps down to the ground and the man releases me. I turn around to see it’s the man with the smirk. He moves past me to check Miles’s pulse and gives a sigh. 

“Is he okay?” Guilt returns to me full force. 

“He’ll live, but he’ll probably have a couple day hangover.” He gives me that look again and lets me know, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to kill my patrons.”

“Oh, you own this club?” I ask. He eyes me up and down. 

“Usually I’d throw you out, but…” he pauses, “you seem inexperienced.” I scoff. The fuck is he? He hands me a card and leans down to whisper in my ear again, “give me a call when you’d like to change that”. He snaps his fingers and the stone wall vibrates to materialize into what I think is a golem. It lifts Miles up gently. The asshole disappears into a room past the new recess of the wall and the golem follows. Mina runs into me. 

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” I go to point at the hole in the wall, but it's returned to its former state. I’m so confused. “Come on, let's leave. I’m hungry.” She grabs my hand and we make our way out. What the fuck just happened?

Chapter Text

I keep hearing someone call my name. I’m in that state of not quite awake, not very lucid. But it’s relentless. There’s no urgency in it but it’s constant. Sabine. A few seconds pass and then again, Sabine. And it continues like that for I don’t know how long. 5, 45 minutes. I finally open my eyes and everything is silent. I probably don’t get enough sleep. I try to lull myself into that state again, but find myself beginning to recall the night before. Guilt and relief wash over me in waves before curiosity tethering itself to my mind. Strangely, I don't feel hungover. I suppose a small silver lining to the ordeal. I hop out of bed to find my bag from last night and rifle through all its pockets . I look for my clothes from the night before. I had tossed into the corner last night in my state and I begin to pat down all the pockets before finding the little black business card in the back left pocket. It has silver lettering that gleams in the darkness of my curtained room. Kas Johrimir, on the front and then an odd twisting snake rune on the back. I google his name, but nothing really pops up. One article from what seems to be an indie publication catches my eye and it’s a feature on a place called Yaga House, which I assume is the name of the club from last night . Not much of a digital footprint . Mina texts me asking if I’m doing okay.  I tell her: Much better than I thought, but I did drain a Mard almost completely dry so I guess I have Miles to thank for my hangover cure. She responds, Thank the gods for cute boys . I ask her if she’s heard of Kas Johrimir? 

M: Yea he’s a powerful illusion warlock and the owner of the club last night, YAGAHOUSE. Why? Was he there? 

S: Yea, he pulled me off that mard. 

M: WAAAT?! WHEN??

S: Right before you found me. Honestly he saved that kid. But he gave me his card. 

M: NO WAY!  

I send her a photo of the front and back. 

M: He must like you! What did he say??? 

S: It’s a lot. I can tell you over breakfast in the café? 

M: Sab, it’s 3pm. But yes. See you there in 30?

S: Yes! 

Today the H&F Comms (Human and Fae Communications) class is taking a field trip to Iona Park to see the Dobhar-chu, or Water Hound Sanctuary. Prof. Agnarsson said it was a “valuable lesson in how there can be a symbiotic relationship between us both.” When we get there it’s kinda like he described. It's honestly on a beautiful plot of land and our tour guide shows us where the hounds sleep and rest, a small building where they have a vet and tech on site. But then we get shown what they have the hounds doing most of their days and it’s cleaning the river. Which they promise is something they thoroughly enjoy doing day in and day out. We end the tour at their humble visitor center filled with pamphlets on Water Hound facts, which half are just jobs that they want to outsource them to do and shitty trinkets and souvenirs. They let us explore for a bit before corralling us back onto the bus. I find myself sitting on the bank just watching a couple of cubs playing in the river when I think I hear someone call my name. I turn around but the few people out here are nowhere near me and engrossed in their phones. I turn my attention back to the pups until I hear it again. I look behind me and again, nothing.  Across the clearing is a break of trees. I watch them carefully for a moment but nothing moves. I must be hearing things. This time when I return to the pups they aren’t playing anymore. In fact they are at attention to something past me and they begin to bear their teeth. I finally stand up to get a better look. I’m tired of this back and forth. There’s no voices except the indistinct talking closer to the visitor center and nothing out of the ordinary, at first. But then I see, or maybe I think I see a shadow step out from behind a tree and behind another one. My eyes widen and the pups whimper and disappear under the water. I decide to walk to the forest edge to put an end to all of this. The hair on my neck begins to stand at attention the closer I get. But when I reach the edge, I don’t see any more movement. I slowly sidestep on the treeline, keeping my breath steady and eyes diligent. I make it round the corner of trees and see nothing out of the ordinary, no shadows, no voices. I must be going crazy. 

“And then what happened to him?” Nuada asks. 

“The owner intervened and I think summoned a Golem to take him to care. I’ve never seen one come straight out of a wall.” 

“Hmm must be some warlock.” 

“He was pretty rude and arrogant. But anyways, have you found anything in this batch?” I’ve been sneaking more books in and out of Uncle Abe’s library. Never taking more than three and immediately returning the ones I've stolen before acquiring new ones. 

“There’s a few potential options I've seen.” He pulls out a smaller leather-bound book and opens it up to a saved section. “In this one there’s a curse that causes the intended user general malaise, but also laughing fits. It also says the effects should be immediate once it's been cast.” 

“Yea, I don’t think that's this.” 

“I agree, but it does offer up the question of when this started? When do you think you started to notice these effects?”

“Oh, no idea. Best guess would be when I started to take my medication. Maybe a year after it?” 

“When you started puberty?”

“Uh gross.” 

“I’m just trying to gauge if it’s connected to your Fae. Succubi tend to mature and develop their appetites during puberty. Perhaps that’s a clue.” 

“I just don’t want to think back on that time.” 

“Why not?”  

“It just… it just wasn’t a good time for me.” 

“Did something happen?” 

“No!… I mean yes, I mean it.. it was just- I don’t want to talk about it, okay.” He’s quiet for a while. The air feels thick with awkwardness. 

“You know, I thought I was going to marry my sister.” He drops a bomb through the silence. 

“What!?” 

“It’s tradition. At least for twins.” I immediately take a seat and he takes my cue to continue. “In my culture, we believe that twins are two souls of one person. Innately connected, and in a way we are.” 

“So what made you change your mind or… are you still holding out?” 

“It was part of my frustrations back when I thought I knew what was best. Made me resentful of her. I thought she was turning her back on us. On me.”  I’m enrapt. I’m honestly dumbfounded for him to be so brazen to drop this. “I wish I could say I didn’t resent her, I did, for years. I was raised thinking she was unconditionally mine. And I thought she would change her mind too. See that Abraham would not understand her like I do, did. I was wrong. I was very wrong about a lot of things. I knew all of this would happen. We would be pushed to the edges. Our land, our lives squeezed into hiding. I couldn’t watch it and I left. And when I couldn’t sit back anymore, I failed and nothing changed.” His shoulders are slouched in his chair and I can't see his face. But I see droplets forming on the cold floor of his cell. “I apologize.” He gets up and in a flurry, I see how ghostly his face has become. His yellow eyes, now orange. He moves to his sink on the back wall and splashes his face a few times before patting it down with a towel and returning. “I’m sorry for that display. It’s unbecoming of me. I don’t mean to burden you with my faults.” I don’t really know how to respond. 

“Do you still think about your sister like that?” I figure to just start firing. 

“No. It was mostly puritanical.” 

“What do you mean? Like you didn’t think about her sexually?” 

“No, not yet. We have a belief that one should sow their oats with many others before committing fully to their beloved.” 

“Is that why you came out of exile?” 

“That and to wage war.” 

“Do you wish she saw you that way?” 

“I did.” 

“What changed?” 

“I realized it was pointless. If I use force like they do, the humans, then I am no different than them. She made me see reason, even if it was too late.” 

“What did she say?” 

“That our fields would not grow from that much blood shed, and it’s true. Is it worth that much sacrifice? To potentially end up with naught. A kingdom of nothing.” 

“Do you wish you had done things differently?”

“Yes, but I accept my choices and the punishments for them.” 

“I don’t pity you.” I say frankly. 

“I don’t expect you to. I understand what I did and it was my choice.” I take a deep breath. 

“Well,” I sigh, “I can empathize with your regret.” He studies me very quietly, as I lay out my great shame. “When I was 14 I met this boy. He was a mard, but he was very sweet and also an orphan. He was being raised in the system, a ward of the bureau. They don’t usually take in mards unless there’s a specific circumstance. His mom had been turned into a vampire and she had turned his father shortly after. New fledgling vampires have a difficult enough time controlling their bloodlust, much harder time when you have a 5 year old as well. And it must have shown because someone at his school must have tipped off the bureau, because two agents showed up at his door. Vampires are not allowed to have children under their care because it’s a liability, very easy to decide to create a child vampire which is highly taboo and illegal or worse, eating their son. Well things escalated quickly and they both got staked, so he ended up here.” I take another deep breath. “He was a good kid. A couple years older than me and volunteered to tutor maths. So patient and he gave me butterflies everytime he rolled up his sleeves. But one evening before my geometry final he stayed late with me, the study room closed at 7 usually, but he wanted to make sure that I got back safely.” I feel a lump in my throat manifest and my face get hot. “I knew I was not supposed to have intimate relations with mards until I could get my hungers under control, but I didn’t know what to do when he kissed me. And I felt something take over me, like I was possessed. And he didn’t scream in terror like I thought. He pulled me closer to him. But then…” My eyes stinging now as I lay out my trauma. “I had never felt that way before. I had been on suppressants, but I guess we had the dose wrong. I didn’t know what it might feel like, taste like, and I had no idea how to stop.” The rest of it I choke out. “I felt this hiss, before it all stopped…and…” I can’t get the rest out. 

“Sabine.” He says my name softly. I can’t look at him. “Sabine, it’s okay.” I’m shaking my head. 

“No it’s not.” 

“You didn’t know.” 

“It doesn’t matter, he’s dead because of me and I almost did it again.” 

“You can learn how to control it.”  

“How? My stupid pills which used to work are pointless now. Every day I feel the hunger growing, and as if that wasn’t enough, now I feel sick most days. I feel like I'm going crazy and losing control. And no one else knows what's going on with me or refuses to tell me anything!” My whole face is slick with salty tears.  

“We can find a way. We are getting closer to the answer.” 

“And then what? How are you going to fix me when you can’t do shit?” He goes silent and I feel immediate regret. “I’m sorry, I don’t know… It’s not your fault. I just feel so terrible.” 

“It’s okay.” He says. 

“It’s not. I honestly didn’t know if this was real or if I  was just losing sleep, but I think I’m starting to hallucinate things that aren’t there, and it's scaring me.” 

He’s looking at me so seriously and says, “I need you to tell me exactly what you’re hearing and seeing.”  

Chapter Text

Nuada has an idea , but wants me to find an old fae book of fairytales, which I didn’t even think could be possible, to make sure. He says he’s not completely certain, but there’s an old story in there. I think he doesn’t want to scare me. I try to get the book out of Uncle Abe’s library the next day, but when I get there he’s pulled most of the literature off the shelves. I walk in too prematurely, like I have a dozen times before and he notices me before I can slip out. 

“Hi Sabine, what brings you here today?” He doesn’t sound suspicious at all. 

“Oh I just wanted to see if you were in.” 

“Well, ask and you shall receive.” He flourishes a hand but slowly keeps moving his literature around. 

“Uh, what are you doing with your library?” I ask. 

“Just some reorganizing. I couldn’t find the Lesser Key of Solomon , so I decided it was time to catalog them again.” 

“Oh. Okay.” Shitshitshitshit. I try to hide my guilt. “Well, you seem pretty busy, and I actually have a class soon, sooo..I’ll see you on Sunday for family dinner.” I attempt to make my exit, but… 

“Wait.” He exclaims and it stops me in my tracks before I can even make it up the stairs to his front door. I slowly turn around, my heart pounding. “Did you need something from me, Sabine.” 

“Hmm?” My lips seize together. “Oh right. I just wanted to know,” I spew out. 

“You know the strangest thing about my library is that I’ve noticed lots of books going missing, but they usually show up again a few days later.” 

“That’s so strange, maybe we have Knockers. 

“Perhaps.” 

“We have a problem. I think Abe knows.” I returned to Nuada the next day. “He knows someone’s been taking his books and returning them.”  

“That’s not good.” He has a serious look on his face. “It’s not easy to find 12th Century Fae literature. 

“Maybe there’s some other library I can get it from?” 

“There’s a shop in the Troll Market that might have a copy.” 

“Oh.” There’s a bit of disdain in my voice. The Troll Market is actually not such a well kept secret these days. Lots of tourists, but they still don’t take too kindly to BPRD agents, on account of, well Pops kinda made a big impression. “That’s going to be difficult.” I pace for a second or two. “Y’know I had a question about the doc. about what went down back then.” 

“It’s not a documentary.”  

“Sorry, right.” 

“It’s sensationalism.” 

“Right, but a lot of those things did happen.” 

“I didn’t kill my own father.” 

“Yea…” 

“And I am not dead, nor is my sister, who walks around freely, out in the open.” 

“Sure.” 

“And I certainly didn’t murder Mards with starved Tooth Fairies. I would never torture them like that. They are beautiful little creatures that shouldn’t have to starve on the veneers of those greedy, gluttonous, vile people. 

“Okay okay.” I give him a moment to stew in his anger before he takes a deep breath. 

“Sorry. I felt compelled to at least exonerate myself from those misdeeds.” 

“That’s okay.” He does one more breathing exercise. 

“What did you want to ask?” He finally asks in a level tone. 

“The reenactment of the High Elf court room, where you ki- diDN’T kill your father.” He politely lets it slide. 

“Go on.” 

“Does it really look like that? Underground, with the golden leaves falling?” 

“No.” 

“Oh.” 

“They aren’t golden. They’re just normal oak leaves when autumn arrives. It’s the remnants of the Emmanuel Presbyterian Reformed Church that burned down in 95’.” 

“Where is that?” 

“Woodlawn.” 

“But your sister flies overseas for council meetings.” 

“They relocated back to Éire, because of me. My sister tells me after my attempt, she noticed more and more non-high elves and Fae acting untoward towards us. Other Fae refrained from doing business with us, punishing us as a whole for my digression. They decided to return to our homeland where sentiment would be better among our own kind.”

“Oh.” I immediately feel guilty that I asked.  

“So you are in line to take over after your father….dies?” 

“Whoever he decides to lead the clan. I never desired it until I thought it was necessary. Nuala has always been alongside our father. She’s a more capable head. She spent most of her youth watching and learning, preparing for eventual coronation. I leave for years only to return to try to take what she’s worked for her whole life. She’s a nèamhach for still speaking to me.”
“When does she usually come down here?” He takes a second to think it over. 

“‘Usually,’ around the second Thursday each month, but…” He downturns his mouth. “It’s probably been about three months.” Did she stop coming when I…

The meal from Miles has completely worn off and I begin to feel crummier and crummier with each passing day. Worse than two months ago. Most days I wake up with a headache or nausea. Sometimes just extreme fatigue. And it’s not just in the morning anymore. It’s throwing my life out of whack and I’m slowly panicking that this is not something that’s just going to go away. I’ve started to self medicate more. Trying to take two doses of my pills even though that does virtually nothing. Taking pain killers, anti-nausea, tums, weed, drinking ginger tea in the morning, herbal medicine I read online. Nothing works. Fortunately it doesn’t last more than a few hours. Tonight is family dinner again and I am running 20 minutes late waiting for my stomach to stop churning. When I arrive at my parents, everyone’s chatting in the kitchen. Mum gives me a little kiss on the cheek when I arrive and asks me if I’m okay. I tell her I ate some questionable eggs from the cafe and she pulls out some ginger ale for me just in case. It’s steak night and usually I’m pretty excited, but my stomach is still disagreeable with me. I have tea after dinner instead of my usual glass of aperitif and skip dessert all together. I decide to leave early, but as I say my goodbyes Auntie Nuala tells me quietly on my way out, “Perhaps it’s best if you took some time off. Don’t take too many walks around the facility.”  I want to ask her what she means by that, but I feel a pang hit me in that moment and only muster an “Okay thanks.” 

I’ve only been able to go to class some of the days this week, but I'm making sure I keep emailing my professors about the situation. Prof. Agnarsson had been a bit annoyed but a doctor’s note from Med, softened him up. After our lecture today I find Madeline and Adrienne speaking in hushed tones outside of the classroom. I quickly walk past them, but I hear their footsteps and one of them yelling “Hey you,” I walk faster. One of them grabs my blazer sleeve and I flip around. 

“What?” I ask. Visibly impatient. 

“We just wanna ask you a quick question.” For presumably being in the Catholic Cunt Crew, Adrienne always looks a little slutty with her white button up undone to her cleavage and all the fucking eyeliner she wears. 

“Okay?” I charge.

“Do you have Dean’s keycard?” 

“No.” I turn to leave, but Madeline grabs my arm now and chimes in, “It has Level 5 Clearance, it’s white.”

“I said no. And even if I did, I'm pretty sure neither you bobbleheads or Dean should have it.” 

She scoffs and releases my arm before shouting, “Do you suck it through the mouth or the asshole?” as I walk down the hall. I give them a false smile and flip them off before disappearing around the corner. Fucking cunts. Before I can even take a moment to decompress from that whole interaction, I hear a sharp ringing in my ears before a throbbing pain behind my eyes. My knees buckle and a chill goes up my spine before I flick the sweat that’s already collected on my forehead. Not again. My vision begins to blur, before I realize it’s a full episode, and I begin to stumble down to Nuada.

Chapter Text

I tumble through the corridors to the prison door and begin to shake as I rifle through my bag to pull out the key card. The pain ebbs and flows,and gets worse with every movement I make. My insides feel like they’re going to fall out. I finally manage to slide the card in, but as I turn the handle I hear someone behind me. I rush to make it through the door, but they beat me to it. 

“It’s the succubitch!” Madeline screams and then there’s the rest of their christofascist crew. Adrienne comes up on my left and grabs my arm as Madeline grabs my other. I try to pull away, but the cold sweats and nausea begin to take hold and my knees buckle. 

“Hey! That’s my key card!” Dean snatches out of hand. I groan. 

“What’s wrong with her?” Asks Madeline. 

“It’s her unholiness, her sin that’s finally making her sick.” And here he is, the ringleader of it all, Luther Mather. “But I will help you dear child, and purge the evil from you.” He touches my forehead and I return the favor by willing my strength to spit in his face. His face turns to disgust and revulsion before he says “Well let’s see what you’ve been up to then.” Fuck . They reopen the door.  Luther and Dean lead the charge, with Madeline and Adrienne dragging me behind them. 

“Not as strong as we thought.” Madeline asserts. 

“This will be easy peasy.” They smirk together. I feel my mouth begin to fill up with saliva and the nausea begin to reach its peak. 

“And what have you been doing down here, succubus. Unholy meetings with prisoners? Hmm? You must be retributed and cleansed in the holy light of the Lord.” Luther gets right up in my face.  

“Sack of shiiit.” I meekly say before throwing up right on the floor. Luther jumps back and Adrienne and Madeline immediately drop me to the ground. 

“Ew!” They say in unison. The cold floor feels like relief as my body begins to heat up. 

“Pick the bitch up! We can’t have her running off.” I barely hear as Luther demands. My vision starts to speckle. 

“But she’s so clammy!” 

“It’s disgusting.” 

“Just do it!” They reluctantly pull me off the floor while Madeline uses her skirt as a barrier between her hand and my arm. 

“What is wrong with her though?” Dean asks. 

“I’m not sure, but we can use her as an example to the rest of these demented souls in here. I’m sure the grace of God will cure her ailments.” 

“I demand you to unhand her!” 

I hadn’t the will to notice where we were in the prison. Up across the way was his cell. His pale silhouette pressed up against the glass. They all turn, and then… well this is where all hell breaks loose. 

Luther looks to Nuada and back toward me before it clicks for him. “This is your little secret, succubus. You’ve been consorting with this criminal. Hmm? Making dastardly plans? Let’s do this in front of her accomplice so he knows exactly how we mean to change how things are run here.” They drag me through my own vomit towards his cell and grab my arms taut to each side. More drool begins to spill from my mouth. And my head begins to feel light. 

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with, you ignorant humans.” Nuada sneers. 

“Oh I think I do, devil.” 

“You think yourself so mighty, but I have been here longer than you. I’ve seen mountains turn to rubble, seas form, you know nothing. You’re a speck in my window of time.” Luther touches the glass with his fist, visibly annoyed. 

“I know of our Maker and Creator and he has bestowed me with great power, and I intend to use that power to cull the evils of this world and bring upon a cleansing flame to all that is wrong and sinful.”

“Is that so?” He gives a slight smirk. “You proselytize this supposed god, and yet you are woefully obtuse to what truly is attached to you.” 

“What do you spew, monster?” 

“I feel it’s malevolence. You don’t notice? No. You’re too stupid to realize the demon attached to you. A leviathan. Feeding off you. Your guilt, your sorrow, your ego. Slowly hollowing you out until you’re just a husk.” 

“False! Lies!” Luther pounds his fist against the cell glass, Nuada doesn’t move an inch. “‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’” 

“Oh poor Luther what lies? The lies you told to these mards? When were you going to tell them about the gambling, the drugs, the brothels.” 

“Shut up demon, Luther hasn’t done any drugs!” Madeline projects. 

“Haven’t shown them what’s hiding beneath those sleeves, yet? Must be easy to hide something like that under that priest costume. And when did you become a priest by the way?” 

“Be silent.” Luther grimaces with gnashed teeth. 

“Luther, why is he saying all this?” Adrienne asks. 

“Oh and that woman. I’m sure you remember her name. You see her face before you go to sleep every night. the guilt you feel, the anger. And she touched you so sweetly.” 

The two beside me whisper. This sets Luther off the edge completely. There is a thick energy in the air. 

“HOW DARE YOU!” His voice booms. and the lights all begin to flicker. The two girls and Dean all look up in alarm as uncertainty begins to grow. 

“Very interesting.” Nuada says with amazement. 

“She showed me God’s love and what God’s love can do. The power He wields and the power he bestowed to us through our unfathomable devotions.” 

“Killing poor animals is devotions now?” 

“We blessed them with his light!” 

“And you did that to her too? Blessed her too? Asphyxiated her too for your God. You make me sick, hypocritical mards like you. And too stupid for your own good.”

“How does he know all this?” Adrienne asks. 

“He’s lying! Spewing satan’s filth from his rancid mouth.” Luther swears.

This is all getting to be too much and a laugh escapes my lips. “You think this is funny, witch!?” I can’t hold back any longer.

“You’re…. such a fucking idiot.” I snicker out. He tears into a blind rage and grabs my throat with one hand. 

“Get your hands off of her!” Nuada screams. He backs off but his anger is still reserved. 

“You’re right.” He takes a deep breath and slicks back his hair. “Let’s do this right, with him.” 

The delirium is really startjng set in ad ime havng triohble concentratinggg. I an fade out of conciousbess as the scene unfolds like a viewfinder. I see Luther by the control box and a fog filling the cell. Then Luther and Dean are gone. I open my eyes and Nuada is front of me, restrained. They’re voices fade in and out. 

“Should we just leave her?” Madeline asks. “What’s wrong with her?” 

“She’s ill, pucklepox” Nuada lies. The girls immediately abandon their post and my arms join my legs on the concrete.  In the echo I hear a voice begin to say a hymn and chant. I can’t understand if it’s in english or latin but the air begins to feel thick. A breeze begins to pick up and the lights start to flicker again. I briefly open my eyes to see Dean huddled in the corner looking away from the scene as his hair stands up on end. I turn to the sight in front of me and Nuada doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight. He seems… out of it, almost… resigned. Luther kicks him in the stomach and he immediately falls, kicks him again…and again… and again. Get up. But he stays down. My body feels so heavy and it feels impossible to lift myself up from the floor. I’m panting and I feel the slimy wetness of my drool hitting my cheek. Luther picks him up by his hair, and he grimaces but keeps his eyes closed. 

“LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M EXORCISING YOU, DEMON!” 

A sharp pang of pain rushes down through my spine, and sends a chill right back up. Fucking stop, is last thought I have before completely blacking out.

Chapter Text

Ch. 9

“Sabine! Sabine wake up!” I hear the echo of my name and taste oxidation on my lips. When I come to I am in a puddle of my own sweat, or at least that’s what I think it is until I notice how black it is. The air smells burnt, there is a wail of noise, and then the downpour of the sprinkler system activating. 

“Nuada!” 

“I’m still here.” He is kneeling over me and I begin to cough. There is a haze in the air and through the smoke I see a black figure on the ground. 

“What happened? Who is that?”  

“Luther.” I go to get up but my legs feel weak. “Wait.” He commands and grabs my hand to steady me as I get up.

“Where’s the rest?” 

“They fled.” 

“What happened?” 

“I’ll tell you, but there is still a predicament here.” 

I finally realize what the haze is. His whole cell is up in flames. 

“It’s spreading.” He tells me, and I notice how the fire is beginning to travel up the steel walls. 

“Fuck.” 

“Sabine.” He holds onto my forearms in each of his hands while he tells me “this is an unholy flame. It will not be quelled in the traditional manner. We must go.”

“What about the rest of the prisoners?”

“They’ll be unharmed at least for a little while. Please help me drag Luther outside to safety.” 

This is bad! This is very bad! My phone is buzzing relentlessly with the BPRD emergency facility alerts. They've put us on lockdown and no one can get in or out until the building it’s secured. Mum and Pop have texted me about 20 billion times to check in and make sure I’ve barricaded my apartment while they work on the security sweep. And they have absolutely no idea that I have the cause here, in my apartment, the infamous eco-terrorist and prince of the high elves is just petting my cats and eating pita chips, wearing my old White Stripes tee and sweatpants, like he’s an old friend. Oh my gods. Pop is gonna kill me, bring me back to life, and kill me again, and he knows how to do that. They’re going to send me to the maximum prison in Antarctica. I’m going to never see the sun or feel warmth again. And who fucking knows what Luther, once he comes to, and his little lackeys are saying? How am I going to bring Nuada back down there without facing the full wrath of the Bureau? And they essentially have a one strike policy and I’ve witnessed lots of Fae find themselves in incarceration for the smallest of miscommunications. And there’s no way they would understand why I’ve been going down there. 

“Uh… Sabine, not to distract you from your spiraling, because I don’t really have any license, but do you have anything other than crisps?” Gods that cage must really dampen his insight if he can read that from across the room. I need to bring him back, but when I look at his face, he doesn’t look like a villain to me. He looks worn out. Eyes sunken in,  hair completely dull and… well fuck, why does he have to look at me like that? “Shit yea sorry yea just…” I open the fridge, thankful to break his gaze. There’s two eggs of a questionable date, some soy sauce packets, and a carton of coffee creamer.  Absolutely fucking empty in here. I close it and check the back of the cupboard to find a couple instant ramens. 

“Sorry I don’t have much in stock.” 

“That’s okay.” There is an awkward silence as we pick at our noodles. 

“How did-“

“Do you-“ We interrupt each other. 

“Go ahead.” He tells me. 

“How did you get out? I mean, what happened? I saw Luther kicking the shit out of you and then.. you were pulling me up off the floor.” 

“You don’t remember anything that happened after Luther was in my cell?” 

“I mean, even then it was bits and pieces before that.” He narrows his eyes. “You don’t remember feeding on Luther?” 

“WHAT!” I burst out  and then quickly return my volume to lower levels. “No, I don’t remember feeding on Luther, are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Sabine, I have never seen anything like it, it was frightening.” My eyes go wide. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Before Luther could immolate me, you tore him away, knocking him to the floor. He tried to get up, but you jolted him so hard back to the ground. I’ve seen what can happen between a starved succubus and their prey, but what I witnessed was abnormal. I couldn’t see your face at first, but his had gone white. I could feel his terror so clearly He screamed as you came down upon him and it became a muffled groan before he stopped altogether.” I look at him horrified. 

“Why didn’t you stop me?” 

“I tried, but you were latched onto his lower lip, blood…. was spilling from your mouth. I tried to pull you off, but you held onto him tighter. Driving your nails through his cassock, and into his skin.” I look down at my fingernails and notice bits of dried blood under them. “Sabine, the white in your eyes were black, you were gone. And I could feel this malicious aura emanating off of you.” 

“What do you mean ‘aura?’” I’m starting to shake. 

“Someone else was with us, I have reason to believe someone was in you.” 

“Like Luther’s leviathan?” 

“No. That’s his parasite. No, I think someone was trying to puppet you.”

“Puppet me?” 

“Yes, I surmise that each time your sickness comes on is the caster trying to weaken you and bend you to their will.” 

“And… they wanted me to do what? Feed off assholes?” 

“I don’t think that was their intention, but most likely the causation of being in that state. Your body took over, and had one thing on its mind.” 

“And the black stuff?” 

“I don’t know, maybe part of the possession sickness.” 

Why would someone want to control me? To use me? To get close to someone?  

“How far away would someone have to be to try to puppet me?” 

“Not sure, usually they have to be pretty close, less than 1000 feet. You think it’s someone in here?” 

“Maybe someone is trying to, oh I don’t know, sleeper agent me or something? Get to Pops or someone of high level.” 

“Well if that’s true, then you need to be careful of who you are around.” 

“Is there a way to fight it? Like a blocker or something to prevent someone from getting in.” I shiver.

“Maybe. It’s difficult to know exactly what will work since we still don’t know what the curse is.” 

“So you’re saying until then, the person can try to inhabit my body at any time.” 

“Yes.” Well… do I really have anyone else right now who can help. 

“Nuada, I still need you to help me. I don’t know how I’m going to get you back into you incarceration, but for the time being I need your help.” 

“And you trust me?” He asks with disbelief. 

“Well… no, not entirely. But you could have run off pretty much anytime since they opened your door, and you haven’t.” 

“That’s true.” He ponders. I stare at him waiting for a response. “I don’t want to.” He says matter of factly. 

“I find that hard to believe. You’re literally so close to freedom if you can make it out of the facility.” 

“I can make it out of the facility.” He states.

“Okaaaay.” I’m trying to coax him for an explanation. 

“I’m worried about you.” 

“Huh?” I’m confused. 

“I don’t want to see you succumb to this curse. I’ve grown pretty fond of our conversations, I looked forward to seeing you. I would be beside myself if I knew you weren’t yourself.” 

“Oh.” I’m kind of in disbelief. 

“You’re surprised.” 

“I am. I honestly was still on the fence about you. If you were or are just using me.” 

“I wouldn’t do that.” I look at him quizzically. He sighs, “In another lifetime, I would have, but not now, not to you.” I feel his gaze on me intensely and my chest pounds a little louder. I get up, trying to not get caught up in the moment. 

“Well! Look at the time. Wow, almost 3am, I think you should just spend the night here.” I belch out in a flurry. He gets up as well.

“Really?” He asks, incredulously. 

“Yea don’t worry about it. I can make up the couch.” 

“Okay.” 

“Yea, it’s probably a madhouse down there, and I don’t know, take this as a ‘thank you’ for helping me out so far.” 

“I really appreciate that, Sabine, but you don’t need to do that for me.” 

“Just…. don’t make me wrong about you.” 

“I won't." He promises. 

“I lay my head down and close my eyes for what I think is a second, but when I open them up again it’s daylight. The shock of it is like being hit with lighting and my body jumps straight up. I start to get my bearings, wondering if everything that happened yesterday was just a dream. The clock reads 1:23. Shit. I get up quickly remembering last night and walk out into my living space. The couch is empty. Fuck! But then I hear water running. Oh. I look at my phone and realize the lockdown has been lifted which seems premature, but then I see another alert with Nuada’s face laid out on my screen with text that reads KEEP LOOKOUT FOR THIS PRISONER, PRINCE NUADA SILVERLANCE. EXTREMELY HOSTILE AND DANGEROUS. I also see a few texts from Mina, and let her know I’m safe, but that last night was crazy. Technically not a lie. I use a moment to take a deep breath and start work on breakfast. I check if the eggs are still good and decided to make fried eggs and toast. I’m just plating the food when I hear the bathroom door open. 

“Oh, hi, good morning.” I say

“Good morning, Sabine.” He replies. He has a towel wrapped around his head and the sweatpants I lent him last night back on. His chest is ghostly pale, except for the massive black bruise by his ribs and chest.

“I made some eggs if you’re hungry.” 

“I am, thank you.” We sit down and quietly eat our humble breakfast. 

“Uh, did you sleep okay?” I ask him.

“It was good. I was incredibly exhausted, did you?” 

“Yea, like a rock.” I pause. “Does um…” I point to his bruise. “Do you need to get that checked out?” He looks down at it. 

“Hm no. It looks worse than it feels.” 

“Oh okay.” This is so awkward. 

“I wanted to thank you again, for letting me stay here. It’s very kind of you to open up your home and feed me.” 

“It’s really nothing.” 

“It’s not nothing.” He’s staring again and I feel that soft beat again in my chest. Thankfully my phone starts to ring. It’s mum. 

“I gotta take this, give me a second.” I walk into my bedroom, but leave the door open. 

“Hi Mum.” 

“Sabine, are you okay?” Does she know? 

“Of course. How did last night go?” I carry on, as if I have no idea.

She sighs, “It was a mess. Tom flew in and blew his casket. I guess someone started a Strange Flame in the old prison, we assume it’s one of the cadets.. Lex or something.” She must mean Luther. 

“Oh shit really?” I feign surprise. 

“Yea, really irresponsible. He’s in the infirmary now, still completely out. And a couple prisoners got loose. We apprehended all except one.” 

“Oh.” 

“Sabine, listen to me very carefully.” Oh shit she knows. Oh shit she knows. Oh shit she knows. “ Sabine, one of the prisoners who escaped was Nuada, Aunt Nuala’s brother. He is extremely dangerous. It’s possible he hasn’t been able to get out of the facility and is hiding somewhere, waiting for his chance for revenge. Aunt Nuala and Uncle Abe decided to go into hiding for the time being.” 

“Oh shit.” 

“You’re welcome to stay with us if you feel unsafe.” 

“Ummm….” I look out my door to see Nuada using the feather toy to play with Beez. “I think I'm okay for right now, but I’ll let you know if that changes.” 

“Okay. You still have that sword from Okinawa Red gave you.” 

“Yes Mum.” 

“Just checking.” 

“Where is Pops now?” 

“He’s doing another round. Ugh this whole thing has got him so wound up. He’s fought literal gods, but for some reason this one gets under his skin.”

“Oh really.” I say half heartedly, while I continue to watch Nuada play. 

“Yes. Nuada almost killed him. Spear blade right to the heart. Made a whole deal with an angel of death to get it removed. Then we had to fight like 100 invincible mechanical soldiers.” 

“That sounds tiring.” 

“It was. You know how disappointing it is to kill 30 of those things and then watch them just put themselves back together, to do it all again?” 

“Very probably.” 

“Yes, and do it all pregnant! Anyways, I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright.” 

“Thanks Mum.” 

“Love you, honey.” 

“Love you too.” We hang up. I pinch the bridge of my nose. That was a close one.  I walk out to see Nuada holding Beez in his arms, petting him. 

“Everything alright?” He asks. 

“Yea, I mean, everything is kinda a mess, but they don’t know.” I hold a brief pause. “Nuada, I’m going to be honest. I selfishly don’t want to turn you in. You’re pretty much my only option in breaking this curse and I’m honestly terrified of losing control of myself.” He doesn't change his demeanor to this, but just says “Okay.” 

“That doesn’t mean I trust you completely, you are still technically a criminal, and I am worried about you running off on your own.” He takes it in and then says, “I might have a solution to quell some of your fears.” 

Chapter Text

The Troll Market isn’t such a big secret as I've heard it to be. No more torturing Fragglewumps with canaries to get in. I did find out they had some trouble with Mards attempting to get in. One too many influencers accidentally walking in and mistaking it for interactive theater. So the New York Council of Fae ended up charming the entrance to change location every two hours. Thankfully it remains within the radius of the Brooklyn bridge, but that means you have to catch it at the right time. Because it’s manipulating time and space that means that the areas it occupies for a limited time will not quite follow the laws of physics. It could be as simple as something floating around it or something stranger like appearing as your younger self near it. But you do have to look for it. 

It wasn’t actually too difficult to get out. I had already been using the old service entrance, but the more complicated part was concealing Nuada’s striking appearance. An old hoodie from the back of my closet, a stolen Mets cap from the lost and found can do wonders, but the yellow eyes and white hair is a little trickier. I asked him if he wanted me to cut it, but the horror on his face let me know how fond of it he was. Plus a little cultural elf lecture cemented his disdain. He insisted on using a little glamour to help him appear a touch more human, but it would tire him out since he never perfected the skill when he was younger. “It’s a radical act to be unmoored from hiding your truest self in the shadows,” or something like that. But when we left,  he could’ve passed as any other random mard on the street. When we made it to the city we took the ferry from Wall st to the DUMBO stop, got off and immediately saw a group of young harpies flocking together towards the carousel. It did look strange, smaller than I remember it being. We got closer, and it appeared even smaller then. When we made it to the entrance door, it must have been half the size of its original. But when we walked through, you would have never known that ride was sitting there. A short set of stairs led down to a bustling market hall, filled with Fae from all walks of life. 

The need for this excursion is to hopefully find the old book for Fae fables, and second is for a special locator charm, like a mystical “find my friends.” It’ll make it easier for me to know where Nuada is at all times, so maybe more like an ankle bracelet. We decided to tie our wrists together so I know he won’t run, but also for my benefit of not getting lost in the maze that is the market. The place is massive and so packed it would be fairly easy to fade into the crowd here. Our first stop is to go to his former “dwelling” to pick up some money. I stupidly asked if they use a different type of currency, but he said it’s pretty ubiquitous, unless you want to barter. 

“Do you think anyone’s moved into it?” We begin to descend down stone steps to the right of a shop filled with different types of elaborate bread in the shape of different animals. 

“It shouldn’t be, I’ve paid the rent on it until 2072”

“Oh…..okay.” Wow I bet the rent stabilization is amazing down here. We reach a wooden and iron door with a tree etched into the front and a large key hole. 

“Do you still have the key?” 

“No need.” He says as he walks up to the door and whispers something in a different language to it. The tree etching illuminates, the door groans and unlocks. He leads me in and flicks a switch on the accompanying wall. Several strings of lightbulbs illuminate and show the abandoned apartment. In front of us is a large room with a small seating area and to the left a modest  kitchen. There’s also a hallway that I presume leads to the bedroom and probably a bathroom. We start to walk towards the bedroom when I hear something behind me, a soft clattering in the dark. Nuada stops and looks behind, a bit of worry on his face when he silently puts a finger up to his mouth so that I stay quiet. He quietly walks us toward the kitchen where the sound originated. 

In the entryway to the open room he announces,

“Reveal yourself now. Reveal yourself and be spared imminent obliteration.” He puts himself in front of me as there is a rustling behind his kitchen island and a small creature steps into the light. I don’t know what to make of it at first glance, but then I see its small body with two heads and three arms. A small sigh escaped Nuada’s mouth, was he afraid? 

“It’s just Wensteilgle, a boggart.” He speaks to it in a language I do not know. Wensteilgle motions to me and says something else in its high voice. Nuada looks at me and replies with a small laugh shaking his head. Wensteilgle says something else and then scurries off and up the stairs into the market. 

“So what was that all about?” I ask 

“I had completely forgotten that I was paying him to look after this place.” 

I give Nuada a quizzical look. “Is that all?” 

“He also told me to be careful about you.” 

“Oh?” 

“Said the beautiful ones are the most dangerous.” 

I laugh, “He’s not wrong.” We make our way to his bedroom, which I’m not sure what I expected. Weapons of mass destruction, torture devices, an entire arsenal of fae-made weapons? Instead it’s quite sparse. Not a lot of the furniture, and it looks mostly thrifted or handmade. His bed barely lifts off the ground and has a thin quilt on it. He has a workstation opposite of it and it’s filled with small metal pieces and something that resembles a music box. There’s also a small metal frame with a sketch of a woman that shares a similar appearance and two young elflings to her side. He takes a moment to open his wardrobe and pulls out a smooth metal box. He presses an unseen tab on its side and makes a small hum as several other tabs pop up. He methodically presses and pulls several of them before the top slides to each side and reveals a small blue velvet satchel tied with a silver rope and hands it to me. 

“Would you please hold onto this?” We spend the next several minutes filling a duffle bag full of his clothes, not taking anything else. We then leave the bedroom, the apartment, and walk back up the stairs to the organized chaos. He leads me through the crowded walkways to a small red wood-paneled building next to some sort of hair salon. A bell rings when we open the door and step inside. A large fae with rough grey speckled skin and a pair of glasses with six different colored lenses walks in from the back room. He carries a hard look, but greets us warmly. “What can I help you both with?” 

“We’re looking for a joint locator charm.” Nuada states.

“Of course.” He walks behind the counter to the wall facing us covered in little drawers. He moves a sliding ladder and climbs up to maybe the 30th row on the right side. 

“Here we are.” He places two small rings with small blue stones inlaid in them on the counter. 

Nuada inspects them and says “Great, we’ll take it. Can we also get Joiner’s Salve?” Places several bills in the fae’s hand and he nods as he goes to pull a small jar out from the case behind the counter. The fae responds “Here you are.” Sets it down on the counter and gives a look at us and says “next time when you’re ready, I also have some other rings for you and the lady.” He gives a little wink and a big toothy smile. 

“Thank you, we’ll keep that in mind.” Nuada says with an awkward smile and tells the clerk goodbye in elvish before we leave. We take a short walk to a little alcove in a less busy intersection and we take a seat on a set of stairs leading up to a plain green door. 

“Would you mind procuring the charms and the water container?” I take out the two small rings and hand them to him. He unwraps one and asks “Would you mind giving me one of your hands?” I give him my right, he slips the silver ring on my middle finger “These will show you where the other one is.” He then slips the other on his opposite middle finger with the stone inward towards his palm. He demonstrates by pouring a little bit of water onto the stone and I watch as it lightly shows my pov from my right hand on his palm. I'm in awe. 

“But wait can’t you just take it off?” I ask.

He says “hence the salve,” and takes the jar out, opens it, and rubs the vaseline substance on the finger with the ring, making sure to get under it. “When this dries, it will not come off, no matter how much force.”  

“Ever?” I say incredulously. 

“Well unless you say ‘Prince Nuada Silverlance, Son of King Balor, clan of Bethmoora, The Exiled One, I release you,’ and that’ll remove the bond.” I give him a sardonic look and he says “or you can just say “Nuada Silverlance, I release you. You of course can take yours off at will.” I remove and put back on the ring to check and tug on his, but it fails to move at all.

“Okay.” I say. 

“Okay. Good.” He responds. “Bookstore?” 

“Yea.” 

He unties the rope around our wrists and we head down a small flight of stairs and take a right turn into a less bustling part of the market. 

“Oh why did that clerk give you a wink in there?” I ask him.

“Oh.. well… These charms are known to be popular to be used for a spouse with a wandering eye. But he was most likely alluding to engagement rings.” My cheeks flush. 

“Ahh here it is.” We arrive at a small shop outlined in blue with many small window panes on the storefront. There’s a sign on the door that I can’t make out and a woman with jet black eyes and a little steeple protruding from her head. putting books back in the warm glow. Nuada opens the door for me and when I walk inside the woman greets us with a small “welcome.” 

I nod and Nuada implores her politely for our book. She nods and disappears into a room in the back to retrieve them. I seize the moment to take in the store. Books in all sorts of languages and alphabets lined the shelves. A lot of them were scrolls, and piles of books and parchment lined the floor.  The woman came back shortly with five books stacked in her arms. He rustles into the sack for a small wad of cash and gives her the rest in the satchel. She looks bewildered, quietly counting the bills and coins. Thanks Nuada profusely as we said our goodbyes.  On exiting, Nuada puts his hand on the small of my back and says “Would you like to get something to eat?”

We end up at a small shop with a wooden exterior, plastered with various posters, and a curtain as its doorway. Most of the ingredients on the menu are unfamiliar to me and I feel my hands get a little clammy as the waiter begins to walk over to our table. 

“Is everything alright?” Nuada asks me. 

“I feel kinda embarrassed, I’ve never had traditional fae cuisine.” 

“Oh, let me order for us.” He converses with the waiter about something I can’t understand and they take our menus away. 

“How are you enjoying the market?” He asks me. 

“It’s really cool. I’ve never seen so many fae in one place, and without any mards.” He smiles. 

“Well, I’m glad. Not many places like this exist. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last of its kind.” 

“That’s a shame. It’s nice to blend in.” 

“It is.” Our food arrives and it looks a lot more familiar than some of the dishes on the other tables. A type of flat fried fish on a bed of rice with various colored herbs covered in a brown sauce and a long thin noodle dish with a yellow eggplant type vegetable on top is placed on our table. We slide a bit of each onto our plates and dig in. I try a bit of each, Everything tastes amazing! The fish has a sharp crisp to the skin, but shiny soft flesh. The yellow vegetable doesn’t taste like eggplant at all, but instead sweet and onion-y. 

“How is it?” He inquires. 

“It’s good!” He smiles once more. 

“You know, this dish.” He points to the noodle dish, and says its name in elvish. “It’s my favorite.” 

“I like it a lot. What’s this called?” I point to the yellow veggie. 

“Mallornplant. It grows wild back home.” We eat our fill and decline dessert. Nuada places about $50 bucks on the table, and says thank you in the other language as we leave. He opens his hand to me outside the shop. 

“It was easier with the rope, but this will prevent you from getting lost.” 

“Oh. Okay.” He has a small smile when I clasp his hand. As we make our way through the crowds and exit the market, I ask him once away from the noise, “So you’re welcome to stay with me, but you know I don’t have much room.” 

“That’s fine.” He acknowledges. 

Chapter Text

I sparingly go to class this week. Messaging my professors that I have caught a nasty cold the weekend before we were welcomed back to class. Nuada and I spend most of our time researching and just hanging out, which is pretty much what we did when he was locked up. My tiny apartment does get messier with two people occupying the space and when I find myself leaving my one bedroom, I will sometimes check in to see what he’s up to. It’s mostly cleaning up, snacking, or meditating. If he does get stir crazy, he practices his glamour and walks around the facility, but never goes too far. Being cautious of who he might run into. On Friday I get a text from Mina. We haven’t seen each other in a few weeks and I feel kinda guilty. 

It reads: 

Heyy Sab, just checking in cause it’s kinda been radio silence from you. 

I text her back: 

Hey, I’m okay, just dealing with a bad cold, let’s hang soon. 

She calls. 

“Sab, are you doing okay?” 

I fake a cough, “Yea i’m fine,” and throw in a sniffle. 

“You don’t sound fine. Let me bring you some soup.” 

“No, it’s alright, it’s really not that bad.”

“It’s totally fine, I’m outside the cafe. I can just drop it off before my next class.” 

“I don’t want to get you sick.” 

“Sirens can’t catch the common cold, plus I have good gossip to tell you.” I’m starting to run out of excuses. 

“Uhhh.” I look at Nuada at the kitchen table, reading and eating an apple. “Okay see you soon, but the place is a mess.” I hang up as she says bye. I look to Nuada again. 

“We have a problem.”

I give him the lowdown on how to handle this situation with Mina. Our main goal is for him to sustain the glamour while she’s here. Thankfully most fae can’t see through another’s glamour. It’s really just like a hologram. A façade on top of the real thing. Harder the more deviated you are from humans, but you still have to train the art of it. I only have to illusion my small horns at the top of my forehead, and even then, sometimes my hair covers them anyways. It’s a concentration game so the moment you lose focus or fall asleep, it slips. I’ve been doing it since young, as most Fae living with humans would, and can hold it for hours, but Nuada has only been able to make it to about 40 minutes tops. We will just have to get Mina to leave before that time is up. She’s here in a quick 10 and I let her in. She gives me a hug when she first enters and says “how are you doing?” I give a shrug and say “on the up and up.” 

“Well you look pretty good.” And then she turns to see a man at my kitchen table. “Uhm Sabine, who’s this?” 

“Oh that’s uh Luke, he’s my tutor.” I lie. This is the fable we’ve spun. Papers and notebooks litter the table. 

“What do you need a tutor for?” She asks. 

“Oh um, he’s helping me write a paper to get into Dr. Kraus’s Metaphysical Spirituality class.” 

“Oh yea Kraus is tough.” She then whispers to me under her breath. “Good job on the tutor, he’s cute.” I chuckle. She walks in and up to Nuada-I mean Luke and goes to shake his hand to introduce herself. He stands to meet her and reciprocates. 

“So what did you want to tell me?” I ask her, getting nervous by the proximity of them. She sits down right next to him. 

“Well it’s about our favorite guy, wait is he cool?” She points to Nuada. 

“Yea yea he hates Dean.” She slaps him on his arm and I see him waver with surprise and a brief flash of his original self before he catches it. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like Mina noticed. 

“Well I heard that Dean had a part in the breakout. His father is furious and is sending him to the sister facility in Prague for the rest of the semester. 

“No way.” I can’t believe it, I'm so lucky.

“Yes way. Apparently he’s the one that supplied the key card.” 

“What were they doing in the prison?” I ask, even though I know fully well. 

“Well that’s the big secret, nobody knows for sure. I think it was to harass the prisoners. They definitely bit off more than they could chew. His buddy the-“ She raises her arm above her head. “The tall one. The priest! Yea that guy got something done to him. He’s still in a coma.” The color drains from my face. “Are you okay?” She asks. 

“Yea, just still a little unwell.” I grab a tissue and blow my nose, nothing comes out. I fake a sniffle and throw the tissue away. 

“Everyone thinks it was the terrorist that escaped that did that to him. The blonde elf.” 

“Prince Nuada.” Says Nuada. 

“Yea! That’s his name! And he still hasn’t been caught. I have people in my photo class taking bets on when he’ll get caught. But I think he’s long gone.” 

“Probably, if he was smart,” responds Nuada. He gives me a little smirk when he says this. 

“Right! And his sister, your…?” Mina stumbles. 

“Aunt.” I tell her. 

“Yes, she's seeing Abe right?” 

“Yea.” I say. 

“So you know all about this.” Mina chimes. 

“Kinda, I mean I know they’re away. Just in case anything happens.” 

“What do you think would happen?” She asks 

“I don’t know. Hopefully nothing.” I shoot Nuada a glance. Mina catches it and asks him, “What do you think will happen?” He ponders for a second and I watch him intensely. 

“I think he's most likely gotten over it. He was in there for what, 20 years, no sunlight, no contact, shitty food. He’s probably just happy to be out of that hellhole. He’s probably sitting in the sands of Oualidia, in Morocco, enjoying the sounds of the ocean, breathing fresh air.” 

“Oooh that sounds nice.” Mina announces. “Have you ever been there?” 

“A handful of times. You get to see the herds of burak that congregate there.” 

“Really. So Luke, what track are you on?” She asks him. I look at the time, we are quickly reaching that 40 minute mark. Before Nuada can say anything I interject. 

“Mina, aren't you going to be late for class?” She looks at the time now. 

“Shit, yea.” She starts to gather her bag before dropping it once more. “Actually, let me use your restroom before I go. Professor Parvati is such a stickler about leaving during lectures.” She moseys into my bathroom. I look at Nuada and he’s clenching his fist until we hear the bathroom door close and he releases it and the glamour. I mouth to him, “are you okay?” 

He whispers, “yea.” We sit there in the silence until Mina comes out. Nuada clenches his fist again and the glamour slides on. 

“Alright I’m off.” She says. She gives me a hug and whispers in my ear. “He seems like a good meal.” She gives me a wink when she releases me. “Let’s hang out when you’re better.” She looks towards Nuada. “Nice meeting you!” 

“Likewise,” Nuada responds, and she’s off. 

I keep hearing this scratching noise and I open my eyes to almost absolute darkness. I look around and realize I am not in my room. It’s a dark empty room, with glass walls. The prison cells. I try to get up, but I can’t. I feel weighed down, and I can’t move my body at all. A sound not too far away alerts me. It sounds like breathing. I try to speak, but nothing comes out. I turn my eyes to the far right corner of the room and see a shadow. It’s tall, unbelievably tall and when I notice it, the breathing begins to get louder. I keep my eyes on it, having this imminent feeling of dread. It lifts its long spindly leg and takes a slow step forward. Shit. I struggle to move again. It takes another slow languid step towards me. I see nothing but its shadowy outline, at first, and then it takes another step closer. It’s probably 20 feet away from where I am and that’s when its dark face breaks into a large white sinister smile. Two red pupils appear above it and it picks up its pace fast . Almost skipping towards me, it’s wiry arms and hands swinging at its side. My heart starts to race. No. There’s a low laugh emitting from its wicked grin. Its body moves so unnaturally, like it’s buffering with each movement. It closes in on me and then stops at the end of the bed and crumples to the ground. A brief sigh of relief struggles to exit my mouth. And then I feel a lump form at the back of my throat when I hear scratching and scuttling again from under me. It’s under the bed. It produces a high pitched giggle. No no no no no. I hear a sliding noise from either side of me and then the large hands raising from either side of me. Ominously getting closer and closer to my body as I close my eyes and fail to scream. I’m abruptly shaken as I hear Nuada calling my name. I open my eyes, and he's there on the side of my bed. I grab his arm. 

“Sabine, it’s me.” 

“What! Where is it?” I exclaim, almost shooting out of bed, elated to have movement again. 

“Where’s what?” He briefly looks around. 

“The…th-the shadow, the long….” 

“You were screaming in your sleep.” He tells me. Ohmygod, it was just a dream. I touch my forehead and it's slick with sweat. 

“Wait right here.” He leaves for a moment and comes back with a tissue and a glass of water. “Drink this.” He commands. I obey and wipe my brow. It helps, but my heart is still pounding. He waits for me to finish it before getting up to leave. 

“Wait!” I call out to him. He stops and turns. “Can I ask you a favor?” 

“Of course.” He responds. 

“Will you stay with me, in here, tonight?” He doesn't look bewildered, just calm. 

“If you wish.” I unfurl the other side of my bed. He crosses over and slips in. I turn to him on my side and he props up his head on the pillow with his head in his hand. “May I see?” He asks, opening his hand out to me. 

“Yea.” I accept. He places his hand on my head and closes his eyes, I close mine as well, as he reads me. He gives a low “hm,” and methodically rubs his thumb on my temple.

“What is it?” I ask in a hushed tone.

“Your cursemaker is persistent, and especially cruel. Trying to break your defenses, by any means necessary.” His voice changes in pitch, lowering and getting quieter. “I’m so sorry, Sabine. I’m trying to find a way to break this bond.” 

“It’s okay,” I tell him. 

“I hate to see you like this.” I scooch in closer to him. 

“It’s okay.” He wraps his arm around me and I hear the steady beating of his heart, it drifts me back to sleep. 

We take the next night off from researching to watch a movie and order pizza. Nuada hasn’t seen a ton of films, but I suspect he would enjoy Parasite, by Bong Joon Hu. I pour us a couple of glasses of red blend wine and as we finally settle in, the doorbell rings. Seems a little quick for the pizza to have arrived, but when I go to open the door, to my surprise I see Pop.

“Oh!” Jesus fucking christ. “Hi Pop!” I try to overcompensate, and speak loud enough for Nuada to hear. 

“Hello my darling daughter. You seem surprised to see me, did you forget?” I look at him quizzically, but blocking the rest of the doorway so he can’t see inside. 

“…..no?” 

“No? Today is the second Friday of the month…” It clicks. 

“OH!” 

“Oh!” He says in a joking, slightly mocking tone. “You’re already forgetting about us? I know Abe and Nuala are still on their ‘trip’, but you still have your two best parents.” 

“No no of course not.” And in that moment an agent sheepishly arrives behind Pop with the pizza I ordered. 

“Seems like you did.” 

“Sorry Pop. I did completely space, I have a big exam coming up and I have a friend coming over to study.” 

“A friend, huh?” He smells the insincerity. I grab the pizza from the agent, he backs off, avoiding all eye contact with us. 

“I’ll make it up to you all next time, I promise.” I go to close the door and he stops it with his stone hand. 

“What kind of friend?” He asks me. 

“Oh…. uh just this friend..I met in class.” 

“And you’re studying with uh a movie playing?” 

“It’s a film assignment.” I don’t know how long I can keep the interrogation up. 

“And what’s his name?” 

“ Her name is Mina, and she’s actually not here yet.” 

“Well you don’t mind if I come in for a little bit. Check on the kitties.” 

“Uhh…. no, of course you can come in.” I say slightly louder. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. I release the door and it swings wide open. I’m in so much fucking trouble. Pop enters the space and I'm astonished to see it empty. I try to control my relief. He walks around the apartment, checking all the rooms and even opening my closet. He coos at the cats and gives them a couple head scratches before standing back up and going “Sabine, you seemed stressed. You need to take some time for yourself. I don’t want you getting sick.” I’m surprised that I’m getting away with this.

“Yea I know.” 

“Let’s all go out next month, mix it up.” 

“Okay.” 

“And give Liz a call, we worry about you.” 

“Okay, okay Pop.” He gives me a kiss on my forehead before heading out. 

“Love you, pumpkin.” 

“Love you too, Pop.” I shut the door and feel the weight of tension release. 

“Nuada?” I give a soft shout to the void. He appears in my bedroom doorway. “Where were you?” I ask him. 

“Under your bed, Sabine, have you ever swept under there?” He pats the dust from his clothes. 

“No.” 

With pizza in hand and finger on the play button, Nuada turns the whole evening. 

“Sabine there is one other thing I did not tell you from that night.” 

“What is it?” I am tired of reliving it. 

“When you were overtaken, I was horrified by what you had become, but also in adoration. In those moments, I felt frozen in place, in awe. You were emitted blinding rage.” I place my slice back down on the plate and look at him. 

“What am I supposed to do with this?” 

“It was more than that.”  He pauses to find the words and I'm sure he feels my anxiety as he places a hand on my knee. “It was bewitching, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m so perplexed by the nature of this curse. It seems to lend power instead of diminish it.” 

“But I felt super sick before it?” 

“I know, that’s what's so amazing about it. It weakens you, making you powerless to it, you succumb, and another’s being’s will fills your vessel, and you arise tenfold. And it affects all those around you. I felt helpless to my core, it was as if it scorched my very soul.” He touches his heart with his other hand. 

“Oh that’s great.” I say with much sarcasm. 

“You don’t understand, you could see it in your eyes. They were wild and all I could do was stare at you in beautiful horror, and we were all under that spell because nothing was said and no one moved but you alone. And in our paralysis, you chose Mather, and brought him to his knees. And I felt great jealousy from myself and the others to not have been chosen, as you ate and fed until that putrid smoke entered your lungs and you passed out once more.” I sit there quietly, my mouth agape. “I believe it’s linked to your hunger. It’ll metastasize as you continue to come into your prime.” A succubus’s prime is usually a few years past the end of puberty and lasts until they reach late middle age. It’s their most dominant time in their life. It varies for everyone of course. “Which means you’re more susceptible when you are less fed.” With his opposite hand he goes to tuck a stray strand behind my ear, his other still on my knee. “Forgive me Sabine, but was Luther the last time you fed?” I push him away. How dare he. “Forgive me for being so forward, but I can tell it’s been some time. Even if the last time was Luther, the former  circumstance was that you had been starving yourself.” 

“I can’t.” I say quietly. 

“Sabine… I know. I know how you feel about me, and I can feel your hunger. It is overwhelming, the desire you have. Let me help you carry this burden, keep you strong.” 

“I don’t want this to be transactional between us.” I plead. 

“Oh Sabine,” He comes in close again. So close, and I let him as he lightly kisses my lips. “I have been dreaming about this for months.”

Chapter Text

He tasted like fresh turned soil and fire. Intoxicating, earthy. He tasted old, organic, primordial and I was famished. And I could gorge to my heart's content with no fear of injury or death. I was free. It didn’t phase him, because I was not more. The thrill made my skin prickle, it released something in me. Like sprouting wings, I was transformed and anew. And it was like he hungered too, every kiss lingered into another and another and another. And a strangeness to feel someone’s presence reaching back out and not losing them to my uncontrollable force. And then he pulled me back away from him. My heart beating like a little drum, drunk on passion, lost in desire. His eyes still closed and in a low breathy tone he goes, “mmmm.. wait. I need a second.” 

“Oh. I’m sorry.” I sheepishly reply. 

“No Sabine, you’re not wearing me out.” His eyes barely opening, he takes his hand and slightly brushes my hair away. “Not to say, I can’t tell you are one deprived succubus. I just want a moment to gaze upon your face. Your right eye glows a vibrant gold when you are full. You are… iontach, magnificent, and don’t worry, I can handle much, much, more.” It sends shivers up my spine. He kisses me again. “And you’re not my first succubus.” I pause. 

“Okay. So what? Is this like your ‘thing’?” He doesn’t have to use his insight to catch my annoyance. 

“No no, I’m not a fetishist, I am open in regards to fae races, I just know my limits.” He runs his hand down my hair. “I’m sorry I don’t mean to offend. You're unlike anything else.” He comes in closer to my opposite ear and whispers “Particularly if you can put up with me.” He saves himself. I don’t want to be corny, but I legit live in fear that whomever I'm close to romantically will die, if I engage, so this is a nice change of pace. I kiss him again and inhale his energy, tasting the sweetness of that earth. He grabs the back of my head, his hand through my hair and guides me through each kiss, each feed. I move to straddle him, and he slides his hands down my sides to my hips, and then moves them to raise my shirt slowly, feeling the warm touch of his fingers on my bare skin, still kissing him. He grabs each of my bum cheeks and grinds me closer to him. I feel the rigid hardness of him beneath me. I start to pull at the hem of his t-shirt, pausing to have him help me pull it off him. We kiss again, it’s forceful. He begins to slide my shirt off of my body, tossing it to the ground. He kisses my collarbone lightly, and then pulls me closer to kiss my neck. He keeps one hand on my back and the other grabbing my ass. He begins to kiss hard on my nape and then nibbles at it. He slides the hand from my ass above it and the other patiently finds its way to my breast, and under my bralette. He grabs it fully with his hand and lightly pinches my nipple in between two fingers. A soft moan escapes my lips. I grab the back of his head, his blond hair in my hands and pull his head back. I kiss him again, deeply, taking in more of his essence. My phone rings. Wtfffffff! We stop and I irritatingly reach for my phone on the other side of the couch. It’s Mum. I press power to stop it ringing and place it back down on the couch. I rest my arms on Nuada’s shoulders and dip my head down, my phone rings again. 

“You know it’s her again, answer it.” Nuada voices, deep and breathy still. 

“Okay.” I’m a little exasperated, but I take a deep breath before accepting the call. 

“Hi Sabine?” Mum sounds a little hesitant. 

“Hi Mum, what’s up?” 

“Nothing much, just wanted to check in. What are you up to tonight?” Did Pop still trying to see if i’m lying? 

“Yea, I'm just… studying.” I tell her, while I am still straddling Nuada. 

“Okay, well just wanted to let you know Nuala and Abe are back, and they wanted all of us to talk next Sunday, maybe around six? Does that work for you?” 

“Uhhh six? Yea I can do that.” 

“Okay good.” 

“Uhm what do they want to talk about?” 

“I’m not entirely sure, they said it was big news and it would be better to meet in person.” 

“Oh okay.” I start to feel a little anxious and I watch Nuada’s eyes on me.” 

“It’s probably just something about the council, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”   

“Yeaa..” 

“Well i’ll let you get back to studying, love you dear.” 

“Love you too, Mum.” We hang up. I put the phone down. I lose my appetite. 

“What happened?” Nuada asks. 

“Abe and Nuala are back.” 

I’m taking these last few weeks of the semester to focus on being in class. Since I’ve been absent and Luther's little group has been split up, Adrienne and Madeline have been awfully quiet now. Avoiding all eye contact with me. Leaving as soon as the bell rings, taking seats as far away from me as possible. Unfortunately for them today, we all broke into groups of four for an in-class assignment. Madeline was in mine. The assignment was to come up with a fake proposal of how to relocate kappas that ventured too close to human civilizations. 

“We should set up a trap with a cucumber in it to lure it away from the water.” Suggests Kelly Matrichardi, a warm-skinned girl with bone straight black hair. 

“No you have to use zucchini, they love zucchini,” declares Jack Bean, a tall pale boy with shaggy blonde hair. He’s got lycanthropy, and you can tell it's getting close to that time of the month, if you know what I mean. 

“It’s definitely cucumbers. I did a report on them last semester.” Protests Kelly. 

“It can’t be cucumbers, I swear I saw one in the Hudson two months ago. It definitely looked like it was eating a zucchini.” 

“There’s no way you saw a kappa in the Hudson.”
“I swear, it was green and everything.” 

“Not all faes that are green are kappas.” 

“I’m telling you!” 

“No, come on. Sabine, what’s the right one?” 

“It’s definitely cucumbers,” I tell them. 

“Noo! Madeline-” She has been on her phone the whole time. “Madeline. Madeline!” Shouts Jack to get her attention. She finally breaks free from it. 

“Wha-what?” she asks. 

“What do kappas eat?” he asks. 

“I don’t know, grass.” She suggests distantly and goes back to her phone, completely blowing us off. 

“Dude, are you going to help?” asks Jack. 

“Huh? She finishes typing. “No.” She puts her classwork into her bag and gets up to talk to Agnarsson. We watch him look disappointed by what she has to say and then she leaves. 

“What the fuck is her deal?” chimes Kelly.  

“Who fucking knows, but her leaving better not drag down our grade.” Jack complains. 

I don’t know what compels me to walk down to the infirmary, perhaps I still feel guilty. 

A nurse in the facility notices me loitering outside Luther’s room. 

“You can go in and see him.” She lets me know. 

“Oh that’s okay.” 

“He won’t bite.” She says with an affable smile and opens the door to me. Yea I’m not worried about that. I feel I have no choice and I follow her into the room. She fusses with his IV and breathing tube. “Were you close?” She asks me. 

“Oh…. um.. we are classmates at the academy.” 

“Aw that’s sweet of you to check in on him. He hasn’t had any visitors since he’s been admitted.” It's weird that Madeline and Adrienne haven’t visited him yet. 

“Do you know what happened to him?” I ask, pretending like I don’t know. 

“Not sure. He was found unconscious outside of the old prison facility during the night of the breakout and lockdown. We assume he got into an altercation with the prisoner that escaped.” 

“Really?” 

“Yea, he must have tried to stop it, but you academy kids should really let the agents handle the bigger problems.” 

“No kidding.” I say flatly. “Is he.. Is he going to get better?” I ask her. 

“Well he has a couple of broken ribs, some lacerations to his arms, and a slight concussion, not including the coma he's still in. Poor kid also had a leviathan attached to him. Nasty little things, had to call Father Andrew to do an emergency exorcism. If he wakes, I think he’ll pull through, after a fair amount of PT. 

I have to grab a new bag for his IV, you can stay with him until after I change it.” 

“No tha-” she leaves before I can protest. I walk over to his bedside and I get a good look at the damage I've wrought. He looks beaten down, not much of the boisterous asshole he used to be. Fuck. “Sorry Luther,” I whisper to him, slipping out before the nurse comes back. 

When I arrive back to my apartment, there is something different in the air. The lights are turned low. There are candles lit on my kitchen table and around the living room. Something smells like it’s roasting. I drop my bag down, and unbutton my blazer. Nuada emerges from my bedroom. His hair is tied back with a silver ribbon. He has on black billowing pants that cinch at his ankles. His top is also black but it wraps around him. The sleeves wide, flaring at the end. Silver trim edges them and along the center front of his robe. Why is he dressed up?  

“Welcome home Sabine.” 

“Hi.” He embraces me and gives me a kiss on my cheek. “Um what’s all this?” I ask him. 

“I just thought it would be nice to do something special for you, may I?” He motions to my blazer. 

“Uh sure.” He removes it from me, folds it over and gently places it on the couch. When he turns, I see his family emblem embroidered in silk on the back of his robe. He then moves to the kitchen table and pulls out a chair. “Please sit.” I do as I’m requested and he slides my chair in for me. He opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of wine I definitely did not buy. He opens it and fills my glass laid out in front of me with the rest of the table setting. 

“Is this… is this a date?” I ask hesitantly, blankly staring at everything he’s done. 

“Well, yes, if you’ll accept it.” 

“Uh yea, I’ll definitely ‘accept it.’” I take a sip of my wine. It has a hint of sweetness to it. 

“Good.” I hear him turn off the burner and open the oven to reveal a small chicken. 

“It smells wonderful.” I tell him. It really does.  

“Cornish game hen. I love these little creatures.” He proceeds to cut the chicken and then place that, a salad full of different greens, a rosy sauce, and small roasted potatoes on the table. He pours himself a glass of wine, places the remaining bottle on the table, and then takes a seat. 

“This looks amazing, Nuada.” I grin wide. 

“Thank you, Sabine.” He smiles as well. We start to place the items on our plate. I take a bite of the hen, it’s herby and moist. 

“How is it?” he asks. His eyes softly on me. 

“So good.” I try to say without a mouthful of food. 

“I’m glad.” We continue to eat. “How was class?” He inquires. 

“Uh, not bad, a little odd. I had a group project with Madeline in it.” 

“Oh. That sounds uncomfortable.” 

“Yeaaa, she up and left in the middle of class. Her and Adrienne have been avoiding me… well for good reason. I’m just surprised they haven’t said anything about that night.” 

“Maybe they think they’ll be expelled for their parts in the event.” 

“Yea I could definitely see the Bureau cracking down on them.” We continue to eat. I then ask him,“So when Mina came over, you said that if you were free you would be in Morocco, when was the last time you were there?” 

“Hm I was a lot younger. It was shortly after I went into exile.. right before war broke out in that area. I can’t remember exactly what the situation was. Something about new humans coming in and wanting to rule over the humans already there, and I believe something about money or trading. An issue I encountered time after time while I was away. Humans killing humans over money and power.” 

“Yea that does happen a lot. No offense, but are things that different with the Fae? Everyone getting along, not fighting for land and resources?” 

He sighs, “No. We do have our share of interfighting. Territories being redrawn, wars within factions, in those ways we are very similar. I understand how hypocritical it all sounds. I did think I could solve destruction with more destruction. I was very frustrated with how far they had pushed us to the outskirts. There was a time where we lived more symbiotically. You may not believe this, but I did have humans who I shared kinship with. They live much shorter lives, it’s hard to remain attached, but yes, they are not all bad and we do share a lot of similarities.” 

“What made you come out of exile? Like what was the last straw?” 

“The screams of Danann.” 

“Who?” 

“Danaan, a very old earth god. I had been fed up for some time. There were so many times I thought they were going to learn. I had seen certain Mards want the same things I wanted. Wanted to save us, protect our lands, but then that great war broke out, and then the second, and then those bombs. And I felt this was it, the point of no return. The madness of these humans had gone too far, the pain, the annihilation. It poisoned so much and that was the first time I heard her scream. I followed it, deep, down to her resting place, in Maranon. She was still screaming, crying out of the poison still, years later. It was so… difficult to be in her presence.” He starts to get choked up. “I felt it all.” I touch his hand. 

“You don’t have to relive it.” I let him know. 

“Thank you.” He inhales. We take a moment away from it. “Anyways I’ve never inquired about growing up under the care of Anung un Rama and Elizabeth Sherman.” He changes the subject. 

“It was good. I mean it was weird, but they’re good parents. It was always kind of intimidating to have these revered figures as my caretakers. Saving so many people, and also being feared at the same time. They tried to give me as normal of an upbringing as they could, but y’know… we kinda live in all of this.” I motion to the air, trying to eluding the facility.  

“You lived here all your life?” 

“Essentially. They got me when I was just under one.” 

“From an adoption agency?”

“Oh that, well no. It was actually Uncle Abe who found me. I was locked in an apartment by myself.” He looks at me a little stunned. “Yea it was weird. I think Mum said when Abe found me in there, a lot of the apartment was burnt. I was completely unharmed, but very dirty and a little malnourished. They had no idea how I was still alive, because it seemed like no one had been in there in weeks.” He furrows his brow at this. 

“That doesn’t make any sense. How could you have survived? Was there any food? Water? How were you keeping warm?” 

“Huh…” I take a second to think. “Yea I have no idea.” 

“Someone must have been keeping an eye on you. Infant fae are more resilient than their human counterparts, even half fae, but they cannot sustain themselves on their own.” 

“I mean I was one, I don’t have any memories of then. Not that I would want to. Pretty shitty to abandon your kid like that.”

“What if you weren’t abandoned?” 

“Abe said I was….” 

“What if he lied? Knew whomever was taking care of you didn’t have the best intentions in mind.” 

“Huh.” I ponder the idea. “So… maybe he saved me from an abusive situation? Like… my parents were doing something to me.” 

“Them or maybe someone else. Perhaps you were switched.” 

“Like… a changeling?” 

“Possibly, or maybe someone sought use of you.”

“There are nefarious factions of fae and humans alike who seek to groom and use fae for misdeeds…”  Nuada gets up abruptly and rushes to the ever growing stack of fae literature. 

I turn in my seat to watch him frantically shuffle through the pages of the books. 

“What is it?” I ask. 

“I think I know what it is.” Nuada says. 

“‘What’ is?” 

“The curse.” He finds the passage he is looking for and comes back to the table. He follows the text with his finger as he reads it out loud. “I saw no other way. My young and feeble army, just boys of our young women, were instructed that all would be conscripted. All our soldiers, their fathers, uncles, grandfathers had been wiped out and our enemy was coming. Even with all of our training, I feared they would not last one night of retaliation. And so I wished to break and bend to my will. I called upon Erogdan, my archmage, for the Zombi Palm flower. I knew of it’s powers. I knew what I had to do. Merrick, my captain pleaded to reconsider, feared they would never be the same, the poor fool and his poor wife. Erogdan followed through on my command that night, placing the petals of that cursed flower on each of my soldier’s tongues in the middle of the night. Only we knew what would become of them, what they would transform into. In the morning, after each had wiped the salt from their eyes and gathered in the courtyard for a test. I brought each of them the elderly prisoners from our stocks and commanded them to slaughter them. At first most disobeyed. Cried out in opposition, and I continued this trial day after day. The ones who fought it, suffered, physically and mentally. They complained of head pains, upset stomachs, weakness, and then they begun to complain of shadows, voices, nightmares. And then they ceased complaining and they all followed suit in unison. No hesitation, no wavering, perfect, beautiful obedience. Staining our field red. And finally when we took to the battlefield, we prevailed. They were vicious, tact, a blinding force.’ This is from the 5th century, The great goblin king of the Rouran empire eviscerated an untold swarm of Tsuchigumo, or giant spiders. 500 fold to an army of barely 50.” 

“Shit.” is all I can say. “If that’s what it is, why would he not tell them.” 

“Perhaps he thought it was futile. The Zombi Palm is very rare, not many have seen it, I’m not even sure what it looks like. There’s a chance this was outside his area of awareness.” 

“I mean it sounds kinda like it. Do you know what’s the cure.” 

“No and I'm not sure it has one.” 

“Well, fuck.” 

Chapter Text

Our hypothesis is that whoever cursed me, with what we suspect is called Possessor’s Zombi has some vendetta against the bureau, or any employees or wards of the Bureau, including Mum, Pop, or Abe. We surmise it’s possible, but unlikely that I may have contracted it during my adolescence, unless the perpetrator could specifically slip the petals of the plant into my food. We don’t know for certain if it was when I was an infant, anytime after that seems less likely just on the pretense that the ritual requires the subject to be asleep and while we aren’t ruling out my parents, that just seems unlikely. 

“There’s not like some sort of quick fix, just drink some holy water or whatever to cure me? 

“Unfortunately no. I’ll start to make a shopping list tomorrow of items we might need to break it. It’s going to be a lot of trial and error, is that okay with you?” Nuada asks me.

“It doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice.” 

“We should start to work quickly on breaking it. Its maker is getting bolder. I fear its blooming is nearing.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to stop feeling this way.” I look at him slyly, “So what did you have in mind for dessert?” I ask him. 

“My what an appetite you have. I’ll lead you to it.”  He holds out his hand for me, and I take it. He takes me to my bedroom. There are lilac petals scattered across my, recently swept, wood floors. “Sit. I have to do one more thing.” I take a seat at the edge of my bed as he moves some of the candles from the kitchen and living room and into my bedroom. He strikes a match and lights the set he must have set up in here before. “That’s a little nicer.” He proclaims. 

“What was wrong with my room before?” I snark.

“Nothing in particular, but,” he kneels on the ground in front of me, almost matching my level on the bed. “This is not where I would have preferred to take you on a first date.” He places his arms either side of me to stabilize himself as he leans in close.

“Oh! and where would you have preferred to take me?” I ask him. His eyes drift to my lips. 

“Well,” his lips almost touching mine. “If I had my own choice,” he moves away from my face, I linger before he does, smelling his scent. “There’s this meadow upstate in the Hudson Valley. Beautiful forget-me-nots grow there, .” He moves his hands to the sides of my thighs and kisses one, outside my skirt. 

“A meadow? In the winter?” 

“In my fantasy, it’s late May.” 

“Oh okay, carry on.” 

“Thank you. I make us a small fire and bring traditional elvish wine.” He kisses my knees and rolls down my socks, slipping each one of them off. “We lay on the soft earth, and snack on fresh bread and cheese.” He kisses my ankles and slowly makes his way back up to my knees. “When we retire, we gaze at the stars.” He kisses the inside of my right knee and then a little bit higher. “ I show you my favorite ones.” He kisses a little higher onto my inner thigh. “Their names.” Higher. “Their stories.” His head vanished between my legs. I feel his hot breath on my bits. His nose nuzzles where my underwear meets my clit and his hands find their way under my skirt and slowly pulling my underwear off my body. He kisses it and then pulls me abruptly closer to him and with my legs on his shoulders for better leverage. A small squeal escaped my mouth and he begins to methodically lick and suck on my clit. He has his hands on the back of each of my butt cheeks and he works his way faster. Then pausing to lick my opening as if it was a popsicle. 

“Mmm” I bite my bottom lip, eyes closed, losing myself to his tongue. Each time he comes down upon my little bean, I rock my hips to it. I feel the sensitivity of my nipples poking against my shirt. My breath starts to quicken and hitch as he sucks deeper. I almost lose it when he trills his tongue on it. I know how wet it feels down there. He pulls me closer to him and my back falls to the bed. He continues to suck, lightly nibbling at it and he then moves his hand to my shirt and tries to unbutton it. I help him out on the last few and when free, he slides his hands up to my breasts and lightly pinches each in his fingers. I arch my back. He moves one of his hands from my breast and lightly rubs and then slides two fingers in me, deep. I involuntarily release a moan. He rhythmically goes in, and out. Another moan escapes. My breath beings to hitch more, becomes quicker

“Mmm yes.” I feel that pressure rising. A heat radiates my body. I furrow my brow. Fuuuuck . Im white knuckling my sheets, my toes curled the same,  as he flicks his tongue and drives his two fingers into me. He steadys me with his other arm wrapped around my thigh. I feel the crescendo reach its peak. 

“I’m going to cum,” I whimper. His tongue quickens, his fingers hit deeper. A light scream is released from my lips and my pelvic floor pulsates. He slows down, slips his fingers out of me, and kisses my inner thigh once more before his head returns to my view. I prop myself up with my elbows. 

“Satisfying dessert?” He asks me, wiping his mouth. 

“Yea, you can make that again.” I smirk.

I arrive a little past six to my parents. Abe and Nuala are not there yet, which sends alarms off. They are the epitome of the typical Type A couple. Never late, often early. Pop is watching the Andy Griffith show in a big Laz-e chair and Mum sits with me at the table reading her kindle. I try to remain calm, but I can’t help but worry about what their big announcement is. When they arrive, both of them look like they have a dark omen to tell us. We gather in the living room… 

Mum asks, “Are you okay? What happened over there? Did you run into ‘him’?” 

“Yea why the long face? Did someone die?” Pop asks. 

“No, not quite.” Abe says. 

“I have some grave news.” Aunt Nuala pauses. “My father is very ill and he will be passing before winter’s end.” 

“Shit i’m sorry.” Responds Pop. Mum goes to give Nuala a hug and tells her “that’s terrible, I’m so sorry, Nuala.” 

“Thank you for your condolences.” Auntie Nuala acknowledges. “He has lived a very long life and while I would appreciate to have more time with him, we had known of his condition for some time, it was just coincidental that this trip gave us the opportunity to see how poor his health has been..” 

“Wait so what does that mean for the council?” Asks Pop. 

“Well that’s why we came back early.” Interjects Abe. “Nuala is the evident choice to take over her fathers position, and since her brother, is still missing.” I forced myself to control my breathing at his mention. 

“They would prefer that I return betrothed before taking the crown.” Nuala says. 

“Oh!” exclaimed my mother. 

“I did ask permission from King Balor, but…” Abe is cut off. 

“He denied the request.” Nuala relays. 

“Wait, you’re not already married?” I ask. I get a look from Mum and I shrug. 

“No, we decided to take things a little slow.” Abe lets me know. Over 20 years is kinda a snails pace. 

“Well fuck that!” blares Pop. “The old man should be begging to have Abe join the family!” Mum smacks Pop on the back. “No offense to your father.” He apologies 

“It’s alright, my father is not quite himself at the end of his life.” 

“What’s wrong with him?” I ask. Mum shoots me another look. 

“What?” I ask her. 

“Who raised you? You should be more respectful.” She declares. 

“You did.” I gesture to her. 

“No, this is all on your father.” 

“Its really alright.” Nuala interrupts. “He has an aggressive form of néaltrú, similar to what you might call dementia. He’s had it for quite some time, but it’s accelerated within the past few years. because of this illness, he refuses to accept treatment, and denies he even has the ailment. I spoke with the council about how we want to proceed and they are still adamant that we keep tradition and that if I decide to take his place, that I am wed before then.” 

“And your father?” Asks Mum. 

“Well they do not wish to remove him without his consent, but they would like me to be prepared for when he does pass.” 

“So does that mean….?” I elude. 

“We’re getting married!” Exclaims Uncle Abe. 

There’s a pit in my stomach on the walk back to my apartment, and when I reach my front door, I struggle to take a few deep breaths in a feeble attempt to hide my anxiety. I selfishly don’t want to tell Nuada about his sister. I have no idea how he’ll react. I fear it will set back all the positive work we’ve done, or that I was a fleeting fling hiding the facade of his truest desires. It’s completely futile. I can’t avoid coming home, I can’t even hide my emotions. How stupid to get involved with a man-sized lie detector. I unlock the door and enter. 

“Welcome back Sabine.” He’s started to watch nature documentaries since I've shown him how to use the television. Sir David Attenborough of Blue Planet is turned down as I enter the door. 

“Heyyy you.” I weakly respond. He gives me a wary look. 

“What happened?” 

“Uhmm.I take a seat next to him on the couch 

“So um….” 

“I would prefer it if you start with the bad news.” I purse my lips. “It’s okay, I won’t react poorly.” He puts his hand on my knee. 

I try to start, “Your dad-“ 

“He’s dying.” He says flatly. 

“Yea….” This was a lot easier than I thought. I watch his face, looking for a response. He seems lost in thought. Staring blankly in front of himself. “Nuada…” I hesitantly inquire. “Are you okay?” I notice his other hand is clenched in a fist. He doesn’t say anything at first.

“What did my sister say?” He doesn’t look at me still. 

“She said he has a type of dementia, and that the council will not let her take the throne without your fathers blessing and without getting married.” He looks at me now. 

“What does she intend to do?” 

“Her and Abe are going to get married here. He asked for his blessing and he denied him.” 

“I wish to see him before his passing.” 

“Ummm….” 

“I can reason with him. Get him to change his mind.” I want to let him, but.. isn’t he still a prisoner? “So foolish of him to reject the proposal.” He gets down on his knees in front of me. “Sabine.” He holds onto my hands. “Please, I beg of you. Grant me this one wish. Let me see my dying father. Let me get him to accept Abe’s proposal. Let me write a wrong.” 

“Umm..” I look into his eyes. Serious and pleading. He kisses my hands. 

“Sabine I know this is a lot to ask for, you have every reason to say no. I should have no autonomy, but come with me.” I was not expecting that.  

“Come with you?” 

“Yes. Let me show you my home, before we moved to America. Introduce you to my father, see my mother’s grave. Just one last time. Please.”  The desperation in his eyes is palpable. Would I really not let him see his last parent before his passing…. 

“Okay.” I say timidly. The shock hits him. 

“Truly?” He asks. 

“Yea.” He embraces me in a hug quickly, squeezing tightly. 

“Thank you.” He says. He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me. “Thank you. Thank you.” He rubs my face with his thumbs as he grasps it fully. “You have no idea how much this means to me.” 

“I don’t completely approve, but I’m not a monster.” He drops his hands from my face. 

“Sabine, you have shown me so much kindness, so much forgiveness, I can never repay you fully for this gift.” 

“Probably, but I have an idea of where you can start.” I say with a coy smile.