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“What exactly are Chasers, Nevers, and Nothings?” I ask, taking another nut and popping it into my mouth.
Geraldine chuckles and shakes her head. “You truly are from out of town.”
“Yep.” Another nut goes in.
“Okay, so here—take a look.” She points to the group of humans I tried to speak with first. “The Nevers are pretty humans, or mortals, as the faerie call them.”
“Ahem.” Max raises his brows at her.
“My bad. Faeries is an offensive term for them.”
“What do I call them, fae?”
“Good Folk, Fair Folk, the Good People.” She rolls her eyes. “Talk about propaganda. I would totally respect their request if they called us mortals nice names. Anyway, despite the Nevers’ perfect faces, they’re unlikely to ever fall into favor with the Radiants”—she shudders—“who are the powerful noble gentry.”
“Why won’t Nevers be favored?”
Her eyes turn downcast, and she shrugs. “That’s the secret we’d all like to know.”
“The war?”
Another shrug. “The Folk are secretive. But Bob thinks it’s concerning the ability to use charms.” She points to a group of people with stones swinging from chains on their uniforms. “Chasers are wannabes—the holiest of suck-ups. Like, if they were asked to polish the turds of Radiants, they’d turn them into diamonds. Some Chasers are less powerful Folk, some are mortal.”
Peablossom had many gemstones. She must be one of the less powerful faerie.
Max giggle-snorts and says, “We call their enchanted stones Lucky Charms.”
Peggy laughs. Bill cackles, then covers his mouth. I don’t understand the joke but return their smile.
Geraldine lowers her voice in warning. “Please don’t repeat this to anyone unless you want to be punished for gossiping. I’m serious.”
“Understood.” I make a show of pretending to lock my lips and throw away the key.
Her eyes land on my fae ears. “So, you’re mortal, right? Born like that?”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. It’s not the curse, I don’t think, but the shame that comes with knowing why I lost all my magic. Emotion threatens to pour from my eyes, and I dip my head, fingers fluttering to my bulging cheekbone.
“That’s okay, hun,” Peggy whispers, leaning past Geraldine to pat my arm. She almost knocks the bowl of goop. “Remember, you don’t have to tell us a thing you don’t want.”
My throat thickens at her kindness, and I nod gratefully before changing the subject. “So, none of you were born with magic?”
They all appear baffled as if the thought of humans with magic is unheard of. But all who woke from the old world, like my mother, were gifted with immense power.
“How did humans from the old world get here?” I ask, frowning. “I’m assuming you were all frozen like my mother was. She washed up in a lake.”
A haunted look crosses Max’s face, and he glances at Geraldine, who gives him a nod of encouragement.
“As far as I know,” he answers, “most of us crawled out of the dirt.”
“Zombie apocalypse,” Bob interjects. “I tell you, that’s what happened, not a nuclear winter.”
The others scoff and tell him he’s dreaming, but the blood rushes in my ears as I recall the undead I brought to life five years ago. One of my aunts called them zombies.
At first, it was only the recently killed soldiers my magic targeted. But then, as the urge to kill the Unseelie Queen grew impossibly powerful, I reached into the dark place I pretended never existed and pulled out more magic than I ever thought possible. I felt it call to the stars, the darkness, and beyond.
Felt something ancient answer.
“If you’re wondering where we fit into this menagerie of madness,” Geraldine says, glaring at the tables around us, “we’re the Nothings.”
