“I’m saying he’s a jerk.”
“A jerk, as in to do this?” Ash jerked her hand side to side.
“Damn … well, no. Don’t worry about it. It’s just a saying.”
Her brow creased, and she worked her bottom lip with her teeth. “You are calling him simple, is that it?”
“Yeah, basically.”
Her smile at figuring it out was brilliant, and he nearly stumbled over his own feet for staring at her.
“There was a stick there. Should have warned you.”
“Fuck you, Cynes. Just, fuck you,” Heath snapped.
Ash stopped. “Why would you want to fornicate another?”
Gods dammit. “No, I wouldn’t.”
She started floating again, streaking back next to him.
“You’ll have to trust me when I talk sometimes. Things have changed so much. You don’t have to take everything so literally. I cursed him.” Dammit, that could go wrong too. “Not with magic, but I used a curse word. Like saying ‘goddess’s tit.’”
“Ah, I understand now. The world of The Fragile has indeed changed much. The words are much more violent.”
Oh, he had alternate words he wanted to teach her. Things like fuck, hard, cum, and all the little naughty things he’d love to hear in her sweet, cultured voice. He hardened at the thought of messing up how innocent she was.
Heath cleared his throat. “How about you tell me about yourself. From before.”
“I do not know how much there is to tell. I was … just Ash. I did not have much say in my life, but it was a good one. I did not want for anything, expect maybe my parents. They died unexpectantly, and it changed my world.”
He knew what she meant. “I lost mine too.”
“What happened to them?”
How could he tell her they were criminals? That, according to her kind, they deserved to be exiled from their homes and lose everything that meant anything to them? The Seelie and Unseelie agreement to exile their criminals to each other had shattered families in more ways than they’d cared to think about when the deal was struck. There had been so many orphan children in Daemon, children that had no one to protect them.
Heath had tried his best until he also was taken from them. He hadn’t thought of those children in so many years due to his memories being pulled from him, but Ash had given them back. He supposed he didn’t have to hide it from her when she had seen so much already.
“I never learned what happened to them, but I don’t think they survived. My father was a master of fabrics, and my mother a hearth Fae. Neither were meant to fight or be treated like I was.”
And he didn’t want to imagine his mother being kicked and beaten, tossed aside.
“I was told my parents died in a shipwreck.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I am sorry as well, Heath.”
Most people had the misconception that immortality or long life meant one couldn’t be killed. Fae could die just as a human; however, their magic allowed them to heal faster or protect themselves from injury. They were harder to kill, but it wasn’t impossible.
They continued in silence for a time. Just having her there, even if only in spirit, soothed him. He didn’t have to worry about her in danger, and the quiet of the In Between surrounded them. The group crossed over flat land of sparkling black grass, and Heath could just make out a dark shadowing of tangled trees and vines shortly ahead.
“Is that the bog?”
“Yeah,” Cynes replied. “We’ve got a clear trail on the way, Heath, but once we get in, we’re going to be blind.”
Not the best, but it would have to do. Cynes knew his shit when he created his maps. If he couldn’t see into the bog, there was a reason.
