Page 11

Owain looked at Tove’s shoes. Tove always had nice shoes. It was something of an obsession of his.

Owain’s throat bobbed. “Is that like a slave?”

Back then, you have to understand, it wouldn’t have been too unusual. Raids still took place, and captured people were taken as slaves and sold at market. It was not unilaterally a terrible experience, nor were slaves treated well in all cases. It was simply a fact of life, like trending on social media is today.

Tove shook his head. “Not like a slave. You will be free. You will not be beaten. You will stoke fires, carry water, clean shoes, that sort of thing. And you will be discreet, which means you may not gossip about the work you do or who you do it for.”

Owain’s eyes went big. “Even if I make a mistake, you will not beat me?”

Beating a servant at the time would not have raised too many eyebrows, you have to understand. Owain, rather than being a traumatized orphan, was just trying to make sense of an offer that sounded too good to be true. It made me try to catch Tove’s eye, because at seventeen, I understood what he was and what people might do to him if they found out, especially during the day. While I didn’t want a boy to go hungry, what Tove seemed to be willing to offer scared me. What if Owain told others what Tove really was? What if they came to the island to hurt him?

“Even if you make a mistake, you will not be beaten,” Tove said. “You have my word. In exchange, I expect you to do your best and avoid making mistakes.”

Owain glanced up. “Will I get food for the work?”

Tove smiled at him. “You will. A place to sleep, too.”

Owain finished the last of his bread while mine seemed to have lost its taste.

The boy looked up at me. “I will be your servant.” His brown eyes were clearer, and hope had displaced the terror in them.

“Excellent.” Tove clapped his hands. When he wasn’t on the island, he wore gloves at all times to hide his nails, and I wonder, sometimes, whether Owain would have so easily agreed if he’d seen Tove’s nails in the sunlight.

I’ll never know, of course, but I wonder.

6

~Ethan

The fire crackled away, bathing the room in light and warmth. Auris had been silent for a few minutes now and had grown so still that I might have thought he’d fallen asleep if not for his fingers circling my knuckles.

I leaned back. “What happened next?”

Auris shifted, and for a second I thought he’d forgotten where he was. Then he brushed my hair out of the way and kissed my throat.

“Next, Tove took us back to his island, and there we lived happily ever after. For a while.”

“Happily ever afters are forever.”

Another kiss. “In fairy tales. This happened. I apologize. I didn’t mean to tell you about Owain. I meant to tell you about me and about Tove’s method of teaching me. Of how he prepared me to live as long as I have.”

“You were trying to tell me more than a story, huh.”

“I was.”

“Because I told you I’m okay with changing managers?”

He braided our fingers together and held our clasped hands up in front of the firelight, creating texture and contrast, fire red and shadow black. “No. I’m still upset that your old manager gave out your address. I will happily arrange for someone to look after your apartment. Do you know what fear is for, my sweet?”

I turned around to look into his black eyes. “What it’s for? Apart from creeping people out?”

“Fear is a gift. It runs in your blood so that you have the clarity and strength to fight or run when you are in danger. So that you may fawn in order to survive, or play dead. When I was in that forest, when Tove left me, I watched animals hunt. Rabbits panting after a sprint the likes of which they didn’t normally do. It kept them alive. When the priest took you, all that fear was there. You couldn’t fight. You couldn’t run. You couldn’t do anything.”

I unraveled at the last word. The tears came with a violent punch that reduced me to a shivering mess in Auris’s arms. He wrapped the blankets around me, sealing me in his embrace.

On and on it went, tears and a thick, dark fog that settled over my brain.

Auris rocked me against him for long minutes, and when I had no more tears to cry and my limbs grew heavy, he spoke again.