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"That is exactly how she smells," he agreed. "Did you ever tell anyone you can smell things like that on people?"
"I…" I considered his question. "I remember telling my mother she smelled of peaches with a sprinkling of sugar. She looked at me funny."
My blood went cold. "She knew what I was? She told the Temple so they knew to take me?"
"To keep you safe," he said quickly. "So you didn't go into heat before you were ready." In spite of his easy tone, he was frowning.
"Was she an omega?" I asked softly. "Was that how she knew what to look for in me?"
"Unless your father was Fae, then chances are she wasn't," Tavian said.
There was more he wasn't telling me, but I sensed he wouldn't, even if I asked. More because he didn't know the answers than because he was deliberately keeping things from me. At least, I hoped that was the case.
"Peaches and sugar sounds lovely," he added. "Do you remember what your father smiled like?"
I furrowed my brow. "I remember… Something metallic, like iron, but tainted. Like rust. But sometimes it was more… Like tea tree bark, or something like that. It depended on his mood."
I pressed my lips together. "If they knew what I was, why didn't they tell me? Why didn't the Temple tell me? They had ten years to do it." It explained why my parents never came to see me. They must have thought I was some kind of anomaly. Something they didn't want associated with them and their good names.
For something that happened so long ago, that stung like a fresh wound. The fact they'd turn their back on their own child for something she couldn't help. I couldn't imagine doing it to any child of mine.
"I'd imagine when the Temple was first erected, they made a rule that the girls weren’t to know who was suspected of being an omega and who wasn't. Possibly for their own safety and possibly because of some other agenda. Who knows what went on back then? Either way, it's possible the priestesses weren't allowed to tell you. I know that's not much of an answer and probably not what you want to hear." He looked regretful.
"No, you're probably right," I said as I exhaled. "The temple always had their reasons for doing things. A lot of the time, things didn't make sense to us maidens."
He grinned suddenly.
I frowned. "What?"
"Maiden," he said. His expression was sly, even for a Fae.
I snorted, because I was no longer going to get in trouble for doing so. "It's a title, not a description. Although, it's a description initially, of course." Most maidens weren't maidens anymore by the time their time was up. Except those like Hycanthe, who took the title more seriously than the rest of us.
"Of course," Tavian agreed quickly. "I think it's adorable. I suppose the silence part was more the point. Were you allowed to make noise? Like clapping or stamping?"
"It was strongly discouraged," I replied. “We were expected to behave in a certain way and not cause any trouble." Seen and not heard, for sure. Geralda would have been happy if we were neither. Thinking of her gave me a small sting of homesickness, but I quickly pushed it aside. One thing was certain, I was never going back to Ebonfalls again. Not as a priestess.
"Expected," he said meaningfully.
I laughed. "What would you expect from a group of young women kept together in a relatively small place, with priests who got away with pretty much anything and everything? Sometimes I don't know who led who astray. Maybe it was mutual."
"That explains a lot," he said. "Why you didn't take much convincing to step through that portal. You have an adventurous spirit. And Ryze smells good."
"So do you," I told him. He was right, though. I hadn't taken much convincing. Even if it wasn't just for my own safety, I was curious about what was on the other side of the portal. I didn't want to live the rest of my life stifled by the Temple.
By the sound of it, I never really had much choice in the matter anyway. If I hadn't ended up in the Winter Court, I would have ended up in the Summer Court. What would it look like there? From what I saw out the window, the roofs here looked like they were made of ice or snow. Would theirs appear to be made from sunshine? What would that even look like?
"Have you been to the other courts?" I asked.
"Yes, but not recently," he replied. "Rarely the Summer Court. For some reason, they don't like us there."
"I suppose summer and winter are opposites," I said.
"Seasonally, yes," he agreed. "If you take all that stuff too seriously, which I don't. The way some people talk, you'd think it snows every day here. Or we live in a palace made of ice and spend our time giving each other cold looks. Or eating delightful sweets flavoured with rose water."
I gave him a funny look, but shrugged. "I would have thought that before I came here," I admitted. "I didn't know much about the Fae at all. Or taps." That was probably a very, very small amount of what I didn't know about the world. I'd grown up more or less sheltered. And now here I was laying naked in bed with a handsome Fae male.
Life was…unexpected.
