46
“NO ONE deserves that!” Stanley barked and slammed the lid closed on the tablet. He caught her surprised gasp before the connection broke. His nerves were jangling with rage and fear as his mind swung back and forth between his memory of what Leaharin had done to him and what he’d just done to the Queen of the Fae.
He supposed as Queen no one ever hung up on her. He shut the tablet’s power off just in case she tried to call back.
He had a sinking feeling that he’d just done something really bad. Really, really bad. He sat with his back against the door jamb and pondered just how fucked up his life was becoming. Was it even salvageable at this point?Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org
He yelped when his cell chirped at him. He looked at it and saw a text from Sigrid. ‘We’re here. Where are you?’
He peeked out the window and saw a large black SUV parked next to the large orange thing.
He needed to make sure it was her. “What can you see out your window?” he typed and sent.
“An orange sign shaped like a big wheel of cheese,” popped up on his screen. He felt his body relaxing when he read that.
“I’m in the door across from that,” he sent.
He watched the car door open and the tall woman start jogging towards the building but not moving to his door. He creaked the door open a little more and she changed direction.
He pulled the door open enough for him to get out and Sigrid was there with the cloak. He tugged it on and she immediately took his arm and pulled him back to the car. They got into the back seat and he saw Mr. Duncan was at the wheel. They started moving immediately as Stanley sagged back against the seat. His body began shivering in reaction and Sigrid held him close.
“What happened? Did you get a good look at your attackers?” she asked.
He nodded. “Goblins. Two of them. They grabbed me, drugged me, and brought me here to a small man. A Fae.”
“Damn. They didn’t give up after all,” Mr. Duncan said from the front seat.
Stanley’s trembling continued but he gently pushed away from Sigrid so he could see her face. “Why didn’t you tell me I’m Fae too?”
Sigrid looked at him in surprise. “Did the Fae see you as you are now?”
A huge tremor went through Stanley’s body and he squeezed his eyes shut as he relived the moment. His teeth chattered a little when he came out of it.
“He… he was in my brain. I had to get him out… so… I changed when he was leaning over me. He was too- he was too close so it folded and broke him.
“Oh my god, Stanley!” Sigrid gasped and moved to hug him but he held his hand up to stop her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Satyr’s don’t exist anymore, I mean besides you. Most of the classes that were once considered Fae are no longer thought of that way. Each is independent now. Most…” She paused to stare at Stanley in confusion. “Wait, you said the change broke the Fae as you changed. How did he-”
“It wasn’t him. Queen Mab told me.”
The truck suddenly swerved into a parking lot and stopped suddenly. Mr. Duncan turned off the engine and spun in his seat to stare at Stanley over the seat. “Queen Mab was there? Boy, how did you get away from her?” he growled.
“She wasn’t there. She called Leaharin on his tablet-”
The man’s eyes went wide. “Leaharin? The Fae’s Master Inquisitor? He was the Fae you broke?” the big redhead barked.
“Roy! Calm down!” Sigrid scolded.
Stanley blinked at the two glaring at each other. Roy? He had a first name?
“Calm down? The boy is the focal point in something much larger than any of us is capable of dealing with! We need to negotiate our way out of this mess! We cannae stand between the Witch and the Fae Queen!” he raged.
“Do we abandon our friends?” Sigrid asked with a cold voice, her body trembling with righteous fury.
Mr. Duncan opened his mouth and looked at Sigrid in desperation as she held his eyes. He was the first to look away. “Naw.”
“Stanley is our friend. He didn’t ask to be part of this… whatever it is and he needs our help. He will get it!” she said firmly. “Now, please take us to Camila’s.”
Before they could move two black SUV’s and a white van raced by. Their truck was thankfully hidden by the fencing for the parking lot and the deep shadows.
“Stanley… did the Queen mention sending someone to collect you by any chance?” Mr. Duncan asked carefully.
Stanley nodded, his eyes wide.
Mr. Duncan glanced once more at Sigrid then turned back to the wheel. “Right. Camila’s.”
He slowly pulled out of the parking lot and drove away once he confirmed the Fae’s vehicles weren’t anywhere in sight.
Exhaustion pulled Stanley into a fitful sleep as they drove and Sigrid watched him wrestling with something in his subconscious. The fact that he’d been mentally raped by the Fae was horrifying to Sigrid and that he’d resorted to killing Leaharin to save himself must have left a mark on Stanley’s psyche.
She called Camila to let her know they were incoming.
Forty minutes later they pulled into the basement garage of Camila’s building and took one of the few remaining visitor spots. Sigrid gently woke Stanley who yelped as his eyes snapped open. She made sure his cloak was fully covering him then led the group to the elevator. They made their way up to Camila’s condo. She opened the door as they arrived and ushered them inside, locking up behind them.
“Are you alright Stanley?” she asked as she followed him into the living room.
He was taking in the expensive art and the luxurious furnishing so he initially missed the question. At Sigrid’s gentle touch on his arm to guide him down onto the sofa it sank in.
“Yes,” he blurted in embarrassment. “Sorry, your home is… stunning.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you. Now, what happened? From the beginning.”
He took a deep breath and felt their eyes on him. He had to get this out so he just began.
When he was done, he saw the troubled looks in their eyes. Mr. Duncan was back to looking agitated.
“I agree we need to help Stanley but how? This is so much bigger than we are!” the man exclaimed.
“Am I Fae or not?” Stanley asked.
Camila looked at him. “The Fae, today, are seen as just the race of magic wielders. The Goblins work for them but the other races have declared their independence. What you said makes it sound like Queen Mab didn’t really accept that, though she said she did at the time. Her people still give glamor spells to non-magic wielding races who were once under her ‘domain’ but that just serves her best interests. With the complexities of living amongst the Humans and their ever-watching electronic surveillance it had become too difficult for all these individuals from so many races to maintain that fealty and follow the rituals.”
“So, she let them all go to better protect us all but she didn’t really give up her expectations of ruling them,” Sigrid suggested and Camila nodded thoughtfully.
“Why all the interest in me?” Stanley asked next. “Other than being the last of my kind, whether I’m Fae or not, I’m just one of the non-wielders of magic. Am I even magic infused like Leaharin said Succubi are?”
Camila laughed and Stanley looked at her in confusion. “I’m sorry Stanley, but you have to know that you are definitely infused with magic as your experiences with Marisa, Sigrid and I prove.”
“Sigrid?” Mr. Duncan gasped.
“Easy Roy. Yes, I’ve had sex with Stanley. We’re just friends. Like you and I are,” the Valkyrie explained.
Stanley was looking between the two of them in shock and embarrassment. He pulled his mind back to the current trouble. “Oh ok, but isn’t it just the same magic?”
Camila frowned and looked towards Sigrid. “I’m not a wielder but I can tell it’s not the same at all. It’s a wild magic. Fresh and powerful. As fantastical as it sounds I think it’s probably from a different realm. It’s also not compatible with the magic the Fae control as it burned out Marisa’s glamor when she overdosed. I’ve been careful to avoid that, so far. The Fae who came to bind a new glamor to Marisa was badly affected by the wild magic saturating Marisa’s body.”
“This begs the question, as you are a Satyr which should be linked to the same magic realm we all are, what did your… caregiver do to you that linked you to a different one?” Sigrid asked.
“How about the answer to the question of where Stanley has been all this time if the last Satyr was killed in the purges millennia ago?” Mr. Duncan asked then looked to Stanley. “Sorry lad, but you shouldn’t exist.”
“How far back do your memories go?” Camila asked.
Stanley sighed as he’d never had much luck with trying to recall anything from his early childhood. He cast his mind back and froze as a memory he’d never seen before rose up. It was a smiling face looking down at him as he was on his back. The face filled him with joy, peace, and a terrible longing. She had sandy blonde hair pulled back in a long braid, large blue eyes, tall and tufted ears with small slim horns rising from her temples. A second face joined the first and Stanley choked out a gasp. Fire red hair and beard, blue eyes and bone white horns curling out of his hair near his temples. The beginnings of horns like his. The male was smiling at him as well and Stanley’s chest hurt so much.
He knew. He knew these were his parents. Every cell in his body screamed it. Whatever else that rapist had done, he’d freed up some sealed away memories for Stanley.