Chapter Text
Blondie woke up the next morning feeling more rested than she had in months. She changed out of her pjs after taking a few minutes to arrange a perfect return to school outfit. A chiffon sleeveless dress with a canary yellow skirt and a cute collar, a ponte jacket for that suitably snappy flair, black flats. She accessorized with a headband and a gold chain from which a teddy bear charm hung.
She made her way down to breakfast where she tugged Cupid towards the door--”Blondie, did you know they sell Greek Yogurt? ”---before grabbing a piece of toast and sticking it into her mouth before her dad left them behind.
Normally, Blondie welcomed attention. Today, however, she was trying really hard not blush as she entered through the front of the school. But it was kind of hard to do with Cupid all but snuggling against her. It didn’t help that the new girl on her arm was back in that cute dress and cream jacket from the day before.
With half an hour before school officially started, Blondie showed Cupid where she and her friends liked to have lunch, and after glancing at her schedule showed where they would be at different times during the day.
“That way we can try and coordinate!” Blondie said brightly. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
“I may not be totally up to date with most modern slang, but I’m a fast learner.” Cupid smirked. “This little bird has to fly, Blondie. You can’t keep me all to yourself, you know.”
“With you always hanging off of my arm, I was starting to think it was the other way around,” Blondie teased. She considered it a huge victory as Cupid seemed to fluster at that, letting go of said arm and keeping a somewhat respectable--though still suspect--distance between them.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Briar. She hadn’t gotten to text the girl last night, so it was a lucky break that Blondie had caught her early on. She turned and tugged on the sleeve of Cupid’s jacket, pointing her friend out.
“That’s Briar! She’s one of the most popular girls in school! Has her hand in almost everything and throws some amazing parties, since her parents are like, never home. Come on, I’ll introduce you.” Blondie raised her voice, waving a hand. “Briar! Over here!”
Briar Beauty was a tall girl--the second tallest girl Blondie knew, second to Duchess Swan--and suited her surname to the Y. Dressed for comfort in a baggy ombre sweater, and pale rose pink jeans, Briar often looked like she’d just tumbled out of bed. I woke up like this, indeed; with sunkissed, olive skin and hair that flickered red like fire when hit just right by its rays, was there any real wonder why Briar was the name on everyone’s lips? There was an allure to her that her casual-comfort style tried to dismiss, a magnetic pull that made you want to reach out and touch.
Blondie considered herself mostly immune by now--though she had been hopelessly enamored in sophomore year--but sometimes Briar reminded her in little ways that Blondie was very, very gay.
At Blondie’s call, Briar looked up from talking with Raven Queen--how they were close, Blondie didn’t really know--and waved before making to join the duo. Raven caught her arm and dark painted lips move fast. Blondie watched as Briar blinked in that slow, sleepy way and casually brushed her hand over Raven’s. Whatever she said seemed to ease the other girl only slightly, though the dark glare Raven sent her way as Briar strode forward was enough to give her the shivers. As Briar approached, Blondie felt Cupid’s grip tighten slightly.
“Hm,” Cupid said, “well, isn’t that odd?”
Blondie felt her heart sink.
“Oh gosh, oh no. Don’t tell me. Briar too? ” Blondie whispered. Cupid’s eyes were alight as she nodded slowly.
“She’s different but I can’t pin down exactly how ?” Cupid tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Something is oddly familiar about the aura around her, but also off? There’s her own but also something else? Something not of this world.”
If she’s an alien, Blondie thought to herself, I’m going to eat my shoe.
Briar finished closing the space before her as Blondie smiled tightly.
“Hey,” she greeted, her voice just a touch strained. “I just wanted to say thank you so much for saving my butt in History. I owe you one.”
Briar gave a kind smile and shook her head. When her hair tossed, Blondie caught the hint of shampoo, or a new perfume; it made her oddly weak in the knees. “Don’t worry about it, Blondie. What are friends for?” Briar turned her disarming smile on Cupid. “Speaking of friends, who’s this?”
Cupid let go of Blondie’s arm and held out a hand which Briar took. As they shook there was no angry tension or sudden recognition, which Blondie didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Call me Cupid! And you are?”
Briar raised a suspicious eyebrow and really looked at the girl in front of her. “Cupid, huh? That’s unique. I’m--”
The air crackled. Voices of the students gathering in the courtyard grew hushed in a great series of gasps. Briar went very still, and then very, very pale.
“Aurora O’Briar, my love, is that you? ” A girl’s sharp voice cut through the air, her r’s rolled with an brogue that rattled around in Blondie’s head, ensnaring her voice and making her knees shake. “It’s been ages! ”
“Nononononono. This can NOT be happening!” Briar’s normally relaxed, almost sleepy, composure shattered at the sound of the voice. She spun on her heels and grasped at her throat like something was choking her, or about to. Blondie watched as Cupid’s eyes, which had been sparkling with curiosity, go dark like blown out candle.
“Her? Oh, you poor flower you.” She said pulling a shell shocked Briar into half a hug, her tone full of pity. Her other arm reached out to subtly pull Blondie behind her, though Blondie could still see the ‘danger’ that approached them over her shoulder.
And. Good God.
Moving for the trio was a dark skinned girl with snow white hair that was streaked with a highlight of teal to match her nigh iridescent eyes. Her cheekbones were sharp and her features aristocratic, pointed chin tilted at a haughty angle. The rising sun painted her in hues of gold and blushing pink, which seemed at odds with the unnerving chill that settled deep in the pools of her eyes.
She glittered. It was the only way Blondie could describe the golden, rich tones of her bared skin; by the cruel smirk the girl had on pink, glossy lips, she knew precisely the effect she held. Blondie stared, utterly dumbfounded, until her foggy brain realized that the allure, the pull, was the very same one she felt from Briar only magnified. If Briar Beauty was the suggestion of touch, the girl on the war path to them was a demand, a decree from royalty.
“Hiding in plain sight,” the girl sighed, and though the rich Irish brogue that colored her voice vanished, the effect it had on Blondie did not. “Aren’t we clever? ”
Briar did the oddest thing, then. Briar ran. Tore herself from Cupid’s half hug and bolted for the gates, pink sneakers pounding against the grass. Blondie watched the girl watch Briar, and felt her blood chill at the wicked grin.
More so when the girl vanished. Just like that, Blondie felt her brain return from nowhere land with a harsh splash of water. She trembled, burdened by a sorrow she couldn’t place, and gripped Cupid’s shoulder as she panted. The crowd of students seemed to share it, mostly. No one pointed at the grass and shouted about a vanishing student; only gripped at their chests, rubbed at their eyes.
Blondie could see Raven sagging onto a bench, shaking like a leaf; Poppy steadied her swooning sister, the only one around that seemed to be as unaffected as Cupid was. As..more than a few were, Blondie noticed. A couple of students--Ramona Badwolf and Rosabella Beauty--were similarly calm. Ramona kept sneezing, and Rosabella continued to rub at her eyes, but they didn’t seem as...punch drunk, if that was even a term that could be used to describe the encounter.
“We have to go after her,” Cupid said, her voice hard.
“Huh…? Who?” Blondie felt fuzzy around her edges. “B-Briar?”
“Yes. She’s in trouble.” Cupid took her hand and began to drag her into the direction Briar had fled. “One doesn’t escape an Unseelie Fae, much less their princess.“
“What.” Blondie stumbled over her feet and then got her bearings back as they sprinted down the streets. “Whoa, what?! That girl was a--a fairy?! ”
“Fae,” Cupid corrected sharply. They turned down a corner, and Blondie realized they were skipping school to run into the city park to save her friend, who had connections to a fairy. “If she were just a Seelie I wouldn’t be so frightened, but this is not good. Who knows what else she brought along with her?”
Blondie yelped as they plowed through bushes, thorns digging scrapes and scratches down her legs. “Oh my god, ow --what! What are we gonna do?!”
“I’ll stop her with force, if necessary,” Cupid said through grit teeth.
Briar choose the spot well; deep enough into the park that their voices would carry if they screamed, but that they would still be hidden. Briar whirled on them as they exploded from the foliage, the mysterious girl standing just feet away. Knowing what she was seemed to prepare Blondie enough that she wasn’t so caught up in staring--which, wow, she’d never live that down--but something about the girl still set Blondie’s every instinct on edge.
“What an interesting cavalry you’ve called upon, Aurora,” the girl purred, looking over Cupid and Blondie mockingly. Her silver jewelry caught light and sparkled; a bangle fashioned like a thorny branch circled one elegant wrist. “An old freak godling and...aw. A human,“ she said in a coo. “You’re not gawping at me; am I to assume you’re not so caught in my glamour, little girl?”
“Honestly,” Blondie said, clinging to the back of Cupid’s jacket, “I’m not a hundred percent sure what’s going on here, but, back off! I’ve got mace!”
She didn’t have mace. Blondie never carried mace. A smart person would carry mace.
“Cute,” the Fae drawled. “Is she a friend of yours, Aurora?”
“Briar. It’s Briar, now.” Blondie watched her friend shake, tensing up. She’d never seen Briar angry. Irritated, sure. But never angry. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Briar,” the girl said, testing out the name and then seemingly shrugging it off. “You’ve gotten less creative over the years. But fine, Briar. You may refer to this form of mine as Faybelle. Isn’t it elegant? Human enough for you?” Faybelle blinked her lashes mockingly. “You so did love your human things.”
“It’s not very subtle,” Blondie said, stupidly. Faybelle slanted her eyes in her direction and Blondie felt her stomach roil with fear. “I mean. If you’re trying not to sound like a fairy, you’re not...really helping your case?”
“Keep your pet muzzled, godling,” Faybelle spat at Cupid. “She’s becoming annoying. ”
“Touch a hair on her head and prepare to regret breaching the human realm,” Cupid warned softly; the same tone of voice she’d used the night when Ashlynn had gone up in flames. Blondie shuddered and wasn’t ashamed to admit that she cowered a tad, not sure who she could hide behind or who she should hide from.
“Relax. It’s not even a human I’m after.” Faybelle looked to Briar, now, her smile chilling and dark. “Oh, sweet Briar. How long did you think you could outrun us? Not that we were actually giving chase to you, mind. If we’d wanted you, nothing short of the Seelie Court and her mistress could have saved you from the Wild Hunt.” She gasped, as if remembering something. “Oh! But with my blood inside of you, why, they would have you killed on sight, wouldn’t they?”
Briar ground her teeth. Blondie decided that Cupid was the one who was the least angry and decided to press against her back, staring at Briar like it was the first time she’d ever seen her. What did that make Briar, in the end? A fairy too? A half fairy? She’d just gotten used to the idea of Ashlynn being possessed by a phoenix and also really, really old. She was not nearly ready enough for this.
“Why are you here, then, Faybelle?” Briar spat the name like a curse, her voice roughening with emotion. “If you’re not here for me, then why are you even here? ”
Blondie didn’t know if Briar saw it, or if Cupid saw it, but something flickered in Faybelle’s eyes. Something like hurt, or regret. She hesitated, like she was battling with herself, before replying caustically, “Just to see how the years have treated you. And to let you know that I never looked for you.”
Did Briar just flinch?
“I’ll admit that I was tempted to come after you during that vile plague that started,” Faybelle continued, looking at her nails. “It was so very inconvenient to be bedridden because you went and got yourself sick with such a ridiculously fatal human disease. If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead in the ground. Or burned to ash with the rest of those filthy corpses.”
“Plague?” Blondie gasped. “Like, no way, like the Black Plague? ” Okay, so, yeah. Briar was old. Really old. At least seven hundred or so years--maybe more? Imagine.
Briar shot Blondie a look, one that begged for her silence and promised an explanation. Well, she hoped.
“I wish I could have been taken by that,” Briar said hoarsely, her voice starting to lilt with an accent Blondie didn’t recognize. It was almost Irish, but not quite; older. Ancient, even. “But thanks to you, I had to sit back and suffer and watch everyone around me die.”
“Boo,” Faybelle said without sympathy. “How boring. And yet, you clearly haven’t learned.” She waved to Blondie. “What will you do when this one dies, then? Weep over her grave, or move on? I’m excited to see how you process this for the rest of eternity, O’Briar.”
Cupid growled, just as Briar snapped.
“ Flòraidh ,” Briar grated, “you won’t harm any of my friends, ever.”
Blondie watched Faybelle grow very still, eyes wide. With shock; fear. Then, oh yes, there was the hurt that had flickered so quickly before. She trembled where she stood, teeth bared in an outraged snarl.
“How dare you, ” she raged, her hands forming into fists. She took a single step forward, and her human guise fell into pieces around her. Blondie stared; in a dress of flowing, ebony silk stood an outrageous creature, with skin the cold blue pallor of death and gossamer wings flaring from her back. Sharp fangs curled over black lips, and her eyes glowed with power and absolute fury.
That’s not Tinkerbell, Blondie thought. That’s not Tink at all.
“Flòraidh,” Briar said again, rapid fire, “you will stop and stand where you are!”
To her shock, Faybelle did. She seemed rooted to the ground, unable to move; her wings blurred and buzzed like a hornet’s, rage twisting her unnaturally beautiful face into something horrific.
“I gave you that name in confidence,” Faybelle said, her voice cracking like a whip. “I gave that to you! And you use it against me?! In front of others, no less!? When I get my hands on you, Aurora O’Briar, I will rend you limb from limb!”
“Flòraidh,” Briar said again, and her smile was as cold and bitter as Afterever Hills’ winters. “You will never, ever , touch me without my permission.”
A wail of fury escaped Faybelle’s throat. “I am not your slave! ”
“And I was not yours! ”
“Oh, you made that clear enough when you left the realms!” Faybelle spat.
Briar glared at her before taking a deep breath and exhaling. “No more games, no more tricks. What are you really doing here if not to take me?”
“That’s for me to know and you to never find out.” Childishly, Faybelle stuck out her tongue.
“Flòraidh, ” Briar began in warning.
“Bitch,” Faybelle hissed in reply. “I came to mock you, you stupid little insect. To show you that I don’t care that you left. That you stole my immortality and ran away, leaving our pact half finished and that I didn’t care because who’d ever care about someone like you? Selfish, spoiled little human!”
“It sounds like you did care,” Cupid said. “Quite a bit. You’d do well not to hide your true feelings around a ‘godling’, Unseelie princess, not when my father is Eros himself. Speaking of your court, where is it?” Cupid looked around the forest. “A fae never travels alone.”
There was a great void of silence. Faybelle had gone very, very still; she pointedly avoided eye contact with Briar or Blondie, nostrils flaring.
“Could it be,” Cupid began, slowly, “you left the Court?”
“Keep your assumptions to yourself,” Faybelle snapped in reply. “Well, Aur-- Briar. Will you leave me to stand upon this ground? Undo your command. I’m now incapable of hurting you, if that’s what you were so afraid of.”
“Fine.”
Faybelle stumbled forward, wings whipping to keep her from falling. In a blink her vicious appearance had returned to the glamour of a human girl; Blondie still felt dizzy just from looking at her, but that overwhelming first response was gone. Now she was dizzy from all the drama. She appreciated a little drama in her life, but not one day after another. Gimmie a break from the crazy, world.
“Thank you,” Faybelle said without any note of gratitude in her voice. She crossed her arms over her chest and seemed far less intimidating than she had before. “I’m still furious with you. It’s one thing to start something so intimate and leave a girl unfinished--”
Blondie snorted, and then ducked just in case the fae decided to try and loophole her way into killing her.
“--but shouting my name around? Unforgivable. It was a betrayal of what little trust I had left in you.”
Briar shrieked, “You want to talk about betrayal?! ”
Faybelle drew herself up. “I would, in fact!”
They then began to shout at each other, gesturing viciously at the other. It was in a language Blondie didn’t recognize, but it was one that wasn’t dead since she could, well, hear it. It wasn’t like the eldritch tongue that Cupid had spoken in before; a rough, throaty language. Blondie tried to place it, but couldn’t.
“It’s Gaelic,” Cupid supplied. Blondie noticed that she was not as high strung as she was before, now that Briar had quite simply neutralized the threat.
“Oh.” Blondie stared. The shouting was getting more heated. Briar was starting to cry. “Oh, oh no, oh my god, what is she saying? Are they saying? They’re fighting like they’re exes or some-- oh my god Briar dated a fairy. ”
“That would be too simple,” Cupid said. “They are engaged.”
“Huh? ”
“The Seelie have a much less...vicious way of ensuring shared immortality,” Cupid supplied. “But for the Unseelie, the contract is exchanged first by sharing blood, and then by sharing sacred vows with the secret name. Pretty much commanding the other into loyalty for all eternity.”
“That’s terrifying.” Blondie gaped at Faybelle in open horror. “And she wanted to force Briar into that?!”
“Yes--no? Oh, this is getting juicy,” Cupid said, clasping her hands. “Their stories aren’t matching up. Faybelle says that she would have waited an aeon and a half for Briar’s friendship, much less her hand. That it was Briar who told her mother, the queen, that she was ready to exchange blood and had in fact taken some of Faybelle’s. Briar’s version is that the queen approached her with a goblet of wine to toast to her health, and to fully welcome her into the Court as a quick witted human worthy of attendance.”
Blondie had a feeling she knew where this was heading. “It’s a soap opera.”
“An immortal soap opera,” Cupid agreed, looking positively thrilled at the aspect. “So star crossed, these two!”
“Immortal.” Blondie felt like she could hardly believe it. “Do you think they’ll ever make up?”
Cupid looked at her with a smile so bright it should have constellations named after it (heck it probably did).
“The path to love is never straight.”
“Oh!” Faybelle shouted, throwing both hands in the air. “Oh, so I’m the badguy?!” Blondie tuned in more now that English, however accented, was being spoken again. “Why would my mother lie to me?! She has only ever looked out for me! You’re the one who wanted to live forever and then left!”
“I want to die, Faybelle!”
“Welcome to the twenty first century, little O’Briar! Do you think you’re the only teenager that wants to die?!”
“She has a point,” Blondie murmured. “A frighteningly accurate point.”
“Humans aren’t meant to live forever,” Briar continued on, voice raspy from all the yelling. “Why would I ever willingly choose this!? I watched my mother die, my husband--”
“Husband?! ” Magic swirled around Faybelle in a storm of blue fire, and then the Unseelie fae was back; all her fangs and wings and curling little claws from the tips of her fingers. “You took on a husband?! I’ll kill him!”
“He’s long dead, idiot.” Briar smiled, cruelly. “Was that a bit of jealousy, Flòraidh? ”
“No! Of course not! Never, never over you!”
“Hey! Hi, hello!” Blondie waved her hands. “Time out, time out, please!”
Briar and Faybelle both turned their heads to Blondie, leveling vicious and angry stares at her. Blondie shrunk a little under the combined weight of their malice, but drew herself back up.
“Look, you guys have a...history,” Blondie began slowly, trying not to flame the inferno any higher. She walked between them, which clearly startled Faybelle and calmed Briar. “I get it. I do. But something’s really not adding up? And I guess it’s because I’m the only not-super-old person here--”
Blondie paused, and looked to Cupid. “Briar is super-old, right?”
“A little over a thousand,” Cupid confirmed.
“Right, got it. So, being the only super-not-old person in this conversation right now, I can say that you were both played, Young and the Restless style.” Blondie looked between the both of them. Briar looked vaguely insulted at being called old and Faybelle had gotten a tell tale furrowed brow of confusion the moment she’d said Young and the Restless. “If I can? Offer my opinion as an unbiased third party?”
Faybelle pointed a curled claw. “You’re her friend! Biased from the start!”
“If I could pronounce your namey-thing I’d use it to get you to shut up,” Blondie snapped. “But that’d be really rude so I’m just gonna say shut up and let me talk! ”
“The gall of you-- ”
“Flòraidh, do shut up,” Cupid said.
Faybelle’s lips sealed shut of their own accord. She made a very angry screaming sound in her throat and gestured rudely.
“I don’t think,” Blondie continued, “that either of you betrayed the other. Er, on purpose.”
“You’re believing her?!” Briar looked so hurt that Blondie’s heart broke. “But--Blondie, we’re friends --”
“You’ve been lying to me too, Briar,” Blondie said quietly. “So really, I’m taking a lot of what you’re saying with a grain of salt.”
That shut Briar up quite fast. She even looked guilty, casting her gaze to her shoes. “What was I supposed to say?” She mumbled with sorrow. “That a fairy tricked me into living forever?”
Faybelle growled.
“Okay, new rule, stop insulting each other or we’ll never get anywhere,” Blondie held up a hand. “Briar, shut up. Faybelle--oh, uh,” she looked to Cupid, who quickly rescinded the order. “Can you tell us honestly, and in English, what...what happened ? Please. I would like to hear your side of the story first.”
“And I expect you’ll just trust every word I say,” Faybelle sneered. “Not going to get your godling to force the truth out of me?”
“Don’t talk about Cupid like that,” Blondie clipped. “And yes, I’m actually going to go out on a limb and trust you on this. Don’t ask me why, because you know what? I don’t know either!” She looked back at Briar, then to Cupid (who gave her a thumbs up, of all things) and back to Faybelle. “But I am a reporter, and I am not going to favor one lead or the other. I want the full scoop.”
Faybelle was very quiet. Then, she said, “Truly, you’re an annoying little thing. But to sway your bias to me, fine then. I will tell you my truth.”
Blondie rolled her eyes.
“Long ago, before A-- Briar, I made a friend out of a young queen in what you’d come to know as Russia. Or, she called herself a queen,” Faybelle waved her hand with a snort, “but perhaps she was a liar. She was beautiful nonetheless, and so I took her into the Court as my pet.”
Blondie was already beginning to regret asking for the story.
“She was kind, but always talked about starting a family, wanting a husband and children and…” Faybelle drifted off. “I was jealous. Jealous, but I let her go. It had been so long within the Court for her, though, and she’d eaten freely of our Realm, and so she left--not as a human, but as a beautiful swan. Cursed to spend her days within the Realm as a bird, but free to leave at night into the human world as, well, a human. She hated me. I suppose she eventually found love and started some kind of life, not that I cared any longer. I was quite depressed; my friend was bright and a delight to be around. She gave me great joy.”
“But you....kidnapped her first,” Blondie said.
“I know.” Faybelle’s voice was quiet. “And so her hatred of me was fair. I was too young to control myself. I should have taken her and told her the rules. Let her choose to stay with me, if that was what she wanted.” Her eyes slid to Briar. “I did not make the same mistake twice.”
Briar bristled, but a warning glance from Blondie somehow kept her silent.
“So,” Blondie began, “you were really sad. Okay. What then?”
“Decades passed and my mother heard the tearful plea from a resplend--a fair bride to be taken away from her wedding.” Faybelle stared at Briar. “That she wanted away from a marriage she did not choose. My mother took her away as a present for me.” Her voice was raw as she said, “And we were friends. For a time.”
“And?”
“I suppose she had a crush on me,” Faybelle sniffed.
Blondie sighed. “Faybelle, please?”
“I suppose she had a crush on me,” Faybelle repeated, then softly added, “or so I wanted. I cared for her too greatly. It is a weakness of mine--my only one. But she often spoke of how being left without choice was her worst fear, and I had learned from the swans, so I did not pursue her. Or so I thought. Perhaps I had wooed her with my charms after all, for my mother approached me and told me that she had taken of my blood and I was so, foolishly happy.”
Silence. Briar’s scowl deepened.
“But then,” Faybelle said in a slow, dangerous hiss, “she fled. Fled away with my immortality, and then had the gall to blame and resent me for a gift I did not impart on her."
“And Faybelle’s mother had the--” Blondie blanched, “--blood, stuff, ready for Briar already. And didn’t tell her about it until after, right?”
“Yes,” Briar said between clenched teeth. “My choice was stolen from me yet again. I ran from one arranged marriage right to another. I dared to let you in, Faybelle. Flòraidh. I dared. And you betrayed me, too.”
Blondie waited for a moment for them to pounce upon the obvious thread both stories contained, and when they didn’t, she groaned. For immortals, they were idiots.
“So, shot in the dark.” Blondie clapped her hands. “But maybe Faybelle’s mother--who probably doesn’t know anything about how the human mind and heart work--thought that the best way to make her daughter happy was to ensure that the human she lo-- cared for was hers forever. I mean,” Blondie spread her hands out, “the Fae don’t exactly seem to really care what humans want.”
“That is an absolute crock of --” Faybelle paused mid sentence. “--that is...something mother would absolutely do. And she would justify it with that--that Briar drinking without questioning would have been consent and not just blind trust.”
“What ?” Briar gaped.
“Seems legit,” Cupid chimed. “Doesn’t it seem a little silly now? All that moping and screaming and it was really the mother-in-law behind it all.”
“You could have asked her to do it,” Briar said, voice trembling. “This could all be a set up.”
“A set up a thousand years in the making, Briar?” Faybelle said with disgust. “I’m not that dedicated to making any human’s life miserable. Do you truly need to use my name to ensure that I’m being honest? Then command me, Briar.” Her eyes flickered with rage. “Use me, like you’ve been doing this whole time.”
“Flòraidh , speak nothing but the truth,” Briar said almost desperately. “Did you ask your mother to give me the wine?”
“No. I would have never done such a thing to you. Not when you begged the Unseelie to take you away from marriage in the first place.”
Briar swayed on her feet. Blondie moved to prop her up and she sagged against her side. “God,” she breathed. “We were friends?”
“I considered us so.” Faybelle’s voice was tight.
“Did you love me?”
Faybelle looked away, and refused to answer. Blondie felt her heart ache.
“I did,” she said at last. “No longer. A thousand years and then this blatant disrespect have killed whatever lingering love I had in my heart for Aurora O’Briar. Release me, now.”
Briar did. “But I’m not taking back the orders to keep from hurting me or my friends,” she said roughly. “I...can’t--”
“Can’t trust me. A wise move. As it stands, I would love nothing more than to obliterate you off the face of this disgusting earth for what you’ve done to me.” Faybelle let her guise mist back into place, smirking. “But I will have to settle for destroying your reputation instead. Your half-a-glamour won’t save you.”
Briar nodded, and a bark of a laugh left her throat. “I deserve that,” she admitted. “Flòraidh, for what it’s worth, I...I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for using your name like that.”
“You are not forgiven,” Faybelle said. “As for you, little reporter; Blondie, was it? Come here.”
“What, me--” Blondie steadied Briar on her feet, and slowly moved forward. Cupid shrugged at the questioning look Blondie shot her, but with the whole don’t hurt my friends thing still in effect, it was safe enough. She guessed. “What, uh, what are you--”
Faybelle took her hand and pulled her in close. The touch of her hands over the bare skin of her neck made every cell feel like a supernova; from a distance, the Faerie glamour was tolerable, if arresting. Up close, and being touched by it, was another matter. Blondie was practically swooning, and that was before Faybelle’s cool lips came to touch the corner of her mouth.
Oh my god, Blondie thought. Then, louder, OH MY GOD.
“You have my thanks,” Faybelle said in a silky voice, “for revealing the truth to me. The Fae will see my mark upon you and treat you with great favor. Even a Courtless princess is still a princess.”
Faybelle vanished with a cruel laugh. Blondie felt her mortal body cry out with the absence, but her mind--addled as it was--was throwing an absolute fit. Just as soon as she got the feeling back in her everything, she’d throw a fit. She wasn’t an idiot; it was a blatant dig at Briar. A big hey look at me I’m sooooo unaffected and soooo over you.
God, Blondie hated teenagers.
“That, uh,” she said, half afraid to turn around and face Cupid and Briar. “That uh, happened.”
“It sure did.” Briar’s voice was resigned. “Well. I’m gonna go take a nap.”
Blondie turned around to stare at her friend. “Wha-what about school?”
Briar looked her dead in the eyes. “Fuck school,” she said, and then Briar was walking away to her home. Blondie stared after her, then slowly looked to Cupid.
“If I had known school was going to be this interesting I would gone millennia ago.” Cupid laughed, clearly not annoyed at the kiss, “Though if she tries to kiss you again, I’ll rip out her tongue.”
Oh okay, nevermind.
“I,” Blondie tried to speak. “What exactly did kissing me do?”
“Exactly what she said. She marked you to other Fae as someone found worthy. It will keep you from their pranks, at the least.” Cupid’s eyes lingered on her mouth, and Blondie told herself it was simply just looking at the ‘mark’. “Spiritually inclined beings will see it too.”
“I’m not, like--I’m not being dragged into some weird love triangle thing, am I?” Blondie’s voice hitched with panic. “I cannot handle a love triangle between my super old friend and her super old fairy ex.”
“You’re fine, Blondie, I promise.” Cupid’s eyes drifted down, and flared. “Your legs--they’re covered in scratches…”
“Getting dragged through a park will do that to people,” Blondie snarked without heat, wincing. She’d been able to ignore the slight pinching, but people would talk if she walked around with everything from the knee down scraped. “I’ll stop by the nurse before cl--”
Cupid kneeled down in front of her.
“--Uh.” Blondie’s plan died in her throat. “What...what are you doing?”
“A Fae’s kiss isn’t the only one with magical properties,” Cupid murmured. “May I?”
Blondie found herself nodding and jumped when Cupid’s warm fingers grazed the sensitive skin at the back of her knee. She swayed, and steadied herself with one hand braced against Cupid’s shoulder. She barely had the brainpower left to question--out loud--what Cupid was doing before the first kiss was placed against an irritated patch of skin. Blondie inhaled sharply; Cupid kept trailing kisses down her shin until each scratch and bruise had been covered.
Then she did the other leg. Blondie felt the injured skin tingle and warm, the pain fading away in seconds, the skin unblemished. Cupid rose quickly, her smile small and tender.
“Feel better?” Cupid asked gently.
“Y...y...yep,” Blondie stammered.
“I’m really glad. Oh,” Cupid suddenly gasped, “I missed a spot.”
Her hand cupped the side of Blondie’s neck and she ducked her head; her lips landed against Blondie’s racing pulse and the jolt that raced into her was like lightning. It was distinctly inhuman in the way it brought all of her hairs to stand on end, obliterating actual thought. It wasn’t fair, Blondie thought, for all of these otherworldly women to just kiss on her. She was only human. Was this healthy?
Cupid drew away with a low laugh, breathy in a telling way. The look in her eyes was unreadable, or perhaps Blondie didn’t want to read into it.
“And for future reference, faeries aren’t the only ones who can make their mark,” Cupid said simply.
Blondie croaked. “Jesus.”
“Cupid, actually, but I can see why you’d get us confused.” Cupid gave her a pat on the cheek and an even cheekier smile. “Now, we should probably hurry back. We can’t be late for school.”
As Cupid lead her back, Blondie realized she should have pulled a Briar, because fuck school. It was on the way that Blondie remembered Holly was going to have her go over the book she had been writing.
“I’m sorry Blondie!” Holly apologized when she was asked about it later, “I already gave it to Raven! You know her mom’s a famous author!”
Who didn’t? Evana Queen and her vast collection of magical adventures were near legendary in Afterever Hills. Every new release was a best seller. Blondie wasn’t even bothered by the thought of Holly sending the rough draft to someone else; Holly’s dream was to be published one day, after all.
“That’s alright,” Blondie said with a weak smile. “I’m sure she’s really going to love your Snow White reimagining.”
“Gosh, I sure hope so,” Holly said shyly. “I just...really can’t wait for the whole world to meet Apple White!”