Miracle Child

Deal with a Fae

“Are you going to remain in here while she changes, Vinox?” my mother asked. Her eyes didn’t turn to him, instead there seemed to be something like pride in the curl of her mouth as she took in my dress. I guess she didn’t want me to roll over and be a good girl as much as she seemed to earlier.

In response, the male turned his back to us. I moved to the bathing chamber and stripped out of the green dress that had been effectively ruined. I washed the blood off my skin before turning my attention to my face. Blood had smeared on my chin and the side of my face. Not a lot, but I decided to wash my face clean. My freckles reappeared, and my face looked more like my own. My lashes that had been painted black looked shorter now, and my lids that had been dusted with gold were now natural. I looked more like myself, less like a Fae with the freckles and more human features.

My mother helped me into the dress, synching up the back and placing a pair of black heeled boots on my feet. She evaluated me with a stern look. She changed my tiara out. I didn’t get to see which one she’d grabbed, but I knew she would pair it with the dress. Still she didn’t seem satisfied. Her eyebrows bunched, pinching the skin between them as she started to work on my hair. She didn’t do much, just let more of my hair that had been curled out of the bun until it hung half down to my hips. He’d left the front mostly pinned away from my face, but the back was almost completely down, and I caught my reflection in the mirror.

The woman that stood there was different than the impression I’d been expected to present to the Fae. I looked more savage, fiercer than before. My skin was clear of product, and the dress seemed more like crimson armor than a dress to me. I smiled at my reflection, and the woman looked vicious in her crown of blackened steel. It was a crown, not a simple tiara or circlet either. The metal, a steel that had been doused with oil and burned to blacken it, was twined in two main strips stretching up to three points, the center one stretching farther than the other two and down to my forehead with a single centered downward point. There was a single, black gem in the center downward point, and I knew that it had to be obsidian. The dress clung to my curves, showing me off without bearing so much skin, before flaring out a bit at my hips. The front hem showed the black, leather, lace up boots that reached a few inches up my legs past my ankles, but the back fell to the ground like the cape my father wore to remind his allies just who he was. My hair was looser, wilder than before with a few curls coming down under the crown around my face and in front of my shoulders, but the majority was still pulled back, but instead of a bun it was more like a very loose queue where it seemed tight at the base of my school but the hair spilled down my back.

I looked like a queen ready to go to war, and I looked at the male who had turned back around. His eyes roamed over me with far more intensity than I had felt from any of the Fae before, and when those blue eyes met mine again, I fought to keep the grin on my face from growing. Red was definitely my color.

A soft knock at the door had my triumph draining. I recognized the knocking pattern, and I knew the color had drained from my face. My mother went still next to me, but I was moving, faster than I expected, I was gripping the door handle, my hand gripping the gloved one, Vinox had placed there. Our eyes held, and he seemed to notice the desperation in my own. His hand dropped from the door, and I breathed a breath of relief. I raised my hand to knock a reply to tell the two most precious beings in the world to leave, but my chest hurt so much that it stopped me. I hadn’t seen them today, and I didn’t know if I’d get the chance to.

Instinctually, I turned to Vinox, pressing my back to the door while gripping the handle, “What would be the cost of your silence?” I asked suddenly. My mother sucked in a quick breath as she stepped to me, but the male was between us, and I didn’t bother looking away from him. His eyes burned with an intensity at the offer. Typical Fae to get all hot and bothered by the offer of a deal. I swallowed and knocked on my door, a request for them to wait a moment and did the last thing I ever wanted to do in front of a Fae. I dropped the pretenses, dropped the guards and shields in my eyes, my body, and I knew he saw it. “The two youngest members on our family are outside this door right now,” I said, honesty ringing in my tone as I betrayed a weakness we had worked so hard to keep from his kind, “and I wish to say goodbye.”

“Ryanni,” hissed my mother, angry, desperate, afraid. I didn’t blame her. If he didn’t agree to this, didn’t want to make this deal, then I would have revealed the existence of our family’s greatest weaknesses. My mother’s last pregnancy had been very difficult, and she gave birth months in advance, like she had with me, but this time, the babies were not fully developed or ready. The first few months were the scariest time of my life. Two beautiful babies were hovering between life and death, and my mother was right there with them.

His eyes examined me before turning back to the room that I had lived in for the past decade. His eyes landed on my vanity, and he walked to it. It took two steps for him the clear the room to my vanity, and I was struck again at how tall he was. He was exactly what I’d expected Fae to be: tall, built, and gorgeous in that same deadly way a weapon or predator could be. He picked up a brush, and my heart squeezed painfully. The brush was one of the only things my mother had brought with her from where she’d grown up. It was made from bone with horsehair bristles. It was a beautiful design and very used. Mother had brushed my hair for hours when I was younger with that brush, telling me stories of her mother, of her childhood. I knew she missed where she’d come from, and that brush was one of her only connections to a mother she clearly loved and missed.

Still, if that was what he wanted for his silence, I would give it to him. He turned to me and pocketed the brush with a nod, and I nearly sagged in relief. I opened the door and saw the two most beautiful and precious children in my world.