Page 85 of Beauty At Stake
Standing there doing nothing felt wrong. So, I went after Star, searching the blackened bits with my second sight. I quickly found the aura of the Fey remains in the basement. Using apportation, I moved charred beams and other bits toreveal the floor. It wasn't as damaged as the rest of the house, but areas were missing.
“What are you doing?” Star joined me. “Did you find something?”
“I can see the remains down there.” I nodded toward the wreckage.
Star grimaced. “I can't do what you're doing.”
“Of course not.” I winked at him. “Apportation is a human magic. You know, one of those you said we don't have.”
Star rolled his eyes. “You mean a psychic ability?”
“Does this look purely mental to you?” I apportated a massive beam to the yard.
He snorted. “You say potato.”
“No, I say magic.”
Star snorted.
“A team is on their way,” Extinguisher Teagan said as he came over. “The Council has already called off the locals.”
“And I diverted them toward another neighborhood,” Mekha said. “That should have given their superiors enough time to reach them.”
Teagan jumped. “Shit, man! Make some noise when you walk up to people.”
Mekha laughed, but it was strange. More like a braying. An image of a horse came to mind.
“Are you the pegasus?” I asked him.
Mekha stopped laughing to frown at me. “The what?”
“The winged horse.”
“Oh. No, that's Hunter Sasi. She's a Durong Paksin while I'm a Durong Kraisorn.”
“Uh-huh. Does that mean you're the red horse?”
“Yes. With the head of a lion.” He lifted his chin. “We are both of the Horse Clan.”
“Why aren't you in the Lion Clan?” Teagan asked.
“Because I am mostly Durong.”
“So there is a Lion Clan? I was just guessing.”
“Oh, yes. Lion, Horse, Bovine, Elephant, Bird, and Marine.”
“Are there even any lions in Thailand?” I asked. “I thought they were only in Africa and India?”
“Yes, but we aren't lions, are we?” Mekha grinned. “We are Fairies, and Fairies are everywhere.”
“And yet, you look like you're from here.”
Mekha scowled.
Yeah, that comment was controversial. Fairies of certain regions often resembled the humans of that area in their main form. There were a few theories why. One was that Fairies and humans had mingled and the babies hadn't been limited to human mothers. In other words, the offspring didn't merely create Witches. The half Fey children who bred with Fairies instead of humans had children that were more Fey. And so onand so on until the human blood was so diluted that it didn't count. Despite the dilution, the human features had remained.
Or it could simply be that Fairies evolved in similar ways to humans—their appearances influenced by the region of the world they inhabited. Since the Earth and the planet of Fairy were aligned, this made sense. But that was only if you accepted the premise that Fairies evolved. So, yes, it was a can of worms that Mekha wasn't inclined to open.
