Page 26 of Horns & Heart
“Yes.Get your own human.Rory is mine.”
I still felt like shit physically, but this?I liked it.I’d found myself a man who would ravish me and proclaim I was his, never mind that said man happened to be a monster.As it turned out, I liked all of that just fine, including his monster buddies.It was a revealing truth college had not taught me about myself, and I guessed the trip to Europe had paid off, in a way.
Fellisse made a grumbling sound deep in his throat.“That’s his choice.He’s also a conduit.It bears considering.”
I sat up a little straighter so I could get back to my coffee.Nokim had brought food from the kitchen too and laid it out on the tablecloth now.There was bread and jelly and mashed potatoes—not a breakfast food in my book, but Nokim had said something about potato pudding.
I was pretty sure I’d had a panic attack.I’d never had a panic attack before, but there had definitely been moments when my heart had started racing for no reason, and I’d needed to take a minute.Several minutes.Had Nokim cooked all of this, including the steamed greens that I was pretty sure were chard?Panic attacks sucked, but I was hungry.Sex really got one’s appetite going.
I took a deep breath.“I can’t do magic.I also don’t want to go back to the Hill of Tara.”
“We know, sweet thing.”Inkiri’s soothing voice scattered my thoughts, and his warm breath tickled my neck.“It’s just that you’ll be safer, ultimately, if we can figure out what happened that day.”
Fellisse hummed.“Yes.We also need to make certain no one wants you.When conduits still existed among bagua, they were sought after.Hunted.TheKoa Esherespecially were eager to have them.”
Fellisse’s face darkened as he said the last bit about those cola ash people, whoever they were.I decided I didn’t want to know.All I wanted was to enjoy my damn coffee in blissful ignorance.
I cleared my throat.“Someone might want me.I don’t think they have anything to do with magic at all though.You see, there’s this, like, commune that I mentioned before?They’re very religious.They didn’t want to let me leave.They needed everyone they could get for slave labor—working in the fields, you know?There was a lot of praying too.I guess if you actually happened to have a uterus, they’d want to breed you, whether you were okay with that or not.”
Lissir hissed and said something in Lugarra.“I’d like to meet them.”
I looked over at him.“You want to de-horn them?What’s that you said, sake?”
Lissir tilted his head.“Yes.Sakkir.But since humans have no horns, I would cut off other things.All the things.Or rather teach your hangua how to do it since humans don’t seem to put any effort into that important bit of education.”
I narrowed my eyes and finished my microwaved, honeyed, and all-round excellent coffee.“So hangu means woman.You’ve been calling me that, and I really don’t?—”
“No, no.”Nokim shook his head.He took my cup and put a bowl in my hand instead.It looked like strawberries and raspberries with caramel sauce.Much better than the mashed potatoes.Had he actually put sugar on those potatoes?I was morbidly curious.“We’ve just decided to use hangu and hangu-na since it’s more accurate than ‘woman.’Human women and hangua are still different.”He tilted his head, then stood and headed for the kitchen.“Humans are very strange.But cute also.”He stopped to grin at me.“Although you do smell nice, and if you ever want me in your bed, please let me know.”
With that he walked off, and I tried to hide my reddening cheeks behind the bowl of fruit.
Fellisse reached for some of the bread and slathered it with jelly.“Maybe we can seek out that commune on our way back, see if anyone would like our help.They didn’t request you make any wishes, speak any curses, Rory?”
I shook my head and swallowed before answering.“Just silent prayer.I didn’t stay there long.Hightailed it out at the earliest opportunity.”
“Smart.”Inkiri stroked my back.“Like when you hid from the beast.”
I frowned.“You know…you know, we can’t all of us run around with three swords on our hip and those horns.”I pointed at all of them.
“Exactly.”Inkiri licked the side of my throat with his rough tongue.Maybe I’d have to tell him to stop doing that.As soon as it really, really annoyed me, I definitely would.
Lissir spooned some of the mashed potatoes and fruit into a bowl and sat back down next to me.“I propose we leave the day after tomorrow.I’d like to look around that place where Inkiri found Rory first.”
I watched in fascination as Lissir dug into sweetened mashed potatoes topped with fruit.Maybe I should give it a try, if only so I could be certain it wasn’t good at all.
Fellisse frowned.“Vergis won’t like that.”
“He’ll have to get over it,” Inkiri said.“The Stone won’t move, but a bit of rest will do Rory good.”
Nokim came back with a refill for me and more food.There was so much food here.It was heaven.Inkiri took the bowl with fruit from me but held it where I could easily continue eating while also sipping my coffee.Gosh, I felt so spoiled.And I liked it.
I tapped the rim of my coffee mug.“I’m not sure why I have to go with you.I mean, if you want to just look at the Stone, I definitely won’t be any help.”
Fellisse held up two fingers.“Two reasons.One: Vergis will need you there to investigate what you did with the Stone.Two: if someone does want you for themselves, the five of us will be better at protecting you than Inkiri alone.”
Inkiri grunted.“That’s true, sweet thing.”I felt him move, tilting his head this way and that.“But if you want to, I could carry you there?Would you like that?”
Being spoiled was nice, but there had to be limits.“Nope.”I lifted my foot and wiggled my toes in the cat socks.“Look, my feet are operational.”
“If you say so.”Inkiri was frowning at them though.“I will ask Vergis about the foot fetish.”
Nokim looked up.“What was that word?Oh, look how flexible his feet are!You’d never guess from the shoes they wear.”
“I think I’ve read something about fetish.”Lissir dug into the pile of manga by his side of the couch-mattress.“Hold on.”He pulled out several and flipped through them.There was some very uncensored yaoi in his pile.Well, okay.Maybe I could tell him about some of the fics I’d read.
“I found the word.”Lissir held the manga open for everyone to see.If there was any fetish there, it was a lace fetish, going by how the guy was dressed in all that tight, see-through stuff despite also being very buff.
“I’m not sure I understand,” Inkiri said.
I turned cabbage red.I wasn’t sure I understood why stuff like this kept happening when I just wanted to have a normal conversation with people.
