Page 5 of Magpies & Mayhem
“Oh, drat it all! Hyrak!” A loud voice buzzing with indignation came from the big gray mothman as I threaded my way through the high-top tables. Then, barely quieter, “Can you believe it, Solandis? He’s done it again.” Alistair was an average-size mothman, which meant he was as tall as an orc. He picked up the drink in front of him and brought it down onto the bar top with a solid soundingthunk.
A tinkling laugh from the little sylvan woman next to him made my face split into an involuntary grin. Solandis was basically the plant version of a Disney princess, and she never failed to make me smile. “You should know better than to insult Hyrak’s artichokes by now,” she replied.
“I wasn’t—uff!” Alistair squirmed away as Solandis needled him in the ribs with her boney fingers. They had been best friends since they were little kids and the two of them were like siblings when it came to bickering. “I wasn’t insulting them! I only said I didn’t understand why anyone would want to eat something that looks so horrifically like a thorny pinecone.”
“Hyrak, baby—get him a beer!” Solandis called to her husband as he bustled around behind the bar.
“I don’t want a beer; keep yourgrass juice. I wanted a smoothie.” Alistair buzzed with irritation. “I’ll take a cider andstop freezing my stuff!” The wings he kept tucked behind his back fluttered slightly before he pinned them in place again.
Hyrak was an orc I’d met in college and liked immediately because he reminded me of my oldest brother, Sam. He was an ice elementalist, and he’d married Solandis as soon as we’d graduated. They weredisgustinglycute, and I couldn’t be happier for them. I’d even helped him commission their wedding rings from Elara.
Solandis, being sylvan, was pale green with darker extremities and soft white hair that had frickin’flowersgrowing in it. Hyrak had dark green skin covered in white patches that he decorated with tattoos in some foreign script. Probably orcish. He kept his black hair shaved on the sides and back and pulled the rest into a knot at the back of his head. He always had his tusks capped with metal and wore dressy button up shirts and black-rimmed glasses like the big ol’ handsome nerd that he was. They wereperfectfor each other.
There were two open seats at the bar, one next to Alistair and one next to Bane, a big panther shifter with some Latino human ancestors who graced him with golden brown skin and hair as dark as Hyrak’s. On the one hand, Bane was a huge flirt and sitting next to him might give him the wrong idea. On the other, I had a hard time keeping my hands out of Alistair’s fluff when I was near him. He had a ruff of fur around his neck, like a big gray lion’s mane, but it felt like rabbit fur. If I sat next to him, I’d want to pet him all night, but he also shed rainbow-colored scales from his wings constantly. The guy would be the world’s worst burglar. It was like a cloud of glitter everywhere he went, and I could never get it off of me.
I decided to sit with Bane.
As I sidled up to the bar, Solandis hissed something at Alistair and he buzzed a reply, but my hearing isn’t as good as my sense of smell. “Have you been listening to this all night?” I asked Bane as I slid onto the stool.
“All night,” he agreed, nodding.
“Hey, Sidney!” Solandis greeted me cheerfully, and I gave her a wink and a grin as I watched her best friend pick up his frozen block of drink and use one of his four clawed hands to try to scrape some of the icy smoothie off the top. The clicking sounds coming from him sounded distinctly indignant.
Hyrak placed a dark colored cider in front of Alistair with a mischievous grin before turning to greet me. “How you doin’, Sid?” The big muscles in his arm flexed as he pushed his black-rimmed glasses up his nose.
I couldn’t help my chuckle. “Hy, buddy, you look like the Hulk had a baby with Clark Kent when you wear those things.”
He cast a glance at his wife. “Sweetie, do you know what any of those words mean?”
“No, I do not,” came her bubbly reply as she tried to steal a sip of Alistair’s cider. He unfurled his long cylindrical tongue and plunged it into his drink, making her squawk.
“Never mind.” I shook my head. Voider references rarely landed well here in the Boundlands. Of the five of us, only Bane and I were able to survive in the Void, or the human world. Humans couldn’t pass through the Gates to the Boundlands at all, because the magic in the portals killed them instantly. Elves could survive for years in the Void before being cut off from the magic in the Boundlands started to affect their health. As a result, they’d mixed with humans and produced offspring. Us with mixed-race ancestry could more or less pass back and forth unharmed as long as we made it back into the Boundlands to recharge occasionally, but the older races, the ones closest to the original high-fae like the orcs and fairies, they couldn’t survive there for longer than a few minutes. That meant my human references and movie quotes were entirely wasted on these people.
Hyrak smiled his big, friendly smile at me as he leaned his elbows on the counter. “What can I get you, Sidney?”
I eyed the drink in front of Bane, full of leaves and limes. “Is that a mojito?”
Bane nodded and took a gulp. “Yup.”
“I’ll have what he’s having.” I turned to Bane as Hyrak left to make my drink.
“How you doing, beautiful?” Bane swayed a little on his stool.
“Ew, no. Lord, Bane,every time.” I steadied him on his seat so he wouldn’t fall on me. How strong were these mojitos? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why I wasn’t attracted to Bane. Elara would tell you he checked every one of my boxes and was a dead ringer for my type. He was big and burly, which was amustfor me. He was handsome and charismatic, which I loved. I don’t know what it was, but every time he flirted with me, I couldn’t help but cringe.
He smiled at me, but it looked more sleepy than flirty. I was going to have to tell Hyrak to cut him off and make sure he got home okay.
“You heard anything about the Phantoms lately?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
He shook his head. “Nothing. Maybe they’re all dead.”
“They’re not all dead.” They couldn’tallbe dead. “They’re just underground.”
“Maybe.” He took another sip of his drink, nodding a little too much. “I got something for you.”
I gave him a side-eye.
“Rowdy says his crew has some ceremonial daggers coming through the chain tomorrow. They’ll be at the warehouse on 53rdin Seattle tomorrow if you wanna peep at them and see if you want dibs.”
