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Saladriel

I’ve felt out of place since my goddess sent me here, but for once, I actually feel like I’m helpful.

Whatever has happened to this woman that is supposedly my mate, has me thinking that things might be more serious than I thought they were. And the way she’s looking at me…

I might have lied when I told her mates I had a girlfriend.

We weren’t committed, because neither of us cared enough about making it official to actually do so.

At the time though, I think I just felt that the excuse was helpful, a simple way to keep myself removed from the group of men that are over their heads obsessed with the woman that keeps looking over at me like she thinks I’m safe.

I have no idea what to do about that.

Most of her mates are losing their minds right now with her obvious distress, so maybe it’s good for me to be unattached thus far, because I can remain levelheaded where they are struggling to do so.

The nurse is helping Delaney back to a more private room, but the nurse won’t let any of us take a single step back with them because she says the room is too small to fit us all.

That’s when she looks to Delaney to pick someone she feels comfortable with being by for a little bit, and her eyes meet mine and I don’t even think to refuse.

Huh, maybe I’m not as unattached as I thought I was.

The nice thing I’ve discovered about her very large and very strange collection of men is that they all try very hard not to act jealous with one another.

So even though the gargoyle looks like he might want to rip me apart so he can accompany Delaney himself, and the teacher looks like he’s ready to pounce on the nurse and demand she let us all go back with her, I know they won’t.

They don’t even begrudge me somehow needing this, somehow enjoying being needed like this, and they give me a nod, and it makes me nearly gasp out loud to recognize that they trust me with her, trust me to take care of her and to advocate for her.

The nurse is making small talk with Delaney as she leads us to a room, but I stay close to her in case she needs me to catch her in a swoon again. Tough job, I tell ya’.

Once the door closes and everything is quiet, the nurse looks to me for a heavier explanation.

“I…well, I had just come from somewhere else and went to talk to her. She was…spending time with a couple of her mates after class released—”

“Mates? You are mistaken. I don’t…no, I don’t…” Delaney stutters confusedly, putting her hands on her forehead like that will put her memories back.

I nod my head to the nurse, showing her exactly what we’ve been experiencing. “One minute she was fine, then she brushed my arm and clutched her head suddenly, apologized for bumping into me, and wandered down the hall like she’d never seen me before.”

“And you are one of her mates, yes? You didn’t interfere with her in any way? It is a little suspicious that this happened right after she touched you,” the nurse points out as she takes some notes on her laptop.

“I would have no reason to harm her, and besides, I lack the ability to do so. Technically yes, we’re mated, but—”

Delaney bursts into tears and throws herself at me, sitting in my lap and all but forcing me to wrap my arms around her. “I forgot you? How did I forget about someone so important to me?”

She’s a blubbering mess, grabbing my face and pressing herself into me. I don’t have the heart to tell her we’re not actually together as of now.

“And all those gentlemen out there…” the nurse trails off, asking without trying to set Delaney off.

I nod back while Delaney wipes tears from her eyes, and she misses the action, thank the goddess.

“I need to inspect your mate marks, Ms. Duncan. Is that alright with you?”

“Well, yeah, fine, but…I don’t…do I have mate marks?”

She turns her head to me, her mouth so close to mine I stop breathing. Dingleberries. I’m not supposed to be able to feel this way. What is happening to me? Something is stirring within me, and I find it unpleasant.

I nod in confirmation, too nervous to speak in case I kiss her instead.

Delaney whips her sweatshirt off quickly, baring both of her arms as she makes herself comfortable sitting on my lap sideways.

We all draw in a gasp at the same time because there’s something disgustingly wrong with some of her marks.

The ones she had before she came to my realm are all normal looking, but the ones my goddess gave her look like they’re full of toxins. They’re dark and the veins under them are sickly and evil looking, branching over her arms like sharp worms.

“I guess we found our problem,” the nurse mumbles, and then she excuses herself to collect a doctor.

Delaney looks to me, absolutely panicked, and I don’t blame her. “What do we do? What’s happening to me?”

I only know that I have to get her better, so that’s what I tell her. “We’re going to figure it out. There are things I’ve been afraid to tell you about…my home. I was hoping the blessings our goddess gave you would be genuine, but…it’s kind of looking like they’re not.”

“A goddess did this? Why?”

I gently hold her face, brushing her tears away. The tears burn my skin, because unicorns are only supposed to feel happiness, but it keeps me alert. “I want to hope her intentions weren’t to poison you, but…gods and goddesses are known to be dramatic.”

She buries her face into my neck, terrified, so I hold her. Because…she’s my mate.

A knock sounds on the door before the same nurse returns with someone in a white lab coat, introducing themselves as the resident doctor on campus. Can’t say I commit their name to memory, because I just can’t look away from the poison that seems to be seeping through Delaney’s arm.

“I don’t want to alarm you both, but I think we need to take every precaution we can in order to help you get well, Ms. Duncan.

These marks on your arm, can you tell me about them?

I haven’t seen conduit marks on that arm, and I have never seen them in this style.

Are they tattoos that you got from an irreputable source, perhaps? ”

How bad is it that I’m wishing Delaney had gotten tattooed by a dirty needle? I trust in the power of medicine to cure that.

I have no idea how to cure dirty magic.

Delaney looks to me because she doesn’t remember. Of course, she doesn’t.

“Um, well, I’m not actually from here. I come from a different realm, which likely sounds a little crazy, but, well, a few weeks ago I was at home when a searing agony began to pulse through my chest, and then I was teleported to the home of our goddess.

You don’t know her name here, but she is The Fairyunicorn Goddess.

“She brought Delaney into our realm, Glittertopia, to ask for her help in saving it. Then she gifted Delaney marks from there, and I believe her intention was to gift her mates from our realm, so she’d have a vested interest in saving it. I just…”

The doctor’s face turns into a subtle look of horror as she looks at me. “Tell me I’m jumping to the wrong conclusion here.”

“I could be wrong, but I think the goddess tied the fate of the realm to Delaney’s magic. So the realm fails, Delaney fails. That’s…the only thing that makes sense.”

“If that’s true, then I don’t know how to help you, Delaney.

We could put you into a medically induced coma to try and put the spread of this decay in stasis, but if this is truly an act from somebody divine, then anything I do won’t change a thing.

I don’t want to just send you home, but I need to do a bit of research and see if anyone else in the medical field has experience in this. ”

“I would probably be better off with my parents. One of my fathers is a poison master and another is a potion master, and my mom is, well. My mom is. If anyone can figure this out, it’s probably them.”

Delaney’s phone starts ringing and when she pulls it from her pocket, I see that it’s one of her dads calling, and from the tone I hear, they’re panicking.

Delaney doesn’t have good news to tell them, but I think she also doesn’t want to do it over the phone.

She grabs my hand, lacing our fingers together as she squeezes. I squeeze right back, feeling some kind of way about being her support right now. I don’t have a phone with which to text her mates with an update, but I have a feeling we’re probably just going to leave the infirmary anyway.

The doctor leaves as Delaney explains to her that her parents are on their way, but the nurse makes sure we know to stay put until someone comes to discharge her.

Delaney’s phone conversation isn’t very long, and it’s far too quiet in the room when she hangs up, but it’s the perfect amount of noise for her head to rest on my shoulder.

“I’m scared.” She laughs in a sad, deranged sort of way. “I’m broken and I don’t even know who I’m sitting on. I know you said we were mates, but…I honestly don’t know your name.” She squeezes her eyes shut and covers her face in embarrassment, but we can’t have that.

I peel her hands away and wipe her tears once more, continuing to ignore the way they burn my skin. “Saladriel. Don’t feel embarrassed about something you can’t control. About you and me, you should know—”

The nurse waltzes back in, interrupting me, and I lose the nerve to tell Delaney we’re only semi-friends.

“You can drink this as a tea every couple hours to try and stall the poison, and it should help with the lightheadedness you experienced as well. If somebody from your group could just update us when you have something to update us with, we’d be very appreciative.

It’d be nice to have some sort of idea what to do on the off chance…

another student gets poisoned by a deity. ”

It sounds absurd, but the reality is far from amusing, so none of us laugh or even smile. Also, one of my worst fears is about to come to pass; I have to share one of the deepest held secrets of my people if I want any hope of saving this woman I didn’t ask for but might actually want.