Page 32 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

32

LARK

T anith’s receiving room was built similarly to mine. A merry fire crackled in her fireplace, and most of the furniture was arranged to shelter a block of space in the center of the room, where the joint nest was. Eletha tucked my things into the empty section left for me, on top of a mound of cushions.

“Right, now you’re suitably pried away from our brothers,” the redhead said, tilting her head as she looked me over. She was tall and elegant, even in sleepwear embroidered with fluffy sheep, somehow possessing that same kind of magnetism that made Nemensia the center of any room. Her fins swished behind her as she considered, flashing red and gold coloring. “You’re cute. I’m Tanith. Half redcap, if you couldn’t guess. C’mon.”

She jerked her chin, and I followed her, settling as cross-legged as I could manage in my corner of the joint nest. “You’ve met Eletha,” she said, nodding to the bespectacled purple nixie. She’d settled on a dotted blanket next to mine and wore similarly patterned pajamas. “And…Siora? Where’d you go?”

“Getting the snacks,” the other nixie called from beyond the joint nest.

My belly took that moment to sound off, and I covered it while we all giggled. “Siora’s somehow Fal’s full-blooded sister, though knowing their personalities, we don’t know how that happened,” Tanith said.

“He’s adopted,” Eletha said in a clearly joking tone.

“Possibly,” Tanith agreed. Before I could ask what they meant, she interrupted my train of thought. “So, Lark, I have to ask. Mothkin talk, and your house moths have suggested you know Serian better than you let on.”

“Oh, uh…” I should’ve realized Jani and Lon were gossips. I’d been a servant. I knew everyone talked to everyone else except the lord or lady in charge.

“And we’ll keep your secret if you’d switch over to talk to Happy Fins,” Tanith continued, gesturing to the small nixie, who quivered with excitement from her corner of the nest as she waited to be introduced. “This is Ambriel, and she doesn’t speak Theli yet.”

I nodded in agreement and cleared my throat, making the switch with a flutter of nerves. To my relief, I didn’t butcher my second language, though I spoke with slow care compared to the native speakers I’d met in the palace. The occasional Theli word wove into the cracks of what I hadn’t learned yet, and I barely noticed it when it happened. “Hello, Ambriel. I’m Lark, your new sister,” I said.

“I’ve been waiting so long to meet you,” the little nixie squeaked. “Mom said I had a new sister, but then you were sick for a while, and my brothers tried to keep you all to themselves and…” She took a gasp of breath.

“It’s nice to meet you. How old are you?” I asked her curiously.

“Five and a half,” the girl said. She sounded rather proud about the half.

“Incoming,” announced the last nixie, Siora, as she stepped into the nest holding some goblets and a bottle of wine. She tunneled out a space in the center of our blankets for the half dozen house moths following her with food, more drinks, and a large, unmarked box. Everything except the box went on a platter in the center of nest.

“We can handle it from here. Have a nice evening, ladies,” Siora said, waving to the gaggle of mothkin as they bowed and left.

She was a voluptuous nixie, curvy even in thick pajamas, with extra-long, showy fins that flashed gray, red, and teal as they settled around her body. I could see how she was Fal’s sister when she was the same gray-blue hue as him and Nemensia, though the aquamarine hair that framed her delicate features was an unexpected pop of color.

We made introductions while Siora poured the wine and started passing around goblets. “Juice or water for you tonight, Happy Fins?” she asked Ambriel.

“Juice!” the little nixie exclaimed.

“Aww, a little grownup today,” she teased, reaching for the carafe of reddish juice amongst the platter of snacks and pouring it into the last goblet.

In the meantime, Eletha passed me a cup of wine, and I sniffed it, picking out sweet and dry notes. Tanith was already drinking deep of hers, so I went for it, taking a cautious sip. The drink was more akin to fruit juice on my tongue, though it became the familiar dry burn of wine as it slipped down my throat.

Wow, that’s really good. I nursed it as Ambriel bounced over to the unmarked box, rummaging through it.

“Feel free to get cozy, Lark,” Tanith said, gesturing to the food. Eletha had picked up a plate from the piles of stuff, mostly delicious-looking sweets, and was loading it up. “We just wanted to get to know you as our new sister.”

“Our brothers can’t hog up all your time,” Siora agreed with a roll of her eyes.

“Though they’re sure to be part of the conversation. They always are,” Eletha added.

Knowing their big personalities, that wasn’t a surprise. “I’m sure,” I said, giggling.

Ambriel popped her head and arms out of the box, holding a folded board game. “Let’s play this one!” she exclaimed.

The other nixies smiled fondly as she returned to the nest and began setting it up. I watched with a few curious glances while retrieving a plate’s worth of food. The board would need to travel a bit to make this work, but it seemed we would all have a single token to move around it, so that was doable.

I also wasn’t the full center of attention, which was a relief. Tanith and Siora chatted about work while we ate. Tanith didn’t say what she did, exactly, only shared idle gossip she’d overheard while working for Rennyn around the palace.

Siora, on the other hand, told me she traveled and modeled clothes for a few designers and occasionally posed as an artist’s muse. “Still no scent matches from my last trip,” she sighed. “I wish a pack would swoop in and woo me out of nowhere. Steal me away! Like, hello. I’m so available for that.”

Tanith shrugged. “All in good time. Males are more trouble than they’re worth anyway.”

“Spoken like someone who’s never been in love,” Siora sing-songed.

“ Pfft . I agree. Too much bother in real life. They’re better in books,” Eletha said over the rim of her goblet.

“Oh, please. You were just talking about your—wait. Let’s save that talk for later.” Siora’s red eyes flashed to Ambriel and then back to her adult sister, who nodded in agreement.

“It’s ready,” Ambriel declared. When I asked what the game was, she gasped and gathered up her blanket, relocating to my lap to snuggle in with me. “It’s okay. We can be a team. Team Happy Fins,” she declared.

I had stilled with surprise when she’d came and sat across my thighs without hesitation, but she was a kid. I just hadn’t been around an omega this little since…well, I was her age. No one seemed to find it odd, so I relaxed and petted her soft blue curls. She instantly started purring, which set me off too.

“Why Happy Fins?” I asked.

Ambriel wiggled hers a little, as if on cue. “That’s what Dad calls me,” she giggled. She tilted her head back to look up at me and added, “All my dads. And everyone else. You should too!”

I smiled and nodded, having the feeling this little omega would have me wrapped around her littlest finger by the end of nixie night. My belly was already feeling warm from the wine, and the room was more bright and colorful around the edges as she and her sisters explained the board game to me.

Ambriel mostly played for me while I chatted with her sisters. Siora had batted her lashes and asked, “So, Lark, how did you meet our brothers?”

This launched into a huge story, which I narrated with increasing style as the nixies kept my goblet topped up.

The princesses howled with laughter as I told them about stealing Fal’s mask and spooking when his Unseelie nature was revealed. “She jumped off the balcony,” Siora parroted.

“I don’t think anyone’s done that to escape him before,” Tanith added, swiping at the corners of her eyes.

They didn’t seem all that surprised to hear that I wasn’t dressed appropriately for the event. I kept my former servant status quiet, though I’d bet full moons on them already knowing something about it.

Still, they had a good time hearing about Tormund’s surprise kindness after my balcony flop, Kauz nibbling on the apple tartlets in my dream that night, and Marius’s panicked run with me over his shoulder when “he smelled something, uh, off about me.” With a kid as part of my attentive audience, I didn’t dare say more than that.

By the time we finished the game, said child was starting to nod off. Tanith got up and tapped Ambriel on the shoulder. “Does little Happy Fins want my nest or her own?” she cooed.

Ambriel perked up and said, “Yours, please.”

The older nixie scooped her up off my lap while I watched the colors in the room dance with a goofy little smile. Siora reached over to top up my goblet again. “It’s time for the real nixie night,” she said gleefully. “Starting with Eletha and her grimalkin.”

“No, no,” Eletha giggled, sounding about as drunk as I felt. “Why do you want to talk about him? I don’t even know who he is.”

Siora laughed and leaned against me. I leaned back companionably. “She’s got the biggest crush on a heat helper,” she told me. “And his textured cock!”

I sputtered out the sip of wine I’d been about to take back into my goblet, then choked on a few errant droplets. “What?” I half coughed, half laughed.

Eletha blushed so hard her cheeks turned indigo. “I swear, one of them is the same male each time. I can tell by the…you know.”

“What’s a heat helper?” I whispered to Siora.

“Oh, you poor, sheltered farm town girl,” the curvy nixie exclaimed. “It’s a real profession for male alphas. Those with the stamina and without a bonded female help us poor unbonded omegas through our heats.”

“They come in when the heat haze has already set in, do their, um, business, and leave before you even know who they are,” Eletha mumbled. “I wish the grimalkin would stay. He helps me twice a year and never stops to say hi or anything.”

“Unrequited love,” Siora sighed, splaying against me dramatically.

Tanith returned, goblet in hand, without their littlest sister. “What, Eletha and her grimalkin?” she guessed.

The librarian nixie covered her face. “Not you too!”

“Maybe he’s shy because you’re a princess?” I offered.

“Maybe he knows Eletha would combust if he asked her on a date,” Siora added.

“Speaking of combusting. I’ve heard you haven’t had your first heat yet?” Tanith asked me. Eletha and Siora turned identical looks of horror my way.

I was past a space of worry as I showed them the heat suppressant tattoo on my wrist. It seemed to curl and loop in on itself, changing colors as I watched. Odd. A lot of patterns, like the ones on our blankets, were starting to do that. “Yeah, it’s been four years. There weren’t heat helpers in my farm town. Just a disgusting pack that bought the rights to my first heat.”

Siora hugged me, and I hugged her back. “Oh giiiirl . Your heat is going to set your nest on fire.”

I took a messy sip of my wine. “I knooow . I’m scared.”

“Don’t be. It’s going to be amazing, even if you’ll barely remember more than half of it.”

“About that other thing you just said,” Tanith put in.

She only asked a couple questions, and I spilled the whole sordid truth about what my stepmother had done. Pack Ellisar and the silencing band were behind me, but it still felt like a relief not to let them lurk in my shadow, unspoken of, like they were still a threat.

My new sisters were a sympathetic audience, throwing in the occasional insult at my past enemies. We were all way too drunk for most of this to be remembered tomorrow, especially as I started in on a new pour of wine and watched the walls pulse around us as if they had their own heartbeat.

“Say, what’s in this?” I finally thought to ask, voice slurring, as I raised my goblet.

“Only the finest fae fruit wine. Are you seeing colors yet?” Siora giggled.

I was seeing a lot more than that, but I just said, “Yeah!” since they didn’t realize this was the first time I’d drunk any fae fruit wine. It was a hallucinogenic, and the rest of the night fragmented as the wine soaked into my head.

I had a great time in a surreal reality as we talked and laughed and slowly formed a purring pile until we passed out one after the other.

Tomorrow came with unrelenting force when I woke. The light of day was too bright, sounds too loud, and the lingering smell of fae fruit wine unpleasantly saccharine.

I reclaimed my arm, which had been dangling, and covered my face with my hand as I groaned in agony. Too much wine… Never again…

“What the fuck did you do to my mate?” Fal hissed from somewhere below me.

Wait, below?

I peeked around a slit between my fingers to find the joint nest from last night several yards under me, since I was floating at the top of Tanith’s vaulted entryway. A pastry drifted past my line of sight while my heart doubled the speed of its pattering as I, too, wondered what the fuck was going on.

Fal stood next to a disheveled Tanith, both of their faces turned up to look at me. Though their hair stirred from some unseen, indoor wind, he looked as impeccable as ever in one of his dark blue outfits, while she was groggy, her sleepwear lumpy and askew.

“I don’t know,” she grumbled. “She hasn’t done this before?”

“No!” he exclaimed in disbelief.

“Could you keep it down?” Eletha’s sweet voice requested from somewhere in the mound of blankets I thought I’d fallen asleep in.

The dark elf pinched his brow but lowered his voice. “All right. It’s magic of some kind, and uncontrolled at that. We need an essence spinner.”

Tanith put her hands together. “Don’t call Dad. Please keep our parent pack out of this. Can’t you just climb up and get her?”

“Yes, that worked so well for Jani,” he said dryly.

I peered around in confusion before spotting my handmaiden soaring a couple feet below me. Her wings were spread, and she seemed content amidst a mass of floating food, plates, and dripping goblets slowly circling below me. Occasionally, her hand darted out to catch and eat something sweet. By the items—and house moth—it seemed like the disturbance of air was about a ten foot diameter of…whatever this was.

“Help,” I whined. Somehow, I knew I was responsible for this by the tug of essence within me, but I didn’t know how to stop it.

“Try flapping your wings,” Tanith called to me in an urgent whisper.

I did, and I made it far enough down to collide with a floating confection that felt cold and slimy against my wing before the wind pushed me back up to the ceiling. My head tapped the hard surface, sending another spike of pain shooting behind my eyes.

“We may have to…” Fal drew off and tilted his head, brows furrowing. “Kauz is awake.”

“Thank the stars,” Tanith said with a sigh of relief, which I echoed. He’d know what to do. And…I’d get to see him again. I couldn’t even remember if I’d tried to enter his dreams again last night through the fog in my mind.

“We’ll see if he can help. Otherwise, it’s time for a ladder.”

I closed my eyes to shut out how bright the world was. What I wouldn’t do for a glass of water to float up here, as my tongue was practically stuck to the roof of my mouth. As we waited, Fal occasionally checked in with me. All I could make back were noises.

He also tried to coax Jani out of the circle of wind. “I’m fine up here, Prince! This is fun. Besides, if she falls, I’ll catch her,” she said cheerfully.

Someone give this house moth a raise.

Eventually, there was a knock on the door. “I got it,” announced a different mothkin. I peeked through my eyelids to see Kauz enter the room with princely dignity. He sagged the moment the door was closed behind him.

“You’re going to the nearest bed after you help us,” Fal said to him rather than a hello.

“Mine, preferably.” The dream warden sounded exhausted. He tilted his face up and chuckled as he took in my predicament.

“Too much fae fruit wine,” Fal explained.

“I noticed,” Kauz said mildly. His color had mostly returned, except his eyes seemed stark white outside of his dream. Dark bruises bloomed under his gaze, making it look like he hadn’t slept in weeks.

Tanith squinted over at him. “Wait, what do you mean?”

Kauz motioned for her and Fal to lean in, murmuring too quietly for the words to drift up to me. They spared me the occasional glance before the dark elf nodded and went rummaging out of my line of sight.

“Sweetheart, look at me,” Kauz said, and I did, cracking a little smile. He may have been in rough shape, but he was awake. “You have self-control lessons for your magic in your immediate future.”

I nodded and tried to lick my dry lips to reply. That was about the time motion caught my eye. Fal stood a safe distance away, one of his arms cocked like he’d thrown something. A glass hit the ceiling a few yards from my head, just barely missing getting caught in my magic. The sudden shattering sound had me yelping and flinching away from it.

The startle ended my uncontrolled spell, and I fell, clawing at the air. I was already landing in Fal’s arms by the time my sluggish mind processed that I might’ve wanted to flap my wings. He brushed a bit of icing off one while I made an embarrassed mewl.

“I’m going to take care of you,” he murmured. “But I hope you know you’re never living this down, mo stór .”