Page 11 of Wishing Upon a Monster (Monster Brides Romance #40)

Aurora

I paced my living room, holding my cellphone tightly, fighting the urge to fling it across the room.

"Explain to me again like I’m stupid,” I angrily demanded of the mage in the Talentless Registration Department for the East Coast Council of Magic.

The nasally voice of the absolute tool on the other end of the line was grating on my nerves, “Ma’am, your registration of you and your husband was flagged by our system, and for good reason. We don't have any record of Broadmans––”

“It’s brOON-man, it’s Danish.”

“Er, yes, but we don’t know about them as a species. Since you say he is capable of conversing with you and others, we would like to have him register as a new species of monster––”

“He’s not a new monster for you to catalog, he’s a deity,” I correct angrily, “So you are saying you want me to drive five and some odd hours from Magnola Springs, South Carolina with an 8 foot tall Stygian deity whom cannot fit in my vehicle, meaning I’ll have to rent a van of some sort, to the main branch of the ECCM in Raleigh, North Carolina, because you are CURIOUS? ”

“Well, Charleston isn’t equipped––” He stammered.

“To interview an ancient god, but the folks in Raleigh are more qualified? What does this have to do with registering my marriage?” I thundered, about two seconds from hanging up on this fool.

Olan poked his head around the corner of my living space, his ruby gaze questioning, as I huffed out an agitated breath before whirling towards my altar to the Goddess.

I tried to rein in my murderous thoughts, just in case Olan decided this might be one of those acceptable times to kill someone––because I was on the edge of saying yes if he did.

“If what you registered is true, there just isn’t a protocol for someone talentless marrying someone so powerful.

We are doing you a favor, trying to make sure he isn't taking advantage of you, ma’am.

You've been very tight-lipped on the details of your dating history, and being a member of one of our oldest magical families, you can appreciate that we are looking out for your well-being,” he explained.

“My well-being, ” I said quietly, letting the ensuing silence punctuate my sentence in a way that continuing this inane conversation couldn’t.

I felt Olan’s hands drop onto my shoulders firmly, his fingers kneading the muscles there. I almost melted to the floor, it felt so good. I relaxed my shoulders, tilting my head from side to side and stretching my neck as his clever hands worked out knots I hadn’t even been aware I had.

“Tell the man that we would like an appointment tomorrow at two, min skat . Let him know the monster wishes to know where the closest well is,” his voice was lower than I remembered it being last night, the sound scraping along my spine in a way that made me shiver .

I should move. We haven’t even known each other for twenty-four hours. Is this one of the perks of being married? I’m not sure––

“ Min s?de skat, do you want me to tell him instead?” He whispered in my ear.

I heard a squeak on the other end of the line. “No, uh, please tell him that there is a well on Ignatius Avenue; I can send you an email with the coordinates to your email address on file?”

“Yes,” we both said, which elicited another sound of discomfort from the man from the ECCM.

Olan’s hands slipped from my shoulders, briefly brushing my shoulder blades on the way down.

The line went quiet, and I realized the toad had hung up on me.

“Idiot,” I mumbled, sliding the phone in the pocket of one of my favorite corset dresses. It had little mushrooms embroidered along the seam of the skirt.

“Mmmm, he did sound brainless. Moreover... what is talentless?” His voice continued with that low, reverberating quality.

I wiggled my shoulders, walking away from him and towards the Goddess’ altar. I raised a finger, tracing the fierce face of our magical Goddess. “Talentless refers to a person born of two Magic User parents, who are born without the ability to access magic.”

“Like humans?” Olan asked.

“No, not like humans.” I expelled a breath, pulling my hand back to my side.

“There is a common misconception encouraged by Magic User society that humans don’t have magic.

Only Magic Users marrying other Magic Users can make magical offspring.

This is not true. Magic loves humans. It has always favored mankind.

If a regular human devoted themselves to learning magic and the practices used to access it, they could, with time, wield it in lower levels.

Warding mirrors, making food that seems to enhance health, cleansing spaces, being able to locate water or gaps within the earth, accessing the Ether to divine the future using the proper tools, simple magic like that.

“If a Magic User married a human, it would dilute the magical access future offspring would have. However, with time, and careful matches between more powerful Magic Users, their children could be as powerful as any full-blooded Magic Family’s children.

“But I am not just human. I am a Talentless, as in not a drop of magic resides within me. I cannot access it even with devoted practice. There is something in me, something fundamentally damaged that cannot receive magic. What’s more, the Talentless cannot typically produce magical offspring, even if mating with another magical being or Magic User.

Only five percent of Talentless have produced children that can access even the lower levels of magic like most humans can. ”

I turned around to face him again, my chin stubbornly set like I expected him to clip me in the jaw and was daring him to do so.

“We are not wanted. We are other. They treat us like our inability to use magic is catching.

I have had to work three times as hard as my siblings to get anywhere in our society.

I am useless to everyone because I am tainted, and there is nothing I can do about it, and it's not my fault.”

My chest heaved, and I stood tall, still waiting for Olan to say something placating, to agree, to knock me down further, like so many people have done my entire life.

He stalked forward, his eyes slanted and his cheeks purpled with emotion, “You are not useless, Aurora.” His voice whinged like a rusty hinge, sharp and unappealing .

Yet what he said was the kindest thing a stranger born of magic had ever said to me.

“I know I am not, but this is what society thinks. This is why we would have trouble even if I had chosen you. I am useless, and you are a monster, and they just proved they will not accept this––”

“I do not care what these limited beings think about us. I do not care,” he said, advancing, “if I have to smite every mention of this abhorrent phrase from every Magic User’s text.

You are mine, Aurora, and I am yours; even the gods themselves couldn’t keep me asleep once you wished, and these creatures will not keep us apart now that I am awake. ”

He gently took my hands and tugged me towards his chest. “The gods found you worthy, Aurora Aurum, and that is why I woke up. That is why I am here, and that is why I will indulge your foolish Magic User registration, for you, because of you.”

When I ended up in his arms this time, I was not dying of red cap poison and was very much aware of the tingles his skin against mine created. I wasn’t really a hugger; I couldn’t remember the last time anyone in my family had embraced me.

I didn’t even want to think about Kenton and how he only showed me physical affection during sex. The mighty elemental mage would have probably died if I hugged him.

Thank the Goddess, I respect myself now.

My eyes fluttered closed as he continued to hold me, filling my nose with his bracken scent. I relaxed further in his arms.

“You are precious to me, min s?de skat, and I will not hear of you parroting things that you know are not true,” he murmured, his voice reaching that low rumbly timbre I was beginning to find comforting.

“You don’t even know me, Olan,” I whispered back, snuggling into his coolness. His core temperature ran colder than the rest of us, and I found I liked it .

He scooped me up then, and my eyes opened as he walked us to my couch and settled down with me in his lap. Aware that I had been taking advantage of his obvious good nature towards me, I moved, only to be stopped with a hand along my cheek.

“You did not sleep well last night. I heard you wandering your space.” He pulled me back onto his chest. “I learned a lot on Magi Tube last night. I have questions.”

I relaxed again, not wanting to look a gift hippogriff in the mouth. “What do you want to know?”

“The first thing I am concerned about is the evolutionary change in vampires. What happened to make them...” he trailed off, clearly thinking, “sparkle?”

I snorted inelegantly into his chest before deciding maybe I could spend the morning helping Olan through pop culture instead of worrying about the ECCM.

That was probably his aim, so I lay across his chest answering questions about zombies, which were not real, ghosts, which were, and other beings he had not encountered the last time he walked the earth.

I woke disoriented. Not because I had managed to fall asleep on my living room couch, I had done that plenty of times, no, this was because I realized that the cool, comfortable thing I was sleeping on was not my overstuffed couch, but my husband.

His raven skin caught the afternoon light, causing his derma to almost shimmer, making me think of the vow he had made at headquarters when his body twinkled like stars. I shifted in his lap, boosting myself up, not really thinking past my curiosity as I raised up on my knees to survey his face.

He didn’t have any ears I could see, but he obviously heard the spoken word, though I knew he preferred to speak mind to mind.

He had no hair. I wasn’t looking to check out his chest to see if he had any hair there, I could feel with my hands he did not, but he also had none on his neck or chin, not even tiny baby hairs on his face.

His skin looked like ours––it wasn’t scaly.

He had similar lines and ridges on his derma like I did.

Originally, I didn’t think he had lips, but he did.

The skin there wasn’t particularly thick, like human lips, but they were a deep purple, so purple it was almost as dark as his shadow-colored skin.

His nose was a raised ridge along his face, his nostrils not particularly large but not slitted either.

I was expecting him to resemble more of a snake close up, but he didn’t.

He was wholly alien to me, a mishmash of features that were humanoid and yet not.

It was odd not to see his ruby red eyes staring back at me.

I had noticed how he watched me when I spoke.

Not a lot of men do that nowadays, and I liked it.

I remembered feeling his eyes on me when I cooked dinner last night, which made me wonder, could I get him to help me cook tonight?

I continued my inspection, noting he had no eyelashes or eyebrows, but the way his face was shaped, I could see where they would go.

I liked the strength of his jaw. I suppose, given how powerful his teeth looked, he would need an equally strong jaw.

His neck was slender yet muscular, and his overall build was like a swimmer—strong and slender, with broad shoulders.

I sat back in his lap, still straddling him, my mind wandering south, and I felt heat rise to my cheeks. I already know he is packing...

“What do I need to pack, min lille skat ? I thought tomorrow’ s trip would be but a few hours long?” He asked me, his voice rugged with sleep.

I have never pictured an image, much less a crown, in my mind so fast in my life. I snapped that sucka into place faster than a Pegasus can loop de loop midair.

Olan gave me an inquisitive look that surely, he’d learned from humans, the musculature over his eye raising like a person with eyebrows would do.

“Uh, no,” I said, my voice higher than normal, “you’re right, we shouldn’t pack for tomorrow. I was wondering if you wanted to help me make lunch? I am super hungry!”

I scrambled off Olan’s lap like my ass was on fire and dashed into the kitchen, only to stop short.

There, drinking daintily from her cat fountain, was my Thai cat, Sashimi.

She had not come out at all last night, and I was afraid when I found her under my bed that she wasn’t going to come downstairs anytime soon.

“I have met your kat . She is a fine beast. She greatly enjoys hunting the Disian mice that have been giving you trouble.” He walked around me then, crouching down to let Sashimi sniff his hand.

To my amazement, she looked up and sniffed his hand before rubbing her face along his fingers.

“She likes you,” I blinked in amazement.

“ Kats have an affinity for the things in the dark,” he said, making a graceful gesture with his hand. I watched as a shadow pulled itself away from the water dish and became an opaque mouse. It scurried in front of Sashimi, taunting her. With a swish of her tail, she dashed after the shadow mouse.

“Next, you will tell me you can cook,” I said, walking towards my refrigerator.

His rusty chuckle filled the kitchen, “I can, but over an open flame. But I am a fast learner. Teach me to make something you like.”

“Okay, but then you have to teach me something you like to eat,” I said back, pulling out some of the ingredients to make a Cesar salad.

“I can. Do we have any streams nearby? I can fish,” He replied, easily joining me at the counter.

“We do, sector D13 has a decent-sized river close by,” I replied, filling a bowl with water and a healthy amount of salt. “Would you get me the lemons from my fruit bowl?”

I turned around, a partially full bowl in hand, to see Olan holding the bright yellow fruits.

“Excellent, I need to cut them in half.” I put the bowl of water down.

Before I could get out my cutting board and chef’s knife, Olan waved a hand, and I watched as four lemons simultaneously cut in half via his shadows.

“Well, okay then. I can’t wait to have you cut the chicken,” I said, grimacing. “I hate how it feels when it’s raw.”

“Whatever you wish, min skat ,” he said, handing me the lemons.