Chapter 6 Auria
The afternoon light disappeared a moment after the bear started walking.
I clung to his fur, warmer than I expected, with one hand and held my cockatoo close to my chest with the other.
Between the sudden darkness and thinking about how close Rat had come to being smashed, my breathing stuttered like a flame snuffing out.
Seconds later, the shadows faded away, and a bright sun—brighter than it had been in the grotto—blinded me.
And I breathed again.
Blinking, I tried to make out our new surroundings. The hot sun warmed my cold extremities immediately. We were near the back of some kind of park. Hundreds of people filled a large, grassy field and faced a stage at the front with musicians performing.
People like me! I hadn’t seen another portal, but somehow we’d left the waterfall and traveled to a place full of humans. All their little curved ears welcomed me like special greeting signs. I’d never seen so many humans. Behind the stage, a massive building rose up like a miniature castle.
As everything came into focus, the musician’s song ended abruptly and everyone—hundreds of humans—turned to us. A heavy silence grew between us and blanketed the massive gathering. These people were not expecting us, and we were not welcome.
A knot grew in my stomach. I always imagined if I were to find my way back to humanity again, they would want me. They’d take care of me. This obvious enmity hurt even more than the elves’ prejudice.
“I need to speak to a magistrate,” the bear rumbled. His low, thick voice carried across the crowd easily, and people in the group shuffled, looking around them for the person who would be willing—or obligated—to speak to an oversized bear.
Another fifteen or twenty seconds passed before the crowd parted to reveal a short, bald man getting tugged toward us by a round woman with silver hair.
They cleared the crowd but, the closer they got to us, the less she tugged.
Instead, she slowed and slid against him, looping her arm in his.
He stood taller, and marched forward until the couple was fifty feet away from us.
Apparently that was as close as they were willing to get to a creature with teeth as big as my fingers.
The bear’s grinding voice filled the gap between us. “This human requires a community. I will return in a fortnight to be sure you have found suitable housing and employment for her.”
Wait, what?
The couple exchanged wary looks with each other, and the man stepped forward. “You may leave her, but we refuse to make any commitments or bargains with you.”
The bear looked over his shoulder. He couldn’t quite make eye-contact, but he was clearly shifting the conversation to me. “That may be as good as you can get,” he rumbled.
I slid off his back, clutching Rat to my chest and landing harder than normal because my boots were still wet. I stalked around to the bear’s front and looked up at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He tipped his head, as if I’d puzzled him again. “The humans here have a large degree of immunity from fae obligations because of some agreements with the Sun King. I will not force them to commit to your care because I do not want to risk a conflict with a summer court.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You can’t just dump me here and then disappear.” My voice dropped. None of the humans had come close enough to hear me if I whispered. “You said you were cursed and needed to marry someone today. I… want to help you.”
Did bears have eyebrows? This one definitely had raised ridges above his eyes that knit together in an expression I could easily picture on a confused puppy, which was wild because this bear was so huge it would scare a puppy from a hundred feet away.
He lowered his voice too, which was ridiculous because his whisper could be heard across half the field. “You want to marry me?”
I huffed, aware the magistrate and his wife had stiffened in shock. “Well,” I muttered, “want is a strong word. But you did save my life. And you spared me from a torture I fear more than death. And I think you wanted to ask me about it before, but there wasn’t time.”
He tipped his great head again. “Do you know anything about fae?”
I bit the inside of my bottom lip and racked my mind. “Nooo,” I finally said, “but I think I know enough about you to make this choice.”
“To marry me?” The bear’s voice did not give him much room for expression—most of what he said came out hard and angry—but those three words were filled with disbelief.
Disbelief and, I could imagine, hope. If he really needed to marry someone to stop himself from being a bear forever, surely he would hope that I wasn’t too afraid of him to volunteer.
I nodded and stepped closer to his giant face. “Unless you lied about being stuck as a bear if you don’t marry someone tonight?”
A burst of warm air flowed out of his nostrils as he huffed. “I cannot lie. I am fae.”
“So…” I glanced at the sun sinking toward the horizon. “You have maybe an hour to marry someone or be a bear forever?”
“Yes.” Now I could imagine an apology in his voice.
What did his face look like normally? Was he really as harsh as his bear voice made him sound?
“But I do not want to pressure you into a decision that will change your life when you do not have all the information. And we do not have time for all the information.”
I licked my lips. The transition from freezing cold to summer heat had dried them out, and they were as distracting as the thoughts I was having.
This bear—this fae—had protected me when he didn’t need to.
And he was willing to give up his natural form because he didn’t want to coerce me into a marriage.
And then he brought me here, to a place he thought would be good for me. I…
I could live with a marriage to a person like that. Especially if I didn’t have to hunt for work and steal for food and beg for a bed every night. I did not have to trust him; I only needed him—a creature who could not lie—to commit to not hurting me. I could deal with anything else.
I took a bracing breath and reached a hand up to the side of his face. His facial fur was softer than the fur on his back, and he held perfectly still while I touched it. “Will you keep me safe?” I asked.
“I will.” He did not even hesitate. “I vow it.”
A warm ripple danced through the air, and magic stronger than anything I’d felt from the elves pressed into my skin. He could not lie. I would be safe.
That realization lifted a weight off my soul that I hadn’t realized had burdened me—a weight that had been my constant companion for fourteen years.
Safety! What could possibly hurt me when an unnaturally huge, magic bear was on my side?
There would be no more hiding from soldiers and no running from traitorous friends who didn’t age as fast as me.
The relief was so enormous that a laugh burbled out of my throat. The bear raised a brow, and I shook my head. “It’s… nothing,” I said. “Let’s get this done before you run out of time.”
“It will have to be a human wedding,” the bear said. “We do not have time to arrange a fae binding. Is that acceptable?”
I rubbed my ring, unsure of what he meant. “Human weddings are fine—I don’t know anything about a fae binding.”
The bear nodded and lifted his head toward the bald man. “Magistrate.”
The man took a step backward. “Technically, it’s not magistrate. I’m the mayor.”
“Are you authorized to perform a wedding?” Cursed Fae asked. I should know his name before I marry him. Though… that should be part of a wedding. Maybe waiting a few more minutes would be less awkward than asking him now.
“I—” The mayor shifted his expression around, as if looking for someone. The grey-haired woman next to him elbowed him, and he faced us again. “I, yes, that is, I am authorized to do so. But I’m not entirely comfortable wedding a woman to a…” His eyes skirted around again.
I glanced at the sun. It was not far from the horizon, and I did not know how this deadline worked. I jogged up to the mayor and heard the bear follow slowly. “Sir,” I began.
The woman next to him interrupted, setting a hand on my elbow. “This is Reginald,” she said, ”Mayor Reginald Browning. And I’m Abigail, his wife.” Her eyes twinkled. “I make sure he mayors correctly.”
I chuckled. “I’m Auria. Behind me is a very nice fae who is stuck looking like a bear right now.
” It was as much truth as they needed. “We need you to marry us immediately so we can take care of some very important deadlines.” Reginald’s brows popped up.
“It’s really a life or death situation,” I added.
“Don’t think of it as marrying me to a bear. He’s a very kind fae.”
Abigail pressed her lips together and pulled me around her so that she separated the bear and me.
“Auria. Dear. There is no such thing as a ‘very kind fae.’ They can’t lie, but they are devious and manipulative.
I’m afraid he’s tricked you into this for a reason that is far more malicious than you expect. ”
Risking a glance over my shoulder, I saw that the bear had not come any closer since Abigail had moved me. But his shoulders had drooped, and his eyes were on the ground. He’d heard every word from Abigail, and he expected me to agree with her.
He expected me to leave him as a bear.
A rush of emotion I didn’t have time to analyze burst through me.
Abigail, who clearly did not like fae, admitted they could not lie.
That meant that the shortest, clearest things the bear had said were true.
He was fae. He would be stuck as a bear forever if we didn’t marry very soon.
And he would keep me safe. And he possessed enough humanity—or fae-manity or whatever the fae called in-born goodness—that he was still willing to walk away.
He even assumed that I would change my mind now.