Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
HAVOC
M y arms crossed over my chest, I lean to the side, my wings flicking lazily as I prop my shoulder against a cup adorned with images of wailing spirits of the dead. I might as well be one of those lonely spirits sentenced to roam because I am feeling a strange kinship with them right now, like a spirit looking in on the happiness of the living. Even my self-exile amid my colony had never left me feeling so apart from everything as if I were nothing but a shadow of a shade. Or maybe I am simply being morose because I have not developed the sort of relationship with Ammayi that Tryst has. That failure on my part is what is making me feel as if my status as part of my hive is in question.
My eyes follow Tryst as he flits flirtatiously around Ammayi as she excitedly circles the pumpkin that Grimsal’s human mate, Candy, sets on the table. I briefly entertained the idea of joining them, but I feel awkward, like I am an outsider as I watch them join in the activities with the goblin’s family. Watching Tryst also makes me uncomfortably aware of how it must have looked when I was the one flitting like a besotted fool around Ammayi’s sister—whose name I cannot even remember—while Ammayi and Tryst watched. Guilt gnaws at me, and I tell myself that the guilt is one of the reasons I agreed to this whole debacle.
Guilt for pushing Tryst away and making Ammayi unhappy at every turn for something that is not her fault. It is perhaps a sort of justice that everyone seems to be having a good time except me, but I am willing to bear it. For Tryst’s sake… and for Ammayi to make up for all the damage I have done. If that is even possible.
Her squeal of excitement ripples through me, and I instinctively crane my head curiously to see what has brought such sudden joy. A warm tingle rushes through me as I catch sight of her smile lighting up and I feel my own lips curl in response. Although I meant every single one of my concerns, I had not realized just how easy it was to make her happy now that we have pried her out of her nest. Even last night, although she noticeably deflated as the night wore on, she had not seemed quite so weighed down by her losses. And it made me feel good knowing that I was in part responsible for that. I had provided for her, and it felt good… right.
Huh. Interesting.
I try to spot the source of her excitement, when Candy walks toward the table with a large orange gourd and sets it on the surface. It reminds me of the yellow ones that grow in huge clusters on the vines that climb many of the trees in the Dark Forest, but at an alarmingly enormous scale as Candy cuts and lifts the top off the pumpkin. The stringy substance inside does not look the least bit appealing, and my nose wrinkles faintly in puzzlement at Ammayi’s exclamation. Tryst flutters down to land at her side and I frown at them, feeling a hollow pang, when he leans down to whisper something in her ear that has her giggle as she swats him away.
“Lift me up, please. I want to sit on the edge and collect some of the seeds,” Ammayi tells Tryst, and I can sense his reluctance as clearly as I can see it on his face.
Even Candy looks hesitant. “I can just put the seeds in a bowl?—”
Ammayi shakes her head with a cheerful smile that twists my insides in a pleasant way. “Nope. I may be having to adjust to life under seven inches, but it’s not going to happen if I’m too afraid to just get in there and enjoy myself.” She waves absently, and I feel a surge of pride. That’s the spirit. “I’ll grab a few seeds for us to take home and roast over a fire on the patio. Just set aside some of the guts so I can try something out with cooking, and you can have it. But I get to help draw the face,” she warns.
Candy chuckles but nods. “Here then, just let me give you a hand,” she offers, flattening the back of her hand on the table.”
“It is unnecessary. I can fly her,” Tryst worriedly interjects, but Ammayi is now looking at the other female’s hand with interest and is obviously gathering her nerves to try something new.
I grin when she steps onto Candy’s hand, ignoring Tryst’s murmured protests. Ah, my poor nest brother. For all his gentle rapport with our queen, he does not know how to handle her sudden surge of independence. For me, however, it is a small and exciting glimpse of the adventurous spirit Ammayi must have once had before havoc was played on her. Shaking my head with amusement, I resist the urge to laugh outright when Tryst takes to the air and flutters nervously around the hand carrying our queen toward the pumpkin.
Although Ammayi wobbles for a moment, making even my own wings tense up, I cannot help but grin when her face pinches as she visibly screws up her courage before jumping lightly from the hand to the thick flesh of the gourd. I give a quiet whistle of approval and nod my head when she straightens, her arms shooting up triumphantly as if she accomplished some great and dangerous feat. And for her—she had.
As for Tryst, he is hovering not far from her side as she slowly and carefully sits on the edge of the rind, his eyes shifting nervously between her and the depths of the pumpkin below her. My breath catches, and Tryst’s shimmer blinks rapidly with his concern as she swings her legs around and drops to her belly as she leans forward to work loose one of the seeds. She holds the milky seed up with a pleased hoot and tosses it to Tryst who fumbles the slick seed awkwardly for a moment before fluttering down to set it neatly on the bit of paper laid out on the table for us to carry our harvest home.
Back and forth Tryst flies as Ammayi yanks out seed after seed and tosses them to him. She is leaning more and more each time she goes for a seed, however, and even I am starting to get nervous now. I slowly straighten from the cup as the top half of her body descends precariously into the pumpkin while Tryst’s back is to her and then the worst happens. Her legs scissor the air frantically as her belly slips on the pumpkin slime that had begun to accumulate on the edge of the rind with each seed yanked out. It takes place in less than a heartbeat before her entire body slips inside with a startled squeal.
Tryst’s eyes grow wide as he freezes, half-crouched with the seed still in his hand. In a flurry of motion, he drops and spins upward into the air, but I am already aloft, speeding toward the gourd. Dropping the pumpkin’s rim, I look down frantically for some sign of her and then blink as I see her tangled in a net of thick slime filling the interior. Her entire body is slick and orange—it even drips from her hair as she glares up at me.
“Don’t just stare… Help me out of here,” she grits out, and I feel a smile spreading slowly across my face at the truly adorable sight she makes. Her expression immediately darkens, and she grabs a handful of the slick and tries to lob it at me only for it to rebound on its strings and land on her with a wet plop. “Argh!” she shouts, and her finger shoots up threateningly at me. “Don’t you dare laugh, you hyena.”
I don’t mean to laugh, but I cannot help it. It bursts from me as I peer down at her with such strength that I double over, my breath wheezing with the force of it. I am still laughing when I flutter up from the rind and bend down to lift her from goop when Tryst shoves me with a bark of his own laughter, sending me toppling head over heels into the mess beside her with a viscous splat.
I gag as slime goes into my mouth and up my nose before I am able to battle myself upright. It is terrible. I cannot believe she wants to eat this! Not only does it taste foul but it also sticks to my wing, weighing them down as they flick uselessly, splattering the innards everywhere. Ammayi squeals in protest as her arms shoot up to ward it off, but it is her helpless giggles that makes me cease struggling and peer back at her.
Pumpkin guts smeared all over her face, she grins at me, her eyes dancing. “You look like something a toad spat up,” she chokes out, and an answering grin tugs at my lips.
I can imagine that I do, especially given that my wings are also a complete mess. I chuckle quietly at her observation, but it dies quickly on my lips, and I can barely breathe as I watch her wiggle through the goop toward me. My heart is hammering in my chest as she draws close enough that I feel the brush of her hot breath over my chitin as she lifts a hand to drag a string of goop out of my eyes. My body comes alive in that moment as heat courses through me at the first brush of her pheromones across my senses. My cocks rise eagerly, and my lungs burn for air until I remember to draw in a breath rich with her scent seconds before her lips touch mine.
A sweet flavor beyond imagining floods into my mouth as her tongue slips against mine in an erotic, teasing dance and retreat. Growling, I cup her head as my own tongue invades her mouth, chasing after that delightfully playful little muscle. Ammayi’s arms wind around my neck, her lush breasts pressing against my bare chest as breaths mingle and our tongues entwine rapturously. It is such a feast of the senses that I have nearly forgotten Tryst until I hear his pleased sigh above us.
Breaking the kiss, I glance up to meet his foolishly grinning face. “It is about damn time.”
Ammayi flushes and draws away, but not before I see the pleasure dancing in her eyes. She turns her head away to look at Tryst, her hands stretching for him.
“Stop playing and get us out of here,” she laughs.
Candy’s giggle overhead reminds me that we have an audience, and I peer at the human and goblin faces staring down at us. Grimsal slowly claps his hands and winks, and for some reason that sends a happy sensation curling through me as the sense of belonging finally fits in place.
What is better is that it does not end for the rest of the night. After scraping off the pumpkin’s innards to the best of our ability, and bathing in the stream of warm water that Candy provides for us in her sink, Tryst fulfils his promise by flying Ammayi up with a black marker that she can barely wield. Tryst tries to keep his flying steady, but it doesn’t seem to help any as they work together to paint on the most bizarre face I have ever seen while Grimsal regales us with stories of things he has seen of late in the city. I laugh at the sight of it to which Ammayi and Tryst respond with their own laughter in answer, but the merriment quickly subsides when Grimsal’s stories turn toward fairies.
“I’ve never seen so many fairies arrive for the hunt before,” he murmurs with a shake of his head. “Not all fairies mean harm, but a good number are not safe. In recent years certain segments have been forbidden access to the portals because they’ve shown themselves to be too great of a risk to humans they catch on these dark nights.” He glances meaningfully at me. “So you’d best watch out. I never trust that one might not find their way through.”
I nod in agreement, my stomach twisting as I recall the fairies that I let through as part of our agreement. Grimsal did not mention the fairy races by name, but it still settles uncomfortably within my stomach when I think about it. Surely there was no such restriction for bone fairies. Boneflint pixies often come back and forth to collect the teeth they utilize as building material and powerful magics.
Although the relationship is unusual between the two species, being one of the few pixies that bone fairies do not go after due to the toxic nature of the pixies’ bones to them, I cannot imagine that there is danger there. Bone fairies seldom have any interest in other races when pixie bones and small animals were far more convenient for their spells. I imagine that they had simply wished to arrive early before the hunt to enjoy the human world in peace as they looked for their companion. In fact, they have probably already found him and are waiting to depart with the end of the hunt.
I shrug it off with a promise to be wary as I dig into the food Candy spreads in front of us while Grimsal’s tales to turn to other adventures and the frightful and haunting sights among the fae kingdoms. It is in this spirit of merriment that we consume large chunks of the baked treats and drink the thimbles of refreshments until I feel like I am ready to explode. Or maybe that is just this new feeling of contentment trying to burst through my chitin.
Either way, it is a good night, and I feel a warmth radiating through me as I crawl into bed next to Ammayi. She is already asleep, but that is a good thing. The rest will do her good. Tryst blinks and smiles sleepily at me from her other side and curls his arm around her to drape his hand lovingly against me.
“I am sorry,” I whisper, keeping my voice low so as to not wake her. “You were right about everything, and my actions… they were no less than despicable. You have been my heart for countless years, and I hope to look forward to many more such years, but this time with both of you… if you think you can forgive me.”
A shimmer of tears wets his eyes. He does not speak for a long moment, but a wealth of love flows along our bond as he nods. “Always, but our queen may not be so easy.”
I glance down at Ammayi and my heart softens. My eyes rise to meet his gaze and I smile confidently. “Whatever it takes.”
Tryst nods in approval and I burrow into the bedding as I tuck myself close to them, allowing this new contentment to wash over me. I feel as if I am home at last… but it is not our comfortable nest in the Dark Forest that comes to mind, nor the pixie lights dancing through the gloom of the woods. Instead, it is being curled up next to Tryst and Ammayi in our crudely and hastily made bed. It is waking up to the hope of seeing Ammayi grin sleepily at me and for once not seeing that smile falter in response to a cold glare. It is sitting with them and eating together, but rather than strained silence interrupted with small bouts of conversation between them, there is only warmth and laughter that we all share in. Then there is the image of Ammayi that comes unbidden of the female staring longingly at her books that she is too small to hold between her hands and read, and I swear that I will make her a library even if I must copy every single one of her beloved books by hand.
I am likely now bonding with our queen, but it is good. I finally look forward to it with a sense of excitement rather than dread. My queen, my hive, my family. Drinking in her pheromones, I allow them to banish the dark shadows within me that have been weighing me down and lull me into a peaceful sleep.