Raven Chapter 14 Fun New Traumas and Unicorn Farts 163 #4
"Squash," Dre says, and his voice has gone careful, like he's watching a nature documentary where the subject might bite.
Absolutely not. To the squash, anyway. No promises on the biting.
On the other side of me, Anik makes a low sound. Not quite a growl, but adjacent. Probably displeased about my take on the vegetable situation.
Next: weird, dark red, tastes like dirt if dirt had regrets. I don't even point. I just look at Dre with accusation in my eyes.
"Beets," he admits.
What the hell is wrong with this vegetable.
Anik's sound deepens. Definitely a growl now. I've offended the cook.
I poke at the remaining beets on my plate. "They taste like dirt looked at a vegetable and said 'you know what would make this better? If you just committed to being more like me.'"
Something that might be a laugh tries to escape Anik's chest. He swallows it, but his shoulders shake once.
By the end of the meal, I've learned that Dre is an excellent sport about being my personal food translator, while Anik takes my vegetable opinions as a personal challenge.
As I'm drifting lazily in another food coma, I listen to the guys talk about their days
"The security footage didnae give me anythin’ useful. Only two of the cameras even work, and they were pointed at the front entrance and the bar. By the looks of it, none of the lads we're lookin' for used either."
“Which makes sense when you remember the covert nature of their operation.” Forrest supplies. He’s pointing out the obvious, but I can tell he’s also trying, in his own way, to make Kieran feel better about not finding anything.
“Those rescued were in rough shape, but those that could be moved are either back with their families or settled in with new identities. A few were in bad enough shape that they needed to be transferred to the Mend. One was in such deplorable condition that she had to be sent to Athens.” Dre says, using the common nicknames for their two large medical facilities within The Bazaar.
Athens, or The Elemental Athenaeum, is a long-term care facility run by elementals. Whereas the Mend is what everyone calls The Menderie. It is where most patients go who need more than just a single healing session.
For humans, it’s almost impossible to be seen within either building as currency is a pale secondary to favors.
A healed shifter owes a debt to the healer—to be repaid in strength, territory, or favor.
A cured witch can be called upon for a spell.
A dwarf owes a craft. So on and so forth.
Humans though? They have no magical favors to offer, which makes them useless to most supes.
It’s also why humans tend to stick to their own district.
It’s not only the roughest part of town, but also the only part of town where humans are allowed to live.
They often live with limited resources and are patrolled by supes so as not to “weigh down” or “contaminate” the supernatural districts.
The only exceptions are when humans are mated to supernaturals.
When that happens, they become an extension of that individual’s power and status.
Luckily, the guys don’t have a demon’s damn to give when it comes to the status quo.
It’s why Dre built a free clinic right on the edge of the human district.
Not only does it help humans, but also weaker supes who might not have worthy enough favors to give or money to shell out to meet the fees demanded when favors aren’t enough.
Not only that, but it forces the supernaturals to see the humans, right up against their borders and witness them as living beings, not just the drain on society that the powerful seem to think they are.
It's also why Forrest funds the clinic with money they make through Secured.
He doesn't care about titles or territories; he cares about what's fair and just. I don't know his backstory, but I've watched him fund that clinic for five years without ever once mentioning it.
He doesn't talk about fair or just—he just writes the checks and moves on.
It's the same with their building. The first ten floors? Apartments. Full of his human employees and their families.
He hires more humans than any other supe-run company I've ever seen, and he gets around the Council-mandated pay ceiling by hitting it—which isn't enough to do much more than subsist in the HD—while also providing them a place to live. Somewhere decent. Somewhere safe.
He's even had the apartments zoned so they're the only space outside the HD legally allowed to house humans not mated to supernaturals. Because of course he did. The man loves his rules—he just uses them to protect people instead of trap them.
He doesn't advertise it. Doesn't put his name on a plaque. He just... does it.
If I end up being some super powerful high priestess like they say I am, then I am going to really stir some shit up. Luck, fate, or the universe having a laugh—however I ended up here, I landed among some of the most powerful and generous supes in the city. I'm not going to waste it.
As Dre goes over what they learned from the victims—or rather, what they didn't—I can feel frustration coming off Anik in waves. I don’t think he’s really present right now; his eyes are far away as a low-level growl builds in his chest.
I slip my hand into his just as Forrest snaps, “Aniketos.”
I’m not sure if it was my hand or Forrest’s use of his full name, but the growling stops, and he blinks a few times as if he needs to refocus on the present reality.
Everyone knows he’s back when he straightens up and focuses his attention back to the meeting, giving my hand a little squeeze before letting it go.
Forrest’s gaze lands on Em next, who glances at me, one eyebrow raised in a silent question. I give a tiny, lazy wave of my hand from my digestive haze.
Go on, ruin the mood .
Em proceeds to detail my new, terrifying party trick to the group. As he explains, I do my best to let the memory of chocolate in all its glory drown out the memory of magic.
“I think it would be worth taking her to meet Silas.” When all eyes land on Dre, he simply continues, “She doesn’t know anything about her magic, and none of us are familiar with it.
Meanwhile, we have a resident warlock. Might as well use him instead of parading her in front of magic users we don’t know. Silas can, at least, be trusted.”
Forrest nods along. “I agree. I was planning on tomorrow, but after these new revelations, tonight is the better option.”
“Ugh, fine,” I agree. “But if he looks at any of your butts, I’m going to be on him like a unicorn fart.”
Which no one in their right mind would ever want.
There’s a reason humans joke about unicorns shitting rainbows and farting glitter.
While the rainbows thing is wildly untrue, the farting glitter is way too true.
Get near one of those back ends after dinner?
You’re in for a cloud of some wild-smelling sparkles.
Everyone stands to start cleaning up, and I sag in disappointment. Fantastic. My digesting stomach and I have a date with a warlock. Let the magical clusterfuck begin.