The 411 on the Man/Men
SNOW
The scent of buttery popcorn fills the air of our apartment, even though Ariel burned the first bag and we had to conduct funeral rites over the trash can.
The rich scent of hot pizza, melted mozzarella, and garlic mingles with the butter on the popcorn.
Taking up half of the coffee table on a pink cake stand is a cake Goldie baked herself, and two open boxes of Magic Morsels, cellophane wrappers littering the table and floor.
In the corner is an open but untouched veggie tray.
The steel-drum remix of the Hex Island theme loops on the menu screen. Fairy lights are on, blankets are deployed, and somewhere in the throw pillows my phone buzzes with the group chat even though most of the group chat is already in this room.
Hex Island night rotates between our places. Goldie's has the biggest TV, Cinder's has the haunted castle ambiance, and Aurora's is a mystery box, a different rented house every time she's in town, so hosting duty just means texting us a new address and a parking warning.
When it lands on Ariel and me, our apartment is small enough that girls' night becomes a puppy pile.
We're all in some flavor of loungewear. I'm wedged into the middle of the couch in a faded band tee Cinder gave me for my birthday, thin black sleep shorts, and thick white socks shoved half off my feet, my white hair twisted up in a claw clip missing two teeth.
Ariel is curled against me, her long legs tangled with mine, copper hair loose down her back, one tattooed arm buried in the popcorn bowl.
Aurora drops her duty-free bag beside the armchair and folds into it, pink-and-blue hair still damp from the shower, straight off the plane.
"So you know how my account blew up?" Goldie asks from the other side of me. She claimed the far end of the couch in soft shorts and an oversized pink sweater, deliberately letting it slip off one summer-tanned shoulder.
"A brand wants to fly me to Miami for a shoot.
A real one." My heart nearly explodes from excitement as Goldie lets out a squeal before composing herself. "But that’s not the wild part. I came home early Tuesday and caught Ted watching YouTube tutorials. Three-point lighting. Golden hour angles. My grumpy werebear husband, who hated how many times I asked him to take my picture until we could get one that wasn’t blurry, now has a notebook on picture-taking techniques. "
"A notebook," Cinder repeats, her lips twitching into a smile.
The vampire queen of the Midnight Realm sits cross-legged on the floor, her razor-straight bangs almost hiding her amused expression.
Cinder wraps both hands around a Hello Kitty mug, full of warmed blood that came from one of us. I think it’s mine this time. O-positive, the most common blood type, because apparently my physical features hit the extraordinary quota and the rest of me got assigned basic.
At this point, we have a standing relationship with Denise, the mobile phlebotomist who comes right to our apartment. A blood draw takes less time than cooking Cinder a nice meal, which is basically what it is, just with more tubes and fun little snacks afterward.
Cinder always gets choked up when we do it. Her fingers tighten around the mug, and she has to take a second before she says it tastes like our love for her. She acts surprised every single time because she never expects it, even though we’ve all made it a regular thing.
"He wrote down 'her left side is her power side,’" Goldie says, her bottom lip sticking out like she’s about to die from a wave of feels that inspires. "I found it and cried in the pantry."
"That man would die for your engagement metrics," I say, not surprised in the least. Last time he was in, the big burly bear of a man was talking to me about how many different types of social media stats there are to track.
"Or kill someone," she says with a grimace. "He started responding to haters in my comments. I had to take his moderator privileges away."
Two million people now follow Goldie on social media since she went viral last month sharing her body positivity mindset and style.
It started out as one of her many hobbies, but she’s gotten popular so fast it feels like she is careening toward a permanent new career.
Making women see they are beautiful at any size or shape, and how to be their best selves.
The realm certainly needs more of that, and I couldn't be happier for her.
"Well, a shoot in Miami sounds nice," Cinder says with a sigh, looking into her mug. "Before taking a little break from Midnight to come slum it with you guys in Poison Apple, I was stuck in meetings," her eyes narrow, "for eleven days."
"Being royalty is not all people think it’s cracked up to be," Aurora says with a small laugh as she cuts off a piece of Goldie’s cake with the little frosted daisies on it.
"Pffft," Cinder blows a raspberry at her. "Don’t talk to me. You’re still on some crazy romantic rumspringa with your dragon shifter hottie, having insane nympho sex across the realms instead of being trapped in boardrooms with boring, pretentious politicians trying to rebuild a realm."
"Yeah, but before that," Aurora says without any offense in her tone, even as she licks a bit of frosting off her finger, "it was like, congratulations, you're a princess, enjoy bureaucratic bullshit and shoving your personality in a tiny little box so you can be an icon for your people to respect. I know how painful and suffocating that is. Everyone always thinks it’s about getting to wear a pretty tiara. "
"Yeah, but the tiara is pretty," Ariel says with a wistful sigh. I rub her leg and give her a sympathetic smile, knowing what she’s thinking. Ariel gives me a small, grateful smile back. I feel her pain. That’s what sisters do.
"Besides," Aurora goes on, "I get to have an extra-long vacation since I never had one in my entire life until I ran away and came here. So, hell yeah, I’m seeing the world."
And she has never looked happier. The tan she’s sporting after visiting Santorini makes her glow even more than usual.
"P.S., is it still cool if Talon and I come stay with you and Kai next month?" Aurora asks Cinder. "I really want to see more of Midnight."
"Yes," Cinder nods solemnly, "but only if Talon comes to a couple meetings to stand menacingly behind me and whips out his wings if someone says something that displeases me."
Aurora just laughs.
"We're so proud of you, you cranky little diplomat," I say, stretching to pat Cinder’s head.
She grabs a handful of popcorn and throws it at me, hitting Ariel and Goldie as well, who yelp a protest at the buttery assault.
"Red says hi, by the way." Goldie waves her phone. "She's drowning. The firm signed two new clients, and one of the twins learned to climb out of the crib, so Brexley's installing what she describes as a containment system."
"She promised to host the next Hex Island night," Ariel says. "Pinky promised. Over text. Digital pinky."
"Binding," Cinder confirms.
As the conversation about Hex Island picks up again, an older episode playing in the background, I lean over to grab another Magic Morsel box.
The kindly looking Grandma on the box is Red’s actual grandmother.
It’s because of her that Red, Goldie, and Cinder have magic powers now.
These tiny little temporary magic bites are incredible, and she’s the only one who can make them happen, but the other girls got the real stuff.
An actual cookie that activated real magic in them.
But not me. I came onto the team just a day and a dollar too late.
And of course, Red’s grandma is now forbidden by federal law to do any such thing again.
I unwrap the Lucky Dip, a cream-filled chocolate sponge cake that produces a random effect. After one bite, my fingers start to glow a bluish-white.
Bioluminescence.
My entire body emits a faint glow. A pretty power, but kind of useless.
To be fair, unlike Goldie’s siren charm and Cinder’s blood magic that keeps the vamps in check, Red’s power is also pretty much useless since she’s forbidden to use it.
And I can’t say any of us disagree with that. Red only stripped those dickheads of their powers for good because it was a kill-or-be-killed kind of deal.
Lord knows what the HAMs would do with that kind of power. They’d strip everyone of magic, not caring what a violation that is.
"So, speaking of romantic drama..." Aurora says, segueing from the crying woman on the show. "I keep hearing something about a guy coming to Poison Apple to see Snow?"
Goldie sits up straight. "Oh yeah, you don’t know about Snow’s man. Men? The man-men. Update." She turns to me. "Are we going to shun him forever? I’m starting to feel kind of bad with the tips he leaves, considering I don’t ever actually serve him."
Yeah, I got tipped the other day too, but I don’t mention it was a different kind.
"There's no update," I say, shoving the rest of the cake into my mouth like an animal to avoid having to speak. My glow intensifies.
"She's lying," Ariel sing-songs.
I make a sound of protest with my full mouth, now regretting the temporary gag I gave myself.
"They had a tryst when Snow was closing for the night. And then she told him he still had to grovel to her for a week."
The howls of glee and surprise give me time to choke down the rest of my cake.
"Hey, I still might not forgive him," I whine. "A girl has self-respect."
The room falls back into laughs of disbelief except for Aurora, who is smiling but clearly missing the punch line.
"He is a super powerful mage," Ariel clarifies, and Aurora gives a knowing nod, eyes darting to me.
"Hey!" I snap, lightly kicking Ariel’s legs. "I’m not that shallow. There are other things that drew me to him."
Cinder tilts her head. "He is hot in that kind of mysterious bad boy way. Like he wants so badly to keep everyone out that it makes you want to break down those walls and dig your fingers into all his secrets." She claws her hands in the air at the last part.
"Aww, just like my Teddy Bear," Goldie coos, holding her chest.
"Can someone walk through this guy’s deal again?" Aurora says, chin in her hands. "For the people in the back."
I sigh, because I'm weak. "Seven personalities. One body. Different eyes, different powers, different vibes. One has super speed, is an uptight control freak who is kind of hot when he’s wound up. Two phases and is kind of like the bad boy who pretends he doesn’t care about anything.
Six can create the most beautiful visual illusions but is incredibly blunt and analytical.
Super smart and doesn’t hesitate to say what he wants.
Four runs hot, literally..." I zone out thinking about floating with him in the ocean, making out until I was ready to let him do every illegal thing to me.
"And? Go on," Goldie pushes.
"I haven’t met Three or Five yet."
A line of confusion draws between Aurora’s brows. "Didn’t you say there were seven?"
"I haven't met Seven. Not so sure I want to," I say slowly. The rest of them seem...afraid of him. "And he sure as hell doesn’t like me." Or at least I don’t think he does. Though I’m not so sure anymore.
When One was between my legs last night, rocketing me up to orgasm, I could have sworn black flooded his eyes for a moment. But it could have been a trick of light.
A shiver rolls through me at the memory.
No. That was someone else. Not One.
He was there for just a moment, and the sense of fear that prickled the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck told me he was dangerous. Even with his mouth on me, even with my hands in his hair, he held every bit of control.
It could have been Three or Five, but I doubted it.
The way the rest talk about him, I wonder if his magic is some kind of death magic. Like if he touches someone, they just keel over. Though if that really was him last night, maybe not.
"Does he have a job?" Cinder asks.
"Err, I haven’t asked, but I don’t think so."
"Where does he live?" Goldie prods next.
"Um..." I shrug.
"Fae lords, how do you not know?"
"I dunno," I say defensively, frowning. "He kind of just evades those questions. And that’s not what we talk about anyway. I didn’t tell him about where I live, or where I work."
"So this entire buffet of personalities keeps pushing you away," Aurora says, "and you keep going back? Just because he has magic? Because magic isn’t all that great." She picks up a glass of Rose and sips it with a solemnness that wasn’t there a moment ago.
Some of the girls nod in agreement, and I’m too irked by that to protest the part where I was accused of going for The Seven because I have a magic fetish.
"Why is it that everyone I know who has magic doesn’t realize how awesome it is, or how special they are?" I shake my head, and my heart slides down to my stomach as I think of Rosie. She was the same. She didn’t think anything of her levitation abilities, but they were undoubtedly the coolest.
I lose focus on the conversation as I look at each of my friends.
My friends are so unique, special, and amazing that it’s almost impossible not to want what they have.
That fire ignites in my gut, white-hot and clawing, and it should be jealousy. It has all the same teeth. But it stops just short of that, even at its worst. It’s more like a grief that keeps pulling at me, mourning a life I never had.
Aurora speaks to me, yanking me back to attention. "I mean, we all struggled at Poison Apple, or at least you and I did," Aurora says, smiling kindly at me.
My chest tightens. Next to me, Ariel’s shoulders rise almost imperceptibly toward her ears.
"What?" Aurora asks, her brow wrinkling again.
Ariel and I exchange a look.
"Well," I hedge, "we may have kind of slightly told you a little teensy weensy tiny white lie."
"What lie?" Aurora asks, sitting up straight, the smile dropping from her face.
Ariel twists a strand of hair nervously around her finger. "When we said Snow was the worst at the job when she started, that was...not true."
"Kind of the opposite, actually." A nervous laugh escapes me. "I picked it up with insane speed and precision. It’s honestly just a talent I have for seeing things and being able to replicate them," I rush to explain as I see Aurora get more upset.
"Oh my fae lords, so I really was the absolute worst at that job?"
"But we were going to keep you no matter what," Ariel’s words of reassurance also tumble out. "You just needed some time and grace to gain your confidence."
"And you got the hang of it eventually," I offer lamely.
Goldie and Cinder are both attempting to hide their smiles as Aurora covers her face and groans loudly.
"So how long are you and Talon in town?" Ariel asks Aurora, desperate to change the subject. "I saw you’re on shift this week but not past that."
A black streak launches off the top of the entertainment center. I scream on instinct. "Lucifer, no!"