Chapter 3
Forest God
“Um.” I didn’t know what to say. It was hard to imagine an elf wanting to have an intimate relationship with what their kind considered an inferior species.
But what did I know about the real elves? Books and movies had gotten so many things wrong about the various beings from the supernatural apocalypse, and no radio transmissions could have prepared me for this.
Deidre snickered. “Hey, don’t look so shocked.
” She tapped her chin with a slender finger.
“Then again, my father managing to seduce a woman might be shocking news. But he succeeded with my mother only because when he came out for air during a night swim in our forest lake, the superstitious human mistook him for a forest god. She once told me his skin had shined like silver in the moonlight.” Another snicker.
“She left the lake that night with no silver in her possession but with little, amazing me in her belly.”
“Hm…” Whoa. Why was Deidre telling me this? I must have the same effect on her as I did on many strangers; something about my calm personality made people share their personal stories with me.
“Mom brought me back here when I was several months old,” Deidre went on. “Humans had started asking questions about the freak in her stroller, you see. Then the elves here started asking questions about the freak in my father’s home.” She shrugged. “Cool, right?”
She made it sound like a joke, but that story was no laughing matter.
People treating you as if you didn’t belong wherever you went, all because of some physical traits you were born with–the story of my childhood.
Thankfully, I found my crowd later in life–first when I moved to Europe to study and later at my workplace. But all of that was gone now.
“What about your mother?” I found myself asking.
“Where do you think I learned to speak English so well?” Deidre sounded proud this time.
“Elves in the Kingdom speak only the basics, mostly words our warriors have picked up while spying on humans over the years. Mom made me a pro. She initially thought she would have to leave smelly little me by the lake in the care of her horny god. Instead, we both got scooped up by him.”
“She was forced to live here?” I exclaimed. When I realized how that sounded, I added in a hurry, “Sorry, I meant no offense. This place is… nice and–”
Deidre waved a hand to stop me from babbling further. “She didn’t like living among elves, but she didn’t like the surface world much either. So, she stayed with the horny god she did like.”
“Oh.” The story might have a happy ending, after all–
“She passed away several years ago,” Deidre said matter-of-factly. “Lead poisoning from our drinking water. Most elves have developed immunity to the human poisons, but she stood no chance.”
“I’m so sorry,” I told her sincerely. It was tragic–and ironic–that what we humans did to the planet came back to kill us sooner or later. This was happening in the literal sense now, with Apocalypse One and Two. I wasn’t sure whether the alien invasion qualified for the same We Fucked Up category.
Deidre smiled at me. “Aren’t you sweet? You remind me of her; she was empathetic and kind.
She taught human customs and English words not only to me but also to my friend Tisvali, treating him as her own.
” Her smile grew at the memory. “Maybe if what Karim has planned for us doesn’t get us killed, we could be friends? ”
Friends? Before I could think of a reply, the elf we’d both been waiting for came out of his home.
Deidre’s anger reignited. “You idiot! How could you allow Katsia on your moss again?”
He sighed and said something in Elvish that sounded calming enough to give a raging bull a pause.
Unable to understand a single word, I studied the change in his appearance.
His long hair was now free of the gold beads and styled into a single long braid at his back.
Across his shoulder lay a bow, intricate symbols carved into the wood.
He wore the same type of greenish-brown dress as Deidre did that left his legs bare from the knees down, allowing freedom of movement.
I couldn’t stop myself from taking in those muscular, perfectly smooth calves.
How could he look so attractive to me in a dress and not a single hair in sight?
That was not my type, not to mention it was strange to be exercising such thoughts in my situation.
Must be something about the self-assured, authoritative energy he exuded that spoke to me on a primal level.
He was the type of person who commanded attention in any room, no matter the clothes they wore.
“Yes, now is the time for this,” Deidre snapped at him, “and no, I will not speak in Elvish. I don’t want your guards understanding all the curses I plan on hurling at you.
Now,” she cocked a hip and rested a hand on it, “back to the part where you were apologizing for being an idiot–for allowing that skank back on your moss.”
Karim’s black brows furrowed. “I allow no one on my moss,” he said firmly, no sign of his poor English from earlier. “I came home to get changed, and found Katsia waiting for me.”
“Waiting where? Here at the door?”
“I didn’t invite her in, Deidre.” He looked her square in the eyes. “I found Katsia already inside.”
Deidre’s blue eyebrow shot up. “Without permission?”
He sighed again. “Not mine.”
“Holy Gods of the Underground! How dare she!” Deidre’s tone was enough to catch the guards’ attention, English speakers or not, and they turned to look our way with hands on their blades.
“Deidre, calm yourself.”
“I’ll calm down once I shoot that tramp.” Deidre narrowed her eyes at Karim. “Did you invite her onto the moss?”
“Nai.” His negative answer in Elvish was paired with a warning look.
Deidre lowered her gaze, going silent all of a sudden, except for a single huff.
Then Karim’s gaze slid to me, the silent spectator. I’d thought they had forgotten about me, but no such luck.
“Not a word of what you heard here. Either to an elf or a human.”
“Asi,” I confirmed in Elvish, lowering my gaze like Deidre.
“She has a name, you know,” the she-elf said, voice tinged with a pouty tone. “It’s Jasmine. Like the flower.”
I could still feel his eyes on me but didn’t look up. There was so much power in his gaze it was hard to hold it for long. And, to be honest, his commanding presence was giving me butterflies.
“Speaking of flowers,” Deidre went on with a mocking undertone, “what am I here for, Karim? Something about moving a flower, I hear?”
Clearly, Deidre stopping their arguing over Katsia and Karim’s moss–bed?–didn’t mean she was any less sour about it.
The more I listened, the more my perception of elves as otherworldly beings changed. They sounded and looked more human to me with every new conversation.
“Where is Tisvali?” Karim answered with a question. “I sent for him as well.”
Deidre rolled her eyes. “How should I know? I bet he’s with Kassium or Borella. Or maybe he has finally toughened up and dragged both of them to his moss.”
“Sabati.” Karim sounded displeased as he told her to stop. “We will go get him on our way up, then.”
“Up? So we are indeed going to the surface, and in broad daylight? I knew it! You really want to get me killed.” Strangely enough, Deidre didn’t sound worried by that prospect.
More like thrilled at the possibility. “Can’t you invite me to your moss just once before leading me to my death?
” she mock-whined. “At least that way I will die happy.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of Karim’s mouth before he shook his head.
It appeared that I might see a smile on this beautiful elf’s face after all. And it sounded like I might get a glimpse at something I hadn’t seen in six weeks.
Daylight.