Kalyna deposited the plates in the sink while Isemay poured another round of drinks. Drinks which seemed to be more spirit than mixer. Maloney and Alauda joined them in the kitchen, leaving the men in the living room, finishing the game of Black Jack which had followed several rounds of Exploding Kittens. There wasn’t really room to move with four people in the galley kitchen, but Kalyna didn’t mind the company as she filled the sink with soapy water and began washing the crockery.
“He seems to have relaxed into socialising,” Isemay noted as she poured a triple rum into Dunstan’s glass.
Kalyna smiled as she rinsed off a plate, reassured by the contented current of Dunstan’s emotions as she said, “He has. He’s enjoying himself, I think, based on what I can feel.”
“You’re feeding each other again, then?” Alauda asked, leaning against the door frame and studying Kalyna.
“Well, one of my friends had a go at him about the distance he’d created and I think he took it to heart,” Kalyna chuckled as she scrubbed chilli off another plate.
“He deserved it,” Alauda retorted but then added, “I’m glad he listened, though. It’s nice to see you smiling... If anything had happened to you... I never got to thank you for saving Brandr. I couldn’t lose him.”
Kalyna nodded but turned to the willowy dryad, insisting, “You should tell him how you feel, you know. You would’ve dashed back towards him. You care, more than as his friend. You should see if it’s a two-way thing.”
“It doesn’t matter if it is,” Alauda murmured, her bight green eyes lowered and her bro puckered into a frown. “I’m the granddaughter of a dryad queen. I will marry who I am told to marry. Even if I find a partner for myself, it will be a drus, one of my own kind. Nothing else will be accepted by my people or my family.”
“Then your people need to reassess their priorities,” Kallie answered, frowning too. “Your people should care about your happiness, not the species of the person who makes you happy.”
“Except that it’s a fair enough requirement to make of me,” Alauda disputed, shaking her head, her orange hair bouncing around her shoulders. “Mixed-heritage can affect fertility and magic. As a royal, I am supposed to have heirs who can step up and take the throne, should anything happen to all the lines of my family who have a better claim than I do. I can’t risk having mixed-blood heirs.”
Kalyna tensed at that. Few had blood as mixed as her own and Alauda’s assessment felt disparaging. It made her feel like the others saw her as deficient and she didn’t need another stain to tarnish herself with.
“You know, its possible that supernaturals bred out their own ability to interbreed due to such segregation,” she reminded them all. “I’m as mixed as it gets and I’ve had children and can use magic. I don’t know if supernaturals can re-establish an ability to interbreed, but I do know that segregation breeds resentment, accusation, and in this case quashes love. You shouldn’t miss out on your own happiness because your family fears genetic imperfection.
“Look... With or without pure blood children, your love is still valid and deserving of attention. Plenty others will marry partners of their own species because that’s who they love. What you do won’t change that, and so what you do won’t end your species or your family. You shouldn’t let prejudice prevent you from having the relationship you deserve. If you and Brandr love each other, then you both deserve to explore that.”
“I know why you’d feel as you do, Alauda, but I agree with Kallie,” Maloney noted, turning to the dryad with an empathetic expression.
Kalyna felt a little surprised to have her support. Maloney had been the one to tell her about the fertility issues facing mixed-bloods, and how some people – those with more conservative perspectives – viewed them as a risk to supernatural existence. She seemed to understand the potential consequences better than most and yet she still advocated taking the risk.
YOU ARE READING
Where Lost Things Dwell: Night Creatures Book Two
ParanormalAfter five years hunting down the vampires who had killed her family, living alone, outside society, Kalyna had finally found a home. She had signed up as a trainee with the Occult Task Force, a cross-species military branch where supernaturals and...
