Folks Of Fury (#1; Tales Of Elysia [COMPLETED])

nine.

Sundays at the St. Ours Manor, was an affair of diverse obligations.
Aunt Hetta was staunchly religious- Orthodox Catholicism by marriage to her Eastern European husband.
She used to take Lisette, Fleur and Jean to Mass when they were younger in a bid to rub off the faith on any of them.
But Lisette was a total unbeliever on anything religious to which our senile great aunt damned as fated for the seventh circle of hell.
Fleur, surprisingly got hooked to it till she turned eighteen then went off to Europe after graduation and returned with a faith for just witchcraft.
Aunt Hetta had cursed her hands with leprosy in spite for a month, to the chagrin of Mom and Johann.
But they dared not challenge a madwoman with magic that could seize a freak storm with a wave of a hand.
Jean was by then too scared for Hetta's reaction to his own desires.
So he followed our demented great aunt to early Mass every Sunday morning, with Margot who had surprised everyone with her sudden faith in a power higher than her vanity.
Mom and her sisters would be busy making the Sunday lunch which was open to any coven family.
So the Manor ended up hosting to a maximum of thirty judgmental families every Sunday.
Occasionally Lisette drove down from New Orleans on Friday to spend the weekend and have her fill of Mom's shrimp gumbo, her favourite.
Fleur only reserved visits for Samhain, Thanksgiving, Christmas and major Agnate ceremonies. Last I heard she was in New York.
I spent my Sundays in the Moors with Aina and if perchance a few of her friends, sometimes I sought out a few willing redcaps for a hunt.
Or dallied with some egotistical gentry for as long as I could endure their talk of Court politics and gossip.
And especially after yesterday, I needed a good distraction and warm sun.
Today I was lying on smooth carpet grass under the low hanging boughs of a peach tree, a hand over my forehead to shield my eyes from the streaming sun rays.
Close by some nixies were playing a game with a few hobgoblins- laughing and giggling in delight.
Tromos and Apelpi roosted on my chest and I would often run a stroking  hand down their velvet feathers.
Aina had her needle fingers in my hair, undoing the dreads expertly without permission.
But then I had to sacrifice that if I had to keep her listening to my tirade.
"Sounds like quite the problem. You desire this Hound boy terribly, Senoy." She croned in stifling delight.
I blinked up at her beady blue eyes. This was going to be the last time I would get to see her with winter soon to come.
She usually moved away from the Moors and deeper into Faery where I couldn't go for fear of incurring Mab's anger.
"But he's going to marry Margot."
And he finally said what he truly felt about me...scorn and disgust for what I am.
She scoffed with hateful frown marring her beauty.
"I'd say have your wicked way with him and have her watch everything."
I rolled my eyes. Why did I bother, the Fey always resorted to cruel delights.
"That sister of yours needs the humility. Thinking herself more lovely than us, the Fair Folk. Even our name acclaim us as beautiful beyond compare."
Aina still was peeved about something that had happened a couple years ago.
Margot had pranced, on a Samhain night dressed in traditional flowing chiton dress and white roses in her hair, about declaring herself more beautiful than the Fey.
That hadn't gone over well with most of the Court who had reared for a good taste of cruelty for her if Mab hadn't forbidden it.
I suspected the Fey Queen wanted to exact her vengeance her own way.
It was a terrifying and anticipating thought for me.
But Margot's punishment was still two years pending. I bet even she had forgotten how foolish she had been because the Fey wouldn't.
We're an unforgiving sort.
"But how goes the quest, burning one?" she asked at last finished freeing my hair from the dreads.
The weight of it had faded and the wild lava coloured tight curls hung past my shoulders.
I hadn't seen its length in a while, a few strands was caught in the breeze and flayed in front of my eyes like auburn threads.
"As impossible as I thought it would be. Anytime I think I've figured something out, it slips through my fingers like an eel in water."
"Not a very apt analogy." I imagined it'd be easy for her to do that. "And you have told the Queen this?"
I shook my head. "I cannot go to her with nothing. It would look like I have failed."
"Then you must work thrice as hard, Senoy. Meanwhile I will make you look as ruthless as the desert sun so that your Hound boy cannot resist you."
I couldn't help but flush at the idea of it. Ezra was so much in control of himself and everything around him.
After yesterday, I doubted he'd ever speak to me again much more stand breathing the same air with someone he believed had cursed him.
I hastily closed my mind from reaching back to yesterday.
To how he had been overwhelmed with passion in that corridor at Legion House.
How I felt my body turned to mush under his, our hearts pounding in the synchronised panic of our desire for each other.
And how he had torn my own from my chest with his words.
"Oh sweet boy," Aina cooed as if I was a baby.
"Take nothing by it, the Fair Folk love too much... too tragically that it scares mortals to the occasional lunacy. Ask your mother."
I knew Aina wasn't talking about my mother's love for her husband but for my father.
The Fey Knight who had seduced her and whose name she'd slandered with rape.
I wouldn't even think of doing that. Mom never spoke with intention to me about anything much more about her moment of weakness that still caused a strain in her marriage.
I remembered the outrage of Aina when I had disclosed what I had known to be the truth of my father.
That my mother had been raped and left with the burden of a half breed son.
It was the first time I'd seen how terrifying the Fey could become.
And also that my mother was a psychopathic liar.
I shut my eyes for a brief nap, the pulling and twisting of my hair in Aina's fingers drawled a rhythm.
It's been a while since I dreamed but I did today.