Nine Shillings

Ever So Sweet

London - 1842

Bran and I were sitting on a bench looking at The Serpentine and holding hands, it was nice. Until Freyja appeared. She strode through the meanderers towards us, the tails of her black military jacket snapping behind her.

She should've drawn attention with white hair, grey skin, and frostbitten fingers and lips, but she masked her appearance with an illusion, to avoid pitchforks and torches, she said.

I rubbed the scars on my neck and shoulder hidden by a similar illusion. I didn't like hiding them. I wondered how Freyja felt about hiding.

'Aren't you two ever so sweet?' She sat down at the end of the bench. 'I almost didn't recognise you, Mr O'Connor.' She put one foot on the seat and faced us. 'What are they calling that these days? Rugged?'

I gave her a look.

'Ooo, struck a nerve,' she said. 'I have to say you're a one, summoning me?' She smiled showing her obsidian teeth.

Bran shifted beside me.

'Lucky me,' I muttered.

'I read lips and am fully qualified in sarcasm, Little Red.' She took a cigarette case out of her inner pocket, tapped a cigarette on the case three times then put it to her lips. 'So, tell me, has Josef dipped his wick yet?' She lit the cigarette with a spark from her fingertips. 'I'll take it from your I'm-going-to-punch-you-in-the-face expression, it's a no.' She gasped. 'He's not dipping behind Mr O'Connor's back, is he? Scandal.'

Bran's hand tightened on mine and he kept his eyes locked on the shimmering water.

I held her gaze.

She sighed like a dragon, blowing bitter smoke in my face. 'It's so much less fun when you're not scandalised.' She offered me the cigarette and I shook my head. 'You younglings remind me of lifting a log and watching the little bugs run around all confused.' She arched her eyebrows. 'Your Sefikins knows a lot about wood, I hear.'

'Enough,' I said.

Her smile disappeared and she bent towards me, leather coat creaking. 'Now, that is interesting.' She tilted her head and her purple eyes ignited with energy. 'I felt that power.'

Bran rested his elbow on his knee and looked at us.

'How deliciously ironic,' Freyja murmured and sat back to smoke her cigarette. 'You summon me here to ask questions and you are the thing you're looking for.'

'Do they make you study sounding mysterious?' I asked.

She grinned. 'It keeps me entertained.'

'She's saying you're a magic caster of some sort,' Bran said.

I twisted towards him.

She prodded my back with her foot. 'Look at me when you're talking or I'm liable to miss half.'

I turned back to her. 'I thought you read minds.'

'What someone thinks and what they say are two very different things.' She rolled the cigarette between her fingertips. 'Take your boy. There he is talking about magic while simultaneously being jealous of Josef, aroused by you duelling with me, guilty about what happened to you, scared of... everything.' She chuckled.

'Stop it,' I said.

'There's dark memories there, very dark. He wards them off with happy family memories and... Oh, here's the good bits. The secret things. The mix of pleasure and self-loathing when he takes you from behind is delicious. Very -'

'Leave him –'

'Aw, romantic. His favourite memory is a lovely image, the two of you all cuddly and snuggly, you looking at him with love in your eyes and saying you love him. He's wondering what a worthless piece of shit like him -'

My wrist stopped an inch from her raised hand. Energy crackled and sparked between my fingertips. Veins of purple light flared through the back of my hand.

My wrist burned and itched. 'What're you doing?'

She smiled. 'That would be your magic sparking off mine.'

'Let Charlotte go,' Bran said.

Freyja considered him, head tilted, then flicked her fingers.

My arm dropped. I rubbed my wrist, there wasn't a mark despite the heat. Bran's fingers touched my side.

'I bet you've been sparking energy, without realising, every time you lose your temper.' She sat back and grinned. 'There's your answer.'

'A vampire with magic?' Bran asked.

'A changeling, who's discovered they're a caster,' she said. 'Someone brought out a very strong emotion in them and probably didn't live to regret it.' She stubbed out her cigarette on the seat and flicked the stub aside. 'Many Fae cast off their hybrid children when they deem them "not Fae enough" and this is what happens.' She inclined her head towards me. 'You and people like you. All running around with no idea what they can do, why they can do it, or how to control it.'

'You're trying to tell me I've had this kind of magic all along and never noticed?' I asked.

'You do everything with passion, if your boy's memories are to be believed, something would've happened.' She smirked. 'You made yourself a vampire and in doing so brought your inner Fae to the surface. We all have the same root, Little Red.' She smacked my shoulder sending a tingle of magic through me. 'Your body is still adapting, it will be interesting to see what happens.' She got up.

'And what's the price for all this information?' I asked.

She put her face close to mine and the cinnamon scent of her magic stung my nose. 'Darling, you conned me out of my answers about you and then you brought the man who knows all your secrets to me. Not so clever as you think.' She walked away.

'Sorry.' Bran put his head in his hands. 'I should've thought of it.'

I raised a finger and waited for Freyja to disappear, without attracting a single glance from people passing.

'The thought occurred to me,' I said.

He looked at me without taking his elbows off his knees.

'If I mentioned it, she could pick it straight out your head and know I knew.'

He sighed. It wasn't a logic he could argue with and he wouldn't have argued with it, aloud anyway. He had a disappointed look capable of conveying exactly what he thought of your behaviour without a word. It was impressive, when he wasn't using it one me.

'We have a problem,' Bran said, twisting his wedding ring back and forth.

'I'm more concern about Freyja picking at you then plucking my "secrets" from your –'

'We're looking for a being who drains energy and Freyja says you're leaking magic,' he said.

'Only when I'm angry,' I observed.

He gave me his stern look and I scowled back. He was right. I was always angry, there was a constant simmering spite in my stomach aimed at the world.

'Or orgasmic,' I whispered.

He blushed and looked away, smiling.

'I suppose I'll have to keep my passions under control.' I leaned across and kissed his cheek. 'So, no looking delicious.'

'This is serious, Charlotte.'

'So am I,' I said. 'You're very distracting.'

He sighed. 'What're we going to do about it?'

'I'm not sure there's much we can do about you being distracting.'

He rolled his eyes.

I slipped my hand into his and leaned into him. 'You'll have to watch my back.'

He opened his mouth to tell me Josef would be better. I shot him a look.

He turned back to the water still holding my hand. 'Nice spot this.'

I considered his profile. 'Wonderful view.'

He shook his head and laughed.