Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Brooming A Bird

 Someone was, once again, banging on the front door.

Who was it this time? Korr, perhaps?

I half-hoped it was Korr, and half-dread it being Korr. Or maybe Ethat had come back.

Deliah scampered down the main stairs as I came up from the pantry. Before I could tell her not to let anyone in, she had the door open and was curtsying to the person on the other side while stating in her most demure tone, "Lord-Raven."

I was going to have a talk with her: I didn't want anyone in the house. Especially not snooping Ravens. But it was too late to tell her don't let the bird in.

She stepped aside and Soir swept in before she could give it a second thought. He looked like I remembered: tall, slender, with inky dark hair that ruffled in the breeze, wearing bound-clothing that shifted and flitted and was hard to discern its exact shape. His dark-purple eyes were beautiful... and too sharp for my liking.

Had to be very carful around Ravens.

He ducked in a low, sweeping, extravagant bow. "Lady Theia. My apologies for my unintended rudeness earlier by presuming to send messengers instead of come myself."

I hadn't actually expected Soir to show up. What the hell did I do with him now? The Ravens had been interested in me since the moment I'd arrived in Haven, and now I'd been in Haven less than five hours and he was on my doorstep again. Did the Ravens know something about me? Or was I just a curiosity, some mystery a bunch of Ravens felt compelled to try to solve? Because Ravens did love their puzzles, as much as Sea Serpents loved a mystery and magic.

"I did not mean to offend," he emphasized when I didn't respond. "Lord-Regent Ormiss has made it extremely clear you were of quite some service to his people, though he did not elaborate on how or why you found yourself beneath the waves in the company of Hippocamp."

"I'm sure the details don't matter," I replied.

"I'm certain they do. Very few people have ever been invited beneath the waves."

"It had more to do with Lord-Ambassador Korr and Ethat." As in, they were the reason I'd ended up unintentionally summoning Ormiss by splashing around in the waves at all. Or those awful bugs that had been the reason Korr and Ethat had ended up stranded in the ocean. Maybe the Ravens knew something about the bugs. But how was I supposed to ask that without asking it, and tipping the Ravens off I might know more than I should?

I couldn't lie to Soir. Eventually he'd find out that the others were my consorts, because Asund's brother knew about us, and I was just one courier trip away from getting busted and blowing Haven up with gossip, and pissing off every shifter clan there was. Except for Unicorns.

Fuck the gods for putting me in this situation.

"You are being modest," he said, giving me a wicked smile that was actually pretty charming.

And I was sure the first time he'd met me I'd had a collar around my neck and had been paraded around a party like a pet. In fact, that hadn't been all that long ago. What did I have to do to make this guy go away? Ravens made me nervous. Made my scars ache. Made my soul itch. They'd been the ones that had carried me into the dream-pocket, but the question was if the Ravens had done it to save me, or done it to trap me.

He shifted in a way that sent a ruffle throughout his entire form, like he was adjusting his feathers. "Come dine with me tonight. Tell me of how you went to the Hippocamp citadel. I have never been."

"But your intended was the Hippocamp Princess." How had he never been beneath the waves? Had he never met the Queen? And not a chance I was going to do a private dinner with Soir, or any other high-bred anyone.