Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Love In Two Languages

"No!" Ormiss bolted to the window, slammed into it, gripping the edge, and then looked at me, his garnet-and-obsidian eyes wild and his hair crackling with magic.

"I'm not dying like this," I said again, ignoring the pain in my scars, the anguish in my chest, how it felt like I couldn't breathe, how the grief crushed me, the bitter taste of betrayal. The trinkets promised perfect love. This wasn't perfect. This was so fucking far from perfect everyone probably thought it was perfect because nobody would ever accept the gods had fucked up this badly.

Or that the gods could be fucked with this badly. Or that the trinkets were a lie.

I was something that shouldn't exist. I was maybe a monster of spare unicorn parts cobbled together by some sick sea-serpent or demon. And I'd been given this warped, fucked love where my consorts loved me but didn't. Just like I was a shifter, but wasn't.

It was warped... but it didn't sustain me. It'd kill me, because it was an abomination.

"Theia," Korr said quietly, now rising back to his feet while Ethat steadied him. All the magic seemed to drain out of both of them.

"Don't Theia me," I snapped again. My heart hurt. My body hurt.

"No, no, no," Ormiss jerked as if to sprint, then held his ground, necklaces and skirt swishing.

"I don't want it back," I said. It could sink into the realm of the sea serpents for all I cared. "The trinkets are a lie."

"They aren't a lie!" His voice cracked.

I was done with trinkets. I was done with consorts. I was going to figure out where I'd been all my life, free the hippocamp princess if I could, and then I was just done with all of this. The trinket said my consorts were supposed to love and treasure me, but they didn't. They didn't care what I did, as long as I went along with their whims and politics. They didn't care who I did, as long as I told Korr about it or Ethat got off on it or I acknowledged Ormiss as my preferred partner and gave him a baby to sit on the throne. Itek and Asund didn't even want that much.

They only wanted something from me. Ormiss a queen, Asund the ability to look his brother in the eye again, Korr and Ethat and Itek political leverage and whatever else they could get from me. Hell, Itek only wanted to fuck me and once he'd gotten what he'd wanted, he'd ceased to be interested. He hadn't even wanted to use me politically, just for sex, which was the most base thing anyone could do.

And if I was a unicorn, I wasn't going to let them kill me. I'd rather live and die on my own terms.

They'd kept me as an interesting pet... and that's really all I'd ever been. A very interesting pet. A puzzle. Something mysterious they wanted to keep out of the hands of anyone else until they figured out what value I had, and now that was the only reason they wanted to keep me.

"Theia," Korr said.

I ignored him. Ambassadors couldn't do much with the silent treatment.

"Theia," Ethat pleaded. He approached.

I glared at him. "Go away."

"Theia," he whispered.

"You just want to get laid, Ethat," I snapped at him. "Go away. You're not getting any, so make peace with it. You too, Korr."

Ethat looked at Korr, who looked at his brother, and he eyed me like he didn't dare say a word.

"Theia," Ethat tried again.

"No," I told him. "I am going to deal with the Pantere Priestess, then we are going back to Haven, and I am done with all of you. If you don't want to take me back to Haven, fine. Leave me wherever you want. I don't care."