Page 89 of Consort's Glory
“Darling,” he cautiously began, “I don’t know why someone would tell you a lie like that, but you can’t be a halfling.”
Margot snatched her hands away from him to tuck her arms against her naked chest in a defensive move that made his hackles rise. “Yes, I can, because I am!”
“No, darling, you can’t be,” he argued. “For one thing, you look nothing like an elf. For another, no one, not even the cruelest among us, would abandon young. We just don’t do that. Ever.”
“Maybe you don’t know that people do that because the people who have don’t talk about it,” she snapped, her temper returning in a flash. “Because we’re not supposed to exist!”
“Who says?” Theodore lifted his hands in a universal gesture of confusion. “Margot, darling, of course halflings exist! You met one this morning! You’ve been surrounded by them all day. Nearly all of the Sovereign’s Guard are halflings.”
Margot rocked back on her heels. Swiping water out of her eyes, she asked, “What? Who did I meet?”
“My brother Kaz. He’s a halfling.” And he looked it, too, although orcs and elves appeared so similar that most people didn’t give his elvish traits a second thought. Margot, on the other hand, could be nothing except human. Her size, her blunt teeth and nails, her round ears — not a single elvish trait among them.
While she processed his revelation, Theodore closed the distance between them and ran his hands up and down her arms in swift, soothing strokes. “My love, I know you think this is true, but it can’t be. You would have some elvish traits if you were a halfling, but you don’t. You don’t even smell like…” He paused.
You don’t even smell like one. That’s what he meant to say, except—
Theodore’s brows snapped together. No. She couldn’t be elvish. Margot was so small, so defenseless. Her skin was too soft, her nails too blunt, her pupils too round, her scent too…
Wild. Familiar.
Theodore choked on air, his eyes widening comically large as he stooped to bury his nose in her hair. He breathed deep, ran his nose along her forehead and down her cheek, until he was bending nearly double to sniff hard at the juncture of her throat and jaw.
There it was: that strange, familiar note that teased him. Gone was the astringent punch of Noscent. Gone was the artificial sweetness of soap. This late in the day, and after standing under the water for a few minutes, there was nothing on her skin except her own delicious scent — layers of femininity and power and a distinctly familiar wildness he was so used to, it slid under his radar completely.
“Ho-ly Glory,” he breathed, leaning back to stare at her with new eyes. “You’re a godsdamned halfling.”
Margot threw up her hands. “Yes, thank you, that’s what I said!”
“But… how?” He shook his head hard, sending water in every direction. Scrubbing his wet hands over his eyes, Theodore continued, “I’ve met dozens of halflings. Most of the Guard is halfling! My brother is a halfling. All of them, except maybe Kaz, look more elf than whatever else they are.”
He dropped his hands to ogle her lovely, fragile frame, her soft cream skin, her distinctly human build. “The only thing different about you is your scent. Are you sure you’re not just the descendant of a halfling? Maybe third generation? Fourth?”
Margot scowled at him, her arms crossing over her pretty, rosy-tipped and well-loved breasts. “Yes, I’m sure. I don’t have my mother’s name, but I know she exists.” She hesitated. An uncertain look replaced some of her annoyance when she continued, “And… I was born looking a little different. My grandma thought I’d be safer if I changed things.”
The world around him stalled. “Changed things?” he echoed, a nameless, gnawing horror running cold fingers up his spine to grip him hard.
She nodded. With a sweep of her fingers, Margot brushed her lips, then moved up to push her wet hair back behind her ears. “When my adult teeth came in, grandma took me to a specialist to have my… fangs filed down. They weren’t super noticeable, and we considered coming up with a hybrid ancestor to pass them off as a surprise recessive trait, but she thought it was too risky, so…” She cleared her throat and turned her head slightly.
Using her thumb, Margot pushed her round ear forward until it was pressed almost flat. With her hair pulled back and her ear out of the way, a small mark was clearly visible against her creamy skin — a tiny, light blue X with hooked ends that looked a little fuzzy with age.
A sigil, he dully realized.
“See this? My auntie did it when I was a baby. She’s an extremely powerful illusionist. These tattoos keep my ears hidden so well that even when you touch them, the brain is fooled into thinking they’re normal.”
Theodore couldn’t speak. He could only stare in horror as Margot continued, her words coming faster, as if a dam had broken now that the truth was out. She dropped her hands into the space between them and wiggled her fingers, saying in a rush, “And I do have claws, but I keep them filed down. Normally I do it every night after my shower, but…” She clenched her fingers into fists and dropped them to her sides. “See? The only human things about me, really, are my height, my eyes, and my coloring. I might have been taller, too, but it took a long time to realize my diet wasn’t right for my metabolism, so my family healer thinks my growth was stunted.”
Margot licked her lips and stared up at him, clearly waiting for him to say something, anything, but he couldn’t find the words.
A fist squeezed his throat. My consort filed her fangs down, he thought, so full of black rage it made spots float in front of his eyes.
My consort underwent sigilwork to hide her ears. My consort has lived in fear her whole life because she was abandoned with people who made her feel like she wasn’t normal, like one wrong look would sign her death warrant.
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t feel his heartbeat as it thundered in his chest. He couldn’t even see her. All Theodore saw and felt and heard was the roar of the brutal injustice done to the woman he loved.
But he had to say something. He had to. The longer he stood there silent, speechless with rage, the more damage he would do to the fragile trust between them.
Forcing himself into the moment, to take care of her first and his howling, protective fury second, Theodore caught her just as Margot was beginning to fold into herself, her copper eyes taking on a bruised look that cut him to the quick.
