Heir of Ruin: A Hades and Persephone Fae Romance (Fae of The Saintlands Book 1) by Leigh Kelsey

Author:Leigh Kelsey [Kelsey, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The hulking Brewery building was fucking freezing at night, but a few small fires had been lit around the vast, stone space, taking the worst of the chill off the main rooms. Az still fought a shiver as he handed out cracked bowls of cold stew and cups of peppermint tea to the throngs of people in front of him. It was a fortnightly ritual, coming to this place where he could talk openly about who he was, about who his parents had been, with the fifty people who still gave a shit about them, still dared to remember them.

It was also the only place where the few free beastkind could gather safely, without fear of being arrested, thrown in a prison cell, and only let out when they took the cuff and indenture. It was a dangerous life of always looking over their shoulders, wondering if their neighbours could be trusted, if their colleagues noticed the claws they’d accidentally shown one time, or the pupils that changed from ordinary green to eerie gold. Az was fae, not beastkind, but he knew something of living in fear and secrecy. A different sort, but the effects were the same.

“There’s not going to be enough,” Jaromir whispered, ladling stew into a bowl and handing it to an aging woman with grey hair and a fierce, defiant grin. She had a wealth of inappropriate jokes, that woman. Az loved her.

“Psst,” she said, giving Az a toothy grin across the beaten up table. Her grey hair was a cloud on her head, her eyes like wicked quicksilver. Azrail was already smiling. “What does one saggy boob say to the other saggy boob?”

Az’s laugh burst out of him, even if the mother he handed a bowl of stew to didn’t appreciate the vulgar joke. “I don’t know, Francille, what does one saggy boob say to another?”

“If we don’t get some support soon, people will think we’re nuts,” she replied, grinning from ear to ear.

It took a moment for him to get it, and then Az was roaring, unable to contain the laughter as tears pricked his eyes. “That,” he said, “is your best one yet.”

Francille bowed, or at least as far as her stooped spine would allow. Her eyes flashed, shifter gold, and she beamed. “I thought so, too. I heard it at the Cock and Crown.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Jaromir drawled, his lips quirked as he leant against the table, a prince among shadows and grime. “That place is total filth.”

“Total is the best kind of filth.” Francille winked.

Jaro chuckled, unable to keep the amused light out of his jade eyes. “Always a pleasure, Franny.”

Francille gave them both a beaming grin, clutching her bowl in knobbled hands. “I’ll be back with more next time.”

“Oh, I hope so,” Az replied, giving her his best smile as he picked up another bowl, one of fifty they kept at the Brewery. Thirteen days out of the fortnight, only these bowls and tables occupied the empty, abandoned building, but on meeting nights, it was full of quiet voices and laughter.

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