Of Werewolves and Curses by Emma Hamm
Chapter 15
The kitchen Cora brought her to was warm and inviting. A fire crackled in the oven that was inlaid into the wall, and the table was filled with dirty dishes, food, and countless other objects from the sea.
Freya picked up a dried starfish and held it aloft. “One of yours?”
“I like to collect things on my walks. Sometimes I find items from the mainland that people have set adrift.” Cora reached for the starfish and gently set it back down on the table. “Other times, I find treasures that the sea sends me.”
A treasure. Freya looked down at the small dead creature and supposed it was a bit like a treasure. Esther had once gone to the sea with Freya and their father. They had collected sand dollars to put in a jar, and Esther had loved looking at them.
“Treasure,” she repeated with a soft smile. “That’s a lovely way to look at it.”
Cora spun around and grabbed for teacups that hung from tiny hooks on the wall. She set about putting a large metal teapot directly into the fire and then filled her arms with a mound of dirty dishes that likely should have been cleaned weeks ago. “Lovely is correct! Just don’t look at my mess. I’m afraid living alone has made me... well.”
Freya reached out and grabbed a plate before it fell out of Cora’s arms. Though there were likely plenty of plates to steal from other homes, she suspected Cora liked these the best. “You’ve only had to take care of yourself and not had to worry about the opinions of others. I completely understand.”
She’d get messy too if she didn’t have to clean every single day. It was so much easier to let things be as they were.
“Exactly.” Cora precariously took the dishes over to the corner where she laid them down into a box. “I usually wash them in the ocean, you see. I just haven’t had time lately and...”
No more words came out to explain her predicament away. Freya grinned and lifted her teacup. “We have two clean teacups! That’s all we need right now.”
The expression on Cora’s face brightened once again. “I like the way you think, Freya. You’re a good friend, I can tell that already.”
As Cora bustled about the kitchen, searching for tea, Freya suspected, she peered into the teacup. There was a giant stain on one side, and the other was still muddy with soot. At least, she hoped the black substance was soot. Making a disgusted face that she couldn’t suppress, she picked at the black goo and pulled it off with her finger. Maybe that wasn’t soot. It was a little too thick.
“Here we are!” Cora exclaimed.
Freya wiped her expression clean of any expression. “What kind of tea did you find?”
“It’s only earl grey, but it’s something. I hope you like strong tea?” Cora asked, then emptied the entire container into the teapot.
Freya could only hope there was a strainer in all that, or they would both be picking tea out of their teeth for weeks to come.
“I love strong tea.” She gestured to the holes in the ceiling where sunlight would normally filter through. “Especially when it’s nighttime. If I’m going to stay up all night, I might as well have a good cup of tea to help keep me awake. Don’t you think?”
“I do.” Cora sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table and put her chin in both hands. “You wanted to know why I hope to marry the Summer Lord?”
Here they went, telling each other stories as women often did by candlelight. At least she’d get a few secrets out of this strange and messy ordeal. “I do. I know you haven’t seen Leo in a very long time, but I can’t imagine he’s the same boy you remember.”
“Probably not. But I’m not the same girl I was back then, either.” Cora gestured around at the mess. “Believe it or not, I used to be very clean.”
Freya snorted. “This mess doesn’t come from a couple hundred years on your own. I don’t think you ever were the tidy woman you describe yourself to be.”
“No. But I did at least have servants to pick up after me.” The elf shifted on her seat, obviously uncomfortable that the mess was so uncontained. “I just... Look. I remember Leo when he was a boy, and there was always an edge to him. He was a little dangerous, and someone that a girl like me would fall head over heels for. I always knew there was a level of uncertainty in our relationship. But I never questioned that we could and would get married.”
“So you knew?” Freya moved the cup into her lap as though she wanted to hold it. Instead, she used the edge of her shirt to clean the interior. “You knew that you were going to get married to him, that is.”
“We both could guess. The titles of Lord and Lady always goes to the strongest of the fae in the court. He and I were the obvious choices.” Cora leapt up at the scream of the tea kettle. “I was much more interested in the possibility than Leo, as you must have guessed.”
Freya assumed. She held out her cup and let the conversation fall silent as Cora poured the mixture of tea leaves and liquid into Freya’s teacup. The silence wasn’t awkward between them, though. It was simple and quiet. Like two friends who hadn’t been able to talk together for a very long time.
Sipping carefully so she didn’t get any leaves, Freya cleared her throat. “Can I ask you a question that might be rude, but I honestly don’t know if it is?”
Cora grinned into her cup. “Those are my favorite kinds of questions. By all means. Ask away.”
“Why do you and the Summer Lord have faces, but no one else in the Summer Court does?” Freya didn’t know if that was overstepping her bounds. After all, the ownership of a face seemed like a very personal thing. Even if it was just a choice, she assumed that still meant it was personal.
“Oh.” Cora laughed a little and set her cup down. “That’s not so hard to answer. Surprisingly, the Lord and I picked our faces together when we were children. Usually an elf would take a long time to decide what face they wanted to commit to. Neither of us saw the reason for that. So we went to the mortal realm, tried on more faces than I can remember, and then we both settled on these.”
They tried on mortal faces? Freya didn’t like the sound of that, but her curiosity burned ever brighter. “Whose faces were they? Or do you not remember?”
“Of course I remember. A face is a thing that is freely given by mortals, even when they don’t realize it. But they mean so much to the elves.” Cora touched a finger to her cheek. “They were a young couple, very much in love and so looking forward to the rest of their lives together. I knew when I saw her face that she loved her husband more than the sun loves the moon. I had to have that expression when I looked at Leo on our wedding day.”
Freya’s heart melted. “What a lovely thing to desire. And Leo must have felt the same if he took her husband’s face?”
“We thought it would be poetic. We’d tell the story to the other elves, they would all melt at the story of our young love, and the entire court would fall in love with our own story.” She shrugged. “I guess it just wasn’t meant to happen like that after all.”
This poor woman shouldn’t feel like she had done something wrong just because a man hadn’t chosen her. The Summer Lord's adoration was no more impressive than that of a simple farmer’s love, and Cora would have made a thousand people fall in love with her in the mortal realm.
She reached across the table and grabbed onto Cora’s hand. “I don’t think that anyone’s love is lesser because of a choice they made. It sounds like the Summer Lord had intense feelings for you, and I don’t know why he decided not to act on them. But before I leave this court, I promise you, I will try to find the answer for you.”
Cora squeezed her fingers in return. “I don’t know where you came from, or why you’re helping me, but I can see why Eldridge loves you so dearly. Your heart is more pure than anyone I’ve ever met. The fae are not...”
“Like the mortals?” Freya grinned and shook her head. “I assure you, there are a million people in the mortal realm who are kinder and more giving than me.”
She could list off a handful of priests who would be horrified to know that any faerie thought Freya was a good person. After all, she had been the one to skip mass more times than was acceptable. But the reality was that she was trying to be a good person, and perhaps that was where so many of the fae failed. They were selfish creatures by design. They expected other people to take care of them, but all the fae were like that. When there were a hundred takers, and only one giver, she could only guess that faerie would end up in the mortal realm.
Her grin nearly splitting her face, Freya leaned back and released her hold on Cora’s hand. “If you weren’t so dead set on winning Leo back, I’d tell you to run to the mortal realm. You might meet some fisherman who steals your heart and thinks being married to the sea would be the best thing that ever happened to him.”
“Oh, I doubt that.” Cora’s cheeks darkened. She sipped at her tea and made a face. “This is horrible.”
Freya sucked in a deep breath and nodded, gently nudging her tea away from her. “Yes, yes, it is quite bad. I think there was something in the cups that gave the tea a distinctly fishy flavor.”
“I’m so sorry.” The laughter in Cora’s voice was everything that Freya needed to hear. The bubbling sound was so wonderful, so heartfelt, and it was the first time she’d heard Cora’s happiness.
And that was all Freya wanted for this kind, sweet woman who had been locked away by everyone who mattered. She deserved to be happy, even if Freya had initially been jealous of her beauty.
“That’s quite all right,” Freya said with a chuckle. “Just don’t make me drink it anymore, and I’ll forgive what horrible tea making skills you have.”
“I would not be a very good lady’s maid.”
“No, but I can’t imagine the Lady of the Sea requires such a skill set. There are quite a few women who will be ready to wait on you when you return to the Summer Court.” There had to still be people there who remembered Cora, like Eldridge had. And what a welcome surprise that would be.
At least, Freya hoped that was the welcome this wonderful young woman would get. Even though the Summer Lord hadn’t wanted her as his bride, that didn’t make Cora any less worthy. It wasn’t like Leo was going to pick one of the other elves in his court. Freya didn’t think he wanted to be married at all, and that was the problem here. Not that he didn’t want Cora.
She hoped.
Heavens, she hoped that was the case because otherwise she and Eldridge had their work cut out for them.
Patting Cora’s hand one last time, she stood up. “I should get back to the room where I left Eldridge. If he wakes up and I’m gone, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Cora stood with her, a swift smile breaking out over her features at the mention of the Goblin King. “He’d like that. Knowing where you are when he wakes, that is. He’s very protective of you. I could see that in the few moments we were all together.”
That jealous knot in her stomach twisted yet again. And it shouldn’t. She knew it shouldn’t.
Cora was being kind. She wanted Freya to know that as a friend of Eldridge’s, she could see how strong his reaction was when Freya was around. Yet, it was still hard to stomach that Cora could see what Freya still had a hard time seeing.
Giving the other woman one last smile, Freya nodded again and left the room. She hoped that in leaving, she wasn’t giving the wrong impression.
She just couldn’t stay a single minute more while her mind whispered a mortal would never be enough.
