📢 Summary: The Ghost has appeared out of thin air, an entrance truly worthy of his codename. And for no tangible reason, he sticks to Taryn until she realizes the outrageous truth: this insane man is trying to flirt with a pregnant and widowed woman!
🧐 Author’s note: Third and last part is here! First part was for "Corn maze" and the 2nd one for "My sister, the serial killer." Hope it’ll be fun to read as much as it was fun for me to write!
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"Hey, paying a visit to your sister?" Larkin smiles, a smile that looks tense to me, though it doesn't make sense. Why would he be tense?
"Something like that, I suppose so, yes." I try to tell him plainly but it comes out as clumsy.
We stare at each other for a bit. It doesn't seem like he wants to let go of me right away, he keeps looking at Myriadh as if she's a bother. Does he have something important to tell me? Could it be about the reason why Jude left today? Though I can't imagine it must be too serious since we're surrounded by all the flowers of the corpses she has gathered. Nonetheless, I got the hint so the natural thing to do is to act accordingly.
"It's alright Myr, I know him. Please leave us."
"How far away, my liege?"
I point at the daffodils in the distance, far enough for her to see us but not hear us. She nods and steps away politely. Once she has reached the spot I directed her at, I start.
"So, what is it that you wanted to tell me?"
Larkin smiles at me curiously, as though he has no idea what I mean by that.
"I just think it's better to have some privacy even for small talk, don't you think?"
I sigh, planting my hand onto my face.
"Really? You made me send Myr away just for some small talk?"
He brings his hand to his nape, scratching it pointlessly. A gesture that shows he's uncomfortable about something. It doesn't serve as anything else than a sign of his groundless nervousness since I cannot imagine the nape is a spot that can often get itchy.
"Well, isn't she more of a chaperone given to you by your sister rather than a proper attendant? I bet she reports your every move to Her Highness."
So annoying. So what? What does it even have to do with him? I'm pregnant and weak, I'm not doing anything of note lately anyway. Even if that were true, if Myriadh is sending reports to Jude, it would only show that Jude's worried about my well-being since I visit so rarely. That's all.
"It doesn't concern you. And even if your guess is true, all it tells me is that Jude cares for me."
"Then you must be glad. I mean, that you betrayed her and she forgave you." A haughty smile. Almost a sneer. His words ring true but his voice has a human quality to it. Now this is definitely sarcasm.
"Well, I suppose you must be relieved as well. Since your friends and my sister forgave you after you blew up their base and dragged Jude to rot in the Undersea."
His face drops. I've managed to completely wipe his smile off of his face with my cruel retort. Larkin has gone red, embarrassed. Not sure if he had gone too far and I was genuinely pissed or if I'm playing him as payback, he stares silently at the ground next to my feet.
"Relax. I guess this just proves we're both pretty terrible. No need to feel so bad."
Or at least that's what I like to say to convince myself.
Larkin's gaze goes up to my face again but he's still a bit shaken, or rather he's thinking about being more careful with his words from now on. Seeing him like that satisfies me, I can't help it. Still, I suppose I should lend him a hand.
"Are we just going to stand there? Since you've already made me lose time I'll take this as an opportunity to walk around some more."
His eyes light up a bit. It's funny, back when I first met him, I hated the way he looked. Despite being half-fae his genes are much "heavier" on the human side. Yet having a better look at him now, he possesses a sort of tranquil beauty to him. Something serene that I don't possess. He feels familiar yet otherworldly at the same time, how contradictory.
"Is something wrong?"
I immediately shift my gaze to the side, pretending that I was looking past him and not at him.
"Nothing, I hope that didn't make you uncomfortable. I didn't mean to."
His lips press together, I recognize that mannerism. He's trying to hold back a smile. Why? What's so funny?
"So that attendant," He starts, weighing his words. "Myr, was it?"
"Oh no, her name is actually Myriadh but I call her Myr."
"Are you two so close already?" He looks a bit baffled. As if I've just told him that I'm nicknaming a complete stranger. I shrug.
"Not really, but I appreciate her. Also, calling someone by a nickname gives them a sense of familiarity, don't you think? I'd like us to have a good relationship."
Larkin stares off towards Myriadh with a strange look. Then I notice him slightly fiddling with his cuffs before stopping as soon as he notices what he's doing. Then he almost shyly shoots me a glance.
"If I were your servant, what would you call me?"
I blink a few times at him. Not sure why he'd like to know. Is that his roundabout way of asking me if he can come work for me? Is that it? Nonetheless I entertain the thought.
Larkin. Honestly, I don't find it to be a pretty name. Then again, I never liked mine either so who am I to judge, really? I try to compose a wholesome nickname based on some not so good source material. Larky sounds too silly. Lar is kinda ugly. Lala is too cute and doesn’t fit him.
"...Larlar? You don't have an easy name to work with."
It's still so bad yet he smiles wholesomely nonetheless.
"Hmm. I guess it's the best you could do with what I have, yeah."
"Well, you could also be Boo." I regret the words as soon as they escape my mouth. Larkin stares at me, eyes wide.
"Boo?"
"Like, you know. The Ghost. Boo. Like how ghosts go boo when they try to scare someone off…" I blush at my stupid idea and even more idiotic reasoning. Yet he laughs this time.
"I'm worried about your child, do you already have a name in mind?" He throws at me.
"Excuse me?! I do have some ideas and they're all good, mind you."
"Hmm, I'm not so sure about that. Are you certain you don't need someone's help to name them?"
Larkin swiftly plucks out a marigold and puts it in my hair, I jolt. Not because of the contact, but because of the sudden realization of what he was actually trying to achieve this whole time. This crazy man wanted to flirt with me! Not to mention in a graveyard at that.
I make my eyes big at him, giving him a somewhat scolding look.
"Are you trying to flirt with a pregnant widowed woman?! You're insane… also, your attempt is extremely poor and lacking in manners."
"Well, considering you murdered the husband in question, I don't believe you must be so sad about being widowed. Plus, I think a half-faerie child would be way happier with a half-faerie father like them instead of the unbearable prick Locke was."
I can't hold my laughter at the utter audacity of that statement. It is refreshing though. Larkin is one of the few folks aware of what truly happened. Because of that, I mostly get pity and attempts at kind and reassuring words. Rarely ever confirmation of what I thought of Locke in a closed-off part of my heart.
I dig into my brain. What is the appropriate response here? What would be the correct way to act? There just isn't and I already blew it off by laughing anyway. So I just play along.
"Alright. Well, I'm thinking of redecorating the unbearable prick’s castle grounds. I'll get rid of the maze and replace it with a pretty garden. If you help me, I'll indulge your ridiculously scandalous thought of courting me. Or whatever it is you were foolishly thinking."
Larkin gets down on one knee, takes my gloved hand, and before kissing it, he has the gall of removing the glove for direct contact. I think his strange affection towards me might secretly be quite worrisome. But well, I can’t deny the fact that I'd rather raise a child with a husband at my side than to raise them alone. He gets up and instead of giving me the glove back, he shoves it into his pocket.
"As proof of your promise." He says.
"That's usually for a promised duel, not a run of the mill promise." I correct him.
"Well, then let's see if your composure is sturdier than my advances. That will be the duel."
I furrow my eyebrows.
"I feel like you're going to be extremely persistent and possibly annoying. Don't make me regret it."
"You won't." He puts his hood back on and as he's about to do the same with his mask in order to disappear into the darkness, he adds: "You didn't have to pretend earlier, by the way. I like the attention." I can feel my chest get hot as he snickers before leaving. I guess I should've known, no matter how clumsy he was with me, he's still an assassin. Of course he'd notice that I was checking him out.
And as soon as he leaves, Myriadh hurries over to my side, asking me if everything's alright. All I can note to her of that interaction with him, is that this guy is going to be trouble. Well, for me that is.
We then march towards the carriage to leave, truly this time, I remember that just before Larkin appeared, Myriadh was about to tell me something. I urge her to continue which makes her smile kindly at me.
"I just wanted to tell you that personally, I find you lovely in the mornings, my liege. Especially the rare days when you have had a good sleep, I can immediately tell by the tangles in your hair, which are equally as lovely as your sleepy face."
I blush.
I suppose that I'm still way too guarded with Myriadh despite what I told Larkin about wanting to get along with her. That's often what I do, I get along but I don't get close. Maybe I should once in a while.
"Myr. From now on, if I'm having trouble sleeping, would you sing me your lullaby?"
Her eyes widen slightly at that but she answers me rapidly and calmly as always.
"Absolutely. I'm honored that you're willing to give me such trust, my liege."
The next day, by the time the sun had set, the maze had been wiped off and somehow, miraculously, some marigolds were already blooming in the empty space.
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It was very fun to imagine how Taryn and The Ghost might act around eachother although I can imagine that I was most likely COMPLETELY off-base here.
This is probably the last piece of writing I’ll post for Folktober2023 unfortunately, but HEY I still wrote for 9 days out of 13! And it was my first time in trying to participate to something like this. Who knows though, if I get hit with inspiration I might write for the other days later.
Folktober2023 Freeform day Prompt: "Library date" 📚💝
An attempt by
Hosted by @jurdannetrevels and @jurdannet
📘 1 400+ words
😎 Characters: Wren/Suren, Oak Greenbriar
✒️ Tags: intimate, hand-touching, soft flirting
📢 Summary: Wren and Oak successfully sneaked into a library in the human world. However, some light flirting ensues making Wren hot under the collar.
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I press my hand down on the pages of the book, flattening it on the table. It’s been a while since I’ve been at a library. I did think about going many times, however, each time I was worried about failing my glamor and scaring the librarians away. This time though, Oak offered his help, making me look utterly gorgeous, still with a "thorny" edge. Much more than I needed for a simple library visit, honestly.
I sit down and skim over the comic book, I’m trying to follow the story to no avail. My mind is all over Oak who’s standing behind me, probably still looking over the shelves, searching for something yet nothing at the same time. My eyes are always drawn to him, even now I want to look back to see what he’s up to. I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as curious, but when it comes to him I can’t help it. My thoughts and body follow him almost naturally. I try to hold back though, not wanting to make myself too obvious.
I feel kind of bad, I’m the one who asked him for this favor yet I had no particular plans nor a specific book in mind to look for here. Really, I simply wanted this old feeling of being surrounded by silence and this soothing smell. While I can read, the truth is I’ve never read long "complicated" novels. I would prioritize textbooks anytime I sneaked into Bex's room since I wanted to try to educate myself a little more instead of reading fantasy books like I used to. And as always, I couldn’t bring myself to steal or borrow.
Unable to hold myself any longer, I try to subtly turn my head to sneak a glance at Oak. A poor attempt since he’s actually not looking at the shelves anymore but at me, he’s made sure to stay far enough for his shadow to not fall on me, but he’s obviously trying to understand what I’m reading. Subtlety is out of the window: he caught me trying to stare at him while he’s already staring at me. And so, laughing a bit to himself, he approaches me. Then he leans over and whispers next to my ear, not quite as close as he could but close enough for me to shudder.
"Found something interesting?" Oak stares down at the comic book.
"Uh. Not sure, I’m not familiar with it." I mumble.
The comic book is an "Enola Holmes" retelling with riddles to solve and such, for ages 8 to 12 I suppose. I blush, I wonder if Oak thinks I’m kiddish or stupid. Or immature. Though I’d like to stay rational and not assume the worst, I always do. Of course Oak wouldn’t, but my thoughts always go in the self-deprecating direction.
Oak reaches out his hand towards the book, I instinctively move my hand away to let him space but he gently grabs it and puts it back next to the book. I get that he’s probably doing that as a message, telling me that he wants me to feel comfortable, but his gesture makes me even more nervous than before. He flips over the pages quickly, as if he’s only looking at the art then he stops at a riddle.
"Hmm. Must be too easy for you. I’ll find you something better!" Oak says
"What?" I try to sound flat but my voice comes out small and quivery.
He steps away, I relax. Then he almost immediately comes prancing back cheerfully, he stands behind me again but instead of leaning over, this time his chest is pressed against the back of my head. I tense up again. Putting a new book over the last one, it’s a thick novel, probably about 400 or more pages. Way too long for my untrained and dismal reading capabilities.
"You rapidly and skillfully freed 3 prisoners by solving riddles, wouldn’t you appreciate a greater challenge?" He sounds almost excited for me. Does he think I chose that earlier book for the mystery aspect? I smile a bit. It’s not untrue but I love how he focused on that and not on the fact that it’s a book for children.
Regardless, this one seems like a mystery book as well, except it’s targeted to adults. And I suspect that I wouldn’t be able to read fast enough to even reach the first riddle. I shake my head.
"I- I won’t be able to. Frankly, I read pretty slowly, not to mention I can’t borrow the book without a card." I tell him, still looking straight down to the book, not daring to turn my head up towards him.
"Mmh."
He leaves, talks to an older woman who seems to be utterly charmed by him already, god he’s annoying. He easily manages to make her show him the library card, then he politely smiles and waves goodbye to the woman. Back to standing behind me, he shoves his hand into his pocket and pulls a leaf out, he glamors it into a card for me.
"I could teach you to do that." He says plainly, as if it’s the easiest thing ever. I look around us.
"Right here?" My voice is a bit pressed, reason being that I’m not so sure that this is a good idea. Teaching another faerie glamoring right in the middle of a library full of humans? Well, okay. Right now there’s not that many people here but still.
"We’ll be quiet." He whispers against my ear, closer than he did earlier. I shudder, and this time I’m sure he has noticed. Dammit. I’m looking away yet I bet he has a lovely smirk on his lips.
"Hurry then. In teaching me." I force out.
As if we’re in a small budget romance movie, he pulls another leaf out of his pocket and places it in my hands, then presses my hands against each other with his.
"Imagine your hands are a printer."
"... Seriously?"
"Seriously." Feeling my disbelief, he clarifies. "I mean, usually that’s not how the fae children are taught but I reckon you’ll have an easier time with a concrete, less magical example."
He’s not wrong. I let him continue. The card he has glamored out of the first leaf is lying on the table next to our hands that are pressed together in a sort of hydraulic press. He asks me to look closely at the card, each and every detail. I do so.
"Done. And now?" I poorly try to not make it obvious that his warm hands on mine are activating a small craving for violence in me. I wanna bite you I wanna bite you I wanna bite-
"Close your eyes and reimagine all those details on the palms of your hands, feel how they stick to the leaf like ink on a sheet of paper." He whispers. Again. Keeping himself pressed to my back.
"Aren’t you just using this as an excuse to touch me? I don’t believe physical contact is necessary at all." I snarl at him as quietly as I can, unable to hold some of my viciousness back anymore. Yet his is always greater than mine.
"You don’t like it?" The smile in his voice is obvious.
"I-" I love it. Thankfully, I manage to hold that thought in, making it go unsaid, I sigh instead. "Whatever. I’m almost finished anyway."
I close my eyes and feel the magic leaving my palms onto the leaf. It’s working. But I let my mind wander a bit, with a brain as scrambled as mine, it’s difficult to stay focused on a single thing at a time, even for a short period of time. I suck it in anyway and continue. When I believe it’s over, I slowly open my hands, wishing for his touch to linger a bit longer. And as I do, it’s right there. A library card, identical to his.
"See? Now tell me what an amazing teacher I am." He asks, shamelessly.
"You’re acceptable."
He puffs at me almost as if I’m a girl who’s hard to get while I believe that I’m quite literally the easiest if you lure me in correctly. In any case, I take the book and as I’m about to get to the register to borrow it, I freeze as I notice the other side of the card. It looks like a picture of Oak, except it came out of my imagination. Oh god. That’s because I was spacing out, isn’t it?
Thank god he didn’t notice or I would’ve made a fool of myself more than I already usually do.
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Aaaaaa I know I’m late but I did a pretty good job following so far, didn’t I? 🥹
Not sure if I’ll write for the other days I missed BUT no matter what, graveyard meet-cute is coming tomorrow! 😤
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Written for Folktober 2023 hosted by @jurdannet and @jurdannetrevels
Freeform Day - Prompt: Reading in Bed with Books
A mug of fragrant hot tea sits on the nightstand beside the large bed where Cardan, propped up with pillows and buried beneath the blankets, lounges, book in hand, and reads. He could have gone to class, and maybe he really should have, but as he stood in the doorway, watching the rain come down in buckets, he turned right around and went back to bed.
Jude, however, had not been deterred by the sight of the rain or the cold. Not by the streaks of lightning or the cracks of thunder that had followed either. Cardan had done his best to convince her to stay home, to stay in bed with him where they could keep each other warm wrapped up in one another. She had rolled her eyes at him and left anyways. But not before she kissed him on the lips, promising to be back later that evening.
Eat your hearts out! Day 10 is here and it’s got us on knives edge in anticipation. Let’s carve out some time and show love to your favorite TFOTA characters!
Don’t forget to tag us! @jurdannet & @jurdannetrevels
Folktober 2023, Freeform Prompt: "Screams in Faerie are like birdsong."
Hosted by @jurdannet & @jurdannetrevels (thanks so much for the great prompts!)
“Ready?”
I jumped, my hand flying to the dagger at my waist, ready to strike, until I recognized the voice.
Cardan looked at me with carefully guarded surprise, one arched brow threatening to disappear into his hairline. “Wife? I don’t doubt that I have done something worthy of your blade but won’t you honor me by telling me what it is first?”
“There’s something wrong with her,” Oak declared too loudly, and I saw the heads of several revelers turn in our direction.
Read on Ao3
Folktober 2023, Freeform Prompt: "Screams in Faerie are like birdsong."
Hosted by @jurdannet & @jurdannetrevels (thanks so much for the great prompts!)
“Ready?”
I jumped, my hand flying to the dagger at my waist, ready to strike, until I recognized the voice.
Cardan looked at me with carefully guarded surprise, one arched brow threatening to disappear into his hairline. “Wife? I don’t doubt that I have done something worthy of your blade but won’t you honor me by telling me what it is first?”
“There’s something wrong with her,” Oak declared too loudly, and I saw the heads of several revelers turn in our direction.
Read on Ao3
Eat your hearts out! Day 10 is here and it’s got us on knives edge in anticipation. Let’s carve out some time and show love to your favorite TFOTA characters!
Don’t forget to tag us! @jurdannet & @jurdannetrevels
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