The Way of Queens

Chapter 1

The days had long since turned cold, hot months of summer were bleeding into the calmer, cooler days of Autumn. And I was grateful for it. I didn't do well - rather my temper didn't do well in the blazing summer heat.

I'm standing in front of a large wooden counter, the wood pressing into my ribs as my hands hover over the bright scales of the red snapper I was preparing for dinner. I glance at its mouth, open and gaping in death, large eyes glazed over - staring up at nothing and wonder how different we, the Folk, were from this fish.We were born, we'd fuck and fight and love, and then we'd die. Perhaps it was just emotion alone that separated us. I even doubted I'd look that much different when it was my time to leave this world. Though I hoped I wouldn't smell as bad.

I absently traced a finger over the slimy scales. The fish wasn't as cold as I expected it to be as it'd been sitting on a block of ice all day, but the chill of its body and the thick viscous substance that clung to my fingers as I pulled my hand away sent a shiver spider-walking down my spine.

"Scared it's going to bite you?" a familiar voice sounded behind me, rubber-banding me back into the present. Raen, my mother in all ways but by blood, heaved a large basket of unhusked corn up onto the counter. My stray knife rattled against the countertop.

I offered her a small smile. "No, just thinking about how pretty its scales are," I lied.

Raen grinned, her plump pink lips pulling wide over an array of perfectly straight white teeth. She gently shoved me away with her shoulder, picking up the knife in her slender hands before sliding it under the front fin, slicing deep in one fluid motion of her elbow. "Beautiful indeed. Though it'll be even more glorious when it's seasoned and golden from the stove."

I snorted at that, turning to the basket of corn she abandoned. She was the master cook. Me? Not so much. If I really thought about it, there wasn't much she couldn't do. She was skilled with blades, with cooking, with art. She could make even the coldest of hearts thaw in her presence.

Raen was the epitome of the sun - her hair like woven gold, her eyes a green so deep, so beautiful, that I often wondered what god or goddess had smiled upon her creation. She wore a sleeveless tunic made of muted silver, her tanned skin gleaming in the late afternoon light.

She was so beautiful. Her body, her eyes, her presence just offered so much light. And I was nothing like her.

I didn't have time to say anything else as Tias, her husband, sauntered into the kitchen. He didn't say anything to me as he passed. He didn't so much as glance at me - though that wasn't any different than normal. He reached his wife, a thick and muscled arm winding around her waist. Raen's lips parted, teeth gleaming in a smile as she turned in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. "How were the nets?" She asked, pulling away after he placed a kiss on her brow.
Tias's russet eyes shot to me for a fleeting moment before he ran a scarred hand through his red hair, sighing. I averted my gaze. My hands reached for the silken husks within the wicker basket, my fingers separating the hair of the corn before I peeled the leafy coating back to reveal the yellow kernels beneath.

"It's very well past their spawning season, so as well as you'd think," he growled, reaching for a stray piece of bread that had been forgotten on the counter from breakfast. He chewed it slowly. "Though Rowan was able to get a large knot out of one of the nets without making any holes, so it wasn't a horrible day."

Raen cocked her head. "You didn't let him go under alone, did you?"

Tias opened his mouth to answer but was cut off short.

"You act as if he has any say." My eyes flicked upward to catch Rowan, their son and my best friend, closing the front door behind him. His eyes were already on me, the corner of his mouth tugging upward. "Fish and corn again?"