Who is Magpie?

Ezekiel felt like all the time he had spent in setting things up for Jessamine was only giving him less time to spend with her. He felt like an ass. Getting pulled away when she wasn’t feeling well, and then leaving late the night before and not being there when she shifted. He had given Bronx shit for that, but he had been chewed out all the same, for trying to give her space and not offering to help sooner. He knew Bronx was right, just like Willow had been right, on how to deal with Jessamine, but when it came to her he seemed to forget common sense.

He had been meeting with Athena half the morning, and then had to deal with her again before dinner. Ezekiel had finally gotten her to leave under the threat of collecting the Hemlock assets but he didn’t expect that to be the end of it. He still wanted to discuss it with Jessamine and see what was left to her to begin with. He would buy it all back if he could, but he would say anything to get Athena out of the way for Jessamine’s first full moon.

He went to her room, knocking on the door and ringing the bell, but there was no answer. He was sure she had been putting her clothes away, which he hadn’t questioned, but he had wanted to suggest she put it directly into his closet. He entered the room calling her name, but there was no reply. Once inside he saw all her clothes hung up and a basket full of underwear, bras, and socks left by the dresser. The top drawer had been removed and was left on her bed, leaving him with more questions than before.

More than once Bronx had been the one to find her or run into her in the house, so he called him first. “Alpha?” Bronx questioned, wondering what type of phone call it was this time.

“Brother,” he confirmed, and then laughed, “Jessa isn’t in her room again. She’s not with you is she?”

Bronx chuckled. “Not this time, but I’m willing to bet she’s outside. Want me to go look for her?”

“I’m free now too, I‘ll meet you in the foyer.”

Bronx was there first looking confused, his brows bushed together and he was looking through a message on his phone. “Chey saw her go outside with a backpack half an hour ago.”

“What?” Ezekiel gasped.

“No one saw her at any of the gates, so she must still be outside.” He assured, feeling the tinge of panic in his own chest.

They walk around the property together, both surprised when she wasn’t in the garden. “What would she even come outside this late to do?” Ezekiel wondered out loud.

Bronx shrugged. “I’m sure she’d tell you if you asked, have you really talked to her about much of the stuff going on with her?”

“No,” Ezekiel admitted. “I’ve been too worried about making her unhappy, or making her feel like I still saw her as Magpie to bring it up.”

“Well that’s stupid,” Bronx barked. “Seven years of her life she was held captive and made to believe she should be grateful. That wont go away because you don’t talk about it. It probably hangs over her every second of the day. Did you know she had met Delano before?”

“No, I haven’t heard that story,” he confessed, feeling more than a little sorry for himself.

“It came up last night during cards, and I asked him more about it today. They hadn’t even reported the run in because nothing seemed amiss. They didn’t even know anyone had gone inside when they went back in.” Bronx gave him the run down of the run in and they both agreed there were likely more instances when the Fae had gotten away with something they knew nothing about.

Ezekiel was nodding but they both smelt a fire at the same time and changed directions. A soft flickering glow could just barely be seen in the corner of the yard behind a large bush and though they knew who, they didn’t know why.

Sure enough they ducked under the branches of the surrounding trees and found Jessamine sitting on the ground in that corner. There was a small hole in the yard, and her hands were covered in dirt to the wrists.

“It’s a funeral,” she informed before they could ask. “I’m not Magpie anymore, and I don’t need her things.”

They could see the remains of her bag and some fabric burning beneath her weapons. The flashlight stood on the edge and she tipped it over into the hole to join everything else causing a slight spurt of ash to fly up into the air. Jessamine watch it all settle again with a quiet reverence.

“You know it didn’t even work?” She laughed hoarsely. “I tried it before I came outside, but…” they heard her whimper and without speaking moved to sit on either side. She composed herself momentarily, clearing her throat. “When I entered your room I thought it was full of plants like my room in the attic, that’s how strongly your smell hit me. You were tossing so terribly I couldn’t get a clean shot and was reaching my my flashlight when you turned the light on. If I hadn’t packed it, I would have guessed,” she admitted.

“I was tossing because the strange smell of lemons drifted into my dream and I couldn’t find the source. It drove me crazy, and then a voice said ‘I’m here’, and I woke up,” Ezekiel admitted back.

She scrunched her hands into the skirt of her dress, pulling out all of her pins and Ezekiel wondered when she had taken the fifth one back. She flipped them over in her hands, examining them individually. They watched her open and close the small knife before returning it to the pile with the rest. Next she checked the one that hid small picks, examining each of them before putting them back.

“Am I a hypocrite for wanting to keep these?” She asked softly.

Ezekiel knew the story, Bronx didn’t. “You don’t need to get rid of it anything,” he assured. “It is your choice.”

“I’ve become so use to wearing them. Those,” she gestured to the knives and baton, “I had to have those. I still had to pay for them, but they were required. These,” she gestured to the pins in her lap. “I commissioned these. Between the five of these I spent a year working in the forge. That old woman hated me, but I could lift, I could work, so when I offered my service for these pins she made it well worth her time each time.”

“She wasn’t charged dollars,” Bronx said suddenly and she shot him a look. “I understand why you don’t want to tell him Jessamine, but even if you burn everything that touched that life it will still be a part of you.” He closed her hands around the pins. “Keep them. It sounds like they were the first big choice you were able to make for yourself.”

She leant against him comfortingly. “I’ll tell you guys anything you want to know, but I don’t want your pity.” She almost spat the word, feeling it like acid on her tongue. “I… I don’t even know that I can say I survived. I didn’t understand what was happening when I was in it, and packing a broken flashlight narrowly kept me from stabbing my mate.”

“What were you sent to do that day you met Delano?” Bronx asked suddenly.

She didn’t hesitate in telling him the truth. “We were sent to copy any paperwork with the Alpha’s name on it.”

“That wasn’t even a permanent office,” Ezekiel muttered thoughtfully. “We just needed a building closer to the port than the pack house to handle all the incoming shipping slips for supplies and trades. What were they looking for?”

Jessamine shook her head. “That I don’t know. I can only tell you what I did, I don’t know what any of it was for, or even if what they told me I was there for was true. I know I volunteered to distract the men because Kay was faster reading the papers, and Blue Jay would have been a terrible decoy.”

“Did Kay and Blue Jay tell you to stab yourself?’ Ezekiel asked calmly, but Jessamine wasn’t in the mood.

She swung her legs to straddle his lap, her hand pressing up against his throat in a way that was both threatening and sexual in nature. “Kay is the only friend I ever had, she tried regularly to get me off the tea, or convince me of their lies but I just couldn’t understand. Kay would never ask me to do anything if she knew it would hurt me.” She thought back to her night in the garden and wrapped her arms around Ezekiel instead for a hug. “She was the only one who came close to me in skill, and if it came down to a war, and I couldn’t convince her to stop fighting, I would take her out myself before I let any of your untrained hands touch her.”

Ezekiel held her in return, trying not to take the comment personally. He could tell she was hurting just as easily as Bronx could tell she hurt. Bronx picked up her pins that had fallen on the ground and began pinning them back in her hair.

Her hand reach behind her head as he pinned the last one in and she pulled him towards her. “Jessamine?” Bronx asked quickly, as his hand was pulled along with her back over Ezekiel’s shoulder.

His chest pressed to her back and he could feel her shuddering. He had never known anyone to cry so silently. This was the cry of someone who wasn’t meant to be seen or heard; someone who a month ago wouldn’t have accepted a hug let alone instigated. Both men wrapped their arms as fully around her as it was possibly, and waited as her silent tears built up over silent years ran dry. Then it was time for dinner.