Who is Magpie?

When Jessamine woke up she had been moved to a larger bed. She had remembered Oakley getting up at one point for the bathroom, and she had hugged him before she fell back asleep.

Even now she could see that the sun was setting outside, but she still felt exhausted. The last full meal she had eaten was her cold lunch the day before, and her stomach growled angrily. Her pillow was soaked and she guessed that she had been crying in her sleep.

“It’s been 24 hours without you, my loves,” she whispered to herself. “I miss you.”

She ached more this time as she blearily tried to blink her eyes into focus. The door clicked open behind her and, as the smell of river rocks drifted in, she threw the closest pillow at it.

Azural chuckled as he caught it. “I see you’re finally awake.”

She shook her head. “I don’t feel awake.”

He nodded in understanding. “I noticed the gold in your marks when I moved you this afternoon. Two mates goes both ways, you have two people to draw strength from, but you have two people needing strength from you.”

“That makes sense.” She pulled the blanket up to her chin, feeling colder than before.

Azural walked over to her and took her hand in his. Then he moved to pull her eyes open, before finally tossing her blanket down despite her protest to press his ear to her chest.

He sat on the bed, realizing how weak she felt when she didn’t strike him with her hands or feet. “Jessamine, you can cut them off. Keep your strength for yourself. You don’t need to so freely give it.”

“The fuck I will! I shot him, he can have everything I have.” Jessamine snapped back, trying to pull the blanket from beneath him.

“You haven’t eaten, you’ve slept an entire day, you can’t even move me!” he growled. “You never would have been okay with this before!”

“Stop,” she moaned, fighting to push him away as he leaned over her and captured her wrists in his hands.

He pushed her down against the bed putting his legs on either side of her. “I could do anything to you right now and you couldn’t stop me. You’re as weak as a kitten with all you’re giving him, he’s clearly dying, let him go before he takes you with him!”

Her mind flashed through a dozen retorts before settling on one. “You want to be mated to me?”

He shook his head, blinking his eyes suddenly. “What?”

“This is what that means! I give my everything to those I love, everything. If you ever knew me, ever loved me, you would know that.” She looked up at him as firmly as she could.

Jessamine knew she was vulnerable, knew that he could do, as he said, whatever he wanted and she couldn’t stop him, but she could also feel Bronx’s need. Even if she couldn’t feel him, not his pain or emotions, she could feel his spirit through their completed bond.

It helped that she didn’t feel the same thing for Ezekiel, and she knew he was okay. She could devote her energy to one of them if that was what they needed.

Azural growled at her again, jostling her into the bed. “I’m bringing your dinner up, Oakley has been waiting for you to eat.”

He rose suddenly, walking heavily to the door and tipped his father’s photo face down.

“Sorry I was never worth the risk.” Her voice was somewhere between sarcasm and sincerity, and with it he paused at the threshold.

Azural hesitated before finally saying. “I’ll be right back, try to act like you don’t want to die, for your son.”

…

“Mom!” The word jarred her from sleep and she sat up suddenly.

“Yes. Sorry.” Her throat felt dry and, before she met Oakley’s worried expression, she met Azural’s eyes.

He sighed and moved to open the curtains, revealing the sun rising into midmorning. Jessamine was instantly confused, feeling very slightly less tired but not remembering falling asleep.

“I slept through dinner?” She asked, looking at Oakley who had toast and bacon on a plate.

“And breakfast and lunch and dinner and breakfast and lunch and dinner and…!” Oakley took a super big breath but giggled at her expression before he could continue.

Her brows moved further together. “What?”

“You’ve been out for four days,” Azural translated. “When I came back with your food I couldn’t wake you. We tried everyday, and this is the first time you’ve opened your eyes. I had half a mind to put him from his misery…” Azural stopped speaking as Oakley looked up toward him and shook his head. “You need to eat.”

She moved to sit up against the pillows but halted when she realized something was missing. The jeans and button down she had fallen asleep in, initially in Oakley’s bed, were gone, replaced with a long T-shirt and nothing else. She touched the shirt and looked at Azural accusingly.

“I was very gentle,” he assured, which didn’t really help.

She took the plate, smiling as big as she could to the child, despite everything, and took a bite. The food turned in her stomach and she knew it wouldn’t last long there. She looked desperately at Azural who sighed and picked up a waste bin for her to hurl into.

“What’s wrong with mommy?” Oakley asked, his own eyebrows pushing together as she wiped her mouth with a tissue.

“It’s just the flu,” Jessamine interrupted.

“If stupid was contagious..” Azural muttered under his breath and she glared again.

“Did you help with this?” Jessamine asked Oakley, bringing her face close to his to brush her nose against his, and he smiled and nodded. “Then it is super special. I’m going to give my tummy some time to wake up and eat it a little later. Ok?”

He nodded excitedly. “Ok. Do you think you’ll be better for pack dinner tonight?”

“I hope so,” she said honestly, though doubted it highly.

Oakley crawled up into the bed and sat beside her while he ate his own food. He told her all about his friends and the things they liked to do for fun. He had started sparring training with the other young kids earlier that month and was very excited to share.

“So you know what sparring is mom?” He asked, ready to impress her.

“Your mom is an excellent fighter,” Azural bragged. “She can fight more than one person at once.”

“Wuw!” Oakley gasped looking up with big eyes. “What’s the most many people you fought before?”

She smiled at his words, remembering gratefully that he was still young. “Five!” She replied, eyes just as big, as she caught sight of Azural. “But they weren’t well trained. Two or three is normal.”

“Normal?” Azural questioned.

She shook her head. “Not an interesting story.” Her eyes fluttered, as another wave of tiredness crashed over her.

“Okay bud, let’s leave her to get some sleep so she can hopefully feel better for dinner.” Azural escorted Oakley, who hugged her goodnight, to the door before closing it.

“Jessa, this is ridiculous. There was a reason we fired the crossbows over the guns, silver breaks down our cells. It basically turns them on themself, making it hard to heal from. It is unnecessarily cruel.”

“So why bring them?” She shivered, moving back under her blankets.

“The Fae underestimated you with the intent of killing you if they were going to fail, and I know you were injured severely. Bringing you back safely meant not underestimating what we were up against.” Azural assured, wishing the Fae had underestimated her before when he was trying to get her.

Her eyes remained closed so long before she spoke he thought she fell asleep. “A couple more days and I’d have been healed enough to make your ass grass.”

“I don’t doubt it,” he chuckled.

“You do,” she whispered. “Seeing me like this you regret taking the pack down the straight and narrow. A broken luna requires more attention than what you were expecting, and you’re down some fighters.”

“You’re not broken…”

“No, I’m making a choice for someone I care about, just like you did building this community for Oakley. I didn’t anticipate how much energy the bond would take, but it’s up to Leti and Bantu now.” She tried another small bite of her toast and cringed. “Why can’t I eat?”

“Leti and Bantu? Your wolves? They would risk your life?” He sighed heavily. “You’re so tired because he’s far away, and even spiritual magic has limits You can’t eat because he took a silver bullet in the stomach, and he can’t eat. The difference being, he’s likely getting an IV.”

“Then…”

“I can’t take you back. We attacked your pack house. All of the fires were set by your own traitors, but people were injured, maybe killed. They would kill every one of us. Man, woman, and child…”

“I wouldn’t let that happen,” she insisted.

He shook his head and touched her face. She crooked her head but it wasn’t enough to make him let go of her chin.

“It’s easier for wolves to kill their enemies than hold trials. You should know that better than anyone.”

She could remember how annoyed Ezekiel had been when she first suggested the traitor be given a chance. He had also already told her that Prue and Cole would be killed for their hurtful but non lethal movie production. Still she couldn’t believe he would ignore her protests if she gave them.

“Did you help them make that movie of me?” She asked suddenly, surprising him.

“What movie?” He returned, letting go of her face.

She willed herself to stay awake, sipping lightly on some water. “The night you invaded, they put a video on for everyone in the pack house to see. Among the images they showed, there was a video of us having sex, and then you saying you missed me.”

“They what?” Azural barked, but she had kind of expected it.

She nodded to herself. “I hoped it wasn’t you. It’s nothing new for the Fae to show things like that, but when I heard your voice.. I’m still trying to figure out who you really are.”

“They what?” He asked again. “I… I knew. I tried to pretend it wasn’t so bad for my own guilt, but I knew it wasn’t good. That’s why I tried so hard to get you out. They kept you in a building we couldn’t get anywhere near with the plants outside. We even tried burning them,… That made it worse.”

Again she nodded. “They affect the lungs and eyes like an allergy. You’d have been better off in scuba suits, or finding the tunnels that run under ground.”

“I didn’t know about those.” He admitted.

“Most of them don’t either,” she allowed.

“Every so often we’d catch wind of them sending you somewhere, or when someone we posted outside the Garden would see you leave. You would think we were one of the wolven you were sent to deal with, or evade us every time. I had got you away a few times, but with that tracker and whatever they did to you, you always ended up back there.” He sighed. “We killed one of them once while trying to get you out, and the next time I saw you, you had been punished for it.”

“…. Meeting you now, I think they sent me to kill Ezekiel in the hopes that he would kill me and you would retaliate. They had more to gain from you and your pack than me at the time,” she whispered, laying her head in the pillow, the small amount of water she had felt like stones in her stomach.

“Is there a line Jessamine?” Azural asked suddenly, and though she was ready to sleep again she looked at him. “Will you stop giving him all of your strength before it kills you?”

She hesitated. “I did this to him.”

“You’d leave me, your son,… fuck even your other mate, for guilt?” He demanded, and when she didn’t reply he moved on. “You’re obviously special. No one on record has had two mates, but I did mark you first. Your little human teeth didn’t get very deep, but you marked me too.” He showed her his forearm where little white scars could be seen. “Claim me, maybe I can give you my strength, at least enough so you can eat something.”

Her stomach groaned in protest to the thought of food going in or out. “I won’t cheat on my mates,” she stated firmly.

“So we won’t have sex, fine, I don’t even care.” She snorted and he picked her hand up off the bed. “I won’t lie that you’re the best I’ve ever had, but I’ll give that up to not have to watch you fade out of existence.”

She chuckled. “Yea, sure,” she joked, knowing she wouldn’t be awake much longer.

Even as Azural was asking if she was serious she could feel herself drifting off. Leti drifted into a fog of consciousness, wondering if she was making the right choice.