He brought me right to an AT&T, lifted his glamour off me, and told me to pick my phone and whatever cases I wanted before obtaining an unlimited plan. After that was settled, he took me right to an empty bench a few blocks away from the building so I could finish setting up the device.
By downloading Finch.
He made itvery clearthat getting the Finch app was of utmost importance—for the sake of his Tree Town and my mental health. So I did. And I added him and Whimsy as a friend. And now I’m working my way through copying over his contacts, which he also requested I do, with somewhat less enthusiasm.
Trying not to seem as shaken as I feel about him letting me get a phone without my having to ask for it, I sift through every last one of his contacts. I’m almost positive that Abuse 101 includes cutting off access to the world beyond your abuser.
My mother was very good about keeping tabs on who I could contact and when. She monitored my phone use vigilantly and only let me have one at all because it streamlined the social media pages she insisted I upkeep.
There’s no reason for Castor to let me have a phone.
Unless he overheard Willow telling me to ask for one?
Maybe he’s testing me somehow?
Maybe I’m failing since I’m doing exactly what Willow told me to.
Maybe I should scoot a little closer to him and prove that what she said about him didn’t affect my opinions negatively, just in case he heard a lot more than the phone thing…
Or maybe I should just keep copying contacts, like he told me to, and focus on only doing what I’m told so I can use that as my excuse if I need to.
“Who’s ‘little lamb’?” I ask, calmly, serenely,comfortably.
“Andromeda,” Castor murmurs at the sky, head resting back as he sits beside me. “She’s Pollux’s amalgamation of a daughter. They’re dream eaters, fae that walk through the dream plane and craft nightmares in humans. He figured out a way to push a particularly powerful boogeyman into evolution. Alongside Xios and…the moth monarchs…they are my fellow unseelie.”
“Pollux…” I add his daughter’s name to my contacts. “Willow mentioned him, didn’t she?”
“She did.”
It wouldn’t take my years of hyper-vigilance to pick up on the tension between Castor and Pollux right now. Unfortunately, I don’t know Castor well enough to try and navigate this kind of rocky terrain yet, so I sweep mining for information on Pollux under the rug.
Opting to placate instead of press, I rest my head against Castor’s shoulder, release a breath at the right moment to relax my muscles, and make it seem like it’s possible he fuels my calm. All the while, I continue transferring contacts. All of them. Because he told me to. And having more people I can reach out to for help seems like a good plan.
Zahra. Willow. Andromeda. Alexios. Someone named Alana.
Five people.
It’s not exactly a lot of options, and given the bird cage and the signal situation in Faerie, accessing them will be limited, butat least it’s something. In some small way, it makes me feel a little more secure, a little more…independent.
“Done,” I say, offering Castor his phone back.
He removes one hand from the sleeve of his robe and takes the device before slipping it into his pocket.
Right now, beneath the protection of his glamour, the world of humans passes us by. No one notices the ethereal man in dark robes swallowing up a bench at this busy outlet mall on a weekend.
No one noticesme.
It’s peaceful.
Too peaceful, clearly, because I find myself stealing Castor’s hand before he can tuck it back into his long sleeve.
His fingers splay for me when I drag a touch up his palm, and I find myself mindlessly tracing the place a knife wound should be. I can’t explain the emotions trampling around inside my chest as the truth that he can instantly heal such a deep injury sinks in.
In some ways, I am terrified of the power he holds. In others, his strength presents a twisted comfort.
He won’t let anyone else lay a hand on me. Not even for a moment. He is my only threat now. The only thing I need to worry about. The only person I need to concern myself with.
And he has been more gentle with me than most I’ve met. Even when his fingers have been around my throat, they’ve been cool, careful, intentional. He says he’ll listen to me, be my slave, be my anything.
