A Human’s Guide to Surviving Magical Mishaps

We are all just sitting down for breakfast when there is a loud pounding knock at the front door. I don't know who it is but they're either very rude or very desperate. Or both. Marcus answers the door, he and Lucy practically live here at this

point. Lucy has been staying in the spare room since Ashton has been staying with me. I don't even think to go and see who is at the door. We've had lots of guests the past few days, but my wonderful friends have spoken to them all on my behalf and sent them on their way, which is why I'm surprised when Marcus actually calls for me.

"Uh... Kat? It's for you..." He trails off, sounding kind of nervous. Strange, Marcus isn't generally a nervous person. I mean, his first reaction to meeting Ashton was to hit on him. Ashton looks concerned, he knows I've been avoiding dealing with people. He's already halfway to his feet. I guess he figures he can try to send whoever it is on their way. But I can't hide forever. While it's been nice having everyone take care of me, I can't let them do it forever. I've always been able to take care of myself, it's about time that I start taking care of the things I can do myself, starting with answering my own front door.

"You guys wait here, I'll let you know if I need you." I tell Fin and Ashton. Neither of them look thrilled but they stay put.

I head to the front door and I can see why Marcus isn't hitting on the guest. It's mayor Simmons. I can see why he wouldn't want to flirt with him, ew. I can also see why he is having trouble sending him away. The mayor has barged in and is standing in the doorway making it impossible to close the door without quite literally smashing him in the face with it. I can't say that I would be totally against that. According to Lucy, more than a reasonable amount of the calls I've received in the last few days have been from the mayor. She's repeatedly told him that I'm not ready or available to talk. Apparently he's done waiting. Yeah well, I don't think I'm prepared to be nice, or even particularly polite to him. I didn't invite him here. He was specifically told not to come. What could he possibly still want from me? He can speak to Ashton directly if he wants to. I don't owe him anything and I'm not particularly inclined to be helpful anymore. I'm too busy trying to pull myself together to care much about everyone else. That woman I met once, his assistant I guess, is standing on the porch waiting. She looks bored, I don't think she wants to be here either. Mayor Simmons catches sight of me over Marcus' shoulder.

"Ah, Miss Fall, finally. It's been a nightmare trying to get a hold of you." He complains. His voice is stern, like he's annoyed with me for making his life difficult and for inconveniencing him by making him come to see me, like I WANTED him to turn up.novelbin

"Yeah well, I've had more important things to worry about." I tell him blandly, just barely managing to avoid being outright sarcastic. He pauses and looks momentarily confused, probably trying to decide if I'm insulting him or not. I am, I'm telling him that he is completely unimportant. But he seems to dismiss my insult as accidental because his face clears and he takes another step further inside

"Right... Well, we should go sit somewhere. I've got something to discuss with you."

I reluctantly lead the mayor into my living room. He looks unimpressed at the mess. It's not even that messy, it's just that Fin's mattress is still set up on the floor, and Marcus slept on the couch last night so there are a few blankets. There are also a few bags strewn around the room belonging to the both of them. There are no clothes lying around or anything like that, it's just there are two people currently using this room as a bedroom. I don't bother explaining that to him. I didn't invite him here, if I had then MAYBE I might have tidied up or something.

"What do you want?" I say bluntly. I know how to be polite and charming, I can be sweet and talk people into doing what I want. But what I want right now is for him to say his piece, then hurry up and go away. I don't want him to make the mistake of thinking he's welcome.

"I wanted to discuss the official press release for that incident down at the station." he starts and I frown. "The incident? You mean the one where my dad was murdered? And a few others aside from him." I point out.

"Yes that. Obviously it was a nasty business, but there's no reason to make it worse by going around telling everyone about it. I don't want people afraid of a fae invasion. We don't want them worried that the police can't protect them either." He insists. I scoff.

"You want to cover it all up? To lie to people?" I know I must sound disgusted. The mayor doesn't seem to notice, he just nods.

"Of course, to avoid panic. Anyway, the official story is that your father died in an accident. A fire started in the station. No fae or escaped criminals involved at all, that's what I'll need you to tell people." He says, almost cheerfully. "No." I answer immediately and his eyebrows raise up into his hairline.

"You'll be paid for your cooperation." He says, as if THAT'S what my issue is here.

"No. I won't lie about what happened. My dad died protecting me from fae assassins, I'm not going to pretend it was some accidental fire." I object. All my dad ever wanted to do was protect people, and they want to take away his final sacrifice, to pretend it never even happened. I can't do that.

"But... you have to. If the fae choose to attack us, we can't have everyone terrified of them." He tries to reason with him. I roll my eyes.

"The fae aren't going to attack us, and if they did want to I doubt we would have much of a chance against them anyway. They have magic. Why would they want to come here? We have nothing for them." I point out. The fae have their own home, their own land. They have magic and as far as I can tell they're mostly reasonably happy. Sure there are a few criminals, what society doesn't have them? But instead of ignoring them the fae came after them, Ashton came after them. The fae don't want to attack us or anything like that. They want to get along with us. I've met Ashton's mother and obviously Ashton himself isn't planning some hostile takeover.

"That damn prince won't tell me anything, I don't trust a word he says to me, a born liar I bet he is. I'm convinced that he was playing with me, using magic to hide his real appearance." The mayor scoffs.

"He's probably some kind of monster under that pretty face." he seems proud of his insults. I'm just angry. It's also stupid, there are enough reports and videos of Ashton without his glamour at this point that he has to have heard descriptions, probably even seen pictures. He's just being petty and jealous. Also to call Ashton a liar? He literally can't lie. He only wears the glamour in an attempt to maintain a little anonymity, and because he's noticed that it makes most people more comfortable to be able to pretend that he's human. The mayor doesn't notice that I'm getting pissed off so he keeps going.

"My previous offer still stands, you know. If you can tell me anything useful about the fae I'll make sure that you're well compensated." He smiles at me, a charming smile that is probably what got him elected in the first place. I hate it. "I think we probably have different definitions of what counts as useful. For example, I don't think this conversation is useful. I'm not going to lie or tell some story about my dad's death, I'm not going to badmouth the fae or betray my new friends so you can stop asking me to. Now get out. Leave. Unless you have something useful to say then it's time for you to leave." I insist. The mayor blusters and grumbles, he makes no move to move until Ashton, Fin and even Marcus appear behind me. The mayor's face goes red when he realises that the fae are still here. I guess he thought that they went home with all the others. He looks furious as Fin walks him towards the door, although interestingly his assistant seems kind of amused. I don't think that she likes him all that much. Just before Fin closes the door I see her trying to hide a smile. Good for her.