It was Saturday afternoon. The leaves had turned. The sun was almost setting. And it was just two weeks since a would-be rapist had been apprehended in Columbia Park.
Mira entered the park, walking slowly. She was later than she'd planned, but for some reason her feet had been hesitant to turn towards the park. At least she was here now.
When she reached the cottage she paused and looked off into the copse of bushes, where the Skalingeck had dragged that woman, Mrs. Sanchez. If only she'd stayed out of it! If she'd just made the call and stayed put things could have stayed simple. Normal.
She shook her head. No, she could never have done that. No matter what price she paid for it, it had been worth it.
"I thought you might come here."
Mira looked up to see Sean approaching from the parking lot. She sighed. He was the last person she wanted to see right now, but she was also strangely relieved. Time to get this over with.
He joined her and looked at the bushes. "You did a good thing there."
She frowned, "I just—"
"I know what you did," he said with a small smile. "You're secret is safe with me." He gestured down the path. "Walk with me?"
Mira debated for a minute. On the one hand, he could be planning to get her alone and harvest her liver, if he had figured out what she was. Or… maybe he just wanted a walk. Walking would be better than just standing here though. She nodded and started walking slowly.
"You have been avoiding me."
"Yes," she said quietly. They'd had a date already scheduled early in the week before the craziness of last weekend. She had still been staying with Rosalie when she cancelled. She'd claimed it was stress, but it had been more than that. He'd called or texted every day since; sometimes just to ask if she was okay, but usually asking if she wanted to meet for coffee, or dinner, or—anything. She'd stopped replying.
"I have no right to demand an explanation, though of course, I am—well, curious doesn't quite cover it."
He stopped. They'd only walked a dozen yards to so. He turned and looked down at her. A silver glimmer flickered over her face. He'd finally realized that was a feature of her nature and not happenstance.
"Mira, vous enchanté mon cœur dans tous les sens. Je ai aimé, mais pas comme ça." He paused. "Comprenez vous?" (You enchant my heart in every way. I have loved, but not like this. Do you understand?)
Mira blinked. She did understand. This was not what she had expected, though a part of her had wished… Hoping this meant she didn't have to fear for her liver, she nodded.
He smiled. "Merci. Le français est tellement plus approprié." (Thank you. French is so much more suitable.) Then he sighed. "Mais… You said, in the chapel, that you were not sure if I am safe for you. I won't lie; I have a lot of enemies. Many people I care about have wound up hurt, or sometimes dead. It is not my intention that any of that should happen to you, but I can't promise it won't…" he trailed off as he realized she was chuckling and mumbling to herself.
"そうでわない" She put a hand on his arm and collected herself. "It is not people you know who concern me." Other than maybe that Grimm.
He frowned at her for a moment. "Then what…" he started, incredulous. After a moment Sean looked up and around the park. "This is because I'm Zauberbeist, isn't it?"
She took a deep breath and suppressed her nervous habit of chewing on a lip. She just didn't know how to phrase this. "Mostly. We rarely mix well."
He stared at her for a good long while, either trying to fit the pieces together or figure out how to respond. Eventually, he sighed. "Mira. I know most people find us… unpleasant. If it matters, I'm only half zauberbeist; my father was human. I'm grateful that you know what I am, and that you can handle yourself. It is rather a relief."
He help up a hand to stop her from interrupting. "Please let me finish. I said I'm curious and that's true. But that's not why I'm here. I'm grateful that you know about this world because it means I have nothing to hide. And I don't want to hide anything from you, Mira."
He reached down and took one of her hands.
"As far as I know, you could be a plant sent to assassinate me."
She blinked. Assassinate him? What? Well, that explained a few things.
"Some of my enemies are that motivated that resourceful," he continued. "I've decided that's a risk I'm willing to accept. I think there's a good chance that I could fall in love with you, if you'd let me. I don't know if that's what you want, but I believe you were enjoying our times together until all the wesen complications arose. I don't want that to end. If you are willing to give it a shot, I'd like to go back to that—to coffee and French lessons—and leave the wesen world aside for a while. My curiosity will wait as long as you need."
Mira wasn't entirely sure what to think.
Oh, come on! Can you ask for more than that? Really? Yes, actually. He can say that knowing what I really am. Then why don't you tell him? Because he might harvest my liver! You really think he's going to harvest your liver? Really? まったく! He might! We just don't know! He's already saved your life at least three times. I know, but— You really are just too much. I need some wine. Wine would be very helpful right now.
"That I can do," he said suddenly.
Mira blinked. "Uh… sorry, what?"
"Wine. I actually have a Noir in the car." He stuck a hand in his pocket, jingling his car keys. "And a corkscrew."
Mira frowned. "How much of that did I say out loud?"
"I have no idea," he replied, chuckling. "Only the last bit was English."
"Oh."
They stood there looking at each other for an awkward minute.
"So, should I get the wine?"
"Why don't we go to my place," she offered.
###
All of this security means nothing if he decides to harvest you—SHUT UP! I don't care. Sure you don't, right up until—STOP IT. All Nick's hard work and you just invite the enemy inside. As If I care about the Grimm's time? Which side are you arguing now? I don't know; both of them! Now seriously, shut up; I'm drinking wine! Fair enough.
The merry debate started going round and round in her head from the moment they turned towards Sean's car. Sean kept up a cheery stream of small talk which had a very calming effect. 'How are your classes?' 'Your students sound delightful.' 'You've decorated beautifully.' 'You really should look up Rusalka; it's a beautiful opera.'
Sean poured the wine and Mira led the way into the sitting room. He seemed to sense that her mood and let the small talk evaporate.
Placing her wine glass on the table she opened an ornately carved maple armoire in one corner. Inside sat an old fashioned turn table and a collection of vinyls. She selected one and started an album of German ballads. Returning to the couch she carried a small wooden box. It looked like something one would find in Monroe's house.
Mira placed the box on the coffee table and sat in the easy chair across from Sean, who was seated on the couch. With many pauses, she told an all too familiar story.
"This," she said, opening the box, "was my great grandmother's." She pulled out a large silver locket [C1] with a long, thick chain. Inside was a small glass cylinder with a lock of pure black hair with one streak of silver. "And this was my great grandfather's. He was killed by a Grimm before her eyes. My great grandmother avenged him, but then she immigrated to America; she couldn't stay in Germany anymore.
She took a deep breath. "He was Zauberbeist. It's quite the love story. A hexenbeist matriarch had sent him after my great grandmother, Saedie Baetcher. Instead of killing her, he fell in love. He helped her escape and hid her in this tiny town in the Black Forest. For twenty years they were incredibly happy."
"Die Schöne und das Biest. Beauty and the Beast in the flesh?" he suggested.
"Something like that. It's a very rare story in our history. Encounters between our kinds more often end with one or the other dead."
She let that sit for a while. Sean eventually took a long sip of wine. "Go on," he said finally.
"Some say we are natural enemies. It's easy to see why—" Realizing she was beating around the bush she stopped suddenly. Taking a long sip of wine she steadied herself. "When our kinds meet someone ends up dead because, most often, the hexenbeist, or zauberbeist, attempts to harvest us."
Mira stared at her wine for a minute.
"To 'harvest' you?" he asked, frowning.
She nodded. "We…" She squirmed. Here goes nothing! 頑張って! "We have a unique physiology among wesen. We are also fairly rare: we tend not to procreate much and our wesen nature doesn't always pass to all children, or even all generations." She took a deep breath. "Apparently there are several …parts that are key ingredients in some very powerful spells."
Mira buried her face in her wine glass, taking another long sip.
Sean set down his wine glass. He reached to take her hand, but at the last moment he merely held his out for her take.
She looked at the hand, then back up at the mixture of sad determination in his eyes. She hesitantly placed her hand in his. He drew her hand up and brushed her knuckles with his lips. He looked up at her.
"If I ever cause you more harm than this, please feel free to rip out my heart. I know you could."
She took back her hand, processing this twist. Unexpectedly she chuckled. "That may be the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me."
He nodded and raised his glass, "You're welcome." He took a sip. "And to be absolutely clear, I do not generally practice magic or tend to associate with those who do, my own mother excepting. I have no interest in harvesting any part of you, or will I. Ever. And as far as I can help it no one ever will. Oh, about my mother, who does practice magic, she would adore you and would never harm you in any way—unless you are actually an assassin and off me in my sleep. In which case… well. We know how that story ends."
Despite herself Mira laughed, almost spilling wine all over the carpet. "We are a pair, aren't we? And, to be absolutely clear, I do not practice assassination. Though, speaking of secrets, why on earth would someone want to assassinate a Portland Police Captain?"
Renard stared at her over his wine glass. "You… you really don't know?"
"Other than you are a Portland Police Captain named Sean Renard who is also a half Zauberbeist? Should I?" She smiled as if he were joking. One glance at his face though told her than he definitely was not joking.
He took a deep breath and set the wine glass down again. "My mother, as I have noted, is a hexenbeist. My father was human, but not just any human. My father is King Frederick."
Mira sat frozen for a full ten seconds. "Oh my God," she finally forced out. "That—that means. You—are the b-" she cut herself off, realizing was she was about to say.
He nodded understandingly. "The Bastard Prince, yes. At your service."
She looked down at the wine glass for a moment, then back up at him. "Are you serious? This isn't a joke?"
He shook his head. "No joking whatsoever."
"哇，我谈恋爱了王子! / なんだよ! 私は王子とデートしちゃった! Merde!" She looked up at him. "What the hell are you doing in Portland?"
He shrugged. "Originally, lying low, staying out of the way. Now, protecting wesen, raising and protecting a Grimm, and supporting the Laufer. You're sure you had no idea who I was?"
"Absolutely none," she shook her head. "As you might imagine, my family tends to stay as far away from anything wesen related as possible."
"Except when you rip apart thugs in parks," he suggested playfully.
She huffed. "That was a noble cause!"
"Agreed."
He smiled at her for a moment. "Mira," he said gently. "I am honored by your trust in telling me your history. I hope I do not push too hard to ask you to tell me your name?"
He meant the name of her wesen bloodline, of course. "You may not have heard of us. We are called the Speigelkin, or, more commonly, Mirrorkin."
"'A living mirror,'" he echoed.
"Yes," she said. "Some also call us fairies, long ago. We can reflect any woge we have seen, though not as powerfully as the original wesen. Sometimes it helps us pass undetected, as we can appear to be of another bloodline. But it can also be a gamble."
"I can only guess. That explains a great many things."
She smiled a bit. "I suppose so."
Sean swirled his wine for a moment. "May I may one more request?"
Mira thought she knew what it would be, and sure enough…
"May I see?" he asked. He sounded eager and slightly nervous, like a sixteen year old boy asking for his first kiss.
Mira set her glass down and stood up. Taking a few steps away she turned to face him and summoned her full woge.
Her skin rippled into a smooth sea of crystal, every joint and curve faceted to produce a flock of rainbows. Her hair transformed into a cascade of starlight. Even her eyes turned from a normal, intense blue, into a truly deep, glowing sapphire fringed in lashes that shinned like a nebulae. Her teeth and fingernails sharpened into razors of diamond glass. And everywhere she glowed with a pure, deep, sparkling blue of a twilight sky reflected off a perfectly still lake.
At that moment Sean knew he beheld the most beautiful element of all of God's creation. "Sacrée bleu…"
Mira had never woged outside of battle before, self-control being crucial for survival for her kind, so she had only ever seen a fear reaction to her woge. She was therefore astonished to see Sean stand up breathing hard, moisture beading in the corners of his eyes.
"I think," he said slowly, "that this is what they mean by a beauty to smote one's heart."
She blinked and lost hold of the woge. It slowly slipped away, leaving Mira feeling more solid and vulnerable at the same time.
Sean stepped forward and again took one of her hands in his. "Mira." He paused, searching for words. "You couldn't stop me loving you now if you tried. Se il vous plaît prendre un café avec moi demain?" (Please have coffee with me tomorrow?)