Three #4
“Four months that she spent keeping the least children of the Undersea safe from the illusion of her monstrous grandfather,” he said.
“A reasonable person would agree that since her debt is to Duchess Lorden, rather than to yourself, that by protecting those children my daughter discharged any remaining offense she might have given to Saltmist.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. He wasn’t entirely wrong, if we were just talking about what Raysel actually theoretically owed: the actual offense had been claimed by Dianda Lorden, Duchess of Saltmist, and she’d simply assigned Raysel’s service to me in the process.
Officially, she’d done things that way because she didn’t want Raysel’s presence to upset her husbands, one of whom was the man who’d originally abducted her.
In reality, it was because Raysel had begged me to get her someplace safe, and my house was the safest place any of us could come up with.
Sometimes doing things by the rules will come back to bite you in the ass.
If Raysel had actually pissed off Dianda badly enough for her to claim offense, rather than just breaking Raysel’s nose or something, protecting the Undersea changelings who’d been thrown into Blind Michael’s lands by Titania’s enchantment would have been more than enough to discharge that debt.
But since the reality was that we were trying to give her a safe place to rest and recover, I had to focus on the fact that she wasn’t ready to go back.
“Be that as it may, she only comes back here if she and I both agree,” I said. “And neither of us have said that we do. I don’t know that I can say that I do.”
His face fell. “October … are you truly telling me that you’re going to keep my daughter away from me even longer than you already have?”
I took a deep breath before pinching my nose and momentarily closing my eyes.
“I am going to put my foot so far up Titania’s ass that she’ll be able to retie my laces with her tongue,” I muttered.
Opening my eyes, I gave him a disappointed look.
“You were starting to do so well before she put the whammy on you. You even seemed to understand why it was important that you let me come back here, whether or not it pissed Luna off.”
“And then Titania took my child away from me. Again,” he said. “I am … not a man who does well without his family, October. You saw that, in the lie she spun to contain us all. You know how poorly I received her version of our world.”
“I do,” I said. “Is that why you’re suddenly on team Force Raysel Back to Shadowed Hills? Because you’re afraid Luna’s going to leave you if you don’t take her side?”
He glanced away, and that was answer enough.
“Root and branch, Sylvester, if she’s threatening to leave, if she’s saying ‘Hurt someone else or I’m going to hurt you,’ that’s abuse. I don’t care that she’s your wife. She doesn’t have the right to do that to you.”
“Who else do I have?” he asked, voice growing sharp.
“In this world, you have a family of your own, a husband and sisters and a child that you haven’t yet brought to present to me, as your liege, even though tradition says you should have done it.
I waited weeks after the birth for you to bring her to me.
I sent Jin to Queen Windermere’s court so she could check up on you, be sure you were recovering properly, and you never brought my great-niece to see me.
I’m not a part of your family in this version of reality.
My brother is leagues below the sea. He hasn’t introduced me to his daughters, either, and I wasn’t invited to their presentation. ”
None of this was news to me, but the way he was putting it together made it all terribly damning. He was describing the situation as he understood it, and with every word, I understood why he would be able to yield to Luna’s wishes just a little bit more.
“Sylvester…”
He ignored me, continuing to talk. “My only other niece is content in her own demesne, and since her daughter cannot travel, she doesn’t call on me the way you used to.
And my daughter—my only daughter—chooses your company and your household over my own.
If Luna leaves me, I will be alone.” His voice dropped, and he looked down at his hands.
“I can’t be alone. I don’t do well when I’m alone. ”
My heart clenched. For all that we weren’t currently on the best of terms, I loved him.
I’d loved him for most of my life, from the days when he was just my mother’s weird fae friend into the moment he offered me the Changeling’s Choice, and from there became my weird fae friend, and finally my liege.
He’d been family the whole time, but I hadn’t known it until I’d learned that my mother was married to his brother when I was born, making me Simon’s daughter in the eyes of Faerie, even if we weren’t blood relations.
I didn’t want to see Sylvester hurting, even if he was hurting other people in his flailing for some stability.
He was a Duke now because he’d been a hero once. He knew what it was to suffer for the good of others, and how much Faerie would be happy to take away from him if only he allowed it. He knew how much he could bleed.
Maybe that meant I could still make him understand, even if I had to talk to Luna and get her to pull back on her threats.
Maybe there was still a chance. “I’m sorry I haven’t brought Andi to meet you yet,” I said.
“We haven’t really been taking her out of the house.
After everything that happened when she was born, I’m a little more anxious than I probably ought to be about keeping her safe, and Tybalt’s been more than willing to go along with it.
We’re not going to lock her up, play princess in the tower, do what Amandine did to me in the other world and August in this one, but we’d like her to be a little older before we move her around too much.
Still, we can ask Chelsea to portal us over.
We’ll go straight from the safety of our home to the safety of yours, and there won’t be any danger.
I want Andi to know you. I want her to grow up with her Uncle Sylvester, who looks too much like her Grandpa Simon and gives her cookies after I’ve said she can’t have any before dinner. I want you to be a part of her life.”
“So why haven’t you been asking me to be?”
“I was waiting for you,” I said, with complete honesty.
“You’re the one who pushed me away, Sylvester.
You’re the one who said what Luna wanted was more important than our friendship, or my fealty, or the fact that we’re family.
And she’s your wife. I understand how I feel about Tybalt, and how I’d react if you asked me to choose between him and you.
I wasn’t going to put you in that position. ”
“I … see.”
“Simon wants a relationship with you, too,” I added. “I was there when the two of you talked, after Titania attacked Muir Woods. I thought … it seemed like you were going to find a way back to each other, even if it was a complicated one. It seemed like you thought there was a chance.”
“I did,” said Sylvester. He lifted his head and looked at me.
“And then I saw a world where he was happy and I wasn’t allowed to be.
Where he had his family and his own life to lead, and barely needed me anymore.
Both of us, when we have a home, we turn inward and we focus on that home.
You do the same. I like to think you learned that from me, because you certainly didn’t learn it from your mother. ”
I blinked. “Wait. Are you telling me you’re not reaching out to your twin brother because you’re jealous that Titania liked him better?
Has someone explained to you that she only gave him the better life because she was planning to use him as the sacrifice that would let her lock in her version of Faerie forever?
He got to be happy because the sacrifice requires seven years of paradise before the spell can work properly, Sylvester!
She hates you both, for whatever ridiculous reason. ”
“Because we were born changelings,” he said. “Because we’ll never be good enough in her eyes, and nothing we can do will change that.”
“I’m not sure I’d want to be good enough in her eyes. She’s a bigoted megalomaniac. Not the best role model.” I paused, taking a deep breath and trying to settle myself. “And it doesn’t matter. Titania doesn’t matter. She’s gone.”
“For now,” he said, grimly.
“She’s gone, and we’re here, and I came to tell you, with all honesty, that if you try to force Raysel back to Shadowed Hills before she’s ready, you may keep Luna—for now—but you’re going to lose your daughter.”