Chapter 28
“ I see what your grandmother was talking about,” Delicia whispered almost to herself. “You are a warrior like your father.”
Her words must have hit a nerve in Tris because he started to calm down and even looked like he might accept my plan by the way he’d stopped flexing every muscle in his body.
But when there was a knock on the club’s meeting room door and he offered to see who it was, I knew he was still upset and using the time away from me to overanalyze his feelings.
This was how we worked, regardless of whether we were dealing with embezzlers, trolls, or missing fae fathers.
When Tris returned with my mother by his side, Delicia gave me a small smile and offered up her seat next to me at the table.
Giving my mother a quick hug, she took Arelis’s hand and pulled her away from us.
My mom sat down, eyes traveling over the collection of people gathered about, many of them moving toward the edge of the room to give us some privacy.
“What’s going on, Sosie?” my mom whispered.
I opened my mouth, trying to figure out where to start, but Arelis was suddenly by our side again. My mom jumped in her seat and clutched her purse tightly against her chest, her hair blowing to one side .
“Have you ever had a drink of blood before?” Arelis asked me in her sultry voice.
“Um…no.” Was she serious? Why would I have ever done that? Tris cleared his throat but stayed silent. My mom’s mouth hung open in shock.
“It’s a bit of an acquired taste,” Arelis continued.
“Okay…”
Delicia elbowed the vampire. “Stop it. You’re scaring her.” She giggled and looked up at her. “Maybe you can make her one of your chocolate shakes.”
Arelis smiled down at Delicia in a way that made my heart ache for the same.
They were either in love or truly inseparable friends.
And it was a stark contrast to the warrior woman we saw earlier during the fights.
Amazing what real companionship can do to a person.
Or…a…vampire. Tris and I shared a knowing glance with each other, a thousand silent messages passing between us.
Wylen clapped his hands together, drawing the attention to him. “Then it is settled. Sosie will accompany me to Ashtabulah, and Arelis will assist us with the blood transfer.”
“I don’t like this,” Tris finally said. Turning to me, he added, “I want to go with you.”
“Tris, you can’t.”
He ground his jaw together. “Then I at least want to go to the entrance. I’m not letting you do this alone.”
Considering the way our argument went last night regarding selfishness and priorities, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I appreciated his gesture.
“Wylen? Where do we have to go to enter Ashtabulah?” I asked over my mother’s head. She’d yet to make a single comment.
“Northern Kilderoy.”
With a huff, I turned back to Tris and shrugged. “Want to come to Northern Kilderoy with me?”
His smile lit up the space, and when he bent forward to kiss me, the rest of the people in the room disappeared.
It felt nice to have him by my side, supporting me yet allowing me to go out on my own.
I knew these last few days had been tough on us both, so it was a pleasant change to feel total support from my best friend in the world.
Arelis gestured to Wylen. “Come with me.”
Delicia jumped forward and gathered her small purse from the table. “I’ll help.” The three of them went through the door that led to the storage area without saying anything else.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“Getting your ticket to faerieland,” Tris mumbled.
Oh. Blood. They were collecting Wylen’s blood. For me to drink. My stomach churned.
Malakai and Kaelan also left the room, leaving Tris, me, and my mom alone with Irini.
She walked around the table and stood behind the three of us.
“Don’t move,” she whispered right before she touched Tris’s and my shoulders.
Sucking in a breath and then letting it out slowly, she held on for a few seconds before dropping her arms in relief.
“You will be fine,” she said to me. “And you,” she spoke to Tris, “make sure you pack a tent.” With a beautiful smile aimed at the two of us, Irini followed behind Kaelan and Malakai and left the three of us alone.
“What is going on?” my mother finally spoke.
Tris huffed a laugh and pushed back in his chair. While standing, he said, “I’ll give you two a moment.”
“Thanks.” I smiled up at him and watched as he walked around the table and went back into the main part of the club.
“Are you two sleeping together?” my mom asked.
“ That’s your question?” It sounded snarky even though I didn’t mean to be cruel.
“Sosie,” my mom sighed.
“Sorry, it’s just been a very long day.” Twisting in my seat so I could face her better, I blurted out the only real question I had. “Did you know about Gil? ”
She was staring at the doorway and picking at her fingernails. “Did that scary woman just ask you about drinking blood?”
“You mean that vampire ?” I snapped. “Yes, she did.”
“What?” my mom breathed, face turning white and hunching into herself for protection.
“You heard me. Arelis is a vampire. Now, did you know about Gil being fae?”
“Sosie, I…”
I knew she was going to lie to me, I just knew it. So, I pushed my black fog out toward her and willed her to finally tell me the truth. “Mom?” I snapped.
“I knew he was different, yes.”
“He’s more than different, Mom. He’s not human.”
“I suspected as much,” she whispered.
“And you never thought that might be an important bit of information to tell me?”
“Sosie, you don’t understand?—”
“No, Mom,” I said, cutting her off. “I don’t understand why you would keep this from me. Especially when you asked me to look for him. Do you realize what I’ve been through these last few days? What I’ve learned about this place?”
“Sosie, I?—”
“Gil is from a different world, Mom,” I continued on my rant. “A world that I now have to go to and try to save him.”
“Oh no,” she breathed. “Sosie, you can’t go. Gil told me that humans can’t visit.”
“So, you knew?” I snapped. My mom was getting the brunt of my anger right now, but I couldn’t seem to control the emotion racing through me.
“I…Gil said…”
She started to cry, and I instantly felt like a piece of crap. “Mom,” I sighed. “Please don’t.” But she pushed my hand away when I tried to grab hers.
“Gil said that no one would ever know you were different. But he also warned me that you should never go visit his world. That it could change you. Hurt you. He made me promise that I would never tell.”
“Well, Gil seems to mean a lot to all of these people.” Including you , I thought. “And this is the only way to bring him back home.”
My mom opened her mouth to say something at the same time Tris came back into the room.
He sat down on my other side and wrapped his arm over my shoulder.
I could see my mom watching us closely, but I didn’t have the energy to care what she thought right now.
I loved her, but we needed a little bit of time to sort this out.
I was about to go on a journey to another world to save a man I had never known.
A man my mother hid from me in several different ways.
We didn’t say anything for a while. But with Tris being here with me, it was weirdly comfortable and actually helped settle my anxiety. I snuggled in under Tris’s arm, so very tired and so ready for a good night’s sleep.
“You know,” Tris finally said. “I wonder if that whole vampire blood has healing powers thing applies to fae blood as well. Maybe it will fix your concussion.”
“You have a concussion?” my mother asked.
“Possibly,” I answered her, and then turned to Tris. With a laugh, I shrugged. “True. That would be nice.”
“Are we going to be okay?” he whispered as he kissed the top of my head. My mom made some kind of noise that I ignored. She and I might need a little more time to mend the wounds. If I made it back from Ashtabulah alive and normal, that was.
“Always,” I replied.
Tris and I would be all right. There was too much between us to let one fight ruin it all.
I was glad Tris wanted to come with me to Kilderoy.
I wish he could make the whole trip with me.
I mean, maybe that would even give him a chance to see where his ancestors came from, too.
Wylen made Ashtabulah sound like the most amazing place in the world.
Why wouldn’t I want to share that with my boyfriend ?
It wasn’t until Wylen came back into the room holding a mug with two hands that I started to wonder if the journey I was about to embark on was really the smartest decision in my life.
“Is that it?”
He placed the mug down in front of me, and I got a whiff of hot chocolate and smiled. “He didn’t have any ice cream,” Wylen said by way of apologizing for it. “But Delicia said any kind of chocolate helps take the bitterness away.” He glanced at my mom, who was staring at him a little too intently.
“Have you ever shared your blood before?” I asked Wylen.
“Oh, no. It is not our way.”
“Well, then, I thank you for doing this for me.”
Wylen reached across the table and grabbed my hands. “It is an honor, Sosie. You’re the reason we know where to go next.” He stood again and turned on his heel. With another glance at my mom, he said, “Kaelan is purchasing our train tickets now. I shall go and help him.”
After Wylen left the room, Tris huffed. “Wylen’s going to help Kaelan on the interweb?”
“Sounds like it,” I muttered, picking up the mug and enjoying the warmth. “Well, here goes nothing.”
“Is he fae and is that his blood?” my mom asked with a whisper.
“Yes and yes.” I swallowed the first sip, anticipating the worst. But I was pleasantly surprised. “Okay, I can do this.”
Tris’s face was all scrunched up and pale. He better not get sick on me. My mom covered her mouth in disgust. She better not say anything at all. I was doing this for her.