Ten
When Evan woke up, Cole sat him down at the kitchen table and explained everything that had happened.
I was surprised that he didn’t leave anything out, even how their father was killed and his injuries, but I understood that their relationship was based on honesty in all things, so he could do nothing less.
Evan took a deep breath and looked at Cole. “I don’t want you to die.”
Cole shook his head. “I’m not gonna die. Even if he somehow cheats and I lose, the contest isn’t to the death. It’ll be determined by whoever yields first.”
“What if you beat Abel,” Evan said, the “uncle” having been dropped as soon as he learned that the man had either murdered his father himself, or arranged the killing, “but then you have to beat Justin as well?”
Cole shot his brother a look.
“Yeah, okay, fine. Justin can’t hurt you at all.”
“Listen—” Cole took a deep breath. “—if you want to see them on your own after the challenge, you have to take Mere with you, okay?”
“I won’t want to,” Evan muttered.
“I need you to understand that I won’t think you’re being disloyal to me if you see them, but the fact of the matter is, I don’t trust them not to hurt you to get back at me.”
Evan nodded.
“And I know that’s awful, because they’ve all been in your life since you were a baby,” Cole said gently, “but in that moment, when Abel made the decision to kill Dad because he wanted to be alpha, he wasn’t his brother anymore. I can’t trust him to be your uncle in a similar situation.”
“I get it.”
“And I know it hurts. I just melted down all over Mere; that’s why I look like somebody punched me in the face.”
“I’m sorry,” Evan replied, trying to give Cole a bit of a smile. “And yeah, I’m really sorry to lose a part of my family, but as long as I’m with you, I’m okay.”
Cole reached out and cupped his brother’s cheek.
“I know you have that business meeting tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving, and normally Narah would pick me up after school when you can’t, so who’s gonna—”
“Me.” Ondine walked into the room, her hair now falling to the middle of her back in auburn waves with highlights of mahogany, yawning, and headed for the coffee maker, which was filled with more of the chicory blend.
“You’re gonna get me?” Evan asked her, his face lighting up.
“Yes. I drive a sky-blue Volkswagen van, so you can’t miss me,” she informed him, first going to the cabinet and grabbing an enormous mug, before walking to the coffee maker, patting it, telling it what a wonderful machine it was, and filling her cup.
“You have a car?” Cole asked her.
“Van,” she corrected him as she walked over to the refrigerator, found the cream, and filled it to the rim.
The fact that she had to slurp it to carry the mug with her made her seem less mythical creature and more a hungover twenty-year-old.
Of course she banged the fridge door shut as well. She always did.
“You know how to drive?” Cole sounded stunned.
She turned her emerald-green death stare on him.
“Sorry, I’m sorry.”
“The only one here who can’t drive is Mere,” she said, taking a seat at the butcher block table in the kitchen.
“I can drive,” I argued.
“You can go very short distances, like down a hill or around a corner, and only here in town. When was the last time you were on a freeway?”
“I can’t seem to recall.”
She snickered. “Let’s talk about four-way stops.”
“It’s only polite to let other people go first.”
Cole started chuckling as we all joined her at the table.
“It’s not funny.”
“And to answer your question, I drive well, and the van is pristine. Also, I have decided that until your challenge on Thanksgiving, I will watch over Evan when he’s not in school.”
“Really?” I asked her, more than a bit surprised. “You’re going to be around?”
“Yes.” She met my gaze steadily.
“Well, since I have to work, and Cole has to work, and since Evan likes you better than both of us—”
“Hey!” Cole was indignant.
“––we really appreciate that. I can’t think of anyone safer than you.”
“Of course you can’t,” she said haughtily, then turned to Evan. “And I applaud your decision to not see them after the challenge, but if you change your mind, I would be willing to go with you then as well.”
“I’m worried about you getting hurt.” Evan sniffled, a couple of stray tears rolling down his cheeks. “I don’t want you or Cole or Mere to be in danger because of me, but I don’t think just staying here, hiding on Mere’s land, is a good idea either.”
“It’s not,” she assured him, reaching out to brush away his tears. “But keep in mind, I’m harder to kill than you think. And Mere…” She turned to look at me. “I looked it up one time, and as, technically, a mythological creature, can you even be killed?”
“I would have to decide to end.”
“That’s right, and you’re not doing that until you have an heir for your land so it will always be a sanctuary for all your freaky little friends.”
“Freaky?” Evan asked her.
“She means Teague.”
Evan looked at her. “What’d he do?”
She glared at him. “He called me a mermaid, as though I were common.”
As Ondine launched into another tirade about Teague and mermaids, Cole reached out and took hold of my chin, turning me to face him. “You can simply decide when you want to die?”
“It’s not death for me. I’ll simply rejoin the universe like I never existed.”
“Okay, I hate that.”
I smiled at him.
“Will you age with me?”
“I will. I have to in every lifetime, leaving my land to the next link in the chain.”
“Which is always just you, right?”
“That’s correct.”
His eyes narrowed. “Tell me how old you are.”
“Do you want to discuss this to take your mind off everything else?”
“Partly, yes. But also, I just want to know.”
“Well, I’ve never seen a dinosaur,” I teased him.
He shook his head at me. “How long? A hundred years?”
“It’s hard to say, really, because I wasn’t aware of time at first. I was focused on what I was made to do.”
“Which was to punish.”
“Yes.”
“But then you changed.”
I smiled at him. “It was a slow realization that if the child could be saved, then the adult they became would not need to be punished for their sins.”
“Clever of you.” He moved his chair closer to me and ran his knuckles down my throat. “So, a thousand years old?”
“A bit more than that.” I refused to have him delve any deeper.
“I can’t even grasp that number, but I also find myself not caring as much as I thought I would,” he murmured. “The important thing is that I get to spend this lifetime of mine with you.”
I scoffed.
Slowly, he scowled at me. “What was that?”
“That was cheesy is what that was.”
“Could you please pretend to be madly in love with me?”
“Maybe I will be,” I replied softly. “Which would make this lifetime my last, as how could I ever be without you?”
His breath caught. “I want you to live forever.”
“We’ll see,” I replied, checking to see if Evan and Ondine had reached a lull in their conversation, which they had. I stood up then, and three sets of eyes were on me. “First, I wanted to say I like the freckles,” I told Ondine. She made a good redhead.
“Oh, thank you.”
“Second, I’m going to whip up some quick breakfast, just eggs, fake bacon, and toast, and then, I was thinking, after we eat, we could all take a walk together, because I’d like to show you both some beautiful areas of your new home.”
“I would love to walk with you,” Cole assured me. I could get used to how I was being looked at right then. Possessively, like I was absolutely his.
“I want to go too,” Evan said, then turned to Ondine. “Will you come?”
“Walking? Through grass and dirt?” She made a face. “I’ll pass. I’ve seen this parcel many, many times. But I will wait here. I might even bake.”
I froze, staring at her.
“Stop that. I can bake.”
“Everything is always perfect, but somehow it always comes out lethal,” I reminded her. “It’s the most amazing lemon meringue ever, but then you’re dead because it’s poison.”
“I know. Old habits and all that,” she said, going back to her coffee, drinking it and closing her eyes in pure bliss.
Cole went and brushed his teeth, and was back to watch me scramble eggs with cheese, and Evan fry bacon that he said smelled weird.
“That’s because it’s not really bacon,” Cole muttered.
Evan enjoyed his brother’s complaining.
After breakfast, Ondine yawned loudly and then got up to go to the front door, carrying more coffee. “I will attempt to make cookies while you’re gone. We’ll see what happens.”
“What’re you doing?” Cole asked her.
“I’m going to let all my puppies out in a minute.”
“What puppies?”
She cackled evilly.
Cole turned to me. “Not only is she calling me a dog, but she also didn’t take her dishes to the sink. What kind of manners are those?”
“She doesn’t bus dishes,” Evan told his brother. “Weren’t you listening to the rules last night? Drying is her thing. That’s it.”
“Yeah,” I said playfully. “Keep up, man.”
Cole held his hands up in mock surrender, and the three of us stacked everything in the sink before I had both of them put on their coats. Even though I’d explained to Cole that I couldn’t get cold, I put on my parka just to make him happy.
“Why do you have one if you don’t need one?”
“So people don’t look at me oddly when it’s below freezing outside,” I answered flatly. “That just makes good sense, don’t you think?”
“Come here. I wanna kiss you.”
I wasn’t about to say no to that.
I so enjoyed walking with them through the woods, and I was glad to do it in human form so we could all talk. It got dark early, and I pointed out the fairies who lit our way that to them only looked like fireflies.
“Fireflies in the fall are weird,” Cole said with a grin. “So thank you, fairies.”
They appreciated his words.
I explained about the dryads in the grove, and then something more simple, like the fox family that lived safely in a den not far from where a small cliff overlooked a meadow.
“This is so much better than the city,” Evan told me, picking up a hawk feather he found.