Chapter Nineteen
Laken
With the Other World gateways on the line, it wasn’t difficult to get the others to agree that we could borrow Tails Up, Scales Down for the night of the full moon. I was more nervous than I wanted to let on and ate through several pounds of goat cheese while we waited for it to be time to head over there.
“Your stomach must be a fondue pot by now,” Sunny teased me.
“What can I say? I’m carrying on a bloodline tradition,” I shrugged. “It’s also worth noting that my family usually only carries a few weeks. I’d put money on the cheese providing the nutrients necessary to grow eggs that quickly. Besides, I’m eating for three. So, I need more cheese than anyone else.”
“You can have all the cheese they’re willing to give you.”
“I’m pregnant. They’ll give me all I can eat. I mean, I love eating, but there is a limit to how much I can actually eat. I’m storing up energy in case we have to perform magic today.”
“Any vibes yet?” he asked.
“Not yet,” I shook my head.
Teddy and Selt were meeting us at the club. I didn’t know what they were doing to prepare for the ritual, and I didn’t ask. As curious as I was to know what they planned to get up to I didn’t want to push Sunny’s buttons that way today. Tonight was a big deal. It might be make or break for this idea panning out for the gateways. Sure, there was the other guy’s vision but the future was always changing.
I kept my mind on that fact as we made our way to Starscale 1. It was better to ponder the future in case Sunny picked up on any of my thoughts. He was in a good mood today and I wanted to keep him there for as long as possible. On the shuttle, he kept one hand on my belly and plenty of older dragons flashed us knowing smiles. I might’ve complained about the territorial displays, but he kept feeding me cheese and crackers as if I might starve before we ever made it to the club.
The place was dark when we arrived there but it smelled like Teddy and Selt were already inside. We locked the front door behind us and I turned on the overhead light before turning it right back off. If we left it on someone might think the club was open but accidentally locked and knock on the door. If we did have an angry door caster bursting into the altar playroom I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt.
Teddy and Selt were already in the altar room. Selt lounged sans his clothes on the altar while Teddy drew symbols I’d never seen before on the floor.
“Cromwell symbols,” Sunny said. “They’re a fox family back on Earthside. Teddy’s---”
“My mum,” he said. “She was a Cromwell. Never did much magic but her dad taught me a lot of stuff in the weeks leading up to his death. These are part protection and part summoning.”
“What’s that one that looks like a door mean?” Sunny squatted down for a better look.
“We don’t know her name. So, I gave her a symbol. So, technically it’s the nameless lady’s name.”
My heart skipped a beat. Wouldn’t that be a great thing. If we could just give her a name and she had to answer to it. The whole situation was starting to feel a bit like an old fairy tale where someone had to answer some fay creature’s riddle or be locked in a barn forever or however it went.
“What would you call her?” Sunny looked up at me.
“Doris,” Selt shrugged before I could say anything. “I mean, let’s keep her on theme, right?”
“Let’s try it,” Teddy said.
“What?” I blinked and glanced at Sunny in case I was already getting carrier’s brain fog.
“What do you mean?” Sunny asked Teddy a second later.
“Let’s do a summon spell. Let’s yell out for her or something. I mean, it’s probably not her original name. So, it’s not like we can find her group but maybe we can summon her. If nothing else, I’ll go eat some mushies in the forest and try yelling Doris when the new moon rolls around.”
“No,” Selt and Sunny said at the same time.
“I don’t think it’s come to that yet,” I shook my head. “There’s no guarantee you’d have the same visionary path as the ship’s healer, anyway.”
“How do we summon someone?” Selt asked, sitting up and sliding to the edge of the altar.
“I’m not sure,” he shrugged. “But I have an idea.”
He drew a door on the floor, taking his time to make it look as realistic as possible, knob and all.
“Anything?” Sunny asked me.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Doris makes sense, though. I think, anyway. I’m not used to trying to get a vibe or something. I usually avoid touching people because I don’t want to know who their last sexual partner was. So, maybe I try to avoid vibes too.”
“Vibes brought us together, though, right?” he asked, wrapping his arms around me from behind and resting his hands protectively over my belly.
“They did,” I nodded.
Sunny didn’t believe Teddy’s door would work. It was all over his scent. I wasn’t so sure that Teddy was barking up the wrong tree. There really wasn’t a recipe for old magic or creating new magic. Part of it was belief and part was having the ability to direct energy. Part of it was probably some mysterious variable that no one understood yet too but that was a philosophical discussion for another day or possibly a drunk late night. Not that we’d have a drunk late night for a while with our twins incoming.
“Uh? Laken, not to sound like a cave-alpha but I’d feel a whole helluva lot safer if you took a couple big steps back before I tried this. It’s probably nothing. It’s probably not gonna work but humor me?”
“Yeah, come on,” Sunny nodded even though Teddy spoke to me. He stepped back and I stepped with him. I didn’t want to be sucker punched by some door caster either. It wasn’t on my bucket list to have to eat the nameless lady or one of her descendants because they jumped too close to my belly.
Teddy glanced at Selt and said something over the flight link that I didn’t catch. Selt nodded and flashed him a grin. Teddy glanced in our direction and Sunny nodded without speaking. Maybe I did miss something but a second later, Teddy knocked on the door he had drawn on the floor as if the person on the other side was far away or hard of hearing.
“Doris? Are you home?” Teddy called out.
“Doris?” Selt joined him a second later.
Something creaked and I startled, sending Sunny back a step. He took me with him, his grip on me tightening. Those were hinges. Hinges that creaked. A second later the door opened upwards as if the floor had never existed for it to be drawn on in the first place.
“Hello?” A woman asked.
“Did you meet a dragon in the mushie forest?” Selt asked.
“Sort of. Not quite.”
“And you didn’t have a name to tell him?” Teddy asked, stepping between the tall newcomer and Selt.
Teddy was adorable in trying to protect his maybe-boyfriend. The only one Selt needed protected from was himself and we all knew it.
“Oh, yes. The dragon who wanted me to cast a door,” she nodded. “I did give my magic away, though. Gave it to my people to save them. Hmmm.. This isn’t how we did it. I don’t think this is how we did it, anyway.”
“So, you don’t know how to connect us with the others?”
“Oh, yeah. I do. Well, I don’t. He will, though,” she nodded over Teddy’s shoulder at the naked Selt.
“He will?” I asked. “When?”
“After he finds his mate. Though, that is on the other side of this door. Well, through this door and the door off my little island. They did leave that for me. You should come now, though. This door is flimsy. If it closes it might never open again,” she sighed, suddenly looking tired.
“Now-now?” Selt asked and Teddy reached back for him as if to keep him there.
“Now-now is the only now I know,” she nodded. “Only you. Only you because you have the bloodline. You’ll find your way back, though. This is your home. You’ll find your way back when you know.”
“Hurry,” the lady said breathlessly.
“Give us a minute, please, Doris,” Teddy said.
Selt slid off the altar that he wasn’t yet tied to and might not be tied to by Teddy ever again. Teddy cradled Selt’s face in both of his hands. I waited for them to kiss but they didn’t. Instead, they leaned their foreheads together and shared a long moment. Now was the time for them to put their fate where their mouths were. Were they really only together until their mates came? Was Selt brave enough to go on his own and secure the future of the flight? I didn’t have a single doubt in my mind that he was. He was a Starscale, and we braved space and built our own home out here in the middle of literal nowhere. Selt was as brave as any of us were.
Finally, Teddy kissed him, stroking his cheek as he did. I almost looked away, but the kiss was brief and not the lingering sort of goodbye I thought they might share.
“Good luck,” Teddy whispered when the kiss broke. “You can do this. I believe in you.”
Selt’s eyes lit up and I smiled despite myself.
“Maybe put on your pants first, though,” Sunny said.
Less than a minute later, a partially dressed Selt disappeared through the doorway and the floor cracked where the door had been. We’d have to fix that later and come up with an explanation the council would believe. They might believe the truth but then again, I wasn’t sure what just happened even though it unfolded less than six feet from the tip of my nose.
Sunny kissed the top of my head and stepped away from me. He stepped over the crack in the cement floor and hugged Teddy.
“You aren’t going to sleep for decades like your old man did, are you?” he asked, keeping his tone light.
“No,” Teddy shook his head. “I didn’t expect things to end so abruptly, but we always knew they would. True-mate responses are abrupt. I just---”
“It sucks, huh?” I said.
“Well, sort of, but no, I just hope he believes in himself enough to do this. A lot of people are counting on him. He’s a great guy but –--” Teddy sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I wish he had some or maybe a lot of therapy under his belt before this happened.”
“You’re too good of a guy, Teddy,” Sunny laughed. “Your boyfriend runs off and you worry about him.”
“He wasn’t my boyfriend. My playmate maybe. My friend, definitely. Never my boyfriend. We were never going to be end game. I’ll miss him, though.”
“Sex was killer, huh?” I smirked and Sunny shot me a dirty look when Teddy nodded.
“Eh, if it’s anything like my experience, it’ll be even better when you meet your true-mate and before that could happen, Selt had to leave to find his, apparently,” I said, stepping over the crack to join them.
“Casimir and Castor will be able to tell us how to fix this,” Sunny said, taking my hand and glancing at the floor.
“The council might just write it off as the price of finding a lot of off-world mates,” I shrugged. “I’ll talk to them. I wouldn’t worry about it right now. Let’s get something to eat, I think the babies are hungry.”
“You coming to feed your god kids?” Sunny asked Teddy.
We hadn’t talked about who might be their godparents but Teddy was a good choice. Frey would be mine of, course. Between him and Teddy the kids would turn out emotionally mature asskickers if something happened to both Sunny and me. That was a good combination.