Chapter 12
Chapter twelve
Game, Set, Match
Quin
A long, grand table stretched before them. Her mother sat at the head, her father to her right. Quin had always sat to her left, but that seat was vacant and would, now, always remain so.
Thyro Duboi was reading the newspaper, a lit cigar between his lips. Her mother hated it when he smoked indoors, but it was the one singular way he defied her. After so many years together, her mother had mostly stopped complaining about it.
He noticed them first, expression conveying surprise, then confusion, then a somewhat horrified understanding when his eyes landed on Quin and Glyma’s laced fingers. Setting his paper down on the table, he arched a questioning brow.
“You sure you want to do this, Quinnie?” he seemed to say.
She jutted her chin, and he nodded. Just once.
He had never been a good father. He never once stepped in to defend her against her mother’s tirades.
He never stood up to her mother at all. He kowtowed, same as Quin, because that was what was expected.
He was Claryn’s trophy husband, and he enjoyed his privilege too much to risk it for Quin’s sake.
She knew he would be no help to her, but she didn’t need him. She had Glyma, and she had Waryn. And she had herself. She didn’t need anything else.
“Mother,” Quin said, and Claryn Duboi looked up from the tablet she was working on in mild surprise. It turned to shock as she took in the three of them, a united front line standing at the ready for the first hail of bullets.
Like her father, her mother zeroed in on Quin and Glyma’s clasped hands, and her mouth thinned into a pinched line.
“What is this?” she said, devoid of the usual animation she employed for Waryn’s sake.
“I’ve come to tell you that—”
“Do speak up, Quin,” Claryn barked. “Always with the mumbling. It drives me mad.”
Off kilter now, Quin cleared her throat and licked her lips. “Um, I, uh, I came to tell you… uh—”
“Well, do get on with it, dear. I have a meeting later.” Claryn leaned back in her chair and folded her hands under her breasts. Her posture was complete ease, but her eyes were hard as nails.
Quin’s fingers shook, and Glyma squeezed again, so hard it hurt. Because she was real. She was flesh and bone, and she was so fucking real.
“Then I won’t take up any more of your precious time,” Quin said, voice clear and nearly too loud in the hollow room.
“I’m here to reject your offers, both of them.
Waryn and I will not be getting married, nor will I marry any woman of your choosing.
I’m going to be with Glyma. She—” She looked at Glyma, who smiled so beautifully.
“She’s my girlfriend, and I am entirely besotted with her. ”
Facing her mother again, she said, “We’re not going to hide or lie.
We don’t care what you tell the papers or what you say at your galas to protect your precious image.
We’re going to be happy together, and while I hope you can accept that, I don’t need you to.
I know who I am, and I know what I want.
This is the life I choose, and you…” Her stomach cramped horribly, but she breathed through it.
“Well, you’ll just have to learn to live with it. ”
Waryn’s thumb rubbed soothingly over the back of her hand, and Glyma was practically bouncing on her toes, her tail tangling with Quin’s between their bodies. Quin didn’t turn away from her mother, though. She stared right into her blood-red eyes.
Claryn Duboi inhaled slowly through her nose, index finger tapping, calculating, formulating her next move. But Quin didn’t care. She was done playing by her mother’s rules. She was finally ready to make her own.
“You stupid girl,” her mother said, and try as she might, she couldn’t completely hide her flinch. “One night of eating snatch, and you’ve suddenly grown a backbone.”
“I did most of the eating, actually,” Glyma said, bringing an undignified noise from Quin. “Though, Quin did a great job, too.”
Waryn smothered a laugh behind his hand, disguising it poorly as a cough. Quin gaped, and Glyma waggled her eyebrows unfairly and winked. Quin snuffled a laugh, and Glyma giggled.
“You,” Claryn Duboi said, leaning forward in her chair to give Glyma an almost bored onceover, “are an insignificant fly.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Quin snapped, and Claryn smiled, chilly and triumphant.
“I will speak how I like in my own home, and I won’t be disrespected by some no-name, illegitimate Succubus whore.”
Smoke billowed from Quin’s nostrils at the insult, but Glyma tugged hard on her hand when she took a threatening step toward her mother.
“No, Quin, she’s right. I am a nobody. I’ve never known who my father is, though I never missed him much because my mom was the best parent in the world, and I wouldn’t trade her for a hundred fathers.
“And yeah, I’m definitely a Succubus whore, and I wear that with pride.” Glyma spoke to Quin, not to her mother. “I’m not ashamed of any of those things, so there is no honor here in need of defending.”
Popping onto the tips of her hooves, Quin pressed a quick kiss to Glyma’s mouth, tasting the smile on her lips. “I am in awe of you.”
“Yes, well, as precious as all this is, I have more pressing matters to attend to,” Claryn said, taking a sip of her wine. “It is a pity. I did like you, Waryn.”
“The feelings were never mutual,” he said with a gentlemanly bow.
Claryn’s mouth puckered like an asshole again. “Well, enjoy whatever life you’ve built for yourself while you have it.”
“A barely veiled threat. How boringly unoriginal,” he sighed. “You will do as you must, Claryn. As will I.”
“Indeed,” she said, snapping her fingers for a refill.
The bald Anura, who’d been watching this all unfold with interest gleaming in her eyes, waddled over and poured more wine into Claryn’s goblet.
“So that’s it, then? You’re going to walk away?
Wash your hands of all this? After everything I’ve done for you? ”
With a short nod, Quin said, “Everything you’ve done has been for yourself, Mother. We were all just collateral damage.”
“Spoken like a true victim; you’ll fit right in with all the other plebeians.
But you’ll come crawling back, mark my words.
” Claryn stabbed one sharp nail into the table.
“When Waryn goes off on new adventures and your little side piece here gets bored and moves on to greener pastures, you’ll come slithering back with your tail between your legs like the spoiled, little girl you are.
And we’ll see how accommodating you’ll be then. ”
“Goodbye, Mother,” Quin said, squaring her shoulders. “I don’t believe we’ll be seeing each other again.”
Claryn chuckled low and throaty. “Well, when that ill-advised cafe fails—and it will fail—we’ll see, won’t we?
” At Quin’s surprise, her mother cocked her head in mock confusion.
“What? Did you think I didn’t know? Do you actually think I’m stupid enough to leave you unchecked?
Oh, my dear, how very foolish of you. I know everything.
“I know about that decrepit building in the middle of nowhere Purgatory that surely has faulty wiring and old pipes. Can’t imagine that building will be standing long.
” She said every word with indifference, but her smile was sharp as a scythe.
“And I recently attended a luncheon in the financial district. Had a nice chat with Geryld, and he told me all about your friend’s little venture.
I told him must approve the loan, because any friend of Quin’s”—her icy gaze shifted to Glyma—“is a friend of mine.”
Quin’s breath caught, but Glyma didn’t react to her mother’s less-than-covert threats. She circled Quin’s waist with her tail, the fluffy tuft stroking soothingly down her arm.
She met Claryn’s challenging stare and said, voice calm and collected, “I’m not afraid of you, Ms. Duboi.”
“Then you’re just as foolish as my daughter,” she said, razor-sharp.
“You can destroy my cafe, if it satisfies your ego,” Glyma said, and Quin nearly protested, quieted this time by Waryn’s tail coiling around her arm.
She closed her mouth and watched Glyma stand tall and sure.
She didn’t bend, and she didn’t break. Because she was flesh and bone, too, and she was a wonder to behold.
“You can burn it to the ground and blame it on faulty wiring, or flood it and blame it on old pipes. You can even bulldoze it and blame it on some bogus permit violation,” she said, and Claryn arched a curious brow.
“I don’t care if you get my business loan unapproved and block me from every bank in the Pentagram.
“Maybe I’ll never have my cafe at all, or maybe it will fail, just like you said.
And I would be disappointed, because it’s been my dream for as long as I can remember.
” Dismissing Claryn entirely, Glyma gazed down at Quin and tucked a loc behind her ear.
“But dreams can change, and your daughter’s part of my dream now, maybe even the most important part.
With her at my side, we’re capable of amazing things, regardless of your interference. ”
She wiped away the tear threatening to fall from Quin’s lashes, then turned back to her mother.
“So no, I’m not afraid of you or your petty threats.
If anything, I may enjoy knowing how much space I take up in your brain.
Always there, hovering in the background, like an insignificant fly buzzing in your ears.
” Glyma giggled, but there was an edge to it this time.
“Claryn Duboi, and her vendetta against a no-name, illegitimate Succubus whore. Who would have thought?”
Claryn’s right eye twitched. It was small, easily overlooked, but Quin saw it.
Game, set, match.
Without awaiting a response, Glyma smoothed a hand over Quin’s curling horn and said, “Ready to go, babe?”
“Yes,” Quin said, and Glyma winked at her.
“Jolly good show,” Waryn said, the tip of his ebony tail grazing Glyma’s shoulder.