Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
FRANKIE
“He’s gonna kill us when he wakes up.”
I grinned up at my daughter as I dipped the brush back into the nail polish bottle. “It’s a rite of passage for modern fathers, Auryn. Mei-Ling and I used to paint Uncle Kyle’s nails every other day when he fell asleep on the couch.”
She held Everest’s right hand up and arched one eyebrow. She looked so much like him when she made that face. “Hot-pink though?”
I lifted his left hand up to my face and batted my eyelashes. “They’re the color of my eyes.”
She threw her head back and cackled. “He’s so gonna kill us.”
I laughed so hard I snorted, which caused my hand to slip and spread hot-pink nail polish across his entire pinky finger. “Oh, fuck,” I mumbled and wiped the polish off his skin with my sleeve.
Auryn sighed so hard it made me look up.
“What is it?”
She closed her eyes and smiled, then looked down at her father’s hand.
“When Savannah was little, back when they still lived in Eden, we used to paint Akecheta’s nails.
He’d pretend to be asleep just so she could do it, then he’d make a big show of waking up and being all dramatic about it. I wish you could’ve been there.”
A hot lump of emotion formed in my throat. “Me too,” I said softly.
“I’ve missed her, too, these last few years.”
“Did you not see her often?”
She shook her head. “Not since I took the identity of Saber. I knew it would be too risky to be seen with anyone else, but I had to do it. I couldn’t leave him in there alone, not when you were so close. The last eighteen years have somehow been the hardest.”
“I cannot even fathom it, my love,” I could barely speak. The emotions were too intense, too suffocating if I let myself feel them for even a second. Fake it, ‘til you make it. “Did you see them at all?”
She wiped a tear from her eye. “Akecheta and I saw each other once every few months but only because Father insisted. He said my soulmate could handle the risk. I only saw Rae once a year, and always in the Oasis.”
“I would’ve been afraid to endanger you, so I understand. What about Savannah?”
“Savannah is losing her shit,” came a voice behind us.
We both jumped at the sound. Savannah stood in the doorway of Everest’s room down in the infirmary in an oversized black hoodie with Ozzy Osbourne on it, and that made me want to smile .
. . despite the anger blazing in her sapphire eyes or the red puffiness of her skin that suggested she’d been crying.
“Ma’am, quit your smilin’ like that when I’m tryna be angry—”
I snort-laughed and rested my forehead on Everest’s arm.
“That just feels rude,” she mumbled.
“I’m sorry, Savannah.” I held both hands up and tried to rein in my giggles. “It’s just . . . I get it now.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Get what?”
“You.” I shrugged, then twisted the nail polish bottle closed. “I get why you are the way you are. I get why I liked you . . . I get where all your sass, anger, and curiosity comes from. I see so much of Everest in you, and even more of Auryn.”
Her eyes widened and watered, but she didn’t speak.
“I didn’t get to know your father and grandfather as Celina, but the little I have seen in them I see shining through you.
” I took a deep breath and rubbed my chest, which had grown tight and warm.
“It’s not something you could understand at sixteen, but to look at a young person and know they exist because you did .
. . to see what the love Everest and I feel for each other brought to this world .
. . It’s beautiful. I am so proud of who you are, and I cannot wait to get to know you. ”
Her bottom lip trembled.
“And I can’t wait to see you and Everest get to interact freely.
” I grinned over at my daughter. “I think back to my short time here with The Coven and Everest . . . It’s funny to realize what all those expressions from him meant now that I know.
I knew he was entertained by you, but now I know why. ”
“Oh, he was very entertained.”
“Like when he turned himself into that monster and tormented me until we had to leave Eden?” Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Entertained like that?”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I knew by the way Auryn’s face fell that she did. She grimaced. “I was worried you’d put that together when I came out that back door and found you there . . . on our property.”
Savannah stomped her foot and wiped angrily at her eyes.
“Why didn’t he just tell me the whole truth right then and there?
I remember thinking he was staring at me too much, that the expression on his face wasn’t right .
. . How could he just potentially get himself killed without telling me he was—he was—”
“Moonbeam.” Auryn stood and flicked her wrist—and changed into an elderly woman with wild, curly gray hair and big blue eyes like Savannah’s. She had sun-kissed skin that was wrinkled and freckled. She made an adorable old lady. Her eyes were glassy as she threw her arms wide. “Come here.”
Savannah whimpered and her whole face scrunched up at the sight of Auryn, clearly in the same disguise Savannah had always known her Mamaw as. She hurried over to Auryn and all but tackled her. Auryn met my eyes over her shoulder as she hugged her tight.
My own eyes burned with the need to cry. There were a lot of emotions to process.
“Great-grandad and I are gonna have WORDS when he wakes up,” Savannah drawled, her voice slightly muffled by Auryn’s body. “He don’t e’en know yet.”
“Oh, I see we’ve come by at the perfect time,” Rae said with a cheeky grin from the doorway. He looked over to me, and like every time I’d seen him, his eyes went through the entire rainbow in seconds. “Meemaw.”
“Raeven.” I hugged him and fought the urge to ugly cry. I’d missed his entire life, centuries of it, and I wasn’t even free to just sit and get to know him now. We were at war. We had to focus on surviving first. When I pulled back, I wiped at my eyes. “Where did you go?”
“To ensure that archway was secure and search for any leftover problems—HA!” He pointed to Everest’s hot-pink fingernails. “I cannot wait to see his face when he wakes up.”
I looked up and started to say something to him when I spotted his wife lingering in the doorway, like she was unsure of her welcome.
That made me frown. I’d only known her a few hours now and we hadn’t gotten to know each other much.
In fact, I wasn’t certain I knew what she was.
Though, I had a guess. Missy was my grandson’s soulmate and mother to Savannah, and I saw a lot of Savannah in her with the dark hair and big sapphire eyes.
“Missy?” When she jumped and looked over to me, I grinned and waved her in. “Don’t be shy.”
Her cheeks flushed as she tucked her dark hair behind her ears and walked inside the room. “I just . . . didn’t want to interrupt. I know this is a big day for you and Savannah—”
“For all of us, Missy.” I held my hand out to her and smiled wider when she took it. “Today our family gets to live in the open. Together. This is a big day for all of us and that includes you.”
She squeezed my hand. “I’m so happy to have finally met you. I’ve been hearing stories since Rae and I met in—”
“NO,” Savannah drawled in that accent that stretched a single word into five syllables. “No. Uhn’uhn. No, ma’am. Don’t you e’en think about throwin’ out a year that’s before like 1970—”
“Savannah—”
“NO. Lea’me’lone. How dare y’all make me cry my own tears.” She waved her arms around dramatically. “Savannah has reached her daily maximum limit for emotional tomfoolery. And without any taters. If I have to go through pain, then Mamaw owes me some taters—”
“Yeah, that’s fair.” Auryn laughed. She waved her hand and the old lady glamour vanished, leaving her looking like her true self again. “As soon as he wakes up, I’ll whip us up some of your favorite taters, okay?”
She pouted her bottom lip, then leaned over Everest. “You hear that? Makin’ me wait for taters. Ya’bett’r hurry up, now. Wake up. We got taters and a conversation—”
“Celina—Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Zabkiel, it’s okay. Come in.” I was still chuckling and shaking my head at Savannah, but the aura rolling off of my old friend snapped me right out of it. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He grimaced and pressed his palm to his stomach, which was the move he always did when he was nervous. “I know you have just returned. You may need more time to adjust—”
“I assure you I spent eighteen years attempting to adjust to a mortal form without success. I haven’t felt more like me since I was me,” I said with a chuckle. “The Angel of Tides is at your service.”
“Ew,” Savannah said with a cringe. “Nope. No. Can you just talk like Frankie for a hot minute while we adjust?”
“Right. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. ‘Sup, Riah?” I laughed and held my thumbs up. “That better? Felt weird. I don’t like calling you Riah. Does this get more normal?”
“Ask your grandfather.” He wagged his eyebrows.
I gasped. “That’s right. Raziel is Dad’s dad now. That’s wild. But so fitting—”
“So fitting.” He cackled. “But yeah, I spent most of my mortal life living in Seelie or hiding in the shadows following Saraphina around—”
“Talking to people normal is not Lord Thranduil’s strongest suit.” Savannah rolled her eyes. “He always sounds like an alien in human clothes.”
“Lord Thranduil. That’s a good one.” I giggled but his aura still had that edge to it, so I forced myself to stop. “What’s wrong? You came in here all serious—”
“There’s something I’ve been waiting for you to help me with since my memory returned . . .” He shrugged one shoulder. “I’m afraid we may be crossing a line on time.”
“Ominous.” I frowned but he clearly didn’t want to say whatever it was in front of the others, so I nodded. “Let’s get to it then.”
Auryn sat up straight, her face paled. “You’re leaving?”
“Just gonna help Zabkiel with something—”
Savannah stood when I did.