Five
brIDGET WAS CHARMING AS ever, a bubbly, amiable presence who made everything both calmer and clearer; it was easy to see why Etienne had fallen in love with her to begin with, and why he’d fallen in love with her all over again after he found out about their daughter.
Life in the Summerlands clearly suited her.
The lines around her eyes were getting shallower as she dined on a diet of fresh Faerie foods, and drank our sweet wines, and breathed in entirely unpolluted air.
The Summerlands can distort the flow of time, especially for changelings and mortals.
As long as she stayed here with her husband and daughter, Bridget could potentially live for hundreds of years without a drop of fae blood in her veins.
She clucked and cooed over our baby pictures in a truly gratifying manner, before asking us the question we were learning to dread above all others: when we were planning to give Miranda a little brother or sister.
Tybalt coughed. I hemmed and hawed and finally said, in a remarkably well-controlled voice, “I don’t know if we will be. I didn’t enjoy pregnancy very much either time I’ve done it, and honestly, one baby to worry about is more than enough for us. Maybe in a few years.”
“It must be nice to have the time to wait,” she said, shooting a look over at Etienne. “To not feel like there’s a ticking clock dictating the limits of your fertility.”
Chelsea wrinkled her nose. “Mom, gross. Just because other people are having babies, that doesn’t mean you need to go getting some sort of baby-fever thing. You and Dad don’t need to have another kid. You’ve got me.”
“Yes, but it would be nice to experience raising a child together in truth, and not only in a world made for us by a monster,” said Bridget. She looked at Etienne again. “You were my fairy tale made flesh, Chelsea, and I’m a folklorist. I’m always ready to tell another story.”
Tybalt coughed into his hand. “This is beginning to sound like a conversation we have no place in,” he said, to me. “Are you ready to go and see if your liege and his brother have finished their discussion?”
“We really should get back,” I agreed. “And I’d like to say goodbye to Simon before he goes back to Saltmist. He doesn’t make it to the surface often enough these days.”
“Can you blame the man?”
“I can’t.” I turned back to Bridget, smiling. “So I think we’re gonna go. The lemonade was great, and so were the cookies.”
“I used a secret family recipe that’s been printed on the package for the last hundred years,” she said. “Chelsea, are you going to stay home for a bit, or go back to October’s?”
“I promised Raysel and the others that I’d be back so we could finish our movie,” she said. “We’re watching Ever After. None of them have seen it, and you know it’s one of Drew Barrymore’s best performances.”
“I know better than to get between you and a Cinderella retelling,” said Bridget fondly. “Come kiss your mam, and then you can go.”
Chelsea did as she was told before she waved her hand, opening a portal to the hall outside the study. The smell of her magic was similar to Etienne’s, sycamore smoke and calla lilies, but unmistakably not the same. “Everybody out!”
We stepped through the portal to the hall. Chelsea followed, letting the portal close behind her.
“Sorry about the parents,” she said. “Mom’s getting a little weird about the whole ‘baby’ thing, and Dad’s so used to how fertility works for the fae that he doesn’t think there’s any chance of them having another kid. I don’t care that much either way.”
“You don’t?” asked Tybalt.
“Nope. I’m moving out soon, it’s time for me to focus on college, and I can’t keep commuting from Shadowed Hills forever. I’m thinking of commuting from Muir Woods instead.”
“Did Arden offer you a court position?” I asked.
Chelsea smiled, looking remarkably pleased with herself.
“She needs a court chauffer,” she said. “For when she or the prince aren’t available to transport visiting nobles.
It’s not a standard position outside of Tuatha households, but she remembers her father having one, and she’d like to do the same. ”
“And I’m sure you having a literally impossible range doesn’t have anything to do with her wanting to get your loyalty locked down and under oath,” I said dryly.
“No, of course not,” said Chelsea. “But I’m considering it, and if I take the position, Mom and Dad can use my room here for a baby. I bet Mom would really like that. She’s enjoyed being a mom, mostly, and I think she’d like the chance to do it with a partner from the start.”
“When you weren’t ping-ponging through the sealed deeper realms, I’m sure she did,” I said. “I am now going to stop thinking about Sir Etienne’s sex life, if that’s cool with you, and wait to see if Simon comes out of that study any time soon.”
“Suit yourself,” said Chelsea amiably.
I leaned against Tybalt, who settled against the wall to wait.
This whole evening had been intensely stressful, but at the same time, it was nice to be out of the house with him by my side, in a place where I wasn’t actively afraid of being attacked at any moment.
Shadowed Hills might not be the safe haven it had once been for me.
It was still the only place I’d really felt welcome as a child, and it would always be home on some level, no matter how much things changed.
The study door swung open and Simon stepped out, looking over his shoulder at his brother. “You’re sure you’ll be all right?” he was saying.
“I am,” said Sylvester’s voice, from inside. “Go. I’ll see you next week.”
“Yes, you will, or you’ll answer to my lady,” said Simon, laughing as he closed the door. Letting go of the knob, he turned, and jumped when he saw us waiting. “Oh!”
“Hey, Simon,” I said, straightening and pulling away from Tybalt. “Just wanted to swing through and say goodbye before we head for home. I figured you’d probably want to get back to Saltmist as soon as you reasonably could.”
“Want to? No. But I do need to,” he said.
“Dianda’s court responsibilities will be finished by twelve, and we’ve all agreed to have our midnight meal as a family whenever possible.
The girls are too young to care if we’re all there, of course, but Peter and August will be furious if I put them off.
You’d be welcome to join us if you wanted.
You’re family as well, and we’re always happy to have you. ”
“It’s a very kind offer, and we should totally find a way to have a family dinner sometime soon, but for tonight, I didn’t tell May we’d be out that long, and Raysel’s probably waiting for us. What did Sylvester say about next week?”
“He is willing to join us for family dinner, in one week, which gives me time to warn Patrick and soothe any concerns he might have about my brother coming into our home and behaving badly toward me.”
Patrick—Simon’s husband—isn’t one of Sylvester’s biggest fans.
He and Tybalt have that very much in common, although Tybalt dislikes my liege for treating me poorly, while Patrick dislikes him for treating Simon poorly.
I guess Sylvester could use some classes in how not to be a jerk to the people he cares about.
“Well, if Sylvester’s willing to do it, we’ll have to find a way to make things work,” I said, glancing to Chelsea. “Just let us deal with this whole situation with Raysel and I’ll call you to set a date.”
“Wonderful. How is my granddaughter?”
“Good,” I said. “She has impressive lungs, she’s eating well, and she sleeps more than I knew was possible.”
“She gets that from me,” said Tybalt smugly.
“She’s perfect, Simon. You need to come and see her soon. How are my sisters?”
“November and December are thriving,” he said. “Their mother keeps waiting for their eyes to change colors—babies do that, you know—”
“Oh, we know.”
“—but I’ve told her that they’re descended from the Torquill line, whatever their name, and Torquills have golden eyes. Even August, despite all the efforts Amandine made to pull me out of my daughter’s lineage, has golden eyes. They’re very dominant.”
“You sound proud of that.”
His smile twisted a bit at the edges, turning sour. “After Amandine, any contribution I can point to in my darling girl is a thing to be treasured. But yes. Your sisters are doing very well, and I can’t wait for you to see them again. I want them to grow up knowing you.”
“I feel the same about you and Andi,” I assured him. He walked over to us, and I leaned in to embrace him, smelling the whitebeam smoke and mulled cider of his magic. It was closer to the surface than it normally was, and I wasn’t sorry about that.
My kind of fae smells magic very easily and very distinctly, and for me, that’s a bonus.
No one’s ever going to be able to sneak up on me by pretending to be someone I love again: I can smell their true identity as soon as they get close.
It’s a strange thing to be comforted by, but it works for me.
As always, he hugged like he was barely keeping himself from clinging, and I hugged firmly back before releasing him and taking Tybalt’s hand. “We can get ourselves home,” I said. “Chelsea, you good to take Simon?”
“I’ll meet you at the house,” she said, with a wink. She opened her portal, showing a slice of the arrival room at Saltmist, and stepped through with Simon close behind.
Once they were gone, I turned back to Tybalt. “She’s going to wind up moving in, isn’t she?”
“You can’t keep adopting every stray you find,” he scolded without heat.
“Are you including yourself in that number?”
“Always,” he said, and swept me into his arms, stepping backward. I took a deep breath and held it, closing my eyes just as he stepped back again, and we passed into shadow.
The sound of his heartbeat was something to focus on as we ran through the dark. We emerged into the living room shortly after, and he dropped me on the couch as I pawed the ice out of my eyelashes, unsticking them so that I could open my eyes.