Chapter Two #2
Ted looked at her. “All of it.”
Win and Mik stared at her. “All of it?” Mik whispered.
Ted looked at her, knowing her eyes were swirling with colour.
“Oh shit.” Mik smiled weakly. “Well, I think we know why you survived the curse.”
Ted looked at the three magical creatures looking at her and did something she hadn’t done in years. She giggled.
Ted leaned down and picked up Aurora. “Cousin Ted is a little much.”
Aurora sighed and leaned against her.
Regis cleared her throat. “Right. Desserts are waiting. And coffee.”
Ted perked up. “Dessert?”
Regis laughed. “I know that a power burn gives a heavy sugar craving; you four must be ready to eat a pound of sugar.”
Arwell, Win, Mik, and Ted all shrugged and nodded. Everyone headed inside, and Ted was still carrying her little cousin. Nora and Sabin walked with them while Avor still asked Sabin about the app.
Ted grinned. They were remembering her.
She looked at her phone and the texts and exhaled, answering one, smiling.
Arwell smiled. “Who is that?”
“Nemia Marlon.”
Arwell blinked. “Holy shit. Where has she been?”
“She said she is having some trouble being a person of colour.” The joke was from a vacation when Nemia had gotten super sunburned, and Therese had been shocked and then howled with amusement.
It had been the closest the Scandinavian-born woman had ever been to tanned.
It had been as much colour as she could get.
Arwell frowned. “What?”
A woman with skin the colour of dried blood walked into the kitchen, causing silence to ripple in the room. “I said I am having trouble being a person of colour, dumbass.”
Ted looked at her and started laughing. “It isn’t even close, but I will take it.” She got up and hugged her childhood friend.
Nemia wasn’t weepy or sobbing; she was very tall with the jagged djinn ears that Arwell sported. The colour was just funny.
“Well, you are not a sister, but I will accept distant cousin. When did this happen?”
Nemia shrugged. “Last year. I went from social and charming to escaped from the underworld.”
Arwell asked, “Are you stuck?”
Nemia was still hugging Ted. “I look like I just took a break from flaying irritating souls. Yes. I am stuck. Can I be not stuck?”
Arwell laughed. “Yes. Finish your hug, and I will show you how to do it. We can’t flash these ears to just anyone. They are spectacular.”
Nemia chuckled. “Well, at least I already have piercings.”
Ted eased away from her friend. “You mean your ears, right?”
Nemia snorted and shoved her lightly. They both laughed, and there were no tears between them.
Nemia looked over Ted’s shoulder. “Is that giant pile of sugar for just anyone, or are you hoarding pastries now?”
Ted turned and grabbed something made of pastry and molten chocolate. “In order to receive this, you have to tell me what you did with my sweater at Halloween in senior year.”
Nemia looked at her blandly. “I put it on a scarecrow and said that she wore it better, but you filled it out better.”
Ted grinned and handed the pastry over. “Correct. You are Nemia. No insult ever stands without a compliment.”
Nemia grinned and leaned back against a counter.
Ted finally looked at Avor and Regis, and they were staring at Nemia. Ted asked, “Is she a problem?”
Arwell laughed. “Nemia, hold out your hand. I need to put a USB drive in it.”
Nemia had the pastry firmly in her face, and she extended her free hand.
When the stick was in her palm, her eyes flickered rapidly, and she smiled. “I can have some fun with that.”
She tossed the stick back to Arwell. “Thank you.”
Win said, “Where did you get that? I have the original here.”
“I made a copy. Duh.” Arwell grinned.
Win looked at the djinn. “I really want to smack you into a wall.”
Mik snickered and held up a drive of her own.
Win sighed. “You, I can take over my knee and paddle.”
Mik laughed. “Try it and pull back a stump.”
Regis cleared her throat. “Ladies, you are setting a bad example for the next generation.”
Ted looked, and Regis’s daughter was sitting with Aurora, both covered with crumbled pastry and fruit fillings.
Ted smiled. “They are setting a bad example? Those girls have an entire platter of treats in front of them, and they stopped eating. That’s a bad example.”
Regis’s daughter giggled.
Regis sighed. “Ira. Really? Whose side are you on?”
“The djinn and mages are a little crazy. It’s kinda fun, Mom.”
Ted grinned. “See? We are fun. Neener.”
Sabin snorted, and Nora grinned. Aurora walked over to her father and pulled on his trousers. Sabin—formerly Sabin the bloody—picked up his little girl and smiled. “Sleepy, baby?”
Aurora nodded. “Home. Sleepy.”
Ted was still standing near Nemia, and the little girl held out her hand, imperiously opening and closing it. “Ted. Come home.”
Ted walked over and kissed the little hand. “I will come to visit soon, Aurora. Promise.”
“Ted, come!” She frowned.
She leaned forward. “Aurora, I have to go home and do some things. I have to visit my mom and my dad. I will come soon.”
Sabin looked sad. “He’s gotten worse, Ted.”
“I know. That is why it is important now.” She looked at Sabin.
“You have been visiting him.”
“He thinks my name is Theodora. Doesn’t remember he had a daughter at all.
” She shrugged. “I know he’s my father, and so I sit and read with him, play checkers and occasionally poker.
Never play poker with dementia patients; it never ends the way you think.
” She smiled. “One time, it turned into Candy Land.”
Sabin smiled softly. “You are way more composed than I would be if I had burst into a glittering mage.”
“If you had done it, it would have been astonishing, and Nora would have sold tickets to the family.”
Nora chuckled. “Have any family members contacted you?”
“About half a dozen.” She checked her phone. “Wait. Thirty-five. Maybe I can disappear again.”
Nora laughed and gasped. “Don’t you dare.”
Sabin nodded and rocked his daughter. “What she said.”
Avor smiled. “I have called our car service. They can get you home.”
“Thank you.” He chuckled. “I completely forgot you got us here.”
“It has been an eventful few hours.”
Sabin blinked. “Hours? Oh, shit. Aurora needs her nap.”
Ted cleared her throat. “Sabin, Nora, can you call Aunt Olyna and some of the others and explain? It will take some of the heat off me.”
Sabin paused. “I will call a meeting.”
“Good. They are a lot, and I have been fighting so long that it has been like I was pushing against the wall, and then the wall was gone, and now I am stumbling.”
Sabin hugged her with his free arm. “I will explain as much as I can.”