Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
Hailey
Victoria Gardens was a large green space in the middle of Central Valley.
It was a hub for not only humans, but also all sorts of creatures who were forced to live in the city but still longed for nature.
You could walk down the wide, paved paths and see werecats lying on their sides in pools of sunlight, and just past them, a family of humans throwing a frisbee.
There were reptilian creatures on rocks, and giant basilisks curled up like shimmering onyx baskets beside a creature I couldn’t name but looked like undulating moss.
Otis walked beside me, his face impassive, but his eyes were glancing left and right, searching for issues.
My steps slowed as I saw them at one of the park benches, and I was immediately transported back in time. They hadn’t aged a day, which made sense considering they were immortal beings. They’d seemed so big back then, so tall and filled with life and brightness and magic.
Tiael spotted me first, and her face crumpled. I walked faster and faster until I was running. She met me on the grass and wrapped her arms around me, and decades fell away.
I was just a little girl again, being hugged by someone who cared. “Look at you,” she murmured into my hair. “You’re so beautiful. I knew you would be.” I held her, not wanting to let go, and a small part of me—a ragged, wounded part of me—finally began to heal at the edges.
“I thought you would forget me,” I whispered, and then I was spun into Erynan’s arms too.
“Never. Thoughts of you have stayed with us all these years.” He patted my back then let go. When Otis’s big hand landed gently on my spine, I realized I was crying.
Otis handed me a handkerchief, and I swiped at my cheeks. “Sorry. This is my friend, Otis. He works with me at the CCC. I answer the hotline there.”
Tiael led me over to the bench. “When Chet said you turned up at the Creature Crisis Center, I knew it was the goddess letting us know you were okay. You traveled the full circle, and you were back. I almost didn’t believe him at first. We tried to find you after the riots—” She choked.
“We saw your parents in the lists of the dead, and we knew you had no one else, but the authorities saw two creatures asking about the child of two members of a human hate group and stonewalled us.”
Erynan shook his head. “We couldn’t even blame them, not really. On paper, it looked bad. We couldn’t change their mind, but we tried. For years, we tried.”
I gave them a weak, watery smile. “It’s okay. I was fine.” I was angry and bitter and alone, but I was fine.
Tiael wrapped her long, elegant fingers around mine, holding me like she was scared I’d disappear again.
“The other fae thought we were crazy, searching for a child we’d known for little more than a summer, but they had never met you.
You were such a sweet, gentle child and so full of light despite the horror you lived.
They couldn’t understand that despite that brief period, you were our heart child.
Eventually, the elders made us move on, but we never forgot you, even when we half hoped you’d forget us, find a loving family, and forget the badness of your younger years. ”
Shaking my head sadly, I forced a small smile.
“By the time my parents died, I was… different. I was angry at the world and rebellious. It took a lot of time, and a little state-mandated therapy, to get where I am today, but I always remembered you and what you said—not to accept less than I deserved and always trust my gut. And now? Now I’ve found my family, and I’m so happy,” I told them.
“You showed me that it was possible. It might have only been six weeks, but I held onto that feeling forever. I knew that level of happiness was achievable again, that a love like you two have was possible, and I found it.”
Tiael hugged me close again. “That’s all we’ve ever wished for you, sweet one.” The old childhood endearment wrapped around me, and I rested my head on the shoulder of the woman who was the only example of a mother I’d ever had.
Finally, she sniffed and straightened. “Okay, that’s enough of the maudlin stuff.
I want to know everything about the woman you are now, Hailey Swoon, because from everything I’ve heard, that woman is amazing.
” She pulled a basket closer, and I saw it was filled with all my childhood favorites. They really had remembered me.
I tried not to cry again as I told them everything that had happened in the last two decades.
* * *
The sun was setting over Lake Victoria by the time we finished catching up.
About five years ago, they’d managed to get pregnant and have a baby after several centuries.
They showed me a picture of a little girl who looked just like Tiael.
She was around the same age as I’d been that summer when I’d known them, and she looked so happy.
Jealousy swirled in my gut, but I pushed it away.
She was fortunate to have the parents she did, and she would know nothing but happiness.
I wanted that for her too. For every child.
“Her name is Meadow. We named her after you, in a manner. We searched what your name meant among the humans, and Hailey means hay meadow. Meadow seemed like the perfect name for her,” Erynan said, watching me.
“We tell her stories about you. I think she believes you’re a princess from a storybook, but they are her favorite stories. ”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’d love to meet her one day.”
Erynan’s soft eyes met mine. “We’d love that too. Meadow would love that as well, but she will pepper you with a million questions. It would be like meeting a Disney princess to her.”
Otis was down by the lake, talking to a nymph who was sitting on a rock. She was tossing her hair, but Otis had his professional mask on.
“Maybe not so far from a Disney princess, perhaps?” Tiael teased, following my gaze. “You’ve collected quite the assortment of creatures for your family.”
I flushed pink. “Not intentionally. It just kind of felt like everything fell into place.”
Erynan chuckled. “Fate is like that sometimes. Occasionally it puts people gently into your path, and sometimes it throws them there so you have no choice but to accept them,” he said, lifting his chin at Otis.
At that moment, Otis looked over his shoulder at me like he knew we were speaking of him. He was so handsome, silhouetted in the setting sun.
“Otis isn’t mine,” I murmured, trying not to whine.
Tiael snorted, a noise that was completely at odds with her gentle beauty. “Yes he is, he just doesn’t know it yet or want to admit it. Do you like him?”
“So much. Am I being greedy? I have two beautiful bonded mates, and Syke holds me like I’m the only thing anchoring him to the mortal plane. Even Ilyas watches me like I’m some kind of wonder of the natural world. Are five mates just gluttony?”
Tiael shook her head. “If anyone deserves to be fully loved, it is you. Take what you want if it’s offered freely.
Minotaurs are notoriously… hardheaded. It isn’t even just the horns,” she teased.
“For a long time, the fae considered them little better than their beast counterparts. They are solitary and cold, stoic even in the most emotional of settings, but like most creatures, we didn’t truly understand each other until we all stepped into the light.
There are so few of them left, but they are fierce protectors, and once they consider something theirs to protect, they are unmovable.
Getting past his natural armor will be the hard part, but once you do, the love and safety you’ll feel will be worth the hard work… if that’s what you want.”
I nodded, and we moved on to learning about each other, things I couldn’t have known when I was a child. Erynan worked for the fae council, and Tiael taught magic control to young fae.
When the conversation naturally lulled, and the day creatures began to give way to night creatures, I knew it was time to go home. I sighed and looked at them. “We’ll see each other again, won’t we?”
Tiael hugged me close. “Of course.” She hesitated. “We consider you ours, which, for a human, might sound intense, but you were our heart child, and we mourned your loss. Now you’ve returned to us, and we would love to be in your life.”
I smiled widely. “I’d love that too.”
We exchanged numbers, and Otis came back up from the lake. He’d been giving us privacy, but he’d never moved far enough away that he couldn’t see me. Did he consider me his to protect? Did he consider me more?
I desperately wanted to know.