CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Shadow
The following morning, I wait until Kayla makes it through three rounds of alarms before greeting my witchy beauty with a kiss and a cup of coffee prepared exactly as she likes.
Once she’s gulped half of it, her eyes clear of their lingering sleepiness, and she blinks up at me. “It’s your family’s last day here. What would you like to do?”
“I want to take them into town.” They’ve watched a bit of television and have seen more of how humans live. “I think the kits are ready.”
She nods, and her lips curl into a smile. “They do know the clothes need to stay on, right? Because they’re as bad as their uncle about stripping, and we don’t need to give Mrs. Greely any more streaking to complain about.”
I grin. “Maybe we should bring extra clothes, just in case.”
She laughs, her eyes crinkling with joy, and the sound makes me kiss her again.
Then the werekittens burst into the room and start bouncing on the bed. “We’re dressed!” “We’re ready to go!” “Donuts, donuts, donuts.”
“I might have told them about the bakery,” I explain.
Kayla smiles at me over their heads. “Are we really ready for the Sugarpocalypse, part two?”
“We’ll picnic on the town green and let them run off the extra energy.”
Half an hour later, we walk the shadow roads to downtown Ferndale Falls and step out into the real world in the middle of a stand of rhododendrons on the town green.
The kits gape at all of the cute little shops and the mix of human and fae pedestrians filling the sidewalks.
Orcs and unicorns have visited the pack den in Alarria, but many other types of fae are new to them.
They ask an endless barrage of questions, and Dewdrop answers each one he can, eager to be helpful.
Soon, they get so excited that all four of them talk over each other until you can’t tell what anyone’s saying.
Kayla leans close and whispers, “They haven’t even had sugar yet.”
A chuckle bursts from me.
“It’s good that we visited your house first instead of coming straight here from Faerie,” Mother says, looking around with avid eyes. “I think it was good for us to get used to buildings and clothes and whatnot before coming into town.”
“Yeah, this is a lot busier than Moon Blade Village,” Mist says. “And there are so many colors.”
As I herd everyone across the green toward the bakery, Jared whizzes by on his racing bicycle, hunched over the front, lycra-clad thighs pumping as he zips along.
The werekittens shriek with joy and sprint after him, their fae shifter speed so great that people stop and point with loud exclamations of surprise.
Calling up my power, I dash forward, running half in the real world, half on the shadow roads.
It’s tricky magic, balancing on a knife’s edge in the liminal space between.
Not every cat sith can do it, but it allows each of my strides to cross yards instead of feet, and I swoop down upon the kits after only a few seconds.
“Uncle Shadow, why’d you stop us?” Dawn protests.
“You were calling way too much attention to yourselves.” I rearrange my hold on them as they try to squirm away.
“There’s a protection spell on the town,” Wisp says. “Kayla told us!”
Slate adds, “Yeah, it’s why they see us as human kids.”
“You’re supposed to be practicing blending in,” I say. “Toddlers running faster than an adult human athlete is not blending in.”
We meet the women in front of Cake My Day, and Kayla holds open the door so that the most delicious combination of smells wafts outward.
That gets their attention. The kits strain to get down, and this time I let them. They dash through the bakery and right past the line of waiting people to plaster themselves to the front of the sweets display case, leaving nose- and fingerprints all over the glass.
“Sorry about that,” I call out, but everyone smiles and laughs.
The werekittens come back and gather around Kayla, all piping voices and pointing fingers, asking her about every treat.
She crouches down to talk with them, patiently explaining the different kinds of donuts and pastries.
When we get to the front, she helps each kit order exactly what they want, giving them the kinds of choices she never had.
It might be a small thing, but it speaks volumes about her kindness and thoughtfulness.
Armed with a large box of pastries and meat pies, we return to the green and find a clear spot on the grass for our picnic. Pepperpot prepared a small box of fruit for Dewdrop, and he dives in, chirping happily. After making sure the werekittens each eat a meat pie, we let them try the sweets.
Kayla cuts up the donuts and pastries so everyone can try lots of flavors.
My mother shows a distinct partiality for the cherry cheese Danishes, while Mist prefers cinnamon rolls.
The kits like both the jelly and the chocolate donuts, which means they have to sample both types multiple times before declaring a tie.
Kayla watches avidly as their movements speed up, their words coming so quickly they tumble over each other. As they reach a fever pitch, she counts down on her fingers: “Brace for the Sugarpocalypse in three, two, one…”
Wisp leaps to her feet, bounding forward at a speed that makes everyone around us gasp. The other two take off after her, and Dewdrop launches into the air with an excited chirp.
Now that they’re buzzing on a sugar high, I won’t be able to corral them as easily as before.
I also don’t want to stop their play—I want them to remember their visit and the benefits of shifting with joy.
I pull out my phone and call Severin. “Can you put an extra layer of protection spell on the green for the next hour?”
“What have you done?” he growls. “Are you naked again?”
“The werekittens really enjoyed the bakery,” I say, buttering him up since baked goods are a bit of an obsession of his.
“But they aren’t used to sugar yet.” I hold out the phone so he can hear their high shrieks of joy and the loud exclamations of all the people shocked to see children running so quickly.
“Fine,” he says. “I’ll be there in a moment.”
I grin at Kayla as I hang up. “He should be glad they’ve forgotten to use the shadow roads, otherwise they’d be blinking in and out of sight all over the place.”
“You jinxed it.” Kayla’s eyes go round as they look past me, and she points.
Wisp runs two steps, disappears, and reappears several yards away, still running in a straight line.
Slate follows her, flickering in and out of sight as he leaps in and out of the shadow roads to zip across the green.
Dawn’s craftier than both of them, disappearing onto the shadow roads and changing direction each time so you have no idea where she’ll reappear.
Severin swoops down from the sky to land on the edge of the green, and another shadow fae exits the bank and trots over to meet him.
It’s the clerk who converts our Faerie gold into human money and banking accounts.
Severin gives several orders, hand slicing through the air as he gestures toward the kits, who keep popping in and out of sight in a dizzying blur of motion.
The other fae lifts her hands, and a pulse of magic sizzles through the air, leaving all of the non-magical humans shaking their heads and looking a little dazed.
I wave a thank you, then take off, chasing after the kits and making them shriek even louder when I follow them in and out of the shadow roads.
We race back and forth, moving in and out of the real world, making dizzying loops and spirals as the little ones choose random directions constantly.
Kayla and Dewdrop stay near the middle of the green, leaping forward to try to tag any werekitten that gets close.
Then Mother and Mist join me in the chase, and the lot of us becomes a swirling whirlwind of joy and play.
As quickly as it started, it halts, the werekittens flopping onto the ground in sleepy heaps.
All of the adults sit, and Kayla collapses backward onto the grass, Dewdrop settling beside her. As soon as she catches her breath, she says, “We totally need a T-shirt that says: I survived the Sugarpocalypse.”
“We do,” I agree, sharing a smile.
“That thing you do, where you use the shadow roads for only short periods of time, is epic. It looks like a series of mini-teleports, but your motions are so smooth and silent.” Her beautiful eyes gleam with admiration. “I need to work that into a game somehow.”
“One condition.” I smirk. “Make sure the character looks exactly like me, as you did with the Cat character from your Fate of the Fae game.”
She groans and covers her face with her hands. “You’re never going to forget that, are you?”
“Never,” I purr and nuzzle her ear.
When the kittens wake up, we head for Grounds for Celebration, where we get various coffee drinks for the adults, fruit juice for Dewdrop, and babyccinos for the kits.
When the werekittens whine about their steamed milks not containing any coffee, Kayla and I share a look, and she gives a small shudder.
“I’m not ready for the Caffeinepocalypse. ”
“Can it really be worse than the Sugarpocalypse?”
“Don’t say that!” She bats my arm with the back of her hand. “Most of the coffee drinks also have a lot of sugar. It would be double the hyper.”
“Then you’re right.” I pick up her hand to press a kiss to her knuckles. “I might have the increased endurance of a fae shifter in his prime, yet I’m certainly not ready.”
We continue on our tour of the shops. Mother enjoys visiting Haute and Bothered, where she talks to the shadow fae dressmaker about arranging special clothing bespelled to accommodate werepanther tails.
Mist lingers in Your Bubbly Charm, smelling everything. “I never knew there were so many types of soap.” I buy her a cinnamon and spice bar as well as a couple of fruit-scented soaps for the kits.
As we pass Bling It On, Diamond waves at me from the window far too enthusiastically.
I make a hand signal for her to be discreet.
Since Victoria put me on house arrest last week, it means I never got a chance to pick up the rings, and I’ve been occupied ever since with the handfasting and my family.
The bell above the door announces our arrival at I Touch My Shelf, and the kits launch forward at a run. “I smell Naomi!” “Naomi!” “Where are you?”
She bustles out of the back, already laughing, her arms thrown wide to scoop them up into a hug. “Hello! What a wonderful surprise. Look at you! You shifted!”
“I got an extra translation crystal from Luke for Mother to take home, and I thought it might be nice to find some children’s books for the little ones.
” My people learn how to read, even in our panther forms, but we have only a few scrolls obtained from the orcs, so they’re mostly dry accounts of battles and not much fun for kits.
“Oh, yes, can we?” Wisp’s eyes go huge and pleading. The other two join in.
“Manipulative little scamps.” I grin down at them. “I already said you could.”
Naomi points out the children’s section, and they scramble away.
Kayla and the others follow, but my old friend grips my forearm. In a flash, she teleports us into the bookshop’s office.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Naomi scrunches up her nose. “Okay, so I don’t want to break girl code or anything, but you’re a good friend, so I’m torn.”
“Go on.” I lean one hip against the edge of her desk and cross my arms.
“Kayla hasn’t said anything to me directly, but… several of the other witches were talking after the handfasting ceremony. There’s some concern that you’re not serious about Kayla, that you’re going to get bored and leave her.”
“What?” The smile slides from my face, and I growl, “Why?”
“Because you’ve told her it’s a ‘game’ and that you’re going to ‘win.’” She makes air quotes around both words. “Kind of hard to misconstrue. That’s the kind of thing players say about their conquests, not what you want to hear from a long-term partner.”
“Define ‘player.’”
“A player is a guy who’s just out to sleep with as many women as he can.
He’ll say anything to make it happen, then drop them and move on to the next person.
” She jabs a finger at me, her expression no-nonsense.
“You’re one of my best friends, but I also like Kayla, and I don’t think she has much experience with guys.
If this isn’t serious for you, you need to stop. ”
“Goddess,” I groan, rubbing my face. I throw out a hand. “It’s how cat sith talk about mating. We call it the courtship game, because we expect it to be fun and exciting and just difficult enough to entice.”
“So you’re serious about her?”
“More serious than I’ve been about anything in my whole life.” A small smile curls my lips. “I love her.”
“Oh, Shadow. I’m so happy for you!” Naomi’s demeanor changes in an instant, her face softening as she throws her arms around me. Then she pulls back to point at me again. “The person you need to say all of this to is Kayla.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With a laugh, she teleports us back into the main room of the bookshop, and the kits come rushing over to show me the books Kayla helped them pick.
I meet her beautiful brown eyes and mouth, “Thank you.”
She’s been so kind and generous with my family. It hurts my heart to realize I’ve given her so many reasons to doubt my intentions.
I will fix this.
I must.
Because if there’s one thing I’m serious about, it’s how much I love my witchy beauty.