by Tanya Huff
“Does the mother matter?” Auntie Grace wondered. “Charlotte could always help.”
“I think it’s time you all went home,” Allie said more-or-less pleasantly.
Allie set the pile of folded clothes down on a rock, just inside the tree line and backed away as the stag pushed through the underbrush. He was enormous. Beautiful. Heartbreaking.
The air shimmered and David pulled on the jeans but left the rest. They looked wrong on him but Allie was grateful for the faked semblance of normalcy. He had a welt across one shoulder. Even in skin, his eyes were black rim to rim. His antlers had barely diminished with the change.
His skin was damp and hot where Allie touched it, his heartbeat slow and strong under the press of her fingers.
He closed his hand around hers, new callus already forming. “Feels strange,” he said, carefully forming each word. “But more control in time.”
“I know.” The aunties had explained that when Granddad was young, he’d spent as much or more time at the farm as in the wood.
“Let him get used to it, Alysha. He’ll come back. It’s not like he ever had a steady job and he can still act as a consultant with the local police. It’ll work out. It always does.”
“So, Graham’s going to keep the paper going.” She was a little surprised at how matter-of-fact she managed to sound. “Kalynchuk-Jonathon Samuel-had everything set up legitimately, so he figures he might as well. Katie’s talking about going to work for him, and Rayne and Lucy are moving west with Lyla. Roland’s thrilled.” Roland wasn’t quite as tied as David, but he was still the only second circle male in the city and he wouldn’t ever be moving far. “He’ll be taking over Graham’s condo and there’s room there for the girls, for a while at least. Graham says Jonathon Samuel had this enormous house out in Upper Mount Royal, so Roland’s going to have a look at the paperwork. I expect we’ll be able to fill it easily enough. There’s a number of cousins thinking of joining us.”
Dark brows drew in. “Why?”
“Besides the aunties encouraging your entire list to move west?” Allie shrugged. “Things are happening here. Jack’s going to stay with me and Graham in the apartment.”
“Wedding?”
“It’s not really necessary. But whatever we do, it won’t be until you can…” She nodded toward David’s rack and he smiled.
“Good. Want to see that.”
“Auntie Gwen stayed.”
“I know.”
David would know where all this new branch of the family were. It was part of what he was. “She’ll take care of Gran’s sideline in potions and charms. She’s set up housekeeping in the loft with Joe. He offered to age up a bit-first I knew he could do that-but she wouldn’t let him.”
“Bragging.”
“Definitely.” They’re saying an asteroid broke up over the park. The lights were visible even through the storm. The place will probably be crawling with people looking for pieces. Be careful.”
“Protected.”
“Be careful anyway.”
She kept her hand over his heart until he stepped beyond her reach, then she kept reaching, brushing tears off her cheeks with the other palm. “David, I’m sorry. You didn’t want this. Even once you can leave the park, you can’t ever leave the city!” He had become the family’s tie to this new place. The living symbol of their claim.
To her surprise, he smiled again.
“Never asked what I wanted, Allie.” His brows went up and just for a moment, he was her big brother, nothing more. Then he snorted, and the snort wasn’t entirely Human. He only just got out of the jeans in time, one rear hoof tearing the denim.
She watched him race across the summit, heard the surprised and delighted yell of a couple of kids on BMX bikes, felt his joy in the movement, in the wind, in the sun on his back, and wished with all her heart there had been another way.
The mirror showed her reflection doing yoyo tricks. Allie didn’t know what they were called, but the one that spun the hunk of enameled wood around over her head looked dangerous. As soon as things stopped whizzing about, she thrust her arm in past the surface of the glass, caught the end of the yoyo, and yanked. Hard.
Second circle made connections.
Still holding the yoyo, she stepped back as an elderly woman spilled out of the mirror into the hall, the string looped over one finger, multilayered skirt swirling, half a dozen strands of beads swinging around her neck, and a lime-green shawl slipping off one arm.
Allie released her, waited until she got her balance, then pinned her with a word.
“Gran.”
Dark eyes gleamed as Catherine Gale tried to move and found herself held. “Those old fools always worried about David,” she snorted, tossing a long gray braid back behind her shoulder, setting hoop earrings swaying. “They worried he had all the power that should’ve gone to half a dozen Gale girls. It didn’t go to David, though, did it? It all went to you just like it was supposed to.You just had to find it. And speaking of finding things, how did you…?” She waved the hand with the string attached.
“There were thirteen crows in the mirror and twelve aunties upstairs.”
“Clever girl.”
“You saw this, didn’t you?”
“Saw what, Allie-cat? That you would rise to the challenge?”
“No. Well, yes, but…” Her grandmother had always been able to direct the conversation. Not this time. “You saw all of this. Everything that happened. The challenge, if you will.” Steel-gray brows rose at the emphasis. Allie ignored them. “You knew about Jonathon Samuel and the Dragon Lords and Jack-probably through Adam. He’s been here before and he as much as told me he’s been interacting with a Gale. You kept the museum from getting that grant so I’d be fired and have no reason not to come west. You made sure the cousins I called for help were busy to keep the number of variables down. You kept Charlie from getting here to make sure that Graham and I would connect with no distractions. The rest of them knew about the seventh son thing as soon as we touched. Charlie worked it out from what happened at the bar, so you must have spotted it the moment you met him.You knew I wouldn’t call the aunties in if I thought they’d take him out with his boss, and you knew that David would come running if he thought I was in over my head.You set this whole thing up.”
“Did I?”
It took Allie a minute to unclench her teeth. “Don’t bullshit me, Gran.”
“All right, then, I did. I saw the Dragon Queen rising, and I put the pieces in play to save the world.” She rolled her eyes and adjusted her shawl. “How dreadful of me.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I’m sure that didn’t last very long, Kitten.”
“Not the point,” Allie growled. “And not the worst of it either. Michael was one of your pieces.”
Catherine Gale spread her hands, bracelets chiming. “You needed the extra push there at the end.”
“I don’t care about the rest.”
“About saving the city, and probably half the world if Jack’s mother had managed to get into the sky? Very cold, Kitten.”
“I don’t care that you manipulated the rest,” Allie amended. “But you used Brian to break Michael’s heart and then you used him to put Michael in danger, and that I cannot and will not forgive. Michael isn’t family, and there are things you can do for the sake of family that you do not do to those outside the blood.”
“Alysha.”
She shook her head. “Take the car. Or go through the Wood if you prefer, but get out. This city is closed to you.”
She’d never actually seen her grandmother look quite so astounded. Or astounded at all. “You can’t…”
“Yes. I can. Don’t make me prove it, Gran. It won’t be pleasant for either of us.”
They stared at each other for a long moment until Allie forced the older woman’s gaze to the floor.
After a long moment, she sighed and looked up, her expression carefully neutral. “I’ll ta
ke the car.”
“I thought you might.” Allie took a step back and released the yoyo. “I packed up your clothes and some personal things. They’re in the trunk.”
“Personal things?” Her grandmother frowned thoughtfully as she rolled the string onto the spool, then she snickered. “Oh, I see. And the rest?”
“You left it to me.”
“So I did.” Suddenly finding herself able to move, she started toward the store, then changed direction as Allie made a cautioning noise. “The garage. Of course.” Back door open, she paused. “Take care of things, Allie-cat.”
Allie didn’t much like the smile that accompanied the words. “I will.”
“Call me if you need me. And don’t say you won’t,” her grandmother cautioned, raising her hand. Allie wondered when she’d lost the tip of her second finger. It looked like it had been bitten off just below the nail. “Charlie’s not as much of a wild card as she thinks she is. Not yet.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“Still, the offer’s open.” The bushes perked up as she approached, slumped a little as she passed.
They’d get over it.
Allie waited until she heard the distinctive sound of the Beetle pulling away, waited until she could feel Gran turning onto Deerwood, then she went into the store. She’d know when Gran passed the family’s boundary. Or if she didn’t.
“How’d you know she’d take the car?” Joe asked.
“She left the registration in her name.”
“Oh.” He pulled a jar of small seashells out of the latest box he’d brought up from the cellar. “If she saw everything else that happened, do you think she saw you telling her to go?”
Maybe. Probably. “It doesn’t change what she did.” One of the shells gleamed unnaturally in the light. Allie sighed and made a mental note to pour them out onto the counter and check. Later. “If you’re good here, I’ll go next door and grab us some coffee.”
“I’m good here.”
Allie grinned at the way the points of his ears had turned scarlet, yet again, and noted that her charm had been definitely overwritten.
Kenny had both cups of coffee ready when she reached the counter. That sort of thing had been happening a lot lately, the city and everyone in it anticipating her needs. Rough life, she supposed, but someone had to live it.
Back in the store, Joe looked up and smiled.
“I sold a yoyo while you were gone.”
