by Kimbra Swain
“You slept with her a year and a half ago?” I asked.
He bit his lip and nodded. “I did. I was in a bad place.”
“So, you went to her for comfort. You told me that you hated her,” I said, trying to understand.
“It was a hate fuck. In every sense of the words. I can’t take it back, Grace,” he said.
“I know,” I replied with a whimper. “I just don’t know how much of this I can take. If that child is yours, then we have been doing all of this for nothing.”
“Nothing? Making love to you is not nothing to me,” he said. I knew he was in pain, too. I could see it in his eyes.
“She ruined my party,” I pouted. I heard Levi snicker behind me.
“I thought it was my party,” Dylan said.
“Everything is about her,” Levi interjected.
“Shut your mouth, Levi Rearden. You are in enough trouble as it is,” I said. A smile cracked across my face.
“See. Everything is normal,” Dylan said.
“It’s never normal,” I said.
“Abnormal is our normal,” he replied.
“Fuck me,” I muttered.
“Gladly,” Dylan whispered in my ear as he wrapped me up in his warm arms. “Thank you, Levi. Have you rethought this whole business?”
“Yeah. It was a bad idea,” he said. “I’m gonna go hit something.” He muttered to himself as he walked across the empty parking lot toward the bar.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We should go back to the party. Granted it’s a little subdued now, but we should at least make an appearance before we go home,” he said.
“Is she still there?” I asked.
“No. Troy and Amanda took her down to the motel. They are getting them a room and will keep them there until the council decides what to do with her,” he said.
“And the child?” I asked.
“We have to find out if he’s mine,” he said.
“It’s like Jerry Springer,” I said.
“Ugh. Yeah, I suppose it is,” he groaned.
“I love that show,” I replied. “I kinda hate it right now though. First the kitsune, now this. I don’t know how many more episodes I can take.”
He laughed at me. “Come on.”
We went back to the bar, but it wasn’t fun and games anymore. Nestor hugged me the moment I stepped in the door, and I almost lost my composure again. “It’s going to be okay,” he said.
I tried to believe him, but I didn’t feel that way. Dylan and I joined Finley at a table. Betty and Luther sat nearby on stools at the bar. Nestor sat down with us along with Mable. He gave each of us a cup of coffee. Everyone else had left, including Levi. Twisting in my chair, I couldn’t get comfortable. My emotions stirred inside of me.
“Drink,” Nestor said.
I took a sip. It was some of his most powerful coffee. It washed over me like a spring rainstorm. My whole body calmed including my mind. I saw the fear in Dylan’s eyes. I loved him. Love meant sticking with things even when it got tough. I didn’t think it could get tougher than this.
“What do we do?” Mable asked.
“We need to confirm if he is Dylan’s son,” Finley said.
“I agree. It is the first step,” Nestor said.
“How do you do that? DNA test?” I asked.
We all looked at Dylan. He shrugged, “I guess.”
“Moonshine,” I said. Dylan’s eyes widened. Nestor flinched in his chair. “What?”
“I’m sorry. Go ahead,” Dylan said.
“I have a recipe for homebrew. It’s actually absinthe. I think there is a field here somewhere that has all the ingredients. Remember that explosion we were in a while back?” I asked Dylan.
“Yeah, Grace, I remember. Do you remember it?” he asked.
“Well, up until the part everything exploded. I made that absinthe, didn’t I?” I asked. The memory seemed foggy.
“Yes, you did,” Dylan breathed hard. I could practically hear his heart pounding.
“What is wrong with you?” I asked.
“You were hurt that day. It scared the crap out of me,” he said.
I tried to focus on the house. Knowing I’d made the absinthe wasn’t all there was to the story, but I couldn’t remember. I knew that I hit my head pretty hard with the impact of the explosion. I remembered running from the house with Dylan, then nothing. I barely remembered being in the house other than to cook up the brew. It had a truth spell on it. For some reason, I wanted Dylan to drink it.
“Anyway. I could make up some, and we could make her drink it,” I said.
Dylan shook his head. “You blew up one house. We aren’t doing that again.”
Troy came into the bar soaking wet.
“Dylan,” he said. We all turned to look at him. It must have been pouring outside.
“What’s wrong?” Dylan asked.
“She got to talking, and I had to go check, but it’s true,” he said.
“What’s true?” I asked.
“The house is back,” he said.
“My house?” Dylan asked jumping to his feet.
“Yeah, it’s sitting out there like it never moved, but there is a ward around it. I couldn’t get close to it,” he said.
“She took my house!” Dylan fussed.
“Was there any doubt of that?” I asked.
He shook his head. “What else is she saying?”
“She says Grace will kill her, but she won’t kill a kid. She said that’s all that matters. She wanted him to be safe,” Troy said.
“What’s his name?” I asked. They all stared at me. “What?”
“Devin,” Dylan replied.
“Faun” I said.
“What?” Dylan asked.
“Devin is a modern form of the old Irish family name that means faun,” I said. “I bet his father is a faun.”
“That’s a Seelie fairy,” Nestor said. I nodded in the affirmative.
“How did you know that?” Finley asked raising an eyebrow.
“I know lots of things little brother,” I said. “Plus, Daddy’s power helps.”
“You cheat!” he proclaimed. A snicker circled the table.
“Look. I know I put on a big show in here earlier, but Levi pointed out that the council banished her. Something inside of me clicked. If it hadn’t been for Levi, they both might be dead right now. We need to be careful who we banish from Shady Grove,” I said. “We gave the council authority, and as long as I hold my father's power, it’s the executive branch. I didn’t realize that included executions.”
“Even more reason to get that protection spell going,” Mable added.
“Agreed. Finley, find Levi and set it up. If we need anything from the vault, use it. Okay?” I said. He nodded then trotted off out the door. “Betty, if you and Luther don’t mind, could you drop by the diner and whip up some food for Stephanie and Devin. I don’t really care about her, but the boy needs food.”
“Sure thing, honey,” Betty said. She stood up, patted Dylan on the back, and dragged Luther out the front door.
“I’ll be upstairs,” Mable said, dismissing herself.
Nestor looked at Dylan and me. “Do you really think the child isn’t Dylan’s?”
I grimaced, “I don’t know. He’s definitely fairy. I looked as I walked out the door with Levi. Faun makes sense. Do we have any fauns here?” I asked. Dylan squeezed my hand, remaining silent. He was overwhelmed. I squeezed back.
“Not that I know of,” Nestor said. “Most of the fauns are in Rhiannon’s army.”
“Grace,” Dylan whispered in my ear. “Can we please go home?”
I looked at his sad eyes. We needed to go home for the quiet. So many times, he had to assure me that he was here for me. That he wouldn’t leave. He needed that from me now. I couldn’t imagine my life without him, so it wasn’t a stretch. It was like we were stuck ducks in a dry pond. There wasn’t any way of getting out of this. We had to make do.
“Of course, let’s get going,” I said. “Goodnight, Nestor.”
Dylan handed me the keys before crawling up in the passenger side of the truck. With a hop, skip and a jump, we were home at the trailer. He crawled out of the truck, in the same manner, as he had crawled into it. I followed him inside. He went straight to the fridge, grabbing a beer. He had it guzzled before I shut the door, then opened a second.
“Dylan,” I said. “There is no need for that.”
“I need to get drunk. Let me,” he said.
“You’ve been drinking a lot lately,” I said. “What’s stressing you out?”
“I didn’t think you noticed,” he said.
“When are you going to learn that I notice everything, I just don’t talk about it. Like tonight. I saw those looks you and Nestor passed around the table like it was Thanksgiving dinner. We were talking about the absinthe. More happened that day that I don’t remember, but Dylan, I trust you. My outrage at Stephanie had nothing to do with my confidence in us. It had everything to do with the fact that she is meaner than a wet panther,” I said.
He plopped down in the recliner. I walked over to him. He held his empty hand up to me, when I clasped his, he pulled me down on his lap. “This messes everything up,” he said.
“Does it? You told me on our picnic the other day that you’d love me forever even if we never had a child. Has that changed?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I admit I was an idiot before we were together.”
“Remember the night you arrested me?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“I was being an idiot then, too. I did it pretty often,” I said. “I probably still do it on the regular.”
He smiled because he knew I was right. I didn’t know whether to be mad at him or kiss him. I opted for the kiss. We would make it through this like everything else. “I’m tired, Glory,” he said.
“Me too, Darlin’,” I said.
“Come to bed with me,” he said.
“I’d go off the edge of the earth with you,” I said.
“Just the bed tonight,” he said, as I slid off his lap. I pulled him up out of the chair.
We curled up in the bed together. His beer breath on the back of my neck. Usually, I would have made him gargle or something, but tonight it didn’t matter. He needed to know that I loved him, beer breath and all.
We stood looking down the lane at the house we used to live in together. The restored antebellum stood proudly where it had before Stephanie took it. I could feel the ward reverberating around it. Dylan tried it out, and of course, it let him through, but not me. It didn’t matter. Neither one of us was going into that house as long as Stephanie controlled it. We had our first Christmas together in that house. The memories of that day floated around in my mind.
Dylan had woken up irritated and moody. I decided to shut up and be supportive. Shocker. I was doing good with the supportive part. The other part, not so much.
“Can I kill her yet?” I asked.
“Be my guest,” he muttered.
“Talk to me,” I urged.
He kicked a rock at his feet, grumbling under his breath. I tried not to sigh, but I did. He grumbled some more. “I should go see my son,” he said.
“Okay. Let’s go,” I said.
“You don’t have to go, Grace,” he said.
“I will behave. I promise,” I said.
“It’s not that. I just feel like you deserve better than this. You always have, and I’ve been nothing but a fuck up since day one,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “You’ve been a wonderful sheriff for this town. We did a lot of good together. We are still good together.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but instead, he walked back to the truck. He was driving today. I was just along for the ride.
We pulled up outside the Cabaha Motel. Amanda Capps sat in a cruiser with her son, Mark. They were eating biscuits. She waved at us when we arrived. I got out of the truck with Dylan, as a fine mist of rain fell. We ducked under the small awning over the door, and Dylan knocked.
“Come in,” Stephanie’s voice called out.
Dylan opened the door, and we both stepped in. Devin took one look at me, then ran into the bathroom. Stephanie scowled at me. “Did you come to kill me, Grace?” she asked.
“No,” I replied. I leaned back on the door, forcing myself to remain quiet.
“Good morning, Dylan. What can I do for you?” she asked.
“I just hoped to talk to the boy,” he said.
“Why? You don’t think he is yours. He’s terrified of Grace. I warned him that she was a wild card in all of this. She could strike us down with a snap of her fingers,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t even have to snap,” Dylan said. Stephanie showed just a moment of surprise but then went back to the haughty aloof face. She looked like a hundred years of bad facelifts. I wasn’t sure what she was doing to her glamour, but it sucked. I decided I didn’t want to look past it. “Stephanie, tell the truth. Is he really mine?”
“Sure. Remember the hot sex we had after the moonshine incident. I got pregnant. I slipped away to my mother’s realm, had the child, then left him there. Brock found out about him and wanted to kill him, so I brought him here. Grace can’t resist taking in other people’s kids, since she can’t seem to have one of her own,” she said.
I didn’t move. I didn’t open my mouth. Dylan flinched but tilted his head sideways when I didn’t. “I remember that you told me that you fucked Krykos that day plus someone else,” he said, turning back to her.
“He looks just like you, Dylan,” she said.
“You fucked Joey Blankenship, too,” Dylan said. I knew that Joey looked just like Dylan.
“You want proof?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Bond with him as your heir. If he isn’t your blood, the bond won’t transfer,” she said.
I cleared my throat. Stephanie laughed.
“I never thought I’d see the day when you were tamed, Grace. It’s impressive, Dylan,” she said.
“Could you please ask the boy to come out?” Dylan said, ignoring her taunts. I was busting at the seams, but I had promised to behave.
“Devin, come out here and see your father. He is the reason we are here,” she called out to him.
“No. The evil fairy is here,” he said.
I touched Dylan on the arm. “I’ll wait outside,” I said softly.
“No, you don’t have to,” he said. I kissed him on the cheek then stepped outside into the light mist. Amanda waved me over to the cruiser. It was one of the ones without the dividing window. Her son crawled into the back, as I sat down in the passenger seat.
“How’s it going in there?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. He’s afraid of me, but Dylan wants to talk to him. I decided it might be better if I waited out here. She’s obsessed with trying to provoke me,” I said.
Amanda and I never really got along very well, but we tolerated each other since that night I tried to kill her. I supposed I should be thankful she even spoke to me. However, she was with Troy now and they seemed to be settled. I looked over at her, noticing the flashing diamond on her finger.
“He proposed?” I asked.
She smiled wide. “Yeah,” she said. “We were going to tell everyone last night, but things got crazy.”
“Congratulations!” I said. I meant it. I surprised myself that I meant it.
“Thank you. That means a lot coming from you,” she said. “What if the kid is his?”
“Then it’s his. We are still together. I can’t live without him,” I said.
She hummed for a moment, then turned silent. I listened to the rain pick up on the car’s roof. Mark leaned over the seat looking at me.
“Hello, Mark,” I said.
“Hi. Where’s Winnie?” he asked.
“She’s staying with her Aunt Tabit
ha today,” I said.
“Oh,” he said with a disappointed tone.
“You play with her at school?” I asked.
“Yep, but I want to go to her house. She says she has two fairies,” he said.
“What?!” I asked.
“Yeah, she said she has two brownies that clean her room and play with her. I want to meet them,” he explained. Amanda looked at me bewildered.
I buried my head in my hands. “She wasn’t supposed to tell,” I muttered.
Amanda laughed. “She’s six. They don’t understand secrets,” she said.
“I know. I just hope that none of the regular kids found out,” I said.
“No, she only told me, because we are best friends,” he said, proudly.
I shrugged. There was nothing I could do at this point. Everyone in this town was fairy aware, so it wasn’t a huge deal like it used to be, but it was a reminder that we needed to shut the town off from the rest of the world.
Dylan ducked out of the motel room, then made his way to the truck. I hurried out of the car, waving to Amanda. The bottom fell out just as I closed my door. Lightning ripped across the sky, and thunder shook the truck.
He didn’t speak as he slammed the truck in reverse, speeding off down the road toward the trailer. When we got there, he high-tailed it into the house. I followed him in and found Levi and Finley sitting in the living room.
“Hey,” Levi said.
I held my finger up, then followed Dylan into the bedroom. He slammed his fist into the wall. “Dylan!” I said, mostly because it startled me.
“He’s a good kid. He needs a father,” he said, rubbing his knuckles. He looked at me. “She wants me to bond with him, but I get the feeling it’s a trap. A setup.”
“Your instincts are usually right,” I affirmed, waving my hand over the cuts on his knuckle. They disappeared.
“You have a lot of power you don’t show,” he said.
“A lot,” I said. “Like super-duper scary lot.”
He smiled at my nonsense, then wrapped me in a big hug. “I love you, Grace. I can’t do this without you.”
“I’m here,” I said.
“Go see what those two knuckleheads want. I’ll be out in a minute,” he said, planting a kiss on my forehead. When he released me, I stumbled backward almost losing my balance. He grabbed me to steady me. My head spun for a moment. “Whoa! Sorry!”
