Our whole squad ended up staying at my place with a stack of horror movies while the rest of campus tried to celebrate the blues away. Somehow, Amalia managed to drag Rodrigo over for our Saw marathon. Liadan even cooked for us again, so the night became a gathering of close friends spread across our sectional and the massive beanbags we glamoured to fit everyone.
The next day, the Wild Hunt Club met a few hours ahead of schedule since we’d decided to run Crystal Gorge in Isaac’s honor. We wanted to hunt for silver dagger fish, because those had been his favorite.
My lessons continued with Dain, but he didn’t bring up my relationship again. His focus shifted more toward Pilar and Liadan, and even I recognized the growth in them both under his tutelage.
Down to the final days of our fall semester, we all gathered on the sofa in my living room and enjoyed a Friday evening in to discuss our holiday plans. Victor had even rented a movie and brought a few pizzas with him.
Something about Halloween night had cemented our friendship circle, because from that moment on, it was the norm for everyone to chillax at the townhouse, a group of shifters, vampires, mages, and faeries crossing social boundaries each weekend—often during the week too.
Life had to go on.
Since Thanksgiving wasn’t a national holiday in Ireland or Spain, neither Liadan or Pilar intended to go home. Holly’s parents lived in a nearby Chicago suburb, and she planned to take off early Wednesday morning with her boyfriend.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come, Sky? Mom totally said it’s cool for me to bring home whoever I want, and Pilar will be there.”
“Nah. You have that vampire metabolism working for you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You know, a little self-control at the dessert table is all it takes.”
Victor glanced at her. “Says the girl who drinks half my blood bag for me when I buy the expensive vegan shit. Where’s your self-control then?”
“Vegans are delicious,” Holly mumbled. Her cheeks flushed red hot.
“Your blood blushes are adorable,” Victor teased.
“Anyway, what does your crazy, unnecessary diet have to do with coming home to my house?”
“I was supposed to—”
“Glad someone else agrees it’s unnecessary,” Gabriel cut in.
“—be going home to my place with Lia, but when I went to check prices, everything was booked up except for the super-expensive flights. Guess I’m just bummed I won’t be eating my mom’s sweet potato pie. Dad was right; airfare is ridiculous when you miss the early specials. Who wants to spend six hundred bucks on one round-trip ticket?”
On cue, my cell phone rang and Mom’s number and picture enlarged on the screen. I mouthed what the fuck quietly before accepting her call and raising the phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi there, baby. So, did you decide?”
“Decide what?”
“About coming home with any of your friends.”
“Huh?”
Mom made an impatient little sound. “I asked you a month ago to ask any of your friends if they’d like to join us for the holiday.”
“Oh, well… um, the airfare is kind of a lot.” My brows knit. Liadan had planned to come with me, but when she’d called home, her father said they couldn’t afford the fare anymore. I sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you reminded me, but midterms happened, then a bunch of other stuff, and I forgot. By the time I remembered, Liadan and I had already missed the best deals.”
“You’re not coming home?”
I bit my lower lip. “I really meant to get tickets a month ago.” Then my boyfriend almost died in a bar fire. All the odds had been against me.
Gabriel glanced away from the TV. “I can drive you.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll drive you and Lia home. I get good mileage, and it’ll be less than airfare.”
“Is that Gabriel?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Tell him we’ll reimburse him for gas, and we’d love to have him too.”
“Er…”
Gabriel chuckled and leaned in closer. “I’d love to join you, Mrs. Corazzi. I promise to deliver Skylar home for turkey day safe and sound.”
* * *
To take advantage of the deserted pre-dawn interstate, we left a little after midnight early Wednesday morning with Gabriel behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat, and Liadan in the back snoozing with Amaterasu. Rodrigo had an early morning flight back to Texas, so he wouldn’t be in the apartment to care for her.
Gabe’s family rang his phone a dozen times, because they wanted to know if he’d fly home with his cousin. He answered the first call and ignored the rest. Eventually, he turned his phone off to focus on driving in the dark.
A little after sunrise, we stopped for overpriced coffee and woke Lia to join us for breakfast. A little Compulsion glamour from me convinced the manager to let us bring Ama inside the diner, because it was too damned cold to leave Gabe’s feathered friend in a chilly car while we ate.
“I’ll go get her. You two take a seat and get some coffee to the table. Maybe if Ama sits with me for a while...”
Gabriel canted his head. “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
When I returned with Ama, Gabriel and Lia were waiting on one side of the booth, sipping their respective hot drinks. The moment I pulled the warm blanket off her travel cage, she hustled out of her fleece hammock and performed a cheerful dance that gave me some hope of us becoming friends.
I touched her tummy the way I’d seen Gabriel do a hundred times.
She bit the hell out of me.
“Ow!”
Gabriel choked on his coffee, and Liadan sputtered tea.
“What a pretty bird,” the waitress said. Ama, the vile little hater bird, preened and chirped for the older woman. Evidently, she liked everyone but me.
“Give her time, Sky. She’ll come around.”
My little stare-off with the demon spawn indicated otherwise. I was pretty sure she and I were destined to be eternal enemies. As if to emphasize the point, she bit the bars hard enough to make a loud twang then banged her beak against the metal without breaking eye contact.
“Just ignore her,” Gabriel said.
“How is that going to help her like me?”
“Show her she can’t intimidate you. She’s trying to assert that she’s the boss of you… and succeeding.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
We placed orders with the waitress and chatted amongst ourselves while waiting for our breakfast. I pigged out on strawberry-stuffed french toast while doing my best to ignore the beady-eyed stare aimed my way. Her daddy fed her a blueberry from his fruit salad. She took it gratefully and forgot I existed.
“The GPS said we should reach Virginia around two or three this afternoon. If you want, I’ll swap places with you around then.”
“Sure.”
Taking cues from Gabriel, I picked a little piece of strawberry from my plate and offered it to Ama. She accepted it.
Yes! Score! She liked me—
The little bitch threw it down and seized my finger before I withdrew my hand, clamping down hard enough to almost draw blood.
Somehow, I bit back the swear.
Gabe sighed. “Ama, no biting.” When she let go and shuffled away, he shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth then chugged his coffee. “Sorry, Sky. Y’all ready?”
“I’m finished,” Lia said, giggling against the edge of her tea cup.
When Gabriel plucked his naughty baby’s cage off the seat, I noticed a fallen, golden-orange feather left behind. I picked it up out of habit, and a buzz traveled through my fingers. It was Ama’s feather, but it was filled with all of his warmth and love for her.
When no one was looking, I tucked it into my Dream Box.
Maybe she didn’t like me, but she meant a lot to someone I cared about, and that was all that mattered.
* * *
Gabriel and I swapped
seats with about two hours to go, and I brought us into my hometown.
“Welcome to Suffolk, you two. We’ve got great pizza close by, a mall about an hour from here, and plenty of pine trees.”
My raven groggily raised his head then glanced at me. “Didn’t realize pine trees were a positive tourist feature.”
“Oh, they aren’t. They shed all year, and during pollen season the air is yellow. Still, I figured you may wanna roost somewhere.” I grinned at him.
He scowled.
A few minutes later, we cruised through my quiet neighborhood and slid into the drive of the two-story brick home where I’d been raised. Mom and Dad had managed to snag one of the largest corner lots, so the neighbors to either side weren’t right on us. I hadn’t even turned off the engine before my mom rushed out the front door. She swept me into her arms the moment I stepped out of the car.
“Hi, Mommy.”
“I’m so, so, so glad you’re home. Liadan, sweetie, it’s good to see you again.” Mom swooped from me to her, hugging us in turn. Then she skipped through the Twilight a step to reach Gabe on the other side of the car and squeeze him tight. “And you as well, Gabriel. Thank you so much for driving the girls down.”
“I was happy to do it, Mrs. Corazzi.”
“He only did it because he wants your sweet potato pie. He would have starved this week if we’d managed to come without him.”
Gabriel grunted. “She wouldn’t stop talking about it.”
Mom glowed with happiness. “Lucky for you that I made extras. I’ll freeze one to send back with you. You kids must be dying for a bite to eat after a long drive like that. Come on inside, I have snacks ready.”
Lia reached in the back and pulled out Ama’s cage. The conure screeched until Gabriel took possession of her.
“Oh, I see we have a little friend. Well, hurry inside with him—her?”
“Her name is Amaterasu, but she prefers Ama.”
A big grin spread across Mom’s face. “Prefers, does she?”
Gabriel’s cheeks heated a little.
“Can you talk with her?”
“A little. I used to understand her more when I was a kid. It was almost like we were speaking the same language then.”
After a flick of her wand Translocated our luggage from the car, Mom hustled us inside to unwind after our fifteen-hour journey. “I know the perfect place for your friend to sit during the day.” She guided Gabriel to the window where the morning and afternoon light streamed in each day. “You can wheel her into the guest room when it’s dark.”
“Um, her travel cage doesn’t have wheels.”
One tap of her wand to Ama’s travel cage made it jump and expand in size, becoming an enormous, toy-filled wonderland resembling her bigger home in the apartment. Bells dangled from strands of colorful rope yarn and a maze of perches snaked from wall to wall. Ama screamed and jumped on a rope with a spiraling paper ribbon. She shook a bell and chirped again with joy.
Mom, Lia, and I laughed, then Ama laughed, mimicking us. Bird laughs had to be either the cutest or the creepiest sound I’d ever heard.
Meanwhile, Gabriel stared at the transformed cage. “Whoa.”
“She had a little memory of home tucked inside her. Does this look about right?”
“Yeah, it does. Thanks, Mrs. Corazzi.”
“No problem.” She tapped the coffee table with her wand, conjuring a snack platter covered with sliced meats, cheeses, and fruit. I only managed to grab two bites before she called me into the kitchen to help.
“Does pot roast sound good, or should I make tacos? What do they like?”
“Whichever will take less work. Really, you don’t have to go all out. You don’t wanna know how we eat when we’re at the school.”
“I know, but I want to make sure everyone has a good time.”
Since the choice was up to me, I decided on tacos. She asked me about my classes while we diced lettuce and tomatoes the long, magicless way.
“Anything I can do to help?” Gabriel asked from the doorway.
“Yeah, you can come grate this ch—”
“No, no, you go sit and relax.” Mom smiled and shooed him off.
Dismissed from helping, Gabe wandered to Ama’s cage and offered her a grape. Soon as he sat down on the couch with Lia, she flew to him and shrieked for more until he gave in and passed her a baby carrot.
“Does he always share his food with her?”
“Yeah. She loves to eat yogurt off his finger or take food from him. I tried at breakfast today, and she bit me.”
“What did you do to make her mad?”
“Me? Nothing. She just really, really loves Gabe. He said he grew up with her, so he treats her like family.”
Mom nodded. “How a man treats his pets and his family is a good indication of character. Your Gabriel is definitely worth keeping around. I’d even say he’s the marrying kind.”
“Mom.”
“What?”
“We haven’t been dating long enough to discuss anything related to marriage. Can you not?”
“Fine, fine. Just saying, I knew the moment I met your father I’d be happy to be with him the rest of my life.”
“Dad also wasn’t dating anyone when you first met. We’re not rushing.”
Still, I couldn’t help but glance out the kitchen again to look at my boyfriend and best friend. They were both playing games with Ama now, making her do tricks for morsels of food and laughing together.
And I felt like the luckiest girl in the world—far, far away from my problems at PNRU and for the first time in weeks, able to believe we were completely safe.
No one could hurt me here.
* * *
After dicing veggies for Mom, I returned to the living room to give my friends a brief tour of the house. We had four bedrooms, three baths, and an attic where we stored all our Christmas junk and all the shit from my childhood days my packrat parents couldn’t bear to toss out.
I opened the door beside the stairs to reveal Gabriel’s luggage in the middle of a room filled with standard bedroom furniture. Mom’s Translocation glamour had placed his stuff there. “Guest room where you’ll be sleeping.”
“Cool.”
Upstairs, photos of me as a child decorated the walls along with professional family portraits.
Gabe paused by my sixth-grade school photo. “Damn, you were cute. I can see when your hair started to turn.”
“Yeah. I lied for a long time and claimed my parents let me dye it before I realized being a faerie is okay. Here’s the other… huh?” I was going to show Liadan to the other guest room, but it was locked and a slip of paper had been pinned to the door.
Your mother and I are redesigning this room. Please leave the door closed for now.
I shrugged it off and kept going. “Bathroom is the door on the left, and here’s my room.”
Nothing had changed since I left at the start of the semester, my room smelling of fresh linens and sunshine despite being shut up for weeks. My bed was up against one wall, computer desk against another, but my PC and TV were missing since I’d left them behind in my room at the townhouse.
My bag was in the center of the floor next to Lia’s suitcase. “Guess you’ll sleep in here with me, since Mom and Dad are all about fixing up the house lately.”
Just a few months ago after my birthday, my mom had hired a contractor to build an attached greenhouse, because there were some things we fae didn’t trust glamour to do in the long term.
Gabriel drifted over to a line of shelves decorated with unicorn and pegasus statuettes. Some of them had butterfly wings. He glanced over his shoulder at me and raised one brow. “Unicorns. Really?”
“Shut up.”
“With butterfly wings,” he continued.
“Perhaps your subconscious already knew what you would be,” Lia teased.
We chilled in my room for a while then investigated the new conservatory accessible through a door on the rear wal
l of the den. Mom and Dad had done a little work on it since I returned to school, adding a sofa and a hot tub. They’d also planted enough flowers, fruit-bearing bushes, and tropical plant life to resemble a zoo’s butterfly habitat.
Liadan’s mouth dropped. “Your family has a hot tub?”
“Yeah, I have no idea why they suddenly wanted a hot tub.”
Gabriel glanced at me. “You don’t? Isn’t it obvious?”
“Um, no? I mean, I’ve been asking for a pool for years.”
“You’re an only child gone eight months out of the year. Your folks are probably running naked around the house every day that you’re gone.”
“Ew!” My desire to soak in the hot tub died.
The grin on his face widened. “What’s wrong?”
“Look, I’m perfectly happy believing my dad’s story about making me with pixie dust and rose pollen.” I’d believed that story until I was eight and my mom told me the truth about where babies came from.
Even Liadan laughed at me.
When we exited the conservatory, my father’s black Impala slid into the drive beside Gabriel’s Chrysler. He eyed the car, snapped his fingers, and all the road grime vanished from my boyfriend’s ride.
Then he came inside, and despite being an adult, I ran straight into his arms for a hug.
“There’s my bambolina!” My father swept me up in a hug and spun me around like I had come home from my first day of preschool.
“Missed you, Daddy. You remember Liadan and Gabriel, right?”
He set me down and laughed. “Of course I do. We’re so pleased to have you both over for the holiday. I remember my first Thanksgiving here in the States. Gloria brought me home, and I fumbled the engagement ring right into the sweet potato pie.” Dad shook his head.
I laughed at him. I loved my ditzy dad and wondered if I’d inherited his clumsiness too. “No wonder she makes it every year.”
But if they hoped for a similar proposal from Gabriel, they had a long wait coming.
The Scary Godmother: The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 2 Page 20
