by Bonnie Lamer
“Xandra, please,” Kegan says out of the corner of his mouth. We have reached the bottom of the stairs and we are standing face to face with the older Fairy now.
“Children,” Isla says dryly from around the corner. “Come to the kitchen.”
Kegan’s father is annoyed at being so openly chastised by his mother. But, he still does as he is told. He’s annoying, he’s not stupid. I bet Isla got pretty damn creative with her punishments when her twin sons were boys and I doubt she is above such things with her adult son.
We all trudge to the kitchen, none of us ready for this fight. It’s too early in the morning for family drama. Once there, the smell of coffee perks me up a bit, but I pour myself a glass of orange juice. I don’t want a caffeine buzz on top of already being on edge. I’ll go for the sugar rush, instead.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Kegan squares off against his father and jumps into the awful conversation waiting to happen. “Alita is staying with me,” he says. “Here. There are things happening and we can help.”
“If you are not going to do what is best for your child, I will,” his father growls. “Even she cannot be willing to jeopardize the life of her baby to stand behind your obstinacy and the craziness that infects this household.” I’m pretty sure he just called me an infection.
“Be careful, Uncle,” Kallen growls in my defense.
“My name is Alita and I am staying wherever the damn hell I want to stay whether you or anyone else likes it,” the Fairy in question announces. “And where I am, the baby is, now and after she is born, so you can go to hell for all I care. The baby and I are fine right here.”
Kegan’s father has a finger pointed in her direction. “You will not speak to me…” That’s as far as he gets.
I always wondered what it looked like to others when I sent someone flying through a wall. Pretty damn funny is what it looks like. The shock on his face, the ‘holy shit, what is happening?’ expression, is just what the doctor ordered. Or, just what the baby ordered. Guess he or she doesn’t like someone disrespecting his or her mother. Even if it’s Grandpa. Even funnier? The utter amazement on Alita’s face. For the very first time, she has done exactly what she has always wanted to do to her father-in-law. Shut him up. Inevitably, though, reality always creeps into the perfect moment. A horrified hand goes to Alita’s mouth and I’m concerned she has stopped breathing.
She looks like she’s about to faint and Kegan is too shocked to notice. Hurrying to her side, I take her arm. “You should sit down.”
“What have I done?” she gasps. Good, she can still breathe.
Hands on her hips with a grim expression on her face, Isla announces, “Something that was a long time coming.”
And I was surprised a minute ago. Kegan has me beat, though. He stares at his grandmother as if she just sprouted a new head. Out of her butt. “What?”
Isla shrugs. “He is my son and I love him,” she says matter-of-factly. “He is still a jackass. He is too much like his father.” I’ll bite my tongue so I don’t comment on just where he could have gotten his stubborn, my way or the highway personality besides from his father.
“I see Xandra is redecorating again,” Dagda remarks as he heads straight for the coffee pot.
“Nope,” I grin. “Not me this time.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Alita bury her face in her hands. Ah, the sting of embarrassment after rash behavior. I’ve been there.
Dagda’s brow rises as he takes in the same picture of his walking dark magic detector. “Impressive,” is all he says before sampling his coffee. He is not really a fan of Kegan’s father.
Alita tries to get up from the table, presumably to run off, but Kegan blocks her path. “No,” he says softly. “We need to work this out together.”
I half expect her to throw him through a wall, but she doesn’t. Glancing over her shoulder, Alita watches her father-in-law pick himself up off the ground. What does it say about him that not even his mother rushes to his side to be certain he is okay? Me? I figure if he can still breathe and move, there is nothing I can’t heal if need be, so he’s fine. “He will not want me to come with him now, at least,” Alita says quietly. She can always find the bright side of things.
With only the slightest of limps, Kegan’s father reenters the kitchen. Through the door, not the new hole in the wall. I guess it is the principle of the matter. Once inside, he stops and stares at Alita. Finally, he says in wonder, “The baby did that?” When she nods timidly, he startles all of us by bursting out laughing. “Well, I will be damned.” Probably.
Isla cocks her head. Like the rest of us, she was on guard to break up a fight. “That is all you have to say on the matter?”
Her son shrugs. “I feared his diluted blood would make him weak. I am pleased to be proven wrong.”
“Is there a class in back handed compliments that most Fairies take?” I ask Kallen.
He shakes his head. “It comes naturally.”
I nod. “Good to know.” Hopefully, our future children don’t get that gene.
Our side conversation earns us a scowl from Kegan’s father. “Perhaps I can have a word with my son and his wife in private.”
I purse my lips and pretend to consider it for a moment. “No.” I see Dagda hide his grin behind his coffee mug.
“I believe you lost the right to privacy when you barged into my home and began making demands,” Isla explains as she moves to get her own cup of coffee now that she doesn’t need to wrangle her son into submission. Not yet, at least. I’m still on guard.
After a moment, her son sits at the island counter with a defeated sigh. He indicates the seats across from him. “Sit,” he orders Kegan and Alita.
“Bossy, bossy,” I say around my orange juice glass, earning me a scowl from several directions. Fine, I’ll stay quiet.
Kegan and Alita sit, but Kegan begins to speak before his father can. “Father, you made it clear before we married that our place was not in your home. You cannot come here and demand otherwise now. Besides, we are safer in the company of the members of this household than anywhere else in the realm.” Aww, that’s so sweet. And true as long as the Pixie’s don’t eat all of our magic.
His father runs a hand over his face. As he does so, his features soften. Finally, he says, “That does not make me worry less.” He worries about Kegan? I never would have guessed it from his previous behavior. I mean, I know he worries about his image, who he married, etc. I never knew he worried about his safety.
“You have a funny way of showing you worry,” Alita grumbles. She claps a hand over her mouth as if she cannot believe she just said that aloud. I am so proud of her. A quick glance around the room shows I am not the only one.
Instead of being angry as I would expect him to be, Kegan’s father nods. “I suppose I do.” Taking a deep breath, he says, “I was opposed to this marriage from the start.” He holds a hand up when a cacophony of voices begins to chastise him. “Let me finish, please.” When the room settles, he knows he only has one chance to make things right or he will once again be on the other side of a wall. The hard way. “My reasoning was not personal, it was, as many issues are in our race, about blood lines and the difficult future a child of yours was thought to have.” I roll my eyes at this old conversation. “I see now that I had nothing to fear. You are obviously carrying a child who is no less magical than my son.”
When he doesn’t finish, my brow furrows in confusion. “Was that supposed to be an apology or just you continuing to prove you’re a jerk?”
“Xandra,” Isla says sharply and I blush. He is still her son, even if he is a jerk.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
Kegan’s father does answer my question, though. “Perhaps both,” he admits. “Regardless, I believe I can put my past concerns aside. I would like very much for us to begin again.” He holds his hand out across the island counter to Alita.
Alita looks at the hand as if it is bait and she is the fish being lured
to the hook. Slowly, she lifts her hand to his and almost flinches when her father-in-law shakes it. Beside her, Kegan is ready to snatch her hand back if need be. Her hand is quickly dropped by his father.
After an awkward silence, Kegan’s father clears his throat. “When I extended the invitation earlier, I thought it would be a temporary arrangement. I would like to amend that. I believe you both should come live in my home as is customary when a child marries.”
If Alita turned any paler, she would have avenging spirits confusing her for one of my parents. Placing a supportive arm around her to keep her from falling off her stool, Kegan meets his father’s eyes. “I appreciate the invitation, late as it may be, but I am going to have to decline.” Good thing. I do not want to think what it would be like for Alita to live in that Fairy’s shadow. She would become a mouse hiding in corners. At least, after the baby is born she probably would. Right now, the guy would need to worry about having his walls fixed regularly.
A slow burn of anger fills Kegan’s father’s eyes. “What?” he growls, hoping he heard incorrectly.
Sitting taller, Kegan shakes his head. “No. We are happy here as long as we are welcome,” he gives a surreptitious glance toward his grandmother who nods, then brings his eyes back to his father. “Too much has been said and done for me to believe you are willing to give Alita an honest chance. And frankly, she has nothing to prove to you. Everyone here could see how amazing she is before she became pregnant with a powerful baby. This is where we belong until we decide to find a place of our own.”
Kegan’s father opens his mouth to say something, but the kitchen explodes with activity and his words are drowned out. Just as Adriel enters the kitchen with my parents right behind her, a vengeful spirit zooms toward her. Tabitha and Garren, who must have relieved Alita and Kegan on guard duty, both begin to chant the exorcism spell. The kitchen door opens after a knock and Naja enters with several guards. She seeks out Dagda and begins giving him a progress report regarding her tasks from the night before. She looks exhausted but it isn’t slowing her down. Tana comes in and after the spirit is exorcised, she addresses my parents in regards to their wishes for Zac for the day. I am so amazed by the last exchange, I almost miss the silent conversation between Kegan and his father. The former is holding his ground despite the deepening glower on his father’s face. Alita simply wants to crawl under the table. She has never gotten over the fact that she is the reason the two have grown so far apart. In her defense, though, Kegan always had a difficult relationship with his father. The guy really is a jerk. To prove this, instead of asking what he can do to help keep his grandchild be safe here, the older Fairy rises from the table and walks out the kitchen door without another word spoken. I don’t watch him leave. I focus on the pain in my friends’ eyes as they watch him go. Some wounds I can’t heal and I hate it.
7 Chapter
“So, only a handful of cases of magic gone awry. Good,” Dagda says when Naja finishes her report. “Perhaps our realm has not yet been overrun with Pixies.”
“I believe the guess from last night, that only a handful at best are here, is accurate,” Kallen agrees.
“Would you like me to have a conversation with the Pixie?” Naja asks. Something in her tone tells me it would be a conversation I would rather not watch. I do not believe she would torture the thing, but I am not one hundred percent certain.
After a moment of consideration, Dagda shakes his head. “No, not at this time. I believe it best not to antagonize its mate.”
“I can’t believe her mate hasn’t tried to break her free already,” I muse. I would if it was Kallen and vice versa. Then again, we are not twelve inches tall with no magic. There is probably a lot more planning involved in their case.
“We cannot rule out the possibility. There will be a guard on the cage at all times,” Naja tells me.
“They are fast and sneaky,” Kallen points out. “One guard may not be enough. Their whole reason for existence seems to be to cause havoc, so do not underestimate them.”
Naja nods. “I will assign pairs of guards.”
At my feet, Felix stiffens. “It is here,” he announces to me and Taz. He is gone in a flash with Taz trailing after. He is letting Felix lead in the search for Pixies. That, and he’s too fat to keep up.
“Um, I hope you have them in place already,” I tell Naja. “I think a prison break is about to happen.” Cursing under her breath, the head of security dashes out of the kitchen. We follow Naja into the large living room where three of Dagda’s security force are standing guard around the Pixie’s cage. Naja was definitely not underestimating them.
“If it isn’t the powerful duo. Come to feed me some more of your tasty magic?” the Pixie purrs.
I roll my eyes at it. “Keeping you from being rescued is more like it,” I inform her.
“Pfft, like you could do anything without your magic. Let me out of this cage and I’ll prove it,” she growls.
“Got him!” Taz shouts from the terrace. Half a second later, he amends, “No, we don’t!” This is followed by him and Felix bounding back through the door. Through the legs of the guards, causing one of them to fall, and back toward the kitchen. I could just make out a green blur running in front of them. Damn, Pixies really are fast.
As the Pixie in the cage takes this in, she calls out, “Tire ‘em out, Tyrus!” Apparently, she recognized the blur.
“Considering he was moving too fast for our eyes to track, you are pretty certain you know who that was,” Kallen points out. “Which indicates there really are only the two of you here.”
The Pixie’s eyes grow large on her green face. “Does not!” she shouts, recanting her story from last night.
“Snappy comeback,” I snark.
Kallen moves closer to the cage. This makes the guards nervous but they aren’t going to tell him no. He could take on all three of them and win. Not to mention, he’s the Prince of the realm. When he is close, he leans down, “Who sent you?”
Instead of responding with words, the Pixie hawks a loogie at him. Gross. Fortunately for Kallen, the Pixie cannot simultaneously spit and eat magic. So, he is able to stop, and send back, the spit bomb with a small amount of magic before it covers his face. It splatters all over the Pixie’s face instead. Still gross.
“What’s your name?” I ask as the Pixie paws at her face. Their spit is pretty thick and apparently hard to wipe off. Kallen really dodged a bullet there.
The Pixie ignores me for a moment while she works at the phlegm. Finally, when she has one eye cleared, she opens it and looks at me. “Pandora,” she replies. Then she snickers.
I frown at her, not knowing if she is serious or not. I am going to assume not. “Like the myth?” I ask.
Having cleared her other eye, she turns both of them to me. “What myth?” she asks innocently. “I’m the real thing.”
My frown deepens. “How can you be the embodiment of a myth that came into existence thousands of years before you were able to leave your realm?” I didn’t say before she was born because I honestly have no idea how long Pixies live. She could be thousands of years old.
“You know,” she begins, “because we’re bonding here, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.” I prepare myself to be underwhelmed. In a conspiratorial whisper, she says, “I don’t like you and chances are pretty damn good that all my answers are going to be lies.”
I gasp and put a hand to my chest. “Shocker!” I exclaim. Sobering, I add, “You are on a long list of people who dislike me, so don’t get your hopes up that you hurt my feelings.”
She snorts. “Just give me time.”
Placing my hands on my hips, I demand, “Why are you so awful?”
Shaking spit residue off her hands, the Pixie responds, “Because it’s fun. Kind of like how I enjoy you guys being attacked by those ghost thingies. Like the one behind you.”
Considering she just told me she has every intention of lying to me whenever she has the chan
ce, I almost don’t turn around. But, the magic flying through the room is my first clue that she was telling the truth. I would appreciate her honesty if she didn’t eat the magic being thrown up to keep the spirit from crashing through me. Suddenly, my blood feels like a million shards of glass moving through my veins. Time slows and it feels like it takes hours for the damn thing to move through me. Wait, scratch that. It isn’t moving through me. It’s staying inside me. Like it’s trying to possess me or something. The longer it stays, the colder I get. I can actually feel my blood freezing. Maybe that’s the plan. Maybe the thing isn’t trying to possess me, it could be trying to kill me. Considering how fast the Pixie is absorbing the magic trying to save me, including my own, it just might be able to do it. One Pixie. One Pixie can swallow a roomful of magic being wielded by some of the most powerful beings alive. We are so screwed. Me, especially, at the moment. My teeth are chattering uncontrollably and it is becoming painful to move as my blood literally runs cold. Kallen is holding me now, his arms wrapped tight around me. He rubs his hands up and down my arms, desperately trying to put some warmth back in me. It isn’t working.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a streak of black fly through the air. Just as Felix had last night, Taz has attacked the Pixie cage. The guards don’t have time to react as the cage crashes to the floor. Taz has his paws through the bars of the cage and the Pixie is beginning to look like a Christmas decoration. A combination of red and green as his claws make contact with her skin. She can’t get away from him. When she moves, he moves faster. Tearing at her, making her bleed.
This has the desired effect. The Pixie is no longer able to focus on the magic in the room. As soon as she lets it go, a burst of magic shoots through me. Kallen’s magic. The spirit is knocked back and the exorcism spell spills from my husband’s lips so fast, I can barely understand him. By the time he is finished, he has me scooped in his arms and wrapped in a blanket like a swaddled baby. “Can you heal yourself?” he asks.
