by Gloria Craw
“All the reasons I can’t stand you have come flooding back,” he grouched as he recovered.
Grabbing his hands, I pulled him inside. “I didn’t miss you, either,” I teased.
He pointed to my head. “What have you done to yourself?”
Realizing my newly cut hair had come out of its ponytail and was hanging in several lengths around my ears, I patted it down. “Do you like it?” I asked. “I did it this way especially for you.”
He chuckled and rubbed the top of my head like I was ten.
His eyes widened as he took in the mess in the living room. “It looks like a storage unit threw up in here,” he remarked. “Make that two storage units.”
“Just wait,” I said, pulling him through a couple of crates. “Your bedroom is even worse.”
I showed him into the room next to mine. Never one to waste time, Theron took a look around, put his huge hiking pack and two canvas bags on the floor, and began to push crates out of the way.
“Did you have a good time schlepping around South America?” I asked, watching him work.
“I wouldn’t call it a good time,” he replied, “but I got a lot of thinking done. Riding rusted-out buses with chickens roosting on the seats is hard on the nose but good for the mind.”
“What did you think about?”
“Moving on. It will be a year in May since Amy and I…”
I knew the story, so he didn’t need to finish. Amy was Theron’s former girlfriend. Things had been going great between then until she likenessed with his brother. It happened right in front of him. As you might expect, he was a little screwed up over it.
I was glad he’d done some reflection while he was away. Theron didn’t deserve what happened to him. I believed, in the beginning, he thought he did. He was a dewing without joining and battled a lot of insecurity because of it.
I pretty much loathed Theron when we met a few months ago. He was grouchy, sarcastic, and stubborn. Once you got to know him, though, you could appreciate all the great stuff underneath it: his intelligence, loyalty, and kindness.
There was an odd bond between us. Theron hated destiny for making him without joining and then having his girlfriend likeness with his brother. I hated destiny for putting me in a position to grow up loving humans and then ripping me out of it to serve the greater good.
We got a little solace knowing there was another dewing in the world who despised destiny with a white-hot, flaming passion.
“Moving on is good,” I said, giving him a smile. “I could set you up with Phoebe when she gets here.”
“Ah, no thanks,” he responded. “I’ve seen pictures, and she’s not my type.”
“That photo wasn’t flattering,” I replied. “She has a distinctive nose, that’s all. I think you’ll like her.”
He looked up from a crate he’d been pushing. “Don’t play matchmaker with me, Alison. Especially with girls you consider friends. They might never talk to you again. Anyway, it would be a waste of your time. I’ve got plans, and there’s no room in them for a relationship, at least not for a while.”
Theron had graduated with a master’s degree in computer science from MIT when he was sixteen. Because he had boundless energy and an insatiable drive to learn new things, he enrolled in art school afterward. He’d been studying at Columbia University when Amy likenessed to his brother.
“Are you going back to school in New York?” I asked.
He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “Change of plans. I’m training at a culinary institute in France. I’ll start next month.”
The mattress on his bed sunk as he sat down on it.
“So, you plan to be a computer-hacking, canvas-painting chef now?” I asked.
“There’s a growing market for them,” he joked. Then, yawning, he brushed a hand along his dark hair. “Do I refer to you as Jillian Laurel now?” he asked.
Jillian was the name my biological parents gave me, but I had no memory of being called by it. For some reason, I could never get comfortable with how the name sounded. He’d used it once when I was in a bad mood, and I’d reacted poorly.
“I’ve decided to stick with Alison,” I remarked.
“You’ll have to officially change your name,” he told me. “That means getting permission from immediate family, requesting the clan chief’s approval, and having the genealogist change it in the clan records.”
“Considering I’m my own clan chief, and the genealogy book is in my closet, it should take me about thirty seconds,” I replied.
He smiled like he suddenly remembered I was going to be a clan chief, put his arm around my neck, held me in a headlock, and messed up my hair even more. “That’s right,” he said. “My little cousin is all grown up.”
I pushed him off, laughing.
It felt nice to laugh and joke, but I knew it was coming to an end when his brown eyes began to regard me with concern. “How are you doing since…everything?” he asked.
I looked away from his steady gaze. “If you mean how am I doing since faking my death…fine.”
He waited for me to say more. When I didn’t, he remarked, “You’re taking the stiff upper lip approach. I can respect that.”
I looked at my hands, grateful that he seemed to understand.
He patted the space on the bed next to him, so I sat down. “What are you planning to do after the roundtable meeting?” he asked. “Are you going back to Australia with Ian?”
“No,” I replied with a sigh. “I’m still planning to live with Lillian in Sweden. I’m going to buy a Volvo and learn to make meatballs. Ian might register for some classes at a university not too far away. He’ll live close enough that we can see each other a lot, but I’ll also have some personal space. I think I’ll need that for a bit.”
“Hm,” he said, “the flight time from Paris to Stockholm is about two and a half hours. I could fly over and try some of those meatballs.”
“Okay,” I replied with a smile. “I’d like that.”
“Has anything exciting been happening around here?” he asked.
I’d momentarily forgotten about my new enemies and “the offer” I’d overheard the Vasitass talking about. Those worries came crashing down on me again.
“Wow,” he remarked, probably observing the change in my expression. “You better tell me all about it.”
I wondered where to start and settled on something only he would understand. “My mother talked to me today,” I said.
He blinked. “I hoped she’d stop doing that for a while…and by for a while, I mean a decade or so.”
As far as I knew, Theron was the only other dewing who heard voices of the dead, specifically my mother’s. He was a giant of a man but freaked out like a little girl when it happened.
“I know I’m going to regret asking,” he said. “but what did she say?”
“That I should eavesdrop on a conversation between the Vasitass clan chiefs,” I replied.
He rubbed his eyes. “And how did that go?”
“They didn’t catch me, but what I overheard was troubling,” I answered. “They’ve got some offer to discuss at the roundtable. Apparently, it has moral implications. Helen said it could be…and I quote, our salvation. Still, they think they’ll have some difficulty getting the other chiefs to go for it. Valentine thinks I’ll be a particular problem. He’s a futureseer and had a vision of me talking at a roundtable meeting. I was scaring the crap out of everyone there.”
He chuckled. “That doesn’t surprise me. I wonder what the Vasitass have been up to, though.”
“I don’t know,” I replied, “but I think my mother wants me to stop the chiefs from accepting the offer they’ll present.”
He breathed out a long breath. “I’d like to argue,” he said, “but I doubt she would have spoken to you otherwise. What are you going to do?”
“Find out more about it before the roundtable,” I replied. “I need to thoughtmake one of the Vasitass into explaining what’s go
ing on. The problem is, they aren’t staying at the Arx. They have their own place in town.”
“They’ve got to come back sometime, right?” he asked.
“I spoke briefly to Helen. She said they’d be back for the reporting ceremony. That’s tomorrow night, but all the clan chiefs will be there. I’d need to get Valentine or her alone to use my joining without giving myself away.”
He nodded. “We’ll figure something out. But I need to get some sleep first.” He made the go-away signal with is fingers. “Go find someone else to bother for a while. I must sleep…maybe until tomorrow.”
Feeling better to have told someone about the Vasitass, I leaned over to hug him. “Thanks for coming, Theron.”
He gave me a tired smile. “That’s what cousins are for.”
Chapter Nine
I woke later than I’d planned the next morning and cringed when I realized Lillian and Theron were awake and in the living room together. Without me to moderate, it would be Lillian’s cold distain against Theron’s sarcastic antagonism. Imagining a psychological bloodbath, I threw the duvet off and hustled out to check on them.
I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.
The crates had been pushed against the walls, leaving a decent-size space in the middle of the room. Theron and Lillian were sitting on the floor facing each other and had their heads bent over something.
There was no hostile energy coming from either of them, so I breathed a sigh of relief and headed their way.
“What are you guys doing?” I asked.
They both startled.
“Stop sneaking up on me like that,” Theron grouched. “I’m too young to have a stroke.”
“I’m not,” Lillian stated.
He glanced at her, the sides of his mouth twitching with suppressed laughter.
“I can’t make myself have a signature,” I responded. “What do you want me to do?”
“I told you before,” he said. “Buy a bell and collar, like the ones they put on cats to scare away birds. We’d at least hear you coming.”
Lillian stared at him. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if she approved or disapproved. Then she said, “That was funny.”
“Go easy there, old lady,” he replied. “Don’t overdose on merriment.”
She blinked. “Ha, that was funny, too.”
“I thought so,” he agreed.
I looked from one to the other of them in disbelief. If I wasn’t mistaken, they sort of liked each other. “I don’t understand what’s happening?” I muttered to myself.
“We’re playing chess,” Lillian replied.
Shaking my head in amazement, I sat down to watch their game.
“Just a heads-up,” Theron said to me. “The Bethex and Calyx chiefs arrived about an hour ago.”
Sensing them somewhere below us, I nodded, and leaned in for a closer look as Lillian moved one of her pieces on the chessboard. “Are you sure this is a chess set?” I asked. “I don’t recognize any of these pieces.”
Theron sighed theatrically. “She’s confused, Lillian. Do you want to explain it to her, or should I?”
“You do it,” my stoic friend replied.
“Lillian found this priceless jade chess set in a secret lair under the Arx,” he said in a mysterious voice. “She thinks it came from India and that its one of the first ever made.” He pointed to some throne-shaped game pieces. “This is the king and queen. The bishop is the elephant, and the rook is a chariot.”
Lillian pushed his king down. “Checkmate,” she announced.
“Crap,” Theron grumbled.
“That was the fastest game I’ve ever played,” she remarked.
Theron scowled. “Are you saying I’m a bad player?”
“Yes,” she replied.
He chuckled. “I’d be hurt if I had feelings.”
Lillian sort of snickered as she set the game up again. I nearly choked on my own breath. I’d never heard her come anywhere close to laughing before.
“I really do have feelings,” Theron whispered to her conspiratorially. “I just don’t want people to know it. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
She full-on smiled—I saw her teeth and everything. “I won’t,” she replied.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
“What was that?” Theron asked, making his first move on the board.
“Nothing,” I replied.
Lillian tipped her head to the side as though she were listening for something. “The Thanes are almost here,” she said.
“It must be someone else,” I disagreed. “They aren’t arriving until the afternoon.”
“It’s the Thanes,” she replied confidently. “They’ll be getting out of the car in four, three, two…now.”
“Yep,” Theron agreed. “I just felt their feet hit the ground.”
A moment later, I could feel the Thanes’ signatures too. Jumping up, I danced from one foot to the other with excitement.
“Run along and make out with your boyfriend,” Theron said. “Lillian and I won’t miss you, will we?”
“Nope,” Lillian agreed, making her move.
“I can’t,” I replied in agony. “I don’t want the other chiefs to know about my relationship with Ian. Not until after my first roundtable anyway. Which reminds me, the two of you have to go along with it when we act like we’re just friends.”
Lillian made her countermove on the chessboard. “You want us to lie?” she asked.
“It’s not lying,” I replied. “It’s just not telling everyone the extent of my friendship with Ian.”
Lillian nodded, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that she talked much anyway.
“You can’t tease us, Theron,” I warned.
“Wrong,” he replied. “I can’t tease you when other people are around. Any other time, it’s okay.”
Lillian looked up at me. “There’s a vein poking out in your forehead,” she observed.
“Ooh,” Theron said, making a face. “She’s right. Your blood must really be pumping.”
Reaching up to feel if there really was a vein, I said, “I might have been better off if the two of you couldn’t stand each other.”
“Why?” Lillian asked with a blink.
Theron smiled innocently.
“It’s just going to be a long week, that’s all,” I replied.
Realizing I was still in my pajamas, I went to my room to get dressed. Since other chiefs were around, I put on a dark-gray pencil skirt and a pink cable-knit sweater. I brushed my short hair back and secured it in a ponytail, put my sapphire necklace on, and then sat on the edge of my bed waiting impatiently for the Thanes to get to their suite.
When I thought I’d given them enough time, I hurried out the door. Lillian and Theron were so intent on their game they didn’t even look up as I left.
I’d done some exploring the previous day and knew the Thanes’ suite was on the second level of the Arx. I managed to keep a sedate pace on the way down the stairs, but I sped up as I walked the hall.
Ian was waiting for me, like I’d been waiting for Theron. The Thanes’ red door opened, he grabbed my hand, and pulled me inside. He’d pulled a little too hard because I slammed into his chest, and he slammed against the wall.
He didn’t seem to mind, though. Kicking the door closed, he gathered me close.
A little breathless, I put my arms around his neck. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I said quietly.
He ran a finger down the side of my cheek and then lifted my chin to kiss me. First on the lips, then just below my jaw, and finally under the sapphire on my neck. My breath caught and my pulse quickened, but I pulled back.
“Hold on,” I whispered. “Your parents are in the next room.”
He kissed me again. “My mom is making my dad unpack. She’s giving us some time.”
“Okay,” I replied, reaching up to run my fingers through the soft blond hair at the back of his neck.
He bent to kiss me but
stopped himself. “Wait,” he said. “I’m supposed to be comforting you. Not kissing you.”
I hadn’t cried when Lillian handed me my obituary, I didn’t cry when Theron asked how I was doing since my fake car accident, but the love and worry in Ian’s eyes made my throat tighten with emotion. Everything I’d been trying so hard to hold back since touching down in Cornwall came welling up inside me.
I could feel a sob coming on, but it stopped when Spencer grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around. “How’s our girl?” he asked.
Rocking on my heels, I replied with a watery smile, “I’m okay.”
He pointed to my temple. “Do you want me to look around in there? Grief causes chemical changes in the brain. I can trigger ones that ease sadness.”
Spencer had helped me out a few times in the past with his joining, but I’d felt off my game afterward. “No thanks,” I replied. “I’ll be okay.”
He nodded once and said, “Don’t just stand there, son. Show the girl where to sit.”
Ian rolled his eyes as his father walked away. “If you missed us before, I’m sure you don’t now,” he grumbled, taking me by the hand.
Like the Thanes’ mansion in Vegas, their suite was beautiful. The walls had been painted a warm, tan color, and the wood floors were stained a deep brown. Soft rugs and fluffy throw pillows in shades of blue and green added color to the space.
Ian launched himself onto an overstuffed sofa and pulled me down next to him. “This is where you sit,” he said.
“Good to know,” I replied, laughing.
Katherine was dressed in riding clothes and tall boots when she came into the room.
“Going for a horseback ride?” I asked her.
Instead of answering, she came my way and knelt in front of me. “What have you done to yourself?” she asked, touching a swatch of my hair that had come out of the ponytail.
I took a deep breath and then pulled the elastic out so she could see the full effect of my haircut. “Is it really that bad?” I asked.
Cupping my chin in her hand, she turned my head one way and then the other.
“It’s not like she amputated a limb,” Spencer remarked. “Leave the poor girl alone.”
Katherine ignored him and with a decisive nod said, “We can fix it. I’ll just even the ends a bit, and it will look fine.”
