by Rhys Ford
Rykoff had been given the same one.
“You’re lucky he didn’t see you. His father’s on the council, you know. He’d have reported your ass faster than you could say portal.”
“You forget, he can’t scent me,” Rykoff reminded him, waggling his eyebrows.
When Ruby and Rykoff had gotten totems as their gift from the queen, Hugh had received something different, though no less precious. The enchantments she’d put on his necklace were more than just a beacon for their totems. They also allowed him the ability to smell them and see their auras.
“Let’s get on the road. It’s a long drive to Cincinnati, and I want to get there before Ruby’s bedtime. You know she’s going to come through that portal talking a mile a minute, and she needs time to wind down.”
Rykoff settled in his seat and dug out one of the fruit leathers Hugh kept in the glove compartment. “Mother sent the guard to inspect the house in Asheville. She says it’s acceptable.”
Hugh and Ruby needed to pack the last of their belongings this weekend so the movers could load up the trucks and set off for North Carolina. The council was headquartered there, and they’d offered to rent a house for Hugh and Ruby as part of his salary. It was about fifteen minutes outside the city limits on a sizable wooded lot. It was perfect.
He hadn’t told the council she was fae. And he wouldn’t. The fae weren’t part of the council, and that meant they had no power over Ruby. As far as they knew, Hugh wanted a secluded place because he valued his privacy and wanted some separation between his human daughter and the supernatural world he served.
“Well, if the queen thinks it’s acceptable, it must be all right,” Hugh joked. “She’s not the one living there, you know.”
She likely would never even visit. Rykoff said the rulers of the fae courts never left the realm. That meant someday, if she accepted the throne, Ruby would be bound to the realm too, but that was far, far in the future. A hundred years or more, if Rykoff wasn’t pulling his leg. It was a relief to know that Ruby’s lifespan was longer than his own considerable one. No father wanted to outlive his child.
“No, but her granddaughter is. She wants to make sure it’s safe.” Rykoff paused and slid a glance over at him. “She said there’s a wood shop on the property.”
Hugh grinned. That had been the deciding factor when he’d agreed on the house. “A local carpenter owns the property. He moved across the country, but the estate agent said he hoped whoever rented it would be a woodworker.”
Rykoff’s scent changed subtly, taking on a honeyed note that Hugh had learned was excitement.
“Too bad you don’t have any interest in carpentry.”
“But I do have an interest in a certain carpenter. I was hoping I might persuade you to spend at least part of your time with us. You said you come to the mortal realm often to ship your pieces. Would it be so bad to have a workshop here?”
“You’d share your home with me?”
Hugh hoped to share a lot more than that with him, to be honest. But he didn’t have a clue how fae courtships worked. They’d hardly gone a day without seeing each other. Hell, he’d seen Rykoff a lot more than his own daughter over the last month. Ruby had gone back to spend another week at camp—with the alibi of a medical emergency that had only taken a little of Hugh’s persuasion to sell to the counselors—before spending the rest of the summer living in the fae realm.
“I’ll share whatever you’ll let me with you,” he said. Innuendo was often lost on Rykoff, so he’d learned to be blunt. “I know living in the mortal realm isn’t ideal for you, but I’ll take whatever I can get.”
“I’m very fond of both you and Ruby,” Rykoff said. “And I find this realm is growing on me.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“That is a yes.”
Hugh let out a victorious whoop, laughing when Rykoff started at the sound.
“You’ll love the property,” he told him. “The owner left a lot of his tools, and the workshop is pretty far from the main house. Nice and secluded.”
“Ruby and I can continue her lessons, then.”
He and Leelia had been teaching Ruby about the affinities and helping her kindle her earth abilities. She’d been able to make a bud grow into a flower the last time Hugh had visited, and the look on her face had been sheer joy.
“I told Nae that Ruby could spend every other weekend in the realm during the school year. That should help.”
Learning to share her would be difficult, but he wasn’t going to be greedy with her time. Not after thinking he’d have to give her up entirely. Besides, how could he deny her the right to spend time with her biological family?
He and Rykoff spent the rest of the drive talking about his new job and Ruby’s progress. It was nearly dark by the time he pulled into the driveway, and he resigned himself to a late night of Ruby bouncing off the walls and talking a mile a minute.
“Shall I go get her?” Rykoff asked as Hugh opened the front door.
Most of their things were boxed up already. Hugh had done the majority of the packing before he’d left to go back to Detroit. He only had a few odds and ends left, and Ruby’s room. It hadn’t felt right to pack that up without her.
The house was blissfully quiet, and he wanted a bit of time to enjoy what was probably his last peaceful moment in the home they’d lived in since Ruby was two months old. He’d learned how to be human in this house. Figured out the ins and outs of caring for a tiny person. He was excited for what was to come, but he’d miss this place.
Hugh stood there with his eyes closed and took a breath, centering himself.
“Yeah. I’ll order something for dinner while you’re gone.”
Rykoff disappeared through a portal a moment later, and Hugh called his favorite Thai place and ordered a mountain of food. Once Rykoff had learned that there were human foods that didn’t involve preservatives or meat, he’d taken to eating with gusto. Hugh’s own appetite had increased too. A byproduct of having his fill of chi to feed on, probably. His body was no longer in starvation mode, and that meant he could enjoy many things a lot more.
Dragging Ruby away from the fae realm always took longer than it should, so Hugh puttered around packing and cleaning until the food arrived. He’d just gotten it arranged on the blanket he’d laid out as a makeshift table when the portal reopened and Ruby and Rykoff stepped through.
“Hey, Dad!”
She’d grown again. God, she was getting tall. She’d be eleven in a few months. It didn’t seem possible. Her getting older was even more terrifying now that he knew she’d be developing mystical powers. He’d been worried enough about navigating things like her first period and dating and peer pressure. Now she might be able to make fire shoot out of her fingertips. They didn’t write about that in the books he’d read about puberty.
“Hey, Rubes. How was your week?”
She sat next to him and grabbed a spring roll. “Awesome! I missed having real food.”
“The food we eat in the fae realm is real food,” Rykoff muttered. Hugh noticed it didn’t stop him from popping a spring roll into his mouth, though.
“It’s berries and vegetables and really healthy stuff. Sometimes a girl needs cheese.”
“Or pad see ew,” Hugh said, offering her the carton.
“Yessss,” she hissed.
“So what were you working on this week?”
“Healing plants,” she said around a bite of food. He glared at her, and she made a face. “Sorry.”
The normalcy was comforting. He might be raising the next fae queen, but right now she was just a ten-year-old girl who had to be reminded not to talk with her mouth full.
“Do you think my new school will be like my old one?”
They hadn’t talked much about how she felt about the move. Part of him wondered if it was too many changes too quickly for her, but it was the perfect job opportunity for him in a place that was a lot better suited to raising a fae child than his 1200-s
quare-foot house with a postage stamp lawn in the middle of a city.
“What? Why? Are you worried about your classes?”
“I’m just hoping they do the thing we always had to do where we write about our summer vacation. Mine will be epic.”
Hugh exchanged a panicked look with Rykoff over her head.
“You can’t write about the fae realm!” they yelled in unison, and even though his stomach was in knots over this latest development, part of Hugh was thrilled to have someone else to help him carry the load with Ruby.
Ruby rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about that. They had a goliath swing at camp this year. I went seven times. Anna threw up on it twice! And we played Gaga ball. Do you think we can get a Gaga pit at the new house? I had Naenae make one at court, and everyone loved it.”
“No one loved it,” Rykoff whispered in his ear as Ruby kept nattering on. “Literally everyone hated that ridiculous game. But no one was going to argue with the queen or her heir, so the entire fae court played Gaga ball with her.”
Hugh hid a laugh behind his hand, pretending to cough. He’d love to see that.
Nothing about his summer had gone to plan, but it was without a doubt the best one he’d ever had. Being with Rykoff was the ultimate hall pass, and he hoped that feeling would never end.
Kismet & Cadavers
By Jenn Moffatt
Thomas Anders is prepared for two weeks of alone time, or as alone as he can be living with his daughter’s sentient undead cat, running the family occult shop, and keeping San Diego safe from the strange and supernatural. What he doesn’t expect is for KJ Beshter to arrive in his shop bearing a gift card Thomas’s daughter cast a spell on. Thomas has met her handsome magic-sensitive teacher before, but now that Star is moving up a grade, he can cross that line. It would be perfect timing if something wicked didn’t want to sink its claws into KJ too….
For the real Thomas, Anders, KJ, and Beshter. Love you so much.
Acknowledgments
THANK YOU for asking me to be a part of this, Rhys. You’re the best sister in the universe.
Prologue
2002
THEIR FOOTSTEPS were muffled by the damp ground beneath the canopy of trees that surrounded their Boy Scout camp—at least, the four boys hoped they were. The last thing any of them wanted was for one of the camp counselors or, even worse, a parental chaperone to catch them outside their cabins in the middle of the night. Kevin-James Beshter winced when his sneaker cracked a thin fallen branch, and the other boys hissed at him to be quiet.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he whispered back, taking a moment to smack a mosquito that decided to join the other frequent guests at the Beshter Buffet. Both his arms were covered with bumps and scratches from them. No one else in his cabin got munched on like he did, and he hated it even more than he hated the smell of the froufrou bath oil from the Avon Lady that his mom insisted worked to repel the little bloodsuckers. It didn’t, and all of his gear smelled like an old lady rolled in pine sap.
Fingers went over lips while the light of the full moon caught in the whites of their eyes as they glared at him. Kevin-James didn’t want to be out in the darkness, but it wasn’t as if he could tell his “friends” he had no interest in watching the girls in the next camp dancing naked in the moonlight. For all they knew it was a myth, and he didn’t like girls that way. He knew it and had for a couple of years. But he couldn’t tell these guys. If they found out, they’d probably beat the crap out of him, cover him in honey, and leave him for a bear to dine on, which was way worse than the mosquitos.
He wasn’t the smallest of them, but he was the youngest, just twelve years old. His reddish-brown hair was sun-bleached to the point where he was almost ginger, and he had a permanent sunburn across the bridge of his nose, or his freckles had grown into a solid mass. It was hard to tell after being at camp for almost two weeks. He was miserable, and he wanted to go home.
“The girls’ camp is over the hill,” Dexter, the oldest at thirteen and three-quarters, said over his shoulder as he continued to lead the hike with the flickering light of his crappy flashlight. “We need to pick up the pace. The good stuff happens at midnight.”
Bullshit.
“Are you sure?” one of the others asked. Peter was wearing a Pinky and the Brain T-shirt and had almost white hair. Kevin-James thought he was kind of cute, which was a thought he’d be keeping to himself for eternity. No one in the scouts could know about him. They’d kick him out, and he was so close to making Eagle Scout. His grandpa would be disappointed, which was the closest thing to real evil he could think of. Letting his parents down was to be expected, but never Papa.
“My brother told me. He saw them two summers ago,” said Mickey. He was the smallest, with the darkest skin. If a bear did come at them in the darkness, it’d miss Mickey in the shadows while Kevin-James figured he and the blond kid would die.
“Just shut up and walk,” Dexter said, not bothering to whisper this time. He was getting annoyed with the younger boys. “Or we’ll miss them.”
Kevin-James kept following along, doing his best not to step on anything else and glancing into the trees, watching for lions and tigers and bears—or chainsaw-wielding hook-handed serial killers waiting to chop them into stew meat. Okay, maybe I should stop watching slasher movies with Dad in the man cave.
He had paused for a moment, reaching down to tug off one shoe and shake a rock out of it, when he noticed a sound on the breeze. It was almost like a giggle or the chiming of a bell. He opened his mouth to call out to the others, but they were gone, and his heart skipped a beat. It didn’t take that long to pull a shoe off!
“Where did you go? Jesus, couldn’t wait for me!” He was pissed and sank his teeth into the pillow of his bottom lip to keep from shouting. All that would do was catch the attention of things with two legs and four that they didn’t want knowing they were out there.
Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the WWII Army compass that his grandfather had given him and tilted it toward the moon so he could read it. What he saw made him gasp. The needle was spinning crazily in the case. It was pointing in all directions!
“Fuck!” Kevin-James shook the compass and angled it this way and that, but the needle kept moving all over the place. “Come on. Show me how to get back.” In truth, he knew a compass really wasn’t all that much help if you were lost. It was too dark to see any landmarks, and unless he accidentally walked into the lake, he was screwed until the sun came up.
“Guys?” This time he didn’t try to be quiet. His voice cracked as it sounded in the shadows, and the crickets and other night sounds suddenly stopped. All he could hear was the chimes and what might be singing. “Not lost if I can follow the music.” He was still scared, but it gave him hope. Even if he wandered into the girls’ camp, it was better than being lost in the woods.
Fifteen minutes later—which he knew because he was wearing his watch—he paused and checked the compass again. It was pointed in one direction now, toward the singing, and at the edge of his vision, he thought he could see a blue glow. The closer he got to it, the more he could smell cinnamon and other herbs burning, and he was thankful to finally hear clear voices.
When he made his way carefully between a pair of tall standing stones—like something out of Stonehenge—he could see people dancing around a tall bonfire. They weren’t only girls. There were men too, and some of them looked weird. He thought he could see wings like fairies at their shoulders, and some of them looked like satyrs. He knew the names of the creatures because he’d memorized the Monster Manual cover to cover the summer before last when he’d started to play D&D.
They weren’t human. The fire was blue. He didn’t have a spell book or a sword. None of this was supposed to be real. I am so incredibly fucked!
“What are you doing here, Boy Scout?” asked a tall, thin teenager wearing only a crown of leaves in his dark hair and a pouch slung around his neck. This guy was high
school age or older, and Kevin-James stared at his nakedness with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open and tongue dry.
“I’m l-l-lost,” he stammered, not noticing as his compass fell to the forest floor near their feet.
“No shit, Sherlock.” The older boy let out a heavy sigh and pointed a finger at Kevin-James’s forehead. “Don’t move. I need to get my mom.”
Kevin-James felt a charge of electricity like when he ran through the house in socks and then shocked the dog on the nose with the collected static electricity, and try as he might, he couldn’t make his feet move or make a sound. All he could do was stare as the naked guy walked toward the… dancing horde? Coven? Creatures? The sounds of their revelry vanished until all he could hear was his breathing and his heartbeat, and it was getting hard to keep his eyes open.
“WE GET at least one a summer,” Kat Anders said as she let out a sigh and then smiled at her son. Like the rest of the coven, she was skyclad, wearing only a crown of flowers woven into her long dark hair. “Thomas, next time you do a sleep spell, let him lie down first.”
“Sorry, Mom. I panicked a little, and I told him to hold still, not sleep. What happens now?” He moved behind the kid and carefully tilted him against his body until he slid onto the ground. Fortunately he wasn’t stiff like a board or stone. If anything, he was a little floppy once Thomas started to move him.
“We send him back to his people after we make him forget that he saw us. Same as we do every time.” She stepped closer, brushing the kid’s auburn hair away from his forehead. “Poor thing. He’s being eaten alive out here. So many bites that he feels like a prickly pear.”
“He smells weird. It’s familiar but wrong,” Thomas said.
Her smile broadened as he took another sniff of the paralyzed Boy Scout, and Thomas could tell she was happy he was trying to make the connections to the mishmash of herbs. “Might be some cedar? It’s too chemical. Not enough natural ingredients for me to tell.” He bent over the scout and breathed in his scent once more. “Easier to smell the rabbit poop he stepped in, in the woods, and he stinks like hot dogs—yuck. Which could be his dinner or a lack of bathing.”