by Alicia Fabel
Vera froze. “How’d you know?”
“You mentioned it once.” Kale lifted one shoulder slightly. “The cake is only your first gift.”
“Wait.” Mimi finally found her tongue. “Today’s Vera’s birthday? And you didn’t tell me?”
“That was your second gift,” Kale told Vera.
There were definitely tears in her eyes, but Vera blew out her candles before saying, “It’s exactly what I wanted.”
“What?” Mimi’s voice rose. “How could you not want me to know it’s your birthday?”
“I don’t love my birthday.” Vera’s sad smile made Kale’s chest heavy. “Suzie died three days before I turned eighteen. She went to pick out a birthday gift for me and never made it home.”
Mimi let out a breath. “Oh, honey.”
A single tear spilled down Vera’s cheek. She swiped it away quickly. “You know, I didn’t think I’d ever want another birthday gift after that. Then, last year you gave me the best gift I could’ve asked for,” Vera said to Mimi with a dry laugh. “You shoved me out of that tree and knocked me unconscious. I got to sleep through my birthday.” She turned to Kale. “And this year, I get to spend it with you guys. Which is actually kind of all right.”
Kale tipped his head. “I have one more gift, but maybe you won’t like it so well.”
“I’m sure I’ll love it.”
“It’s outside.”
Vera stilled. “If it’s my own demon horse, I take it back. I don’t want it.”
“It’s not a demon or a horse,” Kale assured. “Or a lizard or snake or spider either.”
“You know me so well.”
“I hope so.”
Kale led them all out the front door, down the porch steps, and around the cabin. Beneath Vera’s window, he’d planted lilac bushes. He’d been babying them for weeks so they didn’t die.
“Suzie’s favorite.” Vera knelt to take in the spicy scent of the tiny lavender blooms just beginning to open.
“Those aren’t just her favorite,” Kale said. “Those are her bushes. I transplanted them from your old apartment building.”
“You dug them out of the planters?” Shock colored Vera’s words.
That’s exactly what he’d done.
Vera stroked one of the blooms. “Each time she planted lilacs, the landlord ripped them out because he didn’t want water wasted on ‘useless weeds.’ And every time he did, Suzie planted new ones. She said those planters were meant to hold beauty, and they should get to fulfill their purpose. Eventually, the landlord gave up and let her keep them.”
“I thought Suzie would want you to have them,” Kale said simply. “I put roses in their place. If he wants to take those out, he’ll have to get bloodied for his efforts.”
Vera choked and covered her mouth with a hand. Infernals take me. I shouldn’t have told her that. Jumping up, Vera swung around and threw her arms around his ribs. She buried her face in his chest and squeezed.
“Thank you, Kale.”
Kale swallowed hard. She hadn’t touched him, other than for training, in almost a year. As quickly as she’d wrapped her arms around him, she pulled away.
With a brave smile, she said, “Can we eat cake now?”
Kale didn’t miss how she wouldn’t meet his gaze. And he didn’t miss the lock of hair trailing down the back of her neck, glowing red. Glowing hair wasn’t a unicorn trait. It wasn’t something Vera siphoned either. No creature in the world had that ability for her to siphon. He figured it had to be a quirk of her mixed-magical heritage, but the phenomena seemed to upset her. She’d started wearing stocking caps during her visits, even though the meadow was perpetually warm. So far, the meadow was the only common factor in the sporadic glowing. It had happened a handful of times when they sparred, a few times when she sat eating dinner, and once last fall during finals week, when she’d fallen asleep on the couch after dinner. Sometimes it wouldn’t glow for weeks. As Vera wiped tears from her cheeks and walked arm-in-arm with Mimi back inside, Kale had a new hypothesis. Next time they trained, he was going to test it out. Vera was not going to like it.
***
Vera took another bite of cherry cake. She never would’ve guessed that Kale had remembered her tale of birthday woes from their escape through the Velvet Woods.
“Any special plans for spring break?” Kale asked the group.
“I’m headed home to make sure my brothers aren’t terrorizing anyone,” Mimi answered. “Thank the gods it’s only one week. Summer break will be murder.”
“Three words,” said Addamas. “Florida, girls, and booze.”
“Pig,” Mimi mumbled.
“You’re welcome to join,” Addamas informed her. “The less you wear, the better.”
“How have I never seen a video of a satyr crashing spring break?” Vera asked. “I’d think with that many people, you’d be all over the news.”
“Because I’m a complete gentleman. Strictly look, don’t touch.” Addamas stretched both tattooed arms up to rest behind his head. “And I keep my pants on.”
Vera gave him a look. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Oh, I believe it,” said Mimi. “Humans start passing around pictures of a moron satyr, and Kale will hunt Addamas down and kick his fluffy tail. While I cheer him on.”
“My tail is not fluffy,” Addamas objected.
“Oh. That makes sense,” Vera said to Mimi.
“My tail is not fluffy!” Addamas stood when no one acknowledged his proclamation and put his hands on the button of his pants. “Want me to show you?”
“Oh, good gods, no!” Mimi said with horror.
“Enough, Dam,” Kale said. “Keep your pants on. I don’t know how Vera puts up with you two every day.”
“Aww, she loves us.” Addamas fell back into his seat with a grin.
“When should I plan on you?” Kale asked Vera.
“Plan on me for what?” Vera didn’t follow.
“You’re coming to stay here while Mimi and Addamas are gone,” Kale said as if it was already decided.
“I didn’t know that was the plan,” Vera said carefully.
Mimi suddenly became interested in cleaning all the pink frosting from her plate.
“I thought you’d know.” Kale picked at his thumbnail. “I can’t leave you there without anyone to watch over you.”
“Uh, yeah, you can,” Vera said. “Because I can take care of myself. And I’m just going to be in my room reading all week anyway. So unless books start stealing souls, I’ll be fine.”
“Couldn’t you read here?” Kale asked. “If you need help carrying all your books—”
“I don’t need help carrying my books,” Vera snapped then pressed her lips together.
Kale watched her like she was a keg about to blow.
Calmly, she said, “It’s only a week. You can even send Ferrox to spy on me and collect me for my usual training.”
“I’ll be more comfortable with you here,” Kale persisted.
“But I wouldn’t be more comfortable here,” Vera argued.
Kale’s expression became unreadable. He tipped his head to meet Vera’s gaze. Since her truth-telling was not public knowledge, that had become Kale’s silent way of asking her to listen for the truth. In this instance, his own. “I promise I’m never a danger to you.”
“Huh?” Vera frowned at the man. What’s he talking about? Then it sank in. Vera’s eyes widened. “It’s not you that I’m worried about,” she rushed to explain. “It’s me. I can’t stay here for a week around all this magic.”
Everyone around the table seemed to exhale. Why would they think I’m worried about Kale?
“Maybe it would be a good opportunity to stretch your unicorn powers,” Kale suggested.
“I can’t stretch what I can’t find. Not on purpose anyway. Give me a shot of poison and, sure, I’m grand. But that’s all I can do.”
“I can help you,” Kale said.
“No, you can
’t,” Vera said as gently as possible. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all of you trying, but no one here knows how to help me. None of you are unicorns.”
“Maybe I could talk to Kuwari,” Addamas began.
“He already said no,” Kale pointed out.
“But maybe we don’t need him to come here,” Addamas said.
“You think they’ll welcome a siphon half-breed, who needs help mastering kargadan magic, into Nibiru?”
“Whoa. You two are talking Greek, you know that, right?” Vera asked. “Wanna try all that in English?”
“Actually, Addamas is the only one speaking Greek,” Mimi corrected. “Kale’s speaking some dead language he won’t tell us the name of, and I’m speaking Canaan. You’re the only one speaking English, hun.” Mimi cocked her head in a very cat-like way. “You really don’t hear the difference, do you?”
“No,” Vera admitted. “Add it to my list of weird. I forget that you all use magic to understand each other. Until you start throwing out words which don’t translate. Kargadan is a unicorn, but what are coo-war-ree, and nee-beer-rue?”
“Kuwari is a kargadan Addamas knows,” Kale explained. “He’s from a realm called Nibiru.”
“And Kuwari could teach me to be a unicorn?” Vera asked Addamas.
The satyr shot Kale a sideways look and didn’t answer.
Vera narrowed her eyes at Kale. “I’ll take that as a yes. Let me guess. You didn’t tell me because it’s not safe?”
Addamas coughed and covered his mouth with a hand while Kale and Vera stared off.
“I didn’t tell you because Kuwari cannot help you.” As soon as the words left Kale’s mouth, he ran a hand through his hair. The lie reverberated through Vera’s skull. “Let me explain,” he said.
“This should be good.” Vera folded her arms while Mimi looked back and forth between them with a weird expression.
“Kargadan no longer leave their realm, not since Kuwari’s last escort disappeared a few years ago. He was on a trip, looking for answers to their depleting numbers, and his bodyguard vanished. The herd realized they could’ve lost Kuwari instead. Since they cannot afford to lose their healer, he’s not permitted to leave Nibiru. That’s why he cannot come teach you.” Kale finished, still picking at his thumb. There was a red stain where it had been bleeding at some point. Vera wondered if he even knew. The meadow must have healed it, but if he didn’t cool it, he was going to start bleeding again.
“I can go to him,” Vera said.
“You cannot…” Kale paused. “It is not safe for you to go to Nibiru.”
“It wasn’t safe for me to go to Summartir either. But we did all right.”
“That was different,” Kale said. “I could go to Summartir with you.”
Now Vera was getting the picture. “You don’t want me to go because I’d have to go alone? Couldn’t Addamas come with?”
“Ah, yeah, we’ve all been banned not just Kale,” Addamas said. “Although, I do sneak by and see Kuwari occasionally. I’m pretty sure Kuwari informs the marduk—the king—when I do, but so long as I stay invisible and don’t cause trouble, he allows it.”
“What did you all do?”
“Killed the kargadan prince who was supposed to be the next marduk,” Addamas said cheerfully. “Actually, Kale let me kill him. Then he took the blame so I wouldn’t be executed for it.”
“You went to a different realm and killed someone? But that’s against the world’s laws. Kale should’ve killed you himself,” Vera said.
“Eh, it’s a gray area,” Addamas replied.
“How?”
“Technically, Nibiru is my home realm,” Addamas answered. “That’s where I grew up.”
“Kuwari is Addamas’s adopted dad,” added Mimi.
“The prince I killed was married to my sister. When she miscarried again, he murdered her. Kargadan don’t divorce, so it was the only way for the prince to get himself a new wife. A kargadan woman is only valuable if she can produce spawn.”
“They went to confront the prince and found out that he was trafficking young girls from off-realm,” Mimi expanded. “When he was done with one, he killed them and ordered another one from the Tablilu Clan—nasty people with tails like scorpions.”
“Sounds like a lovely place.” Vera made a face. “But I’m still going.”
“No,” Kale said.
“Try to stop me, buddy.”
“First of all, I don’t have to stop you because you’d never be able to find the gate. Second of all, it’s not safe for you there. You’re a woman.”
“Glad you’re aware of that.” Vera poked at her right boob. “I was afraid these weren’t obvious enough.”
Mimi giggled and high-fived her.
“While the prince’s actions don’t reflect the ideals of the kargadan people, all kargadan men are over-protective when it comes to women,” Kale said.
“You should all start a club,” Vera suggested.
Addamas quirked a smile at that. “The girl has a point.”
“Addamas,” Kale said darkly.
“All right, all right,” Addamas conceded. “Vera, gods love you, girly. You are much too feisty to survive Nibiru, even with the progressive Kuwari as your guardian and mentor. Kargadan expect their women to be demure and obedient.”
“I can be obedient for a week.”
Kale barked a laugh. “Until someone pisses you off. Like when you see a man bossing around his woman.”
“Okay, yeah, that would be hard.”
“What happens if you get in trouble?” asked Kale. “What happens if you upset the wrong guy, and they decide you need to be punished for your own good?”
“They’d learn that’s a bad idea,” answered Vera.
“Exactly.” Kale looked very satisfied with himself. “And that’s why you’re never going to Nibiru.”
“You don’t think I can take care of myself for one week around a bunch of misogynistic unicorns?”
“Fine, you want one more birthday present?” asked Kale. “As soon as you can knock me off my feet in a sparring match, I’ll summon the gate for you.”
“Deal. Let’s go.” Vera stood, tipping over her stool.
“I didn’t mean now.” Kale’s jaw jumped. “You’re not ready yet. And I planned to give you tonight off for your birthday.”
“No. I wanna go now.” Vera headed for the door. “It’s my party, and I’ll knock you on your ass if I want to.”
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Releases December 28, 2018