by Kimbra Swain
The doorbell rang, and Levi went to get it. I saw him pause reaching out through the door with power before he opened it. You could never be too safe. Caiaphas, the former leader of the Sanhedrin, stood outside. Levi still didn’t trust him despite his oath to me. Now that the blood oaths were in the game, Levi counted anything else as small potatoes.
“Come on in, Caiaphas,” I said. “You are welcome here.”
“Would you like some pancakes?” Astor asked. Hospitality invoked.
“No, thank you, Brother. Good morning, Grace. I brought the item you requested,” he said with a smile. Handing me a small velvet pouch, I gladly accepted the item.
“What do I owe you for it?” I asked.
“I think you’ve earned it for all the crap that the Sanhedrin put you through. Besides, you stole it once fair and square,” he grinned. Levi came up behind me. His curiosity won over his dislike for the older knight. After a couple of discussions since I came home, I’d decided that I liked Caiaphas who was also once known as Gareth. I knew his story well as it was told by Taliesin. My father turned his back on him at Gawain and Mordred’s behest, only to discover that my treacherous uncle was out for father’s throne and his wife. Now Mordred, my true blood kin, rules the Otherworld, but as long as I am alive, he cannot truly rule. However, no matter how much I coaxed, Caiaphas refused to trim those god-awful bushy eyebrows. It was like tumbleweed had attached itself to his forehead. They rolled around on his liver-spotted desert-like forehead.
I unfurled the item out of the bag, handing it to Levi.
“Ink?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s time you get your new guitar,” I said.
He looked at the ink, then back to me. “Will that work?” he asked.
“It is magic ink,” Caiaphas insisted. “Grace, I’ve changed the tracking spell on it. The others won’t be able to track him with it.” After reading Dylan’s story, I knew that Jeremiah had tracked me with the tattoo on my arm. I immediately removed the tracking spells from our tattoos. When Caiaphas told me that he had one bottle of the ink left, I knew that Levi needed a new tattoo.
“That sounds awesome,” Levi grinned.
If the theory was sound, so to speak, my bard would be able to play music through his tattoo without an instrument. Panties could commence melting. Levi cleared his throat but didn’t look at me. He was holding the ink up to the sunlight streaming through the windows of the farmhouse.
“Not mine,” I said.
“Yours are the only ones that count,” he said.
I blushed, then cleared my throat as he had. We needed to stop the throat clearing. People were going to think we had a permanent case of strep. He walked off toward the kitchen with Astor who had already started washing the breakfast dishes.
“Thank you, Caiaphas. How are you?” I asked. Remy had found him a small house in Avalon Heights. I didn’t see him out much, but I imagined that was because so many of the fairies here saw him as an enemy. Old prejudices.
He smiled taking a seat in the living room. I stood up from the dining room table to join him. “I am well. How are your children?” he asked politely. If anything, Caiaphas was all about decorum. He reminded me of a church deacon. Aloof and condescending, but underneath that protective barrier that he put up was actually a really nice man.
“Growing too fast,” I said.
“That’s the truth with fairy children, but I suppose your daughter is human,” he said.
As if called, Winnie ran into the room with her backpack. “Time to go to school!” She was excited because classes were starting back. Betty and Mable worked together to establish a fairy school in town. Winnie would be the only human, but she would be protected. The teacher was Ella Jenkins who had just finished her degree at the university. She would teach the kids, and I had spoken to her about Winnie’s safety. She had assured me that Winnie would be fine. Plus, Mark, Troy’s son was very protective of Winnie. I had to do like any parent, even humans, and send my girl to school.
She gave Levi and I hugs.
“I’ll walk her to the bus stop,” Astor said as he held the door open for her. “After you, my lady.”
“Why thank you, Sir Knight,” she said, then held her chin up as she walked out the door. “Bye, y’all!” Rufus had followed them to the door, but Astor deftly closed it before the slender devil scooted out of it.
Once the door closed, I continued the conversation with Caiaphas.
“I’ve wondered about changing humans. Joey Blankenship was turned into a faun by Rhiannon. I searched the book and talked to Nestor. He’d heard of it happening, but it was a rare occurrence. Do you know how it is done?” I asked.
“Would you change your child?” he returned.
“No. I wouldn’t want to subject her to this craziness. I mean, I know she is in it because she’s my child, but I’d like to think that she is protected some because she is human,” I said. Fairies didn’t like to mix the worlds of human and supernatural. Shady Grove was unusual that so many here were mingled together with humans. I still hadn’t figured out why, but fairies didn’t cross the line with humans. Even the aware ones. It tended to cause an uproar. However, she was used against Levi when none of us knew about it. I had considered changing Winnie, but the fact of the matter was, I was torn on the issue. Perhaps it would be something she could decide for herself once she was old enough to make that decision. For now, all she cared about was getting her ears pierced for her birthday.
“It can only be done to a human who is dying because they were enthralled against their will. I believe that Mr. Blankenship was saved because Stephanie had worked him over. It’s not just a spell though. It requires two sacred items. One from Summer. One from Winter. It’s a show of a mutual approval of the changing,” he explained.
That immediately killed the idea of changing Winnie. She was so well protected that I doubted she could be enthralled. Not to mention, Briar and Bramble kept a close watch on her, even when she left the house. There was no reason for them to remain here each day while she was gone. Although I suspected they enjoyed their alone time, they still followed her wherever she went.
“What items?” I asked returning to the conversation with Caiaphas.
“Do you not know?” He was starting to irritate me by asking questions about my questions.
“No.”
“Your father hasn’t fully given you his power then, because it is something you should know how to do as the ruler of Winter. I’m pretty sure the ruler of the exiles doesn’t count. You should ask him about it. I don’t feel that it is my place to tell you,” he said.
“I could make you,” I said.
“Indeed, you could, but then you wouldn’t be you,” he smiled. It was a backhanded compliment but not the worst one I have ever been given.
As he left, I watched him climb into a beat-up pickup. The old three on the tree type. I waved as he left. Astor walked back up the drive from the main road, waving as Caiaphas passed him. He jogged up to the house.
“You don’t trust him either,” Levi said behind me.
“No, I don’t. Not completely, but as you know, there are very few people in this world I trust,” I said looking into his denim eyes. He hesitated. It was a reminder that he kept his experiences in winter from me. In the short time that Levi had lived with me, I knew all his facial expressions. I’d seen some since he came home that concerned me. “Levi, trusting someone doesn’t mean that you have to know everything, but you trust them enough to know they have a very good reason for keeping some things inside.”
Astor walked in shutting the door behind him.
“Thank you, Grace,” Levi said shyly.
“And if there isn’t a good reason, I’ll just kick your ass,” I added. He grinned.
“I missed you,” he said, taking my hand. He squeezed it sending tingles through our bodies.
“And I, you,” I replied.
That intensely sweet moment with Levi was shattered when a blur
crossed the room slamming him into the floor. The thud rocked the house. Upstairs, the once sleeping baby screamed for attention.
“Get off me, Fire Crotch,” Levi grunted as he tried to heft the knight off of his body.
“You will not touch her!” Astor screamed. He raised a hulking fist into the air driving it down toward Levi’s already scarred face.
Just before the strike landed, I screamed, “Stop!” Not only did the fist stop mid-punch, but time stopped for the whole room. Winter power boiled out of me like a blizzard on the brink of unleashing a gale force of ice and snow.
Astor and Levi froze in place while Aydan continued to cry. The time stoppage had only affected this room. I felt the power well up inside of me causing my glamour to drop. I watched as Astor blinked, but wasn’t able to move. The room turned into an icebox as frost formed on the windows causing them to strain with the heat on the outside.
“Levi, can you get out from under him?” I asked trying to release him from the time stop spell.
Levi shifted his weight, but the big knight was planted on Levi’s chest. Astor groaned as if he might have come to his senses, but I didn’t bother to find out. Calling upon the power of the wind, I motioned toward Astor flinging his bulk toward the couch. He slumped next to it as Levi found his feet. When he made the move to go get Aydan, I spoke again. “Sit in the chair, Levi.”
“But…”
“Now.” His ass plopped down in the chair across from the frozen knight. I looked at Astor through my sight. A smoky green haze swirled around his head much like the smoke we saw in the dead man’s eye sockets. “Look at him,” I said to Levi.
“I saw it when he came after me. You know he wouldn’t do that on his own,” Levi said. “It’s why I didn’t counterspell him. I didn’t know what kind of havoc the two spells would have with each other.”
Releasing the time spell, Astor groaned holding his side.
“Sit there and do not move. Do you understand?” I asked him.
“Yes, my Queen,” he grunted.
“I’ll be right back,” I commanded.
Levi nodded.
I ran up the stairs taking two at a time. When I reached Aydan’s crib, his cries had turned to screams of panic. “Hello, sweet, Little Bird. Mommy is here,” I coaxed. His little arms stretched up to me. He seemed so much bigger just overnight. Lifting his body out of the bed, I cuddled him close to me. His cries ceased. His little lips puckered. “Oh, I see how it is. I’m just a boob to you,” I replied with a smile. Lifting my shirt, I allowed him to latch on. The rhythmic pulsing of his lips on my body lulled my mind as I tried to make sense of the confrontation in the living room.
It was amazing the attachment that I felt when I fed my child. There had to be no greater feeling on this earth than to be attached to someone that you created. I just wished his father was here to see him before he got too big. I decided to make a point of making more videos of him because when Dylan returned, he could watch his son’s growth that he had missed.
When I felt like my head had cleared and Aydan was full, I burped him as I walked back down into the living room with him in my arms.
Levi and Astor began to speak at the same time.
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Levi said.
“It was like I saw it happening, but I couldn’t stop it,” Astor blurted.
I found a good spot in the rocking chair across the room from both of them. Aydan let out a tiny burp as I patted his back. We rocked gently, and he passed out nuzzled next to my neck. Focusing on Astor, I wanted him to know how I really felt about this situation without decorum.
“If you ever fucking touch him again, I will kill you. I don’t care what kind of spell you were under,” I said.
“Too much, Grace,” Levi muttered.
“Shut up,” I countered. Levi shook his head as he studied the rug centered in the room over the pristine hardwood floors.
“I know how important he is to you, but something in my head just clicked when you were talking to him. It wasn’t for my benefit. All I could think about was how close you are to him. About how Dylan isn’t here, but his son is,” Astor said without coming right out.
“You mean as if I’d forgotten about Dylan and moved on?” I asked. “I can assure you that isn’t the case.”
“I know that. Last night, I saw the pain in your eyes when you saw that car in the garage. It radiated off of you like you were Summer instead of Winter. It caught me off-guard,” he said. It was interesting that he picked up on the warmth of the situation. I had felt warmer at that moment. As if Dylan were there. I just associated it with my desire to be with him again especially holding that leather jacket in my hands.
Astor leaned forward rubbing his forehead. Levi looked like he wanted to pounce on him since he decided to voice his concerns about our relationship, but he kept his cool and his mouth shut. Of which, I was appreciative.
“Did you feel the spell? Afterward, looking back do you recall anything?” I asked.
“No. Well, to be honest with you, I felt a pang of jealousy because you and Levi are so close. I do feel like a third wheel here.” There it was. I couldn’t imagine that even my chaste knight didn’t feel something. We were fairies, after all.
I sighed leaning back in the chair with Aydan in my arms.
The front door opened and my brother and his wife walked in.
“Wow, why is it so cold in here?” Finley asked.
“Well, my knight tried to beat up my bard,” I explained.
Finley acted as if he ignored my statement as he walked to me. He stretched out his arms to take Aydan. I gave the child to him. “Uncle Fin is here, Aydan. Nothing to fear,” he said to the sleeping baby.
“We are saved. The dandy elf is here,” Levi quipped.
I snorted because there were times that Finley could be prissy. He was fastidious to keep his long white hair clean and carried a file in his pocket for his nails.
“It’s better than a brooding bard. Right, Aydan?” Finley asked the sleeping baby, as he showed him to Nelly. She smiled as she pulled the blanket away from his face.
“If you wake him up, you have to feed him,” I said.
“I’m not going to wake him up. He just needs his uncle to hold him sometimes,” Finley said.
“You would make a great father,” Nelly said.
I hadn’t gotten to know her, but I did know that Jenny hated Nelly. It seemed strange since they were both Grindys. Perhaps a rivalry of some sort, but I didn’t dare ask. Jenny kept her private things to herself. She still wouldn’t talk to me about Tennyson, and she had taken up with Malcolm, the incubus. She once fucked whatever she could get her hands on, but she had settled for the life sucker. Malcolm, on the other hand, had seemingly broken out of the pod that he shared with Caleb and Kady, Levi’s ex-girlfriend. From the rumors, it had been a nasty break-up.
As the Queen of all of these fairies, it helped to keep up with the gossip. I needed to know my people because you never knew when these tensions could get out of hand.
“I’m not father material,” Finley muttered.
Astor had remained silent during the exchange and slipped out of the room. The haze around him had dissipated, but I still worried about how the attack started. But mostly, I wondered who cast the spell. It had to be tied to the corpse in the woods.
“You just don’t want to have my child,” Nelly muttered.
“It’s not that at all, Wife,” Finley said.
“Don’t call me that. I have a name,” she replied.
“Come on, you guys,” Levi said trying to calm them down.
“Nelly, I’m not going to discuss this here,” Finley said gritting his teeth.
“Fine. When would you like me to schedule the discussion? I’ll put it on my calendar. In the meantime, you can kiss my ass, Finley,” she said as she stalked to the front door. “You call me when you are ready.”
As she opened the door, Levi spoke up, “Grace, look at her
.”
Immediately, I switched my sight. The haze that had overcome Astor now swirled around her. Levi moved to stop her. “No, let her go,” I said. “I want to see what happens.” Looking back at Finley, he seemed alarmed, but his attention was on the sleeping Aydan.
“You have nothing to say?” Nelly said.
“Nelly, please do not wake up my child,” I said.
“Yeah, sure. My Queen. Whatever. That child probably isn’t yours. The way you Winter royals whore around. It must be nice to have two other men to service you while your fiancé is stuck in the Otherworld,” she exclaimed. As she did, the haze grew thicker around her head.
I stood up to keep her attention on me and off Finley who held my child. If she was coming for anyone, it would be me.
“You may leave my home and not return until you have apologized to my brother and I. There is no call for this rude behavior. I will not tolerate it in my home,” I said.
“In your home. What about this joke of a fairy town? You aren’t even a real queen!” she mocked.
“Nelly,” Finley growled. Levi instinctively took Aydan from him. “You should leave.”
“Am I not?” I asked.
“No, you are a joke,” she said.
“On your knees,” I said. Against her will, her knees buckled beneath her. I stalked over to her as she tried to rise. “Levi, hit her with it.”
Levi held Aydan with one hand, but with the other, he reached out toward Nelly. The tattoo on his arm flared with power, “Dispel.”
The haze around her head faded into nothing, however, her rotten attitude remained. Heaven forbid my brother marry a nice girl. No, he married an ungrateful wench because she was good in bed.
“Just because you were spelled, I’m not showing you any mercy,” I said looming over her.
“Good,” she sneered.
“You will leave my home and not return until you have apologized for your words,” I said.
“It was a spell,” she said.
“You see. I’ve seen this spell in action before and even that person admitted to their emotions that fueled the attack. So, I know what you think of me now. You don’t have to like me, Nelly. But you will not disrespect me in my own home. Get out!” I said.