by A. L. Knorr
"Jasher?" I knocked again before kicking myself internally. Of course he wasn't here; he would be at Lachlan's place, which was where we'd all agreed they'd stay until Daracha had been dealt with. Well, all except for me from now on. I needed to stay as close to the castle as I reasonably could. I wondered just how far from the castle I could wander before the witch would be able to detect me. Mentally, I cursed the fae queen for being so vague. I still wasn't sure if going to her had been a good idea or not.
Just to be sure, I opened Jasher's bedroom door and confirmed that his bed hadn't been slept in. Leaving the door open, I went down the hall to the large staircase leading down into the front hall. Taking the steps two at a time, I heard people approaching the large front doors.
I hit the stone floor of the front entrance as one of the huge wooden doors swung open. Bonnie came inside pushing a piece of rolling luggage, another bag tucked under her arm. Aunt Faith came in behind her, curly hair wild and a smile dimpling her cheek. Faith pulled a larger piece of luggage over the threshold and into the hall.
"Aunt Faith!" I felt out of breath as I crossed to the door, already opening my arms for a hug. I froze as I caught sight of a third woman walking in behind my aunt. Aunt Faith had her arms around me, so I hugged her back, but I was unable to prevent myself from gaping over her shoulder at my ...
"Mom?"
Liz Sutherland swept into the foyer, chin lifted like royalty. Her perfect blonde updo was smooth and totally unaffected by the wind and humidity of the Highlands. Her makeup, sprayed with a fixative every morning, was perfection itself. A subtle cat's-eye line highlighted her eyes, and lipstick the color of an overripe raspberry stained her mouth. It wouldn't smudge or fade or even move until she wiped it off tonight with an organic cotton pad. A smile spread across her face as we made eye contact. She carried no luggage, only a tan handbag, which matched her shoes. A perfectly fitted double-breasted coat complemented her frame and matched the blue of her eyes. She opened her gloved hands out, her elbows pinned tight to her sides. "Poppet!"
Bonnie shut the front door and faced the reunion, looking as pleased and relaxed as a cat in a beam of sunlight. I realized with some species of relief that this was the Lady of Blackmouth's happy place: playing hostess. At least I didn't have to worry that she'd see them as an imposition.
Aunt Faith released me and my mother gathered me in for a scented hug. She smelled of Chanel No 5, the perfume I'd forever associate with the justice system. She sighed into my ear. "Surprise."
She pulled back and looked at me, holding me at arm's length. Her hands trailed from my shoulders to my hands, and she held them up for inspection. "You look lovely. You need a haircut and a manicure, but you look healthy, and dare I say happy?"
My heart had decelerated enough for me to find my manners. I worked at transforming the shock I knew was all over my face into surprised joy.
Aunt Faith stood at my elbow sounding a little doubtful as she studied my face. "I hope this is a pleasant interruption, Georjie. I wanted to give you a bit of warning, but your mother wanted to surprise you." She glanced around the front hall and up the stairs. "Where is Jasher?"
"He's not here at the minute." I gently extricated my hands from my mother's grasp. "I guess this was a surprise for him too."
Bonnie helped Liz out of her coat and stood there waiting as Mom worked her hands out of her gloves. Bonnie said: “I actually did have to tell Jasher, I'm sorry. I needed his help with ... something."
Aunt Faith looked surprised but not upset. She avoided my gaze as she shed her own winter things. "Right."
Something else was going on around here. I narrowed my eyes at Bonnie, but she just gave me a serene smile. She gathered up Liz and Faith's things and tucked their gloves and scarves into the coat pockets, making sure to fold the scarves so they wouldn’t wrinkle.
Mom moved across the floor for a closer look at a portrait of a handsome man in a kilt standing next to a black stallion. "This place is simply spectacular. I haven't stayed in a castle since my university days."
"I didn't know you'd ever stayed in a castle, Mom." I watched her closely as she gazed up at the art, looking for some revelation in her expression, some deeper layer behind her reasons for being here. It wasn't like hot-shot lawyer-Liz to drop her work for a last minute, trans-Atlantic journey. She was allergic to being impulsive.
I found myself caught in a thicket of emotions. As the initial shock of their visit dissolved, seeing my mother in person provoked feelings about the recent discovery of my true heritage to rush to the surface. I was half fae. Liz had hidden this remarkable fact from me for my entire life. Aunt Faith might have been in on the secret too, but I doubted it. I knew Aunt Faith to default to honesty, but then again, this was my mother's secret, not hers.
The thought of getting my mother alone for a private talk was both terrifying and exhilarating. I'd never known until now that it was possible to look forward to and dread something at the same time.
"How long have you been planning this?" I took the coats from Bonnie and delivered them to the elaborate wooden wardrobe beside the stairs.
"A few weeks." Aunt Faith watched my face closely. Jasher's adopted mother was incredibly astute. She put a hand on my arm as I returned to where they stood. Her brow wrinkled. "Did we do wrong, Georjie?"
My mother flapped a hand. "Of course we didn't do wrong. I told you Georjie would be thrilled to have us pop in for Easter. Aren't you, Poppet?"
"Of course I'm thrilled." My voice came out only a little flinty. In truth, it was really nice to see people who loved me, even if one of them had been lying to me my entire life. But I had less than two weeks to neutralize Daracha, and I had no idea how to lure her into the trap without ending up as a pile of ashes. I cleared my throat and forced my tone to brighten. "We'll have a great time. How long are you staying?"
I braced myself for the answer and hoped they couldn't see the muscles jumping in my jaw.
Bonnie chuckled and shared a knowing look with Aunt Faith. She tried to share that same knowing look with my mother, but Liz was busy examining an expensive looking stained glass lamp on the ornate table at the base of the stairs.
Aunt Faith caught my eye, and her questioning look pleaded that whatever was wrong, couldn't it wait? "Gavin and Bonnie have kindly allowed us to book two rooms over the long weekend and one extra day for good measure. We couldn't come to Scotland and not make the trip worthwhile. Especially for your mother, who came from so far away."
Faith had flown here from Ireland, less than half a day's journey. But my mother had flown from Canada and managed to free herself from the monstrous hydra that was her career in order to spend Easter with her daughter. I needed to focus on dealing with Daracha, but I supposed I should be grateful that Liz and Faith would only be staying for five days.
On the plus side, this was Liz's way of making an effort, of showing me she loved and missed me. My mother was here. Which meant that maybe, just maybe, when we were face to face, she'd be honest with me, and I could get some straight answers about my true nature.
I crossed the foyer to where Liz stood and gave her another hug. "Thanks for coming, Mom."
When we pulled apart, she looked uncomfortable but pleased. "Oh." She flapped a hand again and dabbed the corner of one eye. "Let's have a good time, shall we?"
I gave a wobbly grin. "Carpé diem."
Chapter Four
As I was laying my mother's luggage on the rack in her bedroom, the sound of Gavin's truck horn came blaring in the distance. One long blast and three short excited toots.
"That'll be Jasher." Bonnie emerged from the bathroom looking flushed and carrying a damp rag. "Georjie, would you mind going down to meet him? I've asked him to pick up some things we needed as Ainslie’s been busy preparing the rooms."
"Sure." I passed Aunt Faith in the hall, and she gave my arm a squeeze. I gave her a smile and began my way down the curved staircase once more. The stone floors squeaked under my snea
kers as I pulled on my jacket and pulled open the front door.
Jasher was just getting out of the driver's side of Gavin's work truck when he caught sight of me. His eyes were sparkling as he shut the door; he moved so his body blocked the window of the back seat. "Morning Georjie. Hey, would you mind helping me out? Bonnie had me pick up a treat for Easter dinner."
"Oh, good morning is it?" I put my hands on my hips and gave him a mock glare. "Thanks for letting me be blind-sided this morning."
Jasher reached for the door handle behind him as he threw an apologetic grin at me. "Sorry. I know it’s bad timing, but you try and stop the Sheehan sisters when they've got an idea in their heads. I'm not sorry about this, though."
He opened the door and stepped out of the way.
I gave a startled squeal as a young woman with wild red curls exploded from the back seat of the truck.
"Iongnadh!" she yelled as she chest-bumped me, wrapped her arms around my waist and picked me up. She twirled me around on the gravel. "Iongnadh!"
"What?" I spluttered, torn between fainting from surprise and laughing at how ridiculous Saxony sounded yelling Scottish Gaelic at the top of her lungs.
She released me but only long enough to pinch my cheeks once with her forefinger and thumb, then she hugged me tightly again, making me wheeze. "It means surprise! Are you surprised?"
"I couldn't be more surprised if a kraken wearing a Santa hat had crawled out of the back seat." I felt like I couldn't catch my breath as my heart took its second high leap of the morning. Thankfully, this leap was pure joy.
It hit me that Saxony was really here, and I screamed. Saxony screamed back, then Jasher screamed and waved his hands in the air.
I pulled her into another violent hug. Saxony's hair got in my mouth, but we clung to each other and jumped up and down on the gravel, screaming like idiots, briefly reduced to the little girls we used to be. Our breath misted in the air, and tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed her.
"I guess this means you're happy to see each other," I heard Jasher say. He dropped the tailgate of the truck open. I could hear the eye-roll in his voice. "And girls think boys are the immature ones."
Ignoring Jasher, I asked Saxony: “What are you doing here?" I squeezed her arms as if making sure she was real, feeling euphoric.
"I have a four-day weekend off for Easter." Saxony disentangled a lock of hair from the zipper of her jacket.
"A little help, people?" Jasher was unloading luggage and boxes of groceries from the back of the vehicle and setting them on the gravel.
"Ah, so the groceries weren't just a ruse." I picked up as many items as I could carry, balancing reusable shopping bags overflowing with produce on top of a box of canned goods.
Saxony hauled out a piece of luggage decorated with a bunch of stickers proclaiming proudly that the owner had spent a lot of time in Italy. "I wasn't originally planning to leave Arcturus for Easter, but things have been getting a little hot there." She winked as she delivered her pun. Saxony's school was just for fire magi. "I needed a little cooling off, and I heard the Highlands are a great place to do that."
If the headmaster of Arcturus Academy, Basil Chaplin, was to be believed, Saxony was counted among the strongest fire magi in the world, thanks to a torturous event she'd been forced to endure while filling an au pair position in Venice last summer. Since she'd started school our texts had been short and few.
"Let me take those. That's the butter and milk and potatoes. A lot of heavy stuff." Jasher approached Saxony and made to take half the packages from her.
"I'm fine, actually. But, thanks." She smiled at him, and Jasher looked momentarily dazed.
My adopted cousin dropped his arms and seemed to recover his senses. "Right. Fire mage," he murmured. He picked up the largest piece of luggage so its wheels wouldn't scar the gravel and shot me a perplexed look. "Are all your friends supernatural?"
"All except for you," I teased.
Saxony laughed. “That smile is supernatural if you ask me.”
Jasher laughed and blushed as we made our ungainly way inside the castle. Coming down the stairs to meet the guests and help with the luggage were Aunt Faith, Bonnie, Ainslie, and Gavin.
Bonnie rushed forward to take a grocery bag from Jasher before it tipped over and spilled its contents. "You're a star, Jasher. Thank you so much for fetching all these goods. I know you’re eager to fetch Evelyn. She’s welcome to join us for dinner. I hope you told her.”
My mother appeared at the top of the stairs last, quietly observing people introducing themselves and greeting one another in the front hall. One beautifully manicured hand rested on the banister, as though waiting for her moment to descend and welcome her subjects. Maisie brushed past Liz and ran down the stairs, only to remember that she was mostly shy, and halt at the bottom step to sit suddenly on her bum. Her eyes were glued to Saxony.
I followed her enraptured gaze and tried to see my friend the way Maisie might. Saxony was a ball of energy with her near-electric hair, her bright green eyes with the strange reflective quality, like she had a fire burning deep inside her, which of course—she did. Freckles arced over her nose, complementing the mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Of all of my elemental friends, Saxony had suffered the most physical pain from her gifts, but you'd never know it looking at her. She'd recovered from her 'burning' (as the magi called it) stronger than ever, both physically and emotionally. She'd also gained an edge she hadn't had before, and gave off an air that she was extremely capable ... of anything, including putting down anyone who threatened her or anyone she loved. I could never be frightened of her, I'd known her since kindergarten, but I could see how someone who didn't know her might be intimidated.
As I watched Saxony shake hands with everyone, I found I could hardly swallow around the lump in my throat. Having her here, though I hadn't yet told her of the danger Daracha posed, gave me a comfort so strong my knees felt watery. It was great having Lachlan and Jasher and Evie to share my supernatural secrets with, but nothing could beat having friends who knew what it was like to carry the weight of supernatural cabilities.
I went over to Maisie and sat down next to her. Her ponytail was gone now and her hair brushed. The long red locks curled softly over her shoulders. She wore an adorable knit sweater embroidered with ladybugs at the right shoulder. She even wore a tiny tam o' shanter on her head, complete with a fuzzy pom-pom.
"Do you want to say hi, Maisie?" I nudged her in the shoulder as she continued to stare at Saxony.
Maisie shook her head and shifted closer to me, hiding one eye behind my arm.
"She’s really nice, and she’d love to meet you. You can show her around the castle. Would you like that?"
She shook her head again, but her little hand crept into mine and a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth.
Saxony released my Aunt Faith from a hug and glanced over. Her eyes widened as they fell on Maisie. She crossed to us and crouched down so she could look Maisie in the eyes.
"Hello, fellow redhead." Saxony grinned and touched one of Maisie's curls. "What's your name?"
It took her a few seconds, but she finally came around. "Maisie," the little girl whispered.
"The two of you look like you could be sisters." I put an arm around Maisie's shoulders. "Don't you think?"
Maisie's expression said she'd be delighted if that were the case.
"I'm Saxony." She put out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Maisie."
Maisie hesitated, but eventually she put out her own little hand for Saxony to shake.
"Did I overhear Georjie saying that you know everything about this castle, and that you might show me around?"
Maisie nodded. Her little chest puffed out and she began to twirl a lock of hair around her finger. "I do know everything."
"Perfect." Saxony folded her hands together and leaned forward, eyes bright and eager. "Do you have time to take me on a tour now?"
Mai
sie nodded and got to her feet. She straightened her little plaid skirt and reached for Saxony's hand. As Saxony took it and we went down the hall toward the main floor rooms, she looked at me over Maisie's head and put her other hand over her heart.
She made a besotted face and mouthed, "I love her so much.” I smiled as we followed our little guide through the arch.
"Don't worry," Jasher yelled after us, "we'll deliver all your bags to your rooms. It's a pleasure to serve."
I had to cover my mouth to keep from snorting when Maisie replied in a clear, high voice, mimicking her mother perfectly: "You're a star, Jasher. Thank you so much."
Chapter Five
After supper, nearly everyone went into the big downstairs parlor where Gavin started a fire and Bonnie pulled out board games and books. Gavin and the kids began to play a game of Jenga while Bonnie took Aunt Faith and my mom on a tour of the castle to see the artwork and the library.
I stayed in the kitchen with Ainslie and Saxony to clean up after the meal. Ainslie revealed an industrial-sized dishwasher, which had been cleverly hidden behind a cupboard. She only used it during the tourist season because it required a lot of power to run. Saxony and I went back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen, cleaning off the table, while Ainslie rinsed and loaded the 'monster'.
On the last journey back to the dining room, I spotted my mother coming out of the bathroom near Gavin's office. I paused outside the dining room door. "How's the art tour going?"
Mom straightened her salmon colored cardigan and twisted the rings on her fingers to make sure the jewels were facing out. "Oh lovely, Poppet. Though, now that I have to find my way back to them on my own, I'm not sure I won't get lost in this cavernous place."
Blackmouth Castle was less cavernous and more cozy, but my mom had a way of assigning negative adjectives to most things.
"Could I talk to you for a minute, before you continue on the tour?"
"Of course."
"I'll just take these to the kitchen and I'll be right back."