by Zoe Chant
Amy nodded.
Teddy whooped for joy, pulling her tight against him. Amy laughed, muffled against his chest, and then swatted gently at him. “Shh, Teddy! You’ll wake the baby.”
***
“Oh,” Amy said as Teddy made a turn at a four-way stop with trees on three sides and a gas station and general store on the fourth. “Oh! I remember this. We were always asking Gran to bring us to that store for the ice cream. They had all these cartoon characters.”
“SpongeBob with bubblegum eyes,” Teddy said, shooting her a smile. “So much better than all that actual ice cream you get at the ice cream shops in town, right?”
“God, it must have been awful,” Amy said with a rueful smile. “But I loved it.”
Teddy grinned and took another turn onto a narrow road with strange stone paving. Amy looked around; this wasn’t just unfamiliar, it felt... different, suddenly. Magical. Almost dangerous, winding uphill on a narrow road with trees leaning in from both sides.
“We’re on Dragomir property now,” Teddy said, almost apologetically. “If we don’t go straight to the big house Gus may actually literally bite my head off.”
Amy looked over at him, feeling her first pang of actual worry.
Dragons. She had lived in this town for a year when she was young—she remembered the spectacle at Christmas, Mayor Gray and his two eldest sons, Gus and Ilie, turning flames on the snow fortress built in the park—but there had to be more to it than just the fun a child remembered.
At the same time, Amy couldn’t help running through an uncomfortably familiar mental checklist on Teddy. Hasn’t seemed fearful, angry, or withdrawn at the thought of coming to see his brother; has no visible scars; hasn’t even jokingly referred to hurting me or Sophia...
“Not like... actually actually, right?” Amy asked, just to be sure.
Teddy grimaced. “Nah, not actually—I mean, there could be yelling. If it gets real bad we might both transform and go have the dragon equivalent of a knock-down drag-out on the front lawn, but you just stay with Cara and the babies and we’ll get it out of our systems. Or if we don’t Ilie will—anyway, it’ll be fine.”
Teddy sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as her at the end. Sophia, two hours on from a quick bottle and diaper change at a gas station plaza off I-80, made a little preliminary almost-fussing sound.
“Oh, please don’t, baby girl,” Teddy said, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Please do not make me introduce you to your Uncle Gus with a full diaper while you’re screaming your head off.”
“What’s he going to be angry about, exactly?” Amy asked. “I mean... none of this is your fault. It’s not like you abandoned Sophia and her mom.”
Teddy looked sideways at her. “I did, though. Technically. I was there and then I wasn’t, and Sophia wound up abandoned because of it, alone. Unprotected.”
“She wasn’t ever in danger,” Amy said, bristling a little. Whatever people said about the system—and she knew as well as anyone that it had its faults—most foster parents were basically responsible and kind. Jamila certainly was; even if Sophia had been sad and gold-deprived, she’d been well cared for. “She had foster parents, she had—”
Me. Amy couldn’t quite say it.
“No, I know, I know! Like...” He looked away from Amy, eyes on the road as he executed a tight uphill turn. “Logically, I know that. As a human I know that. But as a dragon...”
Amy folded her arms across her stomach. “As a dragon.”
Teddy shook his head. “It’s hard to even explain. It’s like if someone asked you, ‘Hey, why is it a bad thing to have blood pouring out of your body, why does that upset you?’”
Amy considered pointing out that men were in fact prone to ask women that question once a month, but that would have been a distraction. “Try? I mean, I can see that it’s scary in retrospect to know that you didn’t know where she was or that she needed you. People are like that about their kids. Does Gus have kids?”
“A baby daughter,” Teddy said. “That’s... yeah, that’s not gonna help. Elena and Cara—Cara’s his wife, his mate—they’re the most important things in Gus’s life. They’re the most precious treasure to him, and dragons... we hang on to what’s important. I knew that, of course, but until last night—until I met you, met Sophia—I didn’t know. So he’s gonna be pissed that I didn’t take more care, to put it mildly.”
They drove a little further along the narrow road while Amy tried to absorb that. It felt true and right and good to know she was important to Teddy, as important as Teddy had so quickly become to her. At the same time it felt like too much, too soon. Too good to be true.
Teddy laughed softly, not sounding altogether happy, and added, “I hope he’s mad, anyway.”
Amy raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
Teddy blew out a breath and shook his head. “Because if he’s not mad then he’s not surprised. It’s just... Oh, Teddy. You didn’t know any better. Like I’m five years old and—”
They came around a curve, up another rise and into sight of what had to be the big house Teddy had been talking about. It looked like a castle, stone tower and all, though it also had an incongruous wide porch wrapping around the front and side of the building.
On the porch stood a man who looked imposing, and furious, even at this distance.
“Well,” Teddy said in a thin voice, “no need to worry about that, I guess.”
Amy reached for his arm. She tried to squeeze it reassuringly, only to find the muscle rock-hard under her hand. Just then, Sophia started to cry.
***
Teo had to sit absolutely still for a moment, clutching the steering wheel and staring through the windshield at his oldest brother. He’d expected to feel what he usually felt when Gus or Laurence or Radu was mad at him for being irresponsible: guilt and shame and an eagerness to apologize.
But apparently growing up all at once last night when he met Sophia and Amy had changed things. Looking at Gus now, all he was eager to do was roar. He wanted to take his dragon shape, plant himself like a wall between that other dragon and his mate and child. He wanted to defend his possession of Amy and Sophia with teeth and claws and flame if he had to.
He had just enough sense left to know that that was not okay. But he also couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off Gus and lose the staring match. He couldn’t do anything at all until he heard Amy’s car door close and looked over without thinking to see her leaning into the back seat to get Sophia out of her car seat.
She gave him a tense little smile. “So, knock-down drag-out on the lawn, then?”
She almost pulled it off, but he caught the shake in his voice. He was scaring her.
That was worse. The hell with Gus. Teo didn’t care what Gus thought or said or did. Teo was never going to do anything to scare Amy or Sophia. He’d heard that story about how Cara found out about dragons; Cara told it like it was funny now, but when he thought about Amy running away from him...
No. He wasn’t letting that happen.
Not in front of Amy, he said silently to Gus. He didn’t look toward his brother, but Teo put all the strength of his other form behind the words. It still wouldn’t be enough to make a dent in Gus, the Gray of Gray’s Hollow, dragon paterfamilias, but Teo thought it might be enough to make him listen.
And not in front of Sophia, he added for good measure, pushing his daughter’s cries at his brother.
By all means, Gus replied. His voice felt icy cold in Teo’s head, the opposite of the furious flame he expected.
Teo forced a smile for Amy. “Nah, we’re good. Let’s take Sophia inside and get her changed, okay? Gus can deal for ten minutes, he knows better than to keep a crying baby waiting.”
Amy’s smile got a little firmer. Teo turned the car off and got out, leaning into the backseat from the other side to gather up their bags. Amy unbuckled Sophia and tucked her blanket around her for the walk up to the house. Teo hurried around the c
ar to put his arm around Amy as they went, and she smiled up at him even though Sophia was wailing in her arms.
Shh, shh, sweetheart, Teo tried. Uncle Gus isn’t so bad. Daddy’s got this. It’s all right.
When they got to the door Gus was nowhere in sight, but Cara was waiting for them just inside. Her smile, at least, seemed unforced.
“Teo! Welcome home! Come on back to the kitchen so we can talk about how many kinds of surprise this is.”
Cara led them through the house, and Teo couldn’t resist watching Amy’s face as she looked around. Sophia went abruptly quiet as they drew even with the door of the treasure room. Amy stopped walking, her eyes drawn by the glitter of gold.
He could feel Sophia’s wordless want want want cry echoing in dragon speech. He reached over and put his finger in her hand instead. “Not yours, dragonet. We’ll get to that.”
Cara had stopped too, and was smiling at Amy and Sophia. “It’s a lot the first time, I know. But come on, I’m sure a clean diaper and a bottle are actually worth their weight in gold to her at this point, dragonet or not.”
“Don’t you joke,” Teo said, smiling more easily. He ushered Amy along to the kitchen. There was no sign of Mrs. Campbell, but it was obvious that someone had been busy here. There was still flour on the table and some covered pans rising on the counter. Elena’s swing was rocking away although Elena herself was nowhere to be seen.
Cara walked over and turned off the swing as she said, “I think we still have half a box of newborn diapers somewhere, and Gus insisted on keeping all of Lena’s clothes—we’ve got tons she’s never even worn—”
Teo had already set the diaper bag down on the table and pulled out the little changing mat along with a diaper and wipes. Amy set her down on it as Cara turned to look toward them.
She stopped, startled. Teo pretended not to notice that she hadn’t thought Teo could manage to help out with changing a diaper—like they could have driven four hours to Gray’s Hollow without that issue coming up. He pulled a premade bottle out of the little cooler bag and said, “Do you have a warmer? If not, we can do it with a pan of water on the stove.”
“Yes,” Cara said, turning away again to rummage through a low cupboard before she came up with the little standalone bottle warmer. She handed it to Teo silently. It was a completely different model from the one at the hotel, but he filled it with water and plugged it in, adjusting the settings and popping the bottle in. He wasn’t sure he knew how to time it, but he wasn’t going to let Cara see that.
“Well,” Amy said, in a soft, sugary voice that made Teo and Cara both look her way, suddenly aware of the absence of Sophia’s cries. “Well, this is just about as awkward as possible, isn’t it, sweetheart? Goodness, yes. Yes. But maybe your Daddy can come over here and hold you still so you don’t wiggle right off the table—”
Teo hurried over to rest one hand on Sophia’s chest while Amy dealt with her diaper, going through a half-dozen wipes in the process. Sophia waved her arms and then grabbed his wrist and held on to the bracelet there. Teo couldn’t help smiling, tapping one finger on her lips and then letting her suck on it, which she did, hungrily.
“Huh,” Cara said, bringing over the warmed bottle just as Amy finally fastened up a fresh diaper. “I can see I’ve missed a few things here.”
Teo accepted the bottle while Amy pulled out a couple of burp cloths. She laid one over his shoulder, and he picked Sophia up and gave her the bottle before she could get too mad about not being able to suck on his finger anymore.
“It happened pretty fast,” Teo offered.
“I could have sworn there was a limit on how fast that could happen.” Cara looked from Sophia to Amy to Teo, and Teo realized all at once that Cara and Gus had no way of knowing that Sophia wasn’t Amy’s. His eyes went wide.
“Cara, she’s—I didn’t know! I still don’t know who Sophia’s mom is. She gave Sophia up, and luckily she ended up with Amy. I mean, because Amy’s—I’m doing this wrong,” Teo said, as Cara and Amy both watched him, looking a little amused.
“Amy McCullough,” Amy said, offering her hand to Cara, while Teo looked down at Sophia, adjusting the angle of the bottle and nudging her to drink instead of looking around.
“I’m a social worker in New York. My gran—”
“Oh, of course!” Cara said. “I didn’t realize there were McCulloughs living out of town.”
“I grew up in the city,” Amy explained. “But I lived here for a year when I was a kid. Teddy and I knew each other a little bit then. But it was just coincidence that I wound up with Sophia’s case—she was a Baby Jane Doe. Her mother gave her up under Safe Haven. She told us the father’s name was Teo Gray, and that he didn’t know about the baby, so it was my job to track him down, and—”
“Ta-da,” Teo put in, with a little smile, grateful that Amy had left out how long it had taken him to respond to her—how long Sophia had waited. “And then I walked into a room and I saw Sophia, and I saw Amy, and I just knew. I know it’s not exactly the right way around, but, Cara, I swear I’m doing my best.”
Cara gave him a dubious look, like she knew how much he was leaving out, but she nodded.
Amy leaned into his side. “You’re doing fine, Teddy.”
Teo couldn’t help giving her a quick kiss. It was nothing more than he’d seen between Gus and Cara, but when he picked his head up and looked toward her, his sister-in-law was giving him a completely different look. This one he could hardly read at all.
“Okay, well, why don’t you stay here, Teo,” Cara said. “Amy and I will just go and see about setting up a crib in your room. I assume you were planning to stay for a while?”
Teo looked uncertainly from Cara to Amy. He was now one of the guys left behind while the Gray women went off together to talk about whatever women talked about in the other room.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Teo said. “I mean, I guess I have some house-hunting to do.”
A weird expression flicked over Amy’s face, and Teo wished he had an arm free to put around her. He hastily corrected himself. “We. We have some house-hunting to do.”
Amy smiled at that, but it still looked wrong. Teo realized that they hadn’t really talked about... anything, and now Cara was going to take her off and talk to her.
“Yeah,” Cara said. “Amy, let me show you the rest of the house. Teo, stay put.”
Teo nodded, looking down at Sophia again. At least you’re not going anywhere.
He realized as he thought it that Sophia was halfway through her bottle and needed burping. He was rubbing her back, trying to duplicate Amy’s mysteriously successful pattern, when Gus walked in with Elena. His six-month-old niece had looked impossibly tiny every other time Teo saw her, but now, seeing her sitting upright on Gus’s arm, she looked enormous.
Gus didn’t look angry anymore. Teo didn’t know how much of that was because Cara had silently relayed what Teo told her, and how much was because Gus couldn’t possibly be angry with his daughter in his arms. Whichever one he had to thank, Teo would take all the help he could get.
After a minute’s silent watching, Gus walked over to stand beside him. “Here, Lena, go to Uncle Teo.”
Teo had to stop his fruitless efforts to persuade Sophia to burp—she was snuggling sleepily into his shoulder now—to take Elena in his other arm. Gus took Sophia in exchange, flipping her around and propping her against his shoulder. He patted her back with a hand that spanned the whole thing. She jerked in surprise at the sudden move, and then burped on the third thwack of Gus’s palm.
Teo started to hand Elena back, but Gus shifted Sophia down to rest in the crook of his arm. He picked up the bottle, leaning against the table beside Teo.
Gus looked down at Sophia as she took the bottle. He said quietly, sounding tired, “I’ve been having nightmares about Lena getting lost for a week now.”
Teo winced, automatically hugging Elena tightly. She wiggled in his grip, and he kissed the top of her head and
let her sit up on his arm again. She leaned over immediately, looking at Sophia. Teo steadied her with both hands, letting her pat Sophia’s foot.
“That’s... Sophia’s mom gave her up a week ago. Amy said she cried a lot. I think she was getting gold-starved. She didn’t have anything, except Amy has this necklace she likes. Amy always wore it because she knew Sophia calmed down when she could touch it.”
Gus nodded. “I don’t think it was dragon speech, exactly. Something more basic than that, some survival instinct, something about protecting the line. But why did I hear her before you did?”
Teo shook his head, thinking back over the week before he got Amy’s voicemail. It seemed like years ago now. Had Sophia been calling for him all that time, and had to resort to her uncle instead? “I was out sailing and partying—honestly, if I had any nightmares I might’ve been too drunk to notice.”
“Well, I noticed enough for both of us. I was having nightmares, something like panic attacks during the day. It was this overwhelming feeling that a baby was lost and scared. I thought it was Lena, naturally. I haven’t been able to let her out of my sight for days. But then last night everything was all right. About one in the morning I woke up and I knew she was fine.”
“That’s when I got to her,” Teo confirmed. “I made an anklet for her, and as soon as I held her she went to sleep.”
Gus nodded. “Teo, you’re not here much, but I’m still your big brother. I’m still the head of your family, and the head of Sophia’s family.”
Teo’s grip on Elena tightened involuntarily, but the scary burst of rage he’d felt when he first saw Gus didn’t come back. “I know, Gus. I’m not going to mess up like that again. I’ve got Amy now, I’m Sophia’s dad. I’m not a dumb kid.”
“I know,” Gus said quietly, setting the empty bottle down and tipping Sophia up against his shoulder. Teo had to pull Elena away so she wouldn’t poke her baby cousin in the eye. “I know, Teo. But I want you to remember you’re not on your own. If you need us, if she needs us, you can call for us. We’re here.”