by W. J. May
After a minute, Rae sat tentatively in the chair beside her. “He misses this place,” she said softly. “He misses you.”
She knew in her heart it was true. Even if he’d never said it out loud. Even if he’d never even said it to himself. This place was a part of him—rather—it had taken a part of him. Whether he wanted to admit it or not.
Marian patted her hand dismissively. “That’s very nice of you to say, sweetie.”
“There’s nothing nice about it,” Rae countered flatly. “It’s true.” The words came out much more abruptly than she had planned, and Marian shot her a look of surprise. “Sorry,” Rae muttered, feeling her cheeks flush pink. “If you were serious about wanting to know something about me, one thing is that I never mince words when it comes to Devon. I don’t think I’m capable.”
That knowing glimmer was back in Marian’s eyes, and for the first time since Rae got there she looked at her with something close to respect. “I know he keeps secrets.”
Both women locked eyes as the words settled over them like a fog. A chill ran up Rae’s spine, but Marian just shook her head and smiled warmly.
“Since we’re in the business of sharing, let me ask you a question, Rae: do you have any children?”
Rae’s eyes widened in shock, and she couldn’t shake her head fast enough. “No—no, ma’am! If you thought that’s why Devon and I were getting—”
“Not at all.” Marian shook her head calmly, giving her the same steady smile that Rae had seen so often on the face of her son. “Well, as someone who has a child, let me tell you something.” She leaned forward, making Rae instinctively lean forward as well. “You’ll never care about their secrets. Not a damn bit. There will never be anything, anything in this entire world that could come between you. Not ever. Not once.”
The room seemed to go very still. Rae’s eyes misted over and she leaned slowly back in her chair, absorbing what was the very first piece of advice from the woman who was going to be her mother-in-law. And what advice it was.
“You should tell him that,” she said quietly. Marian looked up to meet her eyes, and she said it again. “As someone who doesn’t have children and might not understand…you should tell him.”
They stared each other squarely in the eye, one generation to another, until the sound of roaring tires drew their attention to the yard.
In unison, they turned to look out the window as Devon flew back into the driveway, parking beneath the shaded trees beside the house. He strode purposefully toward the house.
He looked steadier than when he had left. In fact, he had that burning intensity in his eyes that she’d seen so many times before. The eyes of a man on a mission.
Both women scrambled to their feet—hastily wiping their faces—and hurried to start unloading the groceries as Devon leapt lightly up the front porch and headed inside.
He hesitated for a minute when he saw the both of them working together, then walked silently forward and gave both a kiss on the cheek. First Rae. And then his mother.
“What’s that?” Marian asked causally, pointing to the bag in his hand. Rae turned to glance down as well; she hadn’t noticed it when he came in.
With a crooked grin, he reached down and lifted out a pre-made boysenberry pie. There was a dent in the crust from where he’d obviously been driving too fast and the thing slammed forward, but other than that—it was a beautiful gesture. “Your favorite.”
She beamed, lifting it carefully from his hands. “It certainly is. We can have it after dinner, thank you, dear.”
“Actually,” he lifted it just as carefully back, “I was thinking we could have it right now.”
Rae glanced quickly between them as Marian raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Dessert before supper? You think that just because you’ve been away, you get special treatment?”
His eyes twinkled, and for a second he looked eight years old again. “…Yes?”
His mother’s ringing laugh echoed in the kitchen as she shook her head indulgently back and forth. “Have it your way. You never did learn that lesson.” She motioned for him to set the pie down on the table, before gesturing to the refrigerator. “Rae, can you get out some sparkling water and glasses?” As Rae hurried to do as she asked, Devon’s mother dragged a kitchen chair over to the row of high shelves, climbing atop it. “I’m sure I have a pie stand in here somewhere…”
“Let me.”
In a flash of speed, Devon was perched on the top of the counter. He found the crystal stand quickly and dropped it mid-air, blurring back to the ground to catch it lightly in his hands.
Rae froze where she stood. Even she hadn’t been able to follow all of that. He’d become a mere blur of color. An impossible testament to speed and grace.
Impossible being the key word.
Marian’s eyes were still trying to make sense of the movement as he stood silently before her, offering it out without quite meeting her eyes. Then after a long moment, she took it. “Dev?” she asked softly, inclining her head until he finally met her eyes. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
His shoulders were trembling, but his voice was steady and strong. “I can do things… things I shouldn’t be able to do. Things that other people can’t do.”
A host of silent tears slipped down Marian’s cheeks, but she nodded calmly. “Go on.” It may have been unbelievable, yes. But on some level, it was what she had been waiting for all this time.
Without taking his eyes off her face, he slowly rolled up his sleeve, revealing the fennec fox inked on his forearm. “I have this tatt…well, it’s kind of complicated. It lets me do these things. I can be fast, or agile, or strong.”
Rae’s eyes shot back to Marian like in a tennis match. The poor woman was taking it well, at least, as well as could be expected. But there was still a vast ocean of things she didn’t understand.
She was quiet for a moment, studying his arm, before her eyes clouded and she shook her head. “I don’t understand… Your father has the same tattoo.”
Oh, boy. Looks like the cat’s just been let out of the bag.
Devon took a deep breath. “The day I turned sixteen, there was a—”
“No,” she interrupted, “I mean…did you think this would change the way I feel about you?”
Rae’s eyes welled over with tears as Devon looked up in shock. That eight-year-old boy was back. This time he was trembling, voice and all.
“I thought it would change…everything.” His voice broke and he shook his head helplessly. “I just—I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know where to begin, how to even—”
“Devon.” She put her hands on his cheeks, cutting short his panicked rambling before it could begin. “You could be absurdly fast and strong. You could turn sand into bricks, or have talons for hands. You could turn into a rabbit for all I care. You’re my son. I love you.”
He bowed his head and caught his breath. “Yes, ma’am.”
And that settled it.
Years of worry, for nothing. Years of absence, suddenly erased. Years of the Privy Council’s tyrannical reign, finally coming to an end.
Mother and son held each other in the kitchen for a long time. A very long time. There was no longer any reason to pull away. No secrets to keep them divided. No law to keep them at bay.
When they finally did part, both were smiling. Smiling through tears.
“You have no idea how good it feels to have told you that,” Devon murmured, closing his eyes with half a decade’s-worth of well-earned relief. “You’ve no idea how many times I wanted to tell you.”
Marian simply smiled. But the smile tightened into a sudden frown as she reached out and took his arm. As she turned it over, tracing the design, her eyes clouded and she shook her head as though an invisible weight had descended on her shoulders.
“I just can’t…”
She shook her head and fell silent.
Devon and Rae exchanged a worried glance, before he looked down
at her in concern, scanning her face quickly for whatever had changed.
“You can’t…what?” he pressed. “Tell me.”
She brought her hands up to her eyes with a maternal sigh.
“I can’t believe you got a tattoo just like your father’s.”
Chapter 10
While Devon and Rae might have been allowed to have pie before supper, sharing a bed before marriage was where Marion Wardell drew the line. It didn’t matter whether or not her son had just confessed to having superpowers, under this roof he still did as he was told.
Not that those rules could really stop him…
The second her breathing steadied to the soft rhythms of sleep, there was a creak by the window in the guestroom. Rae pried open her sleepy eyes and looked up with a silent gasp, just in time to see Devon swing through the frame.
“Sorry,” he grinned as he landed lightly on the floor beside her, “didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t scare me,” she answered in a whisper, scooting over to make room for him on the bed. “What scares me is what would happen if your mother knew you were in here.”
He chuckled softly and kissed her on the nose. “Well, I don’t plan to stay long. I just wanted to…” He hesitated for a second, before gazing up steadily into her eyes. “I wanted to thank you.”
Rae blinked. “Thank me?”
“For helping me today. Just for…just for being here, I guess.” He smiled self-consciously and hung his head. “For what you said.”
In spite of the fact that she had been passed out cold just a few seconds ago, Rae’s heart started fluttering inside her chest. “That’s my job now, you know? Professional support system.”
“Is that right?” He laughed quietly and flipped onto his back. “Then it’s a good thing I got you that ring.”
She stretched up her hand and they tilted their heads together on the pillow and watched as it glinted in the moonlight. “Yeah,” she whispered with a smile, “it’s a good thing.”
They heard the hitch in Marian’s breathing even from the second floor, and for a second both of them stiffened in wait.
When nothing happened for a few seconds, Devon lifted himself noiselessly to his feet. “Anyway,” he murmured, “I just wanted to say thanks. Sorry if I was an asshole.”
“You weren’t that bad.”
He grimaced. “Yes, I was.”
Rae shrugged with a coy grin. “I can think of one or two ways you can make it up to me…”
At first he smiled, but then his eyes grew wide as saucers as they flicked around the room. “Uh…now? I mean—here?”
Biting back her laughter, Rae forced a straight face and nodded slowly, watching him squirm. “Unless you don’t want to,” she taunted.
He shook his head quickly. “No! Of course I want to, it’s just…”
Say it! Come on, Devon—say it! Then I’ll have teasing rights for life! She looked up at him innocently. “It’s just…what?”
He shifted nervously from foot to foot, bowing his head to his chest. “My mom said—”
Rae threw up her arms in victory, punching a fist to the sky. “I knew it! I knew you were scared of her! Oh! Just wait until Julian hears about this!”
Devon’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “Why, you little—”
“‘Devon wanted to have sex with me. But his mom said no.’”
His eyes narrowed bitterly. “Oh—like you’d ever try anything with Beth in the house.”
“Um…actually, I’m pretty sure I have.”
“Yeah, well, that’s different,” he countered. “You’re fireproof. I’m not.”
Rae muffled her giggling in her pillow. “Oh, so your mom can throw fire now?”
He shook his head with a begrudging grin as he headed back to the window. “You know what,” he paused with one leg out the frame, “I never want to find out.”
She threw a pillow out the window after him, hitting him perfectly on the back of the head.
A moment later his head popped back in. “I love you,” he whispered with a grin. “Now don’t get any fancy ideas of coming to my room. I’m locking the window just in case.” His head disappeared and then reappeared again a moment later. “Good-night.”
“G’night.” Rae dropped back against the bed, grinning. She’d helped Devon mend the relationship with his mother. Proud of herself, she gave herself a nod. You done good, Rae Kerrigan. She’d negotiated talks to stop a silent war of pain that had been going on.
Dev’s mother hadn’t asked if Rae had a tattoo, but Rae had caught her staring at her arms. She’d purposely pulled up her sleeves so Marian could check, opening the floor to questions. If Marian wanted to know, she didn’t ask, nor did Devon offer any information. He didn’t press the issue that his dad had the same ink, or what Guilder Boarding School represented. Tonight, it had been about the two of them finding their way back to each other.
The other details could come later.
After they’d found a way to amass an army big enough to stop Cromfield.
That thought left her unable to sleep.
* * *
The next morning, Devon and Rae headed off without a hitch.
Marian didn’t ask where they were going or when they’d be back. She didn’t even ask about the trillion- dollar sports car sitting in the driveway, complete with diplomatic tags. She simply kissed Devon on the forehead and murmured, “Be safe,” before sending them off with a wave.
“You know,” Rae said as she watched her slowly disappear in the rear view mirror, “she’s pretty incredible, your mom. I actually think she and my mom would get along really well.”
Devon flashed her a grin before shifting into a higher gear. “Really? Ironically, I was thinking the same thing this morning.”
Rae nodded thoughtfully. “Granted, with the crippling power of both our mothers under the same roof, I doubt you’d even look at me…”
“Ha ha, Kerrigan. You’re beyond funny.”
She burst out laughing. “I think I am.”
He lifted his foot off the gas. “I can pull over and drop you off at the side of the road. Engaged or not, I’ll still do it.”
She laughed even harder. “An-An-And I’ll still beat you back with one of my tatùs.”
Devon pressed his lips tight, though Rae didn’t miss the sparkle in his eyes. He was obviously trying hard to think of a way to get her back. Finally, he sighed. “You’re a thorn in my side.”
She leaned over and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “And you wouldn’t have me any other way.”
His head dropped to the side to touch hers. “You got that right.”
They stayed that way until the road grew narrow and Devon had to shift down to a lower gear to steer around the blind curves.
Rae straightened in her seat and stared vacantly through the windshield. “What’s going to happen, Devon, if we can’t stop Cromfield?”
He rested his hand on her knee briefly before he slipped it back onto the gear shift. “That’s not going to happen. There’s no way in hell I’m letting that bastard take you from me.”
What if he takes you from me? “He’s a modern-day Hitler with old-world thinking.” Rae chewed on the inside of her cheek, ignoring the copper taste when she bit down too hard. “We can’t kill him.”
The tone that had moments before been relaxed and teasing now seemed clouded over with doom. Rae had been avoiding having this conversation with Devon, even doing everything in her willpower to not have to think about it.
“Then we stop him. Lock him in the underbelly of the Privy Council. Put him in a safe and drop him into the middle of the ocean. Whatever it takes. We just have to stop him.” Devon gripped the wheel, his knuckles white against the dark leather.
Rae dropped her head back against the headrest of her seat. “We don’t even have a plan.”
“We have something. We’re not useless.” Devon glanced at her quickly. “You make it sound like this battle is ov
er before it’s even begun.”
“I don’t think that. I just… I just don’t know.”
“We have you, Rae. The one thing that Cromfield wants and he’s never going to get.”
Rae didn’t answer. She agreed with Devon. They had her. However, if it came down to saving the lives of her friends and family, she already knew what would happen. Cromfield would get what he wanted.
* * *
Only six hours and a quick ferry ride later, she and Devon were winding around the familiar roads of Scotland, drowning in a sea of deep green. While the winter rain was thankfully pausing for a quick breath, a thick fog had rolled in—one that blew out behind them in frantic wisps as they careened down the slick roads at breakneck speed. They’d changed the subject shortly after the Cromfield conversation, both pretending to have never talked about it.
“You want to maybe slow down to ninety or so?” Rae chided sarcastically. “The speed limit here is about twenty-five.”
Devon ignored her and downshifted with a grin. “Hey, do me a favor? Use your telepathy to tell Julian to come to the front of the house. We should be close enough by now.”
“Are you serious?”
He patted the steering wheel with boyish adoration. “He’s got to see this.”
She rolled her eyes, but bowed her head in concentration. Jules, if you can hear this—Devon wants you to come out to the driveway. He’s also an idiot.
When she was finished, she smiled sweetly at her beloved. “All finished.”
Sure enough, when the car burst through the cloud of fog onto the long drive, Julian was waiting at the end of it—arms folded over his chest. He dropped his casual position immediately, however, the second the car rolled into view—racing forward to meet them.
“What…?” he stammered as Rae and Devon climbed out. “What is…?”
Devon smirked and leaned back against the hood like he’d built it himself, waiting for his friend to recover. It took a few seconds, but Julian was finally able to string together a full sentence.