Lensy nodded. “She wants to go to the Non. She says it hurts too much to be here without Jerome and her family, but I’m worried she’s just running away.”
I watched Vervain speak to Pippi, her hands flying, and I saw a hint of a smile ghost across her face. “Do you want to come to the Non?”
Lensy shrugged. “Will there be work there for me?”
I smiled. “We can find you something. A job that doesn’t involve fighting, maybe?”
Lensy nodded, but she still looked unsure. “I think I might like that.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Home is my favorite place to be. And by home, I mean my city, Sarsaparilla.—Chloe Frangipani
There is nothing like coming home to your chosen pack.—Aiden Frost
I stepped through the plain brown door of Ephemeral and into heaven. “Wow,” Frost said next to me, his arm around my shoulders. “This is amazing.”
My former martini bar was beyond amazing. The interior had been painted a light lavender, similar to what it had been before vandals and nightmares had ruined it. There were small and large tables set out and they weren’t ordinary bar tables, they were each different and unique, some of them kitschy, some of them shabby chic, some tucked in a corner and surrounded by large indoor plants, some large and in the center of things. The bar was well-stocked with all the Non booze as well as some bottles I suspected contained the sorts of alcoholic beverages a fae would find in Rubalia. But there was also a large array of teas listed on a board behind the bar and different fruit drinks in a refrigerated cooler. This wasn’t just a bar anymore, it was a meeting place, a place for the fae to feel safe and at ease.
Pierson, smile splitting his face, came around the bar and wrapped his arms around me and Frost together. “You’re still alive,” he said. “I was so worried.”
“Still alive,” I said. “I can’t believe everything you accomplished while we were gone.”
“Don’t you love it?” he asked. “Wait until you see the fantasy rooms.”
He took us to the back of the building and led us inside what used to be one of the fantasy rooms. The walls were a soft, robin’s egg blue. A large, farm-style table sat in the center of the room, surrounded by the comfiest mismatched chairs I’d ever seen. It looked like the setting for the mad hatter’s tea party, but also incredibly cozy and intimate. “Did you already spend all the money?” I asked, unable to resist teasing Pierson. “Without consulting me?”
Pierson rolled his eyes. “Please, Chloe, we all know interior design is not your area of expertise. If it were up to you this place would be overflowing with kitsch.”
I got teary and sniffed. It was so good to be home and among friends again. “I love it, Pierson. When do we open?”
He grinned. “Tomorrow. I’ve got word circulating among the fae, with the help of Indigo and Rube, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we draw a pretty big crowd.”
“Tomorrow?” I asked. “I haven’t even met the staff, yet.”
Pierson frowned. “We didn’t know when to expect you back, but we’re having a pre-opening staff meeting at two tomorrow. You could meet them then.”
“I’ll be here,” I said. “Unless we’ve got to do something for the mayor’s publicity campaign.”
“Oh,” Pierson said. “You don’t have to worry about that. You’ve been fired.”
He slapped a hand over his mouth as soon as the words were out, but the merry twinkle in his eyes told me he’d absolutely meant to say what he had. “What do you mean we were fired?”
“Let me show you the other private room,” he said, hauling ass to the next room. I followed him and moaned in delight at what I saw. Someone had taken all the kitsch I’d had boxed up at home and decorated the walls and every available surface. And there were lots of available surfaces, from over-the-top kitschy dressers and bookcases to elaborately carved end tables. In the center of it all was an over-sized, retro, cola-red dinette set.
“Is this my own personal heaven?” I asked, spinning to Pierson.
He smiled. “Turns out a lot of fae like shiny, sparkly things as much as you do, Chloe. This room is for them. Sapphire, Indigo, and Lilith helped.”
I clutched my hands in front of my heart and did a little dance of joy. “It’s the most wonderful room ever,” I said. “I may just move in here.”
Frost’s arm around my shoulders tightened a bit. “You can hang out here whenever I screw up and piss you off.” He spun me with him until we were both facing Pierson. “Can we get back to us being fired from the mayor’s media campaign?”
Pierson took a few steps back in mock fear. “You aren’t going to kill the messenger, are you?”
“Very funny,” I said. “You know neither of us were thrilled about being the face of the fae anyway.”
He took a seat at the table and I sat across from him. The chair was comfier than it looked. I really could live in this room. Frost sat next to me, his large body making the dinette set look kind of tiny. Some people just didn’t fit in with kitsch very well.
“The mayor showed the campaign images to a test group and got negative responses. People remember the videos of you two beating up humans and there was nothing about the pictures that made them feel better.” He smirked. “Apparently, you both photograph angry.”
I laughed, but Frost sniffed as though he were offended. “We weren’t exactly at our best that day.”
Pierson shrugged. “They did a photo shoot with Indigo and Rube, as well as a couple of videos of them helping fae children to acclimate to life in the Non. The test group ate it up.”
“What does Indigo think about it?” I asked. I couldn’t picture her wanting to be a celebrity.
Pierson held up a hand. “I’m not done. Then, just before the campaign was about to start, in what some people say was a staged incident, someone got a video of Rube grabbing a child before she stepped onto a busy street and someone else got footage of Indigo and Rube having a romantic and adorable afternoon at the park.”
Wow, that would be amazingly good press for the fae. “Were the videos staged?” I asked.
Pierson smiled. “As far as Indigo and Rube are concerned they were just going about their lives and happened to be caught on film, but the timing is way too coincidental for it to have happened by chance. Lilith says Indigo is already a bit nervous about going out in public, so neither of us have pushed it with her. She can believe whatever makes her happiest.”
He narrowed his eyes like we would burst her bubble. I snorted in dismay, but he didn’t lower his glare until I threw my hands up. “We won’t say anything to her.”
He nodded, and folded his hands on the table in front of him. “How did it go in Rubalia?”
“Wait,” I said. “How’s the campaign going? Has there been any more violence between the fae and humans?”
Pierson shrugged. “Not that I know of, but I’m not exactly in the know. The adorable videos of Indigo and Rube just went viral three days ago and the campaign started two days ago. I think it will take longer than that to sway public opinion.”
“Pierson,” a familiar voice yelled from the front of the club. “We’re practicing here.”
“Sure,” Pierson yelled back. “Lilith and Ransom have been practicing here because the human gatekeeper makes them nervous,” he said to us.
“Nervous?” I asked. “What’s he been doing?”
Pierson shrugged. “Indigo says he’s a perfect gentleman, but Lilith and Pally say he’s been bored out of his mind and taken to harassing them to entertain himself.”
“Like a creepy predator?” I was already halfway out of my chair to go beat the guy down.
Pierson reached across the table and patted my hand. “Like a five-year-old who’s bored and wants Mommy and Daddy to entertain him.”
I sat back down. “Oh, he should fit in great around here then.”
“Again,” Pierson said. “How’d it go in Rubalia? Are there nightmares lying in wait to wreck our clu
b again?”
Those simple words our club hit me right in the chest and brought tears to my eyes. I was out of the mayor’s publicity campaign, there was a gatekeeper and Indigo and Rube to handle fae immigrants. I would have free time again, time to focus on what I loved. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t delusional enough to think I’d never have to provide assistance to the gatekeeper or break up a fight between Lilith and Indigo, or Pippi and…Well, everyone, or help Harvey with another case involving the fae, or maybe even stand up for fae rights, but most of my time could be devoted to Ephemeral, a club that would, in its own way, be doing something to help the fae immigrants.
I realized that both Pierson and Frost were staring at me like they thought I might be a ticking bomb ready to explode, so I smiled and told Pierson everything that happened in Rubalia.
Then, I went home with my husband and made up for lost time. And, very, very early the next morning, I snuck out to Ephemeral and looked over tapas and drink menus and got comfortable with the changes to my club until it once again felt like my place, my home.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Epilogue
There is rarely just one happy ending in life. If you know where to look for them and how to appreciate them, there are many.—Chloe Frangipani
Chloe hasn’t figured it out, yet, but my favorite place to be is with her. No matter where she is.—Aiden Frost
“Explain to me again why you insisted we take a vacation in the mountains, in the cold, in January?” I asked Frost. I was staring out the window of our rental condo at snow-covered mountains, while fat snowflakes spiraled gently to the ground. It had been beautiful for the first two hours, but now it just felt like a prison. Like a torture cell in a prison where, instead of dropping water on my forehead, my eyes were forced open while I watched snowflakes fall in a never-ending, never-changing display.
“You insisted we come here,” Frost said. “Because we live in a hot climate and island honeymoons are cliché and you wanted to experience winter in the mountains where I grew up.”
I spun and glared at him. “You might get laid more often, sweetheart, if you remembered that the wife is always right, and that no one likes to have their own moronic words repeated to them when they are suffering from cabin fever and on the verge of going crazy because it’s never going to stop snowing.” My glare fell. “Will it ever stop snowing?”
“And, you wanted to learn how to ski,” he said with a smug grin.
That was all I could take. I growled and tackled him. He was already lying down on the bed, so I really didn’t hurt him, and the way he wrapped his arms around my waist indicated he might have enjoyed my tackle, might have in fact been needling me to get me back in his arms. Gah! He was so obnoxious. And then he did that thing with his tongue and that other thing with his fingers and I forgot, for a little while, that we were in a winter wonderland hell.
After we’d worked off our pent-up energy and my rage and near-insanity, Frost dangled a key over my head. “Please tell me those are keys to the airplane that’s going to get us back to sunshine and warm weather.”
“Nope,” he said. “These are keys to the snowmobiles that we’re going to play on this afternoon.”
I sighed. On the one hand, I’d do anything to get out of that condo and snowmobiles sounded fun, but on the other hand…“But it’s cold out there. Fairies don’t like snow.”
“Something maybe to consider in the planning stages of a honeymoon,” Frost said.
I snarled at him.
“Come on,” he said. “I bought you some warmer clothes. That crap you bought before we left wouldn’t keep you warm in a Sarsaparilla winter.”
“You know what might have helped?” I asked. “If you, who grew up in the snowy mountains, had offered suggestions before I bought the clothes.”
He shrugged. “I wore fur most of the time, and I run hot.”
He had a point, which was unfortunate, because I was bored and I could use a good, emotionally charged argument, as well as the required make-up sex, to chip away at my boredom and my excess energy. Good points tended to stop a good argument in its tracks. “Where are they?” I asked.
He held up a finger. “I’ll give them to you in just a minute and we’ll go on this snowmobile ride and I’ll show you a view like you’ve never seen before—”
“Better than the views I’ve gotten in this room?” I asked, with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle.
He ignored me. “If you admit that you want to go home.”
“We still have three days left on the condo,” I said. “And it’s…Well, look outside, it’s snowing and…It’s really…I mean some people think it’s really beautiful and relaxing.”
“And you’re bored out of your mind and want to go home.” He took my face in his hands. “It’s okay, Chloe. We’ve had a good honeymoon and we’ll take more trips, better trips. We’ve got our whole lives to travel.”
“But this is our honeymoon,” I said. “We’re finally getting that alone time we’ve been missing. I don’t want to give that up.”
He smiled, so tender and understanding it brought tears to my eyes. “I love every minute of our time alone, sweetheart, but it’s okay for us both to also want to do other things. It’s been a week since Ephemeral’s grand opening, I know it’s driving you crazy wondering how everything is going.”
I nodded, unable to lie to him, even though I felt like I was ruining our honeymoon. “But you’re more important,” I said. “You are more important than Ephemeral or kitsch or flea market Saturdays.”
“And you are more important than my business or running in the woods, but it isn’t just about your club or the kitsch or flea market Saturdays, is it?”
I shook my head, ready to admit defeat. “Sapphire’s going crazy being on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy. And all those kids Pippi brought back from Rubalia, they’re so traumatized, and Indigo is having a hard time finding anyone to help her take care of them. And Lensy and Vervain are moving into their new place in a week and I want to get them a house-warming gift. And Mercury and Vin still aren’t talking. And—”
He pressed a warm kiss to my lips. To shut me up, I suspected. “It’s okay,” he said. “They’re family, Chloe. I love you, but I don’t expect to be the center of your world every moment of every day. You have too big a heart for that.”
I was shocked silent. No one had ever accused me of an excess of love and compassion before. I was the woman who didn’t fuck inside the circle, who limited my connections and my chances of being hurt. Somehow, I’d acquired a chosen family I cared about. I’d increased the size of my circle and I didn’t feel the least bit bad about that.
“Yeah,” I said. “I want to go home.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
This is the final book in the Fairy Files series, but I feel that there are characters in the series who have stories of their own to tell. If you’d be interested in reading Jared and Letty’s story or Evangeline’s story or just want more of the Fairy Files world, I’d love to hear from you. Check here for my latest books: http://www.KatharineSadler.com/
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katharine Sadler lives with her husband in North Carolina. She’s been writing since she was ten and has wanted to be a writer even longer. When she’s not writing or otherwise gainfully occupied, she reads like it’s an addiction, exercises, skis whenever she gets the chance, and adds more books to her wish list.
OTHER WORKS BY KATHARINE SADLER
The Reapers (5 book series)
The Reaping (Reapers 1)
On a White Horse (Reapers 1.5)
The Revolt (Reapers 2)
The Rift (Reapers 3)
Switch (Reapers 3.5)
The Resonance (Reapers 4)
The Resistance (Reapers 5)
The Reapers Series Box Set
Dying Dreams (Trilogy)
Dying Dreams (Dying Dreams 1)
Dying Innocence (Dying Dreams 2)
Fairy Files (6 book series)
Fairy on the Rocks (Fairy Files 1)
Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files 2)
Fairy with a Twist (Fairy Files 3)
Wild Fairy Moonshine (Fairy Files 4)
Bloody Fairy (Fairy Files 5)
Fairy, Neat (Fairy Files 6)
Remixed Fairy Tales (7 book series)
Remington’s Tower (Remixed Fairy Tales 1)
Francesca’s Slumber (Remixed Fairy Tales 2)
I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
You can chat with me at:
www.KatharineSadler.com
www.Facebook.com/KatharineGSadler
www.Twitter.com/KatharineSadler
www.pinterest.com/AuthorKSadler
If you’d like to learn more about the kitsch Chloe and Sapphire love or see samples of the sorts of clothes Sapphire prefers, check out my Pinterest pages (link above).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Fairy, Neat (Fairy Files Book 6) Page 27