by Kimbra Swain
“How is Jenny? She was always one of my favorites,” he said.
“Favorite what?” I asked.
“Servant, of course. She has a set of skills that you should ask her about. When you do, tell her that I gave my blessing,” he said. “As for the monster in the deep, be cautious because they are rarely what you think they are, and most of the time, they have their own human form.”
“There was a pooka, too.”
His face fell to a dark annoyance. “What did he say?”
“Of the men you’ve loved. There is one to die, one to live, one to expose, and one to mithe,” I recited for my father.
He sighed deeply. “There is nothing you can do to stop the impending tragedy. However, I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the words don’t mean what you think they do. The best thing you can do is acknowledge that you have no control of what will happen, but you can control how you respond to it. When ruling, there are surprises around every corner. No conflict is ever the same. Remove your emotions from the equation, and like I said before, follow your instinct. I fear sad times are coming for you, Gloriana. I will be here if you need me,” he said.
“Thank you, Daddy,” I said. He smiled, then faded back into the power of the well.
Winnie and I stopped by the diner on the way home to grab lunch. We left with full bellies and milkshakes. Mine was chocolate. Hers was strawberry. We spent the afternoon talking about weddings. I supposed she had never actually been to a wedding because she had a lot of questions. Turning on the television, I pulled up the menu for movies on demand. I found one that was appropriate for her age that had a wedding. She sat mesmerized by the spectacle. It was fun to watch her. Bramble and Briar helped her practice throwing petals. She would start at the door to Levi’s old room, toss petals down the short hallway, then across the living room, and into my bedroom. The brownies picked up the petals almost as soon as they hit the ground, then she would about-face, repeating the process back to Levi’s door.
As she practiced, I made a call to Deacon Giles who was more than excited about helping to plant the Santiagos’ fields. He promised to go over there and take a look at the soil. He said that some of the Yule Lads had been helping on his farm, so he would take them with him as well. I asked him if that was a good idea, but he assured me that he could be scarier than their mother.
Dylan called twice to check on us. He said they had run into some problems at a checkpoint with a reporter, but they were able to quickly track down the wandering fellow in the woods. The woods around Shady Grove could get you lost in an instant. Most of them were thick and covered in underbrush.
“This will surprise you,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“Robin, Matthew Rayburn’s wife, applied to become a police officer,” he said.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, in fact, she’s a great shot. I tested her myself,” he said.
“Fantastic. I was hoping that we would be able to replace the officers that we lost when the state moved out. Have you ordered new uniforms?” I asked.
“Remy and Tennyson talked to Amanda about them. Troy and I decided that we would let her make the fashion choices,” he said with a chuckle. “We wanted all black, but apparently that’s too dark.”
“It is. You don’t want to look like the F.B.I.,” I said.
“I’ll be home soon. What’s for dinner?” he asked.
“I haven’t thought about it,” I said. “I’ll fix something.”
“Spaghetti!” Winnie exclaimed.
“She would eat spaghetti for every meal if I let her,” I said.
“Spaghetti is fine with me,” Dylan said.
“Spoil her rotten, Dad,” I teased him.
“Yes, I do and I will. Love ya, Grace,” he said.
“Bye Darlin’,” I replied as he hung up.
That evening all our cares were washed away as a storm raged outside. We sat around the table as a family, eating and laughing. Dylan and Winnie put together a princess puzzle, then he put her to bed with a story as I watched from the doorway. When he shut the door to her room, his lips found mine. The storm could have washed the trailer away. I wouldn’t have noticed with the intensity of his kisses.
“What’s that for?” I asked breathlessly.
“I’ve been thinking about it all day. I have something for you,” he said
He took my hand, leading me to our bedroom. I placed bets in my head that what he had for me was in his pants. I hated to inform him that he couldn’t give me something that was already mine. He turned the lights on in the bedroom, and my attention was drawn to the bed where a long white box sat with a bright blue bow.
“Dylan, what’s this?” I asked.
“I can’t have you jealous of Winnie. I’ll spoil you both,” he said.
Slipping the ribbon off the box, I opened it, then shuffled the tissue paper out of the way. Inside I found an off-white dress with lace straps and a deep v-cut neck. The fabric was light to the touch. Picking it up out of the box, I cooed with contentment. It was a beautiful dress that would reach to my knees when I wore it.
“Dylan, this is beautiful. Did you pick this out?” I asked.
“I did. I’ve had it for a little while waiting for the right moment to give it to you. The wedding will be a perfect time to wear it,” he smiled.
I was turning into an emotional basket case because the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. He wiped them away. “Sorry,” I muttered.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I love it though,” I said, as I laid it back down in the box. “I should thank you properly.”
“I like the sound of that,” he smiled.
The storm continued its onslaught as I thanked my fiancé multiple times for his giving heart. I would have never imagined that I would have found someone so perfect for me. We had a jaded past considering our past lovers. With Stephanie, Remy, and Fordele in town, it was a constant reminder of the kind of beings we used to be, but it was also a reminder of who we had become. Who we were together.
I had never been happier in my entire life than in the moments I shared with my family.
Meeting up at the church for the wedding rehearsal, Dylan, Winnie and I traveled together in the truck. It was the first time we had stepped inside the church since we sent Finley and Levi into the Otherworld. They had been gone for five days which I thought was plenty of time to get to the Summer Court, acquire the book, and return safely. Things never go to plan, so I decided that they had a couple of more days before I decided to go after them.
I sat in the grass off to the side watching the procession and practice for the ceremony. Druid and pagan weddings were generally performed inside a circle of friends and family. It seemed like Troy and Amanda had made this choice. They mixed in traditional elements like the procession of the bride, but the handfasting ceremony looked to be authentic pagan. Amanda had chosen Robin Rayburn to stand up with her. When the practice ended, Amanda asked if Mark could stay with us for a few days after the wedding. She had planned on someone else keeping him, but they backed out on her at the last minute. When I told her that we would, Winnie and Mark squealed like banshees. I instantly regretted my generosity, but I knew the newlyweds would enjoy their honeymoon better without the little one.
“That was awfully nice of you,” Dylan said, on the way back to the trailer.
“We might need them to return the favor,” I said.
“Hopefully, Levi and Finley will be back soon,” he said. “I know you miss them.”
“I kept waiting for a portal to open, and both of them step out in the middle of the rehearsal,” I joked.
Dylan’s phone started ringing. He handed it to me because he was driving. It continued to pour down. The phone I.D. said unknown. He shrugged when I showed it to him.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Give the phone to Dylan,” Stephanie ordered.
“He’s driving right now, and it’s s
torming,” I said.
“Put me on speaker phone,” she demanded. I clicked the speakerphone button.
“Okay,” I said.
“Dylan, he is gone. I cannot find him, and the stupid cop you have at my door has the ward up. I cannot leave. You get over here right now and find our son,” she growled.
“Stephanie, calm down. I’m sure he’s close by. He’s been cooped up in that motel room for a week,” Dylan said. “I’ll drop Grace and Winnie off at home and go look for him.”
“Fine!” she screamed into the phone so loud I almost dropped it. The line went dead. I wanted to kill her. I had every right to kill her if I wanted to because she had returned to town after the banishment. Dylan picked up on my discontentment.
“It won’t take long. He’s just as tired of her as I am,” he said. “I wish she would let me bring him back to the trailer with us, but she doesn’t want you anywhere near him.”
“Do you think he is yours now?” I asked because I was confused as to why he would want to bring a kid that wasn’t his, home.
“No. Of course not. It’s a trick, but he’s still a kid,” he said. “He needs someone to look out for him until we can find out who his father is.”
I sighed because he was right, but I had opened my heart enough. It felt like I had reached my hard limit for tolerance of his ex-girlfriend and her son. Yesterday had been a wonderful day, and this one little phone call ruined my whole day. Remaining mature about the whole thing wasn’t easy, but I was doing it for Dylan. However, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.
The storm subsided, but I was still up at 1 a.m. waiting to hear from Dylan. His phone was going straight to voicemail, and so I broke down. I called for help.
“Hello,” a groggy voice answered.
“Troy,” I said.
He perked up. “Grace, what’s wrong?”
“Dylan went out after we got home to find Devin. He had run away from Stephanie for which I don’t blame him. I would run away from her too, but that was hours ago. He isn’t answering his phone,” I said. “I know you are getting married tomorrow…”
He interrupted me, “How am I supposed to get married without my best man? Don’t worry. I’ll find him.”
I paced the room for hours until Troy came in the front door with Dylan. He looked dazed. “What happened?” I asked.
“He was out at the old house. She was there, too. I don’t know what she did to him,” he said plopping Dylan down on the couch. Without willing it to happen, I shifted into the fairy queen. The temperature dropped. Winnie came out of her room to see Dylan who didn’t immediately greet her as he usually did.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” she whined.
“Bramble!” I called out to the little brownie.
“Take Winnie back in her room. Play or help her get back to sleep. No magic,” I said.
“As you wish, my Queen,” he bowed, then prompted Winnie to go back in the room. When the door clicked shut, I touched the wall behind the couch which connected to Winnie’s room. A shimmering ward wrapped around the room block out the sound from the living room.
“Go home, Troy,” I said.
“Grace, I’m not leaving until he’s coherent,” he said.
Putting my palms on his cheeks, his eyes suddenly shot to mine. “Oh, Grace!” he huffed.
“Hey, you are fine. You are home,” I said. His attention wandered. “Dylan, what happened?”
He continued to teeter back and forth. I looked at Troy who seemed more worried than I was.
“Please tell him I was sorry for this before I even did it,” I said.
Before Troy could question me, I reared back, then slapped Dylan so hard on the face that my hand stung sending pain up my arm. Perhaps I should have used the non-tattooed hand.
“Fuck!” he cursed holding his cheek, but his eyes had cleared. “Did you slap me?”
“Yes,” I cried. “Talk to me. What happened?”
“I can’t believe you slapped me. Fuck, Grace. That hurt,” he said still rubbing your cheek.
“You needed it,” Troy said.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Dylan asked him.
“I brought you home, you idiot,” he said.
Dylan looked back at me and groaned. “It was a trap.”
“No freaking duh!” I said.
“I don’t know what she wanted, but I got out of there. She’s at the house with the boy. He was standing on the porch when I first saw him. You know the ward let me in, so I ran up to him, but he darted into the house. When I got there, she was right there waiting for me. The ward wouldn’t let me out of the house. She thought I’d bond with the kid if we were in the house together like old times. She’d torn out all the renovations I made for us. She gutted Winnie’s room,” he stopped to choke on those words. From that point on, his voice was laced with venom, “She is a deranged twat, and I hate the day I ever met her. She had a spell on the boy. He was sitting in a chair the whole time watching me try to break out of my own house. He looked like Joey Blankenship the day I found her fucking him on my couch. I recall deciding that I wanted to flame through the ward. Beyond that, I don’t remember anything.”
“The house was in flames when Amanda and I got there. We were on foot,” he said to indicate they were tracking him in wolf form. “Amanda took Stephanie and Devin back to the hotel, and I brought Dylan here. We found him passed out in the grass outside the house.”
“You caught her fucking Joey on the couch, and she spelled him? Is that why he was sick back then? I thought I had done something to him,” I said, backing away from him. “Why did you let her do that?”
“Troy leave,” Dylan said soberly.
“Yep. Wedding tomorrow,” he said nervously then ducked out the door.
“I did not let her spell Joey Blankenship,” he said.
“No, but you kept her after you caught her doing that? I thought I was bad for fucking him and leaving him, but at least he did it willingly,” I said.
He raised his hands out to touch me, but they trembled. “Grace, there have always been things about my relationship with her that I didn’t talk about because it didn’t matter anymore. We were together. You and me. I never looked back.”
“Why would you stay with her?” I asked.
“I can’t,” he stammered.
“You can’t tell me?” I screamed. “What the hell? It’s not like I’m leaving. I am just trying to figure out why you still wanted to be with her after she put a spell on a helpless human!”
“Jeremiah,” he muttered.
“Fucking Jeremiah. I’m going to trim his tail feathers when I see him,” I fussed, pacing the room.
“Me first,” Dylan grumbled, rubbing his forehead.
I stopped pacing to stare at him. What lies had he told that I didn’t realize? Is that what always plagued him? Is that why he was always afraid I would leave? I loved him with every part of my being, but there were times when he lacked a backbone when it came to me. I had overlooked it, but now it was painfully clear. There were still things I did not know. His guilty eyes met mine.
“Don’t worry. I’m not leaving or kicking you out. We’ve been through enough, but I want you to promise me that there will be a day when you hold nothing back from me. Curse, oath, or promise be damned. Promise me, Dylan,” I said.
“I promise, Grace, and I hope you can forgive me,” he said.
“So, the house is gone for real this time?” I asked.
“Yes,” he mumbled.
“Winnie, come here,” I said releasing the spell that kept her in her room. She teetered out with a blanket followed by the two little brownies. She rubbed her eyes as Dylan picked her up in his arms. He squeezed her tightly.
“I love you, Winnie,” he whispered.
“I love you, too, Daddy,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
“We are going for a ride,” I said.
“Now?” he asked. “It’s starting to rain again.”
“I know, but it has to be now,” I replied.
I grabbed my keys to the truck. He went out and strapped a sleeping Winnie in her seat. I waved goodbye to Bramble and Briar who stood in the front window with Rufus. They looked out on us as we pulled out of the trailer park in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
“I have to show you something,” I said.
Driving through town as quickly as I could without putting us in danger, I found the road leading out to my stone circle. Remy had texted me earlier in the night that despite his long estimations, the lot was ready to build our new house.
“This road is going to be a mess,” Dylan said.
“You always wanted to go mud riding with me,” I smirked.
“Not really. After I saw how mad you were at Joey, I decided I wasn’t interested in whatever that was,” he said.
I sighed remembering the incident with Joey Blankenship. He was one of the few fucks I had in Shady Grove while on contract with the Sanhedrin. My tryst with him didn’t go the way I wanted, and I ended up barefoot, muddy and arrested. Arrested by Dylan who hadn’t been in Shady Grove very long.
Once we reached the end of the road, I flicked on the high beams as well as the light rack on the truck. It illuminated the flattened space at the end of the road.
“What happened?” he asked.
I took his warm hand in mine, and I cleared my throat. “I’m building a house,” I said quietly.
“Oh, Grace,” he whispered, staring out into the rainy night.
“A home for us. Winnie deserves a real house, and one day when we have a child of our own, he will have a special room, too. Don’t let Stephanie ruin what we have. That boy is not yours. I hate it for him, but perhaps we can find someone else to play surrogate father for him. For her, this isn’t about making you a father. It’s a vendetta to destroy us and Shady Grove. This town doesn’t make it without us,” I said.
“Without you,” he said.
“I can’t live without you, so us,” I said. He squeezed my hand.
“Between the birthday party and this, I’m not sure a dress measures up,” he said.