by Sara Hanover
“They look scared.”
“Yup. They send off a high-pitched signal, too, if something is really happening. I’ll spare you that one.” I wasn’t about to tell her they could stun an invader if it got close by. I didn’t know how much Evelyn could take in.
Yawning, Scout trotted out of my bedroom and leaned against my leg. I swept the Eye of Nimora over him. I rarely take a look at him under the influence, but I knew that Nimora could pinpoint some differences in him from the average dog, and I heard Evelyn breathe out, “Oh, my.” She squinted slightly. “He’s not just a purebred Lab, is he? Some kind of designer breed?”
“We don’t quite know. Maybe elven hound in him.”
“Elven?” She added, “Come on!”
I inclined my head. “Elven. Like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, elven.”
“They don’t exist.”
“Somewhere they do.” I pulled her back into my bedroom. “And so do wizards and dwarves.”
“Tessa!”
I crossed my heart. “Please keep listening because I’m going to be talking about Hiram, and he’ll tell you more, but sometimes you need to ask the right questions.”
She dropped my hand suddenly. “I don’t think I want to hear anymore.”
“We’re right at the most important part. Please.”
She looked out my window, rather than at me, and faintly answered, “All right.”
“I don’t think there is much doubt that you love him and he loves you.”
The line of tension in her shoulders relaxed slightly.
“But he is not what you think he is.”
She got fierce then, swinging around to glare at me. “And there you go again! Putting him down. He’s honest and intelligent and a gentleman!”
“He’s a dwarf.”
“A what—no, don’t you go making fun of his height! He’s tall enough for me.”
“Not making fun of him, not at all. He is a very good person and one of my best friends. And he’s years older than he looks and will live years longer than you or I. He’s an Iron Dwarf, bound to elements of the earth; everyone in his clan is, and he is always very, very careful around you to protect you.”
“Years longer . . .” Anger faded from her suddenly, and she seemed to deflate. She gave a slight sniffle. “We shouldn’t be together? You’re not saying that, are you? For real?”
“No. I’m saying it could be difficult.”
“He’s never said anything.”
“He can’t. Magic is like that, Evie. That side can’t admit it exists because this side knowing might tear their world apart. They’ve always been very careful and secretive.”
Sulkily, she said, “You found out.”
“I wasn’t supposed to. You’re right. And now I’m up to my neck in it. And you will be, too, so you need to know.”
“But he has a home. And a business, a good one. You can’t be right.”
“I am.”
“What about wizards? Like Gandalf or Dumbledore?”
“More like my old professor, but yeah.”
She sucked in a breath and sat down again, suddenly. “This isn’t happening.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Are you sane, Tessa?”
“I hope so. If I wasn’t, I don’t think I could show you the few things I have.” I didn’t want to tell her that was the tip of the iceberg because I wouldn’t have believed me, and I’d been through all of it.
“So I need to ask Hiram if . . . if we have a future someday. And ask him about his clan. And maybe . . .” She glanced up at me. “Have you ever noticed how the house groans and creaks sometimes when he’s walking about in it?”
“Trust me, I have. Iron Dwarves have a lot of weight to them.”
She exhaled. “I thought it was just me.”
“If only.” I rubbed my hands together. “How about some tea?”
“And brandy. I could use a bracer.”
“Just a shot, then. I don’t want you driving with a buzz.”
“Deal.”
We both went downstairs to the kitchen. The last thing Evie said to me was, “Does your mother know?”
“Oh, yeah. And she’s not extremely happy about most of it.”
A pot and a lid rang together on their hooks as we entered. She looked at them. “It’s like this old place is haunted. I’ve always thought you had a poltergeist living here with you.”
I thought about telling her about my father and decided against it. “And you wouldn’t be far wrong, but that’s a story for another day.”
“Mercy,” she answered and sat down for her tea with brandy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
PARTY CRASHERS
STEPTOE SHOWED UP the morning of the big luncheon and dropped eight flash-bangs by my breakfast plate. I’d hoped for more but gave him a bright and thankful smile anyway. “Thanks!”
“Anything for you,” he responded as he disappeared toward the mudroom and the back door. I heard the cot squeak as he dropped onto it, and a soft snore followed almost immediately. He must have been up all night making my ammo.
Mom smiled as she listened and then began to finish her breakfast.
“You’re coming, too, right?”
“I wouldn’t miss it. But I’m taking my own car.”
I considered her. “Why?”
“Because I have a plus one.”
My mind genuinely boggled. “Say what?”
Her smile tightened a bit into self-satisfaction. “I’m picking up someone.”
“You don’t have to drive your car to do that.” My thoughts still scrambled around. She had a plus one? Why? And “Who?”
“You’ll meet him when everyone else does.”
Him? The very word made me narrow my gaze. It had to be that Gregory guy. I said carefully, “Is that wise? We don’t want to violate anyone’s threshold.”
“We won’t be. I don’t think I need to remind you, but all of the people who’ve come into this house in the last year or so, have been friends or projects of yours. With this singular exception. Trust me, he is a perfectly normal person. Is that all right with you?”
“Not exactly. It sounds like you’ve given up on me and Dad.”
“I haven’t given up on your dad as your father, but I gave up on him as my husband months ago. He’s betrayed everything we’d promised each other.”
“I’m doing everything I can.”
“And did that everything include putting yourself in the way of a vampire? I didn’t even know they existed.”
“I didn’t either, not really, and I had no idea—”
Her eyes flashed. “That’s the point. You have no idea of the consequences. You just charged ahead into this totally unknown territory.”
“I should have let the professor burn to death?”
My mother stilled. Her jaw worked slightly before she answered. “Of course not. That is . . . he did, but you saved Brian.”
“I saved them both.”
“By keeping your own counsel, which isn’t as wise as you think it is. I don’t like being left out of your plans and escapades. I don’t want to lose you, too.”
I felt like hitting something, so I slammed the side of my hand on the table, jarring my teacup and saucer. “You’re the one walking away from Dad. I told you I’d fix it—you just need to give me a little time. I will do it.”
“I’m not blaming you for your father’s mistakes and you shouldn’t either. I know you’re trying to find out what happened. But I have to have a future.” She gave a half-smile. “You won’t always be here.”
“So now you’re telling me this new guy is your future??? That happened fast.”
“It hasn’t happened at all! Honestly, are you learning dramatics from Evelyn?”
&nb
sp; “Great. You don’t approve of my regular friends, either.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“It seems to me you kinda did.”
“You’re jumping to conclusions.”
My face had warmed and even my ears felt hot. I tried to rein in my anger though not too successfully. “I’m concluding that you don’t trust me to put things right! I’m going to get Dad back.”
My mother sighed. “And I’m trying to tell you that, here or not, I’m not certain your father has a life with me. Have you cured his need for a gambling high?”
“I should think being stuck in limbo for nearly three years would do that.”
She said quietly, “You’d be surprised what the addictive personality will go through to avoid change. I don’t want to argue with you. I know you’re doing all you can. I’m just telling you that it may not be enough for me, that it won’t restore things to the way they were.”
“And you’ve got a new guy.”
“Just a friend.”
“I can hardly wait to see the proof of that!”
She wrinkled her nose. “Rude, as you would say.” She put her fork down.
I looked at my plate where my sunny side egg had gotten mixed up with my potatoes as intended but all of a sudden looked very undesirable. I shifted. I didn’t need our family dynamics screwed in addition to everything else. We’d always had each other’s backs, and she was treating me as a partner—or trying to. “Sorry. We’re both adults here. It’s just . . . odd.”
“I know it’s difficult for you to hear.”
“You’ve got that right.”
Her expression softened a little. “You know we were married just out of college. He hadn’t been hurt yet, and had gotten a job which was more of a sponsorship for his golfing. I started to earn my masters, taking advantage of a fairly good salary he’d begun to earn. We weren’t rich by any means, but we did put a decent down payment on our little house. Then I found out I was pregnant with you.”
I eyed her. “Didn’t they have birth control then?”
“Of course, they did. But miscalculations do happen. You know who saved us?”
“I have no idea.”
“Aunt April. She baby sat you for two years while I finished school, and then your Dad hurt his shoulder, and we had to start over. Luckily, my masters gave us some stability, and his sponsorship was with a local insurance company that took him on as an underwriter. She kept everything on an even keel. Sometimes she came to our home and sometimes I dropped you off at hers, the one with the greenhouse we both loved.” The one she’d had to sell to pay off her own gambling debts. That vice ran deep in the Andrews bloodline.
“I don’t remember her at all.”
“No. Your father put some distance between us when he had to take a real job. I could never understand why. She came through when we needed her again, though.”
That she did. Our creaky, quirky old house was one of the few investments she’d been able to hold onto, or we would have been truly homeless. I stabbed at my plate again and decided to change subjects. “We have enough serious worry with Evelyn swooning over Hiram.”
“We certainly do.”
We continued in silence while I wondered if I had a plus one. Carter, if available. I hadn’t heard from him over the past few days, so I had no idea. Not that I needed company or an escort, but it would have been nice to have the moral support I suddenly felt that I desperately needed. I dropped a toast corner to Scout, knowing it would never hit the floor. My mother left me alone at the table.
I wouldn’t tell my father. I don’t know what the two of us would have to go through to get him out of limbo, but worrying about my mother wouldn’t help either of us.
My phone sat on the kitchen table, showing me that the weather would be very chilly but no snow or ice, having thawed out the day before. I decided to take Scout along with me and texted Hiram to ask if it would be all right.
He answered immediately with permission, adding, “Bring Carter, too.”
I returned, “Carter goes where Carter wants to go.”
He sent me back a winking emoji, and I signed off at that.
That left me with a few hours to kill while waiting to go.
Evelyn texted twice so I talked with her, to calm her down. Told her to lay off the caffeine, but I don’t think she took my advice.
One of those invite notices appeared on the front porch from the Society reminding me that I had a schooling meeting the next day. I considered it for a long moment before ripping it into confetti, dumping the bits into the kitchen sink, and setting them on fire. I didn’t want anyone to have any doubt about my reaction to the summons. If they couldn’t protect students like Sophie, I no longer wanted anything to do with them. The Society faced corruption from the inside out, and I didn’t want to be involved. The professor had been right in his summation about them. If I had to go through every miserable book stored in the boxes in the cellar, I’d school myself on what I needed to know. I had those three new spells under my belt, and there were more where those came from.
My room smelled like dog. Normally, not an unpleasant smell, but since he was going to a party that afternoon, I decided a bath would be in order. He still fit, more or less, in the humongous sink/tub in our laundry room, so we trotted in there and lathered up nicely. Luckily, Labs are water dogs, and he loves it, rain or shine, although he would much rather I turned on the sprinkler and let him romp through it. The wintry day, however, suggested that our sprinkler fountain might freeze in midair and be relatively useless.
Scout did not, in any way, shape, or form, like the hair dryer. I didn’t scold him much, and even laughed when I got his lips splayed out, baring his teeth, as if he faced into the wind. He chuffed at me when I was finished and went to sleep under the kitchen table, head on paws and facing pointedly away from me.
Nobody liked me today, it seemed. “Fine,” I told him. “Going upstairs to dress.”
I chose leather pants to go with a nice silk blouse, and a weather-wise coat that had seen better days but would be warm and comfortable, and I’d shed it when I got in the house anyway. The flash-bangs went in an inner pocket meant for sunglasses. I could hear Mom fussing around a bit in her room and getting ready to leave.
She gave a faint goodbye, and then I heard her car start up. So she wasn’t even letting the plus one come to the house first?
I frowned at myself in the bedroom mirror and arranged my hair about my face and shoulders. Brunette, as always, and the light dusting of freckles that sunnier months gave me had faded over the season. Maybe I should coax Evelyn into giving me highlights. That might be interesting. Blonde or purple? I’d distract her with that query if needed.
I’d just slipped my feet into some nice ankle boots which I rarely wore, and which I kept on the top shelf in my closet, away from enthusiastic puppy teeth, when my phone buzzed with a text. I smiled as I read it to myself. Carter, on the way over, asking if I thought he’d forgotten?
I might have, but I wouldn’t admit it. I sent him a few hearts and a bunch of smiley faces.
It was nice, I told myself as I put my phone away that neither of us took the other for granted. Scout and I waited at the front windows for his car to pull up and then ran out before he could open his door, our breaths white and misty on the afternoon air. The sky glittered a brittle blue, not a cloud in sight besides the ones we were making.
Scout hopped into the back seat as I scooted in, the heater warmth hugging us close.
Carter grinned at me. “I should think you’d be a little more careful about what car you’re getting into.”
“Right, huh.” I fussed for a moment because I hadn’t discussed the taunting mail delivery from the Butchery.
Like the sun lion that seemed to be his magical alter ego, he sensed my nerves. “What is it?”
&nbs
p; “Is it possible to let something in just by saying its name once?”
His amber gaze locked onto me. “It could be, if the being were powerful enough. I’ve only heard of it once or twice. For instance, if you were to think of our friend and sometimes nemesis, he could appear, but it would be extremely rare. I’d ask why you’re asking, but I think I know. Who are we talking about?”
“I don’t want to say.”
He leaned out and fished a pocket notebook out of the car console. “Write it down.” He pushed the notebook into my hands.
I frowned down at it. “In blood?”
“Great gods, no.” Fumbling about, he found a stub of a pencil and gave that to me, watching as I started to write Nicolo.
He grabbed my hands before I got more than Nic down. “Stop.”
I looked up. “Seriously?”
“Extremely seriously.” He pulled the book and pencil away from me, muttered a few words and a golden blaze flared out. When it receded, he put everything back in the console. “And that was undoubtedly how the minion got into your house. Why were you even aware of his name?”
“Morty’s journals. He speculated that my father had gotten involved.”
Carter pointed through the car windshield. “When you have the Sight, drive down Monument Boulevard someday. You’ll see shadows where there should be none, draped about most of the statues. Upon the flags that shouldn’t be flying anymore because they represent a heritage that we need to leave behind. He uses our past, our guilt, and misguided pride against us. He’s ensnared most of this state. We’re fighting our way through, but it’s like slogging through red clay. Nothing good comes from that Master.”
“So I should stay away.”
“You need to be told that?”
A bit of shame arched through me. “No. Not really. But what if he’s the only way I can get my father freed?”
“He would never give you the information you need. The only thing we can do is destroy him and hope that unbinds all that he rules.”
“Could that happen?”
“Maybe. It isn’t certain . . . and it would take an army, Tessa, one I’m not sure I could raise. He’s been entrenched in the South for, probably, centuries.”