Lucy at Last

by Mary E. Twomey

Twenty-Three.

  The Things We Don’t Talk About

  Olin and Olina were slightly the worse for wear since I’d seen them last. Their fifties-perfect Leave it to Beaver décor was still in mint condition, the knickknacks greeting me with their kitschiness. It was Olin’s jaw that was set on edge and Olina’s blue-white hair that was no longer perfectly coifed that really threw me. She kept fluffing it as she spoke over dinner, but I could tell she wasn’t getting it done regularly in whatever passed for a salon out here.

  “Thank you for letting us stay,” I said quietly as I passed the hard rolls to Jens, who was on his fifth one. I was sandwiched between the oversized Jens and the already too big Foss, so I had very little elbow room. But I had my jeans and Chuck Taylors back, so that was enough to make me feel somewhat comfortable. “I was very sorry to hear about Nik’s passing.”

  Olin’s tone was sharp, contrasting with his Ward Cleaver pipe and sweater. “We don’t speak of Niklas in this house anymore.”

  Olina’s pleasant tone had too much syrup to it when compared with her husband’s tartness. “You’re always welcome here, dear. A queen, a prince and one of the four powers staying under our roof, Olin. Surely they’ll let us back on the council now.”

  Olin pfft’d under his breath.

  Olina pressed her hand atop mine, but then retracted when she recalled she was touching a dead siren’s blood. “Perhaps you could talk to a few people while you’re here. Let them know you chose to stay with us over any of them?”

  “I… ” I didn’t want to leave them high and dry, but I wasn’t having Olin’s nonsense about dismissing Nik. He was their kid. “Of course. Whatever you need. Happy to help. Nik was a dear friend to me.” I decided on being kind to Nik’s parents because that’s what Nik would have preferred. He’d lived his life in secret from them because they needed to be treated with kid gloves. If that’s what Nik wanted, then I’d wear kid gloves all the way.

  Olin cleared his throat. “Let’s talk about something else. You say you’re passing through Nøkken to see the sights?”

  “Yes, sir. I want to see the countryside. I barely got to see any of it before. So pretty.”

  After that, the rest of the dinner conversation was pleasant enough. Jens consumed in total eight rolls, three mutton legs, a plateful of something that looked like corn, but was peach colored, three glasses of water, but only one shot of Gar. When Olin offered him another to match the others’ second and third shots, Jens begged off. “I’m on duty. Probably not best to get sloshed on the job.”

  Nik’s parents took our dishes into the kitchen, leaving us alone for a minute.

  Tucker made some crass joke under his breath about me being the job, and Jens needing to get on me. It was lovely enough to earn him a flick to his front tooth as he grinned devilishly at me. “Ah!” he cried out, scrubbing the ringing sensation from his tooth. “That stings!”

  Olina came back in and bowed to Jamie and Foss, but kissed my cheek, which made me love her a little bit. “Goodnight, kids. I’ll see you all off in the morning before your big trip.”

  Olin bid us all a good night and then went to bed with his wife, leaving us to our bantering and bickering. It would be our last night of sleeping indoors until who knows when.

  Jens pulled on his black boots while the others drank another round of shots. Jamie was sipping his so I didn’t get stone drunk, for which I was grateful. Jens checked the hallway to make sure we wouldn’t be seen by the parentals, and kissed my lips before he spoke. “I’ll be back. Checking the perimeter before I turn in. You got this, Tuck?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I think I’ll be alright. It’s a matter of changing into pajamas and going to sleep. Real harrowing stuff. What would I do without a guard? Queen Lucy the Useless. Has a certain ring to it.”

  “You haven’t slept alone since we got here. Your nightmares? Scary, Loos. You scream through the whole house if the candle burns out, even if you’re in a dead sleep.” A flicker of a shadow fell across Jens’s expression before it disappeared in the light of his wit. “You’re bunking with your husband, babe. Long lost man of your dreams come back to life? You two need to work out whatever story you’re selling and stick to it. If Foss is here, that changes a lot. Word’s already spreading through Nøkken that he’s alive. It’ll reach his homeland soon enough.”

  I glanced over to Foss, who was focused on his shot glass. “Oh. I didn’t think about that.”

  Foss spoke up, though his eyes didn’t move to look at us. “When Olaf burned my house, you saved me and the servants from the fire. You took me to the Other Side to get special medicine so I could heal. Now I’m back with my wife, who we’re going to reveal is Queen of the Other Side. She was hiding her title before from the Fossegrim, because she wanted to see what life would be like as a commoner. She has her kingdom to rule, and I have mine to reclaim. We’ll visit each other, but we’ll live apart for the sake of our kingdoms. Sound fair?”

  Jamie was the first one to speak. “You know your people won’t accept that. Fossegrim men stone their wives for trying to leave their husbands.”

  Foss waved his hand in the air. “Then we’ll make it some big thing that’s happening on the Other Side she has to stay away for months at a time to deal with. They can understand power well enough.”

  My mouth opened a few times before sound came out. “I guess I thought when we got divorced in my world, it would carry over to Undraland. I’m really still married?”

  Foss pushed his chair back from the table to grab a new bottle of Gar from his pack he’d left open on the kitchen floor. “Yep. Banner day all the way around.”

  I instantly felt like a jerk for being so heartless and thinking only of the discomfort this would mean for me. “I’m sorry, Foss. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s cool. It’s all fine. I can be your wife in Undraland, I guess. I’m just surprised to see you. It’s all a little confusing.”

  Jens poked his head down the hallway again to confirm Olin and Olina were nowhere within eavesdropping range. “We filled Foss in on the instructions from Havard on how to lift the Fossegrimen curse. I think a welcome-back-from-the-dead party should be extended to the entire island. If the curse gets lifted from everyone, it might not be such a big deal if you live separately.”

  Tucker watched me as I searched for a proper reaction, his eyes glinting when I nodded my compliance.

  “Okay. I… that’s fine. But Linus first, right?”

  “Of course. We’ll trek across Nøkken in the morning.” When Jens kissed my cheek, there was a note of permanence to the gesture – like he understood better this time around who we were, and that we wouldn’t fall away from each other.

  “I’m going to sleep, guys. And Jamie, no more Gar, if you don’t mind. I’m pleasantly sleepy, and don’t feel like going further down than that.” I gave them all a half-hearted two-fingered salute and made my exit.

  Twenty-Four.

  Tucker’s Doubt

  I made quick work of changing into actual pajamas so no one could suggest my prairie getup from the night before. My soft cotton shorts and worn baby blue tank top brought a level of comfort to edge out the forthcoming anxieties we would soon face. I was bent over my green backpack, making sure everything would be ready to go in the morning when I heard a knock at the door.

  Tucker’s smile was in place, but his eyes were wary as they regarded me. “Turndown service?”

  “Aren’t you used to me turning you down yet?” I teased. “What’s up, buddy?” I let him in and finished laying out my clothes for the next day. “Foss drink you under the table? He’s a take-no-prisoner kind of guy when it comes to that stuff.”

  “Why didn’t you say no out there?” Tucker asked, cutting to the chase. He clicked his fingers over the wick of the taper candle by my bedside. “I can tell you hate the idea of being passed around.”

  I shrugged. “I’d do anything for Foss. He’s one of my favorites. He did a good thing he didn’t want to do by ma
rrying me last time. Saved me from all kinds of bad things. I can be cool with whatever this time around. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.” I sighed, folding my shirt for the morning and laying it atop the dresser. “Figures, doesn’t it? Jens and I are in a good place finally, and now this. Promise me Paris will be uneventful. I can’t take much more relationship drama.”

  The candlelight danced off Tucker’s features, making him appear younger. “Paris will be beautiful. It never disappoints.” He sat on the edge of Nik’s bed, making himself comfortable without invitation. He had a certain charm to him, but I wasn’t sure at what point I was allowed to grow weary of it and tell him to get lost. “Do you really think you can raise Linus from the dead?”

  “Are you serious? I wouldn’t have dragged everyone out here if I didn’t. You see how easy I go along with whatever. This was me putting my foot down. I’m positive we can. My mom preserved his soul in the same way Pesta preserved the souls in Be. Easy Peasy. Just dump his soul back inside and presto! I get my other half back. I’ll get me back.”

  Suddenly it hit me that in no time at all, Linus would be alive. In all the planning and plotting and paying my dues, the payoff seemed too far away to properly celebrate. It had taken us four days to cross Nøkken before, and for half of that, Jamie and I had been bewitched by Mace to be too happy and out of our minds to be of much use.

  I was going to have my brother back. I clutched my vial and stumbled backwards. My eyes were wide as I tried to wrap my mind around the life I’d lost that I’d have bits of back to hold onto. “Linus. We’re getting my brother back!”

  Tucker quirked an eyebrow at me. “Are you just now realizing that?”

  A wave of anxiety hit me out of nowhere. “He needs clothes. I didn’t even think to bring him anything! And snacks. I didn’t bring much food from our world over here. He’s going to wake up so disoriented. Shoes! He needs size nine men’s shoes. And I don’t want you all giving him knives and whatnot. The last thing we need is to get him back to life and then he does something foolish and stabs himself with a knife thinking he’s a ninja.” My face soured when the words escaped me. I’d just stabbed Havard through the chest, and here I was fretting about the same thing happening to my brother. I could just picture Linus’s body with ribbons of red floating out like slow-moving silly string through the water. “No knives!” I declared.

  “I’m sure Jens will be heartbroken.”

  At mention of Jens, I winced out of old habit. My neck felt the phantom weight of the collar the sirens had fitted me with. I clawed at my neck to remove it. “No! I won’t be quiet!” I shouted to Tucker, whose eyes were wide as he took in my freak-out. “When Linus comes back, I don’t want to see even a hint of a weapon out.”

  Jamie could feel my panic. This is for your own good, syster. You’re going to upset yourself if you keep this up. Jamie downed another shot, and then poured another, sucking it down.

  Tucker stood slowly, moving the candlestick to the wooden bedside table so it better lit the whole room with its dim flicker. He held his hand out to me as he sat back down on the side of the bed. “Come here, käresta. You’ve got a lot swimming up in that pretty little head of yours.”

  I calmed down, narrowing my eyes at him as I placed my hand in his, standing before his seated form. “Why do your compliments always sound demeaning?”

  “Is Jamie listening in?” he asked casually, examining our linked fingers.

  I checked, but the bond was sufficiently numb. The pleasant feeling of alcohol trickled through me, sedating my panic over my unpreparedness to meet my brother again. I wasn’t drunk or anything, but my shoulders began to relax their grip on me so I could calm down. “No. He’s been drinking, though. Thought I was getting too worked up. What’s up?”

  Tucker’s hushed voice was heavy with a note of secrecy. “I’m a little out of my element here. I swore I’d never come back to Undraland, but here I am. I followed you on this mission, Lucy. I’ll help you however I can, but know this: Pesta was an evil woman. I knew her long before her ridiculous petition to set up the Land of Be to save her hide.”

  “You knew her? Huh. I can’t even picture her out of Be, just walking around like it’s nothing. What was she doing hanging around you?”

  “You forget my charm. Just because you’re immune to it doesn’t mean all women are.”

  I blanched and took a fumbling step back, dropping his hand. “You… you what? You hooked up with Pesta?” I shoved my hands under the hem of my tank top and wrapped them up in the material, exposing an inch of my stomach to hide my hands from view. I was wearing his ex-girlfriend’s blood like it was body paint at a rave.

  Tucker shook his head. “It’s nothing. It was a year of on again, off again. I don’t know if you noticed, but she tends to air on the side of the dramatics. Possessive as anything.” He pressed his finger to his lips. “And keep quiet about that. Not many people know.”

  “Um, okay. That’s kind of a big bomb to drop.”

  “Well, I drop it because her word isn’t exactly trustworthy. Doesn’t it seem strange that she would help your mom? Hilda the Powerful who tried to kill her and stole her rake?”

  I shrugged. “She killed my parents. I assumed that was enough. She probably didn’t expect them to act on the information so quickly and preserve his soul. Linus died not long after they crossed over. Pesta probably thought she’d followed through on her deal, but my parents wouldn’t have time to put it into action, so she thought she’d won on both accounts. That my guess, anyway.”

  “I’m sorry your family died.”

  I waved off the obligatory pity apology. I’d had enough of those to last a lifetime. “It’s going to work, Tuck. I’m getting Linus back.”

  He stood, taking a step forward so he was towering over me. I really hated it when they did that. “I just want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that it might not work.”

  It was as if he’d slapped me across the face. “What are you saying?”

  His hands traced my triceps and gently gripped the skin there to focus me. “I’m saying that when I finally rid myself of her all those years ago, I ran to the Other Side without a dime in my pocket. She’s the worst kind of manipulative. Downright terrifying when she’s crossed.” He kissed my forehead. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

  My forehead burned where he’d touched it. I was nearly shaking with rage as I stapled my lips shut so as not to scream at him. My nostrils flared and I geared up to unleash as much wrath as I could access in my buzzed state. “Don’t you ruin this for me! I’ll get Linus back! I’m getting my brother back in just a couple days!” I shook my head and struggled to free myself from his grip that had become too hard to be comforting. “You’re wrong! You’re dead wrong! Pesta told my mom, and my mom did it right! My mom wasn’t an idiot! I’m sure she checked her facts before doing it all! You’re wrong!” I could feel clarity eluding me under the weight of my heightened anxiety and the Gar.

  Jens let himself in and extracted me from Tucker, who explained the situation in a few short breaths. “Okay. Get some sleep, Tuck. And maybe don’t put your hands on her anymore.” Jens rubbed my arms and held me while I seethed.

  “He’s wrong! Linus is waiting for us. We should go right now! Why are we waiting? Linus could be in pain! Did you ever think of that? Your body separated from your soul? That can’t feel good. Linus needs me!”

  Jens glowered at Tucker. “You see what you did? Next time you want to be helpful, try guard duty. Jamie’s out there getting drunk, and we’ve got a long trek tomorrow. Get him to bed.”

  Tucker held up his hands in surrender. “Lucy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Of course Linus will be okay.”

  I lunged for him, but there was little force to my fight, thanks to Jamie. “Don’t you patronize me! I’ll show you! You’ll look at him and see that Linus is fine. He’s fine!”

  “Goodnight, Tuck.” Jens shooed Tucker out the door and shut it
, exhaling as he watched my fists shake with rage. “He didn’t mean anything by it. Tuck just walks around with his foot in his mouth. Ignore him.”

  “Do you believe me? Do you think this’ll work?”

  Jens ran his hand over his face. “Honestly? Before the river, I wasn’t convinced. But after Havard was real and actually did what he did to me? I wouldn’t be surprised if Linus was kicking my butt at Tekken inside a week.”

  I flung myself into Jens’s arms, holding the man I adored. He knew me, and what’s more, he trusted me enough to let me lead on occasion. “I love you.” When I brought his face down to kiss him, there was a romance in the candlelight and a fire in my belly that climbed up inside me and attached itself to him.

  Jens cupped the underside of my thighs and hoisted me up to wrap my legs around his waist. “I could feel you losing your cool all the way from outside,” he said between kisses. “Is that how laplanding is?”

  I didn’t want to talk about laplanding. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to makeout with my boyfriend without conversations about magic and his best friend. I mean, honestly. Is that too much to ask? I didn’t answer him, and let my preference be made clear in the form of my tongue lightly brushing his.

  I didn’t know how long we had before I had to pretend to be married again, but I was determined to make use of every second until then.

  Twenty-Five.

  The Marriage Bed

  Foss was set on passing out at the kitchen table with Jamie and Tucker, but Jens intervened, cutting them all off and sending the men to bed like the naughty boys they were.

  I helped Foss to bed, letting him lean on my shoulder to keep his balance. What I would do if he actually fell, I’m not sure. Dude was big.

  “’M not tired,” he insisted when I sat him down on the mattress. His lips were set in a tight scowl, and his dark eyes focused on his ring that hung around my neck, instead of my face. I took his socks off, smiling that he still wore the same brand I’d bought for him.