by Katie Low
She hoped that Thad was able to get some answers out of Ms. Shields. They had been trying to get someone to answer these questions for as long as Liliana could remember.
The third teacher who was joining them, Ms. White, a Banshee from Storied, Missouri, would be shown around by their uncle. Most often, Banshee’s stay close to their own kind. Getting close to other individuals makes it more likely that a Banshee would sense their death, which is why Liliana was surprised to hear that she had decided to become a schoolteacher.
When the police cruiser pulled up to the station, with three vehicles trailing it, Liliana couldn’t help her curiosity as she scanned each of the individuals. Of course, the cruiser had the only deputy in town, and the twins’ uncle, Ean behind the wheel. The second vehicle had the only other person that Liliana recognized straight away. This had to be Ms. White. All Banshees had red hair, so when the other two women parking their vehicles in the lot had blonde and brown hair, Ms. White stood out amongst them almost as much as her hair in the bright light of day. As she walked toward them, Liliana noticed that she had grey eyes that were rimmed with red, which was another trademark of the Banshees—from all the crying that came with their abilities. Her crimson hair fell in waves down to the small of her back, and Liliana’s first thought was that she hoped that she would get to see it turn white with the woman’s wail one day.
Immediately after the thought struck her, Liliana chastised herself for it. If Ms. White were to wail while she was in Fabled, it would mean that either someone in the town, or someone close to the woman was about to die.
As the group of women drew close to them, their dad came out of the station and handed some paperwork to Uncle Ruarc. She thought that her dad would turn and go back into his office, but with his nostrils flared, he turned toward the newcomers. His gaze locked on the blonde-haired woman, causing Liliana to study her as well. She was quite beautiful. She had a heart-shaped face and delicate features that were normally associated with Fae women. Her waist-length hair was straight and so shiny that Liliana saw sunlight reflecting off of it as she walked. The most captivating thing about her, though, was her eyes. They were violet. Even growing up with supernatural beings her whole life, Liliana had never seen someone with violet-colored eyes before, and those eyes were trained on her dad as if he were the only other person on the street.
Liliana watched their exchange, as her dad reached out to take her hand in his. “Hi. I’m Faolan Sparks, the police chief here. If you need anything while you’re here, don’t hesitate to call on me.”
As if it were an afterthought, her dad turned briefly toward the other two women, shaking each of their hands as well, before turning back to the blonde.
“Faolan, this is Cardamon Salem,” Uncle Ruarc said, indicating the blonde. The witch that Liliana would be spending the afternoon with, she realized.
“Please, call me Cardi. Only my mother calls me Cardamon.”
Her uncle then gestured to the brunette. “This is Payson Shields, Payson, my brother Faolan.” Liliana took her eyes off of her father long enough to scrutinize the Valkyrie. She was just as stunning as the other two women, but you couldn’t miss the sharpness in her amber eyes. She took in every inch of Main Street with one sweep of her gaze, not missing a single thing. Her thick chestnut hair was pulled back into a braid that started at the crown of her head and fell all the way to the backs of her knees. She gave a quick jerk of her head in greeting to Faolan, before her uncle moved on to the final woman.
“And this,” he started, indicating the Banshee, “is Adaline White.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” her dad said, his gaze once again falling, and staying, on the blonde woman. “I hope that my children will make your transition to our town as seamless as possible for all of you. I wish that I could stay, but I was just headed out to a call. Our resident busybody is currently stirring up some trouble between the werewolves and some bear shifters, and I need to get out there before they tear each other apart. Good day, ladies.”
With a quick kiss on the top of Liliana’s and Thad’s heads, their dad took off toward his truck, but not without one last glance toward Ms. Salem. Huh. Liliana supposed that she would have to spend her time with the witch learning a bit about her to see if the woman was good enough for her dad. She wasn’t about to let him get hurt again, not after what their mother did to him.
Chapter Three
Thaddeus knew that this afternoon was meant to be a punishment for not listening to his dad and uncle, but he couldn’t remember a time that he had more fun hanging out with an adult. Ms. Shields was awesome! Unlike the other Valkyries that he and Liliana had met, Ms. Shields was willing to answer all of his questions about her kind. She liked the fact that he was inquisitive and thought that he would be a good student to have in school. Ha. He would just let her find the error of her ways in her own time.
While Thad loved learning new things, he generally found things fascinating that had nothing to do with schoolwork. And, typically, schoolwork was never interesting enough to hold his attention. He got by in his classes, thanks in large part to his sister, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to care about algebraic equations when he knew that there were things in the world that humans would lose their minds over. He wanted to know everything that there was to know about every single race of Mythics that existed.
Liliana seemed to enjoy his passion for the other species as well, and helped him conduct his inquiries with anyone that would answer their questions. Their difference, however, was that Liliana loved learning about all things, especially things pertaining to the world outside of their town’s borders, while Thad only seemed to be fascinated by the world within it. Who cares about the human justice system when a few acres from his front door was a species of men that lived a large portion of their lives underwater? The Kelpie men keep mostly to themselves, so when Thad found one who was willing to talk to him, he had been ecstatic. He learned that mostly Kelpie were just misunderstood, but oftentimes found themselves being questioned by Thad’s dad and uncle whenever people went missing, as they tend to drag their enemies to the bottom of their lake to drown them.
While Kelpies were pretty freaking cool in Thad’s book, even they didn’t compare to the Valkyrie. After showing Ms. Shields around her new cottage, she and Thad sat around her dining room table, grilling each other for information.
“This town alpha,” she asked, “what’s he like?”
“Well, he’s my uncle, so I may be biased, but I think that he’s pretty great. Even when my sister and I get into trouble, he’s usually fair when punishing us. Some people think that he’s stern, but I think he only is when he feels like he has to be.”
“What types of punishments have you earned?”
Thad didn’t want to offend her by telling her that spending time with her was one of his punishments, so he gave another example. “Well, once my sister and I uprooted an entire garden of roses and relocated them to the other side of town. When the elf who owned those roses called upon my dad and my uncle, Uncle Ruarc made us move each one back, and for the whole summer, we were forced to help her tend to her gardens. My sister about lost her mind. The two of them don’t get along very well.”
“Interesting. No beatings?”
Thad’s eyes widened at her question, and she seemed to read the answer on his face before he spoke the words. “No, never. We may get ourselves into scrapes here and there, but we’ve never done anything bad enough for either Dad or Uncle Ruarc to hit one of us.”
She nodded, seeming pleased with his answer. “Good.”
“My turn?” Thad asked, after a few moments of silence had passed between them. When she gave a quick jerk of her head, he continued. “What happens when you go into the mist? Can you call it up at will, or does it only come to you when you must go into battle?”
The corner of her mouth tilted into a smile. “The mist can be conjured whether I need to go into battle or not, but most Valkyrie
are taught to only use it when desperately needed. You’ll notice how I didn’t use it to get here today, yeah? As for what happens in the mist, when I call on the mist, my steed, Eir comes forth from Valhalla to carry me to my destination. The mist acts as a magical current and helps her to fly even faster so that we can make it across the world in a matter of minutes.”
With each word that she spoke, Thad felt his jaw dropping open further and further. He wasn’t expecting so much information out of her. No other Valkyrie had ever given him so many details.
“Can you take anyone into the mist, and onto Eir with you?”
“Yes, of course. How else do you think that we transport fallen soldiers to Valhalla? Although, I suppose I could take someone living from one place to another, if that’s what you mean. I wouldn’t do more than one other person, though. She may be strong, but I wouldn’t ask Eir to carry more than two adults unless absolutely necessary.”
And so it went for the rest of the afternoon. Thad asked every question he ever had about the Valkyries, and Ms. Shields—Payson, she said that he could call her outside of school—asked him questions about living in Fabled. Some of her questions surprised Thad, making him wonder just what type of place Legend, Montana was, and what type of leader ran the reservation. One thing he knew for certain, though, was he didn’t want to go there to find out.
Chapter Four
Liliana didn’t know what she was expecting when it came to Ms. Salem, but she hadn’t been expecting her to be so…nice. She was humble, and friendly to everyone that they passed as they walked through town when Liliana was showing her around. Some of the people that they passed gave Ms. Salem—Cardi—withering looks that Liliana wondered about, but the friendly witch just nodded in their direction with a bright and cheerful, “Good day!”
When the two of them approached the end of town, where the werewolves lived, the scathing looks were enough to give Liliana pause, and contemplate running in the opposite direction. Cardi still just nodded, waved, and didn’t let a single person deter her from exploring the reservation.
Once they were done touring the town, Liliana directed Cardi to the cabin that she would be staying in. While a lot of the people that Liliana knew would have turned up their noses at the tiny one-bedroom cabin, Cardi shrieked in delight as she ran through the small space.
With a few waves of her hands, Cardi summoned the boxes with her belongings from her home in Chimeric. As Liliana helped her put things away, she asked her the question that had been nagging at her all day long.
“Why does everyone seem to be so hostile toward you already?”
Pain flashed quickly in her violet eyes before her usual radiant smile graced her lips. “I’m sure that word has spread from Chimeric about why my sister and I left, and they are judging me based on what they’ve heard. I just hope that they can get to know me and see that what they’ve heard isn’t entirely truthful.”
“What do they think happened?”
Her smile faded and a sadness clouded her features. “It’s not important. Perhaps I’ll tell you one day, but not just yet. I’m still trying to work through it all myself.”
Liliana nodded. She understood that much. Whenever she was upset, the last thing that she wanted to do was talk to her dad and Thad about it. She wanted to be left alone to mull things over in her own mind, and then, when she was ready to talk it out, she would find them. Thankfully, they knew this about her, and for the most part they gave her the space that she needed to think through her issues. It was one of the things that she loved most about the males in her life. They didn’t completely understand her needs, but they did respect her wishes. She would have to do the same for Cardi.
When they got to a box in her bedroom, Liliana noticed a large case of what appeared to be makeup in one of the boxes. “That’s a lot of makeup!” She exclaimed, before inspecting Cardi’s face. “But you don’t seem to be wearing any of it.”
Cardi smiled and nodded her head. “Yes, I have a lot of makeup, and you’re right, I don’t really wear any of it very often. When I was younger, I used to love watching my mother put makeup on, and when I became a teenager, she started buying it for me all the time thinking that I had wanted some for myself. Really, I just loved watching her do it. She was like an artist with the brushes. She showed infinite patience, something that I have never been able to master when it comes to putting makeup on. She would spend so much time applying it, only for it to look completely natural when she was finished. I never had the heart to tell her that I didn’t have any intentions of wearing it myself.”
Something squeezed inside Liliana’s chest. It wasn’t very often that she felt like her life was lacking without her mother around, but times like this were sure to do it. A part of her was jealous of Cardi that she had that type of relationship with her mom. The other part of her knew that if her own mother had stayed in Fabled, that she probably still wouldn’t have had that kind of bond with her. Charlotte had never been particularly good at being a loving mother, but she was all they’d had before she left them to move to Lore—the Mystic reservation down in the North Carolina mountains.
“No one has ever shown me how to put makeup on before,” she whispered.
She hadn’t really expected an answer from Cardi, but when the older woman stopped what she was doing and tugged Liliana into the bathroom, a lightness came back to her chest that she hadn’t expected.
“I am by no means an expert at this, but at the very least, I can teach you what I do know.”
For the next hour or so, Cardi went through all of her makeup, showing Liliana what to do with each item, and how to apply it. She even set aside some duplicate items and told Liliana that she could take them home with her to practice with.
It was then that she decided that if her dad was going to look for a woman to date, he couldn’t do any better than Cardi Salem.
Chapter Five
Later that evening, while Thad and Liliana were sitting in the great room telling each other everything that they had learned about their new teachers, the door leading into the house from the garage banged open and then slammed shut.
The twins glanced at each other in surprise. Their dad never really came home angry, and when he did, he certainly never slammed doors. Without a word, the two slinked from their seats in the family room and tiptoed toward the hallway. They could hear their dad muttering, but they couldn’t really understand the meaning behind his words.
“Infuriating woman…How dare she? …Who does she think she is?”
A floorboard creaked as Liliana tried to back away from the entryway, but the sound caused her dad’s head to snap in her direction.
“Hi Daddy,” she said, pasting a smile onto her face. “Everything okay?”
Her dad didn’t answer her question, instead, he marched up to her, and ran his finger across her face. “Are you wearing makeup?”
“Yes,” she said, drawing the word out cautiously.
“Liliana Ailis Sparks! Get upstairs right this minute and wash that filth off of your face!”
Liliana’s head snapped back as if her father had struck her with his words. She had been so happy to be able to spend her afternoon with a woman who had taken the time to show her how to do something as simple as put makeup on her face. She hadn’t expected that it would cause her father to rail at her for it.
She felt her lip tremble and her eyes sting, but before her father could see how he upset her, Liliana marched past him and ran up the stairs to her bathroom, where she washed away the makeup and the tears that had tracked down her cheeks.
Thad watched his dad stare at the top of the steps where his sister’s form had just disappeared from. In the minutes since he had walked in the front door, Faolan’s face looked to have aged the thousands of years that he has actually been on this Earth.
“Jaysus,” his dad muttered, the Irish accent that barely lilted his voice these days coming through in his frustration. “What. An. Eejit!” He raked his
fingers through his dark wavy hair, tugging on the strands.
“Dad?”
His father turned to him, the anger that had been so prominent on his face when he entered their home now replaced by a look of guilt.
“Yes, Thaddeus?”
“I just thought that you should know that Lil was more excited about learning how to put makeup on than I’ve seen her in months. She hasn’t stopped talking about Ms. Salem since we got home. Cardi even gave her some of her own makeup so that Lil could practice with it.”
Faolan’s shoulders sagged and he scrubbed his hand over his face a few times before meeting Thad’s eye. “Thanks, son,” he whispered, before stomping his booted feet up the stairs, muttering curse words under his breath the entire way.
Liliana was lying on her bed, her body wrapped around the stuffed griffin that her uncle Eamon had commissioned to be made for her, when she heard the thunderous footsteps that signaled her father’s approach. With her back to the door, she couldn’t see his face when he opened her bedroom door, but she could hear the whoosh of breath that left him on a sigh.
The bed dipped as he sat behind her and ran his hand over her hair, stroking her while she silently sobbed.
“Baby, I’m so sorry. I heard some things about the woman that you were spending time with today, and when I confronted her about them, she shouted in my face and practically kicked me off of her property. Granted, I didn’t handle it in the best way, but no matter how angry she made me I should never have taken my irritation at her out on you.”
Liliana turned toward her father, the man that had shaped her into the caring, understanding person that she was, and said, “Perhaps you shouldn’t believe everything that you hear.”
Faolan’s face turned contemplative before he said, “Perhaps you’re right.”