Page 39 of Made

“Is this your idea of subtle training on how to be a good mom to a daughter?”

With a little squeeze, I said, “It’s supposed to be me telling you the absolute truth. But have I told you how glad I am that we’re getting a girl? I’m going to love playing dress up with Rhiannon.”

Evie chuckled. “I hope she’s going to love that, too, Mom. But what if she’s a, you know, mud-pies-and-cutoffs sort.”

I sighed. “I guess I’ll learn how to make gourmet mud pies.”

“And that’s…” Evie stopped mid-sentence. “Did you see that?”

“What?”

“The horse. It moved its head.”

I laughed. “Ha. Ha. It’s not April Fools. Thunder was given a clean bill of mundane health by Dolan. And I have it on the best authority that he’s never wrong.”

“Never? I told you to avoid using the word ‘always’. But you’ve always been big on saying, ‘Never say never.’ You said ‘never’ is overused and that it’s almost always hyperbole. And never is an even bigger longshot considering the length of a brounie’s life.”

“So. Skewered on my own petard. Again. My words come back to haunt me.”

“Hate when that happens.”

“Well. Obviously, I don’t know every detail of Dolan’s life, but he’s certainly been reliable so far. We have to be able to trust his assessments. There’s a lot riding on keeping the magical artifacts out of the hands of the oblivious.”

“And, by ‘oblivious’, you mean human.”

“I do.”

“Okay, seriously. I saw it move.”

“You’re really not kidding?”

“Really not.”

“Alright. Tomorrow morning I’ll ask Dolan to have another look. Right now though, let’s go see if we can grab one of the tables by the fire and warm up with some of that medieval thick red ale.”

Though we didn’t talk about Thunder again, I couldn’t shake the worry that something worrisome might be ahoof at The Hallows. I knew that humans could see him because I’d observed a couple stopping to admire the window, pointedly remarking about how striking the horse was. That was a checkmark in support of Dolan being right.

Of course, the test of humans seeing an artifact wasn’t foolproof. Now and then, the shop receives an artifact that is magicalandvisible to humans. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does, Maggie grabs up the item and whisks it out of sight and tells the interested party that it was sold and had been left out in the shop by mistake. I know this because I once happened to be in the store and witnessed such an occurrence. That’s when I learned that Maggie can be a most believable liar when she chooses.

“I don’t know, Keir. Is this color right for me?” I held the Winter Solstice party dress close to my face. “Is it a little too light? Esme’s usually mistress of hue, but maybe she’s distracted with Kagan drama.”

“Just a sec. Let me get this bet in.”

I scanned the grid of screens displaying all manner of sports. “What are you betting on?”

“Hold on.” I waited. In another second or two, Keir pumped his fist in the air, which I took as a celebration of one of his day’s little victories. “It was the next shot in a ping pong match being played in the Czech Republic.”Jeez. “Okay. Where were we? Oh, yes. Esme and Kagan. Drama. Here’s the thing, my love. People who dodress dramacan’t complain about Kagan drama.”

“Oh yeah? Well, people who place a bet on a single shot of a ping pong game in the Czech Republic have lost all sense of perspective.”

“Perspective? That is rich. Rita, I know women like to dress up, but the dress you’re wearing is not a life-or-death matter.”

I gaped. “What are you saying? Have you gone completely insane? Of course, it’s a life-or-death matter. Not that the phrase means anything to someone who can’t die.”

“For the record, I could die.”

That brought me up short and made me temporarily forget all about my dress.

“You could?” This was news and not news I wanted to hear. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. “I don’t want to hear that in the middle of an argument.” I pressed fingers against both ears and started singing, “La. La. La,” loudly. Yes. I really am forty-four.