Page 5

Zoey

We emerge from the portal that connects Frelsi to Reykjavík. Frelsi is located in the northwestern most point of Iceland, while the city is on the opposite side of the country, but magic makes the trip roughly a two minute-walk.

We’re connected to a bookstore called Sun and Moon Books in a quiet part of town. Daniel walks through first, and then me and Shy, with Neil bringing up the rear. We find ourselves in the storage room. It’s surprisingly roomy, and I appreciate the smell of old books, though Neil’s nose twitches. I was told this is where they keep the really old stuff and the magical books. So I’m not touching anything because you never know when a magical book is going to bite.

Danny turns at the door leading to the sales floor. “Let me talk to Tinna and Magnus before we head out. Neil?”

My bestie takes a long breath and shrugs. “I don’t sense any desperate threat. There’s a pack of dogs somewhere. They smell weird, but I can handle some puppers if they decide to misbehave.”

“You are not hurting puppies,”

I declare.

Danny sighs. “Shy, do you sense anything?”

Her big brown eyes seem to darken as she obviously opens some space inside herself to access her power. “It’s here. Much closer. But again, I don’t feel threatened by it. It wants me to find it. And by me I mean it wants to be found. I don’t think it’s particularly looking for me, but it definitely wants attention.”

“Well, that can be an excellent reason to stay away,”

Danny points out. “I’ll be right back. Neil?”

“I remember what to do, Daniel,”

Neil assures him as he starts to look at the stacks around us.

“Hey,” Shy says.

I turn and give my son’s girlfriend a grin. “Hey, yourself.”

She gives me an apologetic nod. “Sorry, Your Highness. I was talking to Anna. She haunts the bookstore. She says there’s something going on. She can sense the energy, but she can’t leave the store to go look for it.”

She turns to a space to my right. “What does it feel like to you?”

Neil stands back, watching Shy now.

What must it be like to experience a whole world the people around you can’t see? How isolating must that be? I know she was in an institution for a while because her foster parents were scared of her.

How weird is it to know there’s a ghost standing so close to me? Like how many are around at any given time and how much do they see?

“She describes it as a beckoning warmth,”

Shy tells me. “She’s not afraid of it. I’m going to be honest. It’s somewhat similar to the magic I feel coming off the king at times, but I didn’t want to mention that to Rhys because the minute I start talking about death magic he’s sure I’m going to die. Like he’s not surrounded by it. We live with vampires. Sasha is nearly his second dad. Sorry, third dad.”

Neil shakes his head. “Fourth dad. Trust me, Bris counts. I often think about what would have happened if we didn’t lose twelve years. I would love to have sat in on Bris’s version of the birds and the bees.”

My life is complex, but I know the type of magic Shy is talking about. “Any number of beings have some form of death magic. It doesn’t mean they kill everything in sight. So we’re fairly certain it’s not demonic in nature. Their magic isn’t the same.”

Demons aren’t dead. Technically Daniel is. My hand goes to my belly. I’m carrying proof that no matter the technicalities, Danny’s alive in all the ways that count.

“I don’t even get a hint of brimstone,”

Neil replies.

Shy shudders slightly. “No. It’s definitely not demons. Demonic energy is like ants crawling on my skin. At least the kind I’ve been around. Even Kelsey’s husband gives off the slightest bit of it. Not enough to make me really uncomfortable, but I feel it.”

“He’s a halfling, though he takes after his human side.”

We’re talking about Grayson Sloane, the dark prophet who witnessed Shy meeting my son. I don’t hear anyone coming so I lean against the bookcase and hope I’m not bisecting Anna. “Does this Anna person have anything else to say?”

Shy sighs. “Not anything important. She thinks my leggings are going to attract the wrong attention. Also, she wants me to tell Tinna to stop selling sage. It disturbs her. She doesn’t understand the whole the-bookstore-needs-to-make money thing.”

Neil’s eyes sparkle in the low light. “Does she say anything else? She sounds like a fun ghost.”

Shy’s head shakes. “She’s not. She’s really salty. She thinks the queen should cover up more and you should find a nice girl to settle down with and then you’ll be a better man. Sorry. She’s super old, and the dead can be cranky.”

Neil smiles. “See, I’ve been in Frelsi for way too long. I haven’t been judged in forever. I forgot how good it feels to be all morally superior. And Z, don’t listen. The girls look magnificent. Anna, do you know how old this woman is? She is in her damn forties and looks this good. She should show those puppies off as often as she can.”

Shy’s lips turn up. “I am not saying that.”

I’m curious. “Is she from here?”

“Yes,”

Shy replies. “She was a housewife, and then her husband died and she lived out the last of her years in an apartment above the bookstore. Her sister still lives there. I’ve met her. She’s pretty salty, too.”

“So she’s Icelandic.”

I want to know more about Shy’s power. “Did she speak English in life?”

Shy seems to understand where I’m going. “Oh, I’m sure she thinks she’s speaking Icelandic, but I hear English. Harry told me it was something unique to my power. I understand all of them. One time I came across a ghost chicken and even then I got some images. Hence me entering my vegetarian era. It was not pretty.”

“But that’s not how most mediums work.”

I knew a couple in the day, and the hardest part when they weren’t in their native countries was dealing with translations. One of them learned how to say “go into the light”

in twelve different languages. “Ghosts speak the language they did when they were alive. Mediums aren’t like vampires. Vamps learn languages quickly.”

“I don’t know Icelandic. If a living person spoke Icelandic to me, I would be lost,”

Shy admits. “I don’t know. My mom was a medium, but we didn’t travel a lot. She told me she wanted me to take either French or Spanish in high school. We lived in Texas but had a lot of relatives in Southern Louisiana, and some of them still speak some form of French. I don’t think she had this ability. I don’t know why I’m different. Harry told me I was born that way. It’s been really helpful. That’s what Sasha says. I can absolutely understand Fae languages, too. Rhys thinks I’ll be helpful in Faery. At least with the dead.”

I’ve made her uncomfortable. If we have some time to talk, I’ll take it. “Are you okay?”

Shy seems surprised at the question. “Of course. I’ve felt magic many times before.”

“She’s asking if you’re okay with all the questions. And if you’re okay with Rhys. That was a heavy scene back home.”

Neil gestures my way. “She knows what it means to have some dude think he owns her, and she’s real expensive, if you know what I mean. The funny thing is that dude was Danny and not Devinshea. Dev actually figured out pretty quickly she wasn’t going in a cage and behaved accordingly. If only he put that knowledge to use when it comes to his daughter.”

Didn’t I know it, but there are some differences. “Dev didn’t meet his goddess before he attained maturity.”

“By maturity she means before he got his freak on with half of Faery and a whole lot of the Earth plane,”

Neil adds helpfully.

Shy frowns at a space to my left. “You do not have to be so judgmental. He’s a Green Man. Do you know what that means?”

She pauses. “I don’t think faeries can carry syphilis.”

Her head is shaking as she looks back at me. “Sorry. She was really old and set in her ways when she died. You know some ghosts revert to the form they were happiest in. Some stay frozen the way they died. Anna apparently likes being a mean old biddy.”

The lights flicker slightly.

Shy waves it off. “She’ll be back. I’m the only one she can talk to. As for Rhys, I didn’t mean to…I don’t know…stunt his growth. I know he should have way more experience than he has, and it’s my fault.”

“You need to stop using that word, sweetie. Fault is loaded and not applicable here,”

I explain. “If anyone is at fault, it’s his fathers and me for being dumb enough to fall into that painting and cause the world to explode.”

“It would have done that anyway,”

Shy says firmly. “Myrddin would have found a way. He was always going to bring this darkness to our plane.”

I wonder about that. I know Myrddin thinks I’m little more than the king’s bang buddy, but I have some power of my own. I’m a nexus point. It means I have no fate. I don’t show up on that endless tapestry, and the things I do and choices I make can change that sucker for good or bad. I have to wonder what could have happened if I were here when Myrddin made his move. But I’ve been told thinking that way will get me nowhere, so I let it go. I have inroads to make with this someday daughter-in-law of mine. Including cleaning up some of my son’s mess so he has a chance at making her exactly that. “The point being if Devinshea had been here when Rhys reached puberty, he likely would have taken him to Faery to begin his training as a priest, and let me tell you it does not involve denial of pleasure the way it does here on the Earth plane.”

Shy’s head cocks slightly, a curious expression coming over her. “A priest? Like a high priest?”

I nod. She knows the terminology, but there’s more to it. I wonder if anyone explained this to her. Likely not. The kids were too young to really grasp their father’s role in the Fae world beyond he was called His Grace and given deference. It wouldn’t occur to Trent or Sasha to talk about it beyond telling the kids their dad was important. I’m pretty sure Trent, at least, hadn’t explained that their parents got it on in public and a whole lot of voyeurs got pregnant. “Yes. Simply by his nature he’s already a priest of Faery. Dev is the high priest, though I suppose in his absence they declared Rhys for the position. It’s why they tried to kidnap him. The issue is a priest usually spends years in training that begins when the Green Man hits puberty. When he should have been in Faery making Lee look like a prude, he was on the run.”

“From the stories I’ve heard, it didn’t stop Lee,”

Shy says quietly. “I was sixteen when I met him. Harry managed to teach me how to act normal. How to be normal, and I finally got out of the institution. Naturally they sent me to a group home, but Harry taught me how to get out.”

I smile. “He taught you how to steal, didn’t he? My father was a menace. He was also the best thief in all of the supernatural world. I wondered how you managed to get across the globe and find your way here.”

“It wasn’t exactly stealing,”

Shy admits. “Harry kept a bunch of cash in his old house. By then it had been sold by Myrddin, and he pocketed the money. You do not want to know how your father felt about that.”

I can guess. “I suppose Myrddin used magic to falsify the records.”

“Almost certainly,”

Shy allows. “Harry walked me through breaking into his old house and getting the fifty thousand in cash he hid under the baseboards of his old office. From there he taught me where to get a fake ID, and it was pretty easy. I got here. They were freaked out some unknown American was living in a tent outside the mountain. I met my first actual Fae creature and after a while, they let me in and I met my second. And realized how different they can be.”

I heard a bit of this story. It doesn’t surprise me my dad hid money in his office. He always had a plan. “You never saw a faery before?”

She shook her head. “My parents never went to the Council building. Every now and then a vampire or a witch would show up for consultation, but they look human, of course. The wolves I met were always in human form. So meeting that brownie was a lot. And then I met Rhys.”

It’s easy to forget how young she was when Myrddin killed her family, and only coincidence saved her. “How old was Rhys?”

“He was seventeen,”

Shy answers. “Lee already had quite the reputation. He managed it even though Fen and Rhys wouldn’t join him in the partying. Oh, they would drink and start fights and stuff. But they wouldn’t pick up women the way Lee did. Or men. Lee doesn’t discriminate. From what I understand it’s not like Rhys has no experience. He had encounters but he never finished the act.”

“Because something deep inside told him not to.”

Neil gets serious, his arms crossing over his chest. “I know I wasn’t on the outer planes with the kids, but I was still their Uncle Neil. When they would come home, they would always spend time with me. Rhys and I sat up many a night talking about his future and how weird he felt not doing what his body so clearly told him to do.”

The idea of my best friend being there for my kids brings tears to my eyes. I know Sarah would have done the same if she had the chance.

“But why wouldn’t he follow his instincts?”

Shy asks. “Trust me. I’ve heard a whole lot about Rhys’s instincts.”

I’m curious about that as well. It’s not like Rhys wants to talk about his sex life or lack of one with his mother. Lee is so much more open. So is Evan. Rhys is the one I’m having a hard time getting close to.

“He told me he dreamed at night of his goddess. He said he knew she was out there, and he didn’t want anyone but her,”

Neil explains. “No amount of teasing or pointing out the obvious problems of a virginal Green Man could persuade him. I think one of his deep fears about being taken to Faery was being forced to perform rituals.”

Oh, he’s being generous. The Fae treated my children poorly while we were away. “He was afraid they would facilitate his rape. I don’t care that he would have likely gotten some pleasure out of it. It’s rape, and they should be happy they didn’t pull it off. I assure you they will feel my wrath.”

“Zoey, you should know both King Angus of the Unseelie and Queen Miria disavowed having anything to do with those attempts,”

Neil says. “From what we can tell, they were rogue elements of the Fae world.”

Sure. Like they didn’t know. Like they wouldn’t have found a way to use my son and his fertility powers. “What’s important is the fact that Rhys knew he would have a goddess at a young age. Devinshea thought he was a simple priest. So he had no reason to hold back. However, the situation can’t stay this way. It’s not sustainable. Are you afraid of him?”

Shy’s eyes come up and she smiles slightly. “You remind me so much of Harry.”

I can only imagine why. “Because I have no filter right now? I actually am pretty good at politics, but not when it comes to my family. I’m blunt and plain and not afraid to ask the hard questions.”

“Honestly, she’s not that great at politics, which is why I’m worried about her getting to Faery and starting another war,”

Neil admits.

Shy seems to ignore him. “To answer your question, Your Highness, yes I am afraid, but not for the reasons you might think.”

“Because he’s so possessive? His dad was much the same. The vampire/companion relationship is an intense one, to say the least.”

“Yes, the vampire is addicted to companion blood,”

Shy says in an academic fashion, and I’m sure she’s been through some lectures on the nature of supernatural creatures. “A companion’s blood makes the vampire faster, stronger, far more powerful than a vampire without a companion. Rhys isn’t addicted to me.”

“He is in a way,”

I explain. “If you truly are his goddess, then you will enhance his powers. Part of my wedding vows to Devinshea included the fact that his magic flows from me and only me. It’s why he calls me goddess, though I don’t actually have any real power. I’m his connection to the divine. The way Rhys believes you are for him. But Shy, this is your choice. Always. I love my son, but I won’t allow anyone to push you into a relationship you’re not ready for.”

Shy looks down at the floor for a moment and then her head tilts back up. “I know how sex works, but I don’t know the other stuff. I…my mother died before we got around to that particular hard conversation. I talked about it with Evan, but it kind of grossed Harry out and the truth is she doesn’t know any more than I do.”

This I can handle. “I will answer every question, Shy. I’m a mom who missed so much with my kids that I want to take you all in and hold your hands and steal some of that time back. I know I’m not your mom, but if you let me, I can be your friend and your mentor. I can teach you how to handle these men.”

“She can,”

Neil affirms.

I finally get a real smile out of her. “I really do love him.”

“I know you do, sweet girl, and I will do anything to help you feel comfortable,”

I vow but I have some rules. “You have to stop calling me Your Highness. Zoey will do.”

I can’t replace her mother, but I can be something close. As I settle in to this reality, I realize my kids’ partners are going to be my kids, too. If things were normal and they got regular jobs and moved and traveled for fun and had their own lives, it would be understandable to be a bit more distant. But we’re at war and we need to be as close-knit as possible. My father loved Shy. Shy gave my whole family the gift of a lifetime. I will honor and love this young woman the best I can.

There’s the slightest sheen of tears in her eyes as she nods. “All right, Zoey. Then I do have some questions for you.”

She straightens up and seems to find some courage. “I would like to know how the Fae will welcome me if I agree to be Rhys’s goddess.”

See, I’m all for Sasha’s “take out all the wolves who would get rid of my daughter so the love of her life can find a proper wolf mate”

plan. I don’t like the word proper. Not the way they use it. “My darling girl, it doesn’t matter what they think. I assure you if they don’t welcome you in a manner that pleases this family, they can do without a high priest. Rhys won’t touch them and neither will Devinshea. They can rot for all I care.”

She stares at me for a moment as though trying to figure me out. “That’s not practical, Your…Zoey. We’re in the middle of a war. Having the Fae on our side would do a lot to help us.”

I shrug because I’m not known for being practical about the people I love, and she’ll come to know that I mean what I say. “We’ll figure it out. I won’t sacrifice my children’s lives and happiness. I’ll find a way, and one of those ways is using every ounce of power we have. This is nothing you need to worry about, Shy. Dev and Danny will handle the politics. I’ll handle Dev and Danny. Neil will handle danger, and also all the weird food. Seriously, don’t eat any meat he doesn’t give you a name for.”

“Hey, the last time I was in Faery, the frost giant burgers were delicious,”

Neil adds.

It’s good to know nothing has changed for my bestie. Though I remember that he got a terrible tummy ache and Sarah had to whip up a tonic.

I miss Sarah so damn much.

“I’m a vegetarian, so no worry about meat.”

Shy’s nose wrinkles. “I ate a chicken once and its ghost chased me around for three days before I tricked it into going into the light. You know what doesn’t leave behind a psychic signature? Celery.”

Neil shudders. “Z, I’m so glad I’m a werewolf and not a medium. That would be terrible.”

Neil would definitely have troubles with all the creatures he eats.

The door opens and Danny stands there. “They haven’t seen anything, but they got a call from one of the women in their circle. She’s not a natural witch but she has some knowledge. She says there are the markings of a god-like being in town. We should go question her.”

I nod, happy that I got this time with Shy. I feel like I know her better. And hopefully she knows I’ll protect her while we’re dealing with my in-laws. Who will likely absolutely think Rhys should be with a proper sidhe girl who won’t mind him performing crazy fertility rituals with numerous partners and spreading his seed all through the sithein. “Of course. And then we can do some shopping.”

I want Shy to feel confident in everything she wears while she’s in Faery.

Danny sighs but doesn’t argue as he lets us walk past into the bookstore that smells like coffee and baked goods and old books. I kind of love it.

We’re almost to the front door when Neil stops. “Huh, those dogs are closer now. Be careful. We don’t know if they’re feral. I’ll handle them.”

“I feel something, You… I feel something, Zoey,”

Shy says. “The magic is closer. It’s calling to me.”

I look to Danny—who is legit made of death magic. He shrugs. “I feel nothing except an instinct that tells me you’re going to spend a shit ton of money.”

He knows me well. Neil steps out of the store and I follow.

“Can you tell us which way it’s coming from?”

I ask Shy.

But both she and Neil answer. They point to a place around the side of the shop.

“Is there something supernatural walking around in the open?”

That could be bad for us.

“Don’t worry,”

Danny reassures me. “The place is warded. If you have supernatural blood, you can see everything. If you don’t, well, there’s a reason people think this place is haunted.”

“Oh, it’s super haunted.”

Shy moves down the stairs. “But then pretty much everywhere is.”

And that’s when I hear it. A low growl, and then Danny is cursing, trying to get me behind his back as a big animal moves around the side of the bookstore and into the parking lot.

It’s a dog, though it’s as big as a horse, it’s fur a stark white and eyes blood red.

C?n Annwn.

We’re in serious trouble because I left my treat bag at home.