Page 15 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)
Lai
“Wanna ditch them all and go shopping?”Lai glanced over to Lucy as the credits began to roll, breaking the relaxed silence and picking up the remote again, resuming the rapid flick through the channels.
He wanted to get Lucy alone, and shopping was the perfect excuse.
While it was true that they did need to buy some basics (considering they left with only clothes on their backs), Lai needed to check in on Lucy away from the family so that she didn’t have to try to put on a brave face.
The last time he’d spoken to her alone was the moment before she’d decided to take control of her destiny.
Now, in the aftermath of that decision, she didn’t seem quite as confident in her choices.
“Without them?”Lucy raised an eyebrow, suspicious.
“Would you prefer to take the entire circus on the road? Let me paint you a picture before you say yes. Klein will decline anything you offer him. Father will complain about every single thing you offer him and scare young children with his scowl. Ryan will disappear into the first bookstore we pass, and if we take our eyes off Louis for a second, we might never see him again because he has never been outside the manor grounds before, and that boy climbs like a monkey.”He paused for breath and arranged his features carefully into something that looked like embarrassed guilt for his next confession.
“I broke the latch on the window in his bedroom to make sure he can’t escape out of it. Xim can send you the bill for that.”
Lucy looked at him, considering her options. Her eyes flicked to the kitchen, where Klein was slowly and methodically wiping down every surface.
“Klein, do you want to come? Or do you prefer to stay and make sure the boys don’t destroy the house?”
“I’ll clean up while you two are away,”he answered, squinting at his handiwork as he polished a spotless counter.
Lai always liked it when Klein got high.
It was fun to see him moving in slow motion, frowning and studying the furniture back in the manor as though he had any hope of cleaning it, and here studying the furniture as though he had any hope of finding anything to clean.
Klein finally looked up as Xim approached the pair on the sofa, taking a black card from her wallet and offering it to Lucy, who immediately started the ‘too proud’dance.
Xim knew the drill well, it seemed, and without another word, she turned the card from Lucy and deposited it into Lai’s shirt pocket, giving it a light tap. Lai grinned at her, acknowledging the gesture with a nod.
‘Accept the gift and honor the giver’was one of the rules he lived by. Nothing was ruder than rejecting a caring gesture in his eyes, and Xim’s gesture was backed up by a mountain of money.
“Can I come?”Ryan peeked out of the study, tossing whatever he had just finished reading onto the kitchen counter. Klein looked hopeful for a moment, but the immaculate text didn’t shed any dust, and he returned to looking glum. “I need more books. Please?”
“Ew, no. Not with that whiny, prepubescent voice.”
“Lai! I’ve read everything here.”
“I’ll bring you back some books.”
“You don’t even know the kind of books I like.”
“Ones with the words in them.”Lai rolled his eyes. “Lucy, get your ass into gear. Don’t make me wait.”
Ignoring Lucy’s disapproving looks, Lai stepped into his boots and motioned to the door. She followed, but with an attitude, staying silent the entire elevator ride down. Lai ground his teeth, looking at her pout.
Oh no, we can’t have that sulking. Are you giving me the silent treatment?
“I’ll drive!”Lai volunteered with a grin, confident it would be enough to weaken her resolve. He was right. Lucy’s eyes widened as she reached out to grab him.
“No!”Her grip tightened on his sleeve. “Let’s just get an Uber. I’ll order one; it’s so much easier than finding parking.”She quickly tapped on her phone screen, panicking as she mistyped the pickup address a few times. “Can you wait two minutes?”
“Rather dramatic reaction, don’t you think?”
“Pretty sure it’s a massive under-reaction,”Lucy sighed, giving him a light bump with her shoulder.
“My driving is not that bad,”Lai huffed as he spotted a silver Prius entering the apartment building’s parking lot.
He truly believed that statement, too. Sure, his parking might not be stellar, and he could never stay under the speed limit, but he could get from point A to point B without killing any pedestrians, and that was what really mattered.
“It’s horrible,”Lucy said firmly.
Lai gasped, holding a hand over his heart. “I thought we were friends.”
“We are friends. Katy Texas?”Lucy asked the driver, confirming they were heading to the nearest mall as the car peeled out into traffic.
“Lunch first. I’m starving.”
“Shit, hold on.Ephesus Mediterranean Grill, please.”Lucy corrected the address in her phone app with a groan, offering the driver an apologetic look. “We’ll tip extra.”
◆◆◆
“Oh, you know how to make me happy.”Lai grinned as he strolled into the restaurant, following the waiter guiding them to a table by the window.
Their menus were brought by an older man in a white sleeveless shirt.
They were welcomed in typical Greek family restaurant fashion, and Lai didn’t even bother picking up his menu, ordering a shared meat platter in perfect Greek.
As he’d expected, the man was delighted to converse in his native tongue, asking Lai about his family ties back in Greece, praising him for holding onto his language, and happily telling Lai all about the island he and his own family hailed from.
Finally, he threw up his hands and apologized for taking up their time, complimented Lai on his pretty girlfriend, and lamented that he should have settled down with a nice Greek girl, but she wasn’t a bad second place.
“ Efharistó ,”Lai smiled at the waiter, chuckling as Lucy stared at him in awe.
“That’s impressive.”Lucy shook her head, dipping the complementary bread in the oil and feta mixture that the man had delivered with the menus.
“I might not be able to read, but I can entertain you in twenty-six languages, including Mermaid,”Lai grinned, following suit.
They ate in comfortable quiet, people-watching through the window. It seemed that the moment of normalcy was something both of them needed. Just a few minutes with good food and no thoughts of what was to come.
Lai almost didn’t want to break the silence, sitting back in his seat and watching Lucy thoughtfully.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get your revenge.”
“I’m just glad no one got killed. I’m sorry you lost your home.”Lucy offered quietly.
“Yeah, that wasn’t part of the plan. Kinda expected her to run with tail between her legs when I told her about you, not go on the offensive.”
“What do you mean?”Lucy squinted at him.
The carbs and fats must have made him slow. That was an amateur slip of the tongue, too relaxed with someone he knew could be dangerous when they were upset.
Oh well. Time to go into damage control.
“I was worried about you. Killing someone changes a person.”He made it sound almost like an apology.
It wasn’t a lie; he’d tried to scare Eleanore away from her.
Behind her back, triggering a catastrophic chain of events, but done out of concern.
It wasn’t his fault that the woman had more pride than sense and was prepared to march to her death for the chance to claim Gaia for herself.
And he never would have thought that she would command her crew to fire on the manor while she was inside.
Eleanore had grown feral since the last time he’d seen the woman.
“You–”Lucy hissed through her teeth, fist clenched tight around a plastic fork. Lai glanced at the utensil nervously. He was intimately familiar with the damage it could do with enough fury behind the tines.
“Me,”he replied calmly, putting his hand over Lucy’s, hoping his touch was enough to cool her rage.
“That was your home!”She looked up from his fingers but didn’t pull away, confusion and fury and fresh grief clashing with relief on her face.
“Like I said. Things didn’t go according to plan. I wouldn’t worry, Eleanoreis wickedly clever. She’ll keep it ticking. She’s probably got Gaia stabilized by now, if nothing else.”
“I almost had it, you know, but then something went wrong.”Lucy looked down at Lai’s hand again. Lai waited for her to continue, letting her fill the silence without prompting.
“I saw Eleanore’s memories, and it was like watching my own. I still feel the same anger at your father that she feels. And... Lai, she saved me. Not deliberately, but if she hadn’t arranged for the manor to be attacked, I would have dumped all of my life into Gaia. I couldn’t stop it.”
Now, that was interesting. Lai pursed his lips as he considered the new information, like a new puzzle piece that didn’t fit anywhere in the frame. He picked his next words carefully, knowing it would hurt Lucy but not wanting to break her spirit completely.
“You know I’m on-board when it comes to your powers.
I want you to learn how to use them. But I think we need to take a break from them for now,”he offered gently, “until we can figure things out a bit more. I don’t want you to hurt yourself, and losing control to the point that you almost died. ..”
He watched the woman deflate, defeat and shame sinking her shoulders.
“Don’t be like that, it’s just that you have too many other things to focus on right now. You got the chair at the head of the family table, that’s exciting. Let’s get that mess under control before we go back to playing with serious magic.”
“I know Aris will take it back the first chance he gets,”Lucy sighed, her confidence fading. “He just doesn’t want to deal with the witches for some reason. What were you thinking, volunteering me? I don’t even know how the family works.”