Page 31 of Transfiguration
Bella took the card but said nothing. Sam hugged Con hard for a minute, then turned his face to kiss his lips. “Be safe, love you,” Sam whispered against Con’s mouth.
Con felt those words like an armor of their own. As though they gave him confidence because Sam believed in him. “We’ll be back in a few hours,” Con promised. “Love you, too.” They let go as Kelly shuffled everyone out.
“Hoping for a chance to chat with you later,” Seiran said to Con.
“Um, sure?” Con didn’t know what to say or think about that.
Seiran nodded and vanished off down the hall, in a rush to get to a class. He taught at the university, but Con didn’t know what he taught. Magic? Earth magic? Ethics of magic? If the Dominion was falling down, that would mean change was coming from every side. Would they teach things formerly forbidden? Open up some of the buried history, even as terrible as a lot of the Dominion’s past was, and educate the world about what magic really could be? Con hoped, for Bella’s sake, that something like that happened.
He spared a brief glance at Sam before shutting the door. The lock clicked behind them. Sam would go back to bed for a few hours, and Con had a little girl to take care of. He hoped their days in the future weren’t a flow of passing ships. He’d been fond of living on the late schedule. Part of working the bar late at night and retrieving the rest of the time. Life was rarely a set of hours or guidelines, but maybe that was about to change?
They ran a gauntlet of clothing stores, the Apple store to get her a phone and iPad, and finally to the doctor’s office. It was a discrete office building with no names or labels to be found anywhere, though everyone greeted Kelly warmly. Con got a few wary looks thrown his way. He’d added a jacket for the cool fall day, and it covered most of his tattoos, but did nothing about the piercings in his lip, nose, eyebrow, or gauges in his ears. His hands and neck were visible with the edges of ink that made many wary. He briefly had another bout of longing for that sting of pain and contemplated sending a message to his tattoo guy. Maybe he’d get something done for Bella.
“You can tell them anything you need,” Con told her as they waited to be called. “And if you don’t want me to hear, just say so. I can step out for a minute.”
She reached over and touched his hand. He turned his palm up and let her slide her little fingers in his. “I don’t want them to take me away.”
“Not happening,” Con said.
“Even if I talk about bad things that have happened?”
“Even if,” Con agreed. He wondered if he could handle whatever she had to say, the horrors of her past. She was nine; he was in his thirties. Who should be the stronger one here? He leaned back in the seat and took a long breath to steady himself. Whatever came, he’d handle it. He’d had years of perfecting control, but somehow, he thought this little scrap of a girl was going to undo all his hard work.
* * *
They left therapy with a handful of notes about things to ensure Bella got in her diet, some supplements, and a batch of documents to test her for grade level placement. Could Bella go to a normal school? Would she even be safe? Rou’s kids went to regular school, same as Link. All of them attended the witch camp from time to time, but learning the normal sort of things like math, reading, and science from public school. They could have put the kids into a private Dominion school, but that would all be going to shit too, wouldn’t it? Foresight on their side? Or distaste for Dominion rules?
“And this is the emergency button,” Link instructed Bella. “Don’t push it unless you want the world to end.”
“Link,” Kelly said exasperated. “It’s an emergency button for a reason. If she feels like she’s in danger, she should push it.”
“It makes that loud buzz to everyone on the list,” Link said. “Even my Uncle Seiran. You met him earlier?” Con glanced back to see Bella nod; her eyes were wide. “He’s Father Earth. Means he can make the world end. And he protects us all that way. So, button equals end of the world.”
Kelly sighed.
“If you’re scared, Bella,” Con said. “Don’t be afraid to push the button. Sam and I will be there fast. And Seiran might have scary powers, but he’s a big marshmallow for all you kids. If I can’t get to you, trust Seiran, yeah?”
Bella met Con’s gaze and nodded.
“And Sam, and Luca, and Kelly…” Con continued.
“And Jamie,” Kelly added. “We’ll have to introduce you to everyone. We have a big found family. Be wary of the fae warrior. He’s wild, but he takes protecting all the kids seriously.”
“Kaine’s cool though,” Link said.
“I meant his dad, Bryar, not Kaine. Kaine’s not a warrior. He’s just a kid.”
Link frowned at the back of his father’s head. Con understood. Kids saw things plainer than a lot of adults did. Kaine was a child in this world, but not to the fae. And all fae were warriors of some sort. The get of someone like Bryar, who was a blood borne fae, even more so. Con babysat them enough to see the difference. Kaine and Link were close in age here, but entire universes apart, though they got along okay. Would that work with Bella too? Maybe Kaine’s unusually old soul would fit better with hers.
“Anyway,” Con said. “Danger means push the button.”
“Ki did it once for fun and it was crazy,” Link added.
“That’s why we don’t play with the button,” Kelly said. “We push it if we feel in danger.”
Con got a text from the Fellowship about some updated reports that were ready for him. He glanced at it, finding part of it on his phone. Not everything could be added through a digital app, and Con often sketched out the way he connected the dots in his small craft space in the loft. That meant picking up physical notes, reading through them all, and creating a wall to map the questions and answers. It was the boring part of retrieval work. Stuff their information and research teams should have been able to do. But Con liked it, and found that his brain often overcame walls and obstacles that the I&R team completely missed. Part years of experience, and part instinct, Con thought.
“Can we stop at the Fellowship?” Con asked. “I need to pick up some files.”