Page 11

Chapter Eleven

“Come to mama.” I sniffed the aroma of strong coffee happily as I poured a fresh mug. After Lianith and I had dealt with the nixling intruder last night, I’d informed Cassandra and Callum and decided whoever was on night duty could update Mitch. Then I’d gone back to bed and surprised myself by crashing out instantly, waking only enough to register when Damon finally made it home. When my alarm went off, he was gone again.

I’d decided checking in with him could wait until I’d showered, refueled and caffeinated. I’d achieved the shower, and coffee and breakfast were imminent. But before I could settle at the table with my caffeine fix and one of Amy’s breakfast muffins, Madge chimed an alert.

“Yes?” I said before taking a bite of the muffin and chewing happily. Amy swore the muffins were healthy, and I’m sure they were, but she was a goddess of the kitchen who knew how to make a healthy muffin taste like the regular loaded-with-fat-and-sugar kind.

“There is someone at the gate, Maggie. She says she knows you.”

“She?” I ask curiously. “Can you put the feed on the screen, please?”

Madge already knew all the people likely to visit me. This was probably some random Damon groupie, trying to weasel their way in using my name.

That was the problem with dating a famous guy. People knew my name. And, worse, tried to use it to their advantage. A problem compounded by the fact that it’s impossible to be as famous as Damon is and keep your address secret. And made worse by Damon insisting on living in a normal neighborhood. If by ‘normal’ you meant ‘full of rich people’. But it wasn’t gated, and he hadn’t bought a property out in the country somewhere we could have miles and miles of land between the front gate and a house and taken to commuting via chopper or something. Though come to think of it, it was entirely possible he did own a farm or a ranch or an estate or whatever the hell you called it. Or several.

He had houses and apartments in multiple cities and I hadn’t even been to all of those yet. But I knew it was unlikely he’d ever abandon San Francisco as his base. Not when he’d fought so hard to help rebuild the city.

A holoscreen blinked into life at eye height, showing the security feed from the front gate. To my surprise, I recognized the face looking up at the gate camera.

Gwen Jones.

What the hell? I dropped the muffin back onto the plate, wondering if I was mistaken. It wasn’t even a week since I’d talked to Aubrey and she’d said nothing about Gwen planning to come to the States.

I zoomed in on the image. Yep, it was her. She’d chopped her long pale-blonde hair to shoulder length since I’d seen her last, but it was definitely Gwen.

What the hell was she doing here?

“Connect me to the intercom, please,” I said to Madge.

“Of course, Maggie. Connecting now.”

The picture zoomed in on Gwen’s face. She was chewing her lip, looking worried. “Gwen, hi” I said, keeping my tone neutral. She jumped a little anyway, blinking up at the camera, her eyes widening.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. This is Maggie,” I continued. “Do you want to come in?”

Her expression turned nonchalant, but I could see she was trying to be casual. “Maggie, hi. Yes, please.”

Her accent wasn’t as posh as Aubrey’s, but it was still what I thought of as well-off English. She sounded tired, though, her voice raspier than I remembered. Which was not surprising if she’d just spent eleven or so hours on a plane. I zoomed the picture out. Even though she sounded tired, she was still startlingly pretty, her Fae blood clear in the elegant curves of her face and the gleam of her skin, even through the vidfeed. A massive, well-stuffed green backpack rested on her back and one hand gripped the handle of a large suitcase.

More luggage than someone planning a short visit might need.

Perfect. She’d run away from home. Or whatever the adult equivalent was.

I rubbed my forehead, glad she couldn’t see me. “Great, come on through. I’ll meet you at the front door.” I cut the connection, my jaw clenching. Another complication.

“Madge, can you bring up the file I had started on Gwen Jones?” I’d made notes of everything Aubrey had told me about her since we’d brought her out of the realm. It wasn’t a lot, but I didn’t know what might be helpful. I skimmed it quickly, refreshing my memory.

Gwen’s expression flashed relief when I opened the door, before she went back to cool. I showed her through to the kitchen, biting back the hundred or so questions whirling in my head. No point scaring her off. She dumped the backpack by the counter, sighing out a breath, and parked her suitcase next to it. Then rolled her shoulders, as though happy to have ditched the weight, as she looked around, taking in the kitchen. Which was sunny, light-filled and welcoming, but also screamed expensive if you had an eye for interior design.

“Nice place,” she said.

Nice was an understatement but that might be English politeness or simple exhaustion. “Thanks,” I replied warily. “So, what brings you to town? Aubrey didn’t mention that you were leaving England.”

Her pale blue eyes narrowed. “Aubrey didn’t know.” She paused for a second. “Do you talk to her often?”

“Often enough to know she’ll be worried about you.”

Gwen rolled her shoulders again, the gesture part shrug, part nervous twitch. “The Cestis...well, I’m an adult. I can do what I want.”

Her tone sounded more defiant teen than adult. But I didn’t react. She’d not long turned eighteen when she’d gone into the realm. She wasn’t a normal twenty-two-year-old. Plus she’d had a bad time with Usuriel and maybe even in Morgain’s realm. Gwen had claimed she was happy enough being a servant, but it didn’t ring completely true. Not when she’d made a deal with Usuriel because she’d wanted out.

“Sure. No one’s going to argue about that,” I said. “But I’ll have to let them know you’re here.”

That earned me another shrug that reminded me of Yoshi when he was in one of his rare moods. I could introduce him to Gwen. He could show her how to be a semi-normal young adult. Though his background wasn’t any happier than hers.

Gwen kept stretching. Her clothes were creased, her hair messy and her eyes tired. I always felt like death warmed up after a long flight, so I could give her the benefit of the doubt and chalk the weird attitude up to exhaustion.

“You look as though you had a long flight.” Gwen’s unknown father had left her money, but I didn’t know if she was comfortably off or wealthy enough not to have to think twice about traveling suborbital versus commercial airlines. Commercial, London to San Francisco was an eleven-hour flight, which was a slog. “Would you like coffee, breakfast, shower? Do you have somewhere to stay?”

She nodded. “I booked a hotel, but coffee and breakfast would be brilliant.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do that.”

I teased out of her what she might like for breakfast and hunted through options while the coffee machine did its thing. Gwen was mostly silent. I hoped it was jet lag, rather than attitude.

As I slid a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her, along with a coffee, Lianith wandered into the kitchen, presumably drawn by the smell of food. Callum had said she would prefer raw meat, but we’d discovered she loved bacon. She’d even learned the English word for it.

At the sight of her, Gwen froze, fork halfway to her mouth. “That’s a nixling.”

Right. She was tanai. She could see through the illusion. “Yes,” I said, trying to sound soothing. “It’s all right. She’s friendly.”

She put her fork down, looking more alarmed than surprised. “Why do you have a nixling?”

“That’s a long story,” I replied. “Eat your breakfast.”

She stared down at the bacon and eggs and, to my horror, her lip quivered, as though she was about to cry.

Had she had a bad experience with nixlings? “What’s wrong?” I asked, making a little shooing motion at Lianith. The nixling twitched her tail, turned, and stalked back out of the room. A vague “humph” hit my mind.

“I came to San Francisco because I wanted to get away from the Fae. And I knew you lived here, so I’d know someone at least, and that there are tanai here who didn’t leave when the Fae left, who got free…” Her breath hitched.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, yes, that’s true. Some tanai didn’t follow their Fae relatives when the door closed. But you know the door here is open again.”

She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

Great. I really didn’t want her to start crying.

“But it’s not free traffic in and out of the realm here yet. Not the way it is in London.” I didn’t tell her that was because there’d already been trouble with the door. Unlikely to be reassuring. “But the nixling won’t bother you if I ask her not to.” At least, I hoped not. Lianith had definite opinions about what human things were orders she would follow versus suggestions she could ignore.

Gwen said nothing.

“Drink some coffee,” I said, “or eat. You’ll feel better. I know someone—a tanai—who’s from one of the lines that stayed. Her family doesn’t have much to do with the Fae. I can ask if she’ll talk to you.” I cocked my head. “She can tell you about how their families work. But you don’t know who your mother was, do you? So is it her you’re trying to avoid, or something else?”

“Just Fae,” she said. “In London, there, there are too many of them. I don’t want to have...I don’t want to go back there.” She pushed her plate away

Was she worried about being taken or being tempted?

I rubbed my temples for a moment, starting to feel frazzled myself. “Eat,” I said again, pushing the plate back. “You’ll feel better with a full stomach, and then I can get someone to take you to your hotel. Or,” I added, wondering if she might just run again if left to freak out on her own, “you could stay here for a few nights.”

“Damon wouldn’t mind?” Gwen sniffed and wiped her eyes again.

“No.” I pulled a box of Kleenex out and passed it to her.

“Alright. Thank you. “She blew her nose and picked up her silverware, taking a bite of bacon. She made an appreciative noise then attacked the food like she was starving.

“Good. You finish that. There’s plenty more if you want.” I said. “I’m going to let Aubrey know you’re here.”

Gwen looked up. “Why?”

“Because the Cestis have been helping you, and they’re going to freak out if one of them tries to contact you, and you’ve vanished. Aubrey mentioned you’re still seeing Padma? So you must have a schedule.”

Gwen hunched. “They can’t make me go back.”

“Of course not. You can go where you want. You haven’t broken any laws—” that I knew about “—so the Cestis don’t have authority over you. But they were helping you, so I’m going to let them know where you are.” Along with Cassandra.

Gwen looked mutinous.

“And,” I added, “Aubrey helped get you out of Fae. Without her, I wouldn’t have known how to get Lord—” I stopped as Gwen flinched.

Right. Don’t talk about Usuriel.

“About how to get you out of the realm. So we will do her this common courtesy and let her know you’re safe. They can’t make you go back if you don’t want to. You got this far, so I’m assuming you have your passport and a tourist visa. That won’t last forever, but we can deal with that when it comes to it, if you decide you want to stay.” I tapped my finger on my now-cold mug of coffee. “You were studying game design, weren’t you?”

She nodded, then flinched again. “I don’t want you to think I came here to try to get Damon to help me with that. I knew you were here and I knew you were kind to me back in England and—” She waved a hand in a vague ‘over there’ gesture, which I took to mean in the realm.

She was in a bad way if she couldn’t even say the words.

“Damon might not mind if you stay here a few days,” I said. “And he will know what programs are best, if you were interested in going back to school. There are international scholarships and things.”

“I have money,” Gwen said. “I’m not a beggar.”

“Well, that’s great to know,” I said, “but school’s expensive here. San Francisco’s an expensive city in general.”

“So is London,” Gwen pointed out.

I couldn’t argue with that. “Eat,” I said again sternly. “Lianith might come back. She won’t hurt you. She likes bacon. Give her some and she’ll leave you alone. Do you know how to talk to nixling?”

Gwen nodded.

“Well, tell her to leave you alone if you want.”

I went back into my office to call Aubrey.

Thankfully, she picked up. This was not news I wanted to break in a voicemail.

“Maggie,” Aubrey said. “Is something wrong?” She was sitting in a car. Driving in fact. Flashes of other cars moved in and out of the background.

“Does something have to be wrong for me to call you?”

“No,” she said, “but it’s the nature of the beast with my job. I tend to assume the worst when someone from your part of the world calls me out of the blue.”

“Ah,” I said, “sorry.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to let you know Gwen just turned up at Damon’s house.”

“What?” Aubrey’s mouth dropped open, her normally serene expression vanishing. “She’s in San Francisco? Since when?”

“Well, I don’t know when she landed, but she arrived here about thirty minutes ago. So if any of you were expecting to see her soon, there’s been a change of plans.”

“Did you ask why?” Aubrey asked, sounding half exasperated.

“I think she’s looking for ways to make sure she doesn’t have to deal with the Fae. Too many in London. But that’s all I know so far.”

Aubrey sighed. “Yes. Padma mentioned she’d been talking about that in her last few sessions. Damn. We should have seen this coming.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Should Padma be telling you what she and Gwen talk about?”

“Yes. She doesn’t tell us the details of their conversations, of course, but we’re kept informed of Gwen’s general progress.”

“Well, she’s here now,” I said. “She mentioned she’d booked a hotel; I’ve invited her to stay with me and Damon for a few days. She’s pretty freaked out about the Fae. Said she wanted to come here and meet the tanai who stayed behind. Did something happen to set her off?”

Aubrey frowned. “I have no idea.”

“Well, I’ll see if I can find out. And if Pinky is willing to talk to her. That might make her feel better. But…” I trailed off, unsure how to phrase what I wanted to say diplomatically. “But I wouldn’t bank on her coming back to England any time soon.”

“Thank you,” Aubrey said. Her mouth twisted with frustration before she got her expression back under control. I sympathized. She and the others in the UK Cestis had put a lot of effort into helping Gwen reestablish her life and now she’d…well, run away.

“It will be all right,” I said.

“I hope so.” Aubrey shook her head. “But she’s an adult, so we can’t stop her doing what she wants. She’ll make her own choices.”

“She will. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Right,” Aubrey said. “Call me if you need more help or if she says something more about why she left.”

“I’ll ask. But she might not tell me.”

Aubrey sighed. “She can be little prickly. Young for her age, even though she hasn’t had it easy. Padma thinks that spending so much time in the Fae as a servant means she hasn’t learned to assert herself in an adult way. But tell her we’re here if she needs to talk. To Padma, or me, or any of us.”

I was raised by a mother who had the ego of a perpetual teenager; I understood something of that problem. Yoshi might, too. Though he was her opposite. A teen who’d had to be an adult too soon. He was, if anything, too responsible. “Right now, she’s tired. Let’s give her a couple of days to get over the jet lag and I’ll see what else she has to say and if I can set something up with Pinky. I’ll keep you posted.”

I went back to Gwen. I wasn’t surprised to find Lianith perched on the chair next to hers, cleaning her whiskers. Gwen’s plate was empty but she was still sipping her coffee. “I see you two have bonded over bacon.”

“I only gave her a small piece.” Gwen’s tone was defensive.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Better for you two to get along.”

“What did Aubrey say?”

“She was happy you’re safe. Said to call her or Padma if you need anything.”

“She wasn’t mad?”

“Surprised, but not angry,” I reassured her. I nodded at her plate. “More?”

“Toast? Do you have marmalade?”

“No. But Amy, Damon’s housekeeper, makes great jam. I’ll find you some of that. Then you can shower and take a nap and I’ll see if Pinky’s free any time this week. I know she has a work deadline soon, so you might have to be patient.”