Chapter 22

22

S he’s here .

My mom was alive, after believing for two decades she’d been murdered.

The pure adrenaline rush of seeing her in front of me, alive and breathing, tied my tongue into knots.

Her presence stunned me. Absolutely and completely.

She stared at Mike as though trying to place him, her lips pursed and her teeth gnawing on the inside of her cheek. Through it all, she never lost the permanent smile of a public service worker, the one pinned in place even with the roughest clientele.

“I, ah… No. We haven’t had—what I mean to say—” I fumbled to speak and mentally beat myself up.

Gone were any perfect first lines I’d practiced. The kind of opening zingers to let the other person know in an instant, and without a shred of doubt, I was special.

I was special enough to be her daughter.

The spells we used to disguise ourselves wouldn’t matter. All the potions I’d taken or years of hiding would fade away in an instant and she’d drop to her knees with tears in her eyes, apologizing for lying to me. For allowing me to think she’d died.

From the corner of my vision, I noticed Onyx watching with a mixture of confusion and compassion.

“Hi, yeah, we have a few questions for you.” Mike, on the other hand, had no such confusion. “Is your name Dae?” he wanted to know.

The same Mike who knew every inch of my face. Who had recognized my mother in a string of heartbeats based on our similarities.

My heart wrenched up into my throat at hearing the name spoken out loud, and I bobbed my head once at him, to thank him for taking charge.

“You don’t have to answer here if you aren’t comfortable,” he rushed to say. “We’d be happy to speak somewhere privately.”

She didn’t answer.

Our eyes locked, her gaze penetrating. Unlike Nexa’s eyes, Dae’s were the color of a blooming lilac, with a rich navy hue near the center. They penetrated past every defense, and I felt the moment the magic rushed out of me. The moment the disguise disappeared and left me raw and aching in front of her.

Something passed between us in her stare. That mother and daughter bond I’d been desperately hoping for.

I felt it too. My soul knew the truth even if this seemed like a real pinch-me moment.

“If you’re Dae, then—” I started.

Dae held up a hand and hissed out a low string of sound. “No. Come with me.” Her arm darted out and she wrapped her fingers around my elbow to pull me to my feet.

An electric current passed between us.

I slid out of the chair from the force of her touch, with Noren scrambling out of the way just in time to avoid a kick in the snout. The surprise kept me from reacting.

“It’s not safe to talk here,” she whispered, drawing me away.

The rest of my friends followed. Dae looked over her shoulder at them before she caught my nod and the plea on my face not to leave them behind.

The Queen of Faerie didn’t belong in a place like this anyway, and certainly not without a retinue of guards to keep her safe.

My mom held my elbow as she maneuvered us through the slender spaces between rickety tables. She stopped at a small cutout in the right wall leading to the kitchen and rapped her knuckles against the scarred countertop connecting the two.

“Glenwood just completed his training, officially,” she called out to the chef. “I’m taking a break.”

A rotund fae, eyes like slits, poked his head out from above a range. Sweat trailed down his temples. “Fuck, Livvy, you can’t leave that boy alone. He’s nowhere near ready yet.”

“He’s going to be fine,” my mom assured the man.

“If by fine you mean he’ll scare off the customers, take the wrong orders, and forget who he’s served, then absolutely.” The cook barked out a laugh. “He’s absolutely going to be fine.”

“I do enough around this place to warrant a break. If you’re worried about him, Xordon, then you can come out on the floor,” she snapped back to him.

Good naturedly, I noticed.

The two of them clearly had a rapport between them.

But he’d called her Livvy, not her real name.

“Don’t think I won’t!” Xordon retorted.

Dae—Livvy? —led us to the door I’d seen along the back wall. She pressed her free hand against one of the panels, all the while keeping her hold on me, and we followed her up a narrow staircase.

The gloom lifted on the top step.

One entire wall of the small apartment was nothing but windows. The glass here, unlike downstairs, had been polished to a sheen and afforded a spectacular view of the harbor and ocean beyond.

“It’s mine,” Dae said. “So is the restaurant below. I own it.”

It was a single room with no walls dividing the space outside of a right angle and a doorway I guessed led into a bathroom. The kitchen lay to our right, and ahead was a small bed and a smaller loveseat.

Neither of us wanted to break contact first. We didn’t move even as the others spanned out into the apartment.

“Tavi?” she whispered.

“Hi, Mom.”

Oh, god. Saying it out loud to her finally broke me.

The tears I'd kept in place for so long sprang free and burned trails like acid down my cheeks. I wasn’t alone there. Mom cracked too. We moved for each other in unison and her long arms wrapped me up in a hug I’d been dreaming about since I was small.

This was my mother, and she was hugging me.

I wasn’t alone in this world.

Uncle Will had done the best job he could but he hadn’t been able to replace my mom. I’d never known a life with her, and yet having her here, feeling her softness and her strength, sensing her magic, it was as though she’d never left.

A hole inside of me began to fill.

“That man called you Livvy.” Her hair muffled my voice.

She stroked her hand down my back. “That’s my name here. I had to change it in order to disappear completely.” She stepped back and cupped my face in her hands. “My god. Just let me look at you.”

I was a mess and an ugly crier on my best day.

“I see myself here.” She pointed to my nose, swallowing over a laugh. “And here. But this is all your father. And the stubborn chin!” She pinched me. “Yes, I know it.”

Parts of me finally started to make sense. I leaned into the feeling of her touch. This was so much better than anything I could have asked for. Better than a dream.

Noren bumped his head against her hip and Livvy tore her gaze from me at last. The sight of him brought a smile to her face.

“You’ve found yourself a handsome protector, haven’t you? Look at you!”

Words failed me a second time when Livvy bent down to scratch between Noren’s ears. The direwolf, rather than keeping his distance, practically inserted himself between us to be part of the embrace and went so far as to roll his eyes back in his head in pure ecstasy when she moved to his chin.

He’d turned to putty in her hands.

“I’ve never seen him act this way before,” I muttered. “He’s strangely affectionate with you.”

“I’ve always had a way with animals. Which it seems you’ve inherited from me.”

Dae straightened, keeping one hand on me and the other on the top of Noren’s head to connect us together. He whined but she ignored him, staring at me once again. Her smile stretched from ear to ear, and based on the ache in my cheeks, I knew mine did too.

I trusted Noren’s ability to read people implicitly. She must be a pure soul and a good person.

But then again, I’d have said anything nice and good about her. I wanted her to be loving and kind. I wanted her to love me the way I’d always dreamed about.

I hugged her again and she squeezed me back tightly enough to bruise ribs. All those empty photo frames in my room at home, or the ones I’d left with the store-bought pictures of ready-made families, were a fading memory.

We were together at last.

It mattered. We’d found each other again, and man, it had taken a good bit of work, too. Dae— “Livvy”—had hidden herself pretty well.

But a lingering question still demanded an answer.

“If you were alive, then why did you never come back for me?” I asked, hating that my voice sounded whiny, almost close to tears. “Why weren’t you looking for me? We could have been together.”

“You were much safer with your Uncle Will.” She maintained her grip on me and my body vibrated with the need to pull away from her. To move to cross the room, go where the others stood pointedly allowing us to have this moment of sweet reunion.

A reunion we never should have had to have because Dae shouldn’t have disappeared and abandoned me with a lie.

She grimaced. “Your uncle has always been a steady man with a good head on his shoulders. He could provide for you and keep you safe.”

Despite the good things she said, her expression told a different story.

“It wasn’t up to him to do those things.”

“I’m a wanted woman, Tavi.”

Hearing my name come out of her mouth spun my head in useless circles.

“I’ve been on the run for over twenty years,” she continued. “It wasn’t the kind of life one drags a child into. You were better where you were, hidden, and I had to keep my distance even though it killed me. Your uncle knew all this.”

“If he’s such a great guardian and an upstanding guy, then why the hell did he lie about my fated mate and practically give me away to—” I almost blurted out the name of my enemy before I remembered that his son was in the room. Meaning no insult to Onyx, I dropped my voice and uttered, “Kendrick Grimaldi.”

Dae straightened, frozen and expressionless.

I smirked at her reaction. “Okay, so you know who he is. He’s been around for ages using dark magic to maintain his youth. Uncle Will said the wolf council foresaw him as my fated mate .”

Did I even believe in those fairytales anymore? Of mates and destiny and happy endings?

“That’s ridiculous and impossible,” Dae blustered. Her cheeks went red. “There is no way William would do such a thing.”

“But he did. He insisted on it.” I wondered how much to tell her and when would be the right time.

The seconds ticked by and my anger gave way to frustration and fatigue. That desperate desire for safety and peace, as always, lingered around the periphery.

I turned to Mike to find him staring at me with his head cocked to the side, as though asking if I needed him.

I shook my own head quickly. “I think Uncle Will prizes the pack over family. He knew Kendrick’s pack was strong, and rather than make an enemy out of them, he gave me up.”

Dae touched my face and I jumped at the contact. “You didn’t allow it to break you.”

The current between us grew and pulsed with electric energy. Maybe Laina was right. About the connection between me and my mother.

I lifted my chin. “No, I didn’t. And I didn’t wait around to let Kendrick use me the way he wanted to.”

“You know, Faerie told me that you would come back to me one day. I never actually believed it.” The awe in her voice felt misplaced somehow based on the statement.

“Um, what? Faerie told you?”

But Mom wasn’t looking at me anymore. Her attention was caught on something over my shoulder and she broke away, striding across the small space to a bookshelf I hadn’t noticed before.

Instead of answering, she fumbled with the books on the shelf, grabbing titles at random and pushing them aside. Several she let drop to the floor. “I know I have it in here somewhere. Where did I put the damn thing?”

A bit manic, she dug around the books, a pulse of something catching my attention. Not just books, I realized when I took a closer look. Spellbooks. There were decks of tarot cards, charged crystals, wands with pointed quartz edges, and ritual candles inscribed with runic sigils.

“It seems like the prophecy was true after all. Even though I prayed it wasn’t.” Livvy whispered the last part to herself but I was close enough to catch every word. “Now it’s time to make sure the prophecy comes to pass.”

She would have clawed the shelf empty if Laina hadn’t stepped up and took hold of Dae’s arm. Mom panted, tensed, before turning to the queen. A ripple of shock erupted the placid set of her lips and her brow furrowed.

Did she recognize Laina?

My insides surged against my ribs and the rest of me went tight and hot. “What are you talking about?’

The two women stared each other for a moment longer before Laina released Dae and let her resume her frantic search of the bookshelf.

She grabbed a book and spared half a heartbeat looking at the spine before she tossed it over her shoulder, forcing Bronwen to step out of the way to avoid being hit.

“It has to be here,” she mumbled.

“If I knew what you wanted then maybe I’d be able to help you look,” Laina offered.

Noren whined and leaned hard enough against my leg to throw me off balance. I reached out and grabbed the countertop of the tiny kitchen for support.

“No offense, Tavi, but your mom is kinda weird,” Bronwen hustled across the room to whisper against my ear. “What is she doing?”

I had no idea but I wanted to find out. Patting Bronwen’s hand, I moved into the fray and ducked to avoid another tossed book the size of a dictionary.

“Dae? Mom?” Nope, that felt too weird to say. “Er…Livvy, what are you looking for?”

I yelped and automatically caught another book she tossed but this one was at least closer to a notebook.

She’d moved from the first and second shelves to baskets at the bottom, rifling through stack after stack of what looked like journals.

“Did I send the journal with her? I must have. Right?” Livvy muttered to herself rather than reply. “Yeah, I did. Why didn’t I keep it here?”

“Please. Talk to us. What are you doing?” I asked.

Livvy shook her head and more strands of chestnut hair pried loose from her bun. “I have to find it, Tavi. It’s time for you to know the truth of your birth.”

The way she spoke sent shivers along my spine. There were secrets bubbling up for her to drop such casual words with the force of an exploding bomb.

My instincts roared at me to pay attention.

At last, Livvy straightened.

I wasn’t sure what got through to her or whether she’d just given up the search. When she turned, her hands were empty. She held them out to me, palms up, her expression agonized.

“You’ve survived this long, but if the truth isn’t revealed… It’s clear I’ve waited much too long to do this. I just never thought we’d get to this moment.” She bit her lip and shifted her weight to the opposite foot.

The movement made her look oddly innocent. Child-like.

She reached for my hands and widened her eyes slightly when I refused to take them. Goosebumps lifted the hairs on the back of my arms at the chill of her flesh.

“There’s something special about you, Tavi. More than just being the child of a werewolf and a fae. Halflings are special, of course.” She nodded to Bronwen, to Onyx. “But there’s more to your story.”

I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, to be honest. But I held my tongue, even as my stomach did acrobatics.

“You were conceived with a very specific witch magic. I wasn’t able to have a baby on my own, and I loved your father desperately. We wanted a family more than anything else. So we contacted a witch. She worked a spell of complicated magic. A magic that sealed your fate with the entire history of Faerie.”

“I really don’t like where this is going.” I took an involuntary step back.

She refused to let me go, and moved with me.

“You’re more than what you’ve been led to believe, sweet girl. A chosen one. Someone who will bring together the realm by annihilating the corruption within it. Not just because you’re a halfling, but because you are one third of each .” Livvy held up her fingers and ticked off on them. “Fae. Shifter. Witch . All three magics are combined in you. The spell changed the make-up of my baby before her birth.”

Through the ringing in my ears I recognized the sound of Laina inhaling sharply.

“You’re crazy,” I whispered.

My ribs went tight enough to pierce my heart, which had taken up the beat of a one-legged, one-armed member of a marching band. Livvy’s eyes locked with mine and despite a settling in my bones at her expression, I fought.

“You’ve felt things. I’m sure you have,” she insisted.

“One person can’t be tied to Faerie. All three magics?” I laughed. “That would make me a freak. I wouldn’t be alive. No one is all three. Besides, power doesn’t alter someone’s blood. A witch spell doesn’t make me a witch.”

“Don’t you ever feel like you’re a little too good at magic? Have you ever been able to pass through magical barriers without a thought?” Livvy snapped her fingers. “Just because you can?”

My mind immediately ricocheted back to a night I wanted to forget, when I’d walked right through Barbara’s wards. I violently forced the thought aside.

“I’m not who you think I am.” I threw back my shoulders. “You don’t actually know me. Maybe you just want me to be important because the me in front of you wasn’t what you expected.”

I needed air or I’d suffocate in this room.

Holding up a hand to keep the others from following me, I strode toward the door and skipped a few rickety steps on my way down. I caught myself before I fell flat on my face but none of it mattered. Nothing mattered. This reunion had not gone the way I thought it would, and now it turned out my mother was crazy. I pushed out into the dingy restaurant with Noren behind me and strode for the front door.

Outside, the clawing sensation around my throat remained. I chose a direction at random and took off.

Leaving was a terrible idea but I couldn’t stop myself with logic. Not with my gut and my mind swirling in opposite directions.

Noren kept pace and with him at my heels, I broke into a jog, the crash of the surf nothing compared to the tambourine in my head.

When I first went to see Barbara, to bargain for my potions my first year at the Fae Academy for Halflings, I’d walked through the magic barrier around her property. No fucking clue how. Or what it even was.

I just remembered a sensation like a thick wall of water cascading over my head and then it broke apart and I had bigger things to worry about. Like the witch herself, who turned out to be nuts at the time but not so bad in the long run.

I’d even…sensed the witch magic.

Looking back on it, I’d assumed it was normal. My fae side blessed me with certain gifts. But what if it wasn’t normal? What if fae couldn’t actually sense magic like I could?

I’d never asked any of the fae I knew. It had never come up.

Melia would have been the best person to answer those questions but how do you even begin when you’re not sure what questions to ask?

Out of breath and muscles screaming, I stopped at a break in the stone wall separating the road from the beach. Maybe I should have been more aware of those things. There were apparently a lot of missed opportunities in my past.

Did any of them really matter now?

I’d found my not-so-dead mother and she was absolutely loony, talking to me like I was some kind of “chosen one.” She’d even used those words!

Chosen One .

I tested them in my head and bile rose, burning the back of my throat. My lips twisted into a disgusted pout. Nope. I wasn’t the chosen one. I was Tavi Alderidge.

“Hey!”

I glanced up sharply at the shout. And found a man looking right at me.

My nostrils flared. A half-shifter, obvious from the energy around him and the slightly pointed canines poking out above his lip.

They’d found me.