Chapter 14
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Set a little moonlight on fire for me, darling.
I do not know what Zahra and I are doing. Logically, maybe, this should have been my idea, but also I was looking forward to making dinner with my parents, cuddling my little Chai kitty, and knitting before bed…while not crossing my fingers and hoping nightmare men would appear in my dreams.
After the blow of once again not getting my shiny new playground equipment, I am not certain I'm emotionally available enough to stumble upon cultic activities in the woods.
However.
To be fair.
I shouldn't put this investigation off for another month.
Police investigations can take time. Getting Andromeda, and possibly Pollux, into safe places when they've been brainwashed into believing faeries exist can take time. The sooner I find proof, the better.
Third Tuesday of November Elf Party in the Woods here I come.
Twigs crunch underfoot as Zahra marches me through the trees well beyond where Willow's house sits nearer the path to downtown. I don't know how Zahra knows where to go. I am a mere accessory and voice of reason in the (hopefully) unlikely event my dear sweet friend offers herself up as a sacrifice.
"Do you know where we're going?" I ask once it feels like we've been stomping straight ahead for a long, long time.
"Absolutely," she answers.
I don't believe her.
"Did Meda give you some kind of directions?"
"I'm following the distant music."
I try to focus my attention on something other than the crunch of our shoes, but I don't hear anything. There's a whisper of wind that feels faintly mystical, but that's just the way wind is. At night. In the woods.
It's official. We're going to get eaten by the wildlife.
"There's also a sweetness in the air if you can't hear the music," Zahra offers, benevolently.
Lifting my face, I inhale and catch faint touches of something sweet. It's getting colder each day and the weather reports have been periodically teasing a snow we have yet to see, so there shouldn't be any more flowers around to infiltrate the fullness of pine.
Yet there is definitely something almost floral, almost honey on the breeze.
With every step, it grows stronger and more complicated.
The windsong deepens, turning dreamlike. As though there is an actual melody sitting just outside my perception. It's craziness. It's late. I'm tired from dragging my sits-all-day-grading rump out here.
Magic and faeries are fairy tales. Fiction. Not real.
Zahra stops in a clearing awash in silver moonlight, and my skin prickles beneath my coat.
There's nothing here.
Just grass and wind and an array of scents riddling the chilled air.
But Zahra's gone still in a way that makes it hard to breathe.
"Zahr?" I squeeze her hand.
She startles and looks back at me.
A tear slides down her cheek.
She hardens the second she realizes it and scrubs her face. "What? I'm not crying. I'm washing my eyes. You have to do that when you wear eye shadow."
I press my lips together. "What can you hear?"
Her eyes close, and her nostrils flare as she fills her lungs. "It's a—" She swears. "—faerie party, Kass. There's music and laughter and conversations about things I can't even begin to understand." Her grip crushes my hand as her eyes snap open. Abruptly, she stomps forward. "Hey, would someone mind talking to me? Please. I've always been able to hear your voices, my entire life. I want to know why."
"Zahr…" I touch her back with my free hand.
She jerks away from that touch while still crushing my fingers in her grip. So much pain fills her eyes when they meet mine, and I get the distinct feeling that something inside her is shattering. "I'm not insane. My brain isn't broken. I need to know why I can hear them." Her voice cracks. She looks back at the nothingness. "Please. Could somebody please talk to me?"
We stay there for an hour.
But no one responds.
?
"And that is why I would like your help, my dearest family, in building Mrs. Role a playground tonight." Andromeda finished her speech by showing a picture she'd drawn of a brightly-painted wooden playground including a pirate ship, a small house, multiple slides, several rock walls…
Elaboratecould not begin to describe what Pollux was looking at.
The child had taped four extra pages to her book in order to fit the entire picture, and they had all but dramatically fanned open at the start of her spiel.
"This image is not a blueprint," Alexios offered from where he was seated beside Pollux on the parlor couch. "It doesn't contain suitable instructions for collaborative efforts."
Andromeda scowled. "I'm not even three yet, Yama-nii-nii. I have done my best, and now I am asking for help. This is how it works in Uncle Cael's domain."
"Sephin can turn it into a blueprint in about ten minutes. Then it's just a matter of figuring out where to get tools and materials and manpower. If you want it all done tonight, the three of us seem insufficient." Alexios planted a hand at his chin.
"Don't you think Uncle Cael and Lana will help?"
"Absolutely. I can blackmail A if she doesn't want to, and anything she does, the prince will do."
Pollux rocked his jaw and interjected, "However, five people still might not be enough to get everything finished tonight."
"Everyone else is seelie and scared of us, Daddy," Andromeda reminded him. "It feels a little mean to ask for help if we'd make everyone uncomfortable by being there."
Combing his fingers through his hair, he sighed. Now was as good a time as any to present what he'd been working on. "Come here, dear one."
Andromeda lowered her picture and approached.
Reaching into his pocket, Pollux procured the small pendant he'd fashioned as a conduit for Kassandra's single golden tear. In the past two weeks, he'd lost sleep over dozens of experiments, and to be fair, success had been an explosive event this morning…
While Alexios had been out and Andromeda had been at school, he'd tested the small piece of his mate's power by dropping his glamour among humans.
He'd gone back to the coffee shop.
He'd ordered a chai.
No one wet themselves, which was a major improvement in light of past experiments he'd conducted.
The same barista who had given him her number last time hadn't seemed so eager this time…but…for someone of Andromeda's size with fewer years of fear in her veins the talisman should work completely.
She would have, after not even three years, what he had been searching for all his life.
Lifting the chain, Pollux clasped it around Andromeda's neck and let the sparkling charm fall against her pink polo.
"Is it my birthday already?" she asked as she touched the strong compound he'd used to contain and enhance the power.
"What?"
"Mrs. Role told me that humans give presents on birthdays."
He arched a brow. "How quaint. Your date of existence is in February." He tapped the surface and felt the hum of Kassandra's magic within. "This, dear one, is a charm that contains the cure I've been searching for."
Andromeda straightened, dropped her eyes to the pendant, and stared. "W…what?"
"As Willow would say, it turns off the fear factor. This is a fragment of Kassandra's emotion, so it is a fragment of her will, which is what alters the space around her to create the safety she wants everyone near her to feel. Having this with you will be like being with her in person."
Fingers shaking, Andromeda lifted the pendant. "It's beautiful."
It really was.
Her head whipped up, dark curls bouncing. "Where's yours?"
His head shook. "There wasn't enough for me."
"What? Why not?" A shock went through her small body, and she fumbled for the clasp. "This one is yours, isn't it, Daddy? I can't. I can't even think to borrow it."
He stopped her, grasping her hands in his and drawing them away from the catch. "You can see me wearing this necklace? Really?"
Lips parted, she stared at him as dark tears gathered in her eyes.
Pollux lowered her hands to her sides, pushed her hair back, and kissed her forehead. "I made it for you. It's only powerful enough to make me tolerable in front of those susceptible to what we are. For you, it should be the same as standing next to Kassandra. Sorry I have to sit this project out, but if Alexios's friend Sephin makes the blueprint and Cael manages the instructions, I'm certain it won't take more than a few hours."
"Are you sure I can have this?" she whispered as a black tear slipped down her cheek. "This is what you've been wanting for centuries."
He exhaled a laugh. "Don't be foolish. I got what I'd been wanting for centuries almost three years ago now. I've been damaged already by the nature of my existence. It's my job to make sure you don't have to face the same pain. What I've wanted for centuries, dear one, is a place to call home and a family to fill it."
Alexios swore. "This is sickeningly sweet. Should I take your drawing on ahead to Sephin while you two finish up being adorable?" He extended one gloved hand.
"Jealous?" Andromeda stuck her tongue out.
"Is it not obvious I want a sparkly necklace, too?"
Pollux heaved a sigh. "Would you like me to update your enchanted cuff links so they sparkle?"
Alexios adjusted his sleeves and the metal pieces Pollux had made in order to help mitigate scents and sounds for him. "No. I am dependent upon the way they make the world almost bearable and I would not like to be without them for even a minute."
"Then quit complaining."
Alexios rose. "I can hardly wait to steal a soul and make myself someone's favorite. Watching you two makes me desperate for a relationship with someone who would set fire to rain for me."
Pollux let those words echo a time or two in his skull. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know. I just like fire. And impossible things."
Andromeda tucked her necklace away in her shirt and trotted up to Alexios. "Yama-nii-nii, if you're touch-starved and need a hug, you can say that." She lifted her arms. "I love you."
He glowered down at her several moments before lightly touching her curls. "I love you, too, tiny monster. But I think in this you are the younger one between us who has yet to understand the connection I am starving for. Come now. We need to convince Sephin not to be in bed at his usual hour, and we're losing moonlight."
And indeed they were.
For Pollux, however, Kassandra probably wouldn't be asleep for another hour or two, so he'd have to burn a little more moonlight before he could hope to visit his wife in her dreams.