27. Adair

Chapter 27

Adair

Part of me had expected something magical.

That I'd wake up and Oberon would be a whole new person. He'd be handing out checks at the local food bank, telling everyone that they should go have dinner on him and the Gloombringer family.

That the lack of Ivy's stone focusing on him would change something.

But of course, it didn't.

Oh, he wasn't sitting in the parlor nibbling on one of his protein bars, aimlessly staring at the wall, and that was a change. But I wasn't sure it was an improvement.

He was sitting at the same table, glaring at the breakfast the kitchen had served. He turned to the man setting it out, scowling. "What the hells is this?"

The man froze like a mouse in the sights of a hawk. "Pancakes?"

"Cake? For breakfast?"

So yeah, no real change.

"Pancakes are a breakfast food, Oberon," Titania said, breezing in with Aubrey following her. I braced myself for the sight of him, but as before, it didn't help all that much. "I requested them because they're delicious, and it's time we stopped just surviving around here. We deserve to live."

"The Moonstrikers quite favored them the other morning," the young man whispered, almost more to me than Oberon, and I returned a small smile, looking down at the plates, with pancakes, sliced bananas, nuts, and some kind of gooey sauce that looked almost like caramel. I could easily imagine Rain loving them. He had a bit of a sweet tooth, my Rain.

My Rain.

I sighed, trying not to focus on what the hells I was going to do about that, and took the painkillers out of my pocket to take a double dose. Hopefully Ivy had been right, and it would be acceptable for me to keep it up for a few days.

Across from me, Oberon scowled, so I interrupted before he had a chance to further insult the food and his sister. "I understand the Moonstrikers don't eat much meat," I told Aubrey.

Oberon scoffed and muttered something about prissiness, but Aubrey seemed interested as he pulled a chair out for Titania, then took one of his own. "Then what do they eat?"

It was a very Gloombringer sentiment. A traditional meal in a Gloombringer household was always the same: meat, starch, vegetable, and bread. I'd been raised to think that meal plan was literally the only option, as though leaving out any one part would see me dropping dead of starvation.

"They had cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch the other day. And when I took Lord Moonstriker and Lord Sunrunner out to the restaurant, we all had sweet potatoes with a side of broccoli. And bread and then some lovely cheesecake for dessert. He doesn't seem terribly deprived to me, to tell you the truth. It's just different."

"He's got some real muscle on him," Aubrey said, thoughtful. "A broad chest. I thought you had to eat lots of meat for that. Always good to know more, though."

Oberon snorted, shaking his head. "He's scrawny."

"Everyone's scrawny compared to you," Titania said, and she grabbed a container with more sticky sweet sauce that the server had left on the table, dipping a spoon into it and dousing her pancakes. "Also, these pancakes are amazing. I could just eat this sauce with a spoon."

Oberon mumbled something about candy bars for breakfast, but we all ignored him, eating our pancakes. It truly was one of the best I'd had in years.

"I saw Ivy Dawnchaser leaving this morning," Titania said, when her food was mostly gone. "She looked good. Happier than I've seen her in years."

Aubrey ducked his head, and I wondered if he was thinking what I was, that anyone leaving Gloombringer Castle was bound to be happier than someone arriving. Doubtful. He didn't seem nearly as jaded as I was.

"Probably for the best," Oberon grumped, but he didn't elaborate on why he thought so.

Titania looked at him for a long time, her bright blue eyes piercing and...sober.

I blinked, looking around, and realized she hadn't come into the room with a drink in her hand. Yes, they'd served her a mimosa with breakfast, because the staff knew her, but she hadn't even finished the one yet.

"Yes," she finally said. "It probably is for the best for her. She's never been happy here, and if Huxley were any kind of decent person, he'd have never brought her here."

Oberon snorted and downed his orange juice—no, not his orange juice, his sister's mimosa—before speaking. "You always were a ridiculous optimist, thinking the Dawnchaser was anything but a bastard."

Aubrey flinched, poor kid, but in this one instance, at least, Oberon was right. I realized in that moment, he had no idea how right he was. Ivy's stone's ability had been new information, and I hadn't even considered giving it to him.

There was no reason to tell him anymore, since I doubted the stone would do the same thing. Why would they want to affect Oberon's luck, when Ivy herself didn't even know the man?

"He didn't used to be," Titania said, her voice soft and so very sad as she stopped eating and stared at her plate.

Oberon had already dismissed her and was picking at his pancakes once more. He'd actually scraped the bananas and nuts and sauce off the top of them to one side of his plate, and was trying to choke down the dry remainder, because no meal was good for him unless it felt like a penance.

"He's changed?" Aubrey asked, and he was talking to Titania, but looking at Oberon. I didn't think he expected his father to answer the question, but I suspected he was hoping Oberon, too, had changed for the worse since the time when his mother had been at Gloombringer Castle.

I cleared my throat, nodding. "That's my understanding, yes. I've been told he was a good man in his youth, but that time and life has made him...less than he was. I'm rather hoping the same doesn't come of his son. Florian could probably use an ally to help with that."

Oberon scoffed. "Dawnchasers are all the same. Arrogant prancing clowns who think that whatever jackass brays the loudest wins the day."

Titania reached over with her fork and scooped up some sauce covered bananas from Oberon's plate, probably in retaliation for his stealing her drink. She stuffed them in her mouth, then didn't bother chewing and swallowing before speaking. "Prancing clowns, you say? Loud jackasses? Sounds awfully familiar. Maybe it's a catching ailment."

He bared his teeth at her, and she did the same, hers the parody of a smile.

"His son's name is Florian, you said?" Aubrey asked me. The poor kid was trying desperately to defuse the situation, but I could have told him it was pointless. Nothing was ever going to make Oberon and Titania Gloombringer like or respect each other, and the last few days had only brought all the simmering tension to the fore.

"It is," I agreed. "I don't know much about the family, I'm afraid. I've only met Ivy, Huxley, and Florian."

"Lord Dawnchaser must be married, then," he suggested, trying to draw it out.

"Widowed," Titania corrected. "Fenella died soon after giving birth to their second child. Eclampsia, they said."

Aubrey frowned, turning his face down. "Oh. That's incredibly sad. Having a mother makes other things...easier."

Oberon shrugged that off like he was a duck and the comment water. "Titania wouldn't know. Mother died when she was young. I doubt she even remembers her."

Titania was staring at her plate, and I thought maybe Oberon was dead wrong. Just like he was about so many things.

"What about my mother?" Aubrey asked .

Shit. I'd hoped we could go forever without having this discussion; wished that Oberon would die without ever discussing Aubrey's mother with him. Not even just for myself, but for Aubrey. For his innocence and his clear hope for the future.

No one deserved to hear that his father didn't give a fuck about his mother.

Beloved Mother , Imri's headstone had said in the picture Ben had shown me. Someone had to choose those words. Aubrey had to have chosen those words, when he'd lost her.

But there was nothing I could do to stop this train wreck. I could get up and do a dance and distract everyone, but in the end that would only serve to bring attention to why I was acting like a clown. What I was hiding.

And Oberon was disinclined to hide his lack of care.

That was proven once more by the blank look he returned. "What about her?"

Aubrey flushed and looked at his plate a moment, and I prayed that he'd let it drop. No such luck. "I didn't know her when she was at court. Heck, I didn't even know she'd been at court. We lived in the country, and she never talked about it. Was she different?"

"How in the hells would I know?" Oberon asked, scornful and impatient. "She was pretty. But she was challenged and she lost. She couldn't duel anymore."

Aubrey was...fuck, he was so innocent. He just stared at Oberon, confused.

I reached up to rub my temples, my headache spreading even faster than it had the night before.

"Maybe we should go take a walk," Titania suggested, reaching out and putting a hand on Aubrey's shoulder.

"I don't understand," Aubrey said, looking between Titania and Oberon, trying to figure out what was happening. "What does the duel have to do with anything? Mother, she told me about that. She said it was about a man. Well, no, she said a little boy. That the woman was jealous and challenged her, saying something ridiculous about how she'd spoken ill of her behind her back, because she wanted the boy Mother was seeing at the time. She always said she wished she'd walked away, because it was a silly reason to fight, and no boy was worth an eye." He blushed, ducking his head. "Well, she said no boy but me. But you know, mothers."

Titania gave an adoring little smile, clearly charmed by the story, but Oberon was slowly turning bright red.

Clearly, he wasn't much for being dismissed as a boy, let alone one unworthy of fighting a duel over.

"I can't say I'm surprised she didn't think much of her loss," Oberon spat after a moment. "She never did have much respect for anyone or anything."

Aubrey reared back, shocked.

"Oberon," Titania growled at him, but it was too late.

It had been too late before it had ever started, and I should have known. I should have known no one as bright and hopeful as Aubrey would be able to live with the gray of the Gloombringer. It simply wasn't in his nature. His mother had seen to that, and I...well, I was sad I'd never have the chance to meet her. It made me love her a little, the way she'd entirely abandoned the life that had thrown her away.

She hadn't sat about longing for court, but moved on, and taught her son to demand better.

"She was a poor duelist, and no doubt she was speaking ill of . . . of . . ."

Titania stood, slamming her hands down on the table. "You don't even remember who it was that took her eye. Do you remember any of them? Do any of them matter to you? Has anyone ever mattered to you but yourself?"

Sober Titania was...a sight to behold. I loved her too, even as I cursed her. Couldn't she have giggled and ignored it all, just this once?

But no.

"Hold your cursed tongue, woman . You don't know a fucking thing about anything," Oberon spat back, standing to tower over his sister, lifting a hand as though again, he was considering striking her.

And that, apparently, was too much for Aubrey. "Don't you speak to her that way. She's your sister, and she deserves respect."

Oberon snarled, turning on him. "She's a drunken wretch who doesn't even deserve the hospitality this family extends to her."

Aubrey laughed, throwing his hands up. "What family? You? Alone? One man isn't a family. She's your family. And you treat her like she's a burden, when she's amazing. She deserves so much better."

"You don't know a fucking thing about what she deserves," Oberon hissed back, stepping forward, trying to intimidate him the same way he'd tried to do to Titania.

Titania, admittedly, hadn't been scared, but she hadn't much reacted at all to the threat. Aubrey didn't take Oberon's bullshit nearly as placidly as she had. He stepped around the edge of the table, into Oberon's space, proving that he was very nearly as tall as his father, and frankly, more muscular and intimidating than Oberon had likely ever been, despite Oberon's pride in his physique.

Aubrey had worked for a living. Those muscles of his were from use, not gym sculpting, and I suspected the young man knew how to handle himself in a fistfight. Oberon? I doubted Oberon had ever been in a real fight in his life.

"Maybe I don't," Aubrey said through his teeth. "But I know what my mother deserved, and it was better than you. The whole world deserves better than you."

Oberon drew his arm back, and I shoved out of my seat, forward, trying to put myself between them. There was no way for this to end well, but a fistfight at breakfast? That was fucking ridiculous.

Unfortunately, Oberon was too far gone, not interested in who or what was in his way, which it turned out was me. So a moment later found me laid out on the floor of the parlor, my cheek pulsing in time with my head, something warm and wet dripping down my face as I tried to process how I'd ended up on my back.

Oberon was looming over me, but not looking at me.

He was looking at Aubrey, who was standing across the room in the doorway, as Titania knelt down next to me, worry writ large across her lovely face.

"Mother was right," Aubrey said. "You are a little boy. Throwing a tantrum because people don't agree with you. Ranting and lashing out at the only people in the world who give a damn about you. How long are they going to put up with it, do you think? You're going to die miserable and alone, Oberon Gloombringer, and you deserve that . I'm sorry, Aunt Titania, Adair, but I can't live with him. He's a monster. I don't know how you can do it. All the money in the world isn't worth putting up with him."

And then he was gone, and I couldn't even stand to try to stop him.