Chapter Three

We sat down in the restaurant and had dinner together. It was a tiny place with few customers and somewhat out of the way, so we could talk more freely than we would in some chain. It was the first meal of the sort we had ever done, yet it was surprisingly not awkward. Without the burden of keeping multiple secrets for centuries, Niko was different. Once the floodgates opened on my porch, they stayed open, and I had unfiltered access to Niko that I thought was never possible. He wasn't fighting it at all as I bombarded him with questions.

"So, while you're being open and honest… Mischa has always claimed that you keep your private life very private. Since you'll be living near me, I think I need a bit of a heads-up about what I'm dealing with."

"Oh, that's because I could never trust Mischa not to use my life and choices against me when she was angry. You know how she can be. We've all seen you in her line of fire. In order to keep it a secret from her, I kept it a secret from everyone. It helped me keep everything else a secret, too. In the end… I got comfortable being the quiet brother with secrets. Mischa caught one slip-up from me and never let it go, but I never gave in to her needling. She was the one most into exposing everything about me. Everyone else was fine with it."

"Back to why I'm asking about this… Will I be seeing any random supernaturals coming for hookups?"

"No. They didn't happen frequently, and I didn't keep in touch with any of them. Before you ask, none were werewolves." He seemed patient enough with my questions, almost like he expected them to come up and was kindly indulging me. "What can I say? No one in our family just sits around doing nothing for centuries. I don't have plans for it right now, though. I'll hook up with a human if I've got an itch to scratch, but no supernaturals. Not right now." He sipped his drink. "You don't have to worry about me bringing someone into the area that would cause any sort of problem."

"I'm going to hold you to that," I said, pointing at him to drive the point home.

"I know."

"Good." I paused for a second, then went back to something he had said. "Why is she like that?"

"Mischa?" With my nod, he sighed. "I wish I could tell you something insightful, but the honest truth is that she's always been like that while I've been in the family. She has little emotional control, which is both her greatest strength and greatest weakness. I don't know if something made her like that or if she was born wired that way."

"It feels like she's angry with everyone all the time," I said, shaking my head at the state of things. "Violently angry."

"I know, and that's not her default, but it's not out of her normal either. Mischa's emotions are like a storm. It can be endured, but it can't be reasoned with. You can't tell a hurricane not to land. You can't tell the rains that they are flooding the fields and killing the crops. You can only endure it, and eventually, it will pass."

"Sounds like everyone forgot Mischa is a grown-ass woman and not a force of nature," I mumbled.

"You say that, and I would like to agree. However, there are only four people on the planet who could hold Mischa accountable like that, and all of them have a lot on their plates."

"Good point," I conceded. I knew if Mischa and I got into a real fight, she would win. Niko clearly was thinking he couldn't take her on, either. Davor didn't stand a chance. I didn't see him being much of a fighter, truthfully. "What about Hi?—"

"He would never," Niko said softly but urgently, cutting me off.

"Okay." It was simple to just choose to believe him. "Which means the twins and the… heads of our family." Calling them our parents felt odd, even if stepping around it was wordy. Niko was nice enough not to call me out.

"Exactly. Some of the busiest people on the planet."

"Yeah…" I wasn't sure I agreed with that part, not for their entire lives, but I could admit they were right now. Even though Hasan was living on his island in disgrace in terms of our family, he was still the Tribunal's only werecat. He wasn't on vacation. While I never knew details of his day to day, I knew he had his hands in everything going on with the supernatural world at any given point in time. He certainly wasn"t sitting on them.

"Why don't we change the topic? How's Carey? How are you and Heath?"

"Carey is thriving. She's made a really good friend in Makalo even though they are a literal ocean apart. Heath and I are wonderful. He's being very patient with me, supportive but not overdoing it."

"The pack?" His genuine curiosity surprised me.

"It's a little complicated, but nothing time won't fix. Why do you ask?"

"We're doing this." He waved between us with his empty hand. "Being good siblings, talking about our feelings and problems. Figured I should ask because you're a werecat with werewolves. I hope our family checks up on you every time they talk to you. I trust the ones I've met, the Everson family, but I haven't spent any time with the rest of the pack since I moved here."

"We should correct that soon. It would be good for them to get to know the other werecat they smell around the area, too. Maybe Heath and I can throw some barbecue and finally get you and them talking properly… with supervision." I would never leave Niko alone with a bunch of werewolves that didn"t know him well. Someone would die, and odds were, it would be all the werewolves.

"Let"s not try to force it. They'll have their chance eventually. It's not like I'm going anywhere."

"Exactly. Now, I'm going to eat before the food gets cold," I said, pointing down at my plate with my fork. Niko nodded and dove into his own meal.

We polished off the food quickly, neither of us caring what others in the building might think about how we could eat it all. Being werecats, we didn't really have that luxury. If we skipped too many meals, we could easily drop mass that we sorely needed. I left a tip, though Niko doubled it without saying anything. Once we were in his car, I asked one more question that had been bugging me since the Mischa conversation.

"What's kept Subira so busy?" I asked boldly the moment the doors were closed.

"Something in her territory," he said as he turned on the car. Something shifted in his tone of voice. It was flat, and I had the firm suspicion he didn't want to have this particular conversation.

"She called it their greatest secret," I murmured. It was something I thought about infrequently, but it certainly stayed with me. "She's been attending their greatest secret."

"Yes, I heard that as well."

"Do you know what it is?" There was no reason for me to beat around the bush.

"If I did, I couldn't tell you."

"I'm still not there with the family, huh?" With a sigh, I let that disappointment sink in.

"No. It's because it wouldn't be my secret to give. If Subira is guarding it, the only person you should hear it from is Subira. As a matter of fact, that was news to me, too. I've always been told that she's busy and just accepted it. She's also a powerful and practiced witch. She's probably doing all sorts of things we can't even comprehend."

"That's a very fair point. She's not exactly someone whose trust I would want to betray."

"You wouldn't live long enough to regret it… if you weren't her daughter," he finished. "Which is why I think I'm going to draw a line here. I trust her. If there's a time we need to know, she'll tell us. She might be a bit slower in her actions than the rest of us, but her intentions are always good. She's also impeccably on time when she wants to be… when she needs to be."

The turn in our conversation only reminded me of the blow-up event of our family in Germany. It didn't help that he directly referenced it. She was very much not on time to the family meeting until she absolutely needed to intervene. She was getting a reputation among the family for showing up at the last moment, right when we needed her. The same thing happened in Mozambique when tragedy struck Jabari, Aisha, and Makalo. She had been heading there for weeks prior to what happened and had gotten there right on time while the rest of us were stuck witnessing the events unfold through a video call, unable to help at all.

"I'm sorry for pushing. I was being curious, but I can understand your position. I guess I'm tired of the secrets, you know? Now, every time I hear a mention of one, I wonder if I'm once again the last to know like always."

"In this case, you're not. We know she's duty-bound to something in her territory, something she guards and won't leave. That's why she's always lived there and rarely makes trips away, and never long ones. As to what that is, I've certainly never been told. I don't think any of us really know. The twins might have a better guess than any of us, but that's for multiple reasons."

"They're witches like her, and they've been alive for so long." It was pretty obvious.

"And they are her biological children. She says she loves us all equally, and I believe that, but I know there's something… unique between her and the twins. You can't say you haven't seen it."

"I have, but it never bothered me. I don't even know if I would classify it as favoritism."

"I wouldn't either, but it's different from us. It doesn't help that they stayed in Africa, where they were born and raised by her and Hasan, and we all spread out all over the world. They needed magic lessons, and we didn't. But I think, in terms of their relationship, they might have heard more hints from Subira or could have uncovered it without her needing to tell them if they tried. I'm not going to ask them, and neither are you."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Considering the sorts of secrets everyone else in this family is keeping, I am scared to know what Subira must be hiding, not just from us but the world."

"Now you're getting it," Niko teased a little, and the mood lightened in a heartbeat.

Until we both jumped high enough to hit our heads as my phone started to ring. I answered without looking at the caller ID, just trying to make the loud noise stop.

"Jacky speaking," I said quickly.

"I sneezed and wondered what my youngest was up to."

Based on her own amusement and once again impeccable timing, I laughed, which caused Subira to chuckle as well.

"Niko and I were out to dinner, and you might have come up," I explained. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good. I'm taking a break from trying to convince Jabari what my house does and doesn't need. Amir is taking a nap, Makalo is off running around with Kushim, and Zuri is plotting with Aisha about how to make sure Jabari doesn't build some awful mansion in my untouched and pristine territory."

"He's not really trying to build a mansion, is he?" I rolled my eyes and saw Niko shaking his head at our eldest brother's foolishness.

"Oh, he is, but?—"

"Mother, I have figured it out!" Zuri's voice came through as if she had the phone. "We're going to build down. Up here, the only thing people will see is a small, single-bedroom home for the lonely little woman who lives out here. We'll build a large living space underground."

"Like the vampires?" Subira seemed amused by this.

"Yeah, but it's not a bad idea. We could also build into that cliffside?—"

"Not the cliff. If we build underground, make sure there are several ways out as well. Might as well make it as safe as the vampires do. Do it, but still only the necessities."

"Can do! I'll tell Jabari."

"Is she gone?" I asked.

"She is. Now, back to you and Niko."

"He's in the car with me still. He's dropping me off at home, then heading home himself."

"Oh, wonderful. I really only called to say I love you. I love you both."

"Love you, too," Niko said, his voice a bit rough.

"Yeah, love you, too," I said, smiling at her kindness. She had promised to be more attentive, and it seemed like she was trying to keep it.

"Has there been any word from…" Niko trailed off, and I saw his hands squeeze his steering wheel a bit too hard.

"No, Niko, I'm sorry. He hasn't sent me word."

"When is he moving to your territory?" I asked, moving quickly off the topic of how Hasan wasn't sending any word to us, not privately or through Subira. What I was willing to talk about was how Hasan was in timeout on his island when he was supposed to be living with Subira now. Like all things, though, change takes time, and everything was easier said than done.

"Once we have a Tribunal space for him. No longer than a few more weeks. We've already decided that no matter what is built, his and my spaces must be first and finished before anything else so we can move in properly."

"That's good. Good plan."

"What were you and Niko talking about? I know I came up," she said.

"Uh…" I glanced at Niko. We had just talked about how we weren't going to mention it to her, ever.

"How did you know?" Niko asked, and it was probably the best thing he could have done. Question for a question.

"Magic, of course."

I wasn't sure if she was teasing with the truth or just plain messing with us.

"Fair. Jacky was asking about how you keep busy in your territory. I was telling her how we just trust you're doing what you need to be doing and don't pry."

There was a long pause, and the energy in the car changed.

"Want to know a secret?" Subira asked softly, a teasing note in her voice.

Suddenly, everything was electric.

"Yes," I answered before Niko could say anything.

"I already knew what you were talking about," she said. She sounded like the entire thing made for a great joke. "Love you both. Have a nice evening." Then she hung up before I had a second to process anything she had said.

I put my phone away and looked at Niko. He was just as stunned as I was.

"Well, that…" Niko didn't finish his statement.

I didn't ask him to elaborate.