“What do you buy a woman who’s about to learn her granddaughter is a witch/dragon hybrid?” Raven asked Gabriel. They’d stopped by Blakemore’s Antiques to pick out a Christmas gift to bring with them to her mother’s the following morning. She was relieved that Avery and Xavier had offered to babysit Charlie while they shopped. The thought of keeping the child contained in a store full of priceless valuables made her itch, especially now that they’d learned she could fly.
Gabriel slanted a grin in her direction. “There is that bronze dragon figurine from the Qing dynasty.”
“Oh for the love of the goddess, can you imagine? Not only would we stop her heart with the news, but she could also relive the experience repeatedly every time she saw it.”
Agnes came out of the office and rushed to embrace both of them in a firm hug. “I thought I heard your voices!” Her sleek silver bob was as sophisticated as ever, and the wide-legged pants she wore looked sharp with a cropped, textured sweater. She kissed Raven on both cheeks. “It’s been an age!”
“Too long,” Gabriel agreed.
“Where’s Richard?” Raven asked.
“Off for the holiday. It’s Christmas Eve, after all, and unlike me, he has family. Now tell me what brings you here today. I’m sensing it isn’t to check up on the store.”
“Never. I trust you implicitly. There’s something we need to find, and something we need to do to find it.”
“Do tell.”
Raven glanced around the store and lowered her voice. “No customers in today? Not even on the second floor?”
She shook her head. “Midmorning lull.”
Raven moved to the door and locked it, flipping the sign toClosed. “Do you want to tell her or should I?”
As it turned out, Gabriel volunteered to fill Agnes in on everything that had happened since they’d left Blakemore’s. They joined her in what used to be Gabriel’s office, where Raven conjured them a pot of tea and added details her mate forgot. It took the better part of an hour to explain where they’d been these past months and everything that had unfolded. When Agnes heard about Charlie, she almost came out of her skin, insisting she must meet the baby before they left to return to Aeaea.
“So, you’re here to find the remains of the tanglewood tree. My god, Gabriel, I thought the mess you were in with Crimson Vanderholt was the worst that could happen. How do the two of you get yourselves into these situations?”
Gabriel growled and reflexively glanced at his ring, no doubt remembering the curse that had brought them together. “Don’t talk about Crimson. I still have nightmares.”
“One good thing came of Crimson Vanderholt,” Raven said through a smile. “It was because of her spell that I was able to get pregnant with Charlie.”
The room grew eerily quiet. Gabriel sipped his tea. Agnes rubbed under her eye.
“Well, it’s true. Thank goodness she’s dead, but her spell, as dark and evil as her intentions were, brought Charlie into this world.” Raven poured herself another cup.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “I’d rather not think of it.”
Agnes stood. “Then let’s do something productive, like finding you a gift to bring to Raven’s mother, shall we? I think I have just the thing. How do you think she would feel about a stained-glass panel for one of her windows?” Agnes pointed at the small window in the brick above her head. “It was reclaimed and refurbished from an old church that was torn down years ago.”
Raven squinted at the colorful leaded glass. There was a large bird outside the window, and its silhouette blocked the sun, obstructing her view of the pattern. She stood and crossed the room to view the simple geometric art at a better angle. Easter lilies. Her mother did have a front window in her apartment above the Three Sisters that let in the morning sun, and the bright colors matched her decor.
“I think she’d love that.”
There weretwo ways into the apartment above the Three Sisters. One was to enter through the bar itself and use a narrow staircase that ascended between the back office and the kitchen. The other way was to employ a staircase that rose along the outside of the building and doubled as a fire escape. Since it was Christmas morning, the bar was closed, the front door locked. They’d have to use the outside stairs.
“Gabriel, you are going to have to carry Charlie,” Raven said. “I’m not strong enough to keep her wings tucked into the blanket. She keeps squirming out of my grasp.” She rewrapped her daughter in the red plaid they’d bought for the occasion and tried her best to make her look human even though there was no way her size was anything close to natural. Once she was a veritable burrito, Raven handed her off to Gabriel.
“Even if you hide the wings, it’s going to take Mom all of five seconds to realize something is wrong. Let’s just hope Charlie doesn’t try to eat her like she did the cat,” Avery said.
Raven glared at her sister. “Since we’re all being so honest with Mom, I’m not sure why you and Clarissa left your mates at the Prytania house? Shouldn’t we rip off the Band-Aid and introduce them to her at the same time?”
“Hey, technically, she’s already met Nathaniel,” Clarissa said, an easy laugh warming the air around her.
“I just thought it would be easier on Mom if there were fewer… distractions.” Avery adjusted the stack of gifts she was carrying. “Besides, Xavier is… hard to explain on many levels.”
Raven understood what her sister meant. Xavier had spent centuries in a pocket of magic, living cut off from the modern world. It wasn’t just that he was a Scot and a dragon—he was practically from another time. But she also knew that Avery’s deepest fear wasn’t about any of that. “You’re afraid to tell Mom you got married without her there.”
“Maybe,” Avery admitted.
