Gabriel spread his wings. Her mother looked as if she might faint again. Raven snapped her fingers, and a spark of magic spelled outMerry Christmasin the air between them. Sarah and David looked like they’d stopped breathing.
“It’s real. And you’re not a punch line, Dad. Neither of you is. We thought about keeping this from you, but we think you can handle it.”
Clarissa laughed nervously. “Hey, but it’s not nearly as exciting as you two lovebirds getting back together, am I right?”
Everyone turned and stared at her.
“Just trying to lighten the mood.” She grabbed the sides of her chair and stretched her legs out in front of her.
Charlie started gnawing on Gabriel’s arm.
“Mom, I know you’re still processing all this, but Charlie is hungry. The meal smells delicious. Can I feed her?”
Her mother shook herself like she was waking up. “Hungry? But surely she…”
“She eats everything we eat, although she prefers meat… rare.” Raven felt her smile falter. That was one of the odder things about Charlie that she hadn’t quite gotten used to herself.
Sarah sat up straighter. “I have just the thing.” She pointed over her shoulder. “I made prime rib. She can have the center piece.” She popped off the couch and headed for the kitchen.
“You know your mother,” David said. “Nothing trumps her instinct to feed people.”
Her father must have been right, because in a matter of minutes, Raven found herself at the dining room table, passing bowls of whipped potatoes and fried okra. Her mother had produced a high chair that must have been from the restaurant and succeeded in getting Charlie into it, wings and all.
“Now, you stay right there,” she said, pointing a finger at Charlie’s nose. “And I will get you some nummy beef.”
Raven couldn’t believe it. Charlie stayed absolutely still, watching with widened eyes as her grandma cubed up the red portion of the center cut of prime rib and put it on her tray. She started eating without a fuss.
“That’s incredible,” Raven said. “How did you get her to mind you?”
Sarah waved a hand dismissively and spread her napkin on her lap. “It’s all in the voice. You have to tell them what to do. You don’t ask a toddler, you tell them. She knows I’m serious.”
For the next glorious hour, Raven enjoyed a relatively normal family meal. She kept exchanging glances with Avery. Her sister had been right. Mom and Dad could handle this. Everything was going to be so much easier now that they knew.
And then David asked a question. “Now that you’re back, are you going to live above Blakemore’s? Or in that Garden District place you bought before the wedding? I’ve got to tell you, I think that place needs work. If Charlie is going to be growing up there, we need to fix up the yard. Maybe buy a swing set.”
Sarah held up a finger. “Oh, Bob from church is selling their swing set. Beautiful castle-like thing with a slide. It would be perfect for Charlie.”
Raven swallowed what was in her mouth. “We, uh, can’t stay.”
Forks rattled against plates as her mother and father stopped eating.
Avery came to her rescue. “You heard Gabriel talk about the horrible things his mother did, but he hasn’t told you about the horrible things she’s doing right now. We came here because we think that the three women who started the Three Sisters hid something here for us to find, something that could help us conquer her.”
“Conquer her?” David chuckled. “You make it sound like you’re going to war.”
“We are,” Gabriel said gravely. “Now that Marius is gone, I am the heir to the throne of Paragon, and with the help of your daughters’ magic, we plan to right the wrong my mother has inflicted and take back the kingdom.”
Sarah’s eyebrows rose. “You plan to be king?” she squeaked. Her fingers tugged nervously at her ear.
Gabriel nodded darkly. It took all Raven’s self-control not to elbow him in the side. He was brooding, and his eyes were doing that fiery devil thing they did when he was thinking about something serious. He was going to scare her parents out of their skin.
“More potatoes?” Raven asked lightly, taking a heap for herself, then attempting to pass the dish. Nobody took her up on it.
“Which means you will be queen,” David said, staring at her, slack-jawed.
Clarissa stopped chewing, her gaze ping-ponging around the table. “Mmmm, potatoes. Pass those over here.”
Raven handed her the bowl, then turned back to her father. “Yes. I will be queen. If we can conquer Eleanor.”
