Clayton didn’t answer because he didn’t have the slightest clue how to explain to her that the baby she used to coo over and protect like a second mother was now her caretaker.
Merry reached up to touch his hair, a darker shade than the wild carrot color from his childhood, but still unmistakably ginger. “Wynwyn?” Her voice was shaky, and a tear spilled down her cheek.
Clayton gave her a soft smile and nodded. “That’s me.”
Tommy threw himself at Clayton's leg, “We found you! We looked for you forever, but we couldn’t find you anywhere.” His stranglehold on Clayton’s leg was so tight that Clayton began to lose feeling in his foot.
Clayton reached down and touched one of Tommy’s tear-streaked cheeks. He produced a handkerchief from his pocket and began to pat the boy’s face dry. He produced another and did the same for Merry. “You remembered what happened?”
“Of course we remembered, Wynwyn. We promised to protect you! I’m so sorry we couldn’t find you.” Merry sniffled while touching Clayton’s face and hair as if trying to see the child he once was.
“Oh, Merry… Tommy…” Clayton's throat hurt, and his eyes burned. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault, I?—”
“I’m sorry to break up the big reunion, but eighty-six-bajillion elf-pirates are beating on my shield, and I don't know how long I can keep it up,” Holly said from her squished position between Tommy and Merry. Clayton had completely forgotten he’d been in the middle of comforting her.
Being a parent was complicated.
He should get a book.
“Please forgive me, Holly, that was incredibly rude of me, I—” Clayton began, but he was interrupted.
Holly rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t rude, Clayton, Jesus Fucking Christ. Even someone like me can recognize how important this moment must be for you three, and I don’t even know what’s going on.”
“My apologi?—”
“No. No more apologies. Let’s work the current problem, and then afterward we can all have a good cry.”
“Of course, Holly,” Clayton said stiffly, biting back another apology, then standing straight and trying to act like he didn’t have two tearful children clinging to him. He was the adult, after all. “How long can you keep the shield going? Is there anything we can do to help you strengthen it?”
“I don’t know the answer to either,” Holly admitted reluctantly. “I don’t even know how I did what I did. I only learned I was part-brownie yesterday when Mal told me, and it’s not like he gave me a handbook or anything.”
“Part brownie?” Clayton was stunned.
Brownies were precious and dearly cherished members of the Other. How could Holly have become lost to the norm world? Even if she wasn’t a full brownie, the concept was unthinkable.
He shoved his incredulity aside only to be slammed with a second, even more impossible realization. The only way brownie magic could have possibly worked on the shield protecting Clayton’s home would be if the brownie had bonded to him and considered his family hers.
“Oh, Holly…” Clayton sighed.
The universe had been wreaking joyful havoc on his emotions all day and didn’t show any signs of letting up. How bad must her life have been if Holly had been able to bond to his family in less than a day? Most brownies took years before finding the right family; some even took centuries.
Clayton mentally shook himself and focused on the problem at hand. He needed to protect his boat, then go save his parents, and…
He gave a quick glance in the direction of Mal, and his eye twitched at the number of nonstandard body parts his lover was currently sporting as he stood halfway inside a portal to the demon realm, gobbling up demon after demon.
Clayton would deal with that problem as soon as he’d taken care of the members of his family who were actively in danger. The only danger Mal was in was cracking his monstrous, scaled head on the cavern ceiling.
“Okay,” Clayton clapped his hands together. “This is what we’re going to do. Merry and Tommy, you’re both going to cuddle the ever-loving daylights out of Holly so she knows how much we love and appreciate her.”
Holly snorted and rolled her eyes, but Clayton knew from his own painfully recent experiences of being a teen, and theblush on her cheeks, that she wasn’t half as pointy as she wanted people to believe.
Clayton took Holly’s hands and said, “Brownies get their power from hearth and home. The strength of your connections to your family is directly tied to your magic. The brownie at the chapter house—sorry, my place of work,” Clayton added, when Holly gave him a raised eyebrow of confusion. “She’s been bonded to my boss, Samantha, and her companion for over a century, and she’s powerful enough to hold her own against a dragon.”
Clayton was embellishing a bit. Saiddragonwas actually a baby fire sprite who’d gotten separated from his family, but he’d burned down half the block surrounding the chapter house. The stories said that the resident brownie had held back the brunt of the baby’s wrath, keeping it from turning the chapter house to ash until his parents were found.
That was long before Clayton’s time, so he didn’t know for certain.
“Companion? What is this, the nineteen fifties? If your boss is queer, just say so. Don’t be an asshole about it.” Holly’s eyes blazed with indignation on behalf of someone she’d never met.
