Ihelped Corbin and his dad place the letters neatly back in order inside the archive boxes. I knew I should feel defeated that we still didn’t have any answers, but my blood sizzled with excitement. The more I read, the more I was certain something was going on between Robert and my mother beyond their physical relationship and the magical bond they shared, something they were trying to keep everyone else out of.
I’d never get to confront my mother, but Robert…Robert was alive. We could ask him.
We had to at least try.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get the answers you wanted,” Corbin’s dad said as he shrugged on a long black gown.
“That’s okay. You’ve given me something even more precious today – a glimpse into my mother’s life.”
Andrew moved his hand toward me for another shake, but I decided to take a chance. I pitched myself at him, wrapping my arms around his body, the same build as Corbin’s but not as toned and muscled.
“Thank you so much for helping us,” I whispered into his ear.
He froze. I hugged him tighter. After a moment, he raised an arm tentatively and patted my back.
“You’re welcome, Maeve.” His voice cracked.
I pulled away. A tear streaked down the side of Andrew’s face. “I’m glad we finally met.” He blinked, then turned to his son. “Corbin, could I speak with you for a moment? Maeve, would you be okay if?—”
“Of course. I’ll just wait outside.” I stepped out of the archive room and wandered around the museum. Shelves of slinky Egyptian cats glared at me with eyes of onyx and lapis lazuli, so different from Obelix, the rotund castle cat who stalked around Briarwood. I wandered into a picture gallery, but all the exhibits were static and dull. I didn’t see any science displays. I checked the archive room door. Corbin and his Dad were still inside. I went down to the lobby.
Beside the usual tourist brochures and Oxford-themed gift stand was a stack of pamphlets and booklets about the university. One title leapt out at me, and I pulled out the thick booklet.
Department of Physics Prospectus.
I flipped open the prospectus, looking at pictures of smug students peering into microscopes and laughing from the parapets of the medieval buildings. Scientists in white lab coats bustled around gleaming laboratories and lectured on international stages. My eyes scanned down the subject list, my heart hammering.
Research areas: Astrophysics.
I devoured the text, reading about the department’s research into dark matter and dark energy, into the formation of black holes, their design and building of ground-based research instruments, and their involvement in many of the largest telescope projects across the world. Graduates had gone on to be top research scientists and astronauts at NASA and the European Space Agency…
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I flipped to the next page, which was information for prospective students, and a list of available scholarships?—
“Maeve?” Corbin’s voice came from behind me. I dropped the prospectus and whipped around. Corbin stood next to his dad. They weren’t holding hands or touching or anything, but the tension that had cracked through the air when we’d first arrived had disappeared. “Are you ready to go? Dad’s going to introduce us to some of the best Oxford pub grub.”
“Huh? Yeah, sure.” I yanked my coat over my shoulder and, with a final glance at the abandoned prospectus, I followed the two Harris men out the door.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MAEVE
Dinner was amazing. We went to a pub that was older than every building I’d ever visited in America and had bangers and mash and cider and I sat back and listened as Corbin and his Dad argued about Shakespeare and Chaucer and whether the new BBC series about Roman Britain was historically accurate. When we left the pub, Andrew embraced Corbin, wrapping his arms tight around his son and whispering something in his ear before he hopped on his bike and pedalled off.
Corbin couldn’t stop smiling. He barely spoke about the painting mystery as we walked back to the apartment we’d rented in Oxford for the night. All he talked about was his dad and how they talked and how amazing it was that I’d got him to open up.
“I had nothing to do with this,” I said as we climbed the stairs to our rented apartment. “It was all you. It was time for you and your dad to repair what was broken, and he knew it.”
“Maeve, you’re back!” Kelly threw her arms around me as soon as I entered the room. “Look at the new dress I got!”
She danced around, revealing a wrap dress boasting the Union Jack flag in garish sequins across the front.
“It’s…quite something,” I said, wondering if the rest of the evening was going to consist of aNext Top Modelfashion show. “Hey, where’s Flynn?”
I scrolled through the news on my phone to check no weird fae attacks had made the headlines. My favourite science blog popped up with a new update, but I closed the notification without reading it. The Oxford University prospectus flashed in my mind, but I waved the thought away. I couldn’t even think of anywhere except MIT, and besides, it was fae first, real life later.
Blake shrugged. “Flynn went for a walk, said he needed to be alone.”
“Flynn? Alone? But who would listen to his naff jokes?” Arthur smirked as he slumped down beside me and wrapped his arm around me, the way a boyfriend would. I grinned at him, hoping I’d get the chance soon to be alone with him and tell him how I felt, and ask him about the cut on his arm.
