Careful of her fingers, I took the statue from her. The residual heat in the statue warmed my rough finger pads. I frowned at the crack running down its length. “Maybe we could glue it back together?” I had some PVA in our craft room.
“Glue a rare artifact that is nearly two thousand years old?” my mother said slowly.
I shrugged, breaking into a grin. “Dad’s probably got some superglue somewhere.”
She broke out into a laugh that sputtered apart as she winced, clutching her stomach. “Oh…my ribs…”
A sudden cry had us swinging around.
Aunt Valarie raced down the hallway in her painted speckled shirt and capris, her braid slapping against her chest as she ran. Ferne clung to her back, arms wrapped around my aunt’s shoulders like the cheeky monkey she was. “T-Tabitha!” my aunt cried once more as she reached us, falling to her knees.
Leaning down, I unhooked Ferne from my aunt and swung my baby sister into my arms. Orange paint matted a few of the glossy locks together. She squirmed in my grip, and her chubbytoddler hands found my cheeks, squishing them together. I stuck out my tongue, rolling my eyes dramatically. She burst into a giggle. Her unique irises—dusky blue, with clouds of pink and streaks of violet—shone with mirth. “Gray-Gray!”
“I’m fine, really,” my mother replied to my aunt, trying not to wince. “I mean, sure, my spine might be fractured, my ankle is shattered, as well as my arm and this finger.” She twisted her wrist gingerly and presented her middle finger, broken badly.
“Mom flipped you off,” I snickered, jabbing Caidan in the ribs. He shirked aside and burst into a cackling laugh.
She blinked. “Pardon?” Then her gaze narrowed as she put it together.
Both of us cut short our laughter and tried for studious, repentant expressions, suddenly interested in everything else in the entranceway.
“I just need a moment to lie here and mend,” she reassured my aunt. “You know…” She looked upward toward the vaulted ceiling, her lips slightly curled into her mouth, as a shudder of pain racked her body. “I’ve never seen the foyer from this view before. It really is quite a majestic home.” Aunt Valarie ran soothing strokes up and down my mother’s arm. My mother returned a small, grateful smile before looking at me. “Are you set for tomorrow, Gray?”
I was to go with my father to theoffice,which wasn’t truly an office as the world of mortals thought of it. I was to accompany him to House Novak’s estate. They were our liege, and we oversaw the crime lords, cartels, and syndicates that sold our magic-infused drugs. Tomorrow was a sort of bring-your-kid-to-work day. I was excited but also apprehensive to be entering the world of Horned Gods for the very first time.
“Weapons bag packed,” I replied, shifting Ferne to my hip and widening my stance.
“Suit?”
I screwed up my face. “No fucking way—”
“Gray! You know how I feel about that kind of vulgar language. You’re on dish duty for the week.”
No fucking way! So fucking unfair!
I cocked an eyebrow. “How comeDadgets away with it?”
“Trust me, he doesn’t—”
“He never seems to be put on dish duty,” I grumbled, batting aside Ferne’s hands as she pinched my brow, pulling the skin taut. Dish duty was a punishment that my mother liked to deal out to each of us when we crossed her line. Normally, it was the duty of the kitchen staff. There were a shitload of dishes to be done every single day, and it sucked ass to be put on it.
“No, he has his…own punishment dealt out.” Her mouth twitched with amusement, which kind of made me feel like Dad didn’t receive the same sort of punishment we did. “And I’m not raising your father. I’m raising you. You are representing our House, therefore, you will wear a suit.”
I heaved a sigh, trying a different tactic. “How about a halfway deal? Jeans—”
“A full suit, Gray.”
“GAH, Mom!”
A flash of annoyance had me huffing a breath through my nose. Then, as Ferne started tugging at my messy hair, pulling tight enough that my scalp stung, I realized all I needed to do was change out of my suitaftermy mother last saw me…and she’d never know. “Sure, Mom, whatever, a full suit.”
My mother continued to stare at me, long and hard, as if she were trying to figure out if I’d given in too easily—hellsgate, I sure did, Mom—but my aunt distracted her when she glanced up the wide and grand staircase and began to say, “H-h-h-h-h—”
My mother reached out and gently squeezed Aunt Valarie’s hand.
Aunt Valarie inhaled deeply, her body relaxing as she took her time. “H-h-how…”—a pause, a breath—“f-far…d-did you fall?”
“Pretty much all the way down. I tripped over something that shouldn’t have been there.”
