7
Danni
Ihave a few days off, so I drive home to see Mom. Oran hasn’t bothered to stop in at Dad’s bar, so I assume he’s been scared off and moved on. Asshole.
The café is kind of where I grew up. It serves vegan food and is filled with odds and ends and recycled furniture. There’s a garden out the back, and the carpark usually has at least one motorbike. I see two and I can’t help but feel my heart lift in hope. I park and check out the bikes. Neither are his.
And if it had been? Would I have played it cool and ignored him, or given him a piece of my mind?
Has he not heard of calling or texting? Of course not, the riders aren’t known for their ability to use a phone. It’s why they leave messages here, that and a paper message will last for years long after a phone has been disconnected.
I stomp across the carpark to the entrance. The door is open and as usual the café smells like cake and coffee and all the good things in life—or what I had thought of as the good things until three nights ago. Hunting monsters had moved up the list, as had fucking Oran.
“Danni!” Mom comes around the counter and hugs me. “You should’ve said you were coming. I’d have made pecan pie.”
My favorite, but I didn’t want to put her out. She has a baking schedule that she likes to keep to—and that her regulars, human and fae, appreciate—and today is not pecan pie day.
“I wanted to surprise you.” I kiss her cheek.
Part of me wishes that she’d let me work here, but she figured the less time I spent around the fae, the better. Not that she was thrilled with me working for Dad either. Dad had bought the bar to steal the riders off Mom, but the riders know where to get the sweets they like so much, and if they start drinking there, Mom will cut them off.
“How’s Shay?” Her voice was always brittle when talking about him, but she always asked.
“I’ve only seen him for five minutes this week, but he’s alive.” I really need a new job so I can get away from both my parents. My plan is to start looking while I’m visiting Mom.
“What’s wrong, hun?”
I shrug but don’t bother trying to hide it. Mom is too good at picking away at things until the truth unravels, so it’s easier to get to the point and get it over with.
“We had a bit of a fight.” I hesitate and glance around the café. There are several humans enjoying coffee and cake. One rider writing something that will no doubt be left in the massage box.
Mom gets the hint that I need to talk about the fae and leads me out the back. She stands where she can keep an eye on the patrons and puts her hands on her hips. She might be shorter than me, but she can still be terrifying. “Spill.”
“I went hunting with a rider.”
Her eyebrows lift and she tuts. “Leave that to them, that’s what they’re here for.”
“You sound like Dad.”
She winces. “We don’t agree on much, but we want you to stay safe. Hunting isn’t safe.”
And that’s why it was fun.
“No, but it’s in my blood.” And I want to do it again. I’m not stupid enough to go alone, and I wouldn’t have a clue where to find the creatures from the outer fae realms.
She makes that worried face, where her lips pinch together but she manages to look sad at the same time. She cups my cheek. “I forget your fae sometimes.”
All the time.
“I want to learn what my magic is, and train.” I rush on before she can argue. “I need to discover who I am and what I’m capable of to feel safe, Mom. And I’m tired of Dad watching over me.” And putting the brakes on my dating life. “I’m twenty-two.” Two years older than when she had me.
“You might be fae, but you were raised here as a human. I don’t want you ending up like me, knocked up and left behind. Riders will promise the world then run before they have to deliver.” Bitterness creeps into her words. That Dad didn’t think she was worth taking to faery left a wound that would never heal.
But Oran had kept his word to me and returned me to the bar before the magic wore off. He isn’t like Shay.
I nod. I don’t want to be a single mom raising a fae kid while the Dad goes off to have all the fun. I want to be the one having fun. “And if I visit faery?”
“I’ll be dead before you come back. Time moves differently.”
