I was still thinking about whether my cat would like living in Davin’s apartment, which I’d only seen a few times, both when I’d been utterly exhausted, when the front door of my mother’s house opened and there she was, standing in the doorway. She looked worried like she almost never did.
It was starting to annoy me, the fact that there was never time for just me and Davin. Not that it was Mother’s fault. She was just the obstacle in that moment, not always. If I’d given it any longer, Twist might have crawled out of my pocket and made it herself.
I’d have to leave her to stay with her grandmother for a week when this was all done, so Davin and I wouldn’t have to worry about anything at all, not even my furry child who forever hungered. Mother would keep her fed.
I pulled away from Davin with a sigh and turned to the door, muttering to myself about the terrible timing of life, and when he joined me in front of the car, he was stifling laughter. I bumped him with my shoulder, and he bumped me back.
“I’d say we’ll go to your island alone after all this is done, but apparently, you don’t have an island anymore. Pity.” His voice was shaking with his amusement, but...well, fuck it. Itwasfunny, wasn’t it? I didn’t own an island anymore.
Thank fuck.
“Mother has a house out in the mountains,” I offered instead. “It’s near a lake, and she hardly ever uses it. We’ll take charge of it for a week as soon as this fuckery is over, and not answer phones or doors for anyone. Let the world burn down around us.” I turned to look at him, eyebrows lifted, and I wasn’t entirely certain whether I was asking him or telling him we were going.
His return smile was warm, all hint of laughter gone. “That sounds lovely. Call it a date.”
Thank fuck.
For now, we had my mother to deal with.
I turned to her, taking a deep breath as we walked through the door she was holding open.
There was nothing for it but to say it, and holding it back wasn’t going to do anyone any good.
So I let her close the door as I turned to face her, then put my hands on her shoulders when she turned back to me, squeezing tight and meeting her gaze head on as I told her. “The dragon who arrived at the island was my father. He’s alive.”
Mother? Well, she’d never in my life let me down, and she didn’t start with this situation. She sucked in a sharp breath, and her eyes filled instantly. “Mercer? You’re...you’re sure it’s him? You?—”
“Mother. It’s him. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. But he’s in rough shape. He’s been held prisoner for a long time. He escaped because they said they were planning to come after me, and he...he wanted to protect me. But he also apparently turned into a dragon to escape, so he used up everything he had getting to the island. We fed him some broth and put him back to sleep, and Sexton is helping look after him.”
At that, there was a moment of panic. “Sexton? But he?—”
“Mother.” I kept my voice calm and steady, and continued to meet her eye, because I’d known she wouldn’t be happy about that part, and I was ready for her. “Sexton is protecting him. I promise. He knows that stealing father’s energy isn’t any kind of path to power. I trust him with my life. With Davin’s. With Father’s. Even with yours, maybe.”
“As much as I don’t trust him,” Davin interrupted, and I turned to glare at him, but he put up a hand to ward me off. “I was just saying that I don’t trust him as a rule, but in this? I do.First of all, Mercer’s got no energy for him to steal. Secondly, Sexton knows that if he wants to become a dragon, Flynn, and now Mercer, are the ones who know how to do that. The way to increase his power isn’t betraying Flynn.”
It was a fair point, I supposed, and one Mother could easily understand, even if it felt nearly Wu Mei-like in its cynicism.
“We left them out on the island because it seemed a defensible position,” Davin said, continuing to explain my opinions to Mother, and, well, yeah. I’d kind of forgotten that part.
“Someone attacked Sexton just a day ago, so the bad guys are here in Avalon, even if this isn’t where they’re from.” This part, at least, I remembered. “There’s this guy named Fearson, who’s relocating his business from London to here. Davin and Twist said he smells sort of like a dragon.”
As though cued by her name, my kitten burrowed her way out of my pocket, still blinking sleepily. “Hello Grandmother,” she said on an adorable yawn. “I hunger. And the strange dragon smells bad, but I will kill him for you if you wish it.”
Mother smiled at Twist and immediately pulled out her phone, but without sending a message, simply smiled at it and motioned us toward the dining room. Naturally. She’d known we were coming, so she’d prepared to feed my bottomless pit-ten.
Sure enough, there was food on the table when we arrived in the dining room, and Twist went right to demolishing her portion. There was more than usual there for me, too, and given the way my stomach immediately rumbled, I couldn’t say it had been a bad choice.
I might have to fight another dragon sometime soon, after all.
Mother, meanwhile, took the opportunity of dinner—midnight snack? Breakfast?—to start making phone calls, which was both strange and out of character for my mother. Well, untilI realized what was going on. She was calling in the cavalry, so to speak.
The first call was on the long side, and she explained everything that had happened, which surprised me until she hung up with a decisive nod and an, “I’ll see you soon, then, Caspian.”
Oh jeez.
Caspian.
Next to me, Davin shivered, probably remembering the last time he’d seen the consul, when he’d had to be removed from Dublin for his own safety after being attacked and made a vampire by a mass-murdering sociopath.
