Win waved his hand, while stroking my hip with his other. “Let’s table that. I’ll have enough of it tomorrow and going forward. Tonight is the last few hours before all of that happens.” He looked up at me. “Is this one reason you brought us here, Z? The urge to ruin this place… but in something… loving? To overwrite it as your family home and shift what it represents?”
“I brought you guys here because it has a kitchen, which, you know, was integral to the whole cooking theme of tonight.”
I eased off Winter’s lap and walked around the table, feeling their eyes on me. Shutting his observation down wasn’t… I couldn’t do that sort of thing anymore. I really didn’t want to backtrack. Least of all because of my absentee parents.
“I guess… maybe there’s something to what you said, Win. Yeah. I like the kitchen here. But attached to the rest of the house… setting up earlier when you guys weren’t here yet… it’s a relic, a haunting one at that. But it’s also a shame it’s just left here, you know? But then it being connected to my parents—”
“People who hurt you,” Evira offered. “Who left you behind?”
“Yeah. Is that… did something similar happen to you with your mom?”
She hadn’t said a word about her, and even little was known about the woman at all, not even her name.
“Not in the same way that it did to you. I never knew my mom. I’m better off for it in my case.” She smiled out at Win. “Not every mom can be like Velra, you know?” He nodded, then Evira told us, “Her name was Prena. She had lofty political ambitions, but her way of going about achieving them wasn’t to work her way up, but to take shortcuts. She saw an opportunity during the celebration of the overthrow of House Titanus all those years ago. She basically used illicit and borrowed magic to… coerce my father into… impregnating her. Her goal was to use the conception to make a power grab. My dad refused and with help from my grandmother, the whole thing was rejected. Prena took off right after I was born, and disappeared into the ozone. It was just… a failed business transaction to her.”
My stomach twisted. “That’s brutal. I’m so sorry.”
Winter’s eyes narrowed. “Despicable.”
Vax shook his head in dismay, grimacing.
But Evira didn’t seem much fazed by it. “It doesn’t matter to me. Honestly. I’ve had a great upbringing with my dad and my grandmother. And with Torvek being there too. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.” She winked at me. “But, yeah, I do understand the sickly feeling of parents walking away like that. It bothered me when I was younger. Not now, though.”
“That’s just it, Z,” Winter said. “Like Evira is getting at… moving beyond what was done… that damage. What your parents did was wrong, without a fucking doubt, but if you’d gone with them, it would have dragged you into their despair, them giving up, them remaining stagnant. Instead, you went on, flourished.”
“I know. That’s true. But I guess, being at Loxley for three years before you guys started this year… it kinda felt like stagnating in a way after a while. And I fell into that with my… emotional baggage and not being able to get past my volatility, and all my shit. But when the three of you came, it gave me akick in the ass, I guess. Or maybe even gave me the push I’d been needing to properly get on this path now, something I’d been just shy of reaching before.”
“Because you hadn’t had any support before, no one to guide you along,” Evira pointed out.
I smiled and looked at Vax. “And like you told me earlier, people progress differently.” I gestured at the closed door that led into the rest of the house. “So, I guess, coming back here tonight wasn’t just about the use of the kitchen like I’d been trying to make myself believe.” I sucked in a breath, pushing past the raw wounds of it willing me to bury it deeper so it didn’t hurt. But itdidhurt, and it kept hurting, rising up every now and then, because I hadn’t dealt with it.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of other issues since you guys came into my life. Finally, right? And this… coming here tonight, inviting you guys here… I think… no, I know… it was me needing to say goodbye to this place. To let it all go now.” I smiled out at them. “And I guess I needed you guys here with me to do that, and to prove to the little demons in my brain that this house and that life holds no weight, especially in light of having you in my life. You three are my family now.”
I couldn’t stop then, going on further, eyeing Win, “Even the timing is actually perfect, because Sylas contacted me tonight. He’s gonna put me with Charles Petrone and begin my induction to Requital.”
Win’s eyes shone. “That’s incredible.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I told you before, I want this for you. I’m really happy you’ve found a career path.”
“One you’re clearly so psyched about too,” Evira chuckled.
“It’s the day for forward momentum, it seems,” Vaxan spoke.
I arched an eyebrow. “How’s that? Something else cool happened?”
Vax nodded and lifted his chin at Evira. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I was gonna reveal it over dessert, but we all got wrapped up in. And each other.”
“Aww, icicle,” I crooned, stroking the pastel-blue streaks in her hair. I was all worked up in a different way now with getting that off my chest. I started bouncing on the balls of my feet and urging, “So, tell us. What is this news you have?”
“Well, I had the idea shortly after I… abdicated.” She caught Winter’s disgruntled look. “Stop. Just listen.” At his nod, she went on, “Then in class today with Keuric, the way he tried to reframe everything in a negative and regressive way, it kind of clinched it for me.” She eyed us each in turn, excitement brimming. “No longer technically being Crown Heir, but still being recognized asdragon princess,puts me in a unique position. I still hold power, but I can act without oversight with that power.”
Win started. “Huh… very interesting… go on.”
She grinned. “See? I told you it’s not a negative thing to me. It’s actually freeing.”
