Celeste blinked at Sidney with as much bafflement as I used to feel around the woman, but I’d become used to her over the years. Sidney released the dragon from her “hug” only to grab him firmly by the nostrils and shake his huge head back and forth with big, exaggerated motions, speaking to it in the same sing-song tones that people used for beloved dogs. “If dragon not baby, why dragon baby-shaped?” The dragon was shaped nothing like a baby. It was distinctly dragon-shaped.
Huck snorted and shook her hands off, lifting his head out of her reach when she grabbed for him again. She groused and made shooing motions at him. “Go home, you big goober. Grim is always welcome here,” she said, pointing at me, “and he’sfully capableof turning you into a lizard-colored smear on the ground. Take the silly pigeon with you.”
One time, Levi had asked her how she had acquired the pigeon, as it seemed like an odd animal to have made itself at home with a dragon, a shifter woman, and a vampire that didn’t particularly like animals. Her response had been a casual, “Oh, don’t worry, pigeons are free. You can just take them from any park.” We still didn’t know the real story. Levi suspected she was amassing a pigeon army, but she didn’t actually seem to want the bird around, only tolerating it because Huck did.
She turned to us, hands on her hips. “Pidgy’s been back on his bullshit all day,” she grumbled as the pair turned away and slowly made their way up the path toward the caves where Huck was living now that he’d grown too big to fit inside Sidney’s home any longer. Pidgy rode on Huck’s head the whole way.
I wondered how long pigeons normally lived, and how long it would take for Sidney to realize this one had come to bear the same Dragon’s Mark she did—a slight shimmer at the edge of its aura that set it apart from all the other pigeons. Even my wife’s aura didn’t have a shimmer as strong as this… “Pidgy,” and she’d had my magic placed directly into her veins. Sidney seemed perpetually annoyed by the bird, and some long-buried childish part of me delighted in the knowledge that he was going to be around for a very, very long time and she had no idea.
Suddenly remembering herself, Sidney greeted Celeste with a bright, “Hello there!” She held out her hand to my wife, who—bless her—shook the crazy woman’s hand. “I’m Sidney. I normally wear clothes.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, trying to hide her breasts while acting as if she was not, and glanced at me, daring me to contradict her. And I could have. As far as I knew, Sidney spent at least as much time nude as she did clothed. Every time she shifted forms, her clothing stayed behind. She usually planned for such situations in advance, but there had been plenty of occasions where she’d been startled into shifting or otherwise felt the need to shift spontaneously. Sometimes she took her sudden nudity in stride, and other times she was mad about it. I had no idea what caused the various emotional reactions, but then… dead people didn’t care about being seen without clothing—I knew very little about living people’s motivations.
“Sidney, this is my new wife, Princess Celeste of House Morningstar,” I said, introducing them formally. It might not seem like it to most people, but I knew already that Sidney would make a good friend to my wife. She was chaotic and wild, but she loved fiercely and was responsible and protective in her own way. I trusted her almost as much as I trusted Elara, which was saying a lot. But most of all, Sidney had a way of seeing past a person’s exterior, and I knew that she would look beyond Celeste’s meek appearance to the fierce heart she kept closeted within.
My wife lowered her head and sketched a shallow curtsy. “I’m glad to meet you,” she replied. Her tone wasn’t necessarily shy, but she was certainly overwhelmed.
“Oh, my goodness, a real princess!” Sidney exclaimed. She forgot about covering her chest and dropped her breasts to clap her hands over her cheeks in delight. “Oh, whoops. Listen, I’ve got clothes at Elara’s place. Let’s head up there. I know Lysander is waiting for you, anyway,” she said to me as an aside. “Ugh, this is going to hurt. Three times in a row now,” she grumbled, before shifting forms with a soft cracking sound. Once again a black and white bird, she beat her wings until she was high enough to land on my shoulder. She turned around, shook out her feathers, and settled in to get comfortable. “Onward, noble steed!” she croaked out.
I glanced down at Celeste and found her staring up at me with wide eyes, as if she didn’t know how to respond to the situation and was looking to me for guidance. I’d known Sidney almost as long as I’d known Elara, and… in this, I had no guidance. I shrugged the shoulder that Sidney wasn’t perched on to let her know that this was normal. Apparently, that only served to confuse her further, because her expression grew even more baffled. I took her hand and led her toward the house.
“Just go in,” Sidney said once we reached the front door of Elara and Levi’s home. Since Jordan was a vampire and he slept most of the day, Sidney often made herself at home at Elara’s house while she waited for him to wake. As soon as I opened the door, she dove from my shoulder and flew into the house, winging her way toward a room in the back. “Elara! The eldritch horror is here, and he wants his woobie!”
The patter of little feet hitting the stone floor announced Levi and Elara’s son, Lysander, before he ran into the living room. “Uncle Eeyore!” He launched himself at me, and I caught him in my arms and hoisted him up. He was five years old and small for his age, with his father’s blond waves and his mother’s brown eyes. He was usually quite shy with strangers, so he probably hadn’t noticed Celeste standing with me yet. It didn’t help that he had inherited Levi’s siren lure, and everyone who heard him speak was literally enchanted by him. He had his mother’s timid disposition paired with his father’s charisma, as well as magic from both of them. It was a lot for a little boy his age to handle.
I adored him.
“Eeyore’s back!” Levi said as he entered the room, using the nickname he’d given me in middle school. He’d been grumpy about the fact that I poured a cup of water on him—I’d wanted to see if he’d shift forms like a “real merman”—and had decided to poke fun at my moroseness.I wasn’t morose, I was reserved.He knew that, but the man still lived for giving people odd nicknames.
He approached us with a grin and didn’t speak again until reaching into a bowl on the credenza near the doorway and withdrawing a thick bracelet set with large purple stones. He tried to hand it to my wife, but she wasn’t capable of comprehension.
I wasn’t personally affected by enchantments like Levi’s or Lysander’s, but I recognized the signs when I saw them—the glassy eyes and enamored expression. Shooting Levi a wry look, I took the bracelet from him—a ward against enchantments that Elara provided for their guests to wear—and placed it on Celeste’s wrist to break the thrall.
With an apologetic grimace that he didn’t entirely mean, Levi took Celeste’s hand and welcomed her graciously to his home. “Elara is just finishing up in the guest room and then she’ll be right out. She’s looking forward to meeting you.” Reaching out to take Lysander from my arms, he set the boy on his feet and then wrapped his own armsand legsaround me, so that he was clinging to me like a baby koala with a goofy grin on his face. “It’s my turn. Get your own reaper, kiddo,” he told his son, who pulled on his leg, trying to dislodge him.
“What’s awoobie?” Celeste asked quietly as she blinked off the effects of the enchantment, before pausing to stare at the spectacle of Levi wrapped around me, octopus-style.
“A blankie!” Sidney responded brightly as she re-entered the room, fully clothed and working an intricate plait into her hair. “You know. Cause you ‘would be’ cold without it?”
“What are you talking about?” Levi asked.
“Case in point,” she said, gesturing at the two of us as she flopped onto one of Elara’s cream-colored couches. “You’re basically the man’s Linus blanket. Or maybe he’s yours, I can’t even tell anymore. You two have an epic bromance.” She tied off her braid and made a face at us. “Come sit down. Why is everyone standing around the door? Levi, this poor woman looks like she’s about to keel over and you’re dicking around with Grim. Have some manners,” she groused. He pouted as he removed himself from my person, mumbled an apology to Celeste, and gestured for us to move to the seating area.
Elara padded into the room and greeted us happily. “Oh, you’re here!”
Though she was even more introverted than I am, I knew her enthusiasm to meet my new wife was genuine and heartfelt. Her eyes flickered over Celeste’s form in a clinical way, cataloging her health, her demeanor, and most likely how her magic had changed since she’d visited us while Celeste was unconscious. I would have to ask her later what she was able to feel had changed in the last few weeks, but for now I was just grateful for her warmth and her welcome.
Chapter 28
Grim
“ThisismyCeleste,”I told Elara as she joined us.She has the most enchanting spirit I’ve ever known. She carries hurts from her raising and her friendships, and sometimes she feels alone. She would make a dear friend for you. I can’t wait for you to see her spirit the way I do.
“It’s so wonderful to see you with your eyes open,” Elara told my wife. “May I hug you? I came to check on you when Grim was worried after you first arrived in the Boundlands. It’s good to see you awake and looking so well.”
I’d never really thought of Elara as terribly small—most people were shorter than me—but now that I saw them together, I noticed Celeste had several inches on her. Both had a similar build, but where Celeste had golden skin and blonde hair, Elara had darker skin and dark hair, with the same chestnut-colored eyes that were peeking out from behind her now that Lysander had migrated over to hide behind his mom. She wore a plethora of jewelry as usual, various pieces she’d made herself that contained bits of her magic for different uses—a wrist cuff, necklaces, rings, thin chains in her hair. Everything held stones with a magical purpose of some kind or another.
Elara offered to show Celeste to the guest room so she could rest, but Celeste declined, determined to stay and get to know my friends since she hadn’t been able to see my apartment. Elara shepherded us toward the seating area and Levi went to retrieve the refreshments with Sidney following behind to help. Lysander curled up on the sofa next to me, pressed against my side like a child-sized barnacle, peering across me with owlish eyes at Celeste. I tucked him under my arm and dug out my gifts, passing off the pudding and nuts to Elara and handing a tiny tree to Lysander.
“This is a Prometheus Pine seedling,” I told him. “One of the great conifers that grow in the arid regions of the Dragon’s Teeth mountains. It can live for thousands of years, and I think it would create good shade for the little hidden oasis you’re making with Rafe.” Rafe, a dryad, was a childhood friend of Elara’s who came to visit regularly. Being a forest-dwelling race, he and his family had taken to starting a little garden in the back of the desert property. Lysanderlovedhelping Rafe with the plants.
