“Oh, fuck. Are you pregnant?” Audrey asks, bracing both hands on the table.
My gaze shoots up. “No! Mom has drilled safe sex into me since I was old enough to learn about it. Definitely not.”
Audrey breathes out a massive sigh, slumping into the chair across from me and pours herself a generous glass of red wine.
Even though vampires don’t need to consume human food, Audrey has always enjoyed wine and other delicacies, saying the taste keeps life interesting because blood only has so many flavor profiles.
“Okay, Lio. Give it to me. What kind of shit are you in? Who do I need to have a little chat with?” Audrey bares her teeth, her sharp fangs promising retribution for anyone who might’ve wronged me.
“You see… Well… I’m kind of…”
Audrey gestures for me to hurry it up. “I know I’m immortal, but time is ticking and unless you want the others to hear what this is, then you’ve got to spit it out.”
“I have a boyfriend and he lives in the Isle of Storr and he asked me to spend Christmas with him and his family and I don’t know how to tell Mom and Dad,” I say, the words strung together in a single breath.
Audrey leans back in her chair and gives me an impressed nod. “First of all, congrats on the boyfriend. I want to hear everything about him and how you met and how long you’ve been dating. Second of all, I like that he’s a planner and that he knows you well enough that your parents might need six months’ notice to prepare themselves to not have you with them for this year’s Christmas celebrations. And thirdly,” Audrey says, pausing totake a sip of wine. “You’ve just got to sit them down and tell them directly, grab the minotaur by the balls so to speak.”
My cheeks flame and I quickly cover them, hiding my face behind my hands.
Audrey almost chokes on her wine. “Oh, fuck. Please don’t tell me he’s a minotaur.”
“He is,” I mumble through my hands, feeling completely mortified as my blush burns down my chest. I’m sure my pale green skin must be entirely red at this stage.
“Well then, maybe if he likes you grabbing his balls then it’s a good sign.” Sobering a little, Audrey takes my hand and asks, “When do we get to meet the lucky guy?”
I take a generous swig from my glass before answering, “After I’ve told Mom and Dad that he exists.”
“Tilly will be fine,” Audrey reassures me with a squeeze to my hand. “Your dad, though… He might need some time to get used to the idea of a new big guy taking care of his little girl, but he’ll come around to it.”
“You think so?” I ask.
It’s not that my dad is against me dating. After all, he knows I’ve fooled around with Hanuel—Shinsu and Nori’s oldest son—and he didn’t make a big deal out of it. But after they found us in a very compromising position, I decided not to date any of his friends’ kids again and keep things platonic.
This time though, it’s different. Things with Evander are getting serious, and even though we’re both still young, I don’t want to rule out the possibility of a future together.
Audrey leans forward in her chair, her dark eyes sparkling with an idea. “I know, why don’t you invite your minotaur over for the midsummer festival? I still have two rooms in the castle that haven’t been booked yet. I can save him one. Maybe if your parents meet him they’ll be more comfortable to let you visit his family later.”
The year I was born, Audrey had organized a huge festival to celebrate four hundred years of Starry Hill’s founding. Everyone loved it so much that they voted to have a smaller-scale celebration every year at midsummer, and it’s become one of my favorite events.
It always starts with a strength competition—something both Rio and I have participated in since we were teenagers—and is followed by an alfresco family meal for the entire island.
When we were younger we had to head home when the meal was done, but since coming of age, we were allowed to stay for the dancing portion too. Once seeing how much everyone let loose under the giant mirror ball, I understood why we had to wait to join in.
“That might not be a bad idea,” I say, already imagining taking Evander down the old helter-skelter with me. I’d love to share the festival with him so he can understand the incredible community I come from and how hard it was to choose to move away.
“What good ideas is my wife having now?” Arran asks as he struts into the kitchen and grabs Audrey’s face between his hands. He bends down to give her a fairly chaste but lingering kiss, then picks her up and repositions her in his lap.
Audrey absentmindedly plays with Arran’s wedding ring as she explains my situation. “Lio is bringing her boyfriend to our midsummer festival and he’s going to stay in the castle with us.”
Arran, looking as in love with Audrey as the day of their wedding where I served as a flowergirl for them, manages to wrench his gaze away from her and turn toward me. “Do I need to have a word with this lad? Teach him manners and give him advice on how to treat you like a princess?”
“Queen,” Audrey corrects. “And no, we’re not meddling. Not that obviously or directly anyway, as per Doc Calla’s teachings.”
I give her a grateful look. “I appreciate you both, but I really don’t want to scare Evander off. He’s pretty special. I’m just a little nervous about telling Mom and Dad.”
“We’ll treat him as one of Starry Hill’s own,” Arran assures me with a soft smile.
Audrey says, “You’re an adult now, Lio. So even if Bodin and Tilly don’t like the idea of you being in a serious relationship, they know they have to let their little girl grow up and build her own life.”
