Page 59 of Solstice

“I can’t believe you’ve been keeping this secret this whole time.” Jon shook his head.

“Who would believe me?” I let out a breath, relieved to finally be able to share this with the people closest to me.

“What’s the plan?” Abigail crossed her arms. “If he’s out, he’s heading here, right? How do we protect the place?”

I admired her tenacity. She really did remind me of a younger version of myself. “My house is warded,” I said, remembering what Siobhan told us earlier in the night. “We’ll be safe for now.”

“We know what he wants,” Lex said, reaching into his pockets for his cigarettes.

“And that is?” Kit looked between us.

“Poppy.” Carter shook his head. “She’s more powerful than us. We’ve been protecting her by hiding her.”

“And Poppy is the little girl you rescued from a fairy realm?” Jon narrowed his eyes, glancing at Carter and Lex as he scratched the back of his head.

“Yes,” Carter said. “It sounds incredible. We didn’t believe it ourselves for a long time.”

“It’s still unbelievable most days.” Lex straightened, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Jon looked at Kit before shifting his gaze to Abigail. She nodded and returned her attention to me. “What can we do to help?”

“Wait, you believe us?” I looked between them, certain that any moment, I’d wake up and this would be a dream. They’d commit me and put me on a psychiatric hold. Once that got out, my mother would never let me leave the house again. My siblings were grounded in reality, as logical as I was, if not more so, especially Jon.

“I don’t think you’d go along with this if it were a stunt,” Jon said. “Neither would Carter or Lex.”

“You look exhausted, Ivy,” Abigail said. “It’s been weighing on you.”

“I’ve known something was up for years.” Kit sighed and pulled half her mouth into a smile. “You should have told me sooner, you fucking loser.”

Tears burned my eyes, and I blinked them back. “Shut up, you fucking twat.”

Kit laughed and stood, coming over to give me a hug. For someone who balked at affection of any kind, she held me tighter than ever. Then, like something out of a corny Christmas movie, Jon wrapped his arms around us, followed by Abigail. We formed a Washington sibling group huddle that broke me to pieces.

I wanted them to stay with us where it was safe, but I couldn’t honestly expect them to move in. I didn’t know where the king was or when he would strike again. Our lives didn’t just stop because some fairy king might be after us. I still planned to go to work the next day…right?

Fuck, my brain hurt.

“What happens now?” Kit stepped back, looking between me and my husbands.

I took a deep breath at how much my siblings supported me, how much I cared for them and wanted to protect them from all this.

“For right now, we need to rest and recoup.” Lex looked at me, reaching out to take my hand so he could intertwine his fingers in mine. “We’ll ask Siobhan to ward your houses tomorrow. Sleep here tonight.”

“Slumber party!” Abigail threw up her fist. “Fuck yeah.”

“Wait, you’ve known about Siobhan the whole time?” Jon turned to Kit, who rolled her eyes.

“Don’t give me that ‘you always leave me out’ bullshit.”

“But you do!” Jon whined. “You do always leave me out.”

“He’s right; you do always ignore him when he’s around.” Abigail gave Kit an affirmative shrug.

“Okay, first of all,” Kit rebutted. The two of them bickered while Abigail instigated further, but I wanted to go check on Siobhan and Finn. Lex and Carter followed me up the stairs, groans and muttered curses echoing down the corridor from my office. I didn’t know what to do for an injured fairy in the human realm. Did they heal the same way humans did? Should I call a doctor?

When I peeked inside the room, Finn lay stretched across the couch, his head resting on Donnelly’s lap. The darker-haired fairy wiped sweat off his commander’s face with a white rag, holding down his shoulders so Siobhan could stitch up his chest from her spot on the chair next to them.

“Damn it, Banshee. That hurts,” Finn growled.

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