Page 128 of Taken By the Fae

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A few days later, I finally visit home—after I ask Nikolai to take me to the feeder unit so I’m sufficiently fed and fully glamoured before seeing my family. I haven’t seen them since Elijah woke up and I became fae. We’ve been in touch over the phone and text, but I’m finally in a place where I feel somewhat confident about seeing them.

The four of us sit around the dining room table, stuffing our faces with the best pizza in town for dinner Saturday night after spending the day outside in the snow, shoveling the driveway and sidewalk, and having an epic snowball fight—parents versus kids.

It feels like old times, like before I stumbled into the fae world and everything I knew was flipped upside down. Elijah grins at me before stealing the last slice of pepperoni, and for a short, blissful moment, I forget I became fae to save his life.

After dinner, I help my mom clean up the kitchen.

“How are things with you and Tristan?” she asks while the sink fills with water.

With a sigh, I say, “I don’t really know.”

She rinses the dishes and hands them to me to put in the dishwasher. “I can see you’re in pain.” Her voice is soft as she hands me a plate. “Did he hurt you?”

“No,” I say in an instant, sticking the plate on the bottom rack with the others. Tristan has done nothing to hurt me. He wouldn’t.

She presses her lips together, pinning me with a stare. “What’s going through your head?”

This could take a while, I mutter in my head. “You and Dad,” I say in a low voice. “How did you know you were right for each other? That it was going to last forever?”

Mom laughs and sets down the dishcloth, wiping her hands on her thighs. “Oh, honey, I didn’t know it would last for our whole lives.”

“And you married him anyway?”

She nods. “Anything as important as love is worth the risk. At least in my mind. You might find this amusing, but when I met your dad, I really didn’t like him.” She flashes a faint smile, rinsing a few more dishes.

“Are you serious?” Evidently, Mom and I are more alike than I knew.

“Yes. But damn him, he made me fall for him. Hard, too. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. It was infuriating.”

A smile curls my lips. I’ve never heard this story before. “What made you decide he was worth it? The risk of getting hurt?”

Her eyes flick across my face. “I knew because of the way I felt around him. I felt better, stronger,happier.”

My stomach flutters a bit, and I bite the inside of my cheek as I put the last cup on the upper rack of the dishwasher. “Thanks, Mom.”

She leans over to close the dishwasher and kisses my cheek. “Anytime.” She walks over to the stove and turns on the burner after filling the kettle with water. Pulling a few mugs out of the upper cupboard, she drops tea bags into them.

Dad walks through the kitchen, talking on his cell phone. When he frowns while mentioning Nan’s name, my pulse jumps. My dad’s mother is no spring chicken, and her health hasn’t been the best over the last handful of years.

“What’s going on at Nan’s?”

Dad grabs his cup of tea off the counter and kisses Mom’s cheek before walking back into the living room, still talking on the phone.

“She’s okay,” Mom says, leaning against the counter. “She and your dad decided it was best for her to move into a care home where she’ll be able to live mostly independently, but there’s help when she needs it.”

I let out a breath, relieving the pressure in my chest. “That’s good.”

Nan has lived in the same old Victorian home since I was a baby. It was the house she grew up in; the property has been in my dad’s family for decades.

Holy shit. Why didn’t I think about that months ago when I was looking into my family history? Dad had nothing that dated back far enough to the fae in our family, but Nan might.

“Do you need help with the move?” I ask.

“Are you sure? We weren’t going to ask. Your dad and I didn’t want to make you feel guilty if you didn’t have time.”

“I have time,” I tell her. “I can help.”

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