Page 51 of Fangs, Frost, and Folios
Caspar and Isadora clapped, and Ben stood watching his sister as she danced around the fire with her friend, the girls laughing and whooping in the darkness as the sparks flew higher in the cool night air.
“This was such a great idea,” he said.
Dema and Zain flanked him.
“Agreed,” Dema said.
“Makes me wish I got more than a lecture about personal hygiene from my dad on my thirteenth birthday,” Zain said. “He did give me a bottle of Old Spice though.”
Dema snorted.
Tenzin walked out from behind the house, holding a brown-and-white calf with a rope around its neck.
Ben looked at her, then at the cow. “Absolutely not.”
Tenzin frowned. “It’s traditional to honor the goddess ?epat with gifts of cattle, and your sister already said she didn’t want to slaughter a goat.”
Ben looked at Sadia, who had stopped when she heard the first moo.
The girl’s eyes went wide, and then her mouth dropped open in delight. “Tenzin, you got me acow?”
Fifteen
When Beatrice walked through the door of her home in San Marino, the first thing she noticed was the smell of tamales and the sound of Christmas pop playing in the kitchen.
“Hey, everyone.”
Zain and Isadora looked up from the table where they were spreading masa on softened corn husks.
“B!” Zain hopped up to greet her.
“Oh!” Isadora smiled widely. “You’re home early. Where’s Giovanni?”
“Talking with security.” They had arrived in the afternoon but had to wait until nightfall to leave the plane hangar. “Is Sadia—?”
“Mom!” Sadia came barreling into the kitchen from the living room. “Tenzin said she smelled you!”
And Beatrice knew the minute she saw her daughter that she’d missed something important. “Sadia! You—”
Sadia slapped a hand over her mouth. “Everyone knows already, but we don’t have to talk about it.”
“Oh sweetie.” Beatrice hugged her daughter. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
“It’s cool. Tenzin was here.”
Beatrice switched to Arabic, which neither Isadora nor Zain spoke. “And you have everything you need?”
“Mama, don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s no big deal.” Her cheeks were red, but she switched back to English. “Did you have a good time in England? Did you find the thing you were looking for?”
Beatrice smiled and let her go even though she wanted to hold on a little longer. “We did. Dad has it packed away. It’s a very old manuscript that we think was written by Shakespeare himself.”
“What?” Zain’s eyes went wide. “That’s amazing.”
“No way.” Sadia slid beside Isadora and started helping with the tamales. “That’s so cool, Mom. You and Dad have the coolest job ever.”
Beatrice blinked. What had happened to her moody daughter who thought nothing and no one over the age of eighteen—other than Zain of course—was cool? “Thanks. We’re pretty excited about it.”
Zain asked, “You run into any trouble while you were looking for it?”
