Page 24 of The Fae Menagerie
She giggled and patted my shoulder. "You told him! You must be getting along as famously as it looks from the outside."
"Famously?" he mouthed.
"Mother loves human cinema, specifically period romances," I said for his benefit. I took her arm and led her back to her bench, and we sat in our usual spots on the couch just as thesecond bell sounded. "We were hoping you could help us return Parker to the human realm."
She blinked at me a few times and then grinned at Parker. "Return him? Why would you want to do that? He's perfect!"
"I'm really not." Parker's blush spanned the bridge of his nose and both cheeks. He rested his elbows on his knees and studied the floor at his feet.
"The fae luck coin brought you here, yes?"
I nodded, and she smirked.
"Well, then, that's easy. The coin can take you home." Her giggles grated on my nerves.
"It's missing."
"It's closer than you think." She laughed behind her hand. "Oh, don't mind me. I would also need to free you from the enclosure, and I won't do that until you've proved you can love another being as much as you love yourself."
"I love you, dear Mother."
She snorted. "If you loved me, you would have attempted to get to know Prince Drummond before writing him off." She waved at Parker. "You and Paisley here are doing a wonderful job. Keep it up."
"Parker?" My mother was terrible with names beyond her own, but I wanted to confirm. She sometimes called Aidan Paisley.
"Parkour?" she countered.
"His name?" I waved my hand toward Parker.
"Oh. Peter. Yes."
"No, that's Spiderman." Her look of utter confusion said I needed to start over. "This is Parker, not Peter Parker."
She stared at me for several long moments without apologizing to Parker. Then, she launched into our family's gossip. I stopped her several times to correct their names. She remembered Mother Theresa, only to forget my twin cousins,Angelica and Dominique (she called them Avril and Dorcas), and my Uncle Brock on my father's side (she called him Bruce).
Finally, the bell rang to signal the end of viewing hours, but she wasn't finished. She followed us into the kitchen for lunch and sat at the table for a cup of tea and some delightful egg salad sandwiches.
"How do you like the food here?" she asked Parker.
"It's bland but edible."
"Bland?" This time, her laugh was an outright cackle. "Yes, I suppose it is. That's by design. Doyle is supposed to be so bored by himself that he engages with the others who enter his enclosure. That delightful cleaning fae, what's their name?"
"Chani," Parker said.
"And the warden. Payton?"
"Aidan."
"Right." She leaned over the table and whispered, "I think he wants to kill you, or at least Parkour." For my mother, Parkour was close enough.
"I agree," I whispered back. "How do we stop him?"
"Fall in love faster."
Her whispers were not subtle. I was pretty sure Horace could hear her in the next enclosure.
Parker blushed an even deeper red this time, and it spread down his neck. "We'll try, Ma'am."
