Page 78 of Aleko
“I think you mean, mother?” Yazmin looked as confused as Lia felt.
“I didn’t carry any children,” said Anuket. “That was Adda. So that makes me the father. He kept going on about having children, but did he step up and volunteer his magic, no—just decided to take mine. Asshole.”
“Uh, yes, but... Father’s are usually men,” objected Yazmin.
Anuket rolled her eyes and then her skin rippled and she was a man.
“There? Better?” Anuket’s voice was an octave lower.
“No,” said Lia. “No. I cannot deal with this right now.”
“Really? It’s not really... Fine.” Anuket shifted back and Lia blinked at her. “Little one, this is a shitty situation. It’s not your fault. I didn’t want you, but now that you’re here I don’t want you to die.”
“It’s a shitty situation and it’s not my fault?” Lia repeated. Anuket had boiled down her entire life to one plain statementand Lia didn’t know how to respond.
“I’m not a poetic person,” snapped Anuket. “That’s the best I can do.”
“Lia.” She could feel Alekos approaching like the rising sun. He was everything warm and she wanted to run to him, but she was scared to turn around. “Lia, please look at me.”
Hesitantly, she raised her eyes to his and he crossed the distance between them until he was close enough to touch.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have stopped and found out the truth before I hurt you. It turns out that I’m very bad at listening to my family.”
Pellos made a snort.
“Which I will work on,” he growled, over his shoulder toward Pellos. “But there isn’t any point in working on it if you’re not here.”
“You don’t want me,” said Lia. “I’m bad luck.”
“No,” he said firmly. “I know how it feels to be blamed for every bad thing, but you can’t believe it. This situation existed before you were thrown into it and all you have ever done is make things better. You are very good luck. Without you I would not have the answers about what happened to my brother. Without you we would not have been able to stop Seth.” His hand reached for hers. “Without you,” he placed a kiss into her palm, and Lia felt something inside of her break, “without you the world would be emptier.Myworld would be a sadder place.”
Lia could help the tear that trickled down her cheek, but when he lifted his hand to brush it away she pushed into it, loving the feeling of his skin against hers.
“I love you,” he whispered and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Come home,” he murmured. “Please come home.”
Warm, soft, and safe, Lia collapsed into him, tasting his lips and feeling his arms around her. Home. Alekos was her home.
Somewhere, Yazmin made a noise somewhere between asqueak and an aww of happiness.
“Meh,” said Anuket. “All right, I’m going. Honestly, I don’t know what the world is coming to.”
Episode 40
Killian & Moira
Killian
Killian looked around the room. It felt like everything ought to look different after all the shit they had just been through. But Sebastian’s guitar was still out on the coffee table. The stack of magazines that Alex swore he was getting to, but never was, were still piled by the arm chair. The pile of glassware on the side table next to the couch had multiplied again. The Greens had raided the liquor cabinet and the beer fridge and were now naked drinking on the other couch. Trevor was drinking bourbon from the bottle and Colin was on his third beer—lining up the empties nicely on the floor next to the couch. At least now he could tell Moira he had met selkies. Killian closed his eyes against the searing knowledge that he would not be telling Moira anything.
“We’re going to have to do something about the damn bodies and cars out front,” Sebastian said. “And the mess,” he said waving at the clutter. Sebastian looked as tired as Killian felt. “Someone could come along,” said Sebastian sinking slowly into the big leather armchair.
“No one is coming for the glassware,” said Killian.
“Out front,” said Sebastian too tired to even be sarcastic.
“We’ll make Eliandra wish them away in the morning,” said Pellos.
Sebastian grunted. “That poor kid. Thinking everything was her fault.”
