Page 17 of Royally Hacked Belle & Flame
ALIX
For the second time in less than a day, I burst out of the center of a freezing pond.
Instantly, a high-pitched wail of terror reaches me. I flail in the water, looking around frantically for my mom. She too has emerged from the pond, her mouth wide and eyes bulging. Her designer jacket is plastered to her windmilling arms, sending water droplets flying like tiny crystals in the winter air.
“How dare you!” she shrieks “What the?—”
“Mom, calm down!” I yell, splashing toward her.
“Calm down,Alixandrea?Really? Is this some kind of sick joke to you?”
Oh, if only it were.
I realized the moment my mom insisted on visiting “Ireland” that I was caught. I had to tell her the truth. Except, you can never tell my mother anything. I had to show her, and the only way to do it was to drag her kicking and screaming into the portal lake—literally. We left Ruby at home alone—she was only too happy to be rid of my mother—and made the long drive back to the portal.
Only now, I’m second guessing everything.
Nana’s head pops out of the water next to me and looks over at my mom, who is muttering angrily under her breath. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Ali-girl.”
I sigh.So do I.
My mom claws her way toward the bank, her soaked sweater clinging to her shoulders, teeth chattering so hard I can hear them from here. I don’t think she’s yet realized that we’re not in the same lake that I pushed her into mere moments ago, or that it wasn’t snowing in New York.
“Wait, Mom—” I swim after her, but it’s too late to stop her.
Summoned by all the noise, Aurelia, Odessa, and Beatrix come running out of the house. Pausing at the edge of the water, mom looks up at the sound of their footsteps and I can see the exact moment she realizes that the enormous mansion and sprawling rose garden were definitely not there a second ago. Then, she focuses on the three women running toward us and her eyes bug out of her head.
Odessa glides forward, one pale hand extended toward my mother. “Let me help you.”
Mom scrambles backward in the mud, crab-like. Her voice cracks. “Stay back!”
I sigh. I feel a little guilty. I mean, I’d feel guiltier if my mom hadn’t backed me into this corner in the first place, but still…I’d forgotten how frightening the Fae seemed to me when I firstarrived, and especially Odessa, who is so beautiful that my brain immediately registered her existence aswrong.
“Mom, it’s okay—” I begin, but never get to finish.
“Here, let me fix that!” Obviously trying to help, Aurelia holds out both hands. Golden light spirals from her fingertips toward my mom’s drenched jacket, and steam rises from the fabric.
My mom’s gaze drops to her suddenly dry clothes, then back to Aurelia’s glowing hands, then over to me. There’s a combination of betrayal and fear in her face before her eyes roll back into her head.
“Catch her!” I yell, but it wasn’t necessary. Odessa is already reaching instinctively for my mom, grabbing her by the shoulders before she crumples into the water.
I look helplessly around at everyone and shrug. “I guess it could have been worse.”
It’s early evening by the time my mother calms down, and snow is pelting the darkened windows.
Odessa, Beatrix and Aurelia sit on one side of the long kitchen table, steam unfurling from the mugs of tea in front of them. On the opposite side of the table I sit between my mother and Nana. Mom taps her long nails against the side of her empty mug in an anxious, staccato rhythm.
“Here, take mine,” Beatrix says kindly, sliding her own untouched mug of tea toward my mother.
Mom doesn’t thank her, but wraps her fingers around the new mug without drinking. Her knuckles are bright white and she keeps shooting sideways glances at Dessa, like she’s going to launch herself across the table and attack us.
I catch Dessa’s eye and grimace apologetically. She just shrugs, as if to say, “It happens.”
I want to tell my mother that she’ll get used to everyone’s other-worldly beauty, even Odessa’s, but I haven’t been able to get a word in for a while.
Nana is leaning over me talking to my mom. Her voice has gone hoarse in the time she’s been talking, relaying the entire story of how she first fell into Ellender, escaped, and later wrote her bestselling book about it. We haven’t even gotten to the part where I enter the story yet, and I’m not sure we will—at least, not tonight.
Mom stares at Nana as if they’re strangers. Her mouth is slightly open, eyes blinking rapidly every few seconds like she’s trying to clear her vision. She looks like she’s had about enough insane revelations for one day.
