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Yeah, gargoyles weren’t light. And one was sitting next to my bed. Not Mrs. Hanley. She’d abandoned her post once my dad took over without my noticing.
I collapsed back onto my bed, feeling played and missing Percy, who had probably orchestrated this entire thing. I sat up and winced because ribs. “Marigold? As in Percy Marigold?”
He smiled charmingly. “His mother. He took her name because his father’s was too heavy for him to bear.”
“What name is that?”
“I’m sure Percy will tell you later. After all, once he performed a very blatant binding to his family magic that he’s been avoiding his whole life, they will descend and you’ll meet all of them. His father is an absolutely excellent soul, but the mother is much more wily and difficult. Still, she’ll teach you more than you ever wanted to know about the justice system.”
I stared at him while my brain tried to compute. Family magic? Binding? They were coming here? I shifted uneasily. “That’s not hard, because I wanted to know exactly nothing. I was going to be a farmer, remember?”
He gave me a look. “But a farmer couldn’t defend a murdering vampire, could she? We should probably talk about finances. Percy said that you have a fear of wealth, so I’m not going to burden you with my money.”
“Oh. Thanks?” This didn’t seem like a great intro.
“Your mother is going to resume her place at the healery once it’s rebuilt, but until she’s recovered, she’ll serve in a supervisory capacity, with several excellent healers under her who can assist her own progress. The position will make many times what you were making working for Gray College and the Cat’s Pause.” He hesitated after saying that name, like he couldn’t help himself, then continued. “Her income will be enough to support both of you and give you the time and energy to focus on your studies and this internship with Percival’s mother.”
The idea of meeting Percy’s mother was positively nerve-wracking. “You’re overhauling my whole life.”
“No, rebuilding, because it was completely destroyed, and I am entirely responsible for that. I can’t bring back Earl, but I can try to give you back your home. It will be best for your mother’s mental health if things don’t change too quickly.”
“Not that you’re personally invested in my mother.”
He stared at me for a long time before he glanced away. Yeah. You don’t freak out and turn a city to stone over someone because you’re indifferent.
I bit my bottom lip. “What are your intentions towards her?”
“I would like…” He shook his head slightly and then faced me resolutely. “I want her happiness. She is happier now as an impoverished healer than she was as the Grand Sorcerer with near infinite wealth and power. I’m not going to push her into being who she was, so you don’t need to be afraid of that. I know that she won’t ever be the same person as before, but I think that perhaps in time we could know each other as we are now, and perhaps find some commonalities, including yourself, which gave us reasons to interact in small ways.”
“Like holding hands?”
He just stared at me, shocked, like I’d suggested that he hit an old lady with his truck. Not that he had a truck. “I have never considered holding hands. She was not a hand-holding person.”
“She’s super snuggly these days. That’s why she’s always saving small animals, so that she can snuggle them while they’re sick and wan, before they start shoving acorns in her mouth to demonstrate how she’s supposed to show affection to squirrels. She’s going to want me to have a dozen babies once I marry Percy, so that she can rock the snot out of them. It’s going to be intense. I’d better get started on that.” I was just messing with him, but I may as well have dropped a grand piano on his legs. He looked so stunned, and confused, because where the heck had a grand piano come from?
He sputtered. “You should wait a few years before settling down with Percy. He hasn’t established himself in his field yet, and if you choose to have children…”
I ruffled his hair, which made him blink rapidly, from shock again, no doubt. “Just kidding. It’s a daughter joke. Your hair is so silky. Mom is going to love playing with it. I hope that you’re good at baking cupcakes, because we have a new tradition. Every Tuesday, we all get together and do cupcakes and bride wars. It’s like religion, only on Tuesday.”
He narrowed his dark blue eyes warily. “You are toying with my feelings, feelings so intense and destructive that I almost devoured the city with my rage.”
I beamed at him. “That’s right. You didn’t get to see a barely conscious mom rip the heart out of Scott’s chest. Between the two of you, I’ve got to be a serious cataclysm, just waiting to explode. I should definitely have at least a dozen kids, so each terrifying destructive tendency can be cultivated among the many.”
He sighed heavily. “Cataclysms don’t explode, gargoyles don’t ever have more than four children, even that many is a rarity, and even unconscious, your mother is capable of anything. If you are serious about me baking cupcakes with Percy, you, and your mother on Tuesdays, I will be there.”
His seriousness made a lump form in my throat. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, exactly how my mom liked her hand squeezed. “Thank you. I really missed having a dad.” The lump in my throat grew to a walnut and my eyes felt tight and achy. I would probably resent his reshuffling of my life, but he was trying, and a lot of dad’s didn’t do that much. His face was blurry enough that I could pretend that he was also feeling sentimental, so when I rolled over into his arms for a spontaneous hug, I didn’t feel like an idiot. I did feel like someone with broken ribs and a possible punctured lung, but that didn’t matter, because when he hugged me back, I heard his breath catch and felt his heart.
He loved me even though he’d never asked for a daughter or known about me. He was my dad and would watch over and protect me as well as he could. Unless his inner raging gargoyle came out and turned me to stone, but nobody’s perfect.
“Mr. Bellham? She’s awake and asking for her daughter,” a nurse said, interrupting us with the best news in the world.
My dad hugged me tighter for a moment while his heart unshattered just a little bit more, then let me go so that I could give my mom a hug that he couldn’t give her.
Chapter
Twenty-One
We moved directly from the hospital to the healery, which was still under construction. We were staying on the bottom floor for now while the top was rebuilt with a fancy addition that used stone from the original quarry that I’d told my dad about to keep it looking haunted.
