I take a breath. "I got divorced about a year ago. He was kind of—" I trail off. Conall’s fully looking at me now as we walk up the road toward a large house near the lake. "Anyway. I'd started a small business while we were married. He was supportive at first. We both put money in, but I made some decisions based on trusting him that, in hindsight, were really stupid." I laugh, and I can hear how thin it sounds.
"As the business grew and became more successful, he got bitter about how much time I put into it. Felt emasculated by the money I was bringing in. There was a lot of other stuff too, but we divorced, and in the settlement, he got the business. Made it look like he'd done the work and invested everything, because it was all on a computer he'd bought me. The house was in his name too, his parents' wedding gift to us. So I've spent a year looking for work in my degrees field that'sbeen swallowed up by AI, crashing in my friend's guest room." I take a slow breath, aware of how quickly I can still spiral on this. "So yeah. I don't have many options beyond making this work. Monsters or no."
He clenches his fist, and a muscle ticks in his jaw. "Ex sounds like a piece of slime to me." Half a growl.
It's my turn to laugh, and his shoulders seem to loosen a little.
"Yeah," I breathe. "He was."
"You don't have anyone else?"
"A sister but she's in college. I need to look out for her. Not the other way around."
His arm brushes mine, and I shiver. My eyes meet his. He's looking at me steadily, brows drawn together. "No one's going to kick you off the island."
It feels more like a promise than actual knowledge. He holds my gaze for another beat before I look away. The big white barn at the edge of the lake hasTown Hallpainted in large black letters above double doors.
Conall pulls one open, and dozens of pairs of eyes, tentacles, wings, horns, and claws turn in our direction.
Conall
"What the fuck?" I bark. Ivy turns, brow furrowed, surprised by my outburst and not understanding why I'm upset. But I understand just fine. "You started without us?"
Ivy's eyes go wide as she takes in the room.
Laz stands at a podium at the front of the barn, high-beamed ceilings overhead. The place still carries the faint smell of sawdust and hay, even though it's been a meeting area for years now. On either side of him, two long tables sit with three council members each. Laz has his arms crossed, glaring down at a small elderly man with a nose no less than nine inches long, flaming red hair, and grass green eyes. Randy Flannigan.
"We thought it prudent, Sir Conall, to discuss the matter amongst those of the town. Those who have lived here their whole lives should have rather more say than a girl who has no idea what living here even means," Randy says in his high-pitched voice, astutely ignoring Laz.
"Meanwhile," Ada calls from the front row, where she's sitting next to Amy, Layla, and Dolly, "we've been arguing that that's bullshit." She turns to Randy. "Plenty of the monsters living here are of mixed descent."
"Hell, I'm like ninety percent human," Amy calls out.
"But you're not truly human," Randy counters, with an air of pomp I find sickening.
I glance at Ivy. Her expression is carefully blank. Before tonight, I'd have read it as cold indifference. After the conversation on the way up here, I think it's something worse. A wall built quickly around worry.
My gaze swings back to the council. "Laz needs her blood to fix the wards. Did everyone forget that? It won't do anyone any good if you kick her off the island and the wards never get fixed."
They all squirm in their seats like baby worm dragons.
Killian, head of the small centaur clan on the island, stamps one hoof. "We have no proof that her blood is actually what Laz needs—"
Laz cuts him off. "She is the successor. By blood magic, she's the one. To question that is foolish, Killian."
Killian blusters. Centaurs are such prideful folk.
"Excuse me," Ivy pipes up, and every eye in the place swings to her. "If we're talking about me, maybe talk to me."
Silence.
She goes on, "Does your island not have basic laws? I know you're all creatures and monsters and whatever, but you're not just lawless brutes, are you?"
"Who are you calling a brute?" Killian snaps.
I bare my teeth and step forward.
"Anyone who thinks they can supersede a will,” Ivy says. “Now, my aunt's attorney from Claw and Law said he'd be here. Is he?" She squints around the room, clearly unsure what she's looking for now that no one's hiding their form.
