Page 51 of His Human Believer

We come around the drive and the dragon house comes up on our left. Red and gold, three stories, jaws open at the roof peak, wings fanned out with their metal spikes catching the morning light. The lake glitters in front of the house. And I gasp with delight when I see that the entire front lawn has been transformed. There are rows of chairs. Someone has erected a small stage at the lake end so that whoever stands on it has that whole view at their back. There are decorations in flame colors along the drive. There’s a long buffet being set up under an awning.

And there are hundreds of beings on the lawn.

“Avery,” I cry out, “What’s happening? What is this party for?”

“Get out of the car.”

I eagerly hop out and mingle with the crowd.

Riley Touchstone has a tablet she’s checking, obviously. Bergelmir and Chloe are here because this is their house. Aegir Touchstone has two offspring hanging off him. Skoll and Ariana. Idun and Jada with a toddler on a hip. Sherkis, Justical, Lurcas and half the moms group. Neighbors I met during the trick or treat. Every child in the community is running the length of the lawn shrieking, because it’s a party and there’s a buffet and nobody is watching them closely enough.

Bestla and Grandma Narvi are seated in the front row with a clear view of everything, which I suspect they arranged personally.

Bane Ashmoor and his bound are here from Perth.

And there are a large group of intimidating Hyrrokin I have never seen in my life who I suspect are from the Royal Academy. They’re standing in clusters near the back, most of them older, most of them dressed like they came from somewhere formal and didn’t change. Every single one of them is looking at the same place.

I follow where they’re looking.

Vidar Coalstone stands at back of the rows of chairs.

He’s clean and in formal Hyrrokin dress. He still wears the reading glasses. He’s got a black sash across his chest that bears the Royal Academy seal. He’s got on more formal black pants and a belt with an elaborate silver belt buckle. He’s so handsome it’s almost blinding.

I race across that lawn in white flip flops. “Where have you been?”

“Margaret.”

“You walked out of that kitchen and didn’t say one word to me. Not one word. I have sent you four messages. You didn’t read a single one.”

“I did, I just couldn’t answer because I wanted to surprise you with this.”

I’m barely listening, too busy getting out a flood of anguish. “You were covered in Skylo’s blood. You hadn’t slept in a diurnal and a half and got in a vehicle and drove off. I have been lying up there going out of my mind.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

Music starts.

I turn my head and Riley Touchstone is standing beside a sound unit with her hand still on it and the most enormous grin I have ever seen on a human being. I notice that all the assembled have taken seats.

And then Vidar picks me up.

“Oh my,” I gasp. No one has ever picked me up and held me in his arms since I was an adult. I always assumed I weighed too much. And yet Vidar carries me as if I were light as air.

He carries me up the lawn between the rows of chairs while two hundred beings applaud and whistle. I can hear Mitry shrieking somewhere behind me. Vidar sets me down on a stage with the whole glittering lake at my back.

The music stops.

The crowd sits.

It goes very, very quiet.

And Vidar Coalstone gets down on one knee in front of me.

“Oh,” I say out loud. Like an idiot.

“Margaret Reyes.” His voice carries. He has clearly practiced this. “Before I ask you anything I must tell you what I have done today.”