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“I was never unhappy about being a bird for you. Never that. I didn’t care for being a human, not until lately. What I was upset with you about was how you’d gone about it. There was no reason for you to die like you did. Not telling us that you were taking a poison that would make it so you’d feel nothing. That is why I’m upset with you.” She said she hadn’t thought anyone would care. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. Everyone loved you, and every one of us would have died for you or with you.”
“I know that now.” She turned and saw the misty figure of her queen. “You can see me now because you are so very powerful. More so than even my Duncan. You and Harlin will be able to keep everyone safe for decades to come while improving the way the lands are cared for. I knew you’d fall in love with Harlin. What I didn’t know was what you’d bring to each other in the way of magical power. You are more than I ever thought possible for one of my birds.”
“I never wanted to be without you. Although I knew Mercy was your favorite, I also knew I loved you more than she did. And in a different way. My love for you was like a daughter to a mother. Not friend to friend, as she loved you.” Dante told her she’d not known that. “I’m sure that even though you have the gift of sight, my dear queen, there is plenty you didn’t know about.”
“I knew you would go into the trees and fell things for the families to have. Seeds from trees, pinecones for the children to decorate for gifts at Christmas. That you give a bit of yourself to small animals, just enough that they’d be healed from whatever ailed them. They were to still die, but with their family around and not some bear attack where no one would find their bodies. You also fished for the families that had no means to do so. Filled a net nearly as big as you with fresh meat for families too proud to ask for help. You also took care that there were funds for kids that wished to leave the area. One by one, they’d leave, only to return and add to the bounty that is here now. You did all that without anyone knowing it.” Remi told her she liked to do those things. “Do you? I also know that as a human, you made sure that each of your employees in every restaurant you had was well paid and well-fed. When you had to shut down one of them years ago because of a fire, I believe you paid them all, even using some of your own funds to make sure they were all right.”
“I had plenty enough that I knew I would never starve.” Dante told her it was more than that. “Don’t rehash things in order to soften me up for something, Dante. Just tell me what it is so you can go back to your deathly slumber.”
“I know you say that not to be mean, but you wish me to rest so I can see my son more. I don’t visit him as much as he’d like for me to. It’s not good that he would come to me so often now that he has a mate. What of your mate, Remi? Where is he?” She told her what she knew. “That’s right. Your quiet giant is out making sure the families of the fallen today have enough to make up for the loss. He is also telling them how their bravery in making sure the others were hidden away is all that saved them. Harlin is a good man.”
“He is. I love him very much.” Dante sat on the stone beside her. Her body was just a mist right now, but enough so that Remi could make out her face if she looked hard enough. “Do you know what my child will be, Dante? Will he be strong like his father. Smart too?”
“He will be everything to you both, and that is all that matters. The child you have next will be a handful for you, but you will handle her well enough. She will be exactly like you in all things. A great warrior, as well as a woman compassionate for the next part of her life.”
“I know nothing of children and rearing them. I’m glad to have the help of Alma beside me so I can not mess up too badly.” Dante told her she’d not mess up at all if she only loved them. “I do already. Even though he’s not shown himself to be here yet, I still find myself ready for him to come into the world.”
Dante left her a while later. She couldn’t stay long, not on this side of death, and Remi was glad she’d left on a good note this time. The other times she’d come to see her had ended in a fight or cross words. Today was different. Dante wasn’t mean to her, but there were things Remi didn’t want to hear from her. Like the fact that she couldn’t come back too often, as it was not right for any of them to have her over their shoulder all the time. Remi had asked her why this time should be so different than any other time when she’d been alive, and that pissed the queen off. She’d left in a huff and Remi in tears. She so wished she could have a nice long conversation with her and it not end badly for either of them.
It was Alma that sat next to her this time. After handing her Pixie, Alma sat there for several minutes, not saying a word. It was fine by Remi—she didn’t care for useless chatter anyway.
“Would you believe me if I told you that the queen from long ago came to see me just now?” Remi told her she’d believe anything she told her. “Thank you. But she told me you needed more than a friend. You needed a mother. I wasn’t at all sure what she was talking about until I remembered you were never human when you were growing up. You missed a great deal, she told me.”
“I did. I have. But I have also learned a great deal in my lifetime. More than I think you have living in that nursing home faking your own insanity. What was that like? Living there knowing you could be caught at any time?” She said it was frightening. “I bet it was. But I also think a great many of the residents benefited from you being there. How often did you come out of your room to feed and care for them?”
“You’re too smart for your own good, young lady.” Remi laughed and played with Pixie while Alma continued. “Daily. Sometimes I’d never get back to my room for days at a time, worrying about the others. The magic I had saved us all from starving to death. Meds, while I knew very little about them, I could figure out well enough. Some of the faeries that helped me, they did a great deal of the heavy work. Changing beds, bathing them and such. It wasn’t until the last few months or so that I realized no one was coming to rescue us. That we were all on our own.”
“You would have continued to help them and keep them safe.” She nodded and said she would have. “I know nothing about babies, much less magical ones. I’d like you to help me with that. I’m sure you have a wealth of information to hand down to me.”
“I think we’ll be helping each other on that. I only realized today that I’m the mother of a man that is decades—no, centuries old, and I’ve been hiding him away from the world too.” She looked at her, and Remi smiled. “You’re good for my son, Remi. He loves you, of course, but you make him feel as if he were atop of the world all the time. That is all a mother could ask for her children. For them to find happiness.”
“I do want that for my child. That and to be a good person. I spent enough time in the human world to know it’s not always that way. A person could be raised to be good, and something happens, and it all goes to shit. I’m going to teach them, with Harlin, what is right and wrong, and hope for the very best. I think you’d agree with me on that.” Alma said she did. “I know you have your own house, but I do hope you’ll come to see us a great deal. Stay with us too.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” They hugged, and Pixie went to Alma. “She’ll make the two of us young, Basil and I. We’ve both fallen in love with her so hard in just this little bit of time. We were asked to see if we’d like to take on other children like Pixie here. Children abandoned for one reason or another.”
“That will be wonderful. I heard from one of the faeries yesterday that the house for abused children is full up again. So many of them being hurt for no good reason. I don’t understand that myself.” Alma said she didn’t either but had been helping out as much as she could. ?
??I’m going to help as well. Maybe after this child is born, Harlin and I can bring a few of them here to live and be a part of our family. Perhaps before that.”
“I’m sure they’d welcome you to do that for them.” Alma stood up. “I’ve much to do now that I feel better. Sometimes I have missed that. Just talking to someone that has no vested interest in not telling me the truth when I ask for it. I’d very much like to meet with you more if that is all right with you.”
“It is. Every Wednesday night is the night my sisters and I get together.” Alma told her she’d not bother her on those nights. “That’s not why I told you. I want you to join us. The more, the merrier, I think. We never have our cell phones or computers but talk and argue a great deal about everything. I think you might well enjoy that too.”
“I think I’d love that. Thank you.”
Remi nodded, and Alma left with Pixie. Getting up, she went to find Harlin. She wanted him to take her to bed and never get out of it again—not practical, but it was a good try, she thought. Finding him with Basil and the brownies at the greenhouse, she left them to it and went to find Esme. Her mate might even be here now, she thought, and that would be a blast for all of them.
Laughing, Remi thought she was lucky to have found Harlin when she did. All of them had their mates come to them when they were needed most. Mercy had been about to have a nervous breakdown was the one thing Remi remembered the most about her having a mate around. Not only had Joel calmed her down, but he loved her with all he was. And loving Mercy was not an easy task. Yes, she thought again, she was happy to have all her family here, and all of them in love. She wondered what sort of person Esme would find to love.
