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“Yep.” I shake hands. “Samantha Moon. Find me if you ever need help.”
***
I appear in Kingsley’s living room.
He’s stretched out, shirtless, in a set of black silk pajama pants that resemble something an ancient samurai might wear. “All done?”
“Yep. Boy reunited with dad.” I kick my shoes off, saunter over, and slide into his lap. “Got the rest of the night to ourselves.”
“Excellent.” He smiles. “Well… that was certainly… weird.”
I chuckle. “What else is new? But hey, another case in the solved folder.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you investigated illegal aliens.”
I groan and let my head fall against his shoulder. “You’re so bad.”
“And you love me for it.”
Can’t say he’s wrong. Yeah, the rest of the night is going to be fun.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Our Crazy Normal
I arrive home around three-thirty in the afternoon.
Yes, Kingsley and I stayed up too late. But thanks to the magic of cellular phones and texts, my kids are not worried about me, nor I them. I find Tammy sitting at the dining room table with Allison. A whole mess of junk is spread out between them: candles, bits of wood, leaves, twigs, sparkling stones, and little bottles containing (what I guess to be) essential oils. There are also three pizza boxes at the end of the table.
Paxton’s sprawled on the living room floor playing with a Barbie doll in a little doll bed. Odd. She’s a little old for Barbies. I’m about to ask what’s up when the doll moves, stretching and yawning before snuggling into the tiny pillow.
I gasp. It’s Maple!
Everyone looks at me.
“What happened?” I gesture at the faerie.
“Look! A real faerie!” chirps Paxton. “But she’s super tired. Like, she did too much magic so she’s gotta sleep a long time. I’m helping keep her safe.”
The kid is practically vibrating with excitement over seeing a genuine faerie. Swear, she’s got such a contagiously infectious grin, merely seeing Paxton happy makes it impossible to be in a bad mood.
“Mom,” says Tammy in a tone like she’s about to confess to shoplifting. “You’re going to find out eventually…”
“Uh oh.” I hurry over there, arms folded. “What did you do?”
Tammy exhales… and proceeds to tell me about going into the realm of faerie, then the realm of dark faerie, and finally about how she damn near got herself killed fighting to keep the monsters away from Annie long enough for the kid to escape. Allison chimes in to correct her, pointing out how theybothnearly got themselves killed. Allie refused to leave Tammy behind despite her seemingly dire situation. She ends by pointing at the empty pizza boxes, telling me it’s been ten years since she had pizza.
I’m too stunned to say anything right away. Yeah, I recently told Carson not to worry about whatmight havehappened, but that’s way easier to say when it’s not your own daughter almost dying. Noble sacrifice or not, she’s my kid.
Tammy jumps out of her chair and hugs me. “Sorry, Mom.”
I can’t summon the words to say ‘it’s okay.’ My emotion is roughly even between being furious and scared shitless. I’m not furious at Tammy, rather at circumstance. Can’t hold it against her. How often haveIgotten myself into crazy situations and made my kids think they were about to lose their mother?
The way she’s clinging tells me it freaked her out, too. However, she’s keeping it together, more so than I’d expect. The change in her is as noticeable as it is difficult to explain. She said something about dreaming she had a second childhood. If Maple’s involved, who knows what sort of craziness went on. My daughter’s tale of using magic to fight off an army of dark faerie sounds so unbelievable it just might be true. Ugh!
I flop in a chair at the dining room table. “This is going to take me some time to process.”
After thirty seconds of silence, Paxton hesitantly asks about my day.
