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Well, if we were waiting that long, I might as well relax too. I sat across from her in an armchair that had a message remote built into the arm. I pressed a few random buttons and nearly squealed when the chair started vibrating and something hard pressed into the middle of my back and began moving up toward my neck.
After a second, I relaxed into it and sighed. This felt wonderful after nearly thirteen hours of traveling with two layovers and a brief nap at an airport hotel. My fingers twitched to check my phone, but I pushed away the urge. I sent my friends a group message letting them know I was going to a boarding school and would only have email access. My parents and Masie thought it would be easier to distance myself from them if we limited contact, and knowing my friends, none of them would bother. Soon enough, I’d become a memory, but it was better this way. I had no way of explaining anything to them. I couldn’t tell them the truth, and I didn’t want to have to lie.
“Masie Lynn Stone, sit up and act like a lady,” a woman’s voice scolded, and my eyes popped open.
An older, very refined-looking couple stood at the door, staring down their noses at us.
Masie shot up instantly with her back rod straight and her ankles crossed as her hands landed in her lap. “Hello, Mother.” Her eyes moved to the man. “Father.”
These were her parents? My grandparents? They didn’t look remotely how I pictured them. Masie was so free-spirited and kind and loving, and they were . . . not.
The woman, my grandma, had all-too-familiar red hair pulled back in a low bun that accentuated her fair, smooth skin. Had she had work done, or did I have some amazing genes?
She wore a navy pantsuit and stilettos with an elegant strand of pearls at her neck. Her husband carried himself like he was the most important person in the room, and his well-fitting suit accentuated his tall, lean form. Neither of them looked old enough to be Masie’s parents, let alone my grandparents.
He was handsome and reminded me of an actor I couldn’t name with his distinguished salt and pepper hair and matching, neatly trimmed beard. His blue eyes matched mine—and Masie’s. How had I never noticed how similar we looked when I looked nothing like Mom?
After casting her daughter a disapproving look, the woman’s eyes settled on me. She took in my rumpled shirt and baggy jeans with a small frown. Well, had I known I’d be meeting the queen, I would have taken out my ball gown.
I almost rolled my eyes but didn’t think that would help.
Masie stood and stepped in front, blocking me from her parents’ view. The tension in the air was so thick I worried I’d suffocate.
The man cleared his throat. “Now, now Masie. We come in peace. We want to meet our granddaughter.”
She didn’t move, but I leaned forward enough to see them.
“Why now?” she asked. I wondered the same thing.
“You know the answer to that,” the woman snapped.
“You always had the option of being in her life.” Masie’s voice was low, protective. “You chose not to.”
The woman lifted her nose in the air and turned away as if she disagreed, but she didn’t argue.
“It’s not that simple.” The man’s voice held an air of authority that made me feel like I had to listen to every word.
“You could have found a way.Ifyou really wanted to.” Masie wasn’t giving in. As much as I appreciated her watching out for me, I wanted to know these people and why they stayed away. They clearly knew who I was, which meant they’d chosen not to be in my life for the past seventeen years, unlike Masie. She was right. She found a way to fit into my life. Why couldn’t they?
I stood and moved to her side. Maybe it was the fatigue making my brain work too slow to stop me, but I was sick of being dragged along without understanding what was happening to me.
“I’d like to know the answer too.” The couple stared at me, eyes trailing over every inch of me. Searching but I wasn’t sure for what.
The man snapped his attention back to the conversation first. “It’s complicated. We’re well-known in our society. People watch us. We worried we might lead them to you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Lead who?”
Masie reached out and wrapped her hand around my wrist. Her father noted that and tilted his head up. Some sort of understanding set in.
“We have enemies—as most people in our position do.” I was getting tired of being fed these vague answers. They were keeping something from me. Something big. I knew it as surely as I knew his wife didn’t like me.
She had finished her assessment and found me wanting. She stared at her manicure like it was more interesting than the granddaughter she was meeting for the first time. Well, the first time I remembered. They might have met me when I was a baby before my birth parents died.
“Your position? Are you a politician or something?” I asked.
His lip quirked like he was about to smile, but it vanished in an instant. “Not quite.”
“There’s a whole new world you’re about to be a part of. The society he’s talking about isn’t the one you know. It’s the one of supernaturals. Witches, shifters, and . . .” she blew out a breath, “vampires.”
