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“Mrs., uh, Nowak? Happy Yule,” Charlie says from over my shoulder.
Her chin quivers. “Charlie Miller? Is that you? You’ve grown up so much. You were just a tiny lad.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says. “Nice to see you again.”
She nods, her eyes slipping from my face, to Charlie’s behind me, and back again. “You followed Teddy around all that summer. The summer I ...”
“Left,” I say flatly.
Charlie presses in against my back. Dark shifts a little closer to my side. I appreciate the support, but I don’t need it. This woman really doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.
“Jill, would you like to dance?” I ask.
She gives me a sharp-eyed smile. Can’t get much past my auntie. She nods and takes my hand.
I lead her out to the dance floor but then let her lead. She’s danced with me plenty of times, but it was around the holiday fires, not in a waltz among fae courtiers.
“Good surprise?” she asks.
“Not really. Da’s here. Harriet’s just someone else to protect from him.”
Looking over my shoulder in Harriet’s direction, she nods. “We saw him and Brendan and Les when we arrived.”
“Have you been in touch with her all this time?” I ask.
Jill’s eyes, soft and sad, return to my face. “Aye, my lassie. I’m sorry. She begged me to keep quiet. Said your life depended on it.”
“Prolly did. While Da had me under his thumb, he’d have used me as leverage if he knew she was alive and you had a way of contacting her. She been safe and happy?”
Jill’s lips tighten to a white line. “She’s been safe enough, away from your Da. She’s addicted to goblin fruit.”
That explains why she’s so pale and shaky.
“Has she always been an addict?”
“In one way or another,” Jill confirms. “Addicted to attention when we were wee. Addicted to danger when we were of dating age. And now addicted to that poison.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “It must be hard to see your sister like this.”
Jill releases my waist and cups my chin in her warm, calloused hand. “You know what I see? I see everything she could have been in you. Proud of you, me girl.”
I abandon the waltz to hug her. “Thank you for everything, auntie.”
She hugs me back, strong and solid, the way she’s always been. “Better introduce me to these lads of yours. They’re watching like they’re afraid I’m going to knife you in the back.”
“We haven’t had the best luck at these. Last time I was out on this dance floor, I got challenged to a duel.”
“Which you won,” she says. Not a question.
“Which I totally won. Did you know StoneSkin doesn’t protect the eyes? ‘Cause that fucking sucks.”
She chuckles. “I did. I’ll teach you the Eye of Horus. Then you can close your eyes and let your Third Eye see for you.”
I’m not going to turn her down, although I think I have that covered now.
“You know Charlie Miller,” I say, when she releases me and I lead her off the dance floor towards the boys. Who are looking a little anxious. “Darwin’s the fae. Gabe’s t’other.”
“Uh-huh. They’re lookers, girl.”
