AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, yes it is,” I tell him. “As soon as I get Aunt Lucy, we’re calling this a win.”
“How so?” Dad asks incredulously.
“You abandoned your posts and gave up your hostages,” I tell him. “Cillian lost. You’re losing. The others will fall like dominos.”
Mom chuckles. “Oh, you’re so my daughter.”
“Hey,” Dad complains. “I helped make her, too.”
My fingers pull at his ears again. “No changing the subject. Let go of Mom or lose an ear.”
He rumbles louder but complies. As soon as Mom is several steps away, I pat Dad’s head. “Good boy.”
I’m leaping off his back before he can retaliate, then Mom and I are running as if our lives depend on it, but all while laughing our asses off.
We spot Aunt Lucy’s iridescent hair up ahead, but she of course doesn’t need our help. She has Finn pinned to the ground, her boot digging into his chest. “Who said you could cross to our side?”
“Who said I couldn’t?” he counters with undisguised defiance.
Aunt Lucy raises a hand, but I call out her name and shake my head. “No magic. We won’t lose.”
Her upper lip lifts. “He tried to kidnap me.”
“And you can make him really pay later,” Mom tells her. “We need to get Andie and Amersyn.”
“Already here,” Aunt Amersyn says from behind us, but there’s been no sign of Aunt Andie.
Shit.
Aunt Lucy seems to come to the same conclusion as I do as her feathered wings extend from her back, the tips razor sharp. “They’ll all pay for taking one of ours. Each and every one of them.”
I shake my head and grin. So much for a friendly snowball competition.
Moving to stand in front of my aunt, I grab her shoulders, careful not to touch her wings. “They won’t actually hurt her.”
“But they’ll use her to win,” Mom says from right behind me. “Lucy, if you fly, you break Beatrix’s rule of no magic.”
“Damn right she does, and I’m watching,” GiGi says from the shadows, but I can’t quite tell where she’s at.
The fae’s wings retract. “Freaking old—”
“I’d be careful how you finish that sentence.” GiGi adds with glee in her voice, and I can picture her evil grin without needing to see her.
“We’re getting off track here,” Amersyn says. “We get Andie, Beatrix counts damages, and then—”
“Theturkey!” Mom shouts loud enough to make me wince with how close she is. “No, no, no.”
Her hands are covering her face when I turn around and ask. “What’s wrong, Mom?”
“The power going out would have reset the stove,” she says with utter defeat. “I was already behind from having burned the first one. The second one hasn’t even been cooking all this time.”
Son of a bitch.
“We’ll finish this and then figure out food,” I promise. “You have the most badass women in the world here. Everything will be fine.”
Aunt Embry throws an arm around Mom. “Your daughter is right, Cait. We’ve got this. Beatrix just needs to declare us winners once we have Andie back.”
I still have no idea how GiGi is going to know who won. Has she been counting snowballs thrown? Will welts be inspected for worst damage? Knowing her, it’s the latter. She does love torture.
