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He'd miss Rory and Tacey, of course, but at least he'd know they were safe, thanks to him. Except...would they be? If they were his family, he would not rest until he was reunited with them. Monster or not, surely Rory's father would want the same?
Which meant that he would likely be Tacey's protector for some time. Perhaps her lifetime, or Rory's. The thought warmed his no longer beating heart. Perhaps there might be another kiss from Tacey in his future, though she seemed to have either regretted or forgotten their first one.
Still, if he had a lifetime by her side, there would be other chances. Rory would ask him to fly with her again, and he would offer to take Tacey up as well. Up above the clouds to see the stars, like this super man she had spoken of.
Something tugged insistently on his arm. For such a small girl, Rory had surprising strength. "You gotta promise, Mr Monster!"
Wystan took her hand in both of his. "Rory Bell, I promise to protect you with all of my power."
Rory cheered, pulling out of his grasp to dance about the room. "Yay! Can we fly now?"
If only. "Not until it is dark, and only if your mother agrees," he said.
He doubted she would, for Tacey had scarcely spoken three words to him all day, but it didn't matter, for by the time the sun had set, Rory had forgotten all about flying and was more excited about having pizza for dinner, whatever that was.
TWENTY-NINE
Silence reigned between Tacey and Wystan right up until the morning of her lawyer appointment. She was congratulating herself on what was looking to be a good day when her phone rang.
"Hi, Mum," she said.
"I'm so sorry, Tacey. Your dad was home with what he thought was food poisoning from a sandwich he bought at work yesterday, but it looks like I've got the bug, too. I won't be able to come and pick up Rory today."
Oh God. No way did she want Rory to catch it. Between worrying about Rory getting dehydrated and cleaning up the mess, Tacey wouldn't be able to escape catching the bug, too, and...
But she had the lawyer's appointment today. She could hardly bring Rory along. There were some things a kid didn't need to know, and dealing with child custody lawyers was right up there.
Her mind whirling, Tacey managed to mumble something sympathetic and wish Mum a speedy recovery before the call ended.
If it weren't the middle of the day, she'd consider asking Wystan to watch her. He'd watched over her upstairs while Tacey was working in the café these last couple of weeks, but she'd always been here, too. Plus there was Wystan's weird allergy to sunlight...
She should have asked Octavia instead of Mum. Sure, Octavia wasn't a morning person, seeing as she stayed up most of the night doing who knew what on her computer, but if she'd asked her, Octavia would've been there. For her and for Rory.
Not that she'd seen much of Octavia at all since that night at the cemetery.
Tacey considered calling her, but there was no way Octavia would be awake yet, and if she was asleep, she wouldn't even answer a text until lunchtime. Too late for the appointment, anyway.
The morning rush started early, and went through until Tacey had to leave – she didn't even have a moment to call anyone, and now it was too late.
She'd just have to take Rory with her, and hope the lawyer had a spare desk or table where Rory could draw or something. Surely a family lawyer would have somewhere suitable for kids. He'd deal with heaps of single parents who didn't have babysitters to help.
Tacey trudged up the stairs, dread rising with every step. She didn't want to take Rory to the lawyer. Didn't want her to know about the possible custody battle. It wasn't fair on Rory.
"Rory, I know Grandma was supposed to come and pick you up for a bit, but she's sick, so you'll have to come with me to my meeting instead," Tacey said.
"Do I have to?" Rory whined. "Wystan was going to help me with my drawing. I can't get his wings right, so he promised he'd do them for me."
"Maybe this afternoon, when we get back," Tacey said. "Come on, pack up your stuff. You can take your things with you, and maybe do some more drawing while I'm in my meeting. Then you can show Wystan when you get back."
Rory whined a bit more, but she did as she was told. Within minutes, she had her shoes and her backpack on and she was headed down the stairs.
"Ooh, Mummy, these are perfect wings," Rory said. "Come look!"
When Tacey reached the bottom of the stairs, Rory was nowhere in sight. It took her a minute to find her, standing on one of the chairs at Ben's usual table, examining his art on the wall.
"We don't stand on chairs, we sit on them," Tacey chided.
"Yes, Mummy, but I need to see these!"
