A Solstice Journey (6 page)

Idris and Cathal glanced at each other. I could tell they had been friends, or at one time even closer than that, I was willing to say, from the looks they had been exchanging. But Cathal accusing Idris of having something to do with my disappearance had cooled that relationship, not to mention Idris still had a wife or wives for all I knew.

“You can leave,” Cathal said tiredly.

“It’s going to be the same day?” I asked, remembering a few more fairy stories I had heard growing up, like Tam Lin and Rip Van Winkle.

“What do the
menskr
teach their children?” Celyn demanded. “It might not be the same day, but the day after.” He turned to Cathal and Idris. “Before that he was worried that eating food would force him to stay here.”

Both kings looked at me like I was an idiot. “You’re lucky that anyone knows about elves,” I replied. They shook their heads but didn’t comment.

So, time ran the same way here as it did in my world. That made what I was going to say next a little easier.

I looked at Cathal. “I know that you’re not happy. But I don’t want the people who raised me to have me disappear one day and not know what happened, so I don’t want to stay here.”

I was being polite by not calling them my parents. I thought they would guess what had happened. The way my mother had acted earlier today now seemed to make more sense, but guessing wasn’t the same as knowing.

“I also know that you are my father, even if it doesn’t feel like it to me,” I continued.

Cathal nodded, looking hopeful.

“I can stay here a few days, but I need to get back to my job,” I said.

It was a compromise I hoped he would like. If not, I was hoping that he didn’t do something like lock me in a room. I glanced over at Celyn. Well, being locked in a room with
him
would be nice, but I still wanted to get back home. Celyn must have felt my interest, because he tightened the hold he had around my waist.

“You are a prince of the
Álfr
!” Cathal exclaimed. “Your place is here.”

“I don’t know
here
!” I shot back. “This is a big decision. I can’t just drop my life and come here and live in fairy land, even if I am one.”

“You are—” Cathal started.

“I told Celyn, and I’m telling you. I was raised
menskr.
I was raised with computers and cars, cell phones and electricity, none of which I see here. And what does being a prince mean? Do I go off and fight dragons? Rescue princesses? What do I do here? I have a job and a life that I love. If you’d given me this offer fifteen years ago, I’d have jumped at it. But now, not so much.” I took a deep breath and calmed down. “I don’t know you. And more importantly, you don’t know me. I might not be the son that you’re looking for.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Cathal demanded.

“I like men,” I said bluntly. “You’re not getting any grandchildren out of me, so I hope that you had other children.”

“From the way that Celyn is touching you, I can tell that,” Cathal said wryly. “As I was the same way, I understand your feelings. But what is this job that you talk of?”

“He hunts money,” Celyn announced with a laugh, hugging me tighter.

I shrugged. “Basically, that’s it. And I like doing that. I don’t know anything about fighting or how to swing a sword, but I can balance your books.”

Cathal and Idris looked at each other again. “This is something that can be talked about in the morning,” Idris said. He paused for a second. “And in private.”

I realized that most everyone in this hall had heard what should have been a private conversation. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.

“Then if I may escort Gunnar to my room?” Celyn asked with a smile.

Idris and Cathal nodded, and I wasn’t surprised to be swept out of the hall and back into Celyn’s room another confusing walk later.

“Celyn,” I started when we got to his room and he shut the door behind us. I didn’t get to say anything more. He kissed me.

“Just don’t say anything,” he begged. “Just let us have tonight.”

I kissed him, and we lost each other in our passion.

I
WOKE
up the next morning with Celyn curled around me. “You would leave?” he asked softly.

“This is wonderful,” I said sincerely, “but this isn’t home.”

That was becoming less and less true. Last night had felt so right and better than anything I could have believed to be true.

“It could be,” he said.

And I could learn to love him, love this place, and make a life for myself here. If Cathal was right, I wasn’t cutting myself off from my family altogether. But did I want to do this?

“Do you want it to be home for me?” I asked, shifting so that we weren’t so close. “Physically, we seem to be a match, but I don’t know if we can live together.”

“You are borrowing trouble,” Celyn scolded, sitting up and hugging me. “Only the Norns can see the future.”

“And they aren’t here, are they?” I pointed out.

He laughed and shook his head, stealing a kiss from me. He sobered up fast after that kiss, though, his eyes sad and dark. “Stay, please.”

It wasn’t a command of a prince, but the plea of a man in love. My heart clenched. I couldn’t deny him that simple request. It was insane. It was arrogant, and it should have been the last thing I would do, but his plea touched me more deeply than I could have ever imagined.

“I need to tell my mother,” I finally said. “I’m willing to try.” It wasn’t a yes or a no, but his eyes lit up, and he kissed me again, pinning me down on the bed.

“That is all that we need,” he said.

I
FOUND
myself stumbling into the statues of the ducklings in the Public Garden. It was still snowing, and I couldn’t even figure out what day it was, never mind what year. But the snow wasn’t more than an inch or so deep, heavy wet flakes that would melt when they could. This wasn’t the frozen beauty of
Sút
, but a normal winter’s snowfall.

I managed to get home, begging a taxi ride from a cabbie who was willing to pick me up even dressed as I was, carrying my suit over one arm. When I was home and changed into something less outlandish, I figured out that only a day had gone by.

I had to do some very serious thinking about what I wanted for my life. And that included calling my mother to ask her to tell me what really happened. I dialed quickly before I changed my mind, since
Sút
was already beginning to seem very unreal to me.

“Mom?” I said as soon as she answered the phone. “I have to talk to you.”

“You know,” she said calmly.

“I sort of found out,” I agreed. “But I understand that you couldn’t tell me anything.”

She was silent on the other end of the line.

“Was I the reason that we moved all the time?” I asked.

“That really was because of your father’s job,” she ventured after several breaths of silence.

“How did you really find me?” I asked. “You always told me that story about finding me lost. How much of it was true?”

“We were in northern Russia, your father and I, working,” my mother said slowly. “And there you were, out on the tundra, in a place that didn’t have anyone living for miles. We had gone out to see it just because it was there. I knew immediately that you were special. And I didn’t want to lose you, so I made sure that we were never anyplace with snow in the winter. Can you forgive me for that?”

“I can,” I said gently. “You did it because you loved me.”

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” she asked. “Going to wherever you were supposed to be.”

“Not forever,” I promised. “I actually met someone. He’s nice.”

“He could be someone special for you?” she asked. I sensed that she wanted to ask me something else but didn’t know how. “And your family?”

“You
are
my family,” I told her fiercely. “You, Dad, and my sisters are my family, and I will never say anything different.” I sighed, though. “But I met my biological father. He seems nice. He wasn’t happy about what happened.”

“I wouldn’t think that he would be,” she agreed.

“I want to get to know him, but it’s not because I don’t love you,” I explained.

“I know that you can love more than two parents at a time,” my mother said with a sad laugh. “And I did have you for thirty years. It isn’t like you’re going to forget me.”

“I won’t,” I said. “I can still see you, and I do want you to meet Celyn.”

“That would be nice,” she said. “He must be special.”

What wasn’t being said by either of us was that I might be throwing my career away for this. A career I had worked very hard for. But I didn’t care. I was even going to be so wild as to not give my two weeks’ notice, because if I thought about this, I would lose my nerve.

“Don’t worry,” my mother said, as if she could read my mind. “I will take care of everything after you leave. It will be… better that way.”

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you too,” she replied, with a catch in her voice. “It’s not as bad as when you left to go there,” she said, meaning the US. “And you will visit?”

“When there is snow,” I said.

“And I will see you then,” she offered. “And do bring that young man.”

I laughed and hung up. I didn’t know how I was going to get back, but I would return to the world of Man. I thought of Celyn, how he sounded, how he felt when we were together. The passion had been amazing.

And just as amazing now was the rough purr I heard abruptly, the sudden hot breath I felt on the back of my neck before Math seized it and somehow maneuvered me onto her back. I grabbed the scruff of her neck and leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Take me home, girl.”

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