“Yes,” my father said. “He was calling to make sure you’d made it home all right.” His smile turned sardonic. “And to find out whether I’d told you who he was, of course. Was I correct in assuming you didn’t wish to speak to him?”
I nodded and finally stopped stirring my tea. The sugar had dissolved long ago. “Would you have let me talk to him if I’d wanted to?”
His eyebrows arched in surprise. “Of course. I’m not fond of him, and I’m even less fond of his father, but I won’t dictate whom you may or may not speak to.”
I cocked my head at him. So far, he wasn’t seeming very dad-like. “There are plenty of fathers who wouldn’t let their sixteen-year-old daughters talk to guys they don’t approve of.”
He put his teacup down and turned to face me fully, his expression grave. “You are not a child, and I will endeavor never to treat you as one,” he told me.
I almost argued with him. At my age, I spent most of the time trying to convince people I
wasn’t
just a kid, but right now, I wanted to be. I wanted to be taken care of, to have the responsibilities taken off my shoulders, to have someone else make all the tough decisions.
If that’s what you really wanted
, a little voice in my head whispered,
you could have stayed with Aunt Grace in the first place. Then you wouldn’t have had to make any decisions at all
.
“Do you have any questions for me?” my dad asked. “Avalon tends to overwhelm the average tourist; I can’t imagine what you must be thinking after everything that’s happened.”
I’d passed “overwhelmed” long ago. But despite all my turmoil, I did have some questions. First and foremost: “What’s to stop Aunt Grace or Ethan from kidnapping me again?”
“My resources are considerable,” he said. “You’ll always be safe in this house. Neither Grace nor Ethan is strong enough to overcome the spells I’ve placed on it.”
“What about Lachlan?”
Dad dismissed him with a wave of his hand. “Lachlan is a non-issue. He may be a physically impressive specimen, and I would not wish to face him in combat, but it would take something more sophisticated than brute force to breach my defenses.” His voice held a hint of contempt that I didn’t understand.
“But he is Fae, right? Even though he doesn’t look it?”
Dad didn’t actually wrinkle his nose, but his facial expression wasn’t far from it. “He is a creature of Faerie, but he is of the lower orders. His sort is not customarily permitted in Avalon, but with Grace championing him…”
Apparently, Dad was a snob. Lachlan might have been my jailor, but he was still one of the nicest people I’d met in Avalon. I felt almost offended by Dad’s attitude. I must have looked it, too, because he traded the nose-in-the-air expression for one of rueful amusement.
“We are a very class-conscious bunch, we Fae,” he said. The amusement faded. “You must understand that although Avalon has officially seceded from Faerie, the Fae are still Fae. We recognize one another as Seelie or Unseelie, even though technically we don’t owe allegiance to the Courts anymore. And in Faerie, the concept of all men being equal is so ridiculous as to be almost sacrilege. The Sidhe—what you think of when you think of Fae—are the aristocracy of Faerie. Lachlan is not Sidhe. I am.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, still feeling defensive on Lachlan’s behalf. “So what you’re saying is that because you’re Sidhe, you’re better than him?”
I expected him to say something placating. Instead, he just looked me in the eye and said, “Yes.”
I blinked in shock. There were a lot of people in this world who thought they were better than everyone else, but I couldn’t ever remember hearing anyone actually
admit
they felt that way.
“Lachlan is a troll,” my father continued. “He wears a human glamour—if he didn’t, even Grace wouldn’t have been able to bring him in legally—but that doesn’t change what he is beneath.”
I felt sick to my stomach. Dad wasn’t just a snob—he was a bigot. I had wanted to like him, maybe even love him eventually, but I couldn’t imagine liking a bigot.
Dad leaned toward me, and it was all I could do not to lean away in response.
“The Fae of Avalon play at being human,” he told me, “but we’re not. We will always be creatures of Faerie first, citizens of Avalon second. Some young bucks like Alistair Leigh think they can change that, but the Fae do not change. We will never be an egalitarian people, nor will we ever break free from the Courts.
“We belong to the Court of our parents, and we belong to that Court as long as we live. Anyone who says otherwise is either deluded or naive.”
I had a feeling there was a subtle message in my father’s words.
We belong to the Court of our parents
. In other words, even though I’m half human, I “belong” to the Seelie Court. Of course, he’d already given me that message when he’d sent me the cameo. I just hadn’t been able to read it.
“That is the reason tensions always run so high when it is time for a Fae to take the position of Consul,” my father continued. “Whether the Consul is Seelie or Unseelie matters little to Avalon’s human citizens, but to the Fae…” He shuddered theatrically, then flashed me another rueful smile. “I’d like to hate your mother for spiriting you away, not even letting me know you exist.” The smile faded, and he sighed. “But try as I might, I can’t blame her.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all. I could blame my mom for a lot of things she’d done, but trying to keep me out of Avalon wasn’t one of them. If I’d known the truth from the beginning, I never would have come.
I leaned forward to put my cup, still half-full, on the table. As if it had a will of its own, the cameo slid out from beneath my shirt. I was sure my dad noticed, though he didn’t say anything. It would probably have been a good time to confront him about sending it to me without explaining the significance, but I just didn’t want to deal with that bit of subtle deceit right now.
“I never did finish answering your question,” my father said, and I was relieved he didn’t force the issue of the cameo. “You are protected in the house because of the strength of my spells. Outside the house, you are vulnerable, so you must never leave the house alone.”
My heart sank. Maybe Dad was going to keep me prisoner just like Aunt Grace.
“I will hire a … companion for you,” he continued. “When you leave the house, you must be with me or with your companion.”
“By ‘companion,’ you mean, like, a bodyguard?” That idea was just too weird for words.
“Something like that, yes. It’s for your own safety.”
Yeah, and it was supposedly for my own good that Grace had locked me up. However, I knew an argument I couldn’t win when I heard it, so I didn’t bother trying. At least I wouldn’t be cooped up all day anymore. Maybe I’d even get to see some of the
nice
spots in Avalon instead of exploring dark, creepy tunnels in the heart of the mountain.
That idea perked me up a bit, and I managed a tentative smile for my dad. I wasn’t too happy about the whole bigotry thing, but other than that, Dad seemed relatively nice. I had my own clothes, and an almost-comfortable room to call my own. And I would finally have a chance to play tourist, if only for a little while.
Things were looking up.
Dad took me out to lunch at a quaint sidewalk café in the heart of Avalon’s shopping district. Avalon is one of the last hold-outs in the battle against chain stores and fast food restaurants. Most of the stores were mom-and-pop types, and the restaurants were unique. But even Avalon isn’t immune to the changing times. Right across from the café where we ate lunch, there was a Starbucks, and a little ways down the street, there was a Gap.
The “companion” Dad had hired joined us just as we were finishing lunch. I was leaning back in my chair, doing a bit of people-watching, when a man caught my eye. He was striding toward us purposefully, and he looked like he’d just come from Central Casting after auditioning for the part of a secret service goon. Tall, muscular, unsmiling, wearing a dark suit and—get this—dark glasses. All he needed was one of those curly rubber thingamabobs hanging from his ear and he’d be perfect.
Dad smiled when Secret Service Man approached, standing up and holding out his hand. Secret Service Man didn’t smile back, although he did shake hands and nod something that might have been a greeting.
“Perfect timing, Finn,” Dad said. “We were just finishing up.” In fact, the waitress chose that moment to dart by and return Dad’s credit card. He signed the receipt without even looking. “I’d like you to meet my daughter, Dana.”
Finn gave me the same formal nod he’d given my father. I had to struggle not to laugh. I wondered if there was a bodyguard stereotype he
didn’t
fit. I mirrored the nod, and if Finn had a clue I was mocking him, it didn’t show.
Dad sat back down, though Finn remained on his feet at high alert.
“I have some business to take care of this afternoon,” Dad told me, and I realized I didn’t even know what he did for a living. He went on before I had a chance to ask. “Finn will take good care of you while I’m gone and will escort you home when you’re through.” He opened up his wallet and pulled out a generous handful of euros. “I figured you might want to do some shopping while you’re in the neighborhood. I believe you Americans call it ‘retail therapy.’”
That made me chuckle. Yeah, some retail therapy might be just what the doctor ordered. Though I’d never been shopping with a big, hulking goon in dark sunglasses looming over my shoulder before. It ought to be … interesting.
I took the money Dad was handing me, then gasped when I saw it was five hundred euros. I guess when you’re in the big leagues like my dad, you don’t worry too much about having your pocket picked. I opened my mouth to protest that it was way too much money, but he interrupted me before I could.
“I’ve missed sixteen years worth of birthday and Christmas presents,” he said. “I think I’m entitled to spoil you now that I finally have the chance.”
I still didn’t want to take his money. I mean, that was more cash than I’d ever seen in my life. Between the constant moving and the frequent drunken absences, my mom had never been too good at holding a job. We always had enough to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table, but rarely had any more.
I swallowed my protest and stuffed the handful of bills into the pocket on my leg, which I then made sure was tightly buttoned. “Thanks,” I said. “That’s very generous of you.” My paranoia started jumping up and down and saying, “He’s trying to buy your affections!” Ugh. I really hate being so suspicious.
We shared another warm father-daughter handshake before Dad went off to work and left me with Finn the goon, who so far hadn’t given any indication that he could speak. That might make it easier for me to just pretend he wasn’t there, that I was just off on a fun shopping jaunt all by myself.
Turned out that shopping with Goliath always looking over my shoulder wasn’t as much fun as I’d expected. Not that I’d really believed I could pretend he wasn’t there, but I hadn’t realized how edgy the constant scrutiny would make me. Not to mention that he made the store staff nervous, hovering there looking intimidating.
“Any chance you could give me a little breathing room?” I asked him as we left a silversmith’s store. I’d have loved to have taken more time looking at the jewelry, but Finn had made the shopkeeper so visibly nervous I decided the only decent thing to do was get out.
Finn shook his head.
I frowned up at him. “Do you talk?” Maybe that was on the blunt side, but I was getting tired of his strong, silent-type act.
One corner of his mouth twitched, like he was suppressing a smile. “Only when necessary,” he answered. He had the deep, rumbling voice that went with his size. He was nowhere near as big as Lachlan, but he was still one of the biggest Fae I’d ever seen. At least, I was assuming he was Fae. A human bodyguard wouldn’t have done me much good against Fae kidnappers and their magic.
“I find it necessary for you to explain why you have to stand this close all the time.”
He lowered his glasses so I could see his striking, emerald-green eyes with their distinctive Fae tilt. Those eyes were like a secret weapon, so gorgeous I felt my own eyes widening in surprise. Then he cracked a smile, and my breath caught in my throat. He’d give Ethan a run for his money in the oh-my-God-you’re-gorgeous arena.
“I have to be close enough to put myself between you and harm, if necessary,” he said. The smile disappeared, and he pushed the glasses back into place, transforming himself once more from stud-muffin to Secret Service Man. Apparently, that was the end of our conversation.
To tell you the truth, I was kind of glad he’d put the glasses back up, or I might have tripped over my own feet staring. It’s not like I’d never seen a good-looking guy before, but let’s face it, the Fae take good-looking to a whole new level.
I kept wandering, but I hadn’t bought anything yet. Then I saw one of the few chain stores that had a foothold in Avalon: Victoria’s Secret. Cruel creature that I am, I couldn’t resist going in, wondering how Finn would react.
Of course, he
didn’t
. React, that is. He just followed me around as usual, the sunglasses firmly in place. Even with his eyes hidden and his I’m-a-scary-dude vibe, I caught one of the sales girls checking out the rear view. It made me smile.
I headed for the panties that were on sale—I could buy a bra, but it would be little more than window dressing on my pathetically flat chest. Hoping to make Finn squirm, I held up a pair of black thong panties, checking the price tag while I kept watch on him out of the corner of my eye. Still nothing. Guess he wasn’t that easy to embarrass. I, on the other hand, was probably blushing like crazy. This plan had definitely backfired.
Not wanting Finn to know that I’d been browsing just to annoy him, I bought the thong, as well as some more practical underwear. You can never have too much underwear. Especially when you hate doing laundry. I then handed the bag to Finn for him to carry. He hesitated for a second, and I swear I could feel those laser-beam eyes on me even through the dark glasses. I blinked up at him innocently, enjoying the evidence that I’d cracked his composure. He regained it real fast, though, taking the bag from me without comment. I wished I had a camera, because he looked pretty funny carrying a Victoria’s Secret bag while trying to maintain his dignified, bad-ass goon look.