Feversong (Fever #9)(93)
Back then it was enough. I’d believed my moments infinite. Jackie Paper was never going to leave Puff alone.
“Sure thing, Brain.” I kicked up into the slipstream.
MAC
I got a little slice of heaven that afternoon.
In a lovely townhouse, with a brightly painted red door, adorned by colorful planters filled with sopping wet blooms in every window, on the north side of the River Liffey, I had lunch with my sister Alina and my parents.
The Lane family reunion couldn’t have been more perfect.
When I knocked on the door, Mom opened it, burst into tears of joy, and exclaimed over her shoulder, “Jack, Jack, come quickly! Our baby’s here!”
Then my daddy and sister were both in the doorway and I was engulfed in Jack Lane’s fierce bear hug that smelled just like it always did of peppermint and aftershave, then Alina and Mom had their arms around both of us and we stood in a group hug, crying and laughing, and my heart had nearly exploded from trying to hold so much joy.
The many horrors of the past year melted away in that embrace and it felt for a few moments as if the Lanes had merely gotten together in Ireland for a family vacation. My sister had never died, I’d never killed, and the world wasn’t about to end.
Not. But it still felt pretty damned wonderful.
They told me Alina had found them weeks ago, and although they’d been disbelieving, even hostile at first, that “nice Mr. Ryodan had come by,” taken her away and done a blood test that proved she was indisputably their daughter. (I didn’t tell them he’d no doubt bitten her, not drawn blood, and exchanged a glance with Alina, who winked at me before we shared a private smile.) Daddy said they would have eventually believed it was her, even without a test of any kind, because he knew his girls.
Mom made fried chicken (Mr. Ryodan had sent a pantryful of other groceries—“Mr. Ryodan” really knew how to work the moms), biscuits, and greens, followed by the best peach pie I’d ever tasted.
We sat around the small table in the tall-ceilinged, bright kitchen, laughing and talking, reveling in the one thing we’d believed we would never get to do again—be a family making normal, family small talk. Mom made me unbraid my hair and told me it was too platinum for my coloring, and whatever hair vitamins I was taking, I might want to back off unless I wanted to turn into something from a fairy tale, like Rapunzel. I didn’t tell her I’d already turned into something from a fairy tale. Figured I’d save that doozy for later. I noticed Alina wasn’t wearing her engagement ring anymore and I didn’t miss the fleeting sadness that occasionally crossed her face, like when Mom teased her about that handsome man Mr. Ryodan sent to drop supplies off a few days ago. I made a mental note to ask my sister which of the Nine it had been. Last thing I wanted was Alina hooking up with one of them, although, I mused…that Jason Statham look-alike was totally hot and, well, Alina wasn’t any more normal than me. Well, slightly more normal but not all that much. Daddy had lost weight, laboring with District Ten on various projects, and looked more handsome and robust than ever. Mom was no longer part of WeCare. They’d up and closed their doors out of the blue with no explanation. She’d turned her efforts to a local outreach center instead, which oversaw multiple greenhouses and was developing dozens of local farms.
After lunch we sat in the dark blue parlor that sported wing-backed chairs, a lovely chandelier, tall windows, and white wainscoting, gathered near a softly hissing gas fire as I filled them in on why I’d been gone so long (omitting a LOT). When I told them how I’d defeated the Sinsar Dubh and left it trapped in the boudoir, my daddy’s eyes had gleamed with pride. “That’s my girl,” he told me fiercely. “I knew you wouldn’t doom the world.”
I’d glowed quietly. My daddy’s approval was welcome salve to the injury of the many sins I’d committed in the process. When I told them I was, also, however, the Faery queen and already the castes were coming to me with petitions, my mom was the one who surprised me the most.
“I can’t think of anyone better to lead them,” she said. “That nice Mr. Ryodan told us some of what you’ve been through in the past year. I don’t think there’s anything you couldn’t handle now.”
I blinked. Wow. Rainey Lane had become downright adaptable. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised—like mother like daughter. I’d love to know what Ryodan had told her. Surely not that I’d been raped, almost killed multiple times, and was a killer. I made a mental note to dig further into that, if the opportunity presented itself. I had a hard time picturing him talking favorably about me but it was clear he presented a very different picture of himself to “normal” people than he did to me.
Daddy said, “Does that mean you know the song that can save the planet and we aren’t going off world? Good grief, I just said off world.” He laughed and rubbed his hands together briskly. “I have to admit, I find the notion quite intriguing. I’ve always had a bit of wanderlust and no time to indulge it.” He told me Ryodan had the Lanes in the first wave of colonists, packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Sighing, I shook my head. “It means I’m the one that can supposedly sing or wield it, whatever that means, but no, we’ve not yet figured out what it is. Dancer’s working on it right now.” I filled them in on the music box and the strange song it contained that I heard so differently than everyone else.