Chapter 23
“Come in, come in. I’ll put the kettle on, and we’ll have some tea. Then you can tell me about what you’ve been up to since you transitioned.”
I stopped in the middle of a very nice sitting room filled with overstuffed couches and bookshelves teeming with books, a cooling cup of tea on the coffee table. The room had French doors, which opened out onto a balcony tiled with the same pretty pattern as below.
“Now, what should we have…?” Nan bustled into the next room, a small kitchenette, familiar battered tins lined up on the shelves. She ran her fingers across them and then selected two. “One for me, the other for you,” she murmured, busying herself with getting together the tea things.
“Nan, you knew?”
“Not yet,” she said. “You’ll sour the process.” She boiled the water, heaping one lot of tea into a pot, the other she put into a small metal infuser. Then I stiffened. As she brewed the drinks, I watched her hand wave over the pot, a trail of golden sparks following, only to dissipate moments later.
“Nan…”
It was part query, part accusation, part plea, but she just nodded, meeting my eyes for a moment before putting everything on a tray and carrying it out into the lounge room.
“Tea, Ruby?” she asked the other woman.
“I prefer coffee,” Ruby replied, conjuring a steaming cup from nowhere and taking a seat in an armchair. We went to do the same, but Nan fussed.
“Sit with your young man, love.” She beamed up at Mark. “So tall and strong, just like your grandfather. He was a sentinel too, of course.”
“What?” I yelped, halfway between sitting on the couch. Mark pulled me down beside him, Soraya taking another armchair.
“Yes, yes, your mother didn’t know, of course. No talent at all in that one, sadly. She thought her dad was a soldier. He was, just not for the Australian government. Sentinels are always good consorts for avatars. Stable, keep you grounded, and you’ll need that.” Her eyes went distant as she reached for the tea pot, never getting there. Instead, something I couldn’t see played out before her eyes.
“Your grandmother is a seer,” Ruby said. “A very talented one, but with that gift comes some burdens. She should never have left the chapter. We have medicine, spells that would keep her visions from tearing at her mind, but she went with your grandfather instead. They met here.”
“And is he…” I glanced between Ruby and Mark. “Is he still around?”
Mark’s hand went to take mine, which told me before his words the answer to that. “Your grandfather is quite famous within the league. He was killed in a mission to stop a war between several fae factions in Europe. His name is on a memorial that I walked past every day. He was a great man.”
“As yours will be, love.” Nan snapped back to the here and now, gazing upon both of us for a few moments with a gentle smile before nodding. “Now, milk and sugar still?”
I’d never taken tea with milk and sugar, but I accepted the cup when she held it out, Mark taking the other. She didn’t offer anything to Soraya, which I found weird. I took an experimental sip, pleasantly surprised by the explosion of astringent bergamot in the tea, offset by the sweet milkiness. I had another sip, then another before setting the cup down. Nan smiled approvingly.
“Now, you must want to know so many things.” She took a deep breath, her eyes dropping closed for a moment. “Your parents, such as they were, are safe. They’ve been given a new life in England. Your father is thinking of trying his hand at self-publishing for the first time, feeling like he always had a book in him and now’s the time to try and get it out.”
“Your grandmother contacted us once you’d transitioned. She was quite frantic, but once we got her onto the right medicine, she was able to articulate the threats posed to the family,” Ruby said. “Your wider family thinks the lot of you died in a car accident. Anything you want retrieved from the house, you might want to do now. They’ve just finalised the plans to settle the property.”
“I…” The words froze in my throat as my brain raced to process what she was saying. I didn’t get anymore, my mouth finally falling closed when I gave up trying. The house, Dad’s writing career, Mum—it was all stuff I should’ve cared about. It was my history, where I’d come from, but instead, there was just… “You knew,” I forced out, not sure who it was directed at.
“Yes, love. Human relationships rarely survive the process of transition, but our sentinels are the exception to that rule for reasons I’ve never been able to work out.” A hand came to land on mine. “There’s no shame in walking away from what was before. That wasn’t you and isn’t you anymore. I tried to protect you, look after you as best as I could.”
I stared at her, seeing the overlay of the grandmother I’d known most of my life—mercurial and possessing a wealth of arcane knowledge, but also the shrill madwoman muttering about the people of stone and leaf and wood and tossing charms and fetishes at me. Neither fit the woman sitting here.
“What did you do to her?” I asked Ruby, then looking Nan over more closely. “Are you with Rutherglen? Is this someone glamoured to look like my grandmother?”
“I didn’t want what is coming for you,” Nan replied simply, her hands bundled in her lap. “I refused to take a medicine that dulls my abilities just to keep me sane, because I could see you everywhere. Queen of this world, but struck down by the purest of agonies. I didn’t want you to transition, thinking if I kept your power suppressed, hidden from even you, it could be avoided. Pain is coming, Kira. So much pain.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I was pummelled with them, the visions. Of you screaming, of the world screaming. Over and over, I watched your descent down into pain, and I did what I could to try and stop that.” Her shaking hand reached for mine, but the grip was firm when she clasped it. “I know now I hurt you just as much by keeping you from transitioning but…”
Somehow, I was back in my cottage, watching my grandmother fall apart as I was about to embark on an adventure, feeling alienated and scared all at the same time.
“Nan?”
I had questions, so many questions, but my mind was filled with images instead of words. Of Aen lying on the training room floor, Billy on the city street. Of Jake, Mark, Marlow, Luc torn in two by Sky Daddy’s power. Johnno crushed under the weight of his earth power. Of Liam, lying empty eyed and so, so still. I shuddered, then tried to yank my hand back.
Consorts are expendable. Bea’s words echoed through my head.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No. You need your medicine or whatever. No, Nan. Not more of your fucking vague prognostications.”
“They’re not vague,” she said, her smile tremulous. “I see it all, but telling you would just change what has to come, make it worse. I tried that already, while I lived with your mother, thinking I could alter the way things would be, and look at the pain those boys of yours put you through.”
She shook her head, eyes dropping to her tea cup, picking it up to cradle in her hands.