“Was that someone from the Agency on the phone?” she asked.
“Ben Stewart.” I filled her in on what he’d told me.
“All they have is a rumor. They don’t know it was you.”
“Not yet, but they will.” I slumped against the cushion. “I need a distraction. Tell me more about the hot actors you worked with.”
Violet rolled her eyes. “You hang out with the Unseelie prince and his royal guard, and you want to hear about a bunch of actors?”
“I don’t hang out with them,” I replied grumpily.
She opened her mouth to retort just as the doorbell rang. I hopped off the couch and went to answer it with her trailing behind me. Peering through the peephole, I wasn’t all that surprised to see Conlan and Faris. It had been a few days since any of them had dropped by to check on me.
I opened the door, and the two faeries greeted me with smiles and arms full of wrapped presents.
“Happy birthday,” they said together.
I frowned as I stepped back to let them in. “I thought faeries didn’t celebrate birthdays.”
“We don’t.” Faris set four presents on the table. “But we know it’s an important human tradition, and we wanted to help you celebrate yours.”
My heart constricted. “Thanks.”
Violet caught my eye and gave me a look that said, “You don’t hang out with them, huh?”
Faris pointed to two boxes wrapped in shiny blue paper. “Those are from Faolin and me. The other two are from Iian and Kerr.”
“And these are from Lukas and me,” Conlan said, drawing my attention to the large wrapped rectangular box he carried. He handed a smaller wrapped gift to me. “This one is from me.”
“Thank you,” I said thickly, deliberately not looking at the large box he propped against the table. “You guys didn’t have to get me anything.”
“We wanted to. Not every day our li’fachan has a birthday.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders like he’d done the night we met. Unlike that time, I didn’t shrug him off.
“You’re not starting the party without us, are you?” Dad said from the doorway, startling me. “Sorry I’m late. It took longer than I thought to pick up your birthday gift.”
“Dad, you didn’t have to get me anything,” I protested.
He only smiled and moved to one side.
A red-haired woman stepped into view and smiled at me. “Happy birthday, Jesse.”
Chapter 4
“Mom!” I ran to her and wrapped her in a tight hug. “They let you out for the day?”
She patted my back. “Not exactly. It’s more of a permanent thing.”
I pulled away to look at her. “Are you serious? You’re home for good?”
A series of shrill whistles made my ears ache as a tiny blue figure sped toward us. Finch reached us and scampered up Mom’s body to cling to her neck. She placed a hand over his small back and smiled, looking the happiest I’d seen her since she woke up in the hospital.
“Welcome home, Mrs. J,” Violet called from behind me. “Looking good!”
Mom laughed softly. “It’s great to see you, Violet.” Her gaze shifted to Faris and Conlan. “I saw you at the hospital, but I’m sorry, I don’t remember your names.”
I made the introductions, and she clasped Faris’s hand and then Conlan’s. “I don’t know if I thanked you that night for saving Jesse’s life. We will be forever grateful for what you did.”
“We’re happy we could be there for her,” Faris said humbly.
Conlan ruffled my hair. “Life would be too boring without our Jesse.”
I stepped out of his reach and scowled at him, which only made him chuckle. Some things hadn’t changed.
Mom laughed as she unbuttoned her coat. Dad helped her remove it because Finch was still hugging her neck. Seeing the three of them together here for the first time in months made my heart swell until I thought it would burst from my chest. Our family had been through so much since that awful November night, and finally, we were all home. I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present.
Faris looked at me. “We’ll be going now and leave you to enjoy your celebration.”
“Please stay,” Mom said. “You can’t go until after we have cake.”
I looked between her and Dad. “There’s cake?”
“Of course.” Dad went across the hall and unlocked Maurice’s door. He disappeared inside and returned a minute later with a large, pink bakery box. Sneaky.
“Where’s Maurice?” I asked when he shut our apartment door.
Dad set the cake on the kitchen counter. “He’s on a job, and he’ll stop by later.”
While my parents went into the kitchen to get plates and forks, I hurriedly whispered to Conlan and Faris about the call from Ben Stewart and what I’d seen on TV. Neither of them was surprised by the news.
“We’ve been monitoring the hospital and the media. You have nothing to worry about,” Conlan said in a low voice.
I looked at my parents. “I’m not worried about me.”
Mom turned toward us, and I noticed the changes in her face since the last time she had stood in our kitchen. She looked tired, and her complexion was pale from so much time indoors. The doctors had deemed her well enough to come home, but she still had months of recovery ahead of her.
After we’d all enjoyed the triple layer chocolate cake, Violet declared it was time for me to open my gifts. I started with hers, which contained a crimson Harvard hoodie.
I held it against me. “It’s perfect.”
“I know.” She lifted one shoulder. “It’s scary how well I know you.”
“Mine next,” Conlan said eagerly. “I’ve never given a birthday present, so I hope you like it.”
“I’m sure I will.” I opened the small gift he handed me, and Violet gasped at the leaf-shaped pendant on a delicate chain. The pendant and chain were made of eyranth, a Fae metal that resembled platinum but with a faint bluish glow. Eyranth was rare and valuable in our realm because faeries didn’t part with it often.
“This is too much, Conlan,” I protested weakly.
“No, it’s not.” Violet reached out and wriggled her fingers at the pendant. “Can I touch it?”
I handed her the box and gave Conlan a quick hug. “Thank you.”
“If you’re going to reward me with hugs, I’ll be giving you more gifts,” he teased.
I opened Faris’s gift next and sucked in a breath when I saw the red and gold drakkan figurine. The detail in the tiny piece was so good I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had opened its snout and sent out a puff of smoke and sparks.
“It looks exactly like him,” I said quietly. “Thank you.”
Finch whistled, and I looked at him standing on the table with his eyes wide in recognition. He stretched out his arms, and I placed the figurine in them. Cradling it reverently, he jumped off the table and ran to the treehouse where Aisla was hiding from our visitors.
“He and Aisla miss Gus a lot,” I said to Faris, who was watching Finch scamper up the ladder to the treehouse.