Finch spotted me first and let out a piercing whistle as he scampered toward me. Mom and Dad jumped up from the couch and hurried over. “Hey, Buddy.” I scooped up Finch and gave my parents one-armed hugs.
A year had passed since my parents’ ordeal, and no one would ever guess they were recovering goren addicts. They’d been back at work since the summer, and Levi had plenty of jobs for them. I helped them out sometimes with research, but I left the hunting to them. I missed it sometimes, but school kept me pretty busy.
Over Mom’s shoulder, my eyes met Rhys’s, and he smiled boyishly. He looked less like the Seelie prince every day, and the transformation suited him. It had taken him months to come to terms with Queen Anwyn’s death and the things she had done, but he was doing a lot better now.
“How is the new place?” I asked him.
His face lit up. “I like it very much. Caroline is helping me choose furniture.”
I glanced at my mother. She was happier than I’d ever seen her, and she had called me no less than five times when Rhys told her he’d bought a house in Crown Heights. A mini mansion was more like it, but it had to fit him and his five personal guards, who had refused to leave him after he had relinquished his title.
“How many rooms did you say it has?” I asked.
“Seven bedrooms and four bathrooms,” he said. “It has a total of fifteen rooms I believe.”
“Sixteen,” Bayard corrected wryly.
I raised my eyebrows. “That is a lot of rooms to furnish.”
Rhys nodded. “Everything has been done for me my whole life, so I knew nothing about owning a home. Did you know you must pay the city to have running water in your house?”
A laugh burst from me at his wide-eyed innocence. “Yes, I knew that.”
“He’s learning fast,” Dad said. “He’ll be a Brooklynite in no time.”
The fond look that passed between him and Rhys made my chest swell. We had lost so many years with Rhys, but he was quickly fitting into our family like the missing piece of a puzzle. He had spent Thanksgiving with us, and now we were having our first Christmas together as a whole family.
Aisla whistled impatiently from her perch on top of the tree where she looked like an annoyed angel, complete with a tinsel halo. I followed the others to the living room to help with the tree.
The doorbell rang, and I hurried to get it. Violet had texted me earlier to let me know she was coming over this afternoon. I opened the door and found her straining under an armload of presents.
“Merry Christmas, Jameses,” she sang as she entered the apartment. She saw Bayard and added, “And grumpy faerie who is definitely on Santa’s naughty list.”
Bayard’s lip twitched. I held my breath for the smile that didn’t materialize, but I swear I caught a glint of amusement in his eyes.
She frowned at him. “Don’t just stand there. Take these before my arms fall off.”
He relieved her of her burden and set the presents on the table. Then he swiped another gingerbread cookie and bit the head off it.
Violet pulled off her cap, and I gasped when she revealed her short hair that came to just above her ears.
“You cut your hair!” I reached out to touch the messy pixie style that accentuated her almond-shaped eyes. She had trimmed her hair many times, but she’d never worn it above her chin.
“It’s for the show,” she said, referring to the series she had just been cast in. “My character has short hair, so it’s either this or a wig. Have you seen how bad some of those wigs are?”
“I love it.”
“Zoe likes it, too.” She smiled dreamily. Zoe was her new girlfriend, a costume designer she’d met while filming the movie. Violet and Lorelle had parted on friendly terms in the spring, and Violet had started dating Zoe over the summer.
“How does it feel to be a celebrity?” I asked her. The movie Violet had filmed in the spring hadn’t been released yet, but she had made such an impression that she’d been offered one of the leads in a new sci-fi series. She was already making the rounds of the nighttime talk shows and being touted as the next Hollywood darling.
“Like you need to ask.” She tilted her head to study me. “How does it feel to be done with your first semester at Harvard?”
“It feels great.” Faeries didn’t attend college, so I stuck out there in the beginning. Not to mention my celebrity status because of the conversion. Things had settled down after a month when the other students were too busy to focus on me. Now, I was a student like everyone else.
“Jesse,” Mom called. “I made some cookies for Mrs. Russo. Can you bring them down to her? They’re in the blue container.”
“Sure.” I found the container and took it to our elderly neighbor, who invited me in for tea and cookies. I told her I couldn’t do it today, but I’d come by tomorrow.
When I returned to the apartment, Finch and Aisla were arguing over who got to help Dad put the star on top of the tree. For the first ten years of my life, that had been my job. I had been so excited when we adopted Finch that I’d let him take it over. Finch did not look happy about having to share this tradition with Aisla.
I turned to close the door and let out a startled cry. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to creep up on people?”
“I may have heard that somewhere once.” Lukas took my hand and tugged me against him. “Sorry I’m late.”
I slid my arms around his waist and smiled at him. “I’m in a good mood, so I’ll forgive you this time.”
He chuckled. “How were your exams?”
“I’m pretty sure I aced them all.”
“I hope so after you stayed away from our home for the last two weeks.” He lowered his voice to a soft growl. “I plan to make up for lost time tonight.”
Heat flooded my belly. “Is that so?”
“Most definitely.”
“Then you’d better turn on that princely charm if you have any hope of Mom letting me go home tonight.”
He groaned because he knew as well as I that there was little chance of changing her mind about this. She already had my first night home from college planned.
I giggled and stretched up to kiss his chin. “The wait will make it that much better.”
“That is what people say to console themselves,” he grumbled.
“Come in, and shut the door,” Dad ordered in a teasing voice. “We aren’t heating the whole building.”
Chuckling came from behind Lukas, and I looked over his shoulder at Faris and Conlan standing outside. They came in, and our small apartment seemed to shrink with so many people in it. I looked around, and it suddenly hit me that every person I loved in the world was right here in this room. Everything that had happened in the past year had brought us here together, and I would go through it all again for this.
“Oooh.” Violet pointed at Lukas and me. “Guess who is under the mistletoe.”
I looked up, and sure enough, there was a sprig of mistletoe above us. I grinned at Lukas, who clearly had no idea what it meant. “It’s tradition to kiss under the mistletoe.”
“I like this tradition.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed me long and slow. I forgot my whole family was watching us until Dad cleared his throat loudly.