TW: Mention of rape

Riven had taken some amount of convincing and pleading and a little bit of bribery in the form of promising him Dad could tell him more information about Vist before he reluctantly agreed to meet him.  He seemed super jumpy, though, as we entered the woods, hugging his backpack to his chest and looking around nervously.

“Dad’s nice,” I volunteered, suddenly reaching over to grab Ren’s hand and pull it free.  He needed to relax some – he couldn’t be as tense if I was holding one of his hands, right?  “You’ll like him.  And I promise he won’t hurt you.  No supernatural will now, with my mark on you,” I added, a teeny bit proudly.  It wasn’t like supernaturals would be scared off because it was my mark or anything – I wasn’t that special – but I was kind of happy it was my mark on him that people would see, anyway.

When Dad approached us, he deliberately let us catch sight of him before he got too close, which I was pretty sure was for Riven’s benefit – fairies could practically disappear in the woods if we wanted to, but Dad was trying to make sure he didn’t scare Riven.

“This is my dad, Adair,” I introduced him as soon as he got close, “and Dad, this is Riven.”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”  Dad smiled kindly at him, a smile that seemed to make Riven slightly less wary.

Riven was still getting used to being around supernaturals and understanding what it all meant – having spent his entire life until now just observing, confused, it wasn’t an immediate transition to become comfortable talking to supernaturals – or even humans.  I got that, but I was immensely glad that he seemed to be trying to make an effort to look at Dad.

“Hi,” Riven responded quietly, biting his lip as he tried to look at Dad before letting his gaze flicker to me and then to the trees, like he wasn’t sure where he should be looking.

“I understand you have questions about Vist powers,” Dad began.  “I’ll try to answer any you have.  I believe Ren told you some of Vist history that I told him?”

Riven nodded, that flash of curiosity appearing in his eyes.  “Do you know, um, how I would have those powers?  My mom is human.  Is it just…random?  Is there some way to turn it off?”

“No, it’s not random,” Dad told him gently.  “It’s genetic, and it most likely comes from your dad, or possibly a grandparent – nothing further back than that.  Yes,” he noticed both of our shocked faces, “that does mean Vist aren’t quite as extinct as we thought, but then, it’s not entirely a surprise to me that there could still be some out there, simply blending in, hiding, trying to leave peaceful lives not being killed by Hunters.  As far as a way to turn it off, I know there are different ways to use Vist vision, but I’m not sure of the particulars – I think it would be best to talk to your dad about that.  He’d probably have more of an answer for actual mechanics of how things works, assuming he is your Vist ancestor.”

Riven looked uncomfortable again.  Shoot.  “I don’t know anything about my dad,” he admitted, “other than that he abandoned my mom and named me.”

Dad looked thoughtful.  “It’s an unusual name, but oddly enough, I did actually know a Vist with the same name a couple hundred years ago – one of the last Vist to disappear, actually.  I wonder if it’s a family name, perhaps?  It might not be a bad idea to track your father down.”

Riven seemed doubtful about that idea, but Dad continued.

“Ren’s also brought up the issues you’re having with your mom – what she’s doing is definitely illegal, and I agree with Ren that you should report her.  I realize that can be scary, but you won’t be alone in the process – we’ll be there with you.”

Riven now moved into nervousness.  “But isn’t the foster care system awful?  And – and who knows where I’d end up,” he added with a glance at me.

Oh.  Shoot.  I hadn’t even thought of that!  If Riven ended up in the foster care system and got moved away from me, there would be nothing I could do about that!  I looked at Dad in panic, suddenly changing my mind about reporting Riven’s mom if it meant I’d lose him.  I could help feed him, that was a problem we could fix.

“Calm down, both of you.”  Dad laid one hand on each of our shoulders, squeezed gently, then let go.  “First, no, it’s not always awful.  Yes, there are bad households sometimes, but there are also great ones.  Second, though, well, that goes back to the idea of finding your dad – the courts have a preference to leave kids with a biological parent if they can.  In this case, they’d look into your dad and see if he’d be a good home for you.  Given that he’s abandoned you in the past, that would be a concern for the courts, but it’s been 15 years – he’s had time to change.”

Riven still seemed doubtful.  “If he had, wouldn’t he have come back?”

Dad shrugged.  “It’s hard to tell without knowing his side of the story.  It’s possible he lost contact or even that your mom won’t let him talk to you.  I’d recommend withholding judgment until we can get some answers from him, but what I can also promise you is that we will not let you go to a house where you’ll be in danger or uncomfortable, whether that’s with your dad or a foster family, okay?  Violet, my wife, is on the supernatural council and I’m a doctor, so I’m fairly certain between us we can manage to get appointed as your temporary guardians, at least until your mom goes to trial, we locate your dad, and we figure out a long-term solution.”

I looked up hopefully.  Really?  We could take Riven in?

Riven seemed as surprised as I was, turning to look at me hesitantly before spotting the delight in my face.

“I was going to ask if you’re okay with that idea but it looks like yes,” he mumbled, seeming a bit embarrassed at my happiness.

I flung my arms around him.  “Please say yes, Riven, you can come stay with us at least for a while, maybe your dad will be a nice person, but if he isn’t I won’t let anyone hurt you again, okay?  I don’t want to let you go back to your mom when she’s so awful to you.  And if your dad is nice, he could teach you more about being Vist, right?  Please, please, please, please, please!”

Riven looked startled at my begging – Dad actually did, too – but then he laughed.  He actually laughed, a beautiful sound that made my heart beat faster.

“Okay,” he agreed, “as long as you’ll help, I’ll – I’ll report my mom.”  He hesitantly offered his hand to Dad.

Dad took it, but instead he pulled Riven into a gentle hug, too.  “I know it’s scary,” he told him quietly, “but trust me – life will get better from here.  You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

~~~~~

I grinned delightedly and poked Riven ever so gently in his shoulder.  “Morning,” I whispered.  Seeing him sleeping always made me happy for some reason, especially now that he looked better.

Riven had been staying with us for over three months now.  He shared my room, since we were closest in age, which he’d initially been reluctant about until I basically told him I’d cry if he slept somewhere else and I didn’t need to sleep that much anyway – Mom and Dad moved a daybed into the room for me to sleep on so Riven could have my bed.  In addition to having regular clothes that didn’t look like they were going to fall apart, he also now had a healthy weight and color and, most importantly, was a lot more confident.  He and Honey hit it off and were good friends – though I insisted I was still his best friend and would always be – and Sorrel was really kind to him, taking extra care not to scare him.  He seemed to settle into an older brother role with Riven pretty quickly, and Riven liked my parents, too, so all in all we enjoyed having him around.

I mean, I enjoyed it the most, of course.  I got to have him there for my birthday, which gave me an excuse to convince Mom not to throw a giant party with all the cousins and extended family since Riven wasn’t comfortable with them, but we did introduce him to Nathan, Sorrel’s best friend, and Benji, Nathan’s brother, and he seemed to be okay with them.  We also had him around for Christmas, discovering to all our indignation that his mom had never allowed him to celebrate holidays with her so this was really his first Christmas.

We might have gone a tad overboard celebrating it with him as a result, and maybe slightly overwhelmed him, but he seemed happy and touched by our including him.

I still hadn’t explained the soulmates thing to him yet.  I kept almost doing it and then chickening out, wondering if it would sound too serious.  He hadn’t grown up understanding stuff like that, realizing that it wasn’t always a romantic thing, or understanding just how special soulmates could be.  I didn’t want to scare him off and was still worried about that, but at some point I needed to do that.

His mom was in prison.  For a long time.  I saw her a couple of times in the courtroom and while she was seething angry with Riven, his fear of her was obvious enough that even his mom’s own defense attorneys couldn’t deny it.  Apparently, his mom was actually reasonably wealthy, which made it all the more shocking to the judge that she had basically bought old clothes for Riven to wear and wouldn’t bother feeding him, but when my own mom’s investigators dug a little deeper while looking for evidence to support Riven’s claims – which they did find some, such as visits to the school nurse’s office when he’d passed out due to not eating and the nurses had noted malnutrition several times during his school years – they’d discovered that Riven’s mom mostly earned her money through scams and con games.  Kind of a shock to Riven, but his mom got in enough trouble between what she did to him and the other crimes that it appeared she probably wouldn’t get out before she died.  I hoped not, at least.  I hoped she’d never see him again.

Riven’s dad had been harder to track down, though.  His mom refused to talk about him, period, which made Mom suspicious that something had happened between them which Riven’s mom might still be liable for – it might explain why she was so reluctant to admit his identity if he might be able to accuse her of a crime she could be charged with.

Mom debated using magic hypnosis to get the answer, but in the end, we didn’t need it.  One of Riven’s mom’s friends who’d been indicted by the discovery of her illegal activities decided to testify against her in exchange for a lesser sentence.  She said she hadn’t even known Riven’s mom had a kid, though she’d suspected it a couple of times – especially after an incident which had happened in which Riven’s mom had planned to drug some important business guy, sleep with him, then blackmail him, but something had gone wrong and she woke up without him, and no evidence that he’d been there.  Then Riven’s mom had somehow gotten shut out of high society circles and after that had spent several months “rethinking her life” before starting to rearrange her business into an affair where she stayed home and directed her friends/associates, planning all the details but not directly engaging as often.  That period where she’d been alone, however, her friend had noted was about nine months, oddly.  And it had occurred right after that event where Riven’s mom had date raped someone.  Oh, and the statute of limitations wasn’t out on that yet, so, if they could get his testimony, she’d go down for that, too.

Riven wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn that actually, his parents had never dated at all and his dad was a victim to his mom.  On the upside, his dad probably never knew about him, which is why he’d never come to rescue him from his mom?  We were still a little unclear on how Riven’s mom got his name from his dad if his dad never knew about him, but the chances of this man being his dad sounded pretty strong.

Which is why my dad had flown out to talk to him and explain the situation, see if he really was Riven’s dad and how he felt about all of this, while we kept going to school and pretending this was all normal.  I was pretty nervous about this, actually – I mean, besides how Riven’s dad might feel about him given the circumstances.  I really hoped he didn’t blame Riven for what his mom did, but besides that, even if he turned out to be a great guy and a loving father, he lived several hundred miles away, technically in another country though it was regionally still pretty close, and…that would mean Riven could end up moving away from Avenglade.

I didn’t want that, but if his dad was a good guy, could I deny him the chance to have a real, loving family?  Not really, no.  That wouldn’t be fair to him.

Still, until we found out for certain, I was going to make the most of every minute I had with Riven.

So I poked him again, a little stronger this time.  “Riven, wake up.”

He groaned and grabbed the second pillow to put over his head.  “Go away, it’s too early.  Stupid fairies don’t understand that just because the sun is up doesn’t mean people have to get up.  It’s the weekend!  I want to sleep in.”

I bit back a smile.  “Riven, Sorrel’s teaching you to drive today, remember?”

“Oh.”  He removed the pillow, frowning.  “I’m 15, why do I have to learn yet?  Shouldn’t I at least wait until I’m 16?”

“This is so you can already know by the time you’re 16 and can get your permit.  Come on, we’re just going to a parking lot so you won’t have to worry about hitting anyone or anything like that.  Plus, that means if you’re still here when you’re 16, you can drive us places!”  I looked at him pleadingly.

Riven sighed and sat up.  “Fine, but I still don’t understand why it has to be this early in the morning.  Can’t we do this at a more reasonable hour?”

We’d actually agreed to wait until a fairly late hour for us but apparently it was still too early for Riven.  I couldn’t hide my smile as I reached over to ruffle his bedhair.  “Come on, sleepyhead, we have to eat first!  Mom made quiche for breakfast.”

Riven yawned and got out of bed, still grumbling to himself about ridiculously early hours, and I left him to get ready while I headed back downstairs, looking forward to the day’s activities.