Marius nodded and Tizri pushed past him to fawn over them all. The reactions of the kids were polite, but Theo could see the emotions behind it. The younger kids were happy, confused, a bit nervous, not really sure how to interact with their mother. The older kids had more complicated emotions, the desire for approval tinged with more anger. 

Rose’s body was tight with rage. She had been spending a lot of time with Tammie, and was at an age where she no longer sadly wondered why her family wasn’t like other families, why she had a big brother and sister instead of a mom or dad. 

Theo dipped in before she had the chance to snap, offering a finger to the child in Tizri’s arms.

“This must be little Coco. She’s so cute. How is it possible I keep having little siblings this cute?” he cooed.

Baby Coco had just started to grow a soft fuzz of hair, and she’d inherited her mother’s large, sparkling eyes, though Theo thought he might see a hint of Marius’ strong nose and jaw.

“Isn’t she just? I suppose she’ll be eating solid foods soon enough. It will be a relief to start sleeping through the night again,” Tizri said cheerfully. Once she didn’t need to breastfeed, Coco would be handed off to Theo and Tizri would go back to living as if her children didn’t exist.

Sylvie’s jaw clenched, and she walked over to tell Marius about the children’s recent accomplishments. Opal was starting to read, Rose was top in her magic fundamentals class, Lewis was volunteering with a historical restoration group, and so on. She’d told Theo she had an easier time with their bitter father than their sickly sweet stepmother.

Theo had never disliked Tizri. She made a choice to better her station by marriage, and ended up tied to a temperamental man twice her age. He doubted it was a happy life.

Tizri wasn’t a child, Sylvie reminded him. Sylvie had moved out by Rose’s age, moved in Theo when she was sixteen. Tizri was older than Theo, though not as old as Sylvie, old enough to make her choices and live with the consequences, but he couldn’t find it in himself to blame her. His father expected heirs, but he also expected not to share his wife’s attention with a child. 

Perhaps, left to her own devices, Tizri would not have brought a single one of Theo’s precious siblings into the world. Perhaps, with a kinder man, she would have kept her children by her side and raised them with love. He didn’t know, and it wasn’t his business. In the end, none of them had the chance to know.

They settled around the table, continuing to talk about recent successes. Vera was awkwardly talking about her painting club and trying not to look too longingly at the covered dishes of food.

Marius didn’t brag. The two empty seats, waiting for the priest and his wife, were brag enough.

“And what about you, Theodore?" Tizri asked, turning to Theo. "I heard you closed the Handfellow case.”

Theo’s reply was cut off by a servant ringing a bell.

“Announcing Priest Boothe and Lady Boothe.”

They all fell silent, turning to the dining room’s inner door.

Theo should be used to the way it felt when a priest walked in the room. He hated everything about what Priest Boothe represented, hated the man, but as the door opened-

All the stress and irritation of the day disappeared. Work, his father, Sylvie’s illness, all the stresses that built up inside him, seemed to burn off like morning mist. The tension in his brows faded, and the knots in his spine loosened.

Being near a priest felt like the first time you looked at the night sky and really saw it, and you wanted to cry over how beautiful and immense it was, and for every night you had been under this sky and not bothered to look. It felt like a cool mountain stream on a hot day. It felt like having laughed so hard and long with a friend you could only sit and bask in the joy of it.

His father didn’t react, but Theo watched the emotion pass over the rest of the table. Tizri and Lewis both started to silently cry. Opal stared slack jawed. Vera grabbed Rose's hand under the table as Coco and Jeremiah slipped into sleep.

Priest Boothe smiled.

“Truly a blessing, to see my grandchildren today.”

“Grandfather,” Theo and Sylvie said with matching nods, both their voices a bit weak. Technically, it should be granduncle, but that wouldn’t do, the priest had insisted. Not for the children of his beloved niece.

“How have you been? The doctors insist on hiding it from me, even when I pay the bills.”

“I’ve been well, grandfather,” Sylvie said with a forced smile. Theo could see her rage and her complete relaxation warring across her brows. “The doctor even says I can have some heavier foods, so I’ll be able to fully enjoy the feast tonight.”

“Excellent. I had the chef prepare your favorite quiche, you know.”

Priest Boothe smiled hopefully. Theo found this part of the man… not likable, but at least pitiable. It was so obvious that he wanted to see his dead niece in Sylvie, even though they had little in common besides sickness and most of a name. After so many years of being told not to blame his mother, that her sickness made her cruel, Theo had worried that would change as a child, that disease would warp Sylvie into their mother. Now he was old enough to understand that his mother’s anger at the world was never a symptom of any literal illness.

“Theodore,” Marius interrupted, “I heard you closed the Handfellow case.”

Theo nodded.

“I suppose there’s a reason you didn’t arrest the culprits.”

“I believe I arrested everyone it was necessary to arrest.”

As a child, he would have averted his eyes, tried to diffuse the tension, but he held his father’s eyes. 

“And a new team member!” Tizri cut in. “What’s Miss James like?”

“Having a trained tracer on the team is a huge asset,” Theo said.

“She’s Avarnian,” Marius said, scrunching his nose.

“You can hardly blame the boy for that, Theo. It’s politics.” Priest Boothe said. Theo raised his eyebrows. Priest Boothe shouldn’t be privy to any information on James.

“Politics? I thought you just needed a tracer,” Sylvie said, tilting her head in pretend confusion, and Theo sent out a brief prayer for nosy, information-hungry sisters.

“Nothing to concern yourself with,” Marius said. “James has a powerful figure backing her, but Priest Boothe is making sure Avairne doesn’t gain too much power in our city. It’s not talk for children.”

“That said,” Priest Boothe adds, “if she steps out of line, just tell Grandpa. She may have power behind her, but so do I, and, with a bit of evidence, I’m sure I could get her citizenship revoked. It doesn’t need to be evidence of treason. I’m not the only one who wants her and hers out.”

Theo wondered if the priest understood the full impact of that offer. He wasn’t just offering to have James fired over nothing, he was offering to send her to her death. Even if Boothe didn’t know James had fled her execution in Avairne, the government there killed all defectors. 

And it was legal. If Theo was the same kind of scum as his father, he had no doubt he’d send over some minor clerical errors and let Boothe use his influence to send James to the gallows. He despised the sense of peace that still hung in the air. People acted as though it was an extension of a holy soul, but it was a poison lure.

If a single priest in Saint’s Landing was worth their title, there’d be no caliga in Glass Town. His team wouldn’t have to pay three months of wages for Priest Amity to give them an hour or two of her time. He wouldn’t associate this feeling of peace with helplessness and rage.

“Forcing my grandson to hire that woman,” Priest Boothe said tiredly. “I don’t know what’s becoming of this city.”

“Well, I’m working to set things right,” Theo promised, touching his ear. “I love this city. I know it’s old fashioned, but I want to protect it.”

‘From anyone who would hurt it,’ he didn’t say. ‘From people like you.’